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| Susan B. Anthony. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Friday, February 16, 1900.
MISS ANTHONY'S BIRTHDAY.
Beautiful Tributes Paid to Celebrated Woman's Suffrage Advocate.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 16.—Several thousand people including the delegates to the National American Woman's Suffrage association assembled at the Lafayette Opera house yesterday to do homage to Susan B. Anthony who yesterday celebrated the 80th anniversary of her birth.
Grouped on the platform were the national officers of the association and all the pioneers in the equal rights movement who are alive today. There was a long program replete with stirring tributes to Miss Anthony's great career.
Eighty children, boys and girls, passed in single file across the stage, each depositing a rose in Miss Anthony's lap as they passed her, one for each year of her life.
Addresses conveying greetings from various state associations and other bodies were made.
The greetings and gifts from the enfranchised states were made by Mrs. Warren, the wife of Senator Warren of Wyoming, Virginia M. Shafroth of Colorado, a magnificent silver loving cup, Emily S. Richards of Utah and Nellie Woods of Idaho. The gift from Wyoming was a gold enameled flag, four large diamonds representing the four enfranchised states.
The celebration closed with a feeling address by Miss Anthony. Last night a card reception held in Miss Anthony's honor at the Corcoran Gallery of Art was attended by a large contingent of official and resident society.
SHEPARD ON THE RACK.
Vigorously Attacks Dr. Burleson in Regard to Latter's Testimony.
ALBANY, Feb. 16.—At the afternoon session, Colonel Shepard was again placed on the stand. He denied that the state had ever furnished free transportation either to himself, members of his family or his friends.
He gave testimony concerning the condition of affairs at the home hospital. When he became commandant of the institution the money, watches, and other personal effects of patients who died in the hospital disappeared with the death of their owners. He tried to ascertain who took them or where they went but he was unable to glean any information. In order to prevent this practice he established a rule compelling an inventory to be taken of the personal effects of each patient on entering the hospital and requiring those in charge of the hospital to render an account of the articles if the patient died.
Chairman Philbin inquired: "Do you mean to say that Dr. Burleson, the resident physician, had anything to do with or had any knowledge of the cause of these disappearances?
Colonel Shepard: "I have no proof of any such connection. I have heard stories but I have no way of verifying them."
Colonel Shepard stated that he had trouble with Dr. Burleson relative to the amount of whisky consumed in the hospital. Some years ago three barrels of 45 gallons each were consumed each month. This was cut down later to two barrels per month and then to one barrel. This caused differences between himself and Dr. Burleson.
Colonel Shepard denied that at the time a trip to Dayton, O., was taken he was suffering from nervous debility caused by excessive use of liquor. He said that the testimony given by Dr. Burleson in this connection was false.
He had prevented Dr. Burleson from pursuing a private practice in addition to the medical service rendered at the institution. The doctor had also conducted a pension agency at the institution. There was a lack of system at the hospital. Discipline was very lax at that department of the home.
Colonel Shepard swore that Rev. Mr. Frost of Bath, who had testified that he had seen Colonel Shepard one hundred times under the influence of liquor, was the pastor of Trustee Campbell and was one of the Bath clergymen who had lost the position of visiting clergyman at the home at a salary of $300 by the introduction of a permanent chaplain. The testimony relative to the alleged intoxication was untrue.
Relative to the testimony given by Dr. Burleson in regard to obscene songs and stories in the chapel, Colonel Shepard said that the doctor had either committed perjury or his memory had served him false.
The hearing was continued at 10 a. m. this morning.
Corbett-Jeffries Fight on May 14.
NEW YORK, Feb. 16.—The date of the fight between James J. Jeffries and James J. Corbett has been fixed as May 14. F. Considine and W. A. Brady, managers of the men, met Tom O'Rourke, manager of the Seaside Athletic club, and formally accepted the offer of the Coney Island club for the fight. The Seaside club is to post a $5,000 forfeit and the fighters $2,000 each with Al Smith. Two sets of articles will be drawn up, one an agreement between the two men as to how they shall fight; the other between the fighters and the club.
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| Henry Clay Frick. |
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| Andrew Carnegie. |
PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.
Revelation of Steel Profits.
The legal battle that has opened between H. C. Frick and Andrew Carnegie may retard further the building of the battleships and armored cruisers, authorized conditionally by the naval bill of 1899. It will direct attention anew to the matter of a government plant for the making of armor plate, and supply arguments in favor of such plant that hitherto have been urged as estimates rather than known facts. These are the immense profits realized by the steel makers who have stood out against supplying armor for warships at the price fixed by congress.
Mr. Frick, late managing director of the Carnegie Steel company, has begun suit in Pittsburg against Carnegie to compel the latter to pay for the former's interest in the Carnegie company, the price, pro rata, that Mr. Carnegie has put on the property, and which the business and profits of the company justify. The bill in equity, filed by Mr. Frick's lawyers, states that the profits of the Carnegie company in 1899, "after paying expenses of all kinds, were $21,000,000.'' It recites further that "in November, 1899, Carnegie estimated the net profits for 1900 at $40,000,000 and Frick then estimated them at $42,500,000. Carnegie valued the entire property at more than $250,000,000, and avowed his ability in ordinary prosperous times to sell the property on the London market for $500,000,000."
It is on the basis of these figures that Mr. Frick wants payment for his interest in the company. With the justice of his claim, and the outcome of the suit, we have no concern here, nor with the arrangement that a retiring, or forced out member of the Carnegie company is bound by a company agreement to sell his holding to the remaining partner or partners. Suffice it to say that Mr. Frick values at $16,253,000 the interest Mr. Carnegie offers $6,000,000 for.
Public concern in the legal battle of these steel giants is in the disclosure of the immense profits the Carnegie company has made and is making, and its claim that it cannot afford to make Kruppized armor plate for the government for less than $500 and upwards per ton. During 1899 it cleared $21,000,000, by the showing the managing director for that time makes [sic]. In 1899 the Carnegie company supplied a part of the armor of the battleships Alabama, Illinois and Wisconsin. It has contracts for a part of the armor for the Missouri, Ohio and Maine, which presumably enters into the estimates of profits in 1900 nearly double those of 1899!
The effect of the revelations made by Mr. Frick on congress can be predicted with fair certainty. The opponents of navy increase are a stable quantity. Alone they can not halt the work which the people approve, but they will have the aid of patriotic members who believe in navy expansion but revolt against paying exorbitant prices for the best armor. Together they may prevent action permitting the department to buy armor on the best terms it can secure, thus postponing indefinitely the entering upon new work for the fighting line of the navy. This will be regrettable, though the alternative of paying fancy prices for armor is to be deprecated.
When the naval bill comes before congress the revelations attending this Pittsburg suit will be used by the advocates of a government armor plant as justifications of their contention. But to put off the purchase of armor till the government can construct a plant and put it into operation will put an end to armored ship building for at least three years, and probably four or more. Rather than that, congress should make the best of a bad situation. If a government armor plant be determined on, buy armor meanwhile for the ships in hand at such price as must be paid. A battleship in hand when needed may be worth many times its coat. [Tariffs were in place on foreign steel producers at this time—CC ed.]
THE PROPOSED CHARTER.
The Village of Cortland to be Changed to the City of Cortland.
From the proceedings of the village board last evening it will be seen that a new charter making Cortland a city of the third class has been prepared, and is to be introduced in the legislature at an early day. The general provisions of the charter are those usual in the charters of cities of this class, and the document has been drawn with evident care and ability. The savings to the present village under this city charter are estimated by those who have drawn it at over $10,000 annually, and the figures presented by them seem to bear out this claim. As far as possible the question of politics in local elections seems to be eliminated by the proposed charter, and provision made for an efficient and economical administration of municipal affairs. It could hardly be expected that any charter would please every one, but the two features mentioned above will certainly go far toward commending the one now under consideration to public favor. The STANDARD hopes to submit to its readers at an early day a copy of the comparative statement of expenses under the present and proposed charter and a general outline of the provisions for the new form of government.
Will Move His Residence Only.
Dr. L. T. White, who recently sold his residence on Madison-st., will, between now and April 1, remove to the place which he has owned for some time on the west road to Homer. This will not in any way interfere with the doctor's business, as he will continue to have his office here and can drive in from his new home just about «as quickly as he can walk from his present residence. Dr. White feels that the change will be beneficial to him in many ways.
SPRAINED HIS ANKLE.
Was Mending a Trolley Wire—Three Breaks in Succession.
This forenoon E. J. Mlddaugh, a lineman, fell from the top of a trolley car to the [pavement] and sprained his ankle. Mr. Middaugh was assisting in mending a break in the trolley wire at the corner of Main-st. and Clinton-ave. at about 10 o'clock. This was being done from the top of a car which was stationed there for that purpose. When the break was mended and the ropes taken off, Lineman Middaugh prepared to lower the pulley blocks with a rope which he held in his hand. He was just making a loop in this rope when the wire broke about four feet from where Middaugh was standing. This slacked the trolley wire and a guide wire struck him, throwing him to the pavement with considerable force, spraining his ankle.
Mr. Middaugh, it will be remembered, is the lineman who received 2,000 volts on the 19th of last August as a result of completing the circuit between two live wires while preparing to remove the wires from a pole on Greenbush-st. Mr. Middaugh was taken home and is doing well.
When the second break was fixed, it was reported from Homer that another break had occurred near there. This made the third break in the series. The last, however, is now mended and perhaps the spell is off.
CY ON FIRST.
The Local Baseball Men Rejoice over the Prospects.
It is now beyond a shadow of a doubt that Cy Townsend, who played first base for Albany last year, will be signed with Cortland this year to play his old position. Cy is a favorite here in his home town and he will add strength to the team this year.
There will in all probability be four of the last year's players retained and the other positions will be filled with some of the best players that can be secured. Acting Manager, M. T. Roche has a large list of players for the positions, but will not act upon them immediately.
PEOPLE VS. CRANE.
I. H. Palmer Defends the Jury Who Voted to Acquit in this Case.
To the Editor of the Standard:
SIR—It is not the purpose of the writer to intervene in the controversy between Dr. Hunt and the Rev. Dr. Houghton, but to defend those jurors who refused to find the defendant guilty upon the evidence in this case, from the unjust aspersions implied and expressed in the published correspondence between these gentlemen; because of the demoralizing tendency of such unjust and unwarranted criticism of the instrumentalities for the administration of the law in the community.
The unwarranted censure of jurors, who have fairly discharged their duties, is worse, if possible, in its effect, than the commendation of those who have failed to base their verdicts upon evidence and law.
The just determination of this case depended upon whether or not the evidence, which is that testimony and proof which convinces the mind of its truth, was sufficient to warrant the conviction of the defendant in the Crane case, whether it was sufficient to overcome the presumption of innocence and the rational doubt created by the sharp conflict in the evidence which the jurymen required to weigh and determine, whether or not the defendant was guilty of the specific violation of the law alleged in the indictment—not any other act but only the one illegal act with the commission of which he was charged in the indictment and for which alone he was tried.
To establish his guilt, two state agents testified that on a specified day they purchased from the defendant, at his house in Homer, several glasses of whiskey, of which each drank two on the premises on that occasion.
The defendant denies that he then sold or that these men drank whiskey on this occasion, but that he sold them peach cider, and that they and others, including the defendant himself, then drank it from one and the same bottle, and this cider was shown to contain not to exceed 2 percent of alcohol, which was conceded by the prosecution and charged by the court, not to be intoxicating liquor—if it was this peach cider which the defendant then sold and the witnesses drank. All the liquor then and there sold and drank was poured from the same bottle and must therefore have been alike. Three or four citizens of Homer partook of the contents of this bottle on that occasion, of which the greater number testified that it was not whiskey or any intoxicating liquor, but was peach cider and not intoxicating.
Which of these two groups of witnesses testified to the truth was the task set for the jury to determine from this conflicting testimony and the legal presumption that the defendant was innocent, with the burden upon the prosecution of establishing by a fair preponderance of evidence that what the defendant then sold to these state agents, and the witnesses then drank, was whiskey which the defendant then sold in violation of the statute. This constitutes the offense for which the defendant was indicted and for which he was tried and no other.
To decide this question, it may have been and probably was necessary to determine the credibility of the witnesses, to ascertain which of the two groups into which the witnesses who testified upon the main fact in issue were divided, namely, whether the liquor sold by the defendant on that occasion was, or was not, whiskey or some intoxicating liquor alleged in the indictment, were better entitled to be believed by the jury under all the circumstances of the case.
In determining this question, it was the province of the jury to inquire and determine what weight should be given to professional evidence-makers, who voluntarily engaged to decoy persons into violations of the law, with intent to turn informers and prosecutors for a pecuniary consideration. To determine the credibility of such witnesses the jury might legitimately infer that such an employment was indicative that their testimony was unworthy of credit, when flatly disputed as it was in this case, for the reason that persons of a high sense of honor and self-respect would not voluntarily accept such an odious and degrading service, and that such an office or employment justified the inference that they were unworthy of full credit a s witnesses, and as nothing was shown to disparage the credibility of those witnesses who contradicted their testimony, that therefore they were entitled to belief, while these state agents were not.
An eminent lawyer recently said, ''It is a hard thing to say and an unpleasant thing to believe, but most lawyers and a great many judges have reached the point where they refuse to believe an accused person guilty on police testimony alone, unsupported by other witnesses or at least by circumstantial evidence." The importance of this utterance lies in its undoubted truth and that it is founded in experience and widely prevails among jurists, which is sufficient for the present purpose, without attempting an analysis of the causes which have produced the conditions which support this generalization and conclusion.
Professional witnesses, professional jurors, professional evidence-makers, professional prosecutors, and professional bondsmen have from time immemorial been an odious class, and are probably destined to remain so, and jurymen ought to scrutinize their testimony and accept it as foundation for their verdicts with unusual caution and circumspection. This appears to be exactly what was done by those jurors who voted for acquittal.
Another important fact calculated to discredit the testimony of these state agents, who testified that Crane sold them the whiskey alleged in the indictment, was that they had each drank several glasses of whiskey or other strong liquor before they drank at Crane's. One admitted drinking six and the other seven times before reaching Crane's place, as I am informed. It is a fact well known to experts in sampling and tasting liquors for the purpose of purchase and sale, that a person who has swallowed but a small quantity of strong liquor is disqualified for determining by taste the kind or quality of any sample of liquor for a considerable time thereafter. The experts upon whose inspection and tests liquors are bought and sold find it necessary to avoid swallowing any liquor while testing its quality. It is therefore highly probable that these state agents were unable to determine with any reliable degree of accuracy what kind of beverage they drank at Crane's and it is not necessary that they should then have been intoxicated to be disqualified. The drinking of liquor, even in small quantity, impairs, blunts and disqualifies the sense of taste. One who has eaten onions is disqualified for detecting the presence of the odor of onions in much the same way.
What wonder, then, that jurors upon the panel who tried Crane should vote to acquit? Is it not rather to be wondered at that any member of the jury voted to convict, upon the evidence in that case? And is it not still more surprising that any one could be found possessing the [temerity] to assail jurors for refusing to agree to a verdict of guilty on the evidence in the case of The People vs. Crane?
IRVING H. PALMER. [Mr. Palmer was a practicing attorney. He was elected president of Cortland village twice and served separate one-year terms—CC ed.]
Memory of a San Juan Victim.
There has been placed in the university library at Cornell a memorial tablet in honor of Clifton Beckwith Brown, a student in architecture, who died at the head of his company in the charge at San Juan. The tablet is the work of Bela Pratt of Boston, sculptor of the "Four Seasons" in the congressional library at Washington. The design is a female figure holding in one hand a naked sword, the other resting upon a shield which bears the inscription to Mr. Brown's memory.
BREVITIES.
—The members of Grace church choir are asked to meet for practice Saturday evening promptly at 7:30 o'clock.
—Mr. D. Edgar Kinney has sold his farm of 100 acres one mile west of Cortland to Mr. Ira Foster of East Homer.
—New display advertisements to-day are—C. F. Thompson, Saturday's pickups, page 6; Mitchell & Strowbridge, Plymouth chicks for Saturday, page 5.
—Two years ago this morning every one was horrified at the news of the blowing up of the Maine in Havana harbor the previous evening. Several things have happened since that event.
—George W. Roe has bought of Horace Seamans his house and lot on Willow-ave., and will take possession very soon. He will move his family from the Arthur-ave. home to the new place.
—The committees of the Women' Auxiliary of the Y. M. C. A. have a meeting at 3:30 o'clock to-morrow afternoon at the home of Mrs. T. H. Wickwire, 55 Tompkins-st., to make plans for work.
—Mr. and Mrs. James Porter entertained the Gentleman's Assembly club at their home on East Main-st. last evening. Progressive euchre was the order of the evening. An elaborate dinner was served and all enjoyed a pleasant evening.
—Cornell and Columbia are to debate at Ithaca in April on a resolution that Kruger's ultimatum was justified. They are behind the times. Frankfort, Ky., is now the centre of attention, and who is the governor? the theme for discussion.
—Cornell university has forwarded as its general exhibit at the Paris exposition somewhat over one hundred volumes of university publications, and special collections with charts, photographs, volumes of publications, etc., to show the work of her colleges of civil and mechanical engineering.
—Bear in mind the Republican village caucuses from 7 to 9 o'clock to-night in the four wards. Candidates or trustees will he nominated in the Second and Fourth wards. In the Second ward there is a sharp though friendly contest going on this afternoon between D. C. Beers and E. M. Yager for the nomination.
—Now is the time that people are making their plans for moving on April 1. If you have a house to rent, note it in The STANDARD'S "to rent" column, and people will know it and will go and look at it. If you want to secure a house make it known in The STANDARD'S "want" column and you will have a great assortment placed before you at once from which you can make your selection both as to kind and location.
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