The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1901-12-24

merchants, bankers-from members of
all those classes. indeed, whose stand
ards of conduct one would expect to
find OF the highest. When some Of the
governors sponsors We're faced with
his W statement of his case, they
took the same view Of 1t as he appears
to have ~taken-that he had showed q
chivalrous sense of duty and a nice
regard for the dignity of his position in
asking these reciprocal favors for his
friends instead of pocketing the whole
block of stock for himself!
In view of the silence maintained by
the president in the Bidwell case,
where he had been strongly urged to
let his reasons be known for substitute
ing another collector of customs at
New York, there was widespread sur
prise at his deliberate publication of a
prepared statement in the Jenkins case.
The two matters are not parallel, how
ever, In several important particulars.
In the jenkins case not only vas the
wrongdoing Of the man himself stated
and confessed, but the community in
which it occurred approved of it. 1t
therefore became important that public
sentiment in Oklahoma should undergo
some reformation for the moral health
of the territorial government generally.
If we could suppose the existence Of n
body Of people III the United States
among whom theft and arson were not
regarded as crimes, it would be the
business Of some n in authority
president. governor or judge-to admin
lister such a rebuke to the whole popu-
lace as would be understood and felt.
The mere punishment of a thief or a
house burner when detected would not
be enough. 1t would satisfy society's
demand for vengeance perhaps and
have a disciplinary effect upon the
culprit himself, but the moral atnos-
phere which encourages virtue or
makes vice easy is not palpably i'm
proved. To reach that n blow must
be struck home and with such force
that every one concerned will share
the shock. This was unquestionably
in the presidents mind when he ac-
companied his announcement of the
governors removal with an eXplana-
ton which must have put to shame
the governors reputable supporters.
unless their skins We're hardened past
the piercing point. and, though the
dawn of a new ethical light upon the
average Oklahoman mind may not fol
low at once, the upper stratum of citi-
zenship there at least know where the
president and men of his type stand.
so that more mistakes of the same sort
rs Jenkins cannot be made in igno-
ance.
The late governor of Oklahoma is
not the only sufferer from President
Roosevelt's idea of emphasizing the *
emplary element in the penalties he
imposes. 1t will be recalled that the
wife Of a Japanese consul was sub
jected to the indignity Of a physical
examination when she arrived at Hon
olulu several months ago. The Off
GERS of the marine hospital service ev-
erywhere We're keenly on the outlook
for bubonic plague. and OF the particu-
lar steamer on which this wOman ar
rived Il passenger had been discover
ed with a loathsome disease which
suggested plague infection. This arous
ed the anxiety Of one of the younger
surgeons who was in charge OF the in
spection party. and, as special reasons
existed for fearing the presence of the
plague among orientals. in his zeal
he ignored all protests and put the
consul's wife through the same or
deal as if she We're Il common immi-
grant.
OF course with a people al sensitive
as the Japanese such a thing ranked
as almost nothing else would. The
Japanese government took prompt nc
tice of it, but not until ours, forecast.
ing the turn matters would take, had
issued a reprimand to the officer IN
cerned and prepared Il suitable apollo
gy. Unfortunately for the young sur
geon, his case came up for review be-
fore the new president, who Is less dis
posed than his predecessor to regard
bygones as bygones when he feels that
a duty still remains to be performed,
and his decision was promptly reached
that the young man had not been pun
ished enough. He accordingly ordered
that the surgeon be suspended from
duty for six months and be transferred
to another and less desirable station.
The whole marine hospital service
felt the force of this blow, for the case
of the offending surgeon was very well
known among his brother officers. He
had married within a little while and
settled down in a home where he ex-
pected to stay for some time and had
Sent for his parents to come and live
with him. His pay was small. The ex-
penses of putting his household in or
der had been heavy, and a larger outlay
yet would be involved in pulling every
thing to pieces and moving off to some
other quarter of the earth. But the
greater hardship and the more famil-