Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-03
MORSE BITTERLY
SCORES COURTS
ICE MAGNATE LEAVES FOR
ATLANTA PRISON
CONVICTED MAN PREPARES A
DRAMATIC STATEMENT
Declares He Was Found Guilty by
a Jury Which Drank and Which
Was Guarded by Private
Detectives
Associated Pressl

NEW YORK, Jan. with a su-
preme effort to be cheerful, but with
emotion occasionally getting the better
of him, Charles w. Morse left New
York today to begin a fifteen-years'
sentence in the federal prison at At
lanta, Ca, for violation of the national
banking laws.
Before leaving the Tombs, where he
had been confined for the greater part
of the last year, Morse received his
wife and two sons, and then the news
paper men. He was too affected to
say anything, but he handed out a
carefully prepared statement.
The general understanding was his
wife was to accompany him south, but
it could not be ascertained whether
she was on the same train with him.
Morse left Jersey City on the Bir-
mingham flyer of the Southern railway
at 10:45 p. m, in custody of Deputy
United States marshals. The party oc-
cupied a stateroom
Morse's statement is bitter and dra-
matte.
Il am going to Atlanta to begin
penal servitude under the most brutal
sentence ever pronounced against cit
izen in a civilized country" is his
opening sentence.
Thought He Would Get New Trial
u have hoped" the statement con-
tinues, with that hope which comes
from a consciousness of my innocence,
that I will not have to close out forever
the light and liberty of this world
under such an inhuman sentence.
have felt the fact I had paid a fine
of $4,000 900 and served a year in prison
would satisfy the cry for a victim, and
! have steadily believed the courts
would be compelled to give me a new
trial.
when I learned the private detec-
tives of the prosecution were the keep
ers of the jury; that the jury drank
like men on a jaunt or a holiday,
rather than citizens engaged in Sc
rious service, and that as a result two
of them were rendered unfit, I natur-
ally hoped l would be allowed another
trial by another jury free of these
hostile influences.
1T seems, however, that the courts
intend to establish the practices which
make rum drinking a part of a jury
service, and private detectives as the
custodians of a jury permanent in
stitution. BY this sentence and judg-
the damage done to me is not half
as important as The injury to the ad-
ministration of justice.
Record Will Remain
"I am now up in years, and must,
with the passing OF time, pass also;
but the record of my conviction and
the way it was brought about will re-
main a lasting and dangerous example
of a government gone mad in search
of victim.
whether I shall serve my full sem
tence l am not able to say, much de-
pending on how the government at
Washington shall look on it, / have
great faith that all right thinking men
and women who know of me and my
case and who realize the inhumanity
of my sentence will make known theiI
feelings to the president. Whatever
the future may hold in store-liberty
or imprisonment-I shall endeaVor tC
meet in the same way l have strug-
gled against the misfortunes of the
past two years. &C. w. MORSE"
A few minutes before the train left
Harry and Benjamin Morse appeared
for another farewell to their father
He embraced them and wept as they
left him.
Morse braced himself for the news
paper photographers silently. The
train is due in Atlanta at noon to
morrow.