Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-18
BY JAMES HAY. JR.

@When none of the persons consulted advises Glenn
ency the papers not sent to the President except by
his special request by special order of the Attorney
General but when anyone of the officers consulted adj
vises cemency the papers submitted to the Pres-
dent
Reports the President by attorneys, Judges, and
other officials applications for pardon treated
confidential
has been pointed out is impossible for any living
soul to predict with certainty whether appica
ton for pardon will be granted refused But in
measure there is way for the who thinks he
justly imprisoned to reach tentative decision to
whether he has chance for relief This way found
the record of the cases acted favoraby by Mr.. Taft
in the past If the convict thinks he within the
conditions there outlined, he does have chance.
From time to time there have appeared in the news
papers pretty little stories of convics securing pardons
through the intercession of Mrs Taft. AS matter of
fact many letters asking her good offices to her, but
she hands them to the President who refers them
to the pardon attorney with the request that the
to which they refer be investigated 1t must be borne
in mind always that pardon held by the Pres
dent to be above the nterceSson of anyone and that he
has schooled himself to be deaf to all emotional pleas
Any is naturally sorry for the brother who is inn
prsoned. Any mans heart wrung by the spectacle of
starving children and wife bowed down by grief. But
in the to have the verdcts of uries and the
rulings of aside the President holds that the
facts alone must be weighed, and in the term "facs"
included extenuatlng circumstances and reasons
real reasonsfor change of the Government attitude
toward the offender. =
THE multitude of events and conditions that can
make clemency possible is absolutely bewildering
and yet in nearly every it is easily that
little thing might have changed the clemency to mru
table refusal to render relief.
In Iowa sentenced to fifty five years in the
penitentiary for embezzing funds and making false
tries in the books of national bank. He applied for
clemency. The Department of Justice took up, found
that the had stolen the money pay the expenses
of surgical operation his crippled son, and learned
that the people of his town wanted his release and
pressed their belief that he would prove valuable and
upright citizen His sentence was committed to only
three years. with the usual allowances for good conduct
Here heartrendng story of the fathers fierce
desire to relieve the sufferings of his 1t be-
eved that the terrific sentence of ftyve years at hard
labor had been excessive and reasoned mat hav
ing the uniform of the prison for little less than
three years. the father would go out to his fellows and
rebuild as best he might his broken reputation.
Lizzie Cardish, Indian girl of Wisconsin, first
sentenced to imprisonment for life on the charge of
Later her punishment was reduced to conine-
in a reform school until she reached the age of
twenty-one. Kindly and heard of her
story and told the officials in Washington with
plea for cemency. When child, at the age when
girls are still playing with dolls or just beginning to
dream of long dresses she taken from the epee of
her parents and placed in school on the Menominee
Indian Reservation There she became dissatisfied and
homesick Was it any wonder that she did? Lonely
miserable and sulen she heard the suggestion of one
of the older girls that she should burn down the school,
She set fire to of the buildings 1t easy to imagine
with what strong stroke of the pen the President
signed the order for her sentence ito expire 1nmed
ately"
In the books of fate had been written that Columbia
George, Umatia Indian, should believe with implicit
faith in the supersttons and traditions of his tribe The
Umatas on their reservation in Oregon still thought
after civilization had surged and settled about
them, that any Indian entitled to kill spirit
doctor who failed to patient after promising that
the cure would become certainty Columbia George
took relative to the doctor, woman who promised
him the aing Indian But the patient died and
Columbia, stirred desire for revenge and warranted
in his act by the teachings of his tribe killed the doc
tor In committing the crime he employed craft IN
ducng the woman to drink whisky into which
Columbia had put strychnine. He was sentenced to i'm
prsonment for life in the United States penitenary on