Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

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... 9