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jgcause he did not smile an “Aye,
# / z ■W" < 4 iF n the cold-hearted tyrant for-
that group of loved ones
U P from Virginia to pay him
r <A ‘t —he, the enlisted man, must
to *eel the power of the officer in
' *■*•**■
w Scrne ww.-. i roiled—and he died in irons.
The raging-passions aroused by this horri
ble harshness, the bitter pangs of grief and
mortification at not being allowed to see the
wife who was so near —the children whom he
had been so sure of having in his arms—over
came the man; and when they went down to
his prison that night he was lifeless.
***& The doctor pronounced it “heart-Disease.”
So do I.
Heart-disease brought on by such brutality
of treatment as brings disgrace upon the ser
vice, unless McDonald be brought to punish
ment for his crime.
The pretext that shore-leave could not be
granted because the ship was coaling is the
flimsiest subterfuge. Even though the ship
were coaling, any man of common sense knows
that there would have been no tragedy"had
the officer merely reminded the man of the
rule, and promised him the two hours shore
leave when the coaling should have been fin
ished.
Pity this victim of Militarism. Pity his
wife. Pity the orphaned children.
How their eyes must have danced with an
ticipated pleasure as they went up from Ports
mouth to New "York*!
How those eyes must have been swollen
with weeping as they went down from New
York to Portsmouth!
Lieutenant Commander McDonald doubt
less ate his Christmas turkey with a good .ap
petite and a clear conscience. Doubtless he
is a man of family, and warmed his heart
afresh in the embraces of his wife and chil
dren.
In Hickey’s home it was different.
Hickey’s lifeless body had been kindly
shipped to his wife, and the lips which Hick
ey’s wife kissed —the hands which Hickey’s
little ones clung to as the wail of orphanage
smote the ear—were colder than marble can
be.
Murdered by ill usage!
Murdered by cruel treatment!
Murdered to vindicate Authority!
Murdered with an unfeeling atrocity that
should have shamed a savage!
When they denied him two hours to give
Christmas greeting to his waiting wife—who
had come so far to get it —he failed to become
cheerful over it. Perhaps he muttered, and
stood there remonstrating.
“Call the Master-at-arms! Put this man in
irons!’’ thundered the great McDonald.
They ironed him at noon, caged him below,
and left him alone —alone in his misery, alone
in his grief, alone in his frantic struggles to
free himself, alone in his despair, alone in his
tears.
And when they came at night to see what
his state might be, he was dead.
“Heart disease,” said the Doctor.
So it was.
Under similar conditions, here is another
man who would have died the same way. *
Hence, my eyes are dim when I think of
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSCSNIAN.
this poor fellow and I have no words which
could express the boundless scorn, the utter
loathing and detestation that I feel for Mc-
Donald.
He belongs to the same breed of brutes that,
in the German Army, spit in the enlisted man’s
face to test his conception of the word OBE
DIENCE.
Yet, the War Department marvels because
of the "fact that enlistments are falling off.
The real marvel is that any sane man enlists
at all.
r r r
Editorial Notes.
In the Washington Post of last Friday it is
stated that “the police of Torrington, Conn.,
are hunting for a mean thief who steals crepe
from the doors of homes in mourning.”
Has it occurred to the police of Torrington
to hunt for the “mean thief” among the Ship
Subsidy thieves at Washington?
Upon the principle that “birds of a feather
flock together,” that’s the gang with which he
is probably running.
R
The press despatches continue to assure us
that Roosevelt’s administration is going after
the Trusts.
At the same time a woful glance at the
monthly expense account reminds us that the
Trusts are not only going after us, but have
got us.
After all the Reports and Congressional ac
tion against the Chicago Meat Packers, the
Beef Trust calmly inaugurated a new and
higher schedule of advanced prices.
So it is with all the others. A few months
ago we were assured that the paper Trust had
been put out of business, yet all of us know
that the prices have been rising and that a
leap of 20 per cent is to be taken.soon.
The Administration gets the law and the
glory: .the wisely chosen Judges set aside the
law and the Trusts go right on and get the
money.
I* *
The Lumber Trust, the humanitarian com
bine which is making it simply impossible for
a man of moderate means and uncertain in r
come to build a house, laments the manner in
which the Railroads are treating it.
Let it howl.
This is one case of railroad robbery that
causes me no worry.
It’s “Dog eat dog,” you know.
It turns out that the richest man in America
is an old fellow out West whose long and bril
liant career as a Timber thief has given him
a fortune of a billion dollars.
Poor old man—just to think that he will
soon be going to a place where ail of his ten
thousand millions of dollars will not buy him
a tumbler of ice-water!
Perkins, the partner of J. Pierpont Morgan,
has been indicted for Forgery. The Grand
Jury which found the Tfue Bill apologized to
the world for indicting such a great big man.
Evidently that particular Grand Jury would
have preferred to prosecute some negro school
teacher for raising his school-scrip a few dol
lars, or pome poor white bookkeeper who
falsified his books to hide a theft of enough
money to buy his wife a new dress.
The Perkins forgery covered a fraudulent
transaction of more than three millions of dol
lars.
Consequently, the Grand Jury felt apologet
ic.
That’s the abject spirit which has brought
so many of bur courts into contempt.
Why not prosecute J. Pierpont Morgan
himself? He is the partner of Perkins.
The forgery was committed in the interest
of the firm. The fraudulent entries were
made upon the books the firm. The bene
fits derived from the crime accrued, in part,
not to Perkins individually, but to the fiiRL
Morgan is the Head of the firm. The law
sumes that he knows what goes on in the
firm. The law presumes that Perkins acted
by authority of the firm.
Why, then, should Morgan escape prosecu
tion?
r <
Do you understand the meaning of “water
ed stock’ r If you do not here is an illustra
tion which will enable you to understand what
it is.
The Central Railroad of Georgia was origi
nally capitalized at $7,500,000.
The Pat Calhoun-Sam Spencer crowd got
control of the majority of the stock and slap
ped a $16,000,000 Bond Issue on to it.
• The road was systematically wrecked and
put through the form of a public sale under
order of the Federal Court.
Os course, the gang bought it; then it was
put through the well known process of “re
organization.”
In other words it was Morganized.
When J. P. got through juggling with the
stocks and bonds, the Central Railroad was
loaded with a capitalization of about $55,-
000,000. Most of this was water; that is, the
stock represented no actual outlay of money.
The gang which was in control merely is
sued that much paper to themselves, and the
Central now has to be managed so as to earn
dividends on instead of $7,500,000.
This is so hard a task that no money can be
spared to properly equip the road.
The money is needed, at the Wall Street
end, to pay Dividends to the gang, on that
fraudulent stock.
R R R
Southern Nembers of Congress Don't
Play Into the Hands of Foraker.
Senator Culberson made a bad break when he
■allowed Foraker’s slurring allusions to Captain
McDonald, of the Texas Rangers, to pro
voke his into hinting that Captain McDonald
might do violence to the Ohio Senator.
Southern members of Congress! for God’s sake
don’t lose your heads as your forefathers did
nearly fifty years ago!
Nothing would please Sck or Foraker better
than to be personally assaulted ny some Southern
man.
It would immediately give to him the crown of
martyrdom, and we should have another Presiderk
tial campaign waged upon sectional lines. That’s
what the trusts and the railroad kings are after...
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