Smyrna times., 1910-01-05
MORSE HOPES
FOR PARDON
Expects the President to Take
Up His Case,
GIVES OUT A STATEMENT

Convict Banker Declares His Sentence
the Most Brutal Ever Pronounced
Auainst a Man In a Civilized Coun-
try - Denounces "Rum Drinking"
Jurors.
New York, Jan. 3. - Charles w.
Morse bid goodby. to New York Sun
day, when he started for Atlanta, Ca,
to begin his term of fifteen years in the
federal prison. Mrs. Morse said goodby
TO her husband at the TOmbs before
Marshal Henkel took him away. His
two sons, Harry and Ben Morse, fol-
lowed to the Pennsylvania station in
Jersey City, where Marshal Henkel al
lowed them to enter the Pullman COM
partment on the Birmingham special
and wish their father a safe journey.
Morse gave out a statement to the
reporters before he left the Tombs
prison, in which he characterized his
sentence as the most brutal ever pro-
nounced against a citizen in civilized
country" He spoke bitterly of rum
drinking" jurors who were left in the
custody of "the private detectives of
the prosecution" He declared that he
saw in his conviction "a dangerous
example of a government gone mad in
search of a victim" These things
Morse asserted over his own sigma
ture
This is Morse's statement: 81 am go
ing to Atlanta to begin penal servi-
tude under one of the most brutal SEN
tences ever pronounced against citi-
zen in civilized country. have hop
ed with that hope whoch comes from
consciousness of my innocence that l
would not have to close out forever
the light and liberty of this world un-
der such an inhuman sentence.
81 had felt that the. fact that l paid
a fine of seven million dollars and
served a year in prison would satisfy
the cry for victim, and have stead
lily believed that the courts would be
compelled to give me a new trial when
/ learned that the private detectives
of the prosecution we're the keepers
of the jury, and that the jury drank
like men upon jaunt or a holiday,
rather than citizens engaged in a seri-
Gus service, and that as a result two
of them were rendered unfit.
"I naturally hoped that l would be
allowed another trial by another jury
free from these hostile influences. 1t
seems, however, that the courts intend
to establish the practices which make
rum drinking a part of jury service
and private detectives as the custodian
of the jury permanent institution.
'By this sentence and judgment
may be brought to ruin. but the dam
age done to me is not half as import
ant as the injury to the administration
of justice. 1 am now up in years, anC
with the passing of time l must pass
also, but the record of my conviction
and the way it was brought about will
remain a lasting and dangerous eX
ample of a government gone mad il
search of a victim.
Whether I shall serve my full ser
tence l am not able to say, much dc
pending upon how the government a
Washington shall look upon it. | hav
great faith that all right thinking me-
and women who know of me and m
case. and who realize the inhumanit
of my sentence will make known thei
feelings to the president"
Whatever the future may hold
store. liberty or imprisonment, sha
endeavor to meet it in the same wa
/ have struggled against the misfo
tunes of the last two years"