Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-03-24
JOINS
BATTLE TO FREE
CHAs. ". MORSE
Branch of Petition League to Be
Opened Here Soon-Public
Opinion Changing.

Newark will be the next city to fall
into line i'll the Charles w. Morse
clemeney petition fight. According to
an announcement made his morning
by the New York office of the Morse
Petition League, the newly-organized
association for the collection of sigma
lures to a nationwide petition for
executive communication of the fifteen
year sentence imposed on the former
ice king an office will be opened in
this city on or before April IS. Offices
in nine other cities will be opened about
that date also.
William f. Stremlaw is temporarily
in charge of the organization in this
city. Within a week a representative
of the New York Office will come to
Newark and assume permanent control
of the fight in this city, devoting his
entire time to it.
The plan to be carried out in this
city embraces the placing of blank Pc
titions in drug stores, newspaper offices
and retail stores in every party of the
city. The league office viii be used as
a distributing centre for the petition
blanks.
The intense prejudice OF the public
which caused the conviction of Morse. to
be welcomed has been tempered tome
extent, the leaders of the movement
claim, that the time for cne %presenta-
ton of Morse,s side of the case is ripe.
Admiration for the brave fight Mrs.
Morse is making in the face of titanic
-ll- aal tIa -o-aray n,.hIso x-T mo- bN
for the under dog" has caused the
petition circulators to hope for thou
sands of signatures.
New York is the headquarters of the
league at present. An office at 42S Fifth
avenue has been opened and some of
the leading citizens of the country's
metropolis have joined in the movement,
For the week ending March n there
we're 6.206 signatures already received
at this office. Among those actively
engaged in the work is. Horace w.
Merwin. ir.. OF Park and Tilford.
Mr.. Merwin has so far collected 1,50O
names. Heading the list of signatures
was thai of Frank Tilford.
Announcement was made today at the
New York office of the league that the
list of cities in which branches are to
be opened is as follows: Newark, Jer-
sey City, Philadelphia. Boston. Buffalo,
Syracuse, Detroit, Cincinnati. Dayton
and Washington. ID. G.
The purpose of the league, as set forth
in a circular being widely distributed,
is as follows:
1.-The object of the league. which was
organized recently by prominent bust
ness men in this city. is to Obtain by
May l 100, 900 signatures to the petition,
addressed to President Taft. asking for
executive clealency for Charles w.
Morse, the former banker, now serving
a ffteenSYsar seistence in the Atlanta
penitentiary FOR atechnical violation OF
the national banking act. and to present
these petitions 10 Mrs. Morse as a token
of esteem for the effort she is making
to have the President consider her
plea"
The petition reads as follows:
ITO His Excellency, the President OF
the United States:
I'VE, the undersigned citizens of the
United States. respectfully beg leave
to present the following petition;
I'VE pray for absolute pardon for
Charles w. Morse, recently convicted
of a technical violation of the national
banking act.
From our knowledge of the @ircum-
stances, we believe that Mr.. Morse did
not intend to wrong the National Bank
of NORTH America, or any ~stockholder
of said bank, and also because no de-
positor suffered the loss of a single
dollar.
THE Circuit Court of Appeals, which
affirmed the Judgment against him,
recognized that the punishment which
has been inflicted upo him is UNI
usual.
although a large humble of his
friends were willing to go on his bail
bond for an unlimited amount, the
court decided that he must be impris-
oned in the city Jail, where he was in
generated for nearly a year. Even il
guilty as charged, he has already
satisfied the extreme demands of the
law, an6 has suffered, not only inn
prisonment, but keen anguish of mind
and body, together with heavy loss OF
property, by reason of his incarcera-
ton.
I'VE, therefore, crave the executive
clemency in his behalf, and in asking
-. Asn- he