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| Assemblyman Henry Albert Dickinson of Cortland County. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Friday, March 27, 1903.
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY.
Canal Referendum Bill Goes to the Governor.
FOUR DEMOCRATS AGAINST IT.
Passed by 87 Ayes to 55 Noes—Floor Leaders of Both Parties in the Negative—Many Speeches For and Against—All Amendments Voted Down.
Albany, N. Y., March 27.—The $101,000,000 canal referendum bill passed the assembly last night, just after 8 o'clock, by a vote of 87 ayes to 55 noes, after a discussion of nine hours, in which party lines were practically abandoned
All but four of the negative votes were cast by Republicans, the Democrats voting almost solidly for the bill. The four exceptions on the Democratic side were Leader Palmer of Schoharie and Messrs. W. V. Cooke of Albany, Finnegan of Rockland and Pallace of Monroe.
On the Republicans side, of the 35 committee chairmen, only 12 voted for the bill, most of the chairmen of important committees being in the negative, including Leader Rogers, Burnett, Fowler, Hammond, Phillips, Dickinson, Apgar, Plank, Stevens, Nye, Landon, Platt, Leggett, Aliston, Hanford, Traub, J. T. Smith, Reynolds, Hooker, Hoadley and M. Davis. The committee chairmen who voted for the bill were Morgan, Bedell, Doughty, Remsen, Patton, Lewis, Costello, Hughes, Chambers, Cook of Erie, Graeff and Orr.
The absentees were Candee, Coon, Duer, J. J. McCarthy, G. H. Smith, Treat, and Ulrich. Speaker Nixon did not vote.
There was a long debate in the early morning as to the excusing or pairing of Assemblyman Oxford of the Sixth New York district, who has undergone several severe surgical operations upon his eyes lately, but who came to Albany especially to vote upon the proposition. Mr. Burnett, who led the opposition to the canal bill, at first objected to Mr. Oxford's being paired or excused, but finally yielded, whereupon Mr. Oxford announced, through the speaker, that he would remain for the final vote, and did so, voting upon the roll call in the affirmative.
The debate was long and covered exhaustively the oft-repeated arguments upon the canal project. Among the speakers were Messrs. Palmer, Bostwick, Hinson, Nichols, Butler, Cox, Fowler, Burnett, Merritt, W. V. Cooke, McKeown, Landon, Stevens and Pallace.
The real battle was after the speeches were ended, when it came to the vote upon the 24 amendments which had at earlier stages been introduced, the adoption of which Mr. Bostwick, introducer of the assembly bill, declared, would be an act of bad faith. Every possible means was used by the opponents of the bill to put off the final roll call. Upon most of the amendments they demanded the ayes and noes, and fully an hour of extra time was expended In this way. But each and every one was defeated by a vote approximately the same as that which finally passed the bill.
Upon the roll call Leader Rogers opposed the measure, explaining that he had reserved his expression of opinion so that there should be no semblance of party influence in the result, but each man should he free to vote according to his judgment and the wishes of his constituency. He was unreservedly opposed to the bill, he said, in its principle and in its detail.
Mr. Merritt of St. Lawrence, in opposing the bill, referred to the "interference" of Leader Murphy of Tammany Hall in the matter, regretting that he himself had been forced to abandon the hallucination, as he called it, that the Republican party was dominated by its own voters and its own leaders.
Messrs. Palmer and Cooke, in differing with their party associates, said they were in favor of "a measure" of canal improvement, but this bill offered openings for great abuses.
GREAT STRIKE IMMINENT
Among Fifty Thousand Cotton Workers in the Eastern Mills.
Lowell, Mass., March 27.—Hope has virtually been abandoned that a strike of the 20,000 textile workers here can be avoided. The state board of arbitration will make another attempt today to settle the trouble, but it seems useless.
The vote of the textile council last night to notify the agents of the Lowell cotton mills that the union members are ordered to strike Monday, March 30, if the ten per cent increase in wages is not conceded before that date was unanimous. For the first time the word ''strike" was substituted for the expression "force the issue."
The textile council will make an effort to organize the employees in departments of the mills not now represented in the union. Meetings have been called for tonight. The manufacturers today declared that they will hold out firmly against the demands so a clash now seems inevitable. There are seven corporations in Lowell, controlling forty mills that will be affected. The unions number seven, the number of employees 20,000, the average weekly wages six dollars and the total wages paid weekly $120,000.
An advance of ten per cent in wages would amount to about $650,000 a year. The manufacturers say the mills simply cannot afford this advance.
Should the strike come in Lowell it is almost certain to extend to Manchester, Dover, Nashua, Lawrence and other northern New England towns. Fifty thousand cotton workers in those places have the same grievances as their Lowell brethren and are intensely interested in the local developments.
PHYSICIANS TESTIFY
As to the Treatment of Bennett After the Shooting.
THE THEORY OF THE DEFENSE
Appears to be that Death was Caused by Improper Treatment After the Shooting Rather than by the Wound Itself—A Number of Physicians Subpoenaed as Experts.
The court room was crowded to its utmost capacity yesterday during the trial of the House-Bennett manslaughter case. Many ladies were present all day. Many witnesses have been subpoenaed on both sides. Expert physicians, Dr. Donahue and Dr. Hartman of Syracuse, have been employed by the defense, and Dr. Hall, the celebrated specialist in gunshot wounds has been employed by The People. The trial will probably continue all next week.
Dr. Eugene Field.
Dr. Eugene Field of Marathon, said: George Bennett was brought to my house on the night of the shooting. Harry Gleason and John House, Jr., carried him into the kitchen. He was placed in a chair by the side of the stove. He was in an exhausted condition. He fell upon the stove and I sat him back. I got a cot and placed him upon it, and gave him some strychnine and brandy. I took care of the wound by applying an antiseptic and then placed it in a splint and bandaged the whole leg. Bennett was conscious at the time, but very much exhausted. In fact, there was no pulse at the time he was first brought in. I asked Bennett in the presence of John H. House what he was doing at the House place and he said he came for his goods. I asked him where his horses were and he said in the barn. John H. House said: "Your horses are not in the barn. What did you come to our house for, breaking out windows?" With that Bennett became delirious. I told John House I thought it was very wrong to bring a man to my house at that time of the night and pretend they did not know him. He said he did not mean he did not know him when he brought him to my house, but did not know him when he found him at his house. After he was cared for he was taken to the Marathon House. After I had had my breakfast I brought him to Cortland.
Cross examination: I have seen Bennett upon several occasions. He came there for medicine for his wife. In my examination of Bennett I noticed no hemorrhage. Bennett talked for about an hour. He answered all questions I asked him.
Re-direct examination: These bandages were so applied as not to arrest circulation. His condition remained about the same during the journey to Cortland.
Dr. H. T. Dana.
Dr. Henry T. Dana, a resident of Cortland: On the morning of March 4, 1902, I was called to the Cortland hospital to treat one, George Bennett. I found him in a condition of partial shock. He had all the appearance of outdoor exposure. I asked him some questions, and some he answered by yes and no, and oftener no reply was made. I made a physical examination of him. He was in bed with his leg in a splint. He had a weak, irregular pulse. I removed the bandages, and found two wounds. The bone in the wound was completely shattered in fragments. I have had some experience in the treatment of gunshot wounds. There was an arrest of circulation in the foot and leg. It was cold. On Thursday prior to the operation the foot was cold. His physical condition had not changed materially. On Wednesday I telephoned to the surgical staff of the hospital, consisting of Drs. Higgins, Reese and Sornberger, and told them that I thought an amputation would be necessary. They met me there and we made an examination. We decided to defer amputation, but we did remove pieces of the bone on Thursday morning. On Friday he was somewhat delirious. I could get no intelligent, coherent answers to my questions. At 5:30 he had a chill and on Saturday morning he had another chill. I notified the surgical staff on Friday night that an amputation was necessary and on Saturday morning they met at the hospital. We made an examination and found the leg dead. If this had not been removed, poison would have permeated the whole system, causing death. I was summoned that afternoon and found the patient worse. I stayed with him until he died.
Cross examination: A gunshot wound in the leg is not necessarily dangerous. In most cases the patient would recover. To the best of my knowledge the wound in the thigh was the cause of death.
Counsel for the defendant asked witness if he did not know that death resulted from another cause and he replied heart failure. When asked if there was ever a death without heart failure, he replied there was not. Well, what caused heart failure? Poisonous substance in the blood which resulted from the wound.
The hospital record made at the time that George Bennett was in the hospital caused some difficulty. It was in possession of Dr. Dana at the time he took the witness stand. The defense desired possession of it at this time. The district attorney said the defense desired it at this time for the purpose of catechizing the witness. After considerable arguing the court ordered the record returned to the hospital in the care of the sheriff and forbade either side to have it again, but directed that both sides could examine it and make copies of it, if desired, at the hospital.
Friday Morning.
Dr. Henry T. Dana took the stand this morning and the cross-examination was continued through the whole forenoon. Nothing different was brought out in the case from that of the previous afternoon. The efforts in this cross examination are directed toward trying to prove that Bennett died from some other cause than the gun shot wound, perhaps blood poisoning, perhaps pneumonia, perhaps inflammation of the kidneys.
Upon redirect examination witness stated that to the best of his judgment he followed his habitual custom and made a physical examination every day of his patient to ascertain whether any complications had set in, and he found none.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
Dawn for Ireland.
The Irish land bill introduced in parliament Wednesday is regarded as the most important Irish measure brought forward since Mr. Gladstone's home rule bill. Viewed from the standing point of practicability it overtops the home rule measure. The latter, though pressed by the great commoner and the Liberal and Irish parties, failed. The lords killed it. Mr. Wyndham's bill is accepted by the Irish and is believed to have in advance the approval of the lords. It is brought forward by a government member, the chief secretary for Ireland.
In brief the bill purposes putting the Irish people in possession of the soil of Ireland. The lands are to be purchased of their present alien holders by the government and sold to the people who have been tenants and those who will buy, settle upon and work out repayment of the purchase price. The bill fixes a period of years for completion of tenant purchase, and the rates of interest to be borne by the government advances.
It is an elaborate, yet simple scheme. It is an embodiment of wise statesmanship. Carried to its logical end it settles the Irish question. It secures to the Irish Ireland, and to the British crown a happy volunteer in the place of a dissatisfied conscript. It seems a happier solution of the Irish question than Mr. Gladstone's home rule bill carried. That did not look to making land owners of the peasantry, but to quasi-political independence. This insures the loyalty of self-interest, giving opportunity for tenant to become home and farm owners. It makes land-lordism a satisfaction and pride. Instead of a few absent and exacting landlords, the country will be full of them, native born, the descendants of tenants who for centuries have tilled the soil of Ireland under hard conditions.
The prediction that with the inauguration of this scheme Ireland will enter upon an era of prosperity and contentment, heretofore unapproached, seems founded in reason.
PLANT TRANSFERRED.
J. E. Davis Manufacturing Co. Preparing for Business.
SHIPPING WITHIN SIXTY DAYS.
Rushing the Incorporation Papers of the New Company—A Temporary Delay in Matter of Name—Men Already at Work Preparing Plant for Business—Changes to be Made.
The H. M. Whitney plant was conveyed by deed to J. E. Davis of the J. E. Davis Manufacturing company yesterday afternoon, and the actual work of rearranging the buildings and placing new machinery was begun this morning. Mr. Davis expects to be shipping goods from the factory inside of sixty days.
The property was deeded to Mr. Davis in person for the reason that the matter of incorporating the new company has been delayed by the secretary of state, upon the grounds that the name that the new company desires to adopt is so nearly like the name of a Syracuse firm, "The J. E. Davis company," that there would be danger that the two companies might be mistaken, the one for the other. Mr. Davis states that the Syracuse company of that name is now dissolved and has ceased to do business and that today affidavits are being secured in Syracuse to show this fact. The incorporation will be perfected as soon as the secretary of state is satisfied that the Syracuse company is not now in existence.
Changes to be Made in Plant.
A number of laborers started at work at the factory today, and more men will be secured as the work advances. A new boiler room and a new engine room will probably have to be built for the new 150-borse power boiler and the new engine of the same capacity.
The large storeroom will be fitted up into a kiln for drying purposes. Special machinery is being made for the new factory, and the work of rearranging and fitting up the plant will be pushed to completion at the earliest date possible.
BREVITIES.
—The city schools close this afternoon for the Easter vacation. They will open again on April 6.
—The members of the A. O. U. W. will give a smoker to a number of their friends Tuesday night in Vesta lodge rooms.
—There will be a regular meeting of the H. C. Hall circle, No. 439, P. H. C., this evening at 8 o'clock in John L. Lewis lodge rooms.
—The new display advertisements today are—W. W. Walters, Shoes, page 7; C. F. Thompson, Lettuce, Radishes, etc., page 5; Opera House, "Tracy, the Outlaw," page 5.
—Thomas Jefferson in "Rip Van Winkle" will be an attraction at the Cortland Opera House at an early date. This actor resembles his father very much in his rendition of this famous character, and he played it in Cortland a few years ago with great acceptance.
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