Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1910-09-28
PETITION SHOWING THAT CON-
VOTED BANKER HAS MET oB-
LEGATIONS Is PRESENTED.
STC2Y OF HIS LIFE REClTED
Career Of Financier is Told From the
Time Of His Humble Birth in Ire
land Until Crash Came-IIl Health
Given as Reason for His Release.


serving the first year of a five-year
sentence in the government peniten-
tiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kan, was
presented to President Taft by Attor-
ney George T. Buckingham, represent
ing the Walsh family
The petition was signed by Mrs.
Mary l.. Walsh, wife of the impris-
oned banker, and his sons, Richard w.
Walsh and John W. Walsh Appended
to it was complete review Of Walshs
business career, of the events leading
to the Wrecking of his banks and 9TH
er enterprises, and of the trials in the
federal court.
Besides letters from personal
friends and business associates, there
were letters from all the officers and
directors Of the Walsh banks which
were involved in the case, letters from
the banks stockholders and depositors
and jurors who found Walsh guilty
Of Incorporating funds Of his
banks.
Prisoners &Ilness as Reason.
Illness of the aged prisoner and the
danger Of his dying If his confinement
in the penitentiary is prolonged and
the contention that the crime for which
he was found guilty involved no moral
turpitude are the principal pleas made
In the appeal to the president for the
convicted bankers pardon.
The grounds upon which the par
don of Walsh is asked are substan-
TALLY these:
That the crime for which he was
found guilty does not involve moral
turpitude, but only at the most an in
fraction Of law; and that none Of the
acts upon which conviction was based
resulted in any profit to himself.
That the depositors in all the banks
with which Walsh was connected were
paid in full and Immediately.
Humiliation a Punishment.
That his loss of power, prestige and
position, together with the humiliation
Of conviction and Imprisonment is
punishment already suffered greatly
in excess of the usual.
That the racking strain of the four
years struggle to save his personal
name, as we'll as to save loss to par
ties interested, has with his advanced
age) so seriously affected his health
that a continued Imprisonment is like
ly to result fatally.
In this connection attention is d.
rected to the letters of DR.. joseph A
Capps and DR.. J. H. Low, showing the
slender thread on which his life
hangs.
In the petition the wife and sons of
the imprisoned banker appeal to the
president to investigate and see what
Walsh's state of health is.
''Mr. Walsh has suffered untold
agony and humiliation in the loss of
the wealth, power and position, which
once were his said Attorney Buck
ingham. ''In the loss of his large per-
sonal fortune he has been penalized
beyond the fines exacted for most
human misdeeds. His punishment in
actual Incarceration alone is already
enough to satisfy the most rigorous
requirements Of the law.
He is 70 years old, is suffering
from an incurable malady, and is rap
idly failing. Unless soon released he
will be beyond the reach of human as
sistance. The charge upon which he
was convicted involved only violation
Of the technical rules of law regulat-
ing banking. His was a case of i'm
provident banking loans, but not of
dishonesty.
Calls Evidence insufficient.
The petition, which includes a his
tory of the case from the time of the
closing Of the Walsh banks by order
of the comptroller of the currency in
1905, contains his clause in summariz-
ing the appeal.
Gas a question of trial tactics and
procedure the case of the government
was handled in a most able manner.
It is submitted that by the efforts of
the governments counsel (of which
no criticism is intended) a conviction
was secured upon a basis Of fact, as
those vital elements, which, while per-
haps technically and artificially suffi-
cient, lack of that convincing and con-
elusive quality which should properly
form the foundation for a five-year
sentence of 73-year-old man."
Mr.. Walsh was found guilty in 1907
of a violation of the United States
banking laws in having made exces-
sfve loans to railroads in which he
was interested and in December, 1909,
he was sentenced to five years in
LeavenWorth prison
The chief business concern Of
Walsh was his group of Chicago banks.
These he had built up from the ground
and in them his chief interest in life
centered. These banks were the Chi
cago National bank, the Equitable
Trust company, and the Home Say