DALLAS, OREGON, JANUARY 23, 1913.
PART TWO
FOUR PAGES
Cipriano Castro, Man W ithout a Country
Deposed Venezuelan, Regarded as the Greatest International Joke, and Not W anted Anywhere, Seeks Admittance to America’s Metropolis
Cipriano Castro,
self-styled “ N a­
poleon of the A n d es,” defender of the
faith, liberator of his country, inter­
national scapegoat and all-around pub­
lic nuisance, is once more before the
public eye. A man without a country,
jostled from pillar to post, ousted from
one city and hustled unceremoniously
to the next, the millionaire ex-president
of Venezuela is now at the door of the
United States seeking admission.
Ho
arrived several days ago from France
and attempted to gain admittance at
the New York harbor. Hut his plans
were frustrated by the immigration o f­
ficials and he was sent back to Ellis
Island to await the decision of the
government in his case. His attorneys
are putting up a strong figh t, but the
government is obdurate.
The story of C astro’s life reads like
the tale of the buccaneers of old. His
career as the “ liberator of his people”
began on the borderland of Venezuela
and Colombia. Here the great states­
man, whose education was nil, followed
the cattle-rustling business to such a
degree o f success that his herds num­
bered stock of every conceivable v a ­
riety of brand. Vigilant to the utmost
degree, he so timed his pasturage that,
when the Colombian assessors appeared
in his vicinity, he was com fortably
feeding his flocks in Venezuelan ter­
ritory. So, too, when the Venezuelan
tax commission sought him out, the
fields o f Colombia were found greener,
th«> grass longer and the water purer.
Hut this condition of affairs was due
for a change.
On one particularly
bright and auspicious morning, apprais­
ers from both countries appeared si­
multaneously on the scene and the in­
dustrious cattleman was put to his
craftiest resources to dodge the conse­
quences.
He failed to make his b lu ff
count and the herd was discovered. It
was found to contain cattle with brands
of such varied description that the en­
tire herd was taken and confiscated to
the governments.
Now, to a man of C astro’s tempera­
ment, this action on the part of the au­
thorities was intolerable.
H is liberty
had been imposed upon, his wealth had
been ruthlessly stolen, his means of
livelihood had been taken from him
and he must find redress. The.govern­
ment of Venezuela was at the time in
the hands of weaklings. Deprived of
his herd, he determined to overthrow
the government that had so flagrantly
trampled on the rights of its citizens.
He would take upon himself the re­
sponsibility of emancipating his coun­
try from the tyranny of such unscru­
pulous and dishonest rulers. He would
break the bonds of his people and lib­
erate them from such overlords. Gath­
ering together a few frontiersmen, as
daring and lawless as himself, but less
powerful, he descended upon the plains
and began a triumphal march upon the
capital that ended in his election to
the presidency of the emancipated
country. Opposition was listless. His
dash and courage struck terror to the
hearts of all opposition. Wounded and
ragged, he sat down before Valencia
with his little army of 500 men and the
garrison o f 5000 surrendered to him
without opposition, joined his forces
and assisted him in the capture of the
capital.
For years his iron hand knew no d e ­
feat.
He placed in responsible posi­
tions men who had supported him in
his revolution— men equally as unscru­
pulous, but less courageous than him­
self. Through fear of him, they w’orked
in entire accord with his wishes. When
the interests of the state interfered
with the interests of the statesmen, the
former was relegated to the back­
ground and the coffers of the latter
swelled. In his travels over the coun­
try, every town was taxed to the ut­
most to satisfy the demand of the
ruler for an elaborate reception for
himself and his expensive retinue. So
misery came upon the villages, but the
president
grew
rich.
H is
career
smacked o f the freebooters o f old, even
after his election to the presidency.
His high-handed methods might have
been carired on indefinitely had he
¡not become involved with the powers.
So inflated was he with the sense of
his strength in Venezuela that he re­
garded the world as waiting to bow at
his feet.
Here he was mistaken, for
when he began to interfere with com­
merce he suddenly found himself up
against a stone wall and the arrogant
braggart came in for a sound spanking
at the hands of the United States, Eng-
standing malady.
Vice-president Go - 1 command. Apparently recovered from
mez succeeded to the presidency, e u e -1 his malady, he left the continent for
mies of Castro were placed in public Martinique, there to lay plans for a
positions and the reign of the ‘ ‘ bad new revolution. But the powers were
now thoroughly awakened. Great Bri­
tain came in for a sound denunciation
at the hands of the Indligerent Castro
because she refused to allow the tyrant
to land in the British W est Indies. U n­
cle Sam kept a weather eye out for an
attem pt to sneak across to American
territory, thus to gnin a foothold for
an invasion of Central America. France,
watchful of her interests, decided that
the now thoroughly infuriated imposter
would be better o f f in France than in
the vicinity of Venezuela, and sent a
ship to convey him home.
When he
was apprised of this intention lie fumed
and swore and fussed until he worked
himself into a return of his malady
and Lad to be borne on a stretcher,
between two rows of jeering spectators,
not in state, hut with only a corporal’s
guard, to the w aiting ship in the har­
bor.
Sued) is the story of the checkered
career o f Cipriano Castro.
Regarded
among the powers as the one supreme
international joke, the great brainless
statesman, the great circus curio of the
age.
His mock popularity, however,
drew about him a following that gave
him the prominence he most desired
abroad.
When he landed in France,
a curious mob met him at the pier and
followed him to his elaborate state­
rooms at the hotel.
Newspaper men
settled themselves in suites adjoining
him and catered to his desires for pub­
licity
by
taking
photographs
and
spreading abroad his recitations of the
deeds of Venezuela’s great, though
wronged, liberator.
His wealth was
somewhat of an enigma, some declar­
ing that he had deposited $20,000,000
in foreign banks, while others m ain­
tained that he was a poor and honest
statesman, who, by frugal means and
strictest economy, had been able to
| save only a couple of millions.
Cipriano Castro, Political Buccaneer
Cipriano Castro is at Am erica’s door.
The case now before the federal au­
land and France. He became an inter­ man of Venezuela” came to an end.
But Castro was unsatisfied.
A few thorities bids fair to be one of the
national outcast, a world nuisance, and
suddenly found it to his welfare to go months later this intolerant disturber most interesting in the life-history of
The state
to France for an operation for a long- of the peace aspired again for his old this undesirable quantity.
department is chiefly interested in
keeping Castro out o f the country for
fear he will use it as a base from which
to foment another revolution in Ven­
ezuela.
The department of commerce
and labor sees it otherwise, and it is
likely the matter will be referred even­
tually to the supreme court for settle­
ment.
Poor Castro!
The most undesired
man on the face of the earth. Sans
friends, sans influence, sans country,
he stands before the world very much
in the same light as did Philip Nolan,
the soldier who said at his trial he
wished never again to see or hear of
his native land. Nolan spent the bal­
ance of his life thereafter on the sea
nnd never saw or heard the mention of
the United States again. The sentence
meted out to him was the one he had
asked. N o hook or newspaper bearing
the name of America ever reached his
hands without first being carefully
scrutinized and those parts bearing on
his country clipped out.
No photo­
graph ever brought before his longing
eves the picture of his home.
His
friends were dead to him. Transferred
from vessel to vessel, he coursed the
seas with never a sight of American
shores, until a kind Providence relieved
him of his broken heart.
Yet the cases are different. N o la n ’s
sentence came as the result o f a hasty
remark made in a moment of impa­
tience.
He had the sympathy of his
guards and much sentiment in this
country went out to him during his
imprisonment on board ship, ( ’astro’s
predicament, however, is the result of
a career of deliberate chicanery.
He
has made himself a joke among the na­
tions, a laughing stock for the whole
world. He has done nothing to excite
sympathy and occupies the position of
an international felon, whose presence
anywhere is a menace to the public
welfare.
He is an international sur­
plus whom the nations cannot decide
where to place. There seems no shelf
to put him on. He is an international
nuisance, regarding the abating of
which there seems no understanding.
This seems to be the final decision of
his identity.
Convict Leasing Given Hard Jolt President-Elect Is a Busy M an
Recent Pardoning of Prisoners by Arkansas Governor Sounds Knell of Practice that Began in the Democratic Control of the Senate and the Personnel of the Next Cabinet Are Subjects of Deep
South Immediately After the Civil War
Concern in Camp of Victorious Party
Not all the barbaric customs of the
country have been abolished. In three
of the Southern states there still ex­
ists an abuse that stands in need of
stringent anti-legislation.
This is the
practice o f leasing convicts to private
corporations at so much per head. The
story o f the system makes one of the
black pages of our national history, all
the sordid facts of which have never
been made public.
The chain gang
of former days was duplicated and the
cruelties and inhumanities perpetrated
on defenseless convicts of both sexes,
and even children, furnished some of
the most revolting recitations imagina-
able.
Devices were employed to keep
the prisoner a convict. When his time
was out. a new and false charge would
be pressed against him and he would
be resentenced. Thus the unscrupulous
♦»mployer of convict labor retained the
services of his most profitable w ork­
ers. The lash was frequently employed,
illness and wounds were not regarded
as sufficient excuse for rest, scant
clothing upon women and children ex­
posed their bodies to the ribaldry of
lewd men and the moral welfare of the
convicts received little or no attention.
Children were lis t e n to death, women
were ravished, stubborn men were sub­
jected to third-degree methods of tor­
ture that would shame the inquisition,
while the contractor got rich nnd the
state received its pittance from the out
rages.
W ith the advance of education and
the publicity given the system in the
papers, conditions attending it im­
proved. Today the evils are considera
bly less, in some cases being reduced
to a minimum. Y et the fight against
it is on and the days of its existence
are numbered. Georgia abolished it in
1908, after an investigation that re­
vealed atrocities undreamed of.
It is
related that a negro convict who re­
fused to work was wrap|>ed in blankets
and placed in a box close to a red-hot
stove.
He was* literally sweated to
death, his tormentors having exceeded
the limit in trying to bring him into
submission.
Numerous
nstances are
told of sick convicts being beaten to
death, and these in cases where the
period o f punishment was but a few
weeks and the offense almost nothing.
This investigation « aused an improve­
ment in conditions in the states where
it still exists, but the days of the sys­
tem in those states are numbered.
Governor Donaghev, of Arkansas, has
taken the matter into his own hands
and declares he will force the issue.
He is determined that the system of
leasing convicts to private parties shall
cease in his state. W ith his character­
istic fearlessness, he last month par­
doned and freed 360 convicts as a pro
test against the system, with the re
suit that three convict camps were
wiped out o f existence.
Immediately
opponents of the governor and support
ers of the system set up a howl against
the wholesale pardoning, denouncing
the act as a gross abuse of power and
a blow at the judges and juries. This
criticism m ay be just, but the act of
the chief executive will doubtless be
justified by results. Governor «Donag
hey says his drastic action is in the
nature o f a last resort.
He recounts
his figh t against the practice, both
in his speeches and as a member of the
penitentiary board.
His messages to
the legislatures have brought no action
and he says he was driven to the ex­
treme in order to bring about an aboli­
tion of the system that no civilized
country ought to tolerate.
W hile the
step was indeed a drastic one, it will
nevertheless have the support of hu­
mane and law-respecting people o f his
state.
Tennessee and South Carolina still
cling to the system. Y et in these states
sentiment is already working on the
legislative and executive branches of
the government to bring about its abo­
lition. Governor Blease. o f South Car­
olina, who has pardoned 500 convicts
in the past two years, declares that
unless the present assembly abolishes
a hosiery mill in the penitentiary that
has been condemned by the board of
health, a repetition of the Arkansas
case m ay be looked for in South Caro­
lina.
Newspapers within the state of
Arkansas are divided in their opinion
of the governor’s course, but the ma­
jority of the outside papers seem to
feel that results will be for the best.
It is a significant fact that the sup-
p rters of the convict-leasing system
are, for the most part, persons who
have a peenniarv interest in it.
A problem that is closely interlocked
merit* will have in the future contests
is causing considerable concern in Dem­
ocratic ranks.
It seems evident that
the purpose of Mr. Wilson is to so
shape his ¡»obey that he will capture
the support of a number of the pro­
gressives and thereby increase the
Democratic hold on the Senate.
The
states of M aine, New Hampshire, Illi­
nois and South Dakota, where the pro­
gressives hold the balance of power,
are the subjects o f much consideration,
the hope being to capture from these
states additional Democratic senators.
The probable outcome in Tennessee is
in favor of the Democrats.
Here ex-
Oovernor
Patterson,
Democrat,
re­
ceived the primary support, but a fight
against him has been precipitated re­
cently which may result in his being
defeated.
On January 7 an important confer­
ence was held at Trenton in which the
Just what effect the progressive ele- senatorial situation was discussed and
(Continued on page 2)
also the proposed special session at
which the ta riff and a new currency
system will be considered. Democratic
leaders realize that they have an op­
Modern railroad building, while not hesitating at obstacles, seeks the
portunity
to
bring
about
radical
water grade wherever feasible. Cuts and tunnels are often necessary
changes in government policies. W ith
where the road, cringing close to a steep c liff, cornes suddenly up against
the lower house in complete control
a jutting crag. The top is blown o ff to make way for the march of {»reg­
and senate control a possibility, it
should not be difficult for the party to
fulfill its pledges. President elect W il­
son is more than anxious to make good
and his pre-inauguration conferences
are being held with the view to making
more secure the hold the Democrats
now have on the situation. W hile the
results of this conference have not been
made public, it is said to have be*
one of great importance to the party.
Many more will be held between now
and the inauguration ceremonies.
The selection of the best timber for
cabinet positions is another of the im­
portant matters that arc discussed in
these frequent conferences.
I t is the
desire of the president-elect, to secure
for his associates the very best men the
nation affords.
While he refuses to
make any announcement it is generally
felt that Mr. Dry an will be secretary
of state. Other positions are very much
with the convict problem in the South
is that of the negro.
The fa c t that
most o f the convicts are negroes is
probably responsible in a measure for
the support that has been accorded the
leasing system.
Also the prevalence
of negroes among convicts has made
easier the perpetuation of the prison
sentence, the negro being more easily
imposed upon.
The convict-leasing system was the
outgrowth o f conditions resulting from
the Civil W ar.
W ithout a sufficient
number of jails, with treasuries de­
pleted, and the vagrant negro thrown
upon the South without the means or
the disposition to support himself, the
states of the South found themselves
totally unable to handle the crime prob­
lem.
Designing contractors, encour­
aged and assisted by equally designing
politicians, saw in the convict-leasing
system immense profits for themselves
The matter of increasing the narrow
margin of control which the Demo­
crats are conceded to have in the com­
ing congress, is the subject of frequent
conferences between prominent Demo­
cratic senators and President-elect W il­
son. A s the situation now stands, the
membership of the upper body is evenly
divided between the Democrats on the
one hand and the combined forces of
Republicans and Progressives on the
other.
This is the general concession
of the Republicans, the Senate num­
bering 29 holdover Democrats, five
newly elected and fourteen regarded
as certain of election. Tf the fight in
Tennessee, which has developed since
the primary indorsement of Ex-gover­
nor Patterson, terminates in favor of
the Democrats, the slight margin of
two votes will be the signal for many
a heated contest in that body. The
vote will then stand 49 to 47.
Following the W a ter Grade
ress and a roadbed of solid rock is le ft, promising safety to the traveler.
Occasionally deep fills are made and sharp curves are occasioned by a
close conformity to the contour o f the stream.
Not the least factor in
the water grade is the scenery furnished along the stream.
I in the dark.
The interest of the W est is centered
j in the selection of a secretary of the
1 interior. The past few years have en-
! gendered much dissatisfaction in the
»oast states because o f the conserva­
tion policy of the interior department.
Millions of acres of timber lands have
been withdrawn from entry and placed
in government reserves. The supply of
lumber in the East is rapidly being de­
pleted and the country must look to
the forests of the W est for its building
material.
Eastern men who have seen
the misuse of their forests and have
followed the effects of deforestation,
cry aloud for a retention of the bulk
of the remaining timber against fu ­
ture needs.
Not understanding fully
the conditions of the W est, they are
supporting a policy that is, in effect,
more stagnation
than
conservation,
while the West demands development,
and that immediately.
Because o f this wide divergence of
opinion on a vital subject, pressure is
being brought to bear on Mr. Wilson
from Eastern sources to place in the
interior department a man who will
carry out the present policy, which
means the withholding from settlement
of millions of acres in the Northwest.
Equally urgent, but with less force be­
cause unsupported by the wealth that
backs the Eastern demand, the W est
is clamoring for the appointment of a
Western man who will adopt a policy
more in accordance with the desires of
the W est for development,.
The fear of the East is that a man
from the public land states of the West
will be too susceptible to local influ­
ences of the W est.
The fear o f the
W est is that a man from the East will
have no sympathy at all with condi
tions of the W est, for the reason that
he will carry out the policies of the
office from a purely theoretical stand
point. A man selected from one of the
public lands states would not neces­
sarily be possessed of less theoretical
knowledge than the Easterner, but he
would have a practicad knowledge of
conditions prevailing in hia states that
would supplement his theories and
greatly enhance his value to the coun­
try at large. The Western states should
have a greater population than they
now have. They can only get it by a
policy affectin g public lands that will
induce the settler to seek a home in
this section. That is why the W est is
so deeply interested in the selection of
the next secretary of the interior.