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| Senator John Raines. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Saturday, Jan. 25, 1902.
"RIGHTS OF CITIZENS."
Senator Raines Replies to Jerome's Speech at Rochester.
ALL LAWS SHOULD BE ENFORCED.
Says No Law Protects Disorderly Places—Cites the Action of the Governor in Removing Sheriff Caldwell. Supineness of Local Authorities is Blamed.
Rochester, Jan. 25.—State Senator John Raines at the annual banquet of the Railway Men's Sound Money association here last evening in discussing "Rights of Citizens" touched upon many points raised by District Attorney Jerome of New York in a speech in this city a short time ago.
Speaking of hotels commonly called "Raines Law Hotels," Mr. Raines asked two questions:
"Have you ever suspected the charges of evil against them were being persistently iterated in the interest of certain persons who desire to do so as a means to an end, namely, to secure the Sunday opening of the saloons?
''Is it true that the proprietors of some 2,000 or more such establishments ought to be in the penitentiary?"
Continuing the speaker said:
The vital question is not whether there is one hotel in 1,400 or 2,000 of population. What we wish to know is, how are they conducted. If they are disorderly places, resorts for the depraved and vicious, no law protects them. They exist in spite of law and only through the supineness of the local authorities. Every policeman has knowledge of them, if they are located on his beat. Will good citizens have the laws enforced? At least do not make the existence of disorderly places which can be suppressed an excuse for countenancing the worst calamity that could befall poor humanity, the Sunday selling of liquor by saloons."
After citing, authorities as to the power of local authorities to enforce the Sunday and all night closing provisions of the liquor tax law, Senator Raines in conclusion said:
''I cannot relieve myself from responsibility by saying 'You attend to your affairs and I will attend to mine.' When a sheriff of Erie county refuses or neglects to enforce the law against poolrooms, it is the right of any citizen to ask his removal by the governor. All honor to the governor who knowing his duty does not hesitate to perform it. It seems to me that example will be worth more to the interests that stand for the enforcement of law and the preservation of order, than anyone thing that has happened in 20 years. It is a notice that, whether the sandwich be chained to the table or not, the sword hangs by a hair; that though few office holders die and none resign, some may be removed.
"And yet, though it be the right of every citizen to have laws enforced, it is his equal privilege to work for such change or modification of law as he may think best. Let him work for their repeal if he will, but until that is accomplished let him earnestly demand their enforcement. It is his right so to do, more than that it is his duty."
Raid on the Bowery.
New York, Jan. 25.—A raid of unusual proportions was made by nearly 100 policemen under Inspector Cross on the Lower Bowery last night. A number of notorious resorts were closed and 32 prisoners locked up. The large number of policemen on the scene prevented any outbreak of violence and there was little difficulty in getting the prisoners to the Eldridge street station. The raids foreshadow the doom of the old Bowery, for they [made] a preliminary step to the wholesale cleaning out of that famous thoroughfare. In nearly every raid the proprietor of the resort was arrested.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
The Danish Islands.
The treaty was signed yesterday afternoon transferring the Danish West Indian islands to the United States. The exact terms are not yet made public. The treaty will now have to be ratified both by the United States senate and the Danish rigsdag, but no opposition is anticipated in either body.
The treaty, it is expected, will transfer absolute sovereignty over the islands of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix or St. Kitts to the United States. The consideration is about $4,000,000, much less than Denmark could have obtained from the same country, a few years ago.
The Danish West Indies consist of three small islands lying to the southeast of Porto Rico; St. Thomas having about 12,000 people, St. Croix with 25,000 and St. John, the smallest and least important. St. Croix is the largest, but commercially and strategically not as important as St. Thomas.
The islands have remained under the rule of the Danish crown since their colonization in 1663 with the exception of the period 1807 to 1815 when England seized them, only to recognize the priority of the Danish claim and relinquish them. They have been ruled by a royal governor and a colonial council of fifteen members, of which four were named by the crown, and eleven chosen by the electors. In such elections the franchise was restricted to property owners and those having an annual income in excess of $500. Thus out of the 12,000 inhabitants of St. Thomas only 200 exercised civic rights.
To the United States, St. Thomas has the greatest value. With a safe and easy entrance, a roadstead, deep and almost land locked, affording safe anchorage to more than 200 vessels at one time, it has become the chief port of all and the chief coaling point in the West Indies. More than 100,000 tons of fuel all of which comes from the United States, are handled there each year, and such is the business of this town and its close connection with America that English has been the language generally spoken for the last fifty years. Moreover the harbor, commanding the stream of commerce as it will leave the eastern opening of the isthmian canal, can be fortified and easily made impregnable. All of these things have made for annexation.
Negotiations for the sale of the islands to the United States were begun by William H. Seward, secretary of state in 1869, when a treaty between Denmark and the United States was concluded. An election held in the islands resulted in practically unanimous ratification, but when the treaty reached the United States senate, it was turned down. This country was then in the throes of the reconstruction period, when many of the Southern states were without representation at Washington. There was a heavy public debt which many thought could be wiped out only by repudiation, and the people were unwilling to add to their burden. They rejected at the same time the government proposition to annex San Domingo.
Within the past six years the negotiations were renewed. This time there was opposition from the islanders. At least one-fifth of the population objected to their prospective loss of civic rights. Many looked upon the United States as a young but powerful factor in the future of the world. Ambitious, aggressive, fully appreciating the success of its debut in the congress of globe-encircling nations, the result could only be war with some other country. In that event the trade with the islands would inevitably be interrupted, perhaps ruined, and their little prosperity swept away.
In Denmark, too, there were difficulties, chiefly the question of price.
An intense national pride also obtruded into the negotiations. It was the Danish translation of the American formula: "Wherever the flag has gone up, let it not be pulled down."
Along with this quasi-patriotic sentiment was a more sordid one, the desire to obtain for Danish commercialism specific privileges in the islands. Again there was the recognition of a duty to perform by the mother country toward the islanders, the securing for them of United States citizenship, the free entrance into the United States of the islands' products, and the safe keeping of their material interests by the maintenance of St. Thomas as a free port in times of war as well as peace.
The last and the least important consideration was the race feeling, which preferred to see the islands pass into the hands of a more nearly kindred people, the Germans, than into those of the republic across the seas. No doubt Germany, though fully aware of the impossibility under the operation of the Monroe doctrine of any realization of this sentiment, zealously fostered it through motives of rivalry in dominion and in commerce.
THE TRUCK CASE
NOTICED FOR ARGUMENT BEFORE COURT OF APPEALS FEB. 13.
District Attorney Dowd Consults With Chief Justice Parker and Clerk Shankland at Albany as to How to Bring Attorney McCrahon to Time—No Briefs to be Submitted Now—If Appellant Fails to Appear Appeal Will Be Dismissed.
District Attorney Thomas H. Dowd was in Albany yesterday morning and had a conference with Chief Justice Parker of the court of appeals and Clerk Henry W. Shankland of that court, and upon returning to Cortland today he informed The Standard representative that upon the advice of Justice Parker he had noticed the Truck case for argument before the court of appeals for Feb. 13, 1902. Notice of the argument will be served today upon John H. McCrahon, attorney for Truck.
The district attorney had been uncertain as to which would be the better method to pursue, whether to make a notice to dismiss the appeal or to notice the appeal for argument. Judge Parker advised that the appeal should be noticed for argument, and if the defendant was not ready to make his argument on the day that the argument was noticed for, the appeal would be dismissed.
The rules of the court of appeals provide that the attorney for an appellant shall serve his briefs upon the attorney for the respondent, who in this case is District Attorney Dowd, at least 20 days before the argument, and then the attorney for the respondent may reply to the appellant's brief. Attorney McCrahon has so far refused to serve his brief upon District Attorney Dowd, although several dates have been fixed upon to do so.
Each party will now go before the court for argument without having an opportunity of examining the other's brief, which is not so satisfactory, but much more expeditious.
District Attorney Dowd states that the case in behalf of The People is fully prepared, and he is confident that the judgment of conviction of murder in the first degree will be confirmed.
As all well know, John Truck, the defendant, is now in the condemned cells at Auburn, N. Y., having been convicted in March, 1900, of murder in the first degree in causing the death of Frank. W. Miller of Virgil the previous year.
Cortlandvilłe Grange.
The Cortlandville grange held a very interesting meeting last evening in G. A. R. hall, at which time the first and second degrees were conferred. Two weeks from last night a special meeting will be held for third and fourth degrees.
The state grange meets this year in Olean on the 4th of February. Mr. and Mrs. L. E. Burnham of Cortland [will] attend as delegates and will start for Olean next Saturday.
F. E. Smith.
W. C. T. U. MEETING.
Scientific Temperance Instruction by Prof. F. E. Smith of City Schools.
The regular meeting of the W. C. T. U. was held on Tuesday afternoon, and opened with devotional exercises led by the president.
A petition against the Sunday opening of saloons in New York was presented and by a unanimous vote signed by the officers in behalf of the union.
The members then had the pleasure of listening to a paper on "Scientific Temperance Instruction," by Prof. F. E. Smith, superintendent of the city schools. Prof. Smith said he would not take up the discussion of this important subject from the scientific standpoint, as the underlying facts were doubtless well known to those present, but would speak of it rather from the point of view reached through his own observation and experience.
While fully believing in giving this subject a prominent place in the course of study prescribed for our public schools, Prof. Smith expressed the belief that under the present law the teaching of physiology and hygiene with special reference to the effect of alcoholic drinks and narcotics is spread over too long a period, beginning as it does with the first year of school and extending to the second year in the high school. His idea is that in the lower grades lessons in health, morals and manners might be profitably substituted for the more scientific side of the question presented by the text books, while in the higher grades the scientific facts should be taught and the whole subject treated in a more intense manner than is now practicable.
The relation of temperance to other subjects, especially history and biography should be clearly shown. He thought Prof. Atwater's experiments and attempts to prove that alcohol has some value as food would have very little effect upon the position of temperance people. A few years ago it was feared that belief in the Bible would be greatly shaken by the facts brought to light through scientific investigation, but today no thoughtful person values the Bible any less because of what science has revealed. So, even though it might be proved that alcohol has a very slight food value, which has not been by any means made clear, the necessity of teaching our children the evil effects of strong drink would be just as great as now. We have only to look around and see the havoc made by alcohol in its various forms to be convinced that it cannot safely be tampered with.
At the conclusion of the paper opportunity was given for questions and discussion.
Upon motion, in closing the meeting a rising vote of thanks was given Prof. Smith for his kindness, in responding to the invitation of the union and for his very thoughtful and interesting paper.
BREVITIES.
—New display advertisements today are—Opera House, "In Love," page 5.
—Dr. F. D. Reese will address the Science club this evening at the Hatch library building. His subject will be "Tuberculosis."
—Rev. Robert Yost tomorrow night at the Congregational church will preach the first in a series of historical sermons on Sunday evenings. The theme tomorrow night will be "The Christian Artist."
—Rev. Henry M. Parsons, D. D., of Toronto, who has been conducting the series of Bible readings at the Presbyterian church, will preach at that church at both services tomorrow. The Bible readings will be continued the first three evenings of next week.
—Mrs. W. M. Bass, state organizer of the Women's Home Missionary society of the M. E. church will speak at the Homer-ave. M. E. church tomorrow morning at 10:30 o'clock and at the First M. E. church tomorrow evening at 7 o'clock. Mrs. Bass is staying with Miss Mary Oday at 70 Railroad-st., while in Cortland, where she may be found by any of the ladies who desire to see her.
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