The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1904-06-04
The Geary Fee.

In behalf of Lawyer Yates.
lengthy explanation in ''if' admits
that the fee charged for collection
of the Widow Geary insurance
money was SI.o75, and an attempts
made to explain it. The transaction
is onethat it is impossible to Tex
plain By the admission. the
people know now, that it cost the
Widow Geary S1.o75 to get the in
surance money. rightfully due her
by reason of the fact that her hus-
band, soldier of the Union, died
while fighting under the shadow of
"Old Glory in the Philippines. By
the admission they know that this
immense sum went to gang OF
lawyers, and that w. E. Yates is
the man who made the fatal con-
tract with Maude Geary, and that the
same W. E. Yates is the man who
did all the negotiating with the
helpless. care-worn and grief-strick-
en- widow. They know that every
dollar that the life blood OF Wood
bridge Geary earned for his widow
ought to have gone to her, and to
nobody else. He was the son of
an Oregon pioneer, a soldier of the
American Union, and at three
o'clock in the afternoon of October
IS, 1899. he fell on the field of
battle, mortal1y wounded, as is
known, at the moment that he fell
Woodbridge Geary was at the head
of his column of mutinous soldiers,
encouraging, persuading and urg-
ing them to fight like men Tor the
flag of their country. When his re-
mains came home, cold in death,
the heart OF all Oregon throbbed
with grief, and a great memorial
service was held in the Corvallis
opera house in which the virtues of
the dead soldier were extolled in
oration, in poetry and in song. All
this was a magnificent token of the
tribute beloved country pays to a
hero, a soldier martyr, brave and
beloved dead. God bless a nation
that honors its dead, and bless a
citizenship that shields and protects
soldiers widow and a soldier S
orphans. God bless a nation that
remembers the service of its old
soldiers. and pensions them in men,
ory of the service they have endured
in defense of the flag.
But in spite of all this, in spite
of the feelings of national pride
and hallowed thoughts of nation S
dead and the natural protection due
a soldiers widow, the next news
that startles Corvallis is the fact
that the widow of Woodbridge
Geary, had been forced to pay
$1,o75 to get the insurance money
that was hers by right, of the life
blood her soldier husband had shed
: on a battle field in the Philippines.
! Never before in the history of this
community was there recorded an
instance in which widow or an or,
phan had to pay a fee for the col
lection of insurance money. With
such things unheard of in the case
of civilian women, what is the feel
ing that comes to men when they
hear that the widow of an Ameri
can soldier is bled of the blood dol
, lars that are hers by the right of th'
f life her husband gave while fight
ing under the starry flag.
= In the defense of this indefensibls
incident, an attempt is made, id be
half of Lawyer Yates to shift th'
responsibility on an Albany attor'
ney. What does Mrs. Maud
: Geary have to say about this? I,
letter to Corvallis business man
| written from Texas town, Ma.
21st, 1904, Mrs. Geary says: :"
trust and pray that w. E. Yate
r may meet his just punishment 70
the.way he treated me and m
children; and should he not get
here, 1 have one consolation
+! know he will in the hereafter.
S Does that sound like anybody els
: than Lawyer Yates was the ma
who engineered the 81 ,o75 contrae
with the widow?
{ In a recent letter to another Coz
n Wallis friend. after manifesting a
f anxiety to compel Mr.. Yates
d disgorge this overcharge, Mr.:
- Geary says, "Mr. Yates once Il
L me have $50, but this amount
% paid back to him within few day
y as had money sent me, togeth'
le with other effects belonging to n
@, deceased husband in the Philippine
- I have all along believed that 1 W.
- :: imposed upon by Mr.. Yates in II
l. collection of the insurance, and tn
D. Mr.. Yates took advantage of n
1e situation; and I would have be-
H. back in Corvallis long bofore tt
- and had this investigated, but t