■
(OFFICIAL PAPER)
’"^ORuiv^^
James B. Wingate, Editor and Manager.
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FORUM
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1905.
Alaska coast papers mention Judge
Day’s investigation of Governor Brady
as having been carried solely on the
- line of inquiry as to Brady’s moral tur
ptilude, and entirely ignoring anything
pertaining to the merits or demerits of
his administrative executive ability.
The excuse is given, by those who ac
companied Day on his tour of Alaska,
for the ‘ ‘investigator’ ’ acting this line,
is that the president did not consider
the office of governor of sufficient im->
portance- to justify-a rigid investigation
into the present incumbent’s executive
afcin.j. '"'v'at were the governor’** • ad
ministrative executive powers increas
ed by congress, Brady’s application
for re-appointment would receive very
little consideration.
such reasons are poor excuses tor the
endorsement of Brady by Day; a man
to govern as intelligent a class of peo
ple as Alaskans, the majority of whom
were American citizens long before the
starting up of the great Brady-Wicker
sham political mill for the grinding out
of citizens and voters. Indications all
point clearly to the fact that Day's in
vestigation of Governor Brady, through
out Alaska was about as thorough as it
was on the Yukon touching Judge Wick
ersham. We would like to hear the ex
cuse, as given by Day’s touring com
panions, for his refusal to investigate
the judicial affairs of the Rampart court
center. If Judge . Day’s investigation
of Judge Brown and Marshal Richards
was as careless and flimsy, in their sep
arate divisions, as it was of the officials
on the Yukon, the corruption of those
men must have been something awful
to cause Day to censure and recommend
these officials be turned out, and at the.
time retain in office such men as Judge
Wicker sham, Commissioner J. Lindley
Green, and Deputy marshal George
f
Dreibelbis of this division, who are pub
licly known to he unreasonably corrupt.
It appears that the old saying, ‘ ‘there
must be a nigger in the wood-pile, ’’ is
applicable to this case. It is claimed
by some of the Wickersham organs in
this division, that Judge Day deserves
great credit and praise for the way he
conducted the investigation with refer-:
ence to the charges filed against Judge
Wickersham. There is no disputing
this from a Wickersham standpoint,
but there is from a right and justice
point of view. It is claimed that ‘ ‘Day
earnestly and without fear or favor
made the investigation and honestly re
ported his findings;” this statement is
not true so far as the ‘ ‘favor’ ’ part is
concerned, for we personally know
that Day favored Judge Wickersham
by refusing to receive testimony as to
facts detrimental to a recommendation
for reappointment, and if he honestly
reported his findings, he must have o
mitted his duty in refusing to investi
gate Rampart Court Center. If Judge
Wickersham’s “record was such that
it could bear this . close examination
and remain unsoiled, ” _ why were such
methods adopted to prevent and foil an
investigation of the il legal and corrupt
action of Federal officials at this place?
The statement is true that, “a Judge
to maintain his dignity and preserve
his usefulness as a Judge must banish
from his mind all prejudice and person
al feelings thus qualifying' himself for
the faithful performance of his duty. ’ ’
But, Judge Wickersham is not such
a man, he fully demonstrated this fail
ing in many ways during the July, 1903,
term of court at Rampart. In the case
of Hugo Schmidt vs Commissioner J.
Lindley Green, action for $2,000 dama
ges for false imprisonment; Judge
Wickersham refused to wait one min
ute for a stenographer to be brought
into the court room for the purpose of
taking the proceedings, thereby pre
venting an official record of the act
ion of the court. At the conclusion of
the testimony of the witnesses for the
plaintiff, Judge Wickersham, without
motion from counsel, ordered a mem
ber of the jury to step forward from
the jury-box and sign, as foreman, a
verdict for the defendant which the
court had already prepared. The juror
complied with the court’s compulsory
order, and Judge Wickersham announ
ced judgment for the defendant. The
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A. H. MAYO
a
illegal and unjust action of Judge Wick
ersham in the criminal proceedings
against Jack Mennus for robbing the
Eagle Mining Company's strcng-box.
This case was fully set out in the issue
of this paper of Dec. 3, and is on the
same lines a3 his action in the Schmidt
vs Green case, and was exactly the il
legal methods as used by Judge Cook
of the California bench. Cook in Jan
uary, 1903. instructed a jury in his
court to acquit a tiefenaant. me sup
reme court held it was an error; that
though tho judge might ‘.‘advise” the
'jury to acquit he had exceeded his au
thority i ‘‘instructing” them to go so.
and ordered that tne matter be resub
mitted to the same jury. We wonder
what the court of appeals would ao
about Judge Wieitersham’s actions in
the Jack Mennus and Commissioner J.
Lindley Green cases.
Last Wednesday evening at 6:42 o’
clock, while the editor was joyously
klinking the type, a citizen of Rampart
visited the office and kindly volunteer
ed the following: “If you ever refer
to me in any way in your paper—I will
kill you! Do you understand? I
WILL KILL you!!” As only the two
were present when this blood-thirsty
language was hurled, the matter will .
probably rest. The old adage, ‘ ‘a bark
ing dog is worse than his bite,” is pe
culiarly apt in this case.
While we of Alaska are enjoying the
mildest winter in the memory of white
men—33 years, the people in the states
are freezing. The Erie weather obser
ver reports the heaviest snowfall since
the office established—33 years. Looks
as if the poles were on the change and
Alaska the coming winter resort.