Price 10 Cents 
 
 JUDGE 
 
 ALTON B. PARKER 
 
 His Social 
 
 Political and Judicial 
 
 Relations to 
 
 Race Track Gamblers and 
 Gambling Trust 
 
 IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK 
 
 By OAKLEY SELLECK 
 
 56 West 93d Street, NEW YORK 
 
 MANAGERS and MANIPULATORS 
 of JUDGE PARKER 
 
 David B. Hill, "Peanut Politician" 
 
 — The Public Press. 
 
 William F. Sheehan, " An Unconscionable 
 Political Blackleg" 
 
 — N. V. Times, a Parker Organ. 
 
 August Belmont, Head of the Race- 
 
 Track Gambling Trust 
 
 De Lancy Nicoll, Attorney for the Pool- 
 Sellers and Bookmakers at the Race- 
 Tracks 
 
 Patrick McCarren, Ward Politician. 
 
 Race-Horse Owner and Race-Track 
 Gambler 
 
 STATESMEN, EVERY ONE OF THEM 
 
 " Imperious Caesar, dead and turned to clay, 
 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away." 
 
 Copyrighted by Oakley Selleck, 1904 
 
£'6 6 
 
 Tw> 0oo»«» Received 
 SEP 14 1904 
 -OooydeM Entry 
 
 CLASS CU XXo. No. 
 
 7 c«py b 
 
 EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW 
 
 Pljp^S the Life Blood of Liberty and 
 |5j|S\ the Keystone that locks the gi- 
 Eslt/ gantic arch of States that form 
 the Republic. Equality Before the 
 Law is the vital living principle of 
 our government and it means that you 
 and I may legally do exactly what any 
 other person or persons may legally do 
 and not an atom more. A just govern- 
 ment can go no further than this. Be- 
 fore the Law is where Equality begins 
 and ends, so far as governmental inter- 
 ference may go. Whenever the law 
 steps in it must Touch Us All Even- 
 ly and Alike. When invoked for pur- 
 poses beyond the limitations of Equal- 
 ity it becomes Tyranny and Oppres- 
 sion. 
 
 THIS IS TRUE 
 
 Copyrighted, 1904, by Oakley Selleck 
 
Judge Alton B. Parker 
 
 His Social, Political and Judicial Relations to the Race- 
 Track Gamblers and Gamblifig Trust in 
 the State of Neio York. 
 
 HE title of this booklet would 
 indicate that Judge Parker is 
 charged with being associated 
 with, and possibly influenced by 
 the race-track gamblers and the gam- 
 bling trust in the State of New York. 
 If you will read it through carefully, 
 your opinion as to his relations to, and 
 interest in them, is as good as that of 
 any other person. The statements here- 
 in made are matters of record and can 
 be easily verified. In forming a just 
 opinion of Judge Parker as a public man 
 who seeks to become President of this 
 great Republic, it will be necessary to 
 call to your attention his political and 
 judicial acts (to a small extent), who his 
 political friends and managers are, and 
 the motives that prompt them so far as 
 we are able to judge. This will compel 
 us to glance backward to the two Demo- 
 cratic National Conventions previous to 
 Judge Parker's nomination at St. Louis. 
 We must estimate the value of his decla- 
 rations, always keeping in mind He is 
 the beneficiary, and therefore biased. I 
 think you will find the chain of evidence 
 linked together plainly, and the verdict 
 I leave to you. ry A 
 
 Copyrighted, 1904, by Oakley Selleck. ■"■ HE AUTHOR. 
 
A T the recent Democratic Na- 
 /% tional Convention, held at St. 
 /— % Louis, there was much confu- 
 -*- JhL sion as to the issues that were to 
 be presented through their platform. 
 Nothing was absolutely known as to the 
 views held by the principal candidate, 
 Judge Alton B. Parker. It was known, 
 however, that he had voted for the Free 
 Coinage of Silver Dollars at the ratio of 
 1 6 to i in the two previous campaigns 
 and in the one of 1900 he contributed 
 financially to the campaign fund. So 
 far as the platform (which is the creed 
 of the party) is concerned, it avoids 
 mentioning gold and silver entirely. 
 We know, however, that the Platform 
 Committee were divided. Two-thirds 
 of them were against the Gold Stand- 
 ard and one-third, the Eastern element, 
 was for it. So we see a two-thirds ma- 
 jority in the Democratic party as repre- 
 sented in its convention at St. Louis, are 
 opposed to the Gold Standard and com- 
 promised with the minority members by 
 agreeing to say nothing about the stand- 
 ard of money in the platform. 
 
 John Sharp Williams, the Democratic 
 leader in Congress, gives Almighty God 
 the credit for upsetting the Democratic 
 Party's Free Silver theories by supplying 
 
enough gold to meet the needs of the 
 world. He should have added, that the 
 Almighty took especial care to see to it 
 that the Democratic Party was kept out 
 of power until he, the Almighty, could 
 supply the necessary gold. 
 
 The Democratic Party in convention 
 assembled at St. Louis said in a plank 
 that was afterwards rejected that the 
 enormous increase in the gold output 
 of the world had settled the money issue 
 and demonstrated their position as the 
 correct one, that is, the need of a larger 
 volume of metallic money. This state- 
 ment appears plausible, sounds well, but 
 it has one fatal defect, — It Is Not 
 True ! What Judge Parker and the 
 Democratic Party stood for and fought 
 for in 1896 and again in 1900 was for 
 a Depreciated Cheap Fifty-Cent 
 Dollar, and not for more metallic 
 money. They knew if they knew any- 
 thing about the subject — which is ques- 
 tionable — that the metallic money of the 
 country would shrink instead of ex- 
 pand the moment free coinage of silver 
 at 16-to-i became a fact. Every gold 
 dollar would disappear from circulation, 
 as would also all the paper money in 
 circulation that must be redeemed in 
 gold, which amounts to several hundred 
 millions. Such a contraction of the cur- 
 rency would have produced the greatest 
 panic this country ever saw. If Judge 
 
Parker and his party were honest and 
 wanted more metallic money, why did 
 they not propose to put ioo cents worth 
 of silver in the silver dollar, which 
 would have been about 32-to-i, but they 
 proposed nothing of the sort! Such a 
 law as the one they voted for would 
 have cut in half the actual value (and 
 buying power) of every dollar in Bank 
 deposits, Insurance, and every obliga- 
 tion payable in money, — unless those 
 obligations were stipulated to be paid in 
 gold. It was an attempt through Na- 
 tional legislation to cheat creditors of 
 fifty cents on the dollar. I wish to make 
 an illustration : 
 
 To-day we all know that it takes four 
 pecks to make a bushel, and in any trans- 
 action where bushels are the standard, 
 we know exactly how much we are to 
 give or receive. Let us suppose Con- 
 gress should enact a law making two 
 pecks a bushel — it would be a legal 
 bushel, just as legal as one of four pecks. 
 Let's suppose I had engaged to take 
 10,000 bushels of wheat of you at a 
 given time in the future and at $1.00 
 per bushel. At the time of this trans- 
 action the standard of quantity to the 
 bushel was four pecks, _ remember. 
 Imagine Congress passes this law mak- 
 ing two pecks a legal bushel — this hap- 
 pens between the time of our agreement 
 and the time of delivery. Delivery time 
 
comes and you tender me 10,000 bushels 
 under the new standard of two pecks to 
 the bushel. Congress, by passing this 
 imaginary law, gave you the opportunity 
 to deliver to me one-half the amount of 
 wheat I contracted for, but exactly the 
 full number of bushels, by cutting the 
 standard in half. This is merely given 
 as an illustration, for if such a law had 
 been enacted the courts would undoubt- 
 edly have protected me in dealing with 
 this commodity and I could have com- 
 pelled the delivery of the four pecks to 
 the bushel. But Not so with Money. 
 Now we will put the shoe on the other 
 foot. Imagine a Democratic President, 
 the Free Silver 16-to-i Law in opera- 
 tion, the time of delivery for this 10,000 
 bushels of wheat arrives; you make the 
 delivery and I pay you $10,000, BUT 
 What Sort of Dollars ? The dollar, 
 like the bushel, has shrunk, one in quan- 
 tity, the other in value, one being the 
 equivalent of the other. By legislative 
 enactment 50 cents worth of silver has 
 been placed in a coin and stamped One 
 Dollar, and as the coinage being unlim- 
 ited, they would instantly have driven 
 all the hundred-cent Gold dollars and 
 all the paper money that must be re- 
 deemed in gold out of circulation and 
 we are compelled to accept them in full 
 settlement. No other dollars would be 
 in circulation and the paper money not 
 
specified as redeemable in Gold would 
 have exactly the purchasing power of 
 the dollar that redeems it (Silver). 
 This is what Alton B. Parker and the 
 Democratic Party voted for and it is 
 what the Republican Party voted 
 against. Now honestly, which party 
 was the sane and honest party? Don't 
 be fooled for a moment in this matter. 
 Judge Parker and his party may be 
 scared so badly that he or they will not 
 commit such a political crime, but they 
 cannot be scared so badly they will not 
 want to, if it's in them. 
 
 Now for the candidate nominated by 
 the Democratic Party for President, 
 Judge Alton B. Parker. He is the Presi- 
 dential timber selected principally, I un- 
 derstand, because he was supposed to 
 have no record of obliquity to live down. 
 Not 10 per cent of the voters of his own 
 state could have told who he was or 
 what he was and probably not one per 
 cent in the country at large before the 
 present campaign was inaugurated. He 
 was so little known. But since his nom- 
 ination he has blossomed forth into the 
 sunlight of publicity and we begin to 
 learn something of him. Before he was 
 nominated he wrapped himself ^ in the 
 silence of judicial dignity. His lofty 
 position as chief justice of the Court of 
 Appeals forbade him to meddle with 
 politics. / think we can find a totally 
 6 
 
different reason for his silence. Because 
 we now know that when Judge Parker 
 was a County Judge he became the cam- 
 paign manager of David B. Hill for 
 Governor and William F. Sheehan for 
 Lieutenant-Governor. He had no con- 
 scientious scruples when wearing the 
 ermine of judicial authority from enter- 
 ing into active political work and David 
 B. Hill and William F. Sheehan were 
 elected and at once Judge Parker began 
 to ascend Ambition's Ladder. David B. 
 Hill appointed him a Judge of the Su- 
 preme Court — a prompt reward for 
 services rendered ! 
 
 In the present instance, Judge Parker 
 dared not open his month. No matter 
 how entreated, it was absolutely essen- 
 tial to his success to remain dumb — 
 Why? The answer: — To have said 
 "silver," the probabilities are he could 
 have been nominated. But He Could 
 Not Have Been Elected. To have 
 said "gold," he could not have been 
 nominated. And as Judge Parker was 
 playing politics, he used his judicial 
 ermine as a cloak to advance his own 
 political fortunes. That's the way^ it 
 appears to me. This, I think, explains 
 Judge Parker's silence. 
 
 Now who are his political associates 
 and backers? First and foremost stands 
 out the same David B. Hill, who is re- 
 peatedly referred to in the public press 
 
as "a peanut politician." Just let me 
 give you a line of political history. "In 
 1 89 1 Isaac H. Maynard at Hill's com- 
 mand stole the true election returns from 
 the 15th Senate District of New York 
 State and made the Legislature demo- 
 cratic. Having constrained a Demo- 
 cratic Governor to reward Maynard with 
 a temporary appointment to the Court 
 of Appeals, Hill resolved to make the 
 reward permanent and nominated May- 
 nard for the same place in 1893. The 
 result is a landmark in the history of 
 the State." The people, disgusted with 
 Hill, Maynard and the gang, defeated 
 Maynard by more than 100,000 votes 
 and in 1894 they got a chance by their 
 votes to tell Hill what they thought of 
 him when he ran for Governor. He 
 was defeated by an adverse majority of 
 156,108 votes — this was the answer of 
 the voters to David B. Hill! 
 
 Now this same David B. Hill is the 
 Political God-Father of Alton B. 
 Parker. Judge Parker's rapid advance- 
 ment on the Bench has been (largely) 
 by appointment of David B. Hill, and 
 Mr. Hill was head and front of the 
 forces at St. Louis and worked with all 
 his might to secure Judge Parker's 
 nomination. 
 
 Then there is another gentleman by 
 the name of William F. Sheehan, for- 
 merly of Buffalo, who was Lieutenant- 
 
Governor with Hill. He was connected 
 with this Maynard incident. Let's read 
 what the "New York Times" (a Parker 
 organ) said of William F. Sheehan in 
 1893: 
 
 "A man who has shown himself so 
 unconscionable a 'political blackleg' 
 that any claim upon public confidence 
 on his part hereafter can only excite 
 derision." 
 So much for William F. Sheehan ! 
 
 Then there is also Senator Patrick 
 McCarren of Brooklyn; he fought tooth 
 and nail for his man and vouched for 
 Judge Parker's availability, respectibility 
 and unquestioned honesty. Who is Sen- 
 ator McCarren — what is his business? 
 I understand he is or was a cooper by 
 trade. He's a ward politician I know; 
 I also know he is a race-horse owner and 
 a race-track gambler. I know that his 
 partner was made deputy police commis- 
 sioner for Brooklyn, and that he was 
 compelled to resign or be removed by 
 Charles F. Murphy, the leader of Tam- 
 many Hall, through Commissioner Mc- 
 Adoo, and the reasons given by Murphy 
 and McAdoo were that McCarren's 
 partner stood for graft. 
 
 Judge Parker also has August Bel- 
 mont, a plutocratic multi-millionaire 
 banker, who handled the Cleveland Bond 
 Deal which became almost a National 
 Scandal. He is a Franchise Manipu- 
 
lator, and the head of our great street 
 railway system; beside his other enter- 
 prises, he is the Chairman of the 
 State Racing Commission. Possibly 
 you would like to know what sort of a 
 thing the State Racing Commission is. 
 Well, it's a commission that secured a 
 monopoly of racing running horses in 
 the State of New York, and the race- 
 tracks under its control received from 
 the public in 1903 $4,013,043.40 in 202 
 racing days, and most of it went to the 
 stockholders of the race-tracks and the 
 race-track gamblers. 
 
 These are the Big Four — the active 
 workers and advisers and I presume per- 
 sonal friends of Judge barker's. When 
 we don't know much about a man and 
 would like to, we try to discover who his 
 associates are — Well, Here They 
 Are. 
 
 Judge Parker in 1896 and again in 
 1900 voted for William Jennings Bryan 
 and for what he represented, and con- 
 tributed $2,500 to the Democratic Cam- 
 paign Fund. If he believed then in 
 Bryan's theories and that 50 cents' 
 worth of silver stamped one dollar was 
 the equal of a 100-cent gold dollar, what 
 reasons have we to believe he has 
 changed his mind? Oh, yes, I know he 
 said so in his telegram, but he is not an 
 unbiassed witness. If he had said the 
 same thing before the Convention as- 
 
sembled, or in the words of a Demo- 
 cratic senator (Tillman) : "Why the 
 hell didn't he say so before he was nomi- 
 nated?" — then we might believe he had 
 recanted, but he waited until the Con- 
 vention had nominated him, as the Con- 
 vention had been led to believe by his 
 representatives that he would stand on 
 any platform that their wisdom might 
 evolve. The Convention was in its last 
 hours and anxious to adjourn; they were 
 hunting around for a nominee for vice- 
 president, — one of the common people, 
 as the Democratic Party love to call 
 them. About half the delegates had de- 
 parted. Judge Parker had the Conven- 
 tion in a hole and he knew it. He fur- 
 thermore knew that to win he must get 
 the support of the gold standard Demo- 
 cratic voters of the State of New York 
 and that he Absolutely Must Say 
 Gold Right Out Loud in Meeting. 
 He waited until the last moment when 
 the Convention couldn't backwater and 
 then — think of it — he bravely said 
 " gold " out loud! We must remember 
 he had been reared in the school of poli- 
 tics by that past master of trickery, 
 David B. Hill. 
 
 Now, honestly, do you believe Judge 
 Parker could have been nominated if 
 the Convention had known before it 
 nominated him the stand that he would 
 take on this gold question? Remember, 
 
two-thirds of the platform committee re- 
 fused flatfootedly to sanction the gold 
 standard plank. I do not think that any 
 well-informed, evenly-balanced man will 
 believe that he could have received the 
 nomination. If not, then he secured it 
 by a trick, and to secure any valuable 
 thing by trick or device is to be — what ? 
 I leave you to fill in the term. 
 
 The platform emits a strong odor of 
 dislike for the Trusts, and has selected 
 Judge Parker, an absolutely new, untried 
 and unknown man to the country and 
 Democratic voters at large, and a 
 $40,000,000 member of the "common 
 people" as the men to "bust 'em up!" 
 These men stand for absolutely the re- 
 verse of what the Democratic Party have 
 been claiming to want for years past. 
 Judge Parker's decisions are notoriously 
 favorable to corporations, and I wish to 
 say and proclaim it as loudly as possible 
 that Alton B. Parker has had the oppor- 
 tunity to destroy the meanest, most out- 
 rageous and unconstitutional trust ever 
 formed. It has been protected by him 
 as against the People of the State of 
 New York. No language can be used 
 that is too strong to apply to this iniquity. 
 I say again, Judge Parker has had the 
 opportunity to drive it out of business 
 and destroy it entirely. Remember, he 
 was the Chief Justice of the Court of 
 Appeals of the State of New York. 
 
Whenever a man makes a charge 
 against another, no matter whether in 
 the heat of a political campaign or not, 
 he should be able to clearly prove his 
 charge or confess himself a falsifier and 
 make all the amends possible. I have 
 made the charge that Judge Parker had 
 an opportunity to crush and destroy the 
 meanest monopoly, the most outrageous 
 piece of class legislation, which is so 
 baldly and flagrantly unconstitutional 
 that a boy of twelve of average intelli- 
 gence should be able to see it. 
 
 Now here is the story — also the evi- 
 dence. We have in the State of New 
 York what is called the State Racing 
 Commission. It is composed of a few 
 rich men, who have secured from the 
 State Legislature an absolute despotic 
 monopoly of racing running horses in 
 this State. If we wish to hold a race 
 meeting we must apply to this State Rac- 
 ing Commission; they are the fountain- 
 head of authority and unlimited profit 
 where we must go, and Judge Parker's 
 friend and political backer, August Bel- 
 mont, is Chairman of this Racing Com- 
 mission. The State has handed over to 
 him and a few other rich men, the great- 
 est dividend paying monopoly among the 
 Trust monsters, but this is only a starter. 
 Racing running horses would not be a 
 profitable game without the gambling 
 privileges, so Mr. Belmont and his asso- 
 
 13 
 
ciates determined to have them and they 
 got them. The Constitution of the State 
 of New York says on the subject of 
 gambling: 
 
 "Article I f Section g. Nor shall any 
 lottery nor sale of lottery tickets, 
 Pool Selling, Book-Making, or 
 any other kind of gambling hereafter 
 be authorized or allowed within this 
 State, and the Legislature shall pass 
 appropriate laws to prevent offenses 
 against any of the provisions of this 
 Section." 
 
 This is perfectly plain. Anybody can 
 understand it, it's not necessary to be a 
 lawyer to grasp its meaning; It Pro- 
 hibits Book-Making and Pool Sell- 
 ing Anywhere in the State of New 
 York; it does not say that under certain 
 conditions, or that certain men may, or 
 inside a board fence surrounding a race- 
 track — it forbids it absolutely, unquali- 
 fiedly and in the most flat-footed 
 manner. 
 
 Well, Messrs. Belmont and his sporty 
 crowd received from the State Legisla- 
 ture, composed of Republicans and 
 Democrats alike, and signed by a Re- 
 publican Governor (Levi P. Morton), a 
 gift of the gambling privileges and made 
 them exclusively theirs. Governor Mor- 
 ton said his reason for signing the bill 
 was that it seemed impossible to prevent 
 book-making and pool-selling, and pos- 
 
 14 
 
sibly its evil effects might be minimized 
 by confining it to the race-tracks. Gov- 
 ernor Morton cannot be charged truth- 
 fully with any personal motive, as he is 
 not an owner of race-horses nor an asso- 
 ciate, either political or social, of race- 
 track gamblers. 
 
 Messrs. Belmont and associates knew 
 the opportunities as a money maker that 
 lay in this law, for it made it a Felony 
 to sell pools anywhere in New York State 
 outside a race-track fence controlled by 
 him, but no penalty is attached to selling 
 pools inside his fence. If you or I should 
 attempt to sell pools on horse-races any- 
 where else in this State outside of his 
 fence, or a fence surrounding some of the 
 race-tracks controlled by him as Chair- 
 man of the Racing Committee, we are 
 liable to go to State Prison as felons if 
 we are caught at it. How is This for 
 Killing Off Business Rivals? Now 
 here is where their graft comes in. To 
 sell pools at the race-track each pool 
 seller of the first class must purchase 
 each day fifty $2 tickets, which means 
 One Hundred Dollars. This goes to the 
 Racing Association, and for this he is 
 permitted to sell pools in a building 
 erected near the Grand Stand and for 
 the express purpose of gambling. The 
 number of pool sellers varies^ but 
 the rake-off to the Racing Association 
 amounts to from Ten to Twenty Thou- 
 
sand Dollars for each afternoon's racing. 
 How is this for a monopoly of a good 
 thing? 
 
 We are all familiar with the charge 
 that the city pool-rooms pay the police 
 for the privilege of disobeying the law. 
 We call this graft, and it is the irony 
 of fate that makes the police act as a 
 whipper-in, as it were, closing up the^ 
 poolrooms and losing their graft merely 
 to have the money go to the race-track 
 owners. Now where do we, the public 
 who pay the taxes, come in? We pay 
 about $10,000,000 per year to support 
 a police force and District Attorney's of- 
 fice, and the Belmont crowd use them 
 most of their time to hunt down outside 
 competitors in their gambling game. 
 Did you ever see anything slicker? Talk 
 about the Oil Trust, the Meat Trust, and 
 all the other so-called trusts — they're not 
 in it for a minute with Belmont and his 
 bunch of grafters. You see it amounts 
 to the tidy little sum of over Four Mil- 
 lion Dollars in 202 racing days and 
 Nobody Can Play the Game But 
 Them! 
 
 From the foregoing statements the 
 reader has a pretty fair idea of this 
 gambling game and how it's manipu- 
 lated. Now, let's follow the case of the 
 People of the State of New York against 
 Leon Staedeker and Samuel Staedeker, 
 arrested for keeping and operating a 
 
pool-room in New York City. They 
 were tried and convicted and their case 
 carried to the Court of Appeals where 
 we will now take their case. 
 
 It was argued by John R. Dos Passos 
 and Benjamin Steinhardt, and before 
 Judge Alton B. Parker. Every consti- 
 tutional phase of it was argued. I quote 
 herewith a few passages : 
 
 "It is class legislation, it creates a 
 class of persons who enjoy the immu- 
 nities of the racetrack; then, second, 
 it singles out another class of persons 
 whom it severely punishes for the 
 
 same acts." 
 
 "The bookmakers here ply their 
 occupation with impunity by paying 
 royal license fees." 
 
 "In our Democracy the leading 
 fundamental principle of government 
 is Equality. No man or class is 
 the law either in rights, duties, reme- 
 dies or punishments. We have all the 
 same rights, the same duties, the same 
 remedies for the invasion of rights 
 and the same punishment is inflicted 
 for the same offenses." 
 
 "The distinctive and characteristic 
 feature of the American system is 
 Equality Before the Law. Our 
 government was the first in the his- 
 tory of the world instituted upon the 
 basis of civic equality and equal laws." 
 President Benjamin Harrison returned 
 
to the United States Senate a bill, passed 
 by that body, with a communication 
 worded as follows : 
 
 "To the Senate: I return With- 
 out my approval the bill (S. 3830) 
 to prohibit book-making of any kind 
 and pool-selling in the District of Col- 
 umbia for the purpose of gaming. 
 My objection to the bill is that it 
 does not prohibit book-making and 
 pool-selling, but, on the contrary, es- 
 pecially saves from the operations 
 of its prohibitions and penalties the 
 Washington Jockey Club Racetracks, 
 no less than one mile in length, 
 etc. If this form of gambling is to be 
 prohibited, as I think it should be, the 
 penalty should include All Persons 
 and All Places. 
 
 "Benjamin Harrison. 
 "Executive Mansion, 
 "Oct. 1st, 1900." 
 In New York State we have, as I have 
 quoted, a constitutional prohibition with- 
 out the slightest qualification, forbidding 
 all forms of gambling. Judge Parker 
 must know of its flagrant violation, 
 which is as common talk almost as to say 
 Good-morning. 
 
 I wish to make one farther quotation. 
 Mr. Justice Field, at the United States 
 Supreme Court, says: 
 
 "We cannot shut our eyes to mat- 
 ters of public notoriety and general 
 18 
 
cognizance when we take our seats on 
 the Bench. We are not struck with 
 blindness and forbidden to know as 
 judges what we see as men." 
 Every phase of this constitutional 
 question was argued before Judge 
 Parker, and when he handed down his 
 decision he avoided the matter entirely; 
 he dismissed the indictment and convic- 
 tion of the Staedekers upon a Flaw in 
 the indictment. No argument, no ap- 
 peal for a constitutional decision availed, 
 Judge Parker was Dumb. If he wished 
 to invoke the trickery of the law, he was 
 within his judicial privilege in avoiding 
 such a decision; as the indictment was 
 undoubtedly faulty Judge Parker was 
 within his right in choosing to select a 
 faulty indictment to pass upon instead of 
 the constitutionality of the law and / do 
 not base my argument upon that ground, 
 but upon the broad ground that he, as 
 a patriotic, broad-minded judge had a 
 duty to perform, and that duty was to 
 declare All Men Are Equal Before 
 the Law, and wipe from the statute 
 book one of the most disgraceful laws 
 ever enacted by civilized people. For it 
 Created a Class of Preferred Citi- 
 zens, which is unquestionably unconsti- 
 tutional. It was his duty to see to it that 
 exact equality before the law should be 
 maintained among all the citizens of 
 this State. We look to him, he was our 
 
 19 
 
Chief Justice, our highest judicial au- 
 thority. 
 
 Legislatures frequently pass laws that 
 are subject to question and if they de- 
 viate from the constitutional prohibitions 
 our courts set them aside, but here is a 
 flagrant case where Judge Parker re- 
 fused to do so. If we ask why he did 
 not, we must look for a motive, and the 
 only one in sight and the one that pos- 
 sesses strong probability is the fact that 
 his personal and political associates are 
 among the gamblers who profit by this 
 game. 
 
 Probably such a decision would not 
 have stopped horse-racing in this State, 
 but it would have deprived his friends 
 of an enormously profitable monopoly, 
 for it must be remembered that in 1903 
 its receipts were over $4,000,000 in 202 
 racing days. The inception of the law 
 is criminal and utterly foreign to our 
 principles of government. Alton B. 
 Parker could have removed the stain of 
 this class legislation, gambling monopoly 
 and prison-breeding iniquity from this 
 State. Why did he avoid doing so? 
 There is one answer and a logical one— 
 to have done his duty was to strike his 
 friends and political workers a body- 
 blow in their most sensitive spot — their 
 pocket-books. If he had done so, would 
 they have worked for his nomination 
 for President ? Would August Belmont, 
 
Chairman of the State Racing Commis- 
 sion, and head of this gambling trust, 
 race-track and race-horse owner, have 
 worked for Alton B. Parker's nomina- 
 tion? Would Senator Patrick McCar- 
 ren, race-horse owner and race-track 
 gambler, have been favorable? Does 
 anybody credit David B. Hill, the "pea- 
 nut politician," with high or lofty mo- 
 tives ? And whoever heard a word about 
 William F. Sheehan except as he has 
 been called in the public press "an un- 
 conscionable political blackleg" and 
 "manipulator in ward politics in Buf- 
 falo," who was in the game for what 
 there was to be gotten out of it ! These 
 were Judge Parker's close friends and 
 advisers before and during the time of 
 his nomination and to whom he is in- 
 debted for said nomination and, if 
 elected, these are the men to whom he is 
 indebted. How would he pay the debt? 
 As a side-light on Judge Parker's lean- 
 ings and inclinations as between corpora- 
 tions and private individuals, it may be 
 interesting to note the case of Miss Abi- 
 gail Roberson, of Rochester, N. Y. 
 Miss Roberson I understand to be a 
 young woman of exceptional beauty ; her 
 good looks attracted the attention of a 
 rich milling concern, who secured a 
 photograph of her and used it for adver- 
 tising purposes without her consent. She 
 protested and brought suit, and procured 
 
a judgment. This rich corporation car- 
 ried the case to a higher court — the Ap- 
 pellate division — and again Miss Rober- 
 son received the unanimous verdict of 
 all the judges in her favor. Again this 
 corporation carried the case to a still 
 higher court, the Court of Appeals, and 
 Judge Alton B. Parker wrote the opinion 
 Denying any rights to Miss Roberson 
 as against this rich corporation. Please 
 remember every judge in the courts be- 
 low Judge Parker and some of his asso- 
 ciates in the Court of Appeals recognized 
 Miss Roberson's absolute right to pri- 
 vacy in her own personality and that no 
 corporation could use it without her con- 
 sent. But Judge Parker has said to the 
 contrary. This may apply to any family, 
 no matter how privately they live. If 
 there be a member of the family that is 
 of exceptional beauty any concern may 
 get a snapshot photograph and publish 
 it on any old thing and no redress, so 
 says Judge Parker. Your pocket-book 
 and its contents are yours, but not the 
 privacy of your home. Judge Alton B. 
 Parker has said so and he is the candi- 
 date of the Democratic party for Presi- 
 dent. He is to protect the rights of the 
 people against rich and grasping cor- 
 porations ! Thus serious affairs become 
 farcical. Since this decision of Judge 
 Parker our legislature has passed a 
 stringent law protecting our personal 
 
 ..otC. 
 
rights which no judge can dodge or 
 evade, no matter how favorably he may 
 be inclined toward rich corporations. 
 
 Judge Parker has another corporation 
 lawyer who is Vice-Chairman of the Na- 
 tional Executive Committee that is di- 
 recting his campaign, Mr. De Lancy 
 Nicoll. Mr. Nicoll is the attorney for 
 the Metropolitan Turf Association. 
 This Association is composed exclusively 
 of the book-makers and pool-sellers who 
 operate at the race-tracks and pay $100 
 per day Graft to the race-track owners 
 for the privilege of gambling. These 
 book-makers sometimes get into litiga- 
 tion; people try to recover their lost 
 money and bring suit, and a powerful 
 lawyer at court and in their pay is a good 
 business precaution. Mr. Nicoll will be 
 found working strenuously for Judge 
 Parker. 
 
 Let's enumerate them. There is Judge 
 Alton B. Parker, who got his nomination 
 in a very questionable manner. There is 
 David B. Hill, "the peanut politician"; 
 William F. Sheehan, "a political black- 
 leg" ; August Belmont, Chairman of the 
 State Racing Commission and member 
 of the Executive Committee for Judge 
 Parker, and the real power behind the 
 throne; Patrick McCarren, race-horse 
 owner and race-track gambler, Chairman 
 of the State Executive Committee; De 
 Lancy Nicoll, Vice-Chairman of the Na- 
 
 23 ... 
 
tional Committee and attorney for the 
 book-makers who sell pools at the race- 
 tracks, all working for the election of 
 Alton B. Parker to the presidency of this 
 great country. These are the principals 
 in this undertaking; they are the men 
 who have managed and manipulated 
 him, — Why? Alton B. Parker was 
 Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals, 
 he was the man who could have spoiled 
 their Graft but didn't. Now, honestly, 
 do we find anything worthy of respectful 
 consideration among this assortment of 
 statesmen? Against this combination 
 stands out bold and clear, Theodore 
 Roosevelt — an American man, who 
 from his youth has been in the public 
 eye, a writer of ability, a member of the 
 New York Assembly, member of the 
 Civil Service Commission, New York 
 Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary 
 of the Navy, resigned to command a 
 regiment at the front, returned and was 
 elected Governor of New York State, 
 elected Vice-President, and, through th« 
 shocking death of President McKinley, 
 he became President. 
 
 In every phase of his public life 
 Theodore Roosevelt has been a 
 credit to the country he represents. His 
 associates are among the nation's most 
 distinguished and gifted men — What a 
 Contrast! The verdict is with us — 
 The Voters. 
 
2S353SEFK 
 
 1804 
 
111 mil mil in III mil mil ||, mil mil mi mi 
 
 013 789 009 4 f 
 
 Hollinger