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The Commoner.
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VOLUME 0, NUMBER 2d
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BIALYSTOK, RUSSIA, is the scone of the latest
anti-Jewish riots, and the reports indicate
that the horrors are greater even than those
which called forth such a storm of protest a few
months ago. The Jews estimate that 200 of
their number were killed, of which number sev
enty had been prepared for burial the second
day after the trouble began. The trouble seems
to have been precipitated by a personal encounter
between a Jew and a man belonging to the anti
, Jewish order. A crowd immediately collected
and attached the Jewish quarter of the city, and
although the Jews made a show of resistance they
were speedily overwhelmed. Unspeakable atroci
ties were committed by the enraged populace.
The dead bodies of the Jews were mangled and
mutilated, and their property given over to the
torch.
IT WAS A WEEK before the embargo on news
was raised, and a correspondent for the Asso
ciated Press allowed to enter Bialystok and re
port. Reports are that the excesses assumed the
character of a three-cornered fight between the
military, the mob and armed members of the
Jewish bund, the latter resisting instead of tamely
submitting to slaughter as their unarmed co
religionists had done. The pillaging continued
for several days after the killing had subsided,
and while it appears that the police and soldiers
could have stopped matters at almost any stage
of the proceedings, they neglected to do their
duty for a long while, thus becoming responsible
in large measure for the awful casualty list.
Later dispatches state that matters have again
quieted down and that funeral processions are no
longer kept under armed guard. Many of the
shops and stores have been re-opened. It
is directly charged by one correspondent that .the
outbreak was provoked by the police.
FEDERAL JUDGE M'PHERSON, sitting at Kan
sas City, imposed sentence June 22 upon
several persons convicted in connection with re
bates. Judgments in the nature of fines were
assessed as follows: Swift & Co., $15,000; Cud
ahy Packing company, $15,000; the Armour Pack
ing company, $15,000; Nelson Morris & Co.,
$15,000; Chicago, Burlington & Qulncy railway,
$15,000. George L. Thomas of New York, was
fined $G,000 and sentenced to four months in the
penitentiary. L. B. Taggart of New York was
fined $4,000 and sentenced to three months in
the penitentiary. A fine of $15,000 assessed against
the Burlington covered all four counts, the aggre
gate amount of the fines in the seven cases total-
ing $85,000. Appeals were filed in each case and
a stay of execution was granted until June 29,
until they could be perfected. The bonds In the
cases of Thomas and Taggart were fixed at $6,000
each. These two men appeared in court personally
and upon being sentenced promptly furnished the
required bonds. The bonds in the case of the
packing companies and the Burlington were fixed
at $15,000 each. Before sentence was passed in
the various cases motions for new trials were
made by John C. Cowin of Omaha, and Frank
Hagerman of Kansas City, for the packers, and
by Judge O. M. Spencer of St. Joseph, upon be
lief of the Burlington railroad' and Thomas and
Taggart. All these motions were overruled.
OM. SPENCER, of St. Joseph, Mo., who is
general counsel for the Burlington railway
and a.lso appeared for Thomas and Taggart, ad
dressed the court before the sentence was pro
nounced. Mr. Spencer said that an announce
ment had been sent abroad by the department
of justice at Washington that "unless some one
is sent to the penitentiary, this rebate practice
will not stop." He asked: "Can the district at
torney justify himself for demanding greater pun
ishment in the Thomas and Taggart case than he
i usiung in tne packers, and in the Burlington
cases? If so on what ground? On the ground
of larger sums of money? No. Or different
crimes? No. For both were refunds on freights
or concessions, and your honor has well said,
during this trial, there is no real distinction. The
crime is the same in substance, but the form of
the indictment and the name of the crime is dif
ferent in the one instance, than in the other.
There is no justice in pursuing these defendants
while allowing the real offenders to escape. The
escape of one criminal is no defense for the other;
but is it not a mockery on justice for this great
national government to sit by and call one after
another of these rich merchants, and allow them
to clear their skirts of crime, and prosecution,
by telling how their own agent at their solicita
tion obtained money from the railroad for them?
All this, too, by the consent and on terms named
by the government."
GEORGE L. THOMAS is a New York freight
broker and Taggart is his chief clerk. It
was pointed out by Mr. Spencer that it is a ques
tion whether Thomas and Taggart should have
been convicted on the charge of conspiracy at
all. Mr. Spencer said "only shippers can receive,
only carriers can 'give rebates under the law."
Many lawyers think that the sentence against
Thomas and Taggart will not stand and some are
unkind enough to observe that it may be .signifi
cant that the jail sentence was imposed only upon
the two hired men or go-betweens, while the
chief parties in the conspiracy, the packers and
the railroad company, escaped with a fine; also
that the only ones to be sentenced to jail were
those concerning whose conviction under the law,
grave doubt is raised among lawyers generally.
MANY PEOPLE WERE surprised to learn
that a jail sentence had been imposed in
the rebate cases at Kansas City because they re
membered that the imprisonment clause in the
anti-rebate law had been repealed by the Elkins
law. An Associated Press dispatch from Washing
ton provides the explanation: "Attorney General
Moody has always been of the opinion that if a
person guilty of rebating could be imprisoned
for it, the practice would soon be broken up as,
however, the Elkins law contained no provision
for such a sentence, it became necessary for Mr.
Moody, in order to put into effect this theory, to
find some other means for doing so. On an exam
ination of the authorities Mr. Moody discovered
that under the authority of the supreme court
of the United States, in the case of Clune vs. The
United States, a conspiracy to commit a crime
against the United States, itself punishable only
by fine, the defendant might also be punishable
by imprisonment. He directed the United States
attorney in each district that 'in the event of ob
taining a conviction on a charge of conspiracy
of this kind, you are directed to present to the
court the desirability of inflicting the penalty of
Imprisonment, to the end that these unlawful
practices which have received almost universal
condemnation, may be discouraged and prevented
as far as existing laws will accomplish that re
sult.'" It has not, however, been explained why
the jail sentence was imposed only upon the go
betweens and not upon the principals.
REPRESENTATIVE MANN, of Illinois, enter
tained the house recently in a showing of
the impurity of food supplies. Dispatches say
that the space in front of the speaker's desk
looked like a grocery store with all sorts,
glasses, cans and bottles. Mr. Mann said that
many of the medicines advertised to cure the
opium habit were themselves full of opium; and
that wherever the honest manufacturer or dealer
goes, he is met by sharp competition from adul
terations or short weight. The Associated Press
says Mr. Mann read a letter from the German
American extract works in which they told how to
make all kinds of liquors. He said that this firm
claims to make any kind of liquor out of ethal
alcohol. Black pepper, he said, is a fruitful
source of adulteration the "filler" being sold In
five ton weights, according to a letter which Mr.
Mann ready Pepper berries, he said, are made
out of tapioca colored with lamp black.' "The
coffee that we drink, Mocha and Java," said Mr.
Mann, "is generally adulterated with Brazil cof
fee and ground coffee with sawdust and even
bread cFumbs." Taking his position behind the
tables Mr. Mann began a rapid explanation of
every article there. Taking up a bottle of bright
colored cherries marked "Maraschino cherries,"
he explained that the cherries had been picked
green; that they were then bleached and colored
with analine dye and, holding up a bright colored
bit of cloth, he said, "this cloth was dyed with
the same dye." "What are these cherries for?"
asked a member. "I understand they are used
one at a time in a well known drink," replied
Mr. Mann, amid laughter, some of the members
recognizing the cocktail which goes with the
cherry. Holding up a bottle containing a light
colored liquid, Mr. Mann said it was honey. "Yet
it never saw a hive, much less a comb. It is
fresh from the glucose factory." Freezin, he
said, is a powder sold to preserve meat. He ad
mitted that it might keep meats from spoiling,
but said that it is most injurious to health, being
composed of sulphite of soda and red coal tar
dye. A fine grade of olive oil used by the Union
League club of Philadelphia, turned out to bo
cotton seed oil with an adulterant. Taking three
cans of tomatoes, Mr. Mann said each was of
different weight, but all were bought for three
pounds. "The department stores of New York,
Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington and the
mail order houses sell the short weight cans,"
said Mr. Mann. Mr. Mann insisted that standard
cans ought to be full weight.
JOHN M. PATTISON, governor of Ohio, died at
his home in Milford, fifteen miles west of
Cincinnati, on June 18, Bright's disease being
the Immediate cause of his death. Governor Pat
tison was elected as a democrat last fall after
one of the most strenuous gubernatorial cam
paigns in the history of Ohio. He was elected on
a reform platform, and his every Official act dem
onstrated his sincerity of purpose and the cour
age of his convictions. The arduous campaign
weakened a constitution not strong at its best,
and he was a very sick man when he was in
augrated. But his Iron will kept him up to the
very last. He was born in Clearmont, Ohio, in
1847. In 1864, at the age of sixteen, he enlisted
in an Ohio regiment and served until the end
of the war. , He was a collegemate of Senator
Foraker, graduating from the Ohio Wesleyan uni
versity in 1869, and immediately began the prac
tice of law. He served one term in each branch
of the state legislature, and one term in con
gress. The state of Ohio suffers a great loss
through the death of this splendid man, and de
mocracy loses onewho was a staunch worker in
the cause of equal rights.
"s-y
I
NyAN AIRSHIP sixty-two feet long and six
teen feet in diameter, and designed and
wholly built by himself, Lincoln Beachley startled
all of Washington on June 14 by sailing his ma
chine wherever he pleased. He circled the Wash
ington monument, sailed around the dome of the
capitol, landed when and 'where he pleased, and
wound up by gracefully alighting in the White
House grounds. Beachley has been assistant to
Roy Knabenshue, who sailed at the Louisiana
Purchase exposition. Beachley modeled his ma
chine after Knabenshue's, arid started his flight
from a point in Virginia five miles down the
Potomac. His approach towards the capital was
heralded by the pages and other employes, and
senators and representatives watched his course
with evident pleasure. Beachley demonstrated
to the satisfaction of thousands that he had
solved the rudiments of aerial navigation. He
employed a gas bag with a capacity of 10,000
cubic feet, made of 750 yards of Japanese silk;
ALEXANDER BERKMAN, the anarchist who
was recently liberated from the Pennsyl- J
vania prison after serving a term for an attack
upon Henry C. Prick in 1892, has joined his for
tunes with Emma Goldman, who is more or less
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