Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-11-05

any provision Of the four foregoing Sec
tions, shall be deemed guilty of mis-
demeanor, AMI shall. on conviction
thereof. be punished by fine not ex-
ceeding five thousand dollars, or by i'm
prisonment for term not exceeding
three years, or by such fine and I'M
prisonment both, in the discretion OF
the court"
Rule 2. which is rule formulated
by the President and the Civil Service
Commission, under the head of Poll
teal Activity of Office Holders etc.,
provides that no person in the executive
civil service shall use his official au-
thority. or Official influence for the pur-
pose Of interfering with an election or
controlling the result thereof.
What Is Expected.
I refer to these statutes. gentlemen,
and to the civil service law and the rules
formulated and promulgated by the
President and the Civil Service Com
mission more especially for the pur-
pose of informing the country, as we'll
as the officers OF the law under the
Civil Service of the United States, what
is expected and required OF them, and
what their duties are. | am not here
to-day to instruct this grand jury TO
investigate any political offences what
ever, at this time, either under the
statutes that | have read. under the
Crimes act or under the Civil Service
act, which l have read TO you, and the
rules that have been formulated and
promulgated by the President and the
Civil Service Commission; but there
may come time if any one OF the pro-
visions OF the law that / have referred
to has been violated, when 1t will be
come my duty, If the case is properly
presented to the court for its consld-
Grafton, to pass upon it, and 1t may be-
come my duty in the future to call the
attention of the grand turies of this
district to the violations OF the law
and the penalty. l trust that no SUCH
case Will ever come before me; | trust
that there is no person who Will be
found violating the law. | presume
when the Congress of the United States
passed these laws that it intended they
should be enforced; presume when
was required to take an oath OF office to
faithfully enforce the laws of the coun-
try, that it became my duty to see that
they were enforced. In the course OF
long and varied experience upon the
bench. l have never shrunk from the
discharge of public duty. When the
Force Act" was passed and it was SO
unpopular, | administered it and en-
forced it, and am happy to say that the
construction l gave to that act at the
time, although | was criticised with
some severity for it, yet afterwards, in
the wisdom of time, everybody ap-
proved it, and the government approved
it and enforced it.
l trust and hope that l may be par
doned for expressing the wish that in
the election that is soon to take place.
concerning which there is so much ex-
element in the country-more excite
ment than ever l have witnessed with
one exception, at a Presidential cleo
tion-that everybody will go to the
polls, and give free and untrammeled
vote, and that no vote will be purchased
that enters into the ballot box; that no
person shall have occasion to regret his
vote and may | hope and express also
that no one will be found. when the
smoke and dust of the political battle
have disappeared, who has violated the
laws of his country in regard to the
election.