Tw? )-" ---'-rr.r--v- -S
OCTOBER T,''1W4
The Commottfer.
5
IMyig .
CURReiMT
Topics Hf
POLICE Judge Phelps of Lee, Mass., has be
come an international figure. Hugh Gurney,
third secretary of the British embassy was ar
rested in Lee on the charge of violating the speed
laws for automobiles. 'When arraigned Mi. Gurney
refused to plead, Claiming that as lie was tlie uiird
secretary to his Britannic majesty he could not
under international law be arrested or held for
any crime. Judge Phelps said ho did not recog
nize international law in his court and insisted
that Mr. Gurney enter a plea. Mr. Guincy re
fused. Then Judge Phelps imposed a fine cf ?25
for contempt of court and another fine of $25 for
violating the speed ordinance. The fines vc:o
paid and Mr, Gurney vas released.
THE Lee incident was promptly reported to
Washington and since then there nas ocen
a large amount of correspondence on the subject,
which, because of the novelty of the situation, is
interesting. Acting Secretary of State Adee, uuder
date of "Washington, Sept. 2G, sent to Governor
Bates of Massachusetts the following dispatch:
"British embassy informs me that Mr. Gurney,
third secretary of that embassy, charged with
driving automobile at excessive speed, was ar
rested by deputy sheriff and taken, after entering
protest, under threats of force, to the court of
Lee, when in spite of his protest he was sentenced
hy H. C. S. Phelps, special justice of the Lee
police court, to pay a fine of $25, and on his de
claring that he could not admit the right or the
court to sentence nim another fine of $2b for
contempt of court and to go to prison if ne did
not pay. Section 40G3, reyised statutes of the
United States, declares that any writ or process
issued out or prosecuted by any person, In any
state court, or judge or justice, whereby the peioqn
of any public minister of a foreign state is ar
rested or imprisoned, shall be deemed void. Sec
tion 40C4 declares that any person ohtaiuiug or
prosecuting such writ or process, and every officer
concerned in executing it, shall be deemed violalpr
of the law of nations and subject to imprisonment
and fine. '. I have to requesL that, .you tako such
action as may be. proper in thjs case.
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR1 GUILD, acting In
the absence of Governor1 Bates, replied to
the state-department as follower: "Investigation
already started: ' Immediate action' Will be Laken."
Then the lieutenant governor sent the foliowing
dispatch: "State House, Boston, September 27. H.
C. S. Phelps, Special Justice, Lee, Mass.: The fol
lowing telegram has been received from the .state
department at "Washington: (Here is given the
dispatch of Acting Secretary Adee.) The assistant
attorney general infuorms me that if the facts
are as stated above you have in your endeavor to
enforce the laws of Massachusetts for the security
of life upon our highways committed in this par
ticular case a grave breach of internatfonal law.
May I ask you to telegraph met at once if Mr.
Gurney was arrested and fined in spite of protests?
Other channels of redress are open in case of
violation of Massachusetts laws by the diplomatic
representatives of other nations. Therefore, if fine
was imposed and collected the commonwealth wiil
apologize. The fine must be remitted, and-1 need
not suggest to one so respected as you the per
sonal amend that you will, of course, deaire to
make to Mr. Gurney for the error in method
adopted by your court in this unusual case. Kindly
forward me affidavit of the evidence of any bieach
of Massachusetts laws. Curtis Guild, Jr., Lieu
tenant Governor, Acting Governor."
TUDGE PHELPS, helng- interviewed, said that-if
I he found that he had made a mistake he
would gladly apologize, adding: "I did only, what
I believed to be right." Judge Phelps is not a
lawyer; he is a manufacturer and stands very
high among the people of his community. Just
what will be done with the Lee police judge lb not
certain. The law provides that every office: or
attorney -who shall assist in the execution of a
penalty upon any official connected with an em
bassy "shall be deemed xi violator of the law of
nations and a disturber of the public repose and
shall be imprlsonea for not more than thr e years
and fined at the discretion of the court." The
governor of Massachusetts will be expected to dis
cipline Judge Phelps. Perhaps it will all bo made
right by an apology upon the part of the polico
judge.
CONSIDERABLE attention has boon attracted
to the incident at Lee because of its novelty,
'luo Washington .correspondent for the Chicago
Chronicle says: "The last important precedent oc
curred in 1892 at the picnic resort of Bay Rido,
near Baltimore, where Dr. George, an attache of
the Swiss legation in Washington, was diluted
by a deputy sheriff on the charge of being a
pickpocket and was searched and othorvviso
treated in a humiliating manner by the local
authorities. The state department secured his re
lease -at an early moment through the governor
of Maryland, who also caused the dismissal of
the offending deputy and extended an apology
for the incident."
THE Miners' Magazine, published In Denver by
the Western Federation of Miners recently
punted what purported to be a denunciation of
labor unions by Mr. Roosevelt. It is claimed that
Mr. Roosevelt had 'written a letter to Mlchapl
Donnelly of Chicago, president of the butchers' and
meat cutters' union, in which the president said:
"I stand ready to do as my illustrious predeces
sor, Grover Cleveland, did and assert the power
of this nation against all local nullifiers. Last
summer I felt impelled to write a letter calling
upon my countrymen to put down lynching. But
labor union terrorism and crime are ab great a
national menace as lynch law. Let mo tell you
that the first duty of the officers of the law,
whether they be sheriff, constable, municipal of
ficers, mayors, governors or the president himself,
is to maintain public order and put down the mob
with an iron hand." After advising Donnelly to
put a stop to the strike the president is reprssented
as saying: "In any case be assured I will keep
my hands off unless your folly brings you into
collision with the laws of the United States, then
my hand will go on in a way you will not like.
Ho far as I am concerned you have barked up the
wrong tree. I am not to bo either wheedled or
frightened into meddling with what is none of
my business."
UNDER date of September 27, the Associated
Press made public the following statement:
"White House, Washington, Sept. 26.-Your tele
gram received. The letter you refer to purporting
to be addressed by mo to Michael Donnelly and
printed in the Miners' Magazine of September 22 Is,
of course, an absurd and Impudent forgery. I
have written no such letter, nor any letter even
resembling it. to Mr. Donnelly, nor any one else.
I have written Mr. Donnelly requesting to know
If lie has received any such letter and requesting
him if so to at once lay it before the district
attorney of Chicago to find out whether it is pos
sible to discover and punish the forgers. Theo
dore Roosevelt." Secretary Haywood of the West
ern Federation of Miners says that the alleged
Roosevelt k.ter was copied from the "Wisconsin
Toiler."
THE mystery of the "Roosevelt letter" concern
ing organized labor has been clear td up.
An Associated Press dispatch under date of New
vnrk qent 28 says: "The letter alleged to have
been' received by Michael Donnelly, the leader
of the meat strike, purporting to De one feet by
President Roosevelt, was copied from an editorial
in Se New York Evening Post of August 1. The
Evening Post says today: 'The letter appeared as
an editorial in the Evening Post August 1, and
was explicitly stated to oe a letter wmuu uu in
dent mght have written with advantage to him
self and the country. In other words is was con
fessedly an imaginary letter, written for the safco
of "brtaKtag out certain truths in regard to the
meat sSf' The Evening Post also says: 'We
hri no thought -of course, of being able to make
even a Presentable imitation of the pre ident's
literary style, and as the article was, at the time,
commented upon and reproduced Bomewnat ex
tensively in the press we never dreamed of its
coming to-figure as a campaign forgery.
THAT tho samo measure of homo rcic noTf
enjoyed by Canada Is in atoro for lrciaud
beforo many years havo passed is the cicim put
forth by Paul Lambeth, tho London correspondent
for tho Cincinnati Enquirer. Mr. Lambeth saya:
"Never slnco tho days of Charles Stowart ParucJl
havo tho prospects seemed bo bright for tno frui
tion of Irish hopes as they do today. John Red
mond la now tho leader of a compact body, of
80 mombers of parliament, to whom all questions
of public policy aro subordinate to tho one great
question of an Irish legislature for Ireland which
will bo supremo in all local matters. The condi
tion of English politics today makes it almost
certain that this body of homo rule members will
bo csentlal to tho life of nny government."
ACCORDING! to this samp authority, it Is a
matter of supreme indiffcronco to '.he Irish
houio rulers as to whfch of tho two great English
parties is In power. Mr. Lambeth explains: "The
price of their support will bo an Irish parliament,
and tho party which bids nearest to this ultimate
demand Is tho party which will probably go Into
power when the noxt parliament Is elected. The
statement has already been mado that Chamber
lain has offered to support home rulo If tho Irish
nationalists will support his tariff policy. VYhilo
Chamberlain denies that any such deal has been
made, little doubt is folt that he will be willing to
make It when the time comes. Tho only qucation
will be how far it will bo necessary to go In order
to gain tho Irish support Concessions already
have been made by tho Balfour government, which,
a dozen years ago, would have not only been
deemed Impossible, but which would have doomed
tho government which mado them. Thero lb no
question that there has been a radical rovuldlon of
sentiment among tho great masses o tho English
people on tho Irish question. It Is coming to be
recognized that local self-government to Ireland
not only will not threaten tho omplre, but may
actually .strengthen it, and it is a crystallization
of this feeling which will make it possible for
both tho liberal and consorvatlvo leaders to bid
high for Irish support. Tho next general election
is likoly to mark an epoch in Irish history."
THE death of Chief Joseph of tho Ncz Porcea
is reported. It is said that General Miles
once referred to this warrior as the "Napoleon of
Indians." A writer in the Rochester, N. Y., Post
Express says that this term is not wholly un
deserved in view of Chief Joseph's great march
through tho passes of tho Rocky mountains twfin-ty-seven
years ago when ho led General Howard's
army a wild goose chase, almost defeated General
Gibbons' command in one of the most desperate
of frontier fights and surrendered to General Milea
only after' a siege of eight days in the dead of
winter. The Post-Express writer adds: "The
character of Joseph and his Indians Is shown by
tho fact that they captured parties of tourists in
the Yellowstone park and never offered indignities
to the women, nor did they molest the settlers In
the country through which they passed. Chief
Joseph was always a friend of the white man.
His tribe did little fighting during the civil war,
and he himself was a cool-headed, far-seeing lead
er. Ho did not sanction tho uprising of 187, but
as his people insisted on resisting the encroach
ments of the whites, he, as their leader, waa
forced to take up arms against the soldiers."
FOR printing and stationery alone it la calcu
lated by a writer in Harper's Weekly that
each of the campaign committees will spend bait
a million dollars. This writer says: "Of the
scores of millions of documents sent out a great
many are franked, but to distribute the residue
requires a huge outlay for postage. Extremely ex
pensive also is the house-to-house canvass which
is made by each party early in September and
again-about a fortnight before election. Of course
no such canvass Is needed in any of the former
slave states, except Delaware, Maryland, West Vir
ginia and possibly Kentucky. It would be equally
superfluous in Pennsylvania or Vermont. No
other item of expenditure is comparable with the
sum paid for campaign speeches. It is expected
that when the campaign is fully under way no
J
-,MliA