Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-06-20
CAPT. GRANT MARSH
SOME SPICY COMMENTS ON THE
TAKING AWAY OF HIS
LICENSE.
ST. LOUIS WATERWAYS JOURNAL
cRlTlcisES ACTION OF pU.
LUTH INSPECTORS.

The following correspondence ap:
peared in recent issue of the st.
Louis Waterways Journal:
Editor Of the Waterways Journal.
st. Louis, Mo-, April q, 1908
Sir: 1t was with establishment and
Indignation that read the news con-
tanned in the issue of the Waterways
Journal Of April %, 1908, that the
steamboat inspectors OF the Duluth
district have refused to renew the
license of Capt Grant Marsh as mas
ter and pilot, on the ground that they
believe Capt. Marsh character to be
such as no to entitle him to the Ii
cense he applied for
1t seems scarcely credible that Of
ficials in full possession of their, fac
ulties can refuse a man of the high
standing and past brilliant record of
| Capt. Marsh the right to engage in
the pursuit of his profession on so
false and utterly untenable charge.
1t is only charitable to assume that
the Inspectors, in arriving at their de-
cision, have been deceived and mis-
led by others whose ill will toward
Capt. Marsh may arise either from
professional envy or personal malice,
On no other assumption than that
I they have been misinformed concern.
ing the facts can their action be ex-
cused; their injustice toward Capt
Marsh would, on an yother grounds,
inevitably indicate them to be-, false
to their duties as officials and con,
ltemptible as men.
1t has been my privilege and pleas
ure to enjoy the intimate friendship
of Capt. Grant Marsh for a unmber
of years past. Though am not quail.
fed by actual experience to give an
expert opinion upon the proficiency OF
| Capt. Marsh as master AMI pilot
as understand the case this is not
now called in question. If it were, ]
! personally have heard and read
enough expressions of admiration and
praise for his remarkable abilities as
a steamboatman by some Of the most
famous soldiers, pioneers and public
men of the United States, as we'll as
i by many other eminent captains ami
pilots, to effectually Quell and such
questions forever. But by reason OF a
close association of long standing ]
am amply qualified to testify as 10 his
character. In doing so I need say NJ
more than that, among a somewhat
wide circle Of acquaintances, know
no man whose moral purity, absolute
honesty and broad generosity, both In
judgment upon others and in actual
liberality, can exceed those of Capt
Grant Marsh. have never seen him
angry, uncharitable or harsh, though
can well believe that IL driven to an
extreme he both could and would de
fend his person or his good name with
uncommon courage. He is simple
straightforward gentleman in every
highest sense of the term, and that BIZ
would maliciously do wraong to any
1 man or suffer a moral lapse Of any
other description after he has attain
ed through his years Outstanding
~.
through lifetime of upright living
is simply inconceivable. If one were
to suggest such a possibility to any
of his hundreds of friends and ac
4 quaintances throughout the north
west, in fact, throughout the Missouri
and Mississippi valleys, they would
1 laugh in his face.
i Can the Duluth inspectors, then
either as men or as officials afford tt
hide behind SO, f1imsy an excuse fol
/ depriying him Of his means of liveli
hood? There is one fact which the.
may not realize now, but which !
would be well for them to take int,
account; it is that justice is never de
i feated. Sooner or later it will win
and those who attempt to stay it b,
falsehood and petty tyranny will hav,
only themselves to thank il they sui
4 fer when the reckoning Is made. Hal
Of official France strove with calumn
4 and intrigue and physical torture t
. compass the ruin of Alfred Dryfus
i, but justice logged their footsteps an
in the end he was vindicated, Will
d they were buried in the pit they ha
digged for him.
In this American republic of ours
/ few cases of injustice can go Ion
! unatoned for, there are too man
means of righting the wrongs, to
many millions of right thinking PEI
1 pie who resent them and cry out Il
: their punishment. 1t makes no di
ference wether the victim be high [
low, rich or poor, powerful or veal
IL only the matter be agitated justit
will work night and day, silently, pc
sistently, until her inexorable d
naands are heard and heede by thos
( - .lxl 80