Newspaper Page Text
THE JEFFERSONIAN
Vol. 111. No. 25
HUGHES WINS HIS FIGHT.
Albany, N. Y., June 11. —After a struggle,
the precise like of which no man in or about
the legislature has ever seen, the famous Ag
new-Hart anti-race track gambling bills are
now laws of the state of New York. Governor
Hughes, h vhis signature affixed to each
of the bills at 4:35 p. m. today,
crowned at legislative victory, the bril
liancy of which equalled only by its unexpect
edness, is conceded even by those who fought
him in the matter to the last ditch.
A few minutes before 2 p. m. the extraor
dinary session of the legislature of 1908 ad
journed without delay.
Crawls from Sick Bed to Vote.
The decisive votes, which passed the bills,
were cast by Senator Otto G. Foelker, of the
fourth Senate district of Brooklyn, who
crawled from a sick bed and made a sixty
mile railroad journey to do it, so weak and
distressed in mind and body that he seemed on
the verge of utter collapse, and by a new
Senator, William C. Wallace, of Niagara
Falls, who was elected in a special campaign
preceding which the Governor himself toured
the district, speaking in behalf of his elec
tion,
Governor Hughes, late today, recorded his
appreciation of Senator Foelker’s action in
the following letter:
“My Dear Senator:
“I desire to express my appreciation of
your heroic action in coming to the Senate
this morning. Your courageous performance
of duty at so grave a risk deserves the high
est praise and will long be pointed to as a
fine illustration of fidelity and patriotic devo
tion to the interests of the state. I trust that
you will not suffer any ill affects and that
you will soon be restored to your full health
and vigor.
“With assurance of my high esteem and
best wishes, I am,
“Faithfully yours,
“CHARLES E. HUGHES.”
There was no surprise in the vote of Sen
ator Wallace, who from the outset had been
definitely pledged to the support of the Gov
ernor’s recommendation in this matter. Every
other Senator, including Foelker, voted as he
did, pro or contra, when the bills were before
the regular session in April, and they passed
by the precise constitutional majority of 26
to 25.
The bills which now constitute Chapters 506
and 507 of the laws of 1908, in no way affect,
so far as their face provisions go, the state
racing commission in particular, or horse rac
ing in general. They relate solely to the
penalties for gambling, pool selling and book
making which, as before, are declared by the
law to be “a public nuisance.” Chapter 506
A Weekly Paper Edited by THOI and J. D. WATSON.
Atlanta, Ga., June 18, 1908.
amends the racing law by repealing that pro
vision under which an exclusive penalty of
simply recovering at civil suit the amount
waged was incurred, v;hich has applied to
gambling within a race track enclosure thus
exempting such gambling from the penalties
operative elsewhere in the state, and it also
provides that this general penalty shall be
“imprisonment in the county jail or peniten
tiary for a period of not more than one
year,” without alternative of fine.
Minor Courts Given Jurisdiction.
Chapter 507 amends the penal code in like
manner, and in addition changes the grade
of the crime from that of a felony, which any
gambling was until today, to that of a mis
demeanor, thus bringing the offense within the
jurisdiction of the minor criminal courts.
Senator Foelker expects to return tomorrow
to the home of his father-in-law, at Staats
burg, where for a month he has been confined
to his bed, recovering from an operation for
appendicitis on May 10. Francis N. Murphy,
of Staatsburg, his physician, who accompanied
his now famous patient from Staatsburg to
the Senate chamber, said that the anxiety and
nervousness of his patient undoubtedly had
retarded his recovery, but admitted that he
was better this afternoon than he was this
morning, and expressed the belief that Sena
tor Foelker had not been permanently injured
by his experience.—Charlotte Observer.
STEEL PRICE CUT IS FORCED ON TRUST
BY OUTSIDERS.
After a verbal battle that continued almost
uninterruptedly all yesterday and extended
well into last night the independent steel man
ufacturers of the United States defeated J.
P. Morgan’s billion-dollar Steel Trust and
forced it to agree to a general cut in the
prices of all finished steel products with the
exception of steel rails.
At the conclusion of the arguments former
Judge Elbert H. Gary, chairman of the Board
of Directors of the Steel Trust, gave out
the following ■written statement
“The representatives of the leading steel
manufacturing companies have been in session
during the day.
“It is understood that the price of iron ore
been, or will soon be, reduced fifty cents a ton
base.
“Each one of the steel manufacturers ex
pressed the opinion that there should be a
readjustment in the prices of their respective
commodities as follows:
“Billets from S2B per ton to $25 per ton,
Pittsburg.
“Sheet bars from $29 per ton to $27 per
ton, Pittsburg.
“Plates from $1.70 per 100 pounds to $1.60
per 100 pounds, Pittsburg.
“Structural from $1.70 per 100 pounds to
$1.60 per 100 pounds, Pittsburg.
“Merchant pipe, a reduction of two pointe
or $4 per ton, Pittsburg.
“Wire nails from $2.05 per 100 pounds to
$1.95 per 100 pounds,
“Sheets and tin plates were reduced early
in the year, therefore no changes were consid
ered in the prices of these products.
‘ ‘ It is hoped that these changes will not nec
essitate a general or radical readjustment of
wages, which it is hoped to avoid.”
Independents Were Greatly in Majority.
About fifty men were present at the meet
ing, which was held in the rooms of the Rail
road Club on the twenty-first floor of the new
Hudson Terminal Building at Church and
Cortlandt streets.
With the exception of former Judge Gary
and George W. Perkins, all .these men were
so-called independent manufacturers, men who
arc outside the trust, but who hitherto have
acted in harmony with it and have submitted
meekly to whatever arrangements it has made
in respect to prices and everything else af
fecting the trade.
The greed of the trust magnates, however,
in refusing to recognize the depressed con
ditions which obtained in the industrial world
following the recent monetary panic, for
which it is generally believed many of them
were largely responsible, had brought about
such stagnation in business that the independ
ents in desperation determined to force a re
duction in prices and tempt buyers or upset
the whole understanding.
Soothing Tactics Prevented a Riot.
Realizing this the Trust agreed to a “con
ference.” The fight yesterday was the out
come. The Trust’s representatives soon found
themselves beaten, and it was due solely to
the soothing tactics of former Judge Gary
that their defeat was not turned into an utter
rout. As it wrns the ex-jurist succeeded in ef
fecting a compromise and the reduced sched
ule finally agreed to represented the “happy
medium” between the rates the independents
proposed and the present prices to which the
Trust sought in vain to compel all to adhere.
The meeting was opened soon after 10 a.
m. yesterday. It was continued until about
10 o’clock last night. The greatest pains had
been taken by the Steel Trust men who ar
ranged for the meeting, to keep the time and
place of it secret. All day spies from brok
ers’ offices and representatives of the various
Wall Street news bureaus had sought in vain
for it. Business on the Stock Exchange had
been practically suspended pending some defi
nite news of the outcome of which by courtesy
was termed a “conference.”
(Continued on Page Thirteen.)
Price Five Cents.