The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-04-14
HEAVY PENALTIES FOR
 GAYNOR AND GREENE
FINES EQUAL TO THEIR STEAL INGS INFLICTED BY JUDGE
 SPEER.

In Each Case the Sum Amounts to Over
 Half NIfIIiOn--AIsO Sentenced to
 Four Years Imprisonment in the
 Federal Penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga.
 Defense will File n Bill of Excep-
 tions--Time Asked of Court.
 Savannah, Ga, April 13.-Judge Speer in the United States court to-day sem fenced Benjamin D. Greene and John F. Gaynor each to term of four years ln the penitentiary and to pay a fine ot $575, ,749.90, the amount each IS charged with having fraudulently obtained from the United States government
 The prisoners were brought into court at Ii o'clock. Judge Speer asked coun- sel for the defense if they had anything to say why sentence should not be pro nounced. Colonel P. w. Meldrim an- swered in the negative, Whereupon the court imposed sentence. Each tefend- ant had been found guilty upon all the counts of the three indictments charg- ing conspiracy, embezzlement and pre- senting false claims. The sentences up- on the three indictments were, respec- lively, two, four and four years, but the court ordered that these run concur rently, so that the sentence was really for four years. Imprisonment is to be in the federal prison at Atlanta
 The defense will file a bill of excep- tions, and they asked for an order of court extending to thirty days the time permitted counsel for preparing this bill, which will be very voluminous, and that the order act as a supersedeas.
 Judge Speer, in sentencing the prison CTS, after saying that the most painful duty is the imposition of sentence to penal servitude, peculiarly when those convicted are men of fine intelligence and men of affairs, continued in part:
 For your personal suffering, merited as it is, you have my sympathy. To some, no doubt, who are imbued with the belief that all they can get from the government is honest graft, your con- viction may excite indignation, aston- ishment and perhaps not little alarm. It SGGIllS, lllQG6dt bllclL bllI EhpAAS hAASuAN awaken to the prevalence of this dan gerous inclination. The magnificent contributions from the national treas ury made by congress for the welfare of the people all irnperatively call for a lesson in thunder tones to faithless, conniving, unprincipled representatives of the government and the unserupu- lous contractors or other persons who would conspire to plumber the public treasury.
 Nor should the lesson of our govern ment's conduct in this great case go flnheeded. No necessary expense has foeen spared, no necessary exertion avoided. To bring to the bar of public justice those charged with the spolia- stion of the treasury the supreme court of the United States and the prlvy council of England, the loftiest tribu- ,snals of the Engllsh-speaSing races, {have contributed their solemn judg- ments."
 Pointing out that these tribunals had approved the declaration of this court that the accused must be brought to trial before the court having jurisdic- ton of their offense, Judge Speer con- tinued:
 Ut will be well for our government authorities to reflect that unless the obstructive construction placed upon our removal statutes, which delayed this case so long, shall be avoided as recommended by the president and the Vxyill 10 wholly i'm possible to have the speedy trial of criminal cases and the greater the crime and the more powerful and richer the culprit, the greater will be the diff ficulty of bringing him to trial. If the government must take it's witnesses to each district in which persons in- dioted jointly for conspiracy or other joint crime, may seek refuge and be compelled to ignore the efficacy of the indictment and to make out the case anew, it will amount to a paralysis in the administration of criminal justice.''
 If the indictments of grand juries and bench warrants of courts having jurisdiction are to count for nothing, Judge Speer pointed out how powerless
 
 President McKinley's assassination had been the result of conspiracy and many conspirators had taken refuge in diff ferent states,
 Believing that it is the certainty which deters criminals" he continued q will attempt to approximate ir measuring your term that imposed up. on his brother officer up0n Carter the late engineer officer, without whose aid and connivance the crimes in this case would have been impossible.
 T recognize that you have been 1T jail for more than year, that both oi you are elderly men, both of you are educated men, accustomd to a life oi comparative luxury and to the com forts of home. My sentence to you therefore, is far more severe than a much greater sentence if imposed upor those who commit offenses which dem. onstrate by their savagery that they are bruites without discourse or req son.
 Judge Speer concluded by pointing out that good behavior could reduce tht sentence to three years each instead ot four and hoped that for the rest oi their lives the prisoners would recal the psalmist's quotation: "A little righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked"
 
 Waterbury Pastor Dying.
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