The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1907-07-13
Maximum Penalty Dealt Out to
San Francisco's Convicted May
or by a Judge Whose Known
Bias Against the Prisoner
Seems Unreasonable.
schmitz May be as Bad as His
Enemies Paint Him, But It
Seems Evident That He Has
Not Been Given a. Fair Trial.
Spreckles Behind the State,

ent Clergyman on the Pacific
Coast is Unyielding in His De-
Tense of Mayor Schmitz, and
Censures Prosecutors.
On Monday Judge Dunno sentenced
Eugene Schmitz. mayor of San Fran
cisco, to five years in prison, for extort-
ing money from French restaurant
keepers.
The sentencing of the convicted may
or was in one respect without a pa,al-
lei in the criminal annals of San Fran
cisco. Half dozen times Judge Dunno
was interrupted by Schmitz, who pro-
tested in strong words against the de
livery Of lecture" instead of the pro-
nouncement Of judgment. He accused
the court of unnecessarily humiliating
him and giving opportunity for further
humiliation by the reporting Of his re-
marks in the press. Once, replying to
the prisoner, Judge Dunno said:
"Such brazen effrontery was probably
no more than should be expected, ond
it was the duty of the court to bear it
in patience"
At another time Attorney Metson Of
the defense interposed a vigorous OBJ
lection in support of his client, to the
courts lecture. Judge Dunne's reply
was that Mr.. Metson, instead Of inter-
rupting the proceedings, ought to be
given a day in court to answer the
charge that he had attempted to tamp-
er with the jury which convicted
Schmitz.
Metson, restraining himself calmly,
answered in the same spirit, saying
that he was ready to answer any
charge that was made against him.
Judge Dunno warned Metson that an
other interruption would provoke a
Jail sentence for contempt
Father Yorke to the Relief.
Disinterested men who have observed
the actions in the trial and sentence
of Mayor Schmitz are expressing as "a
settled conviction the opinion that the
jGdg tried u a That conpicsts
sed,, and the attorneys who prosecu,ed
the mayor Of San Francisco, have vio-
lated their oaths of office, and stand
guilty before the country of corrupt
perversion Of public justice.
Father Yorke, the eminent Catholic
priest Of the Pacific coast, whose ideas
of fair play are we'll known to the reo-
pie Of the west, Is one of the men who
rises above the fog, and with a moral
courage seldom paralelled. he gives out
as his settled conviction that Mayor
Schimtz Is innocent. He bases his opin-
ion on line of events running through
orSe
sents 1t to the public in the following
editorial publi0hed in leading San
Francisco papers:
Let US say it over again that the
one thing and the only thing Americans
need Is fair play. To that they are en-
titled and they must never be satisfied
until they get it, fair play for the poor,
for the weak, for the friendless; as for
the rich and powerful, they will be
able to exact fair play and more than
fair play for themselves
When we took our stand against the
prosecution and when we asked our
readers to think with US we were in
cited by the f1agrantly foul name, in
which the prosecution was conducted.
In the light of later events it is easy
to forget that the grand jury had abso-
lutely no evidence on which to base its
first indictments of Schm'tz. AS the
trial disclosed there was then nothing
in the possession of the prosecution to
connect Schmitz with the French res
taurants. Yet the grand jury, by q
criminal complaisance uneQualed in the
annals of infamy, indicted him for the
sole purpose of covering him with DIS
grace
You poor people whose American
citizenship consists solely in the claim
you have to fair play, look upon this
spectacle and on that-look upon
Schmitz bounded over land and sea,
abused with such scurrilous abuse as
man was never abused with before by
papers shameless beyond belief, see him
dogged by detectives at Hoboken. see
him arrested the minute he reaches his
native state, see him sneered ut, carlca-
tured, bullyragged night and morning,
and then ask yourselves was that fair
play! Then look at this spectacle:
The rich Mr.. Calhoun is indicted by the
same grand jury on evidence that the
prosecution claims to be overwhelming,
and with him are other DISTINGUISHED
magnates. all well-fed, well-clad. we'll.
groomed, gentlemen. as it pleases ,o,,.
See how the virtuous Mr.. Heney acts
and the courts yclept of Justice Oh, it
is after you, Alphonse," and II beg
you to precede, my dear Gaston," and
"The prosecution does not wish to in
commode the gentlemen" and "Of
course the defendants don't need to- be
present in court" with much more.
While the papers are in a very collie
Of establishment. isn't the prosecu-
ton going little bit too far? Take
care, the bribed may escape If you are
too hard on the bribers." 1--WE mustn't
frighten away eastern capital"
We Believe Schmitz Is Not Guilty.
But you may say the prosecution has
made good and the end justified the
means. Where the means are evil the
end could Justify the means used in
the prosecution of schmitz. Up to this