The decision of Secretary Root to deny the demand of the Russian
government for the extradition of Christian Rudowitz is a great relief
to all true Americans, and thousands of their foreign born fellow
citizens all over the land. The right of asylum for political refugees
was at stake in the case of this Lutheran Protestant peasant. The
extradition was demanded on the ground that he had been identified
as one of a band of twelve or fifteen marauders who were guilty of
three homicides, arson and robbery in the village of Beren, Courland,
in January, 1906. The defendant denied the charges of personal
participation in the alleged crimes and submitted proof that Courland
was then in a state of temporarily successful insurrection, and that
the killing was ordered by the revolutionary party then in control, as
an execution of spies who had betrayed many of their own people into
the hands of the military authorities by whom they were summarily shot.
The evidence upon which the whole case hinged was in the form of
depositions taken in Russia and submitted by the government to the
United States commissioner at Chicago. So well grounded were the
suspicions with which it was regarded, that the whole record of the
testimony was submitted to John H. Wigmore, dean of the Northwestern
University Law School, one of the highest legal authorities in America,
and author of one of the principal American text books on evidence.
His careful analysis of the voluminous record in the case led him
to conclude that while Rudowitz was a member of the revolutionary
committee and voted for the execution of the spies, the evidence
identifying him as one of the party charged with the killing "is too
slight to be of any value"; that "there is no evidence of marauding
or neighborhood feuds or common depredation on the part of this or
any other band in any part of the evidence for the prosecution"; that
there is conclusive evidence of a temporarily successful revolution
"giving the military forces of the national government under their
system certain rights of summary execution, and correspondingly giving
such rights to the revolutionists, so as to fix upon their acts of
summary force, if duly authorized by their officers, as revolutionary
acts of force." These facts justified Dean Wigmore in concluding that
"the killing was a purely political act, the arson was also ordered
politically, being a customary incident similar to the existing
government's own punitive practice in such cases."
The suspicions based upon such facts in this and other cases, aroused
the American spirit against the apparent attempt of the Russian
government to secure the extradition of many political refugees on
poorly substantiated charges of being common criminals. Hundreds of men
and women faced the possibility of being forced to change their names
and hide themselves. Great mass meetings were held in the principal
cities to protest not only against the extradition of Rudowitz, but
against the continuation of the present treaty with Russia under which
it was asked. Conservative citizens, to the American manor born, such
as President Cyrus Northrup of the University of Minnesota, W. H.
Huestis of Minneapolis, Charles Cheney Hyde, professor of International
Law at Northwestern University, Councillor W. J. Calhoun of Chicago,
joined their protests with those of recently arrived refugees and such
friends of theirs as Jane Addams, Jenkin Lloyd Jones and Dr. Emil G.
Hirsch. But beneath the value set upon this popular agitation for the
defense of the right of asylum in America, was the confidence that
there was good law under the case for Rudowitz, which would surely
determine the decision of so good a lawyer as the secretary of state.
Now that this confidence has been confirmed, the question is being
validly raised by the press whether the qualifications exacted of
those appointed to United States commissionerships are as high as
was originally demanded for the delicate and difficult duties of
that office. It is pointed out that when in 1793 Congress first
authorized such appointments by the circuit courts, it defined the
qualifications of those eligible as "discreet persons, learned in the
law." Later acts, however, dropped the requirement that they should
be "learned in the law" and continued the reference to "discreet
persons." In substituting "United States commissioners" appointed by
the district courts for the commissioners of the circuit courts in
1896, Congress provided only that no United States marshal, bailiff
or janitor of a building, or certain other federal employes should
hold the office. Some of the most eminent lawyers, who publicly joined
in protesting against the extradition of Rudowitz, took occasion to
criticise the appointment to this office of men not trained in the
law, and inexperienced in the sifting of evidence, whose decisions,
involving the liberty and life of men, must be based entirely upon the
knowledge of the laws of evidence. Certainly this case should lead
either to stricter definition of the qualifications for United States
commissionerships or to far greater care in the appointments to that
important office. Moreover, the injustice of putting upon a political
refugee the burden of proof that he is such has been made manifest in
this case. For to do so Rudowitz would have been compelled not only to
bring his evidence from Russia, but also to expose to certain death
those whom he would have been compelled to name as his compatriots in
the struggle for liberty.
SAVINGS BANK LEGISLATION:
WHAT IS NEEDED?
JAMES H. HAMILTON[1]
Headworker of the University Settlement
"Everything speaks for and nothing against the post office savings
bank," writes Professor J. Conrad of the University of Halle. This is
strong testimony from a German economist who is a careful student in
the field of social economics, and who lives in a country which has a
splendid system of municipal savings banks. But if one looks beyond
Prussia and Saxony into the province of Posen he sees great stretches
of neglected territory. And in this country if one looks beyond
Massachusetts, with its much praised trustee savings system, into New
York and Pennsylvania he sees much to be desired,--and if he looks
still further west he finds a sadder neglect than the neglect of free
popular education in darkest Russia.
[1] Author of Savings and Savings Institutions; Macmillan, 1902. Pp.
436. Price $2.25. This book can be obtained at publisher's price
through the offices of CHARITIES AND THE COMMONS.
If we fully comprehend the fact that the savings bank is an
educational, and not a commercial institution we will see at once that
the law of supply and demand cannot properly regulate its growth. We
will see on the contrary that if left to local initiative by either
municipalities or trustees, the banks will likely appear where they are
least needed and fail to appear where they are most needed, and the
need of a general federal system, or a postal system, which will leave
no neglected spots becomes perfectly clear. "Everything speaks for the
post office savings bank."
Postmaster General Meyer, in his article in the August number of the
_North American Review_, presents this country's need of a postal
savings system in a very attractive and convincing way. I think,
however, that the educational aspects merit more emphasis and more
extended treatment. The public, I think, needs to recognize this
institution not alone as the often successful rival of the saloon,
the enemy of dissipating and destructive spending, but it needs also
to recognize its relationship to the strong type of citizen, with
resisting power against the petty immediate wants in the interest of
greater economic security, the type that can save against the rainy
day, the week of sickness, and the declining powers of the later years
of life.
In my own judgment the highest function of the savings bank is to
lead the workman back to the ownership of his tools, or since that is
not literally possible, to a share in the ownership of the productive
forces of society. The workman may not recognize in the share of stock,
the bond, the equity in a title to real estate, the successor to the
tools his forefather kept stored in his cottage. When he has been
brought to see it and to make such ownership the goal of his ambition,
his tribute of devotion to his wife and children, he will be a stronger
and a better man in every respect, and the multiplication of this kind
of citizen is as worthy an object of education as the spread of a
rudimentary knowledge of letters. Universal proprietorship is no less
desirable, from the social point of view, than universal education. The
purpose of the savings bank is therefore not so much to instill the
idea of hoarding for future spending, but of investing to increase the
permanent income.
Having this in mind the provision of the English postal savings system
for investing in government stocks for the depositor on his request is
fully warranted, and even more so the French provision for investment
of the excess of deposits over the legal maximum in government stocks
without request. The deposit account itself represents investment,--by
trustees on behalf of the depositors. But the depositor should
eventually become a conscious owner on his own account. It would seem
most proper that he be supplied with information which would enable him
to form an independent judgment as to different securities, and the
savings bank might very well act for him in making his first investment.
The one departure from precedent in Mr. Meyer's bill is in the
investment of funds. It contemplates a system of loans to the local
banks with a view to "keeping the money at home." The departure from
the practice of investing in government securities may be good for
the object intended, which relates to the incidents rather than the
primary object of savings bank administration. It seems to me most
unfortunate that Mr. Meyer should have selected a form of investment
that would tend to defeat the primary object of savings banks in
the necessarily low rate of interest. I think he must fail to fully
realize that the savings bank is to educate the propertyless to become
proprietors, to appreciate the need of supplementing the earnings
of labor by income from accumulated capital, and not to serve as a
mere place for hoarding. It is the interest rate that tickles this
dormant sense into life. It seems to me a pity that he did not see in
the example of the municipal savings banks in Germany and of our own
trustee banks, which invest chiefly in real estate mortgages, a way
of reaching the one object without injury to the other. This would be
a departure from the general practice of postal savings systems which
would at once "keep the money at home," and insure a higher rate of
interest than the yield of government securities. Money thus invested
would get back into the channels of trade as readily as if it were
loaned to the local banks, and with much less objection, and the rate
of interest would probably be about double. The yield should be four
per cent against the two per cent proposed by the postmaster general's
measure.
It is certainly most refreshing and encouraging to listen to the
promise of legislation that extends its benefits immediately to the
common people, which contains the hope of more social solidarity. A
comparison of our policies with those of old world countries in this
respect is not comforting to our patriotic pride. It seems time that we
were less laggard and that we should have more courage to experiment.
The promise made by all political parties of a postal savings bank
is probably the most encouraging sign we have had. It would be much
more encouraging if the measure that is promised contained more of
the results of bold experiment in other countries and contained
more of an original and experimental nature that promises a more
pronounced application of the true principle of savings banks, and
that fosters a clearer popular understanding of that principle. It is
equally important that the principle be brought out in clear relief
from the point of view of the administration and of the patrons. The
administration needs clearly to understand that it is not conducting
a banking business but giving education in thrift, and the youthful
and other patrons need to understand that they are being led in the
direction of economic independence.