Presidential Turkeys

Levin Daily Chronicle, 13 March 1917, Page 3

Presidential Turkeys

DISTRIBUTED TO MARRIED WHITE HOUSE EMPLOYEES -PARDONS TWO CONVICTS. Washington, Dec. 23. President Wilson's Christmas celebration began to-day. Turkeys were distributed to all married 'White iLouse omployeii's, while jby express and mail gifts for the President arrived from all parts of the United States.

■In addition \to' presents sent Mr Wilson by personal friends, Hie received remembrances from ,adjm|irer3: unknown to him personjly. There was holly and mistletoe by the barrel, and books of many descriptions.

The President lias no engagements before Tuesday and plans to spend tomorrow and Monday .quietly with members of his family. The large Christmas tree for the children at the White House was put in place today.

The President today gave Christmas pardons to two Federal prisoners and directed the department of justice to expedite their release, so they might spend Monday with thejir famfjiels.

In the ordinary course of. procedure the case would not have been acted upon for several weeks.

A word picture of three small children whose mother died while the husband and father was in prison, moved the President to order the release of Hall Ross, of Guyandotte, W. Va., found guilty of engaging in the retail liquor business without paying a tax, and sentenced 'to three months in gaol. The other prisoner ordered released was Lillian C. Munson of Georgia, convicted at Edgewater, X.J., of persuading a man to embezzle from a bank. She was scntcnced to two years in the penitentiary, but the President acted on the ground that it had never been proven that she had a part in the embezzlement.