The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923, October 05, 1906, Page 9, Image 9

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The .Commoner.
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have been willful. It fM an attempt, as a member
. r6 the cabinet to justify the further invasion of
' constitutional rights of which he was guilty as.
a judge." Reference is also made to the parts
play by Senators Lodge and Beveridge and others
and also to the president's supposed interest in
Mr. Littlefleld's behalf.. Mr. Gompers concludes:
"The campaign in Main has shown how great
are the forces aligned against the interests . of
the people and it has also shown that labor needs
only to lead the way and all good citizens aid in
the noble and patriotic work'
LOUIS F. POST'S paper, The 'Public of Chicago,
makes interesting reference to the munici
pal budget of Priburg in Baqen. Priburg has
79,000 population. The Public's showing is
as follows: "The liberal party governs the city
and its mayor is a progressive man who is an
expert. The debt amounts to 35,000,000 marks;
or, as four marks makes about' a dollar, we may
call it ?8,760;000.
Interest on debt is , $ 336,000
Other city expenses in 1905 were' 768,250
Total expenses $1,104,250
Total income of city v. ........ . 834,500
Deficit raised by taxes wan $ 269,750
4-10 per cent oh houses $81,000
4-19 per cent on working capital 48,000
1 2-10 per 'cent on income 87,500
About 1-10 per cent on Income
from capital .-.... 53,250
$ 269,750
The city required the services of 162 officials. The
payroll amounted to $75,417. In this amount
were: Mayor, $3,750; first burgomaster, $2,500;
second burgomaster, $1,750; city treasurer, $1,525.
(Average salary of 162 officials, $465 a year.)
Seven schools (the cost of one university and
two classic schools is paid by the state), 119
, teachers' salaries, $39,500. Eighteen councilmen
, and 95, city congressmen receive no- salary.
Among some of the items of (net) income in 1905
were: $107,750 from 88 lots of houses; $9,500
from 741 acres of land; $63,000 from 8,033 acres
Of woodland; $84,250 from water works; $110,250
from gas works; $32,500 from electric works;
f 33250 -trom electric street railroad; $15,750 from
-.slaughter houses; $5,000 from the 'Relselgut' (a
farm to which the canal brings the solid sewage
of the city, which goes on to the land as manure.
This farm is a great success)."
T T J HEN, THE NEW HAVEN 'Railroad company
VV ' reduced its passenger rates to two cents
a mile the officials estimated that there would
be a loss of about $700,000 a year in gross re
ceipts. Referring to this the New. York World
says: "The reduced rate, which affects nine
tonths of the system, has been in .operation sev
eral months, and instead of the predicted reduc
tion there is an increase in gross earnings. Lower
fares have given the company enough new busi
ness to more than make good the lessened profit
on each fare. When the Michigan Central char
ter was repealed and a two-cent rate was fixed
'by the legislature the company brought suit
against the state of Michigan for $5,000,000. By
'the time the case got before the courts the re
ceipts already showed a large increase in passen
ger earnings. Instead of losing by the repeal
of a charter which gave it the right to charge
three cents a mile the Michigan Central had act
ually benefited. The recent reductions in fare
on the Pennsylvania were made in a confident
business belief that there would be more profit
for the company in carrying people for less money.
Other companies are planning similar reductions.
The next five years will witness unprecedented
reductions in passenger fares. Railroad managers
are coming to understand the simple scientific
principle that there is more money In doing a
large business with a small margin of profit on
each transaction than in doing a small business
with a large margin of profit on each transaction."
THE EXECUTPE OFFICERS committee, ap
pointed by all the railroads west of Chi
cago, to investigate doubtful points in the rail
way rate law, has reported in substance as fol
lows: "There is no authority in law for making
lower rates to land seekers and settlers than for
other travelers. The law committee advises that
transportation can not be Issued In payment for
advertising. It Is generally accepted, howeyer,
that carriers may carry an open account with
publishers, and that publishers may carry an
open account with carriers for advertising, and
that these accounts can bo balanced periodically.
The balance, whatever- it may bo, must bo paid
in cash. The transaction must bo devoid of
previous agreement that the services done by
either party for the other are to be paid for in
any other way than by cash. Special reduced
rates may bo made for federal and state troops
and for officers and omployes of the United
States geological survey and reclamation ser
vice in the future as in the past. The words of
the law excepting 'Inmates of hospitals and char
itable and eleemosynary institutions and persons
engaged in charitable and missionary work' from
the free pass prohibition are held not to apply
to doctors, nurses and other omployes. Nuns,
sisters of charity, missionaries, evangelists, na
tional or state officers of religious organizations,
teachers and pupils in Indian schools, officers
of the Salvation Army and Volunteers of America,
It Is held, may bo given free transportation.
Special rates for theatrical companies, baseball
clubs, etc., are held to be discriminatory Special
rates for army and navy officers and their fami
lies, which always have boon made in the past,
are held unlawful. Regarding the interchange of
transportation by common carriers for the use
of officers and employes and their families, the
committee decides such interchange may be mado
with sleeping car, express and steamship compa
nies, but not with telegraph and telephono com
panies." A DISPATCH FROM Louisville, Ky printed
in the Chicago Record-Herald follows:
"Henry Gottbrath, desiring to compliment the
members of No. 12 engine company for having
saved his house from destruction by fire, said
he intended to name his newly born babe after
the members of the company. Today he had the
child christened John Smith Paul Graham Matt
Kelly Ralph D. Brown Edward Buckner George
Boylan David McCorkhill Henry Gottbrath. Gott
brath said his son was handicapped with the long
est name he had over heard of, but thought he
would be able to overcome any obstacle that might
arise from that fact"
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P'VTJL STENSLAND, the Chicago banker, fled
to Tangier, Morocco, in the hope of avoiding
arrest because there is nq extradition treaty be
tween that country and the United States, but
Stensland was doomed to disappointment. The
Illinois authorities secured possession of him and
brought him back for trial. An interesting article
on this subject is written by an ex-attache for the
Pittsburg Dispatch. This writer says: "The fact
of the matter is that the principle of extradition
exists among all civilized powers, even when for
one reason or another it is not covered by any
hard and fast international convention, and re
quests for the surrender of criminals addressed
by one government to another are granted oh the
ground of international courtesy and comity, even
in the absence of treaty stipulations. This prac
tice jiot only prevails among the Christian coun
tries of Europe and of the western hemisphere,
but has likewise been to all intents and purposes
adopted by Asiatic and North African states, such,
for instance, as Morocco. Thus the United States
has on quite a number of occasions arrested and
surrendered foreign fugitive criminals here in re
sponse to applications from governments with
Which no extradition arrangement existed at the
time."
PRESIDENT LINCOLN, in 1863, caused the ar
rest and surrender, according to the ex
attache, to the Spanish government of a man of
the name of Arguelles in the absence of any ex
tradition treaty with Spain. Arguelles, who had
been the lieutenant governor of a province in
Cuba, was charged with a number of atrocious
crimes against common law, among the minor
accusations being one to the effect that he had
sold into slavery several hundred negroes, illegally
brought from Africa. On the authority of Secre
tary of State Seward ho was arrested by a United
States marshal andturned over to the Spanish
police officers, who took him back to Havana for
trial. A motion was at once made in the United
States senate calling the president to account in
the matter, arguing that in the absence of a treaty
of extradition and of congressional legislation
touching the surrender of fugitive criminals to
the Spanish government he had exceeded his.
powers as chief magistrate. To this Secretary of
State Seward replied to the effect that the presi
dent had given up Arguelles under the rules of
international com Jty, -which prescribe m a mat
ter of courtesy tho compliance with demands of
this kind addressed by one civilized power to an
other, and he added that Mr. Lincoln had likewise
acted ih the affair in accordance with tho spirit
of the constitution of tho United States, which
is not In favor of tho principle of affording asy
lum' to fugitive criminals from abroad, but dis
tinctly averse thereto. A number of years later
tho Spanish government roturned tho compliment
by surrendering to tho United States "Boss"
Tweed, although it was only some time afterward
that an extradition treaty between this country
and Spain was concluded.
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ALTHOUGH TREATIES of extradition wore
negotiated between tho United States and
Great Britain in 1794 and between England and
Franco in 1806, thoy remained dead letters and
as pointed out by tho writer in tho Dispatch it was
really tho treaty concluded by Lord Ashburton
at Washington in 1842 which was tho first inter
national convention of this kind to bo put into
operation. Franco negotiated a treaty of tho same
kind with the United States in tho following year,
and by degrees all other civilized countries fol
lowed suit, not only as regards America, but also
among themselves, the Ashburton treaty of 1842
botweon the United States and England serving
as a basis for tho entire system. Tho Dispatch
writer adds: "Hero in America the actual extra
dition of forolgn criminals is essentially an act of
tho executive, tho judiciary merely determining
whether the crime charged is specified by tho ex
tradition treaty, and whethor the evidence is
'prima facie' sufficient to hold the accused. The
demand for extradition must be addressed in the
first place to the secretary of state at Washing
ton, and tho national executive thereupon acting
by virtuo of two congressional measures bearing
dates of 1848 and 1860 respectively directs certain
magistrates, judges or commissioners of the Uni
ted States courts to take cognizance of tho mat
ter. The judge or commissioner thus instructed
issues warrants of arrest, tries the accused and,
finding that tho alleged crime Is specified by
treaty and that there is' 'prima facie' evidence of
guilt on that charge under American laws, com
mits him to the custody of the executive, who
In turif surrenders him to tho officers of the for
eign government that has demanded hJs ex
tradition. There are certafn important principles
that play a preponderant rojo in the present sys
tem of extradition. One of these is that no pris
oner who has been surrendered to a government
which has demanded his extradition may bo tried
or punished, after his surrender for any other
crime than the one for which he has been ex
tradited. The object of this is, of course, to pre
vent fugitives surrendered for common law crimes
being punished more severely for political
offenses. But the result of It is that a man who
has been extradited on a charge of forgery could
not bo tried for murder and punished for that
offense, even though that crime were discovered
only subsequent to his extradition. Another
equally Important principle is to the effect that
extradition should be refused for any offense that
is not regarded as a crime by the law of the land
upon which the demand for surrender Is made.
Thus there are certain offenses In the monarchical
states of Europe that would not be considered as
crimes in this country, and in no possible way
can the stipulations of the extradition treaties be
twisted so as to enable tho American surrender
of foreigners subjected to charges of this kind
abroad."
IT IS POINTED OUT by this same authority
that these principles are binding upon the
executive in cases for demands of extradition by
countries with which no treaty bearing upon the
matter exists and the DIspateh writer says: "In
asmuch as Paul Stensland has been surrendered
by the sultan of Morocco to the United States,
as a defaulting bank president, he could only be
tried m this country for wrecking the Milwaukee
Avenue State bank, and not let .us say for at
tempted murder if he were subsequently dis
covered to have rendered himself guilty here of
that crime. Nor does the "absence of the mention
of a particular kind of crime in existing extradi
tion treaties mean that the national executive is
debarred by this omission from surrendering fugi
tives guilty thereof to foreign governments If he
sees fit, and it should be thoroughly understood
that there is nothing in the letter or spirit of the
extradition treaties now in existence which limits
the action of the government's concern to the of
fenses enumerated in the convention."
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