The Washington herald., 1913-11-02

I John Raines, by telegram: LEGISLATURE
has no power to withdraw the Ford bin.
II attempt is made to do so, will sign
the bill at once" On the same day, by
telegram, wired Mr.. Odell concerning
the bill the leaders were preparing:
Some provisions OF bill very objection
able. / am at work on bill to show you
tomor ow. The bill must not contain
greater changes than those outlined in
my message" Ny wishes were needed,
and when / had reconvened the Legis-
lature 1t amended the bill as / outlined
in my message; and in its amended
form the bill became law.
There promptly followed something
which afforded an index Of the good faith
OF the corporations that had been pro-
! testing to me. As soon as te change
fer which they had begged was inserted
| ir the law, and the law was signed, they
turned round and refused to pay the
taxes; and in the lawsuit that followed
| they claimed that the law was unconsti-
tutional, because IL contained the very
clause which they had SO clamorously de-
raanded. Senator David b. Hill had ap-
peared before me on behalf of the cor
porations TO argue for the change; ard
he then appeared before the courts TO
make the argument on the other side.
The suit was carried through to the Su-
preme Court Of the United States, which
declared the law constitutional during
the time that I was President
The Refusing OF Pardons.
One of the painful duties of the chief
executive in States like New York, as
well as in the nation, is the refusing OF
pardons. Yet / can imagine nothfne
more necessary from the standpoint of
good citizenship than the ability to steel
ones heart in this matter of granting
pardons. The pressure is always great
est in two classes Of cases; first, that
where capital punishment Is inflicted;
second, that where the man Is prominent
socially and in the business world, and
where in consequence his crime is apt
to have been one concerned in some way
with finance.
AS regards capital cases, the trouble
is that emotional men and women al
ways see only the individual whose fate
I Is up at the moment. and neither his
victim nor the many millions of unknown
individuals who would in the long run
be harmed by what they ask. Moreover,
almost any criminal, however brutal, has
usually some person, often a person
whom he has greatly wronged, who will
plead for him.
II the mother is alive she will always
come, and she cannot help feeling that
the case in which she is concerned is Pc
culiar. that in this case a pardon should
be granted. 1t was really heartrending
TO have to see the kinsfolk and friends
OF murderers who were condemned to
death, and among the very rare occa-
sions when anything governmental or
official caused me to lose sleep were the
times when 1 had to listen to some poor
mother making a plea for a criminal so
wicked, so utterly brutal and depraved.
that 1t would have been a crime on my
part to remit punishment.
Asking Lcuiency for SeoundreIs.
On the other hand. there were certain
crimes concerning which requests for
leniency merely made ne angry. Such
crimes were, for instance, rape. or the
circulation Of indecent literature or any
thing connected with what would now be
called the white slave traffic, or wife
murder, or gross cruelty to women ard
children, or seduction and abandonment,
or the action of some man in get Ting a
girl whom he had seduced to commit
abortion. l am speaking IN each instance
of cases that actually >ame before me,
either while 1 was Governor or while /
was President In an astonishing num-
Der Of these cases men IF high standing