The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-14
GIVEN FOUR YEARS
GREENE AND GAYNOR SENTENCED
 BY JUDGE. &
Each Also Must Pay Fine of e575,7D4.0O or Make Amdavit that He Has
 Not More than Twenty ] Dollars.

Savannah. Ga. April 13.-BenjamfntD D Greene and John F. Gaynor were sen fenced by Judge Speer in the Federal Court this morning to serve four years in the Federal prison at Atlanta, and to pay each a fine of $575,7s4.so. the amount they are charged with having embedded.
 Upon one indictment the sentence was two years and upon each of the other indictments four years, but the court directed that the sentence might all be served concurrently. which reduced the term to four years. Thus, with the allowance of three months off each year during which the behavior of the pris- oners is good. the sentence is reduced to three years.
 The fine need not be paid if, on com- pleting the sentence, the prisoners make af1davit that they are not pos sessed of more than s2o In lieu of paying the fine, they then may serve thirty days longer.
 Counsel for the prisoners announce that an appeal will be taken. An order of court grants ten days for the filing of bill of exceptions, upon which motion for a new trial will be predi- cated.
 At Il o'clock the prisoners were brought into court. Judge Speer asked counsel for the defense if they had any thing to say why sentence snouid no. be pronounced Col. W. P. Meldrim an- swered in the negative. whereupon the court imposed sentence
 Each defendant had been found guilty upon all the counts Of three m dictments charging conspiracy, empez- element and presenting false claims. The sentences upon the three indict- ments were, respectively, two, four ana four years, but the court ordered that they be run concurrently, so that the sentence was really for four years. im- prisonment Is to be in the feoerai prison at Atlanta.
 The defense will file bill of excep- tions, and they asked for an order or court extending to thirty days the time permitted counsel for preparing tnis bill, which will be voluminous. ana that the order act as supersedeas.
 Judge Speer in sentencing the pris- oners said in part: .
 "The most painful judicial duty IS the imposition of a sentence to penal servitude. This Is peculiarly true when those convicted are men Of fine Intelligence. men of affairs, men who have had the opportunities of education or who have been trained by the teach- ings of experience. Peculiarly pain 1ul Is that 0uty WHch thO SS'. have filled positions of responslpility' of honor and of trust.
 All these conditions are present In the duty before me. One of the prls- oners has been distinguished by his State, has been important official or one of the great political parties, man of large acquaintance. perhaps with multitudes of earnest friends The other Is a graduate of distinction or our great military a-ademy at West Point and he at one time was captain in that famous corps of engineers whose roster bears such names as Rob- ert E. Lee and George E. Gordon Meade, a corps whose record was stain less before the occurrences which have been developed in evidence here. T am told that 1t has been cynically said by a famous New Yorker that no man who has a million dollars can be convicted of crime in America. The verdict of this jury of plain, clear sighted, honest Americans has falsified such pessimism. Of that jury it may be said that there is perhaps not a man who cannot trace his ancestry to a patriot of the revolution which estab- llished American independence. Tt is true as I have often declared that to the homogeneous Americanism of these Southern States when they are plainly shown their duty, our country may ever look with confidence for the enforcement of its laws and for the maintenance of it's institutions. Nor can 1t be questioned that these insti- tutions are in jeopardy If such fragrant spoilation of the public treasury as proven in this case could go unwhfpped of justice"