The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-06-03
CUBA HAVEN
Of CRIMINALS
Jaunt of Ninety Miles to ES-
cape Law
NEED OF GREAT CHANGE
BoodIer, Thief and Murder
May Defy Officer There
NEED OF GREAT CHANGE

What foreign country is the safest hid
ing place for criminals from the United
States?
Morocco. Persia. Central Africa, Siam.
Tibet, thousands and thousands of miles
away? Not at all, says the New York
World
When the officers of the law pursue
him with warrants duly drawn and at
tested. be the crime murder. embezzie-
ment, larceny, bigamy, or any of the
other felonies the man about to flee
doesn't have TO seek the uttermost ends
of the earth to escape arrest and extra
dition
Just a ninety-mile jaunt-less than the
distance from New York TO Philadelphia
and he is as immune from arrest by
anybody as if he were surrounded by a
wall of ice at the North Pole.
A journey from the United States that
can be comfortably made aboard a com
Portable steamship between morning and
evening upon smiling seas, AID with
pleasant company, the fugitive is safe.
And this haven of refuge?
Cuba.
In this year of grace 1903 with Cuba
before the world a free country, able to
govern herself to make its laws and TO
enforce them, and the United States
standing in the double position the while
as sponsor and protector, the malefactor
is absolutely safe in this pleasant isle. He
can live at the Hotel Inglaterra, Ha-
Ha1 h.
nlav on the malecon in the afternoons
while he puffs his fragrant cigar, or
drives in his open barouche around the
Prado, ogling the pretty girls, without
dreading in the least the touch OF mana
on his shoulder and the words feared by
criminals in nearly every foreign lana
under the sun, You are under arrest!
That was a far trip which Henry Herr
man. the Milwaukee promoter, took the
other day, when he suddenly disappeared
owing $500. 900, under decidedly questiona-
bic circumstances. He escaped safely to
Puerto Cortez, Honduras, with which
country the United States has no extra
dition treaty.
He might more easily have taken YES
tibuled train to Florida, junketed on to
Kew West. and from there boarded the
Cubt steamer and been safe forever, or
until Uncle Sam and the Cuoans con-
cIude an extradition treaty.
You could have knocked Deputy Assist
ant District Attorney Perkins, OF New
York. down with a feather. when he
learned of this last week. He has charge
of all indictments. and in due course he
cot the case of a man who had stolen a
large sum of money from his employers
and fed the country. He was located IN
Cuba.
That's easy" said Mr.. Pekins- Just
wire Governor Oden to have the neces-
sary extraditfon papers prepared
The message was forwarded TO Albany.
but some delay ensued. Mr.. Perkins
wired again. and to his amazement he
got this reply from the Governor:
Secretary of State telegraphs that the
United States has no extradition treaty
with Cuba. Provisional arrest impossi-
BILE"
Il was completely taken off my feet
said Mr.. Perkins, in telling OF the Incl
dent to a writer for the Sunday World
Magazine. - thought, of course that
with Cuba, above all nations. we had
some arrangement for the swift and easy
apprehension of fugitive criminals, but
it seems not.
II wrote a letter to Washington to in
ouire further and found out that there Is
no safer place in the world for criminals
70 Zee that to Cuba, just ninety miles OF
our coast. In the reply TO my letter the
State Department frankly admitted that
in the future they hoped that some such
treaty would be negotiated But that
isn't doing us any good now"
With Canada no longer a refuge, it is
Cuba now. and just as convenient of &C
cess. 1t IS even safer. too, for when he
was en- route for Canada in bygone years
the escaping fugitive was liable to arrest
anywhere till he crossed the border But
once the steamer for Cuba leaves the
land and IS three miles out at sea the
Heein passenger is as safe as If he were
three thousand miles away and not three.
When Cuba was Spanish territory the
fugitive was no safer than If he were In
Furope because our treaty with Spain
guaranteed that he would be given up
20 the United States upon demand just
as we give Up Spanish refugees. But now
It is different.
However the world Is gradually closing
in on escaping criminals Year after
wear finds new treaties and new laws for
the arrest Of men wanted by Uncle sam
in foreign lands
A treaty with Great Britain some years
ago made Canada-long the haven of safe
" for boodlers. bribe-givers and BRIDE
takers. embezzlers and thieving bank of1-
cials-a dangerous country to flee 10.
There had always previously been a colo
ny OF expatriated Americans in Montreal.
The New York board Of aldermen in 1884
went there almost in a body.
John c. Emo. who cleaned the Second
National Bank. OF New York. out Of s.
oo0.Oa0. made Montreal his home for many
years When he came back few years
ago the indictments were sGuashed- His
father effected the settlement
Mexico. too, was another haunt for
wealthy gentlemen who found it desirable
10 live beyond the bounds Of the Union.
But the unsympathetic dons calmly
signed an extradition treaty with the
United States. and now the beautiful City
of Mexico is no longer the abode Of
distinguished colony OF embezzlers, alb
sconders. forgers. and boodlers. Tewks-
bury. the fleeing New York banker, and
some OF the st. Louis boodlers made for
Mexico when they found that discovery
was due at any moment
Brazil. toe, has shut down the bars. and
SO have some OF the principal South
American countries. Central America IS
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