It had actually run out some time ago.
He hadn't made to the Hole in the Wall, as people had been speculating, but he had made it relatively far from Medicine Bow. Indeed, he must have fled on something like the Fetterman Road or the down Sybille Canyon or something to end up where he did, the mountains outside of Glendo Wyoming.
He'd been wounded in the hand his last train robbery when he disarmed a young man who attempted to shoot him. That was minor in comparison to what happened this time. A member of the posse that arrested him shot him in the chest on this occasion, causing him to have to be taken to Douglas on a pack mule. He'd spend nearly a month there following surgery that saved his life.
That posse had been pursuing him so his last days of freedom weren't enjoyable ones. His next month obviously wouldn't be either. Following his recovery he was sent back to the penitentiary in Rawlins to serve another sixteen years.
The Union Pacific came out ahead, compared to 1916, when it had spent $15,000 searching for him. Relying on this occasion on local law enforcement, even though it complained about it, it came out cost ahead.
As the mystery of Carlisle's whereabouts was resolved, another one developed elsewhere, that being the mysterious disappearance of Canadian theatre magnate Ambrose Small and his secretary Jack Doughty. Ambrose had sold his theatre holdings earlier that day and simply disappeared, never to be found.
Doughty was and was extradited for having stolen bonds that he cashed and deposited that same day. But there was no evidence that he was connected with Small's disappearance or that he knew anything about it. Indeed, Small's predilections, which included gambling and affairs with actresses, and disappearances for brief periods of time, made determining what happened to him difficult.
Also on this day, Woodrow Wilson sent his State of the Union message to Congress. Still recovering from his stroke, he could not deliver it in person. It was the first written State of the Union Message to Congress since 1800.
TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
I sincerely regret
that I cannot be present at the opening of this session of the Congress.
I am thus prevented from presenting in as direct a way as I could wish
the many questions that are pressing for solution at this time. Happily,
I have had the advantage of the advice of the heads of the several
executive departments who have kept in close touch with affairs in their
detail and whose thoughtful recommendations I earnestly second.
In
the matter of the railroads and the readjustment of their affairs
growing out of Federal control, I shall take the liberty at a later date
of addressing you.
I hope that Congress will bring to a
conclusion at this session legislation looking to the establishment of a
budget system. That there should be one single authority responsible
for the making of all appropriations and that appropriations should be
made not independently of each other, but with reference to one single
comprehensive plan of expenditure properly related to the nation's
income, there can be no doubtI believe the burden of preparing the
budget must, in the nature of' the case, if the work is to be properly
done and responsibility concentrated instead of divided, rest upon the
executive. The budget so prepared should be submitted to and approved or
amended by a single committee of each House of Congress and no single
appropriation should be made by the Congress, except such as may have
been included in the budget prepared by the executive or added by the
particular committee of Congress charged with the budget legislation.
Another
and not less important aspect of the problem is the ascertainment of
the economy and efficiency with which the moneys appropriated are
expended. Under existing law the only audit is for the purpose of
ascertaining whether expenditures have been lawfully made within the
appropriations. No one is authorized or equipped to ascertain whether
the money has been spent wisely, economically and effectively. The
auditors should be highly trained officials with permanent tenure in the
Treasury Department, free of obligations to or motives of consideration
for this or any subsequent administration, and authorized and empowered
to examine into and make report upon the methods employed and the
results obtained by the executive departments of the Government. Their
reports should be made to the Congress and to the Secretary of the
Treasury.
I trust that the Congress will give its immediate
consideration to the problem of future taxation. Simplification of the
income and profits taxes has become an immediate necessity. These taxes
performed indispensable service during the war. They must, however, be
simplified, not only to save the taxpayer inconvenience and expense, but
in order that his liability may be made certain and definite.
With
reference to the details of the Revenue Law, the Secretary of the
Treasury and the Commissioner of Internal Revenue will lay before you
for your consideration certain amendments necessary or desirable in
connection with the administration of the law-recommendations which have
my approval and support. It is of the utmost importance that in dealing
with this matter the present law should not be disturbed so far as
regards taxes for the calendar year 1920 payable in the calendar year
1921. The Congress might well consider whether the higher rates of
income and profits taxes can in peace times be effectively productive of
revenue, and whether they may not, on the contrary, be destructive of
business activity and productive of waste and inefficiency. There is a
point at which in peace times high rates of income and profits taxes
discourage energy, remove the incentive to new enterprises, encourage
extravagant expenditures and produce industrial stagnation with
consequent unemployment and other attendant evils.
The problem is
not an easy one. A fundamental change has taken place with reference to
the position of America in the world's affairs. The prejudice and
passions engendered by decades of controversy between two schools of
political and economic thought,-the one believers in protection of
American industries, the other believers in tariff for revenue
only,-must be sbordinated to the single consideration of the public
interest in the light of utterly changed conditions. Before the war
America was heavily the debtor of the rest of the world and the interest
payments she had to make to foreign countries on American securities
held abroad, the expenditures of American travelers abroad and the ocean
freight charges she had to pay to others, about balanced the value of
her pre-war favorable balance of trade. During the war America's exports
nave been greatly stimulated, and increased prices have increased their
value. On the other hand, she has purchased a large proportion of the
American securities previously held abroad, has loaned some
$9,000,000,000 to foreign governments, and has built her own ships. Our
favorable balance of trade has thus been greatly increased and Europe
has been deprived of the means of meeting it heretofore existing. Europe
can have only three ways of meeting the favorable balance of trade in
peace times: by imports into this country of gold or of goods, or by
establishing new credits. Europe is in no position at the present time
to ship gold to us nor could we contemplate large further imports of
gold into this country without concern. The time has nearly passed for
international governmental loans and it will take time to develop in
this country a market for foreign securities. Anything, therefore, which
would tend to prevent foreign countries from settling for our exports
by shipments of goods into this country could only have the effect of
preventing them from paying for our exports and therefore of preventing
the exports from being made. The productivity of the country, greatly
stimulated by the war, must find an outlet by exports to foreign
countries, and any measures taken to prevent imports will inevitably
curtail exports, force curtailment of production, load the banking
machinery of the country with credits to carry unsold products and
produce industrial stagnation and unemployment. If we want to sell, we
must be prepared to buy. Whatever, therefore, may have been our views
during the period of growth of American business concerning tariff
legislation, we must now adjust our own economic life to a changed
condition growing out of the fact that American business is full grown
and that America is the greatest capitalist in the world.
No
policy of isolation will satisfy the growing needs and opportunities of
America. The provincial standards and policies of the past, which have
held American business as if in a strait-jacket, must yield and give way
to the needs and exigencies of the new day in which we live, a day full
of hope and promise for American business, if we will but take
advantage of the opportunities that are ours for the asking. The recent
war has ended our isolation and thrown upon us a great duty and
responsibility. The United States must share the expanding world market.
The United States desires for itself only equal opportunity with the
other nations of the world, and that through the process of friendly
cooperation and fair competition the legitimate interests of the nations
concerned may be successfully and equitably adjusted.
There are
other matters of importance upon which I urged action at the last
session of Congress which are still pressing for solution. I am sure it
is not necessary for me again to remind you -that there is one immediate
and very practicable question resulting from the war which we should
meet in the most liberal spirit. It is a matter of recognition and
relief to our soldiers. I can do no better than to quote from my last
message urging this very action:
"We must see to it that our
returning soldiers are assisted in every practicable way to find the
places for which they are fitted in the daily work of the country. This
can be done by developing and maintaining upon an adequate scale the
admirable organization created by the Department of Labor for placing
men seeking work; and it can also be done, in at least one very great
field, by creating new opportunities for individual enterprise. The
Secretary of the Interior has pointed out the way by which returning
soldiers may be helped to find and take up land in the hitherto
undeveloped regions of the country which the Federal Government has
already prepared, or can readily prepare, for cultivation and also on
many of the cutover or neglected areas which lie within the limits of
the older states; and I once more take the liberty of recommending very
urgently that his plans shall receive the immediate and substantial
support of the Congress."
In the matter of tariff legislation, I
beg to call your attention to the statements contained in my last
message urging legislation with reference to the establishment of the
chemical and dyestuffs industry in America:
"Among the industries
to which special consideration should be given is that of the
manufacture of dyestuffs and related chemicals. Our complete dependence
upon German supplies before the war made the interruption of trade a
cause of exceptional economic disturbance. The close relation between
the manufacture of dyestuffs, on the one hand, and of explosive and
poisonous gases, on the other, moreover, has given the industry an
exceptional significance and value. Although the United States will
gladly and unhesitatingly join in the programme of international
disarmament, it will, nevertheless, be a policy of obvious prudence to
make certain of the successful maintenance of many strong and
well-equipped chemical plants. The German chemical industry, with which
we will be brought into competition, was -and may well be again, a
thoroughly knit monopoly capable of exercising a competition of a
peculiarly insidious and dangerous kind."
During the war the
farmer performed a vital and willing service to the nation. By
materially increasing the production of his land, he supplied America
and the Allies with the increased amounts of food necessary to keep
their immense armies in the field. He indispensably helped to win the
war. But there is now scarcely less need of increasing the production in
food -and the necessaries of life. I ask the Congress to consider means
of encouraging effort along these lines. The importance of doing
everything possible to promote production along economical lines, to
improve marketing, and to make rural life more attractive and healthful,
is obvious. I would urge approval of the plans already proposed to the
Congress by the Secretary of Agriculture, to secure the essential facts
required for the proper study of this question, through the proposed
enlarged programmes for farm management studies and crop estimates. I
would urge, also, the continuance of Federal participation in the
building of good roads, under the terms of existing law and under the
direction of present agencies; the need of further action on the part of
the States and the Federal Government to preserve and develop our
forest resources, especially through the practice of better forestry
methods on private holdings and the extension of the publicly owned
forests; better support for country schools and the more definite
direction of their courses of study along lines related to rural
problems; and fuller provision for sanitation in rural districts and the
building up of needed hospital and medical facilities in these
localities. Perhaps the way might be cleared for many of these desirable
reforms by a fresh, comprehensive survey made of rural conditions by a
conference composed of representatives of the farmers and of the
agricultural agencies responsible for leadership.
I would call
your attention to the widespread condition of political restlessness in
our body politic. The causes of this unrest, while various and
complicated, are superficial rather than deep-seated. Broadly, they
arise from or are connected with the failure on the part of our
Government to arrive speedily at a just and permanent peace permitting
return to normal conditions, from the transfusion of radical theories
from seething European centers pending such delay, from heartless
profiteering resulting in the increase of the cost of living, and lastly
from the machinations of passionate and malevolent agitators. With the
return to normal conditions, this unrest will rapidly disappear. In the
meantime, it does much evil. It seems to me that in dealing with this
situation Congress should not be impatient or drastic but should seek
rather to remove the causes. It should endeavor to bring our country
back speedily to a peace basis, with ameliorated living conditions under
the minimum of restrictions upon personal liberty that is consistent
with our reconstruction problems. And it should arm the Federal
Government with power to deal in its criminal courts with those persons
who by violent methods would abrogate our time-tested institutions. With
the free expression of opinion and with the advocacy of orderly
political change, however fundamental, there must be no interference,
but towards passion and malevolence tendine to incite crime and
insurrection under guise of political evolution there should be no
leniency. Legislation to this end has been recommended by the Attorney
General and should be enacted. In this direct connection, I would call
your attention to my recommendations on August 8th, pointing out
legislative measures which wouldbe effective in controlling and bringing
down the present cost of living, which contributes so largely to this
unrest. On only one of these recommendations has the Congress acted. If
the Government's campaign is to be effective, it is necessary that the
other steps suggested should be acted on at once.
I renew and
strongly urge the necessity of the extension of the present Food Control
Act as to the period of time in which it shall remain in operation. The
Attorney General has submitted a bill providing for an extension of
this Act for a period of six months. As it now stands, it is limited in
operation to the period of the war and becomes inoperative upon the
formal proclamation of peace. It is imperative that it should be
extended at once. The Department of justice has built up extensive
machinery for the purpose of enforcing its provisions; all of which must
be abandoned upon the conclusion of peace unless the provisions of this
Act are extended.
During this period the Congress will have an
opportunity to make similar permanent provisions and regulations with
regard to all goods destined for interstate commerce and to exclude them
from interstate shipment, if the requirements of the law are not
compiled with. Some such regulation is imperatively necessary. The
abuses that have grown up in the manipulation of prices by the
withholding of foodstuffs and other necessaries of life cannot otherwise
be effectively prevented. There can be no doubt of either the necessity
of the legitimacy of such measures.
As I pointed out in my last
message, publicity can accomplish a great deal in this campaign. The
aims of the Government must be clearly brought to the attention of the
consuming public, civic organizations and state officials, who are in a
position to lend their assistance to our efforts. You have made
available funds with which to carry on this campaign, but there is no
provision in the law authorizing their expenditure for the purpose of
making the public fully informed about the efforts of the Government.
Specific recommendation has been made by the Attorney General in this
regard. I would strongly urge upon you its immediate adoption, as it
constitutes one of the preliminary steps to this campaign.
I also
renew my recommendation that the Congress pass a law regulating cold
storage as it is regulated, for example, by the laws of the State of New
Jersey, which limit the time during which goods may be kept in storage,
prescribe the method of disposing of them if kept beyond the permitted
period, and require that goods released from storage shall in all cases
bear the date of their receipt. It would materially add to the
serviceability of the law, for the purpose we now have in view, if it
were also prescribed that all goods released from storage for interstate
shipment should have plainly marked upon each package the selling or
market price at which they went into storage. By this means the
purchaser would always be able to learn what profits stood between him
and the producer or the wholesale dealer.
I would also renew my
recommendation that all goods destined for interstate commerce should in
every case, where their form or package makes it possible, be plainly
marked with the price at which they left the hands of the producer.
We
should formulate a law requiring a Federal license of all corporations
engaged in interstate commerce and embodying in the license or in the
conditions under which it is to be issued, specific regulations designed
to secure competitive selling and prevent unconscionable profits in the
method of marketing. Such a law would afford a welcome opportunity to
effect other much needed reforms in the business of interstate shipment
and in the methods of corporations which are engaged in it; but for the
moment I confine my recommendations to the object immediately in hand,
which is to lower the cost of living.
No one who has observed the
march of events in the last year can fail to note the absolute need of a
definite programme to bring about an improvement in the conditions of
labor. There can be no settled conditions leading to increased
production and a reduction in the cost of living if labor and capital
are to be antagonists instead of partners. Sound thinking and an honest
desire to serve the interests of the whole nation, as distinguished from
the interests of a class, must be applied to the solution of this great
and pressing problem. The failure of other nations to consider this
matter in a vigorous way has produced bitterness and jealousies and
antagonisms, the food of radicalism. The only way to keep men from
agitating against grievances is to remove the grievances. An
unwillingness even to discuss these matters produces only
dissatisfaction and gives comfort to the extreme elements in our country
which endeavor to stir up disturbances in order to provoke governments
to embark upon a course of retaliation and repression. The seed of
revolution is repression. The remedy for these things must not be
negative in character. It must be constructive. It must comprehend the
general interest. The real antidote for the unrest which manifests
itself is not suppression, but a deep consideration of the wrongs that
beset our national life and the application of a remedy.
Congress
has already shown its willingness to deal with these industrial wrongs
by establishing the eight-hour day as the standard in every field of
labor. It has sought to find a way to prevent child labor. It has served
the whole country by leading the way in developing the means of
preserving and safeguarding lives and health in dangerous industries. It
must now help in the difficult task of finding a method that will bring
about a genuine democratization of industry, based upon the full
recognition of the right of those who work, in whatever rank, to
participate in some organic way in every decision which directly affects
their welfare. It is with this purpose in mind that I called a
conference to meet in Washington on December 1st, to consider these
problems in all their broad aspects, with the idea of bringing about a
better understanding between these two interests.
The great unrest
throughout the world, out of which has emerged a demand for an
immediate consideration of the difficulties between capital and labor,
bids us put our own house in order. Frankly, there can be no permanent
and lasting settlements between capital and labor which do not recognize
the fundamental concepts for which labor has been struggling through
the years. The whole world gave its recognition and endorsement to these
fundamental purposes in the League of Nations. The statesmen gathered
at Versailles recognized the fact that world stability could not be had
by reverting to industrial standards and conditions against which the
average workman of the world had revolted. It is, therefore, the task of
the statesmen of this new day of change and readjustment to recognize
world conditions and to seek to bring about, through legislation,
conditions that will mean the ending of age-long antagonisms between
capital and labor and that will hopefully lead to the building up of a
comradeship which will result not only in greater contentment among the
mass of workmen but also bring about a greater production and a greater
prosperity to business itself.
To analyze the particulars in the
demands of labor is to admit the justice of their complaint in many
matters that lie at their basis. The workman demands an adequate wage,
sufficient to permit him to live in comfort, unhampered by the fear of
poverty and want in his old age. He demands the right to live and the
right to work amidst sanitary surroundings, both in home and in
workshop, surroundings that develop and do not retard his own health and
wellbeing; and the right to provide for his children's wants in the
matter of health and education. In other words, it is his desire to make
the conditions of his life and the lives of those dear to him tolerable
and easy to bear.
The establishment of the principles regarding
labor laid down in the covenant of the League of Nations offers us the
way to industrial peace and conciliation. No other road lies open to us.
Not to pursue this one is longer to invite enmities, bitterness, and
antagonisms which in the end only lead to industrial and social
disaster. The unwilling workman is not a profitable servant. An employee
whose industrial life is hedged about by hard and unjust conditions,
which he did not create and over which he has no control, lacks that
fine spirit of enthusiasm and volunteer effort which are the necessary
ingredients of a great producing entity. Let us be frank about this
solemn matter. The evidences of world-wide unrest which manifest
themselves in violence throughout the world bid us pause and consider
the means to be found to stop the spread of this contagious thing before
it saps the very vitality of the nation itself. Do we gain strength by
withholding the remedy? Or is it not the business of statesmen to treat
these manifestations of unrest which meet us on every hand as evidences
of an economic disorder and to apply constructive remedies wherever
necessary, being sure that in the application of the remedy we touch not
the vital tissues of our industrial and economic life? There can be no
recession of the tide of unrest until constructive instrumentalities are
set up to stem that tide.
Governments must recognize the right of
men collectively to bargain for humane objects that have at their base
the mutual protection and welfare of those engaged in all industries.
Labor must not be longer treated as a commodity. It must be regarded as
the activity of human beings, possessed of deep yearnings and desires.
The busi ness man gives his best thought to the repair and replenishment
of his machinery, so that its usefulness will not be impaired and its
power to produce may always be at its height and kept in full vigor and
motion. No less regard ought to be paid to the human machine, which
after all propels the machinery of the world and is the great dynamic
force that lies back of all industry and progress. Return to the old
standards of wage and industry in employment are unthinkable. The
terrible tragedy of war which has just ended and which has brought the
world to the verge of chaos and disaster would be in vain if there
should ensue a return to the conditions of the past. Europe itself,
whence has come the unrest which now holds the world at bay, is an
example of standpatism in these vital human matters which America might
well accept as an example, not to be followed but studiously to be
avoided. Europe made labor the differential, and the price of it all is
enmity and antagonism and prostrated industry, The right of labor to
live in peace and comfort must be recognized by governments and America
should be the first to lay the foundation stones upon which industrial
peace shall be built.
Labor not only is entitled to an adequate
wage, but capital should receive a reasonable return upon its investment
and is entitled to protection at the hands of the Government in every
emergency. No Government worthy of the name can "play" these elements
against each other, for there is a mutuality of interest between them
which the Government must seek to express and to safeguard at all cost.
The
right of individuals to strike is inviolate and ought not to be
interfered with by any process of Government, but there is a predominant
right and that is the right of the Government to protect all of its
people and to assert its power and majesty against the challenge of any
class. The Government, when it asserts that right, seeks not to
antagonize a class but simply to defend the right of the whole people as
against the irreparable harm and injury that might be done by the
attempt by any class to usurp a power that only Government itself has a
right to exercise as a protection to all.
In the matter of
international disputes which have led to war, statesmen have sought to
set up as a remedy arbitration for war. Does this not point the way for
the settlement of industrial disputes, by the establishment of a
tribunal, fair and just alike to all, which will settle industrial
disputes which in the past have led to war and disaster? America,
witnessing the evil consequences which have followed out of such
disputes between these contending forces, must not admit itself impotent
to deal with these matters by means of peaceful processes. Surely,
there must be some method of bringing together in a council of peace and
amity these two great interests, out of which will come a happier day
of peace and cooperation, a day that will make men more hopeful and
enthusiastic in their various tasks, that will make for more comfort and
happiness in living and a more tolerable condition among all classes of
men. Certainly human intelligence can devise some acceptable tribunal
for adjusting the differences between capital and labor.
This is
the hour of test and trial for America. By her prowess and strength, and
the indomitable courage of her soldiers, she demonstrated her power to
vindicate on foreign battlefields her conceptions of liberty and
justice. Let not her influence as a mediator between capital and labor
be weakened and her own failure to settle matters of purely domestic
concern be proclaimed to the world. There are those in this country who
threaten direct action to force their will, upon a majority. Russia
today, with its blood and terror, is a painful object lesson of the
power of minorities. It makes little difference what minority it is;
whether capital or labor, or any other class; no sort of privilege will
ever be permitted to dominate this country. We are a partnership or
nothing that is worth while. We are a democracy, where the majority are
the masters, or all the hopes and purposes of the men who founded this
government have been defeated and forgotten. In America there is but one
way by which great reforms can be accomplished and the relief sought by
classes obtained, and that is through the orderly processes of
representative government. Those who would propose any other method of
reform are enemies of this country. America will not be daunted by
threats nor lose her composure or calmness in these distressing times.
We can afford, in the midst of this day of passion and unrest, to be
self - contained and sure. The instrument of all reform in America is
the ballot. The road to economic and social reform in America is the
straight road of justice to all classes and conditions of men. Men have
but to follow this road to realize the full fruition of their objects
and purposes. Let those beware who would take the shorter road of
disorder and revolution. The right road is the road of justice and
orderly process.
