River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-03-16

uIat0ly dlL6IWdTU JuuS0 aaron allowed
the prisoners to leave the jail and go
to live at the Chateau Frontenac. A
few days later the prisoners declared
in court, through their lawyers, that
Mr.. Erwin, the lawyer representing the
United States. had offered to consent
to dismi ssal of the case on the pay
ment of $500,000 Mr.. Erwin denied
the charge. Greene admitted that he
offered to pay 100000 in settlement.
On August Ii, 1902, Judge Caron dis
charged Greene and Gaynor and dis
missed the extradition proceedings.
After this Mr.. Erwin reported the
facts to the United States government
and charged that Gaynor and Greene
had so interested officials connected
Canada that the ends of justice had
been defeated. The United States ap-
pealed the case to the privy council,
whose decision, just rendered, sends
the matter back before Commissioners
Lafontaine, at Montreal Gaynor and
Greene declare they will go through
the fight all over again on new tech
meal grounds, but it is predicted by
unbiased men qualified to speak that
they will be brought to trial within the
next three months.
Meantime Judge Caron has been per-
mitted to retire from the bench on a
life pension equivalent to his full SAT-
airy.
Gaynor and Greene refuse to be IN
terviewed in Quebec. They refer
everybody to their lawyer, who makes
no secret of the fact that he proposes
to fight at every point and to the Bit
ter end. But when Gaynor grows mel
low in the barroom of the Chateau
Frontenac hotel, where he spends most
of his waking hours, he poses as the
victim of sinister persecution and
claims that the United States is still
fairly indebted to him to the amount
Of 100000 on his contracts. Greene
is a sober man and does little talking.
Comments on Case.
Friends of the exiles in Quebec, in
Canada, are attempting to create the
impression that the decision of the Brit
ish court sis only another evidence or
the cringing and trucking policy which
England has Of late been following IN
her dealings with the United States,
Canadian interests being sacrificed III
every instance to the inOrdinate and ag-
gressive demands Of the United States. :"
That this feeling is not general is
shown by the strong words OF leading
Canadian lawyer upon receipt OF the
DC. q
infamies that have disgraced the annals
of the administration of justice in Can
ada" he said, this GaynOr and Greene
case is the worst 1t has shown us that
our bench and bar are unhappily amen
able to influences which were never sus-
pected before and that aided by the
forLuitous presence of cooperative ele-
ments in the federal and provisional
governments, the good name OF our
country ard of two of its supposed I'M
assailab,e buiwarks have been most
ruthlessly sacrificed for the sake of tenn
porary political and personal triumphs
and the sake of personal gain. Happily
we have in the judicial committee of the
imperial privy council an independent
and impartial tribunal that possesses
the right and the power to set all such
matters straight, to rectify all the
wrongs perpetrated in the name of Brit
ish or Canadian law, and, in this in
stance, to wipe out the stigma that has
been cast upon our system by some OF
our very worst elements. The entire
machinery of the Canadian administra-
ton of Justice was paralyzed or prOsti-
tuted to the service of Gaynor and
Greene, who had to pay sweetly for their
temporary triumphs. How far the po-
litical and legal cliques have bled them
it is impossible to say, but it is fair to
assume, from all the widespread rami-
fications, that it must have represented
a considerable amount of solid cash.
Everything that could help the great
end in view was used.'
Although the wheels of justice have
ground slowly and it has taken five
years of desperate and costly fighting
to arrive at the present stage of the pro-
ceedings, the day of their trial is now
almost in sight. Should they be found
guilty and receive their just deserts, il
will be time and money well spent, for
it will teach a lesson to abscOnders anc
criminals that they can find no refuge
in the technicalities of the extradition
laws.
PERSONAL PARTICULARS.