F ..Be State Republican Campaign Book -AND- The Popular "Old Politician's" Letters. A True Analysis of Missouri Democratic Government Facts and Figures Based on Official Records Wherein the State Constitution Has Been Violated By Whom, the Motive and the Consequences You Say: "SHOW ME?" "WE WILL!" i . Nesbitistn and Tammany ism. 1. Misapplication of the State School Fund. 2. Ballot Box Stuffing: and Non- contestible Elections. a. Misappropriation of the State Interest and Revenue Funds. 3. Discredited Democracy Saved by Municipal Machines. 4. Famous and Infamous Card- well Case. 3. Indirect or Unlimited Tax- ation. 4. State Treasury Used as a Lobby Fund. What Will We Do About It? This Book Will Show You II Copyrighted by E. C. Brokmeyer, author of the State Republican Campaign Book of rgoo, Editor. State Republican Campaign Book -AND- The Popular "Old Politician's" Letters. A True Analysis of Missouri Democratic Government Facts and Figures Based on Official Records Wherein the State Constitution Has Been Violated By Whom, the Motive and the Consequences You Say: "SHOW ME?" "WE WILL!" i. Nesbitism and Tammany- 1. Misapplication of the State ism. School Fund. 2. Ballot Box Stuffing: and Non- a. Misappropriation of the State contestable Elections. Interest and Revenue Funds. 3. Discredited Democracy Saved 3. Indirect or Unlimited Tax- by Municipal Machines. ation. 4. Famous and Infamous Card- 4. State Treasury Used as a well Case. Lobby Fund. What Will We Do About It? This Book Will Show You!! Copyrighted by E. C. Brokmeyer, author of the State Republican Campaign Book of 1900, Editor. STATE Republican Campaign Book AND The Popular "Old Politician's" Letters. CONTAINING OFFICiAL DATA, CAREFULLY PRESERVED AND COMPILED, SHOWING HOW THE CONSTI- TUTIONAL LIMITATIONS ON THE STATE LEGISLA- TURE'S POWER TO TAX, TO APPROPRIATE THE PEOPLE'S MONEY AND TO CREATE DEBT HAVE BEEN PERVERTED, EVADED, IGNORED AND PER- SISTENTLY VIOLATED BY SUCCESSIVE DEMO- CRATIC ADMINISTRATIONS FOR NEARLY THIRTY YEARS, AND WHAT THESE ABUSES OF POWER COST THE PEOPLE. COMPILED AND EDITED BY E^C. BROKMEYER, II Late Jefferson City Staff Correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICES. FULLERTON BUILDING, ST. LOUIS, MO. ^/ MORE CONSTITUTION SMASHING. jects within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and all taxes shall be levied and collected by general laws."— Sec. 3, Art. 10, State Constitution. Here is only a partial list of the laws now in ex- istence, and enacted since 1881 which impose special taxes and create new offices, one of the Democratic methods of "reducing taxation:" ( 'orporation tax. Dramshop tax. Excise tax. Pool tables. Billiard tables. Race tracks. Manufacture of beer. Manufacture of whisky and wine. Insurance tax. Inheritance tax. Building and loan association inspection. Bank and trust company inspection. Coal mine inspection. Dead and zinc mine inspection. Factory inspection. Express company tax. Steamboat tax. Barber law. Dental law. Board of health act Coal oil inspection. Bureau of geology. Bureau of labor. Insurauce department. Grain inspection. Merchants' license. Manufacturers' license. Embalmers' board. Bridge taxation. Taxation of telephones. And please don't forget it — the consumer, -not the corporal ion, pays the tax in the end, every time! 29 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. A MAN'S SHAVE TAXED. Democratic leaders never cease to boast in their state platforms and on the hustings of the extent to which they have "reduced" the burdens of taxa- tion in Missouri during the past 30 years, or since the democracy assumed control of the state government. Direct taxation has been reduced, but through the operation of the state constitution, which made the reduction compulsory. The democratic managers surely will not claim the constitution as a child ex- clusively of their parentage! While direct taxation has been reduced, as stated, the democratic managers discreetly fail to direct pub- lic attention to the manner in which their successive state administrations and legislatures have regulraly and systematically increased the burdens of taxation indirectly, or through special legislation. They have taxed everything through special laws from a shave on a man's face to the estate which he leaves when lie no longer has a face to shave. Barbers must be licensed and pay a tax. The collateral inheritance tax is well known. Dentists and doctors also pay a license tax, and even the fellow who handles human clay when it is about to return to dust must pay a special tax. Verily have democratic administrations "reduced" the burdens of taxation. More proof of the fact, you say? Take the re- ceipts of the state revenue fund for the years 1871 and 1872 and the estimated receipts for the same funds in 1901 and 1902. Here they are: TAXES INCREASED SIXTY-THREE PER CENT. Revenue fund receipts (1871-2) $3,051,113 Estimated revenue receipts (1901-2) $5,000,000 Increase in taxation for the biennial period, represented alone by the revenue fund. $1,948,887 no MORE CONSTITUTION SMASHING. This increase, of nearly $2,000,000 every two years, in taxation does not include the fees and license taxes collected by appointees of the governor, such as coal oil, mine and factory and beer inspectors, ex- cise, license and whisky tax commissioners, etc., part or all of which fees such apointees put in their pockets. Yes, to be sure, the several democratic ad- ministrations have "reduced" taxation in Missouri. The constitution of Missouri limits direct taxes for state revenue purposes to 15 cents on the $100 valua- tion, as the aggregate taxable wealth of the state now stands at more than a billion dollars. For many years, however, the state board of equalization kept the total value at about $900,000,000, so as to levy 20 cents on the $100. When absolutely compelled to go above this limit, a jump was made of over $100,- 000,000, and this has since been increased. Plainly the constitution contemplated that these taxes would suffice for state revenue purposes. As a matter of fact scarcely half the revenue is raised in this way. Since 1880 no less than 29 different laws have been enacted to impose additional taxes. Every business corporation that is organized in the state must pay a special tax to the state revenue fund, ranging from $50 up. This tax amounts to more than $125,000 a year. Fifteen years ago the state col- lected $50 from each dramshop. This has since been increased to $100, making a pick-up of about $200,- 000 a year. Pool tables and billiard tables also pay a special state tax. Race tracks were taken in several years ago, and by paying a special tax of $10 are given an exclusive privilege of gambling. This law was boodled through the legislature by St. Louis and Kansas City race track men. (For further in- formation apply to Secretary of State S. B. Cook.) 31 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. DEAD MEN AND UNDERTAKERS TAXED. Dead men have not escaped. The estates of those who die and have no immediate relatives in this country mnst pay an inheritance tax of five per cent. The insurance companies have been taken in. and must pay two per cent on their business, while build- ing and loan associations, banks and trust companies must pay special fees to examiners. These fees, while they do not go to the state, are, nevertheless, a special tax of about $10 a year on each institution, and go into the pockets of democratic examiners. Bar- bers, dentists, doctors and even undertakers must all pay small fees or taxes for the privilege of follow- ing their avocations. They are one and all at the mercy of political boards appointed by the governor. Special laws have been enacted to exact taxes from bridges across streams dividing Missouri from other states, and the rate is fixed the same as on real es- tate or personal properly. Coal oil has not escaped the democratic statesmen. In order to make more offices a coal oil inspection law was passed in 1881. It levies a tax of 12 cents on each barrel of illumin- ating oil. Merchants and manufacturers must also pay special taxes for being on earth, and so must the fanner who ships his surplus grain to St. Louis, Kan- sas City or St. Joseph. At any of these points his grain must be inspected by democratic inspectors who charge whatever rate the railroad and warehouse commissioners may fix. The rate is always hign enough to pay a small army of inspectors fat salaries, ranging from $75 a month to $3,000 a year. Express companies were not overlooked. A special law was passed in 1889 taxing thorn $1.25 on the $100 of gross business they do in the course of a year. A special tax law also looks after steamboats. In addition MORE CONSTITUTION SMASHING. to the usual tax a separate law levies five per eem on their hull measurement. FRANCHISE TAX FIASCO. In addition to several special tax laws directed against corporations, a special law was passed at the last session of the legislature to tax franchise privileges. This law should have been designated as a "Special act to furnish money to the demo- cratic state committee." It will be used against such corporations as do not make liberal contribu- tions. In other respects the law is largely a farce. The beer and whisky inspection laws have been in operation for some months. It is plain now that they will produce over $1,000,000 of revenue by the close of the fiscal year. Since 1880 a large number of offices have been created in this state and the expenses of the state government more than doubled. While some of these officials do not receive their salaries direct from the state treasurer, yet they are paid in fees they exact from the interests effected. This is true of the coal oil inspectors, excise commissioners, bank and build- ing and loan association examiners. In the 80s the grain inspection law was passed. It empowers the board of railroad and warehouse commissioners to appoint a chief grain inspector and a large number' of deputies, all of whom are paid out of fees exacted from the shippers. As a matter of fact these offices are principally filled with relatives of the commis- sioners, and the law is not regarded as a particle of good to the grain interests of the state, but rather a detriment. Under its operation the grain business is going to Chicago. DEMOCRATIC "LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT." Among the first new offices created was that 'of labor commissioner. The original act has been 33 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. added to by several legislatures. Now we have a factory inspection department, a free employment bureau, two mine inspectors, and quite a number of democratic officials who owe their jobs to the in- ception of this law. Everyone of them draws a salary from the state. A little later the insurance department was added, and taken to Jefferson City. This gave good offices to half a dozen democrats and required the insurance companies to pay their salaries. On the heels of this a building and loan association department was established, which gave offices to two or three more democrats. The bureau of geology was added in 1889 at a cost of from $15,- 000 to $20,000 a year, and the legislature branched out and provided for examining boards for the doc- tors, dentists and barbers. The corn doctors have escaped up to date, but they will doubtless receive attention later on. Some of these special office-holders report only to the governor, and the fees they receive do not appear in the auditor's reports. It is not too much to say that in one way or another millions of dol- lars a year are exacted through special tax laws, and a good deal of this goes in salaries to democratic officials. I*n 1889 the legislature sought to impose a special tax on department stores, but the law was held to be unconstitutional by the supreme court. A special tax law had been enacted prior to this for the benefit of the state university, wherein it was attempted to impose an additional tax on new corporations. This law, the supreme court also held to be invalid. OTHER FIELDS TO INVADE. It must be remembered that the legislature has been engaged in this line of special legislation since 34 MORE CONSTITUTION SMASHING. 1881. There are other fields yet to be invaded. It is true that the state tax of late years, for revenue purposes, has been reduced from 20 to 15 cents on the $100 valuation. The democrats are never tired of boasting about reducing taxes, but they do not mention the special laws they have enacted to levy taxes in another direction. The 5 per cent loss is compensated for in other ways and greatly exceeded. There does not seem to be any limit to the number of special tax laws that may be enacted. Pretty soon the state tax on dram shops will be raised again, and the race tracks, telephone companies and a number of other interests will no doubt receive ad- ditional attention. Citizen, the feast of the Democratic vultures will become a fast only when you drive the cormorants from power! SCHOOL FUND INVESTMENT VOID CONSTITUTION SAYS ASSETS MUST BE INVESTED IN "BONDS OF THE STATE OR UNITED STATES." Orgaaic Law of 1875 Amended by Democratic Leg- islatures, but not by the People. Why Were Bonds Changed to Certificates of Indebtedness if Both are the Same? "Authorizing the investment of the school and seminary fund in violation of the constitution" and "authorizing the issuance of certificates of indebted- ness" are the third and fourth charges preferred against democratic legislatures in this book. What does the constitution of 1875 provide? Read: Sec. 9, Art. 11 "No part of the public school fund shall ever be invested in the stock or bonds or other obligation of any other state, or of any county, city, town, or corporation ; and the proceeds of the sales of any bonds or other property, which now belong-, or may hereafter belong 1 , to said school fund, shall be invested in the bonds of the State of Missouri, or of the United States." Does this mandate of the supreme law of the people order the investment of the school fund, or any part thereof in "certificates of indebtedness?" Has the constitution of 1875 been amended so as to include the words "certificates of indebtedness" in the pro- vision just quoted? Yes, it has been so amended. By whom? By the people? No! By whom, then? By democratic legislatures without the authority of the people. Proof? Here it is: (See Laws of Missouri, 1881, page 204.) 36 SCHOOL FUND INVESTMENT VOID. Section 1. The board of fund commissioners of the state shall, on the first day of July, 1881, issue a certificate of indebtedness of the State of Missouri, payable thirty years after date, and bearing 6 per cent interest, payable annually on the first day of January, for the amount of the two thou- sand and nine Missouri State 6 per cent bonds, and the nine hundred thousand dollar certificate of indebtedness now held in trust by the State for the permanent school fund. Sec. 2. Said certificate of indebtedness shall be signed by the governor, countersigned by the secretary of state, and sealed with the great seal of the State, and shall be non-ne- gotiable, and shall be sacredly preserved in the State Treas- ury for the permanent school fund of the state. Sec. 3. There shall also be issued by the fund commis- sioners a certificate of indebtedness for the one hundred and twenty-two Missouri State 6 per cent bonds now held in trust by the state for the seminary fund, whi'ch certificate shall be executed in every respect as provided in the pre- ceding sections, for issuing a certificate for the public school fund, interest made payable at the rate of 6 per cent per an- num, on the first day of January of each year. Said certifi- cate shall be kept and sacredly preserved in the State Treas- ury for the seminary fund. Sec. 4. The two thousand and nine bonds of the State of Missouri, and the certificate of indebtedness for the sum of nine hundred thousand dollars now on deposit in the State Treasury, and held in trust for the permanent school fund of the state, and one hundred and twenty-two bonds of the state held in trust for the seminary fund, shall, as soon as the certificates of indebtedness provided for in sections one and three of this act, are prepared, executed and sealed as provided herein, be, by the fund commissioners, delivered to the state auditor, who shall immediately proceed, in the presence of said commissioners, to cancel the same and all interest coupons thereto attached, by purchasing, and he shall preserve the same in the scrap-book bond register kept in the office. Sec. 5. The certificate of indebtedness authorized to be issued to the permanent school fund of the state by section one of this act, and the certificate of indebtedness author- ized to be issued to the seminary fund by section three thereof, shall be executed on. good parchment papir, and shall be and remain a sacred and irrevocable obligation of the state, unconvertible and untransferable from the pur- poses of its issues, but shall remain as so much of the per- manent school fund and of the seminary fund as is repre- sented in their amount respectivelv. Sec. 6. This act shall take effect *on the first day of July. 1881, and all acts and parts of acts relating to the invest- ment of the permanent school fund and seminary fund, or any part thereof, in the bonds of this state, or as is repre- sented by the certificate of indebtedness of the state now held in trust for said school fund, is hereby repealed. Approved March 3, 1881. (See Laws of Missouri, 1883, page 180.) Section 1. The board of fund commisssioners of the state shall, upon the passage of this act, issue a certificate of in- debtedness of the State of Missouri, payable twenty years 37 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. after date and bearing interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum, payable semi-annually on the first day of January and July of each year, for all bonds of the State of Missouri now in the hands of the treasurer of the board of curators of the state university, except such bonds as may have been called for redemption by the state and purchased with money derived from the sale of agricultural college lands, estimat- ing such bonds at their par value; and hereafter whenever any of the remaining agricultural college lands shall be sold, amounting to five thousand dollars, and the proceeds of the sale thereof paid into state treasury, a similar certificate of indebtedness shall be issued bearing interest at the rate of 5 per cent per annum, payable semi-annually and held in trust by the state as part of the "Seminary fund." Sec. 2. Sa'd certificates of indebtedness shall be signed by the governor, countersigned by the secretary of state and sealed with, the great seal of the state; shall be non-nego- tiable and shall be sacredly held and preserved in the State Treasury as part of the permanent seminary fund of the state. Hereafter, when any money shall be paid into the state treasury, from whatever source derived, whether by grant, gift, devise, or from any other source, to be added to either the "public school fund" or the ''seminary fund" of the state, and when the same shall amount to one thousand dollars, the said board of fund commissioners shall issue a certificate of indebtedness of the State of Missouri like that provided for in section one and two of this act, and in accordance with the terms of the gift, grant or devise mak- ing additions to the public school fund or seminary fund of the state, except in cases where moneys are required by special gift or devise, providing said fund for public educa- tional purposes, under article eleven of the constitution of this state and an act approved March 16, 1881, entitled "An act to encourage and increase the public school fund of the state by grant, gift or devise, as provided for in section six (6) article eleven (11) of the constitution of Missouri, and to provide for its safe and permanent in- vestment." Sec. 4. The certificate of indebtedness authorized to be issued under this act to the permanent public school or seminary fund of the state shall specify the purpose for which said funds are dedicated, the source from which de- rived, and the disposition of the interest to be paid on the same; they shall be printed on good parchment paper, and shall be and remain sacred, irrevocable obligations of the state, unconvertible and untransferable, for the purpose of their issue as so much of the permanent "Public School fund" or "Seminary fund," the interest thereon to be ap- propriated regularly in accordance with the terms of said certificates, and to commence running from the date of de- livery of said Missouri state bonds or the payment of the money into the treasury of the state. Sec. 5. All Interest due upon the bonds herein referred to down to the date of their surrender or delivery shall be paid over to the treasurer of the board of curators of the Uni- versity of the State of Missouri, and one-fourth of the inter- SCHOOL FUND INVESTMENT VOID. est thus collected shall be paid by him to the treasurer of the School of Mines at Rolla, according to law. Sec. 6. All bonds of the State of Missouri, referred to in this act, shall be delivered to the state auditor, and as soon as the certificates contemplated to be issued in lieu thereof shall be delivered to the state treasurer, the state auditor shall proceed, in the presence of the board of fund commis- sioners, to cancel the same and all interest coupons thereto attached, by punching, and he shall preserve the same in the scrap-book bond register kept in his office. Sec. 7. The State of Missouri is hereby constituted the custodian and is made the trustee of all moneys which may be paid into the state treasury under this act, and of the certificates of indebtedness which may be issued under the same, and the honor and good faith of the state is hereby pledged for the faithful performance of the trust herein created. Approved March 31, 1883. If there ever was any doubt as to the violation of the constitution of 1875 by the enactment of the acts heretofore quoted by Democratic legislatures, it was certainly dispelled by the Democratic general assem- bly of 1901, when it passed the following amendment to the constitution of 1875, to be submitted to the people at the general election in November, 1902: SENATE JOINT AND CONCURRENT RESOLUTION sub- mitting to the qualified voters of Missouri an amend- ment to the constitution thereof to define the status of the state certificates of indebtedness now on deposit In the state treasury and held in trust for the "pub- lic school fund" and the "seminary fund;" to extend and perpetuate the same; to provide for the payment of the interest thereon; and to provide for the future investment of school and seminary funds. Be it resolved by the Senate, the House of Repre- sentatives concurring therein, as follows: That at the general election to be held on the Tues- day next following the first Monday in November, 1902, the following amendment to the constitution of Missouri shall be submitted to the qualified voters of said state, to wit: That article X of the constitution of the state of Missouri be amended by adding there- to a new section, to be known as section twenty-six (26), as follows: Section 26. ALL CERTIFICATES OF INDEBTEDNESS OF THE STATE TO THE "PUBLIC SCHOOL FUND" AND TO THE "SEMINARY FUND" ARE HEREBY CONFIRM- STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. ED AS SACRED OBLIGATIONS OF THE STATE TO SAID FUNDS and they shall be renewed as they mature for such period of time and at such rate of interest as may be provided for by law. The general assembly shall have the power to provide by law for issuing certificates to the public school fund and seminary fund as the money be- longing to said funds accumulates in the state treasury : Provided, that after the outstanding bonded indebtedness has been extinguished, all money accumulating in the state treasury for above named purposes shall be in- vested in registered county, municipal, or school district bonds of this state of not less than par value. Whenever the state bonded debt is extinguished or a sum sufficient therefor has been received, there shall be levied and col- lected in lieu of the ten cents on the one hundred dollars valuation now provided for by the statutes, an annual tax not to exceed three cents on the one hundred dollars valuation to pay the accruing interest on all the certifi- cates of indebtedness, the proceeds of which tax shall be paid into the state treasury and appropriated and paid out for the specific purposes herein mentioned. Approved March 18, 1901. BONDS AND DEBT CERTIFICATES. Speaking of the violation of the constitution of 1875 by democratic legislatures, as proved heretofore by the session acts, former Gov. Henry C. Brok- meyer said, in the State Republican: "Of course, you will not make the mistake of en- tertaining an argument as to the policy of a legisla- tive act, when the question at issue is the constitu- tional power of the legislative body to perform that act. In the case under consideration, the people have directed how they want their money invested namely, 'in the bonds of the state of Missouri, or of the United States' — and it is not for the agent no matter by what title known, to question, but to obey, especially when he has registered a sacred oath so to do. "The suggestion of Mr. Allen that, after all, certifi- cate of indebtedness and bond are so nearly the same 40 SCHOOL FUND INVESTMENT VOID. that there is no essential difference between them — might well elicit the question, why do they go to the trouble to substitute the one for the other? Why not leave the assets of the fund in the shape into which they had been put, in literal obedience to the behest of the people? But, in truth and fact, Mr. Allen can readily convince himself of the sophistical character of his suggestion by the simple experiment of presenting the two instruments in the market, where the bond will command cash and the certifi- cates nothing. "Nor are we to regard this difference as unessential in the affairs of the people, whether they have in their possession, and ready at hand, in any emergency, the cash, or they have no available resources ready for present use. For, although the people have set apart this hoard for the education of their children, still emergencies may arise — as some of us know by sad experience — that this purpose, sacred as it is, has to yield to a higher. For before children can be educated, they must exist, and the protection of life takes precedence of every duty of government." The motive and consequences of the violation of the constitution by democratic legislatures in the con- version of school fund assets into liabilities, will be explained hereafter in this book. ALLEN'S REVIEW OF THE SCHOOL FUND. State Auditor's and Gov. Dockery's Absurd Contention as to Debt Certificates. In a public utterance, as reported by a special cor- respondent of the Globe-Democrat, under date of No- vember 8, 1901, Gov. Dockery employed the following .somewhat equivocal language: STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. "To the People of Missouri: I invite attention to the report of Auditor Allen, which concisely, and yet in sufficient detail, reviews the management of our pub- lic school fund since January 1, 1865. The auditor's statement is so comprehensive that but little remains to be said by me." A correspondent, signing himself "An Old Green- horn," had the following to say in the State Repub- lican on Gov. Dockery's utterance: How is this? Are we to understand that you— Dr. Dockery, of Daviess, and Capt. A. O. Allen, of New Madrid — have stewed together a mess of assertions to prove that a certificate of indebtedness issued to one of the state trust funds is the same in law and fact as a coupon bond of the state of Missouri; and that you, Mr. Dockery, because you happen to be governor, invite over your official signature attention to this compound under the title of "a report from Auditor Allen?" You, as governor, attest this as an official document by your signature, and then add "that it is so comprehensive that but little remains to be said by you." Are the official reports required to be made under the law by the auditor, treasurer, secretary of state and other subordinate officers, subject cO be amplified by you? If this is an auditor's report, where is your authority to amplify, amend, or to cor- rect, even, to the extent of one word? If it is not an auditor's report, then where is your authority, nay, where is the propriety and good faith even to invite public attention to it, as such, over your signature as governor? You, as Dr. Dockery, of Daviess, have a perfect right to enter into any controversy you please, and to maintain any absurdity, however ridiculous, either in law, physics or theology, but we protest against the signature of the high office which you occupy 42 SCHOOL FUND INVESTMENT VOID. being employed to bolster such private contention, and we do this in behalf of your own honor. Do you hold the people of Missouri, whose attention you invite, so stupid as not to be able to distinguish between an official document and the rigmarole of a person in office — the authority and respect attached to the one and the destination of such authority by the other? If such is the estimate you place upon us, pray what is the honor to be governor of such a gullible crowd? We, the people of Missouri, placed into your hands certain assets and told you to "invest them in the bonds of the # state of Missouri or of the United States." Did you do as you were told? "No!" "Why not?" "Because we were afraid our fellows would steel them, or permit others to." "Well, what did you do with them?" "We destroyed them." "You did?" "Yes." "And then used a certificate in their stead not worth stealing?" "Who authorized you to do this?" "Nobody, but we thought — " "Yes, you thought that you could make us believe that a thing not worth stealing is the same as a thing worth millions of dollars in the open market of the world, by simply calling a rigmarole of gratuitous assertions to that effect official documents over your signature as governor. But we entrusted you with that signature, not for the purpose that you might palm off on us rigmaroles of persons in office which you can amplify as official documents, but to be employed to avouch the faith of the state with open candor and truthfulness." 43 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. BONDS AND DEBT CERTIFICATES. Democratic State Platform of 1900 Lied — School Fund $973.40. The "little" that his excellency found remaining to be said by him in amplification of the "auditor's report" upon the management of the public school fund for the last 45 years starts off with this re- mark: "The form of investment of the school funds was changed under the several acts to which he (the auditor) has referred, from the bond form of indebt- edness to the certificate form of indebtedness. Both forms of indebtedness are in contemplation of the constitution bond forms of liability, and the ques- tion naturally arises why the state should have ex- changed from the one form to the other." This statement, if true, however little it may add to the "auditor's report," is all-sufficient for the ques- tion at issue. If it is true, as alleged, that "both forms of indebtedness are in contemplation of the constitution bond forms of obligation," then it fol- lows, as a matter of course, that in that same con- templation of the constitution there was no change of the investment of the assets of the school fund, and all inquiry as to the constitutionality of *such a transaction is more than idle — it is absurd. But we are also informed by the sentence preceding the one that contains this assertion that notwithstand- ing this identity of the two forms there actually was a change. It is this peculiarity of the "little" that his excellency found to add to the report of the auditor — that there was and there was not a change at one and the same time of the assets of the school 44 SCHOOL FUND INVESTMENT VOID. fund — that makes it necessary for us to look a little further into this subject. Nor can we be deterred from this by the fact that no political party has ever mentioned the subject in a convention, deeming it, as we do, not merely the privilege, but the solemn duty of every citizen, how- ever humble he may be, to keep himself informed in regard to public affairs, and also to add his mite to the information of the public to the extent of his ability. Besides, while his excellency seems to claim the calling of public attention to public affairs, as the exclusive prerogative of party conventions, he ought to remember that the discussion of this subject grew out of the claim, by the party that nominated him, in solemn convention assembled, that they had reduced the debt of the state "until only $2,637,000 remained to be paid." It was this statement, presented to the public with all the solemnity which his excellency seems to require, that was called in question by the editor of the State Republican, in a speech at Galla- tin, Mo., Dockery's own town, during the last cam- paign. He showed, or attempted to show, that this claim was not true and could not be true, according to the evidence of the public documents in the hands of the people, furnished by that very party itself, unless they intended to repudiate their obligations to the public school fund of the state. Gov. Dockery will remember that neither he nor his party claimed at the time "that certificate and bond were in con- templation of the constitution bond forms of obli- gation," for if they or he had so claimed, what would have become of their other claim "that only $2,637,000 remains to be paid," when in truth and fact the sum would have amounted to $7,034,294.83. It is, therefore, evident that even if his excellency's claim of exclusive prerogative on behalf of party con- 45 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. ventions be allowed, still, even in that case, the in- truder could not, in common fairness, be charged with impertinence or arrogance and denied a further hearing. It was the convention that nominated Mr. Dockery that lied in its platform, and the extent of the editor's offense was that he did not believe that lie, nor intend that it should mislead the public un- challenged. Nor is he to be deterred by this afterthought of his excellency that "in contemplation of the consti- tution" there was no change in the investment of the assets of the school fund, however clearly that con- templation may be in contradiction of his own party platform when it states the sum total of the bonded indebtedness still to be paid at $2,637,000; for, in fair- ness to the democratic party, it ought to be reminded that it could not know at that time what its candi- date's contemplation might make of the constitution a whole year afterward. All they claimed was that they had reduced a debt of $21,788,000 to $2,637,000 by economic administration of public affairs. They could not know that their candidate, when drawn in a corner by the question: "What became of the assets of the school fund?'' would deem it the shortest way out to say that it had been merged with the bonded debt of the state, and that in contemplation of the constitution, the convention either did not know what it was talking about, or did not care; that in point of fact, the bonded debt consisted, at the time the con- vention spoke, of $7,034,294.53, instead of $2,637,000; that the bonded debt was not reduced to $2,637,000 by economic administration of public affairs, but by tak- ing $4,397,294.53, minus $3,445.96, out of the school and seminary funds, leaving a deficit in these two funds, as witnessed by certificates of indebtedness, of $4,393,539.43. 46 SCHOOL FUND INVESTMENT VOID. Now, whoever may be correct in this contention between the convention and its creature, his present excellency, one thing, the editor believes, is perfectly correct, and that is that the present assets of the state school fund consist not of $3,158,937.40, but of the magnificent sum of $973.40 in the currency of the realm, and a deficit of $3,150,000, and this, we be lieve, not because the present auditor says so in his statement, vouched for by Chicago and New York experts, but because the democratic general assembly did, in the year of our Lord, 1901, submit an amend- ment to the constitution asking the people to vote upon themselves a tax of three cents on the $100 to make good this deficit. For the same reason we do also believe that the assets of the seminary fund consist not of the sum of $1,238,321.48, but of the sum of $2,482.06, and evidences of a deficit for the balance —that is, for $1,235,839.42. While we believe this for the reason stated, we do not believe that the deficits in the assets of the school and seminary funds amounting to $4,393,589.43, were used to redeem bonds of the state, or in the reduction of the bonded debt of the state; nor that the funds ever had assets con- sisting in bonds of the state to that amount, and for this belief we have nothing to offer but the state- ment of the present auditor, vouched for, of course, as stated above, and the act of March 31, 1883. 47 DOCKERY-ALLEN-EXPERT EXHIBIT. STATE DEBT INCREASED $1,132,720 BY DEMO- (RATS IN VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION ' BY THEIR OWN RECORD. That Amount of Debt Certificates in Excess of What Sinking Received From School Fund. TNT OTHER WORDS, OVER SI, 133,000 SCHOOL FUND ASSETS WERE NOT USED TO CANCEL STATE BONDS. Constitutional Violations by the Executive Department of the State Government. The Executive Department of the state government consists, under the constitution, of a governor, lieu- tenant governor, secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer, attorney general and superintendent of public schools. When inducted into office the sev- eral members of the executive department named take an oath to support the constitution. The organic law of the state also requires that they shall make "under oath" semi-annual reports of "all moneys and choses in action disbursed, or otherwise disposed of by them," to the governor. The constitution makes it perjury to violate an oath of office or to make a false official report. (See sec. 22, art. 5.) The constitution of Missouri does not provide that a record of the financial transactions of the state shall be made, kept or passed upon by New York or Chicago "experts," employed without the authority of law by the governor of Missouri. The constitution, however, does prescribe such- regulations governing 48 DOCKERY-ALLEN-EXPERT EXHIBIT. the receipt and expenditure of public moneys that not one dollar can be paid out of the state treasury except upon a warrant signed by the state auditor. Therefore, if the constitution is obeyed, the auditor's reports will contain a full and complete record of all the financial transactions of the state government. Any record short of this is a false report and a viola- tion of the constitution. It seems, however, that the all-wise Governor A. M. Doekery declares over his signature, in a docu- ment entitled "Missouri Finances," or "Complete Ex- hibit" of receipts and disbursements of public moneys, by the Dockery-Allen-New York-Chicago expert firm, that "state auditors' reports do not include all of the state's financial transactions" and that "this must be apparent to the merest tyro in bookkeeping." (See page 30, "Missouri Finances," Nov. 2, 1901.) DOCKERY-ALLEN-EXPERT REPORT. Passing over this revelation and Mr. Dockery's con- viction of the state auditor for the moment, turn to page 36, same public document, prepared and pub- lished under oath. The State Republican some time ago expressed the editor's belief that the amount of money due to the school and seminary funds is cor- rectly stated so far as the face of the auditor's books are concerned, because the people are asked to tax themselves to pay these amounts by the constitutional amendment now pending for ratification; but he also stated that he did not believe that these funds, school and seminary, ever held securities or moneys to that amount, the cancellation and acceptance of which justified this demand, and that for this want of faith he had no further evidence than the say-so of Capt. A. O. Allen, of New Madrid. The say-so of Mr. Allen referred to occurs in his recent utterance, variously designated by his excellency as a report, review or 49 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. statement, under the head-line, "Bonded debt reduced by transfer to sinking fund." (See page 35, "Missouri Finances.") He says "no state bonds have been taken up under the act of March 21, 1883, and it is proper to explain that while this act does not require the school and seminary fund moneys, for which certificates of in- debtedness are issued, to be placed in the sinking fund and used for the reduction of the bonded debt, it has evidently been the settled policy of the various administrations since the passage and approval of the act not to issue certificates in excess of the amount of money transferred from the school fund, seminary fund or revenue fund to the sinking fund to pay off bonds so that the state debt be not increased in vio- lation of the constitution. An inspection of the books of this department shows that the following sums of money have been transferred from the funds just mentioned to the sinking fund and used for the reduc- tion of the bonded debt since the passage of the act of March 31, 1883: From the revenue fund $ 568,000 00 From the school fund 225,000 00 From the seminary fund 674,958 23 Total amount transferred to sinking fund. $1,467,958 23 According to these figures the sum total transferred from the school and seminary funds to the sinking fund is $899,958.23. It will be noticed that this covers the period from March 31, 1883, to January 1, 1901. During this period Mr. Allen informs us after- wards that certificates of indebtedness were issued as follows: 50 DOCKERY-ALLEN-EXPERT EXHIBIT. To the school fund $ 249,000 00 To the seminary fund 444,000 00 To the seminary fund , 646,958 23 To the seminary fund . 22,881 19 Sum total for which certificates were is- sued to these two funds $1,362,839 42 Deduct assets alleged to have been re- ceived from the school and seminary funds 899,958 23 And we have left as the amount for which certificates were issued to these funds in excess of what they were entitled to $ 462,88119 DEBT INCREASED $1,132,720. But this is not all. Mr. Allen also states "that the only certificates to the seminary fund not issued to the seminary fund under the act referred to (the act of March 31, 1883) were two, one for $646,958.23, under the act of March 26, 1891, providing that the direct tax money refunded by the United States (to the State of Missouri) be placed to the credit of the seminary fund and a certificate of indebtedness be issued therefor; and the other for $22,881.19, under the act of April 2, 1895, entitled: "An act to restore to the seminary fund the expenses incurred in the superintendence and sale of the lands disposed of for the benefit of said fund and the distribution of the proceeds of said sale." As the time when these certificates were issued falls within the period covered by the operation of the transfers of the assets of the funds, school and seminary, to the sinking fund, that is, between March 31, 1883, and January 1, 1901, we are bound to regard these two items as included in the sum of assets, $899,958.23, transferred from these funds to the sink- ing fund during that period, and the question arises: 51 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. In what manner did the $646,958.23 become an asset of the sinking fund and chargeable as derived or transferred from the seminary fund? The $646,958.19 was money in the treasury collected from the United States for direct taxes paid by the citizens of Missouri. The issuing of a certificate of indebtedness for this amount was, therefore, a direct, gratuitous gift to the seminary fund, or state uni- versity, and not a conversion of assets of that fund from one form to another. So the certificate for $22,- 881.19 was in discharge of a claim for the expenses of the management of the fund, which when allowed was chargeable, as current expenses of the govern- ment, to the revenue fund, and the issuance of a certificate for this amount is the issuance of a certifi- cate of indebtedness for that amount of the current expenses of the state government. The presenting of these two amounts as assets of the seminary fund, available for the payment of "bonded debt," is, therefore, a subterfuge well cal- culated to cover up the real character of the tranac- tion. But the $646,958.23 was money in the treasury available to pay bonds without the issuance of a cer- tificate of indebtedness therefor, and when the gen- eral assembly ordered that this money should be credited to the seminary fund, it neither received nor pretended to receive anything in return for that money from that fund, and when it ordered a certifi- cate of indebtedness to be issued for this gift, it amounted to nothing more than the borrowing back the state's own money — or a free gift of a certificate of indebtedness to the seminary fund, and the means of the state to pay bonded debt remained the same that they were before the transaction. Again, the $22,281.19 could only become a legitimate asset of the seminary fund when paid out of the revenue fund. As there is not even an allegation to 52 DOOKBRY- ALLEN-EXPERT EXHIBIT. this effect, it could not legitimately figure in the question: "What was the amount of assets received from, and what the amount for which certificates of indebtedness were issued to these funds? Hence, to arrive at a true result, we have to deduct the aggre- gate of these two items, namely, the $646,958.23 and the $22,851.19, from the total amount of assets alleged to have been transferred to the sinking fund from the school and seminary funds, thus: Transferred from school and seminary to sinking fund $ 899,958 23 Certificates issued to seminary fund 669,839 42 True amount of assets transferred from school and seminary funds to sinking fund $ 230,118 81 Total certificates of indebtedness issued.. $1,362,839 42 True amount of assets transferred to sink- ing fund from school and seminary funds 230,118 81 Excess of certificates issued over amount of assets derived from school and seminary funds for sinking fund $1,132,720 61 • In other words, the bonded debt of the state has been increased in violation of the constitution to the amount of $1,132,720.61, according to the report fur- nished the people under oath by Mr. Allen, indorsed and vouched for by his excellency, Mr. Dockery. Of course, in view of these figures furnished by Mr. Allen, we could not believe that the means to pay state bonds, whether by transfer to the sinking funds or in any other manner, obtained from the school and seminary funds were equal in amount to the certifi- cates of indebtedness alleged to have been issued for this means by Mr. Allen. Will Alexander M. Dockery, Capt. A. O. Alien or the New York-Chicago experts explain the foregoing item that is in the state auditor's report? 53 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. MR. DOCKERY'S AMAZING INNOCENCE. What the Constitution and Statutes Provide as to "Au- ditor's Reports" and What Missouri's Governor Does Not Know. The people of Missouri have been under the im- pression for some years that they employed a person called "auditor of state," whose special duty it is to keep account of the financial operations of their gov- ernment and to report to them from time to time the results. They prohibited the disbursement of a single dollar of their public moneys without his knowledge and special written consent — his warrant; and they required of him to' make reports of these transactions: First, to the governor; second, to the general assem- bly, and third, to themselves; to the governor month- ly and as often as he may require; to the general as- sembly, "at the commencement of each regular ses- sion," and to the people themselves, annually, or once a year (Sec. 10,385, R. S„ 1899). They supply him with such material and assistance as he may require, and have rested secure in the be- lief that they have provided themselves and their representatives, both legislative and executive, with a source of information in regard to the financial affairs of the state at once authentic and reliable. This belief was entertained and this impression pre- vailed ever since the people organfzed a government of their own. And now comes A. M. Dockery, in the year of our Lord, A. D. 1901, and says, over his own signature as governor, that any tyro in bookkeeping ought to know "that these reports (of the state auditor) do not include all of the state's financial operations." 54 DOCKERY-ALLEN-EXPERT EXHIBIT. Of course, what a tyro in bookkeeping ought or ought not to know, or what he might be reasonably expected to know, are questions of a purely specula- tive nature — a little or no concern to the people at large; but in view of the prevailing impression above mentioned, it would, be of decided interest to find out what financial operations of the state there were, are or can be that do not involve receipts into or disbursements from the state treasury. THE PEOPLE'S LAW. The people have provided both by organic and statutory law: First, "that all revenue collected or money received by the state from any source whatever shall go into the treasury." Second, "that no money shall be drawn from the treasury except in pursuance of regular appropria- tions made by law." Third, "upon warrants drawn by the state auditor, and not otherwise." Now, if all the money received by the state from any source whatever shall go into the treasury, and no money shall go out of that treasury except upon an appropriation by law and on auditor's warrants, and the auditor is required, as he is by law (see act above cited), "to publish annually an accurate ac- count of all receipts and expenditures of public moneys," then the question arises: What is the char- acter of the state's financial operations that can be omitted from the auditor's reports without violation of law? Again, if the financial operations of the state, re- ferred to, are of a character that they do not affect the operations of the state treasury one way or an- 55 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. other, and may thus be omitted from the auditor's reports without violation of law, pray, what relevancy have they to the question at issue — namely, the re- liability, the trustworthiness of the information fur- nished to the people concerning their financial affairs by the official reports emanating from the state au- ditor's office? Now, if the assertion of Mr. Dockery, that any tyro in bookkeeping ought to know that the "auditor's reports" do not include all of the state's financial operations, means anything in relation to this question beyond an idle assertion, it must mean that the in- formation conveyed by these reports to the people and their representatives, both legislative and execu- tive, is insufficient because incomplete, its validity is impeached, the people's confidence so long reposed in this source of information is destroyed, and there is nothing left for their political guidance except Mr. A. M. Dockery's say-so! 56 STATE FUNDS MISAPPROPRIATED. INTEREST FUND MISUSED IN PAYMENT OF IN- TEREST ON UNCONSTITUTIONAL DEBT CERTIFICATES. State Bonded Debt Perpetuated Indefinitely as Well as Two-Fifths of State Tax. School Fund Contains $973.40 in View of the Proposed Constitutional Amendment. The controversy between official documents on the one side and partisan assertions on the other has •enabled the editor to present the proof of the correct- ness of the position heretofore assumed by the State Republican, that the party in power has misappro- priated the trust funds placed in its charge during the last twenty-five years. Of course, the state fiscal officers, including the fund commissioners, as well as the legislature, are proved guilty by the official records. In a statement signed by A. *M. Dockery, governor, that appeared in the State Republican of November, 8, 1901, there occurs the following item: "Interest on school and seminary certificates, $4,970, 436.27." This amount is alleged to have been paid out of the state interest fund during the thirty years ending- December 31, 1900. The fund here referred to was practically created by section 14, article 11, of the constitution of 1875, which reads as follows: ' 'The tax authorized by the sixth section of the ordinance adopted June 6, 1865, is hereby abolished; and hereafter 57 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. there shall be levied and collected an annual tax sufficient to pay the accruing interest upon the bonded debt of the state, and to reduce the principal thereof each year by a sum not less than $250 000, the proceeds of which tax shall be paid into the state treasury and appropriated and paid out for the purposes expressed in the first and second subdivision of section 43, article 4, of this consti- tution. The funds and resources now in the state interest and sinking funds shall be appropriated to the same pur- pose, and whenever said debt is extinguished, or a sum sufficient therefor has been raised, the tax provided for in this section shall cease to be assessed." First and second subdivision of section 43, article 4, referred to above, reads as follows: "First— For the payment of all interest upon the bonded debt of the state that may become due during the term for which each general assembly is elected." "Second— For the benefit of the sinking fund, which shall not be less annually than $250,000." In addition to this we find section 8 in the lan- guage following: ' 'Until the general assembly shaU make provision for the payment of the state and railroad indebtedness of the state, in pursuance of section 14, article 10, of this constitution, there shall be levied and collected an annual tax of one-fifth of one per centum on all real estate and other property and effects, subject to taxation, the pro- ceeds of which shall be applied to the payment of the interest on the bonded debt of this state, as it matures, and the surplus, if any, shall be paid into the sinking fund, and thereafter applied to the payment of such in- debtedness and to no other purpose." By these several provisions the people of Missouri authorize the levying of a tax upon themselves for a specific purpose, namely, for the payment of interest and principal of the bonded debt of the state, and for no oth6r. They also provide, explicitly, that the atithor- ity to levy this tax shall cease as soon as this purpose is accomplished, "or a sum sufficient therefor has been raised." STATE FUNDS MISAPPROPRIATED. Of course, it requires no argument to show that the use of this money for some other purpose than the one here so definitely expressed, such as the payment of interest upon school certificates of indebtedness, is a misappro- priation ; nor yet, that the effect of this misappropriation is to prolong- the time that the people will be subject to this tax. In other words, the people are paying 1 cents on the $100 valuation, have paid it for years and will continue to pay it indefinitely in the face of the direct and explicit command in their own constitution, that "this tax shall cease to be assessed whenever said debt (state bonded) is extinguished," which would have been done many years ago if the interest tax had been honestly applied to the purpose for which the people in their constitution created it, and to no other. GOV. DOCKERY'S "MISTAKES. The Taxpayer's Dilemma When the Auditor's Books are Untrustworthy. In a speech at Macon, while the controversy over the auditor's reports and alleged "discrepancies" was pending, Governor Dockery admitted that Democratic state administrations had made mistakes. Referring to these "mistakes/' a Macon "taxpayer," writing in the State Republican under date of October 23, said: "I made a miss-take!" as the pickpocket said when his hand was caught in another man's pocket. "No, you didn't, for I caught you at it; but you intended to, no doubt!" "We have made miss-takes in the records of our transactions, but the transactions themselves are all right." How do you know? From memory? "We made miss-takes by putting the people's money in the wrong pocket; that is all. But we did it honestly!" 59 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. "We made mistakes." Yes, some few. (See the record of the general assembly during the last 17 years, on preceding pages of the State Republican Campaign Book.) "We made mistakes, but then the people will con- tinue to pay ten cents on the hundred dollars, from year to year, until our miss-takes are made good." "We made miss-takes in the books!" And how are you — how are we, the people — to find out among other matters, when the constitutional tax of ten cents on the hundred dollars ceases to be a lawful ono, ceases to be constitutional, and becomes unconstitu- tional? The language of that instrument is: And whenever said bonded debt is extinguished, or a sum sufficient therefore has been raised, the tax provided for in this section shall cease to be assessed. (Sec. 14, art. 10.) "We know the bonds are not as yet paid, but what about the alternative condition? Has 'a sufficient sum sufficient therefor been raised?' The books alone can answer this question, and as they are un- trustworthy, what is your recollection about this? The public knows that your actions evinced consid- erable attention to the public affairs of the state dur- ing the 16 years next preceding your election, so- ealled — that is, your being counted into the office of governor by the non-contestable Stephens-Nesbit ma- chine, the crank of which you placed in the hands of James J. Seibert. This act alone would show that you kept track of things at home, although a thou- sand miles away, serving the people by drawing your pay with the utmost regularity from the national treasury. Still, whether your duties in that connec- tion permitted you to keep your eye on things in Missouri close enough to justify us in substi hating your recollections for a properly-kept set of books, such as the people have provided for in their con- stitution and laws, and paid for out of their pockets. 60 STATE FUNDS MISAPPROPRIATED. must in all fairness admit of question by those citi- zens who were on the spot, heard and saw what was going on from day to day. Nay, they remember that during the very period in question, when these mistakes were made, the persons then in charge of the state government themselves deemed it necessary to perform the ancient Jewish rite of sending a scape- goat into the wilderness. This ceremony, of course, evinced a consciousness of sin, and is in direct con- tradition of your recollection — "We made mistakes, but did not steal." You will, therefore, see the diffi- culty of the citizens in accepting your recollections in regard to the important question — 'When does the tax of ten cents on the hundred dollars cease?" MISUSE OF STATE TRUST EU1VDS. AUDITORS' REPORTS SHOW COSTLY JUGGLING OF PEOPLE'S MONEY IN VIOLATION OF LAW. Revenue and Interest Funds Applied Indiscrimin- ately and People's Pnrpose and Will Defeated. Bonded Debt Perpetuated Together With Two-Fifths of State Tax to Pay Interest and Principal. Misuse or misapplication of state trust funds, created for a specific purpose and no other by the constitution, when the act of a state official who is a member of the executive department of the state government, is a direct violation of the constitution, which such official is sworn to obey in the discharge of his duties. The last State Republican Campaign Book (pages 20 and 61 to 75) contained proof of the "juggling of the several special funds in the state treasury, made sacred and inviolate by the constitution for purposes other than prescribed by the constitution." This proof is reproduced in this book in the following paragraphs, prepared by John T. Clarke, of Jefferson City: STATE REVENUE FUND. Section 8 of article 10 of the state constitution pro- vides as follows: "The state tax on property, EXCLUSIVE OF THE TAX NECESSARY TO PAY THE BONDED DEBT OF THE STATE, shall not exceed 20 cents on the $100 valuation; and whenever the taxable property of the state shall amount to $900,000,000, the rate shall not exceed 15 cents." 62 MISUSE OF STATE FUNDS. The assessed valuation of real estate and personal property has for years largely exceeded $900,000,000, and consequently the state revenue tax now levied and collected is 15 cents on $100 valuation. The proceeds derived from this tax, from corpora- tion taxes, fees, licenses of every character and all moneys paid into the state treasury which are not required by law to be placed to the credit of some other fund, are credited to the state revenue fund. All appropriations made by the general assembly for current expenses of the state government are paid out of this fund. These appropriations include salaries of officers, clerks and employes; pay and contingent expenses of the general assembly; costs in criminal cases; assessing and collecting the revenue; construction, maintenance and repair of state institu- tions; contingent expenses of the various departments; printing, stationery and all manner of current expen- ses pertaining to the state government. No other fund in the state treasury can be LAW- FULLY used in paying any of these expenses. The condition of the state revenue fund for June, July and August, 1899, as shown by the monthly reports of the state treasurer to the governor, is sub- mitted as follows: Balances on Receipts Disbursements first day of during during the month, the month. the month. June $302,132 37 $141,312 30 $87,149 17 July 356,295 50 77,329 62 August 433,625 12 165,506 80 537,84170 Balance Sept. 1, 1899 $61,290 22 To the casual reader these dull figures impart no startling information, but to one having knowledge of the laws controlling disbursements from the state treasury they disclose an utter disregard of these 63 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. laws and a most shameful "JUGGLING" of state funds. Now, then, we find from the treasurer's report that in July. 1899, not one dollar was paid out of the state revenue fund for any purpose whatsoever! Iu view of the vast and never-ceasing liabilities of the revenue fund that was surely a WONDERFUL REPORT. Were the people to be informed through this report that the state government was without expenses in July? That executive and judicial officers, clerks and employes were not paid their salaries in that month? That our educational, eleemosynary and penal institu- tions were maintained free of cost? That nothing- was paid for costs in criminal cases, for assessing and collecting the revenue, for printing and stationery and a thousand contingent expenses? Certainly not. Warrants were issued by the state auditor for all these expenses and they AVERE PAID, but in their PAYMENT FROM OTHER FUNDS IN THE STATE TREASURY, the constitution and laws of Missouri were trampled upon by the state treasurer. The treasurer's report for August is no less astonish- ing than that of July, for it likewise shows that in August, 1899, NOT ONE DOLLAR WAS DIS- BURSED FROM THE STATE REVENUE FUND for current expenses of the state. A disbursement of $537,841.70 is shown to have been made in August, but this disbursement repre- sented simply A TRANSFER to state school moneys of that sum, said transfer being a part of one-third of the ordinary revenue receipts appropriated by the general assembly for (lie support of free public schools. The report shows that the fund known as state school moneys was credited, in that month, with $537,841.70, the amount of said transfer from the state revenue fund. 64 MISUSE OF STATE FUNDS. By his own reports, the state treasurer stands con- victed of unlawfully using moneys belonging to other funds in cashing auditor's warrants drawn against the state revenue fund. MORE JUGGLING. The apportionment of state school moneys made July 31, 1899, to the several counties in the state of Missouri amounted to $923,950.36, and, as certified to by the state superintendent of public schools, was derived from the following sources: One-third of the ordinary receipts into the revenue fund from July 1, 1898, to June 30, 1899, inclusive $737,841 70 Interest on school fund certificates 186,090 00 Refunded errors in enumeration by J. O. Welch, treasurer of Cedar county 18 66 Total apportionment $923,950 36 It will be observed that one-third of the receipts into the state revenue fund, from July 1, 1898, to June 30, 1899, as certified to by the state superintendent of public schools, amounted to $737,841.70, whereas the amount transferred in August, as shown by the treas- urer's report, was $537,841.70, or $200,000 less than the amount that should have been transferred. The revenue fund had been squandered in meeting wilful extravagance of the fortieth general assembly, and, notwithstanding the treasurer had not disbursed a dollar from it for current expenses during the months of July and August, it was still short $200,000 of the amount necessary to be transferred to state school moneys and had to its credit only $61,290.22 on the first day of September. STATE INTEREST FUND. The state interest fund tax is levied for the sole purpose of paying interest on the bonded debt and 65 5 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. for the redemption of outstanding bonds. It is au- thorized by section 14 of article 10 of the constitution, which reads as follows: "Hereafter there shall be levied and collected an annual tax sufficient to pay the accruing interest upon the bonded debt of the state, and to reduce the prin- cipal thereof each year by a sum not less than $250,- 000; the proceeds of which tax shall be paid into the state treasury, and appropriated and paid out for the purposes expressed in the first and second subdi- visions of section 43 of article 4 of this constitution. The funds and resources now in the state interest and state sinking funds shall be appropriated to the same purposes; and whenever said bonded debt is extin- guished, or a sum sufficient therefor has been raised, the tax provided for in this section SHALL CEASE TO BE ASSESSED." The purposes expressed in the first and second subdivisions of section 43 or article 4 referred to above are as follows: "First. For the payment of all interest upon the bonded debt of the state that may become due dur- ing the term for which each general assembly is elected. "Second. For the benefit of the state sinking fund, which shall not be less annually than $250,000." STATUTORY PROVISIONS. The statutory provisions concerning the state in- terest fund tax are the following: "Hereafter there shall be levied and collected an annual tax upon all the taxable property in the state of one-tenth of one percent to pay the accruing in- terest upon the bonded debt of the state, and to reduce the principal thereof each year by a sum of not less than $250,000, the proceeds of which tax shall be paid into the treasury and DISBURSED BY THE 66 MISUSE OP STATE FUNDS. AUDITOR AND TREASURER FOR THE PUR- POSES FOR WHICH IT WAS COLLECTED, AND NO OTHER, in the following order: "First. For the payment of all interest upon the bonded debt of the state as it falls due; and second, for the benefit of the sinking fucd, which shall not be less, annually, than $250,000." SECTION 8651, R. S. 1889. FAITH OF THE STATE PLEDGED. "The proceeds of the tax mentioned in the pre- ceding section * * * shall constitute and be known as the "Interest Fund" and the "Sinking- Fund, " and the general assembly hereby pledges the public faith of the state of Missouri that the fund hereby created SHALL NOT BE DIVERTED OR APPLIED TO ANY OTHER PURPOSE WHATSO- EVER until the principal and interest of all the state bonds SHALL BE FULLY PAID AND REDEEMED IN GOOD FAITH." SECTION 8652, R. S. 1889. "Any surplus remaining in the state interest fund, after the interest on the bonded indebtedness of the state for the current year shall have been fully paid, shall be set apart and credited to the sinking fund, for the payment of the bonded obligations of the state that are now due or may hereafter become due, or for the purchase of bonds of the state, AND FOR NO OTHER PURPOSE WHATSOEVER." SECTION 9654 3 11. S. 1899. DIVERSION OF THE INTEREST FUND. The wholesale diversion of moneys belonging to the state interest fund did not begin until 1887, during 67 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. the administration of James M. Seibert as state treasurer. Proof of the crime may * be found in the hand- writing of the guilty parties and is published in the auditor's reports from 1887 to the present time. Before presenting the evidence, as found in the auditor's reports, bear in mind that the state levies, for all purposes, a tax of 25 cents on each $100 as- sessed valuation. Of this tax 15 cents is collected and paid into the state treasury for the benefit of the state revenue fund, and 10 cents for the payment of interest accruing on the public debt and for the re- tirement of the same. When, therefore, one pays state taxes on real estate or personal property, assessed at $1,000, he places to the credit of the state revenue fund $1.50, while $1 goes to the credit of the state interest fund. It follows that of all state taxes remitted by col- lectors to the state treasurer, two-fifths of the amounts so remitted should be placed to the credit of the state fund. SEIBERT' S ADMINISTRATION. On page 188 of the state auditor's report for 1887-88, we find that in May, 1887, James M. Seibert, as state treasurer, placed $99,043.10 to the credit of the state revenue fund, while the state interest fund was credited with only $3,403.06; in June — revenue fund $80,784.99, interest fund $121.09; in July— revenue fund $232,420.18, interest fund $711.15; in August- revenue fund $94,117.10, interest fund, $387.45; in September— revenue fund $218,869.74, interest fund NOTHING; in June, 1888; revenue fund $36,732.30, interest fund $8,547.88; in July— revenue fund $33,760.- 58, interest fund $1,106.38; in August— revenue fund, $39,574.32, interest fund NOTHING; in September— MISUSE OF STATE FUNDS. revenue fund $204,750, interest fund NOTHING; in October— revenue fund $119,159.28, interest fund, NOTHING. ADMINISTRATION OF LON V. STEPHENS. March 12, 1890, by appointment of Governor Fran- cis, Hon. Lon V. Stephens succeeded Ed T. Noland as state treasurer, and in 1892 was elected to that office. His term as state treasurer lasted about six years and nine months. In May, 1890, Treasurer Stephens was pleased to credit the revenue fund with $56,821.08, and the in- terest fund with $3,499.98; in June— revenue fund $51,- 083.59, interest fund NOTHING; in July— revenue fund $69,393.45, interest fund NOTHING; in August —revenue fund $80,660.36, interest fund NOTHING; in September — revenue fund $215,043.45, interest fund NOTHING. In May, 1891— revenue fund $50,721.66, _ interest fund $4,837.56; in June— revenue fund $44,845.17, in- terest fund $452.41; in July— revenue fund $77,057.98, interest fund $55.41; in August— revenue fund $111,- 226.37, interest fund $145.52; in September— revenue fund $177,075.58, interest fund NOTHING; in Octo- ber—revenue fund $162,564.59, interest fund NOTH- ING. In May, 1892— revenue fund $51,387.82, interest fund $3,022.76; in June — revenue fund $41,519.85, in- terest fund $159.95; in July— revenue fund $68,986.64, interest fund $184.10; in August— revenue fund $149,- 764.59, interest fund $168.27; in September — revenue, fund $135,090.14, interest fund $15.39. In May, 1893— revenue fund $46,990.22, interest fund $1,757.49; in June— revenue fund $44,984.13, in- terest fund $1,550.70; in July— revenue fund $59,- 025.65, interest fund $349.23; in August— revenue fund 69 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. $107,885.49, interest fund $12.29; in September— rev- enue fund $167,756.21, interest fund NOTHING; in October— revenue fund $170,440.23, interest fund NOTHING; in November— revenue fund $130,988.03, interest fund $3.14. In May, 1894— revenue fund $47,792.89, interest fund $1,023.38; in June— revenue fund, $40,505.21, interest fund $636.62; in July— revenue fund $63,051.84, interest fund $47.06; in August — revenue fund $117,- 630.12, interest fund $83.15; in September-^revenue fund $245,187.08, interest fund $28.54; in October- revenue fund $170,431.48, interest fund NOTHING. In May, 1895— revenue fund $52,257.76, interest fund $5,834.20; in June— revenue fund $44,610.82, in- terest fund $190.62; in July— revenue fund $203,872.57, interest fund $219.18; in August— revenue fund $112,- 594.31, interest fund NOTHING; in September— rev- enue fund $235,894.19, interest fund NOTHING; in October— revenue fund $137,531.53, interest fund NOTHING; in November— revenue fund $130,686.13, interest fund $10.32. In May, 1896— revenue fund $71,865.61, interest fund $1,886.78; in June— revenue fund $61,920.80, in- terest fund $1,403.36; in July— revenue fund $74,583.96, interest fund $59.89; in August — revenue fund $115,- 934.12, interest fund $10.10; in September — revenue fund $218,164.55, interest fund NOTHING; in Octo- ber—revenue fund $75,181.05, interest fund NOTH- ING; in November— revenue fund $116,796.82, interest fund NOTHING. See reports of state auditor for 1889-90, page 210; 1891-92, page 208; 1893-94, page 228, and j.895-96, pages 241 and 245. ADMINISTRATION OF FRANK L. PITTS. In May, 1897, State Treasurer Pitts placed to the credit of the state revenue fund $103,341.83, and 70 MISUSE OF STATE FUNDS. credited the interest fund with $7,730.16; in June- revenue fund $49,506.69, interest fund $2.01; in July- revenue fund $110,150.68, interest fund, $1.56; in August— revenue fund $126,002.15, interest fund NOTHING; in September— revenue fund $327,578.44, interest fund $424.57; in October— revenue fund $110,- 287.77, interest fund NOTHING; in November— rev- enue fund $112,686.23, interest fund $10.15; in Decem- ber—revenue fund $617,817.36, interest fund $60,000. In May, 1898— revenue fund $73,409.01, interest fund $2,920.65; in June— revenue fund $48,222.91; in- terest fund $2,039.27; in July— revenue fund $68,153.15, interest fund $436.21; in August — revenue fund $166,- 944.59, interest fund $38.55; in September — revenue fund $327,400.21, interest fund NOTHING; in October —revenue fund $101,907.97, interest fund NOTHING; in November — revenue fund $117,759.87, interest fund NOTHING. See auditor's report for 1897-98, pages 212 and 216. GUILT CONFESSED. In April, 1899, in an interview published in many of the leading newspapers throughout the state, Gov- ernor Stephens made the following confession: "There is no reason why the state treasurer should be required to continually violate the law and assume the responsibility of paying warrants drawn upon a depleted fund with funds intended for other pur- poses. * * * I served as treasurer for seven years, and was compelled to technically violate the law often. * * * It was done by all of my predecessors. * * * If I were still state treas- urer I would pursue the same policy." As a matter of information, the governor's con- fession was wholly unnecessary, because, as shown above, the books of the state auditor established his guilt beyond a question. 71 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. Governor Stephens not only confesses that he vio- lated the constitution and laws while state treasurer, but goes further and charges the same crime against all of his predecessors in office. The governor says: "I served as state treasurer for seven years and was compelled to technically violate the law often. * * * It was done by all of my predecessors." We shall attempt no defense of those who preceded Governor Stephens 'in the treasurer's office, but we do affirm that prior to 1887 there was no such bare- faced juggling of the state interest fund as occurred during his administration. In support of this statement, we challenge the gov- ernor TO NAME ONE SINGLE MONTH during the administration of Harvey W. Salmon, in 1873-74; of J. W. Mercer, in 1875-76; of Elijah Gates, in 1877- 78-79 and 1880; and of Phil E. Chappell, in 1881-82- 83-84, in which the state interest fund FAILED TO BE CREDITED WITH RECEIPTS. Yet the state auditor's reports show that, in less than seven years while Governor Stephens was treasurer, no less than fifteen months passed without a cent being placed to the credit of the state interest fund, and in six months it was credited with only ?79.78! Governor Stephens is the first state official of Mis- souri who ever made a public confession that he had violated the constitution and laws which he had taken a solemn oath- to support. His seven years' continued juggling of the state interest fund certainly entitles him to whatever notoriety may attach to such con- fessed lawlessness. GREAT LOSS BY THE STATE. Long-continued misapplication of moneys belonging to the state interest fund has resulted in great loss to the state by reason of the fact that interest on out- 72 MISUSE OF STATE FUNDS. standing bonds has been permitted to accumulate, when such bonds should have been called in for re- demption and interest thereon stopped. On the first day of January, 1899, the bonded debt of Missouri amounted to $3,642,000. These bonds bear 3% per cent interest, and all of them have been redeemable at the pleasure of the state since January 1. 1893. The monthly reports of State Treasurer Pitts, made to the governor in 1899, show balances in the state interest and state sinking fund as follows: June 1 $1,034,304 63 July 1 954,264 95 August 1 963,826 34 September 1 997,568 29 In addition to the balance September 1, 1899, the state interest fund should have received large amounts from the tax books of 1899 collected in September, October, November and December of that year. As shown by the auditor's report of 1899, page 5, no. bonds were redeemed until the last day of that year, when the number paid amounted to only $795,- 000. An act approved April 12, 1899, appropriated $1,- 500,000 for the redemption of outstanding bonds. From the date of that appropriation (which should have been made in the first days of the session) to January 1, 1900, the state of Missouri lost interest on nearly $1,000,000, because of the failure of the fund commissioners to use these balances in the re- tirement of bonds. Every conception of business, of official duty and of the public welfare demanded that every surplus dol- lar in the interest fund should have been used in the redemption of bonds LONG BEFORE, to the end that accruing interest thereon might cease. 73 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. This is only ONE instance, but in it we see that "juggling"- of state funds not only leads to violation of official oaths, but to great loss of money by the state. SOME SHADY FACTS. It was known of all men familiar with state finan- ces that in the spring and summer of 1899 there was not a dollar in the state treasury which could be LAWFULLY USED in cashing warrants drawn against the revenue fund to pay current expenses of the state government. The public schools were entitled to one-third of all the ordinary receipts into the revenue fund from July 1, 1898, to June 30, 1899, and, when the apportion- ment was made in July, it has been shown that this fund was then short $200,000 of the amount due the public schools! Monthly reports of the state treasurer discloses the marvelous fact that, in July and August, 1899, not a single warrant drawn in payment of current expenses of the state government HAD BEEN PAID OUT OF THE STATE REVENUE FUND! But, notwithstanding this unfortunate condition of the revenue fund, the chairman of the Democratic state committee announces to the people of this state "THAT AT NO time within the past twenty years has a state warrant gone to protest or been delayed in payment for an hour;" thereby confessing the most notorious diversion of state funds known to the history of Missouri! Shameful boast of a con- stitution outraged and of laws trampled under foot! Among the office-holding gang controlling the Demo- cratic party in Missouri are men who have been draw- ing salaries from the state for more than a quarter of a century. 74 MISUSE OF STATE FUNDS. When first the doors of the state treasury were unlocked to them the bloom of youth was upon their cheeks, but in the passing years children have been born to them and now they can point to daugh- ters bearing the sweet name of mother and to sons old enough to command armies. The frost of winter comes and goes, the rain falls and the snows descend, but amid Nature's stormy blasts, luxurious offices, the monthly stipend, the con- tingent funds, the annual pass, the telegraph and the express frank, have made office holding very dear to them. But, alas! mutterings were heard — murmurings like a horrid nightmare disturbed their rest. Men said, "Every four years we have an election, and at the end of twelve and sixteen and twenty and twenty- five years we find the same men in office — one small set of men for the offices; three hundred and fifty thousand Democrats for the polls is not right! We want a change." Dave Ball was preaching a crusade against the ringsters. These were ominous signs. Payment of revenue warrants became a necessity. Failure to cash them meant death to the "MA- CHINE!" This is the why and the wherefore of all this juggling of your state funds. JOHN T. CLARKE. Jefferson City, Mo. 75 ALLEN-WILLIAMS CASE. MONEY WITHDRAWS FROM THE STATE TREASURY WITHOUT AN APPROPRIATION BY LAW. State Auditor Collects Race-Track Licenses and Gives Them to State Treasurer. Auditor Afterwards Withdraws Them From the Treasury at the Command of "Boss Butler." The State Constitution is specific. It provides : SECTION 15, ARTICLE 10-ALL MONEYS NOW, OR AT ANY TIME HEREAFTER, IN THE STATE TREAS- URY, BELONGING TO THE STATE, SHALL, IMMEDI- ATELY ON RECEIPT THEREOF, BE DEPOSITED BY THE TREASURER TO THE CREDIT OF THE STATE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE FUNDS TO WHICH THEY RESPECTIVELY BELONG, ETC. SECTION 19, ARTICLE 10 -NO MONEYS SHALL EVER BE PAID OUT OF THE TREASURY OF THIS STATE, OR ANY OF THE FUNDS UNDER ITS MAN- AGEMENT, EXCEPT IN PURSUANCE OF AN APPRO- PRIATION BY LAW, ETC. Democratic state auditors and treasurers have vio- lated the supreme law of the people iu other ways than by authorizing the withdrawal of money and by taking it from the state treasury not "in pursuance of a regular appropriation made by law and upon the auditor's warrant." Take the present state au- ditor and treasurer for examples. Licenses to engage in "book-making," or gambling (under Sam B. Cook's breeders' law), were issued by State Auditor Allen to book-makers at the Delmar race track, in St. Louis County, near the city limits, in the summer of 1901. The money paid for these 76 ALLEN-WILLIAMS CASE. licenses was regularly collected and turned into the state treasury, or should have been under the con- stitution. Ed. Butler, the erstwhile Democratic "boss" and maker of Gov. A. M. Dockery, J. M. Seibert et al., is a leading stockholder in the Kinloch race track. It is a "merry-go-round," situated in St. Louis county, not conveniently accessible to turf patrons of the city, and with a plant of mediocre and unattractive pro- portions. It could not succeed as a business venture with the Delmar race track in operation, because the latter is a more modern and inviting institution, as well as more accessible. Butler, realizing this, at- tempted to force the owners of the Delmar race track to buy his stock in Kinloch. He threatened to "make it warm for the Delmar people" if his demand was refused. Butler received an absolute refusal to buy. This brought down the wrath of the garbage states- man. "Dummy" warrants were issued against the Delmar officials at the instigation of Butler, and were handed over to '''Bad Jack" Williams (King of Demo- cratic election repeaters) to serve, the latter being given the authority and aid of constables for the occasion. This notorious action led to the murder of Graham, who was one of the regular officials to op- pose the Butler "Indians" in their attempt to serve the warrants. JEFFERSON CITY RING USED. As soon as it was apparent that the Delmar officials would not agree to the highbinding demands made by Butler, the latter used his string to Excise Commis- sioner Seibert. He demanded Seibert's influence in re- turn for the assistance Seibert had received from Butler for his appointment as excise commissioner. Butler prevailed upon Seibert to force the state auditor .(Seibert's former chief clerk) to refund to 77 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. Delinar the taxes collected by State Auditor Allen's agent, equivalent to a revocation of the bookmaker's license. This money had been previously collected in a regular way, and had been paid to State Treasurer R. P. Williams, as "trustee" (Allen de- clared), although there is no law authorizing this course of procedure. (See sec. 15, art. 10, State Constitution, at head of this article.) The state au- ditor's apparent purpose was to leave a loop-hole through which he might escape when attention was directed to the fact that the entire repayment was not constitutional. But, under the Democratic theory, a state constitution is merely a thing of beauty, and must not be considered seriously. Seibert, true to his ilk, as well as Butler, informed the state auditor that the money and licenses must be returned to Delmar, which was done, after having been turned over to the state treasurer, a clear violation of the constitu- tion. Only one trumped-up reason could be given why State Auditor Allen should revoke the licenses, it being that a few persons owned stock in both the fair grounds track and in Delmar, which Allen de- clared to be in violation of the provision preventing racing on any one track for more than ninety days during one season. Butler's hand was potential in the entire proceeding. Now mark the relation of benefactor and bene- ficiary: Gov. Dockery, State Auditor Allen and State Treasurer Williams were elected last November by the wholesale disfranchisement of Republicans by Ed. Butler's election and Harry Hawes' police ma- chines. Butler's "Indians," or election crooks, pad- ded the registration lists and "bands of repeaters," led in part by "Bad Jack" Williams, voted on fic- titious names, as Avell as on names of qualified voters, 78 ALLEN-WILLIAMS CASE. all the while protected by the Hawes police force. A service rendered by Butler and Hawes, converting a normal Republican plurality of 15,000 in St. Louis into a Democratic plurality on the very day that McKinley gained 20,000 votes on Bryan in Missouri outside of St. Louis, and Joe Flory made phenomenal gains in the rural districts, as worth something — both to the Dockery ticket and to Messrs. Butler, Seibert and Hawes. It meant election for Dockery, Allen and the Democratic state ticket, as well as Butler's son to congress. It meant "Jim" Seibert's appoint- ment as excise commissioner. It brought to Hawes reappointment as the president of the police board, after he had used the police department to encourage anarchy during the street car strike in St. Louis last year and commit election outrages last Novem- ber in Dockery's behalf, for which his department was denounced by the Morton grand jury, a repre- sentative body. 79 DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. "IMPERIALISM" NOT ONLY A DEMOCRATIC POL- ICY, BUT AN ESTABLISHED PRACTICE IN THE LARGE CITIES. Democratic State Administrations Perpetuated by Nefarious Democratic State Boards. Discredited "State-House Ring" Retains Power Through Disfranchisement and Blackmail. SOME GRAND JURY REPORTS ON THE STEPHENS DOCKERY-NESBIT AND POLICE BOARDS. How Democratic Governors do not "Faithfully Execute" L,aws, as the Constitution Requires. Among other things, violation of the constitution by the executive department of the state government and the several officers of that co-ordinate branch of the government is charged in the introductory of this book. The governor is not the entire executive de- partment, but he is a member of it. The constitution defines his duties and the limitations upon his power. It provides that The Governor shall take care that the laws are distribu- ted and FAITHFULLY EXECUTED; and he shall be a conservator of the peace. (Sec. 6, Art. 5— State Consti- tution.) Under partisan and imperialistic laws enacted by despotic Democratic legislatures, approved by tyrani- cal Democratic governors and sustained by Demo- cratic supreme courts, the large cities of Missouri have been singled out from the rest of the state and have been saddled with government by governor's 80 DESPOTIC KILE IN MISSOURI. boards and appointees until not a vestige of home rule remains in those municipalities. The police and election department, together with the excise and various other branches of the government in the large cities have been granted such extraordinary and unrestricted powers that the right to exercise the elective franchise — the highest and fundamental right of American citizensship— has become a farce, life and property are no longer secure in the enjoyment of the protection of the government and the instrumentali- ties of justice have been converted into weapons for public plunder. Discredited and debauched, no longer able to appeal to the convictions and principles of the honest yeo- manry of the state, the Democratic "state house ring" exercised its usurped powers and resorts to wholesale disfranchisement, blackmail of legitimate industries and stops at nothing in the large cities to perpetuate itself in power. The proposition is very simple. The ballot box, the registration books, the entire election paraphernalia, all the election machinery, the police and the city treasury in St. Louis, not to mention the World's Fair machinery, are under Democratic control and the Democratic supreme court has ruled that elections so held are non-contestable. It holds tha£ the ballot boxes stuffed by the Stephens-Doekery- Nesbit law manipulators, protected by the Stephens- Dockery police, cannot be opened so as to permit a comparison of the votes cast with the registration lists to determine whether or not fraud has been com- mitted — and it cannot be conclusively proved any other way. What, then, is there to prevent making of election returns in St. Louis, Kansas City and any- where else in -Missouri, whatever the corrupt "state- house ring" pleases to make them, after holding back the returns until the rural districts of the state have been heard from — as was done at the November, 1900, G 81 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. election, when A. M, Docliery was declared elected governor of Missouri and the sanctified "Jim" But- ler, of Standard Theater fame, was counted in as a member of Congress? But to return to the constitutional requirement that "the governor shall faithfully execute the laws" of the state. How have Democratic governors of Mis- souri observed this mandate of the people? GOVERNMENT BY STATE BOARDS. The infamous Judson police law, enacted as a twin companion of the cheating Nesbit election Jaw by the Democratic legislature of 1899, authorizes the gov- ernor to appoint a police board, consisting of three members, for the city of St. Louis. Another statute of Democratic origin and design empowers the gov- ernor to appoint an excise commissioner for St. Louis. Still another law (Nesbit), the product of a Democratic legislature, governor and supreme court, invests the chief executive with the power to appoint an election board, of three members. Thus the entire control of the police and election departments of the govern- ment of St. Louis, together with absolute authority over all the dramshops (estimated at two thousand) are in the hands of the governor — not an imperialist . nor a despotic ruler, but a "Democratic chief magis- trate,*' unreservedly and resolutely pledged to "home rule," "local self-government," government "by and with the consent of the governed." Fortunately this usurpation of political power car- ries with it responsibility. The principal is : for the acts of his agents the governor, for the ad- ministration of his tyranical police and election I and his excise commissioner (in St. Louis the chair- man of the Democratic state committee). Now, what was the conduct of the* St. Louis police and election boards and excise commissioner appoint- DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. ed by Gov. Eon V. Stephens? Head the following extracts from the reports of non-partisan, representa- tive grand juries, remembering all the time that the same Stephens' police and election boards in St. Louis have been reappointed by the "worthy" and "stales- manlike" Governor A. M. Dockery: January, 1901, grand jury report, Isaac W. Morton, mentioned as a possibility for the Democratic nomi- nation for World's Fair Mayor of St. Louis in 1901. chairman. This extract relates to the administration of the police board, of which Harry B. Hawes, ap- pointed by Lon V. Stephens and reappointed by Alex- ander M. Dockery, was and is president. The report, however, concerns the board's conduct prior to Hawes' reappointment and J. M. Seibert's appoint- ment as excise commissioner. Here it is in full, in- sofar as the report relates to the police board and bribery and November (1900) election charges and outrages: MORTON GRAND JURY REPORT. The general publicity given to the police bribery matters at the very start, in our opinion, forced all the making of cases by giving others, who may have been guilty of like crime, ample opportunity to terrorize and arrange the testi- mony of witnesses that were called subsequently. And that this was done and that little of testimony was unearthed where much existed is the opinion of every juryman. We hold the police department responsible for prematurely mak- ing public testimony then and there in their possession. The grand jury is not a good agency for the original detection of fraud and their efforts in an attempt to detect it have been thwarted by the very agencies most competent to carry it out. It is vitally important, in the way of conserving the best interests of the city, that the Police Board and the rank and file of the force should be as nearly non-partisan as pos- sible. The law provides that politics shall not be considered in the selection of the police. At- present, however, the force is drawn almost entirely from one political party, so that party allegiance is evidently one of the chief credentials for appointments. And it is but natural that on the part of many political activity should be considered of paramount importance to the faithful performance of duty, and, more- over, a security for the holding of positions. "The police in some sections of the city did not do their full duty in con- nection with the last election, many instances having come to our knowledge of pernicious activity and masterful inac- tivity. S3 STATE REPUBLICAN CAM PA ION BOOK. NOVEMBER ELECTION CONSPIRACY. The president of the Police Board has offered to throw- open to us the minutes of the meetings of the Police Board, to show instructions to the force, and the actions and pro- ceedings of the board. We have not looked into them ex- cept in reference to one particular case. It is what trans- pires outside of such meetings, of which there is no record, that we take exception to. For instance, the testimony laid before us shows that on the evening of November 2 a meet- ing was held in one of the Southern Hotel parlors at which were present some of the members of both the Police and Election Commissioners, some of the state officials. Chief of l'olice and prominent political workers. All of these parties were of one political complexion (Democratic). In other words, it was a political caucus to discuss matters in relation to the coming election and devise plans to be carried out that would best conserve the interests of their political party. The chief subject under discussion was in reference to the instruction that should be given the police regarding deputy sheriffs on election day. The president of the Police Board then and there instructed the Chief to issue orders to the police the next morning at roll call, and under instructions from the Chief orders were read not to permit deputy sheriffs to go beyond the 100-foot boundary line at the polls, and in the event that they at- tempted to do so to arrest them. Deputy sheriffs duly clothed with authority by law to arrest law breakers of a certain class were to be themselves arrested if in the performance of their duty they overstepped a boundary line which it w r ould be in most instances necessary to do in order to capture offenders. The jury was reliably informed and has reason to believe that there was no interpretation of the law that would jus- tify police interference with the deputy sheriffs armed with w r arrants, and who were present with the avowed purpose of apprehending fraudulent voters. Undue and unnecessary prominence was given to the ques- tion of deputy sheriffs at the polling places. The statutes of the state require that the police shall maintain order at such places on the day of election, and the questionable order is- sued as the result of the caucus meeting above cited had much greater tendency to create disturbance than it did the prevention of trouble. In a strict sense it was not the presi- dent of the Police Board who gave the instructions to the Chief. It was the partisan, and the instructions w r ere the result of a political caucus, the atmosphere of which is not best calculated to brjng about unbiased judgment in refer- ence to political methods. Another meeting was hurriedly called, about midnight previous to election day, at which were present a number of those who attended the first one. At 3 o'clock a. m. the Chief of Police was told to change the instructions previously given to the extent that when deputy sheriffs armed with their warrants, could point out the sub- ject of that w r arrant, within the 100-foot limit, he would be permitted to pass that line and make the arrest. The evidence that has come before us leaves no shadow of doubt in our minds that the instructions embodied in the first order were carried out, and carried out aggressively, re- sulting in a prevention of deputy sheriffs performing their duty, and, in many cases, in their being maltreated. It is DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. customary for the president of the Police Board to give in- structions between the meetings of the board, and have them confirmed subsequently. There is no record in reference to either of these orders on the Police Board minutes. In our opinion it was one of the most important orders in the his- tory of the Police Board that has been given without any record whatever on the proceedings of the board. On the one hand it is claimed that the orders given at roll call were different from those that the chief was instructed to give. On the other hand, it is claimed that they are the same. We must rest content to simply cite the facts. POLICEMAN A BURGLAR. It is not our desire to touch upon unimportant matters, but as articles have appeared in the press giving the impression that the Meer case is such, silence on our part would be in- terpreted, and properly so. as viewing it in the same way. We do not consider it. The act committed by Meer (a po- liceman) was not a boyish freak. He broke into a house (while a policeman), burglarized it, took goods to the value of $175, was arrested and confessed the whole crime. We do not concur in the statement of President Hawes, given in the press, and to us, that there was no possible way whereby he could have been relieved from service without his being guilty of some misdemeanor since his enrollment which would justify the preferring of charges against bim. Testimony was given to the effect that it had been customary to notify such parties that their previous records have been found out and ask them to resign, which request had been almost in- variably complied with, for the very obvious reason that noncompliance meant general publicity of their crime. It would seem to us that this would be a natural procedure, and that it was within the power of some one to ask for the resignation, give orders to some one to ask for it, or to sec by some means that it was asked for. As it is, a violator of the law is on the force, the purpose of which is to prevent crime and conserve the peace. Such things are ^a menace to the community and an insult to his self-respecting fellows. With the permission of Judge W. E. Fisse, one of the attorneys for the contestant in the Horton-Butler election case in the twelfth congressional district, the following extracts from contestant's brief are pub- lished: SOUTHERN HOTEL CAUCUS. That the purpose of the Police Department was as stated, and that it was actuated in these proceedings only by an intention to romote at any hazard a wicked partisan enter- prise, is not a matter merely of inference, but is a fact com- pletely established. by the testimony concerning the proceed- ings at the secret caucus held at the Southern Hotel a day or two before election, adverted to in the report of the Grand Jury. The testimony concerning this caucus is supplied by SS STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. Mr. Hawes, President of the Police Board; the Chief of Po- lice, the Chief of the Detective Service of the Police Depart- ment, all the members (excepting Mr. Kobusch) of the Board of Election Commissioners; Mr. Hoblitzelle, the Secretary of the Board and Deputy Election Commissioner; Mr. Sei- bert, the Chairman of the Democratic State Committee, and others. These witnesses all agree that, beside all the officials of the Police Department, and all but one of the Elections Department, there were present at this meeting all the chief officials of the Democratic State Central Committee, of the Democratic Congressional Committee for this District, and of the Democratic City Central Committee, and that besides these there were also in attendance Mr. Edward Butler, the Democratic boss of the city, father of the contestee. and many other conspicuous Democratic politicians and "workers." Another fact appears with equal distinctness, namely, that the only officials of the Police and Election Departments who were not present at this momentous conference were two Republicans, to wit, the mayor of the city,, ex-officio a mem- ber of the Police Board, and Mr. George J. Kobusch, the Re- publican member of the Board of Elections. Of all these witnesses, the chief of Police, and Mr. J. M. Seibert, Chairman of the Democratic State Central Commit- tee, are the only ones who testify with any degree of candor as to what transpired at the meeting. The latter confesses that this meeting was brought about because it had become known that the Republican Congressional Committee had cir- culated registered letters addressed to men suspected of false registration, and had procured warrants to be issued for the arrest of persons charged to have fraudulently procured reg- istration. He says that at his suggestion the attorney gen- eral of the state was sent for (it is unnecessary to say that this officer was a Democrat) in order that they might obtain from him advice as to how the service of these warrants could be legally stopped. (See page 478.) The witness pro- ceeded to state that at this meeting "It was decided that everybody interested should -take all the steps necessary under the law, that a legitimate and fair election should be had in the city of St. Louis, and every voter should have an opportunity to cast his vote unmolested, and bave his vote fairly and honestly counted." And to that end it seems the chief law officer of the state advised that resort should be had to a law which he then and there manufactured out of the film of his own imagination in order to prevent the arrest of the only persons who were clearly and regularly ac- cused of an intention to cheat at the election. Mr. I professed great solicitude for voters who were likely to be threatened or intimidated by sli-riii'^' officers holding lawful warrants, but being asked to explain what voters were en- dangered by the proceedings of the Congressional Committee and these depnty sheriffs, the witness could only give answer (Record, page 479), lhat the voters likely to be intimidated by Tbes' 1 proceedings were the people registered from room- ing houses. Though repeatedly asked to state any other class of persons that would be likely to be interfered with by the actions of the eommitfee and the warrants which had been issued, the witness repeatedly said that there was no other class of persons. TTo became indignant at tlm frequent de- 86 ' DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. mand that he should name some other class of threatened voters, if any was known to him, but his indignation could not enlarge the- class. The proceedings at this caucus culminated in an order to the police not to allow the deputies to stand around the polls. The President of the Police Board testifies that the order was as follows (see Record, p. 118): "It was considered that the presence of these deputies for any other purpose than that of serving warrants, was illegal, and I therefore instructed Chief Campbell not to allow deputies to stand around the polls, and to show them no more consideration than ordi- nary citizens, except the deputy was about to serve a war- rant, and in that case he was not to be interfered with." The testimony of the Chief of Police concerning this order is as follows (Record p. 140): "The day before election the captains were instructei not to allow any of the deputy sheriffs or anybody else within 100 feet of the polling places, except they were there for the purpose of voting. The next morning, or, in other words, the morning of the election day. about 3 o'clock, the order was rescinded, and they were in- structed to allow deputy sheriffs within the 100-foot limit, if armed with warrants." The Chief of Police testified more particularly concerning these orders to the department when recalled for further examination as a witness. (See Record, p. 425.) He there says: "Well, I was called to the club (Jefferson Club) as well as I remember now about 2 o'clock (a. m.) on the morning of election day. There I met Mr. Hawes, Colonel Overall. Judge McCaffery and Colonel Kingsland, and the question of deputy sheriffs came up. Colonel Overall advised that a deputy sheriff armed with a warrant could go any place. and the order was rescinded to that effect. If a deputy sheriff made his appearance at a polling place with a warrant he would be allowed to serve it without interference from the police." Mr. Hawes' testimony concerning this 2 a. m. amendment, of I lie order to the police is interesting, but as to the main fact is, at least, inaccurate. The strange inconsistency of the advice obtained by the head of the Police Department from the Attorney General of the state, and that received from Colonel Overall, cannot escape attention. The testimony is clear that the Attorney General advised that deputy sheriffs had no greater rights about the polls than any other person, and were equally subject to the jurisdiction of the judges and clerks of election. (Testimony of Hawes, p. 129). Yet in less than twenty-four hours after parting from the Attorney General at this meeting Mr. Hawes, without hesitation ac- cepted the advice of Mr. Overall that a deputy sheriff armed with a warrant could go any place. (See testimony of Camp- bell, p. 425, and Hawes, p. 430.) We are disposed to credit the testimony of the Chief of Police to the effect that he is- sued an order to the department modifying the terms of his original order. That the department, particularly the officers posted at voting nlares within the Twelfth District, did not understand it to be their duty to ait accordiug to the second order, is he clear conclusion of the Grand Jury, and is made indisputable by their conduct on the day of election. 87 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. POLICE AND ELECTION OFFICIALS. It appears from the testimony that at this secret caucus ihere were discussed some other matters besides the subject of deputy sheriffs. Mr. Harry Hawes seems to have uo dis- tinct recollection of what transpired at this meeting except the fact that on one or two occasions he left the session room for the purpose of buying some cigars. But other witnesses have not suffered any such lapse of memory, and their testi- mony supplies the information that among these other sub- jects discussed was the authority of the judges and clerks to order persons to be ejected from the room, and also the question as to how far it was obligatory upon the police officers present to obey any such order issued by the judges of election. Enough was let fall by these witnesses during their examination to make it clear that there was considerable dis- cussion about the matter of permitting Republican challen- gers to remain in the voting places, and the significant con- clusion of the caucus, which, according to the testimony, was finally reached at this meeting (a conclusion it must be re- membered which had the support of the Attorney General of the State) was that the judges and clerks could order a police officer to eject a man and arrest him. Mr. Hawes is able to remember that much, although he is disposed to think that when the conversation occurred about the challengers he was downstairs buying cigars (p. 129). The significance of the resolution adopted at this caucus that police officers should be instructed to abide by and obey the orders of the judges of election became perfectly clear early on election day. Immediately upon the opening of the polls in many election districts within this congressional dis- trict, the Democratic judges of election ordered Republican challengers to be ejected, and the police present — conceiving ir to be the opinion of the Attorney General that none except Democratic officers were entitled to be recognized as persons of authority— instantly obeyed orders from these men. ami not only ejected the challengers, but very persistently stood in the way of their returning to their duty at all during the entire day. In the very few instances where the police proved recreant, or the Democratic judges showed themselves to be faint-hearted, other and equally effective means were found to dispose of these troublesome Republican watchers, but in ■view of the testimony showing what the challengers endnred who were subjected to the operation of the substituted method of ejection, it is reasonable to conclude that if per- mitted their choice these men would have rather accepted the oilier method. The police had no part in this substituted procedure except the part of arresting and holding as a pris- oner the unfortunate Republican challenger who had been beaten in many cases into a state of insensibility by ruffians who were escorted to and away from the scene of the assault by uniformed police officers, it is a singular fact worth not- ing at this point that about the only persons arrested by the police on this extremely quiet election day. (for so it is de- scribed by the entire police department) were the unfortun- ate victims of assault. Tn not one single case was the as- sailant arrested. This circumstance is probably one of the matters which the Grand Jury had in mind when it spoke of the oomlnct of (lie Police Department ;is characterized DESFOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. in part by "pernicious activity and at other times by mas- terful inactivity." HA WES CONTRADICTED BY SEIBERT. According to the gentleman who is so fortunate as to carry the double honor of being at once President of the Police Board and President of the Jefferson Club, this remarkable caucus at the Southern Hotel was only an informal meeting for the purpose of definitely determining the jurisdiction of the election officers on the day of election and the duty of the Police Department to observe the orders of the election officers. Legal advice was what was wanted, according to him. Mr. Hawes complains that the officials of the Police and Election Boards were handicapped because of the fact that the political faith of the City Counsellor, their legal advisor under the law, precluded their giving him an invita- tion to attend at this session. They, therefore, availed them- selves of the convenient services of the Attorney General of the state, as to whom they felt no such qualms: and prob- ably because of a fear that the Attorney General might prove insufficient for the purpose, they called in to assist him Mr. Edward Butler and all the other Democratic politicians and workers within their reach or call. The events of election day contradict Mr. Hawes' testi- mony, but he is also absolutely and flatly contradicted by Mr. Seibert. The latter does not hesitate to say that the meeting was called for the purpose of counteracting the effort to procure the arrest of persons accused of having falsely registered. The presence of Butler and these other men is explainable and consistent with Seibert's account of the matter. The date of the meeting isi another circumstanee that furnishes support to Mr. Seibert's testimony, and the performances of the police at the election furnish the final evidence. It. is not to be wondered that the Grand Jury should say concerning this meeting, and of the instructions to the police which were there originated, that "'In a strict sense it was not the President of the Police Board who gave the instruc- tions to the Chief. It was the partisan, and the instructions were the result of a political caucus, the atmosphere of which is not best calculated to bring about unbiased judg- ment with reference to political methods." Reviewing the entire testimony as to the orders which were actually given to the Department, we are forced, also, to accept the conclusion of this Grand. Jury, to wit: "The evidence * * * leaves no shadow of doubt * * * but that the instructions embodied in the first order were car- ried out, and carried out' aggressively, resulting in a preven- tion of deputy sheriffs performing their duty, and in many cases being maltreated." This conclusion is not in any de- gree weakened by the fact, also pointed out in the report <>f the Granl Jury, that although it is customary for the President of the Police Board to have, his actions taken be- tween sessions of the Board confirmed at the meeting fol- lowing, there is no record whatever in the minutes of the Police Board concerning either one of these orders. STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. POLICE CONTRIBUTIONS TO CAMPAIGN PI NO. It has already been pointed out in this statement that the Police Department was extremely active in procuring the passage of the Police Law of 1899, and the Nesbit Law of the same year, and that the members of the Department were made ro contribute the large sum of $20,000 to promote the passage of these laws and to obtain a decision affirming their constitutionality. The fact has also been pointed out that the members of the police force were, with only a few exceptions, all members of the Democratic party and aciive in the work of the Jef- ferson Club, of which, as stated, the official head of the Department (Hawes) was a!so president. But the interest of the police in the matter of this election is not all included within the statements that have been already made. The testimony completely establishes (although we are again forced to get along without the aid of the memory of Mr. Hawes and without assistance from any of the other mem- bers of high rank in the department and notwithstanding that at least one police captain, when interrogated concern- ing the subject declined to testify lest his answers might sub- ject him to a criminal prosecution) that the members of the Police Department in the City of St. Louis contributed to the Democratic campaign fund for the year 1900 the sum of $25,000. As in the case of the Southern Hotel secret caucus, we have two witnesses concerning this contribution who speak with candor— one, the Chief of Police, who evidently do- tested what had been done; the other, Mr. James M. Sei- bert, Chairman of the Democratic State Committee, who without hesitation admits the facts because of his convic- tion (see Record, p. 487) that "Every man who was holding a position under the Democratic administration of this state should contribute such sums' in support of the campaign as he felt justified in doing." And he said that on this theory he rated the policemen of St. Louis as proper persons to be so assessed. The first contribution received from the Department amounted to the sum of $20,459.87. (See testimony of Ward, p. 423 also testimony of Campbell, p. 147.) The Chief also testifies that each officer was asked to contribute to the fund and they did so. (Record, p. 147.) The ratio which determined the amount of each man's contribution may be ascertained from the testimony of Cap- tain McNamee, from which if appears that it was 20 per cent of the monthly salary. Patrolmen paid $18; sergeants, $22: lieutenants. $30, and captains, $50. The number of the police force in the City of St. Louis under the present law is fixed by the terms of the law itself printed in the Ap- pendix, page 67. This percentage being multiplied into the number of men of each grade will be found to yield almosl exactly the amount of money shown 1o have been contributed on this first occasion. This sum of money was paid about the middle of Sep- tember. But ;i few days before the election another demand was made upon the department, which realized, according testimony of Chief Camnbell (Record, page 425) be- tween $4,000 and Of ibis amount about one-half 00 DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. was used. 1 1 was paid over to the Jefferson, Club, and the account of the City Central Committee in evidence shows that it was used on election day by representatives of this club at the polling places. The remainder was reserved for the next municipal election following soon after. POLICE FORCE AS A "GRAFT." The testimony also shows that this contribution from the Police Department to the campaign fund was considerably more than one-half of the whole amount raised by the State Committee, which, according to the avowal of its President, assessed every office-holder throughout the state, and re- ceived many contributions besides. We ask that these facts be borne in mind in order that an answer may be given to the question propounded by the Grand Jury, namely, whether it is not true of the Police Department of St. Louis that "political activity is considered a matter of paramount im- portance to the faithful performance of duty, and more- over, a security for the holding of positions." And along with other facts to be considered in arriving at an answer to this question there should also be taken into account the further fact that, since giving his testimony in this case, the Chief of Police has been removed from his office and degraded to an inferior rank, while Mathew Kiely, who, of all the police captains, showed himself to be at once the most zealous and the most brutal partisan, has been advanced to the place that once was held by the only member of the Police Department who was willing to testify the whole truth as he knew it in answer to ques- tions directly calling for his knowledge. Does not the fate of Chief Campbell show "that political activity is a security for the holding of positions in the de- partment?" The truth is (to quote again from the report of the Grand Jury), "Undue and unnecessary prominence was given -to the question of deputy sheriffs at the polling places." The fact that these deputy sheriffs had been appointed was seized upon as a pretext by men who were eac;erly searching for some excuse to justify their contemplated action. They pre- tended to believe that an army of these deputy sheriffs was to be engaged, whereas, in truth, only about fifty were ever appointed, and less than this number actually served. "The questionable order, issued as the result of the caucus meet- ing, had much greater tendency in create disturbance than to prevent trouble." Th tse an d who pretended to fear that voters would be intimated themselves resorted to most ag- gravated methods of intimidation, using as their instrument the organized noiiee force of the city and opposing this foree against every other constituted authority that sought to re- press crime at the election. HA WES' CLUB PADDED REGISTRATION LISTS. In view of the fact that the Hawes' Jefferson Club and Hawes' police department are practically one and the same, and that A. M. Dockery was one of {he beneficiaries of its work in November, 1900, and Roll a STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. Wells another in April, 1901, and inasmuch as 19,100 names were stricken from the registration lists in October, 1901, the following extract from Judge Fisse's brief is very interesting: Mr. Hawes, when exploiting the performances of the Jef- ferson Club, is frequently disposed to be boastful and some- times willing to be truthful. At page 138 he tells of the work done by the "ward organization committee" of this club in order to secure the largest possible registration by Democratic voters. Although he intimates that something was done by others, he says: "I think that the Jefferson Club, being a more complete and stronger club, did the major part of the work." Upon inspection of the account filed by the treasurer of the Democratic State Committee there was found, among other items, this one: "September 22— Given Campbell expense registration of voters $5,000." Mr. Campbell was at that time vice-president of the Jeffer- son Club, and the testimony shows that he received this money in behalf of the club and that it was disbursed by the club. Mr, Hawes indignantly resents the imputation that any of the registrations thus procured were illegitimate, yet a par- tial canvass of this Twelfth District, which did not take in more than one-half of the entire territory within the district, discovered no less than 14,000 cases of false registration, all of which occurred in the particular districts where "Jefferson- ian Democracy" most actively exerted itself. Neither Mr. Hawes nor any other of the "witnesses who have undertaken to justify this expenditure of the club are able to specify any legitimate use that was made of this large sum of money, and they cannot point to any extensive registration actually accomplished except this fraudulent registration. Notwithstanding Mr. Murphy's assertion that the Court of Appeals granted "naturalization without charge and without price, the record of this Stale Committee shows tne pay- ment to him of the sum of $135 on account of the expense of naturalization. (See Record, page 424.) The intimate rela- tions that existed between this State Committee and the Jefferson Club are shown by the testimony in regard to the Southern Hotel caucus. Since the records of the committee itself show its participation in the illegal naturalization done in the Court of Appeals, it does not seem altogether unrea- sonable to conclude, in the absence of any explanation show- ing other use of the money, that this sum of $5,000 contrib- uted to the Jefferson Club for expense of registration, had considerable to do with getting on the registration list this enormous number of 14,000 false registrations. GRAND JURY ON NOVEMBER ELECTION. See what the Morton grand jury reported after :i thorough investigation of the November (1900) elec- tion in St. Louis and don't forget that A. M. Dockcry 92 DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. was then the Democratic nominee for governor and ■that President McKinley's majority of 15,600 in St. Louis in 1896 was reduced to a plurality of 666 in St. Louis in November, 1900, although he gained thousands of votes on Bryan in Missouri outside of St. Louis in 1900, carried more stales and received a larger vote in the electoral college than in 1896. Is it possible that because the election in St. Louis was stolen for A. M. Dockery for goveruor that the Hawes' police board and the McCaffrey election board officiating at the time were reappointed by Mr. Dock- ery? Is it probable that because James M.^ Seibert was chairman of the Democratic state committee at the time, with headquarters in St. Louis, and pre- sided over the famous Southern hotel conference, he was appointed excise commissioner of St. Louis? But let us see what the Morton grand jury re- ported about the November election wherein A. M. Dockery was the Democratic nominee for governor, Harry B. Hawes was president of the St. Louis police board, James McCaffrey was president of the St. Louis election (Nesbit) board, and James M. Seibert was chairman of the Democratic state committee, by the grace of A. M. Dockery: FRAUD! FRAUD! FRAUD! "The cry of fraud by defeated candidates at election is so frequent and so natural that the public is apt to become in- different to> some extent upon the subject. Some fraud may be generally admitted, but great fraud is, as a rule, dis- claimed. If, in the minds of the community the feeling ex- ists that the last election was carried out with only ordi- nary partiality and the result must have represented the will of the people, it becomes our duty to dispel it, as the facts, such as have been brought before us, far exceed anything in the way of irregularity any one of your jurors had ever ever previously assumed to exist. It is true that the cases where this jury has fixed distinct charges against particular indi- viduals are not many, but so far as proving an absence of criminal wrong, it has, to our minds, added to the gravity of the situation in showing us that so complete is the system of political machinery in all its ramifications, even to coa- lition of opposing factions, that there has been woven a web of safety over frauds committed — fraud in the registra- 93 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. i km of voters, fraud in ike returns of canvasses by clerks, and fraud iu the reception of illegal ballots. To some extent the very high-handed proceedings undertaken at some of the precincts on election day were the means of preventing the detection of fraud, it having been so determined and daring that many parties, by becomiug terrorized and through ab- solute fear, avoided making any attempt to detect it. There is no question but there has been a well planned attack upon the integrity of popular elections. Investigation into the registration list develops a most startling condition. Flagrant cases of block registration have occurred, which can only be explained by a systematic colonization of voters and an extensive stuffing of the registration lists with the connivance or active support of members of both parties, whose duty it is to correct such frauds. "The election law contemplates the providing of equal representation in the way of clerks and judges through the recommendations of their respective party organizations. From the testimony submitted we find such recommendations to the Election Commissioners were more or less disregarded. Clerks, one of whom is a Republican and the other a Demo- crat, if loyal to their party and honest in their performance of their duty, could not have failed in their canvass to have discovered such large false registration. "In reference to judges, the testimony given before us showed that in numerous cases they refused to permit party challengers to remain during the taking, of the vote, and gave orders to the police to have them ejected, although they are, by law, given the right to be there as representa- tives of their respective parties, and by law given the es- pecial protection of the judges. "During election day a number of polling places were vis- ited by bands of men to the number of fifty to sixty, who drove from polling place to polling place, and at the Third and Fourth precincts in the Twenty-Fifth ward terrorized the neighborhood, formed in line, entered the polls, and to all appearances voted, although some of them were well recognized as notorious characters, known to live outside of the ward. POLICE PROTECT REPEATERS. "It is a significant fact that in one of these precincts a squad of police arrived almost simultaneously with this band of men, and remained at the polling place about half an hour and accompanied them when they left. "The entire conduct of the election, including registration, failure to canvass excluding challengers, interference with deputy sheriff's in their efforts to arrest offenders against the election law and a seeming protection to bands of undoubted repeaters must have emanated from a well-couceived and carefully planned movement. "Owing to the fact that in the enlarged false registration we have found to haye occurred, the names of the voters so registered were almost all of a fictitious character, your jury has been able to identify but a few, which accounts tor the comparatively small number of indictments we have made for this offense, and also that of illegal voting, which was made difficult to detect in consequence of challengers having been ejected from the polling places. The election 01 DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. frauds have been many and the ways so devious that 1his grand jury can not follow them to a conclusion in the time allotted it," ONE-MAN ELECTION BOARD. The infamies perpetrated under the Nesbit law in the interest of A. M. Dockery, the entire Democratic state ticket and "Jim" Butler, for congress, in the November election, can be imagined when it is re- membered that in its original form (and it is not much better now) the Nesbit law authorized the gov- ernor to appoint the three members of the election board for St. Louis. Two of these are Democrats and they constituted a "quorum." This "quorum" ap- pointed a "deputy election commissioner," Clarence Hoblitzelle, a close relative of President C. W. Kuapp of the St. Louis Republic. The "deputy election com- missioner" was vested with the power to sit in the absence of the election board, if for sickness or other cause, to be determined by the board, and could and did exercise all the powers of the board. Among other things, Deputy Election Commissioner Hob- litzelle appointed all the judges and clerks of election for the November, 1000, election — Republican as well as Democratic. These judges and clerks, under the Nesbit law, were absolute masters of the polling places, of all the election paraphernalia, and could command the police at will, who under the Nesbit law are constituted "peace officers." These judges and clerks also supervised the revision of the regis- tration lists. The character of their work is best in- dicated by the fact that many of them have twice been indicted by successive grand puries for outrages committed at both the November and April elections, of which A. M. Dockery and Rolla Wells have been beneficiaries. Hoblitzelle's administration can be un- derstood partially by recalling the. fact that while the custodian of the records of the election board, election 05 STATE REPUBLICAM CAMPAIGN BOOK. returns were forged to throw the control of the house of delegates to the Democrats, or more especially to Ed Butler. On the question of judges and clerks the following extract from Judge Fisse's brief is very instructive: JUDGES AND CX.ERKS OF ELECTION. This is a very extensive subject, as to which the testimony is very voluminous: To give a statement ot the testimony with any degree of particularity would be an almost endless task. The force and value of the testimony, moreover, lies in its mass, and does not consist simply iu its probative force as an impeachment of the proceedings at a few particular precincts. The real worth of this testimony is the exhibition which it furnishes of partisanship on the part of the Board of Elections. It will be remembered that the law requires that au equal number of judges and clerks for each election district shall be selected from the two political parties. Under the former election law the Republican commissioner had authority to select all of these judges and clerks for his own party. That right was taken away by the Nesbit law, and the power of appointment was given to the majority of the Board (this majority consisting of two Democratic mem- bers of the board), and might even be exercised by a sub- ordinate officer of the Board, to wit, the secretary and deputy election commissioner. The testimony shows that in point of fact all the selections of the judges and clerks were made by this deputy election commissioner. (See testimony of Kiugsland, p. 153; and Hoblitzelle, pp. 525-527.) These gentlemen say that as a matter of "courtesy" the Republican managing committee was asked to submit names of men whom they desired to have appointed as judges and clerks, but the testimony makes it clear that the courtesy consisted only in preferring this request and did not extend to the carrying out of the implied promise that appointments would be made from this list. The evidence conclusively shows that in the selection of Republican judges and clerks the advice of Ed Butler, Bobby Carroll, Jeff Preudergast and Ed. Guion, Judge Taafe and others whose names and rank in the Democratic organization have become familiar through the account of the Southern Hotel caucus, was readily accepted iD the place of the suggestions which came from the constituted committee of the Republican party. It developed that even the "courteous" request to submit names was a mere trap. The committeemen were invited to submit a list of five names, and to indicate upon the list, by proper marks, the places for which they recommend the men. whether judges or clerks, and were also requested to arrange the names in order of their preference. So far as the Twelfth District is concerned few appointments were made from the list of names submitted by the committee, and, strangely enough, in the majority of cases where appointments were made out of this list the men selected were not the ones marked by .the committee, but were those who stood lowest in the order of preference. 96 DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. If the recommendations of the Republican committee were preserved in the office of the Election Commissioners, they have been so cleverly kept out of the way that it has been Impossible to obtain any inspection of these lists at any stage of this proceeding. It has proved equally impossible to get any information from Mr. Hoblitzelle concerning the reasons why he did not make use of the committee's suggestions or any explanation of the reasons why he made the particular appointments which became effective. In fact, there is no complete record in the Election Commissioner's office to show what men acted as judges and clerks, and, it is certain that during the period of service in a good many precincts the Board of Election officers did not remain the same for even any single period of twenty-four hours, many persons who actually served as judges or clerks being merely volunteers who were really without any authority at all under the law. Several hundred of the -men who acted as Republican judges and clerks have been called as witnesses in this case. Other witnesses have been examined concerning certain men who acted as judges and clerks. It is extraordinary what a large proportion of these men, put into place as Republicans, were recognized by all their acquaintances as staunch Democrats. It. is not less remarkable that with almost entire unanimity these men, put into responsible places, ostensibly because of their own standing as Republicans, being asked if they voted the Republican ticket or for any of the Republican candidates at this election, either declined to answer the question at all or else flatly answered no. The pursuit of the investigation as to these judges and clerks shows that in many cases men known to be Democrats, having their homes in one ward, be- came registered in another ward and were in those other places appointed as Republican election officers. We for- bear to give references to the pages of the testimony where will be found supporting statements of witnesses to establish what has been said, because it is almost impossible to open the record at any place without having the eye fall upon some testimony of this sort. We forbear to make such refer- ences for the further reason that the disclosures obtained during the recouut concerning the conduct of these judges and clerks of themselves amply establish the truth of all that is here charged. The case of the Sixth Ward is typical. The Republican Committeeman here managed to secure the appointment of men of his own selection as election officers in about one- half of the precincts of the ward. Men not Republicans and objected to by him were appointed by the Board in the re- maining precincts. At the election everything was orderly at the places where men selected by the committeeman officiated, while the re- cord of riot and wrongdoing at the other precincts in the ward is only surpassed by that made in the distinctively But- ler wards— viz., the Fourteenth and Twenty-third. The testimony of Hoblitzelle attempting to justify the selections for the places in this ward where disorder reigned and the showing as to the circumstances under which the competitive list of judges and clerks put against the sugges- tions of the regular committeeman were delivered to the Board of Election Commissioners is unique, but it can not be said to show observance of that honor which should con- 97 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. trol public officers entrusted with the duty of managing pub- lic elections. (See Record, pp. 525-526, and also p. 1526.) Many of the men appoiuted as judges and clerks out of this competitive list have on their own showing in this record convicted themselves of inefficiency and profligacy. The foregoing analysis of the evidence in the Hor- ton-Butler case and the grand jury report show con- clusively just how "faithfully" the laws have been "executed" by appointees of the governor of Missouri in St. Louis, in compliance with the constitution. EXCISE COMMISSIONER. But there is another branch of the state government in St. Louis, although in no other part of the state — the office of excise commissioner. Referring to this office, the Morton grand jury said: We consider the position of Excise Commissioner one of the most important of any in our city. The position is one clothed with great powers, almost of an arbitrary character. Where much license and power are given, good judgment and integrity of character are necessary qualifications for proper service, and this grand jury earnestly requests of Hon. A. M. Dockery to give this appointment more than usual consideration, with a view of nlliug the place with a man of undoubted standing and reputation and business sta- bility. We recommend the changing of the law making the pay of Excise Commissioner wholly one of salary. Attention has been directed to the fact that Gov. A. M. Dockery reappointed Harry B. Hawes and James McCaffrey as president, respectively, of the St. Louis police and election boards, notwithstanding their record as presented by the Morton grand jury and the evi- dence in the Horton-Butler case. It should be noted that in the face of the same honorable grand jury's "earnest request" that "the Hon. A. M. Dockery fill this place (excise commissioner's office in St. Louis) with a man of undoubted standing and reputation and business stability," Mr. Dockery appointed James M. Seibert first as "temporary" and then as "permanent" excise commissioner. (The statute and constitution, of course, both provide for "permanent" officers in St. Louis.) Incidentally it must be remembered that DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. although the appointment of "a man of undoubted standing" was requested by the Morton grand jury for the specific purpose of suppressing the atrocious "wine-room evil" in St. Louis, not a single resort of this hellish character has been closed since Mr. Sei- bert's appointment as excise commissioner. POLICE AND STREET RAILWAY STRIKE. Again adverting to the record of the Hawes' police board during the Stephens' administration. It would be incomplete without a reference (lack of space pre- vents more) to its conduct during the deplorable and disastrous street railway strike in St. Louis early in the summer of 1900. Life and property was menaced as never before. The police department— that branch of the government charged with the responsibility of enforcing law and preserving order — was absolutely in control of the Hawes' police board. The police department had just been reorganized, regardless of expense, either as to the number of employes or their salaries (the Judson police law placing no re- strictions on the police board's authority over the city treasury). What did this Hawes' police depart- ment do when the first emergency arose calling for prompt and efficient work in the protection of life and property? Mr. Hawes became the attorney of the strikers. Policemen stood in large squads on the street corners and indifferently witnessed the destruc- tion of life and property and the complete paralysis of the business of the city. The person or property of employer, employe, publican or merchant prince, in- terested or disinterested in the strike, were not fur- nished the protection of government guaranteed by the constitution and paid for by every taxpayer or taxpay- er's patron. Thus was the efficiency of the Hawes' police department, or Jefferson Club machine, tested! Such was and ever will be the logical result of the STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. prostitution of governmental agencies to private, per- sonal or political ends! And yet A. M. Dockery re- appointed Harry B. Hawes president of the St. Louis police board. RECORD OF THE DOCKERY MACHINES. But Mr. Hawes' record and that of the police and election boards have been told only insofar as they relate to the Stephens' administration. How about the conduct of the police and election boards, or ma- chines, since Gov. Dockery's inauguration and their reappointment? Just as these machines were used to steal the election in St. Louis in November, 1900, for A. M. Dockery for governor, "Jim" Butler for con- gress and to make Republican votes in the legislature from St. Louis fewer, to prevent amendment of the cheating Nesbit and police laws, so were the same Hawes' police and McCaffrey election machines used by A. M. Dockery and David R. Francis to force the nomination of Rolla Wells, a Democratic bolter and Francis' protege, for World's Fair mayor upon the Democratic party. Zach Tinker, Mr. W r ells' opponent for the nomination, publicly charged that the pri- maries had been dominated by the Hawes police ma- chine in the interest of Rolla Wells. WORLD'S FAIR MAYOR ELECTION. But the April election for World's Fair mayor! Gov. Dockery, acting in accord with Ed Butler, David R. Francis and his personal organ, the St. Louis Re- public, prevented any amendment of the Nesbit law that would permit a revision of the padded registra- tion list referred to by the Morton grand jury. In October, 1901, 19,100 names were stricken from the registration lists. Is it possible that 100,000 citizens (one voter is supposed to represent a family of five' 100 DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. persons) removed from St. Louis or died between the April, 1901, or last municipal election, and October, 1901, charter amendments election? Now, remember! All these spurious 20,000 names were kept on the registration lists by A. M. Dockery (in whose interest they had been voted the previous November) and Rolla Wells was elected World's Fair mayor of St. Louis not only with such registration lists determin- ing the citizens' right to vote, but with Hoblitzelle judges and clerks of election that had served at the preceding November election and who originally padded and canvassed the padded registration lists and who have since been twice indicted. Read the following extracts from the February grand jury re- port, presented on March 29. 1901, that body, like its predecessor, having been thoroughly representative of the best citizenship of St. Louis; Mr. C. F. Blanke, a leading business man, having been foreman: BLANKE GRAND JURY REPORT. In compliance with your instructions, we have given much time and careful consideration to the investigation; of the reg- istration and election frauds. We are appalled, as our pre- decessors no doubt were, at the unmistakable evidence of the most flagrant, defiant and audacious violations of the sanc- tity of the ballot-box, that were committed in the election on November 6, last. THE DOCKERY ELECTION. It was in evidence before us that fraudulent registration was carried on to a very great degree, we believe that many thousand fictitious names were put upon the registration hooks, and a very large number of these fictitious names were voted. While it is practically impossible to. get the names and find indictment against all the persons guilty of perpetrating these frauds, we can not but feel that great carelessness, if noth- ing more, was practiced by the authorities, in permitting these serious violations of the law. It was in evidence before us that even greater carelessness and, in many instances, flagrant violation of the law was committed by some of the judges and clerks of the election, In connection with the revision of the registration lists, which were held at the precinct booths on the 16th day of March, 1901. 101 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. JUDGES AND CLERKS INDICTED. The law provides that the clerks shall canvass together, each election precinct, each clerk having a copy of the list of the original registration, and report to the judges of elec- tion sitting as a board of revision, the names of all persons not found in their respective precinct personally or who do not respond to notices left at their address to show cause why their names shall not be stricken from the registration list. In niany instances the clerks have not performed their duty, and in many others the judges have refused to make the erasures and corrections that were found neces- sary in order to purge the registration list of the illegal voters. In every such case where the evidence was found sufficient, we have found indictments for neglect of duty. There is evidence of a number of cases of incompetency on the part of precinct election officers which should and we be- lieve could be avoided, if an honest effort were made by all political parties to appoint only qualified persons to serve as precinct election officers. From the evidence presented to us, we believe there is a well organized band of men, mostly those known as police characters, with many aliases, without home or permanent place of abode, who svstematically vote on fictitious names, that are on the registration lists. These men, we believe, are led and directed by trusted lieutenants of certain promi- nent politicians, who are more culpable than the real per- petrators of these crimes against the sanctity of the ballot. We made great effort to get specific evidence against these illegal voters, and present indictments against them, but, owing to their many aliases and migratory natures, our efforts were rewarded in but few cases. ' As previously stated, we regard the leaders and insti- gators of these crimes as most culpable. We endeavored to obtain the evidence that would justify indictments against these arch conspirators, but were unable to get enough of such evidence as is required by the courts to convict. We cannot conceive of a more serious state of affairs than that which existed in this city at the time of the election in November, and which we believe still exists to a very great extent. We feel it our duty as the only official body having juris- diction in such matters to call the attention of all honest citizens to this appalling state of affairs, with the hope that public sentiment may be aroused. We would suggest that all judges, clerks and challengers, and all citizens who are in- terested in honest eections. make use of every opportunity that mav be lawful, to obtain clear and specific evidence of individual cases of fraud and by making memoranda at the time, or as soon after as may be. of names, dates and places, or bv charging their minds with the facts and presenting such' information to the Grand Jury or to the courts to the end that such frauds may be punished. FUTURE ELECTIONS FRAUDULENT. We deem it our duty to inform the public that the regis- tration books ns now constituted under the present law, must remain ns thev are for four years, with only such revision as that provided for from time to time by the precinct elec- 102 DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. tiou judges, sitting as a board of revision. Unless these periodical revisions are carried out more thoroughly, effect- ively and honestly than those that' were brought to our at- tention in the revision of March 16, it will be possible for much of the illegal voting of last November to be repeated at subsequent elections. We believe that illegal voting can be reduced to a minimum if the managers and candidates of all political parties will unite in issuing a strong public decla- ration to the criminal classes, to perpetrators of frauds at elections, in the interest of any party or candidate, that they will be summarily dealt with. We recognize that the purity of the ballot box is the safe- guard of the Republic and cannot condemn in too emphatic language any attempt to prostitute the honesty of our elec- tions. We would recommend that persons should not be al- lowed to register until they had resided in the election pre- cinct six months or over preceding an election, and the regis- tration books should be closed sixty days before each elec- tion, and a complete list of the registry should be printed and posted at the polling places at least ten days prior to the election. The following indictments were returned: Moses Bajeech, Joseph Sheridan, J. P. Evans, and Diedrich Norden, neglect of duty as judge of election. Frank Carraher and John Tracy, neglect of duty as clerk of election. E. J. Coff, John W. Whalen and Edward Perringer, neglect of duty as judge of election. Joseph Franklin, James W. Johnson, Chas. J. Bonroe and Frank Owen, neglect of duty as judge of election. Bernard Fries, John J. Maurer, Adolph Eppinger and John J. Callahan, neglect of duty as judge of election. H. F. Hodnet, Edward 1. Feehan, Joseph Reis and Joseph Watts, neglect of duty as judge of election. C. L. Hogan, unlawfully acting as challenger. Michael J. Kelly, Michael E. McFadden, Charles Brnetner and Fred Vogelsang, neglect of duty as judge of election. Paul F. Mohan and Otto H. Kohrs, neglect of duty as judge of election. Patrick McDermott and Edward Rice, neglect of duty as clerk of election. Charles Steffey and Albert G. Smith, neglect of duty as clerk of election. The foregoing grand jury report was presented on March 29, 1901, as stated. The election for World's Fair mayor of St. Louis was held three days later. 103 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. The following effective card appeared in a St. Louis afternoon paper on March 30, two days prior to the election: ®®(*Xi)®®®®(-^^ THE GRAND JURY VS. WELLS ROLLA WELLS: "But if the Nesbit law was ever objectionable, those objections have now been removed by amendments by a Democratic State Legislature, and, according to the testimony of all disinter- ested persons, NO BETTER ELECTION LAW EXISTS IN ANY STATE IN THE UNION."— Rolla Wells, from The Republic, March 21. "The Governor of our State signed the bill as amended and it is now a law, and I WILL TELL YOU THERE IS NO FAIRER ELECTION LAW IN THE COUNTRY." — Rolla Wells, from The Republic, March 24. THE GRAND JURY: "We can not conceive of a more serious state of affairs than that which existed in this city at the time of the election in November, AND WHICH WE BELIEVE STILL EXISTS TO A VERY GREAT EXTENT. "We feel it our duty as the only official body having jurisdiction in such matters to call the attention of all honest citizens to this appalling state of affairs with the hope that public senti- ment may be aroused. — Grand Jury Report of March 29. DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. EVEN THE NESBIT LAW VIOLATED. The January grand jury told the people of the glaring frauds and outrages perpetrated by the Ste- phens-Dockery election and police boards, directed by State Chairman Seibert, in the November, 1900, election. The February grand jury corroborated its predecessor's findings and added much more, indicting judges and clerks who had officiated at the November election. The April grand jury indicted three judges and one clerk for making false returns, one man for fraudulent voting and one for voting in two precincts at the April election. But the most high-handed outrage perpetrated under the supervision and responsibility of the Stephens- Dockery election and police boards in St. Louis was the prevention of regularly commissioned Republican judges and clerks from officiating at the April elec- tion. These clerks had been appointed in place of criminal election officers, after the hardest kind of a fight at the session of the 1901 legislature. Governor Dockery consented to an amendment of the Nesbit law providing for the appointment of new judges and clerks for the April election With the readiness and eagerness which characterizes a child when he is about to have a tooth drawn. But while the gov- ernor reluctantly consented to so amend the Nesbit law, after he had done so, his police and election boards made certain that the new judges and clerks did not serve in many precincts, and that those who had served at the November election and some who had been twice indicted for fraud, did serve in their places. The list of those Republican judges and clerks commissioned under the amended Nesbit law who were not permitted to officiate at the April elec- tion when Rolla Wells was declared to have been elected World's Fair mayor of St. Louis follows. It 105 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. is noted by representative citizens in the closing days of the year 1901 as a remarkable circumstance that Mayor Wells seems determined to place the responsi- bility for the nse of improper anti-toxin in St. Louis, the defendant city official being a Republican, but although infamous and established frauds and crimes were committed by the Democratic police and election officers when Rolla Wells was given the certificate of election, he has been silent as to responsibility or as to the facts in the case. Rolla Wells is ex-officio a member of the St. Louis police board, but as the same Rolla Wells was the beneficiary of the frauds and crimes perpetrated by the Democratic police and election department in the April election, of course Rolla Wells has nothing to say about fixing the re- sponsibility. Here is a list of the Republican judges and clerks who were prevented by Democratic election officials and the Democratic Jefferson Club police from serving at the April election, even the Nesbit law not being "faithfully executed" by the governor, as the constitution requires: DESPOTIC RULE IN MISSOURI. joupajj •PJBM HCMOOLOU^COO<^COOCOCC>OOCO'*t<'*-^" , tf l ^'^"Ph SO 3* fflfl Ph h o a t. la I 3J2 oj^5 oj^ P c X! 55.9 II 1SI 3 I . ,p >o . > > ,$ 9 -°ooooJH03>r .R £pqg M £SQc.»^tH ^af^d***?^!* AS H ,Q P< a> oj a) . sagaa'S 1 ^ So, ^s2 ^ as be co p •ji 71 p en o J4 P P Hj» £W cur CM „ .. *%\ . °3 A Q 02 »3§g P fe P o Jh ^ ca -^ 03^ S P rt -S3 P ed 03 0> . 3 3* Ij ^ o P CU P OS's 2 *% 107 P P 0) cu P Oh CO __ HH O) rH 03 afo ^ . 03 -4-> S M o ^ 3 rH as a o 00 ^ CM CO LO CO a| ■$£ %£ ^ « p a H ^ p p O) -+■ U^ HH-M t- r^ oo S 51 to 02 th C<| «5rlO „TiH co a 03 "5 HHOOb b^ 0) CO a^' a ° J ° 1-3 ^lj 1-3 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. PUI33JJ PJBM Pk Eh S^ tf O Ib 0° H DQ o B H O P O) (P.?, cj ^ r 1 r^ C U£ rt 03P CO • § co* to § *• -• QQ CO ojO • ,a ~ CI £ ©^3^ gem CM C C\J lO -£ CM 1M O T) rc «d£ 43 r— .-CM o cy £ - co -m £ p '£ " 23 c3 pq cj jrx X K g? a 03 -g © *£ 03 • CM CO = "» r - t"? K O co 3 c- §> ' 03 C ,r C! - a) ci o ^ T— I <•« . oo tth r. . CCO . p= cm - 2^ ? 3^* .«- g . aj co ,a j3 .a 2K^^ S 3 . 10 ^ ^ r-i ^ w cl CD O) -*-' pq s a 2 rt rr o ai V ^ cd cy O b« P - a - 6 ( — I N 03 u - defeal the 131 INFAMOUS CARDWELL CASE. attachment issued by Notary Public Albert M. Ott. He declared when the constable served the subpoena upon him a few days ago that he would defy the authority of the notary public and flatly refused to go to Independence. I am firmly of the opinion that the law would have compelled him to go. In the midst of this effort I was advised by Mr. Card well that he had compromised his case and dismissed it, although I was assured as late as last evening that it would not be done. This, of course, ends the effort to get a statement from Mr. Seibert on the witness stand. My client had the undoubted right to com- promise and dismiss his litigation, my ^iews to the contrary notwithstanding. "There has not been a day since proceedings -were instituted that efforts have not been made to have Mr. Cardwell compromise his case, and I would not be surprised to learn that politics cut some figure in the settlement. Thomas T. Crittenden, Jr., county clerk of Jackson county, and quite a figure in politics in certain of the Kansas City wards, was a very strong adherent of Mr. Cardweii's in the early part of the litigation. Shortly after the institution of the suit, and when the evidence began to pour in to the effect that Mr. Cardwell did not falsify when he stated that the officers of the state committee received money from the corporations to protect them from hostile legislation, Mr. Crittenden visited St. Louis and returned with a proposition that if the suit was dropped the state administration would do the 'right thing' in the appointment of police commissioners at Kansas City, the appointment of two commissioners being due there next month. I did not then and do not now believe that Gov. Dockery would be a party to any such deal, and doubt much if Mr. Crittenden had any authority for his statement, unless, possibly, thai of Mr. Seiiiert himself. Moreover, Mr. Critteu- ir.5 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. den was informed that such outside considerations could not weigh in the conduct or settlement of this litigation. ''The county clerk immediately joined the ranks of those alleged Democrats who profess to hold the peculiar views of the new Seibert-Cook political cult, namely, that it is not an act of political indecency to make an anti-monopoly campaign upon money fur- nished by the monopolies; and has ever since brought ail the influences he could command to bear upon Cardwell to settle. It may have had its effect." "Did you have any intimation that the suit would be compromised today?" was asked of Mr. Walsh. "I received a telegram from Cardwell this morn- ing. He said he had been offered as much as I told him he could get in a verdict and he thought he ought to compromise." "How much did you say he could get?" was asked Mr. Walsh. "At least $10,000." "Did you advise him to sortie the case?" "I told him to hold things in abeyance until to- morroAV, and that I would not compromise without full retraction." "You wired him that?" "I did." "When did you learn that he had compromised the case?" "I received a telegram from him about 3.30 this afternoon, saying: *1 have settled ami dismissed suit. Act accordingly.' " "Had previous efforts been mad' to effect a com- promise?" "Yes. Several parties representing themselves as agents tor the St. Louis Republic went to him. 1 understood lie was offered $7,500 to call it off." "By whom was the money offered?" "By the attorney fur the Republic, 1 presume." INFAMOUS CARDWELL CASE. THE REPUBLIC'S DENIAL. Says No Compromise "Was Authorised— Editor Graham's Statement. Joseph A. Graham, editor of the Republic, made the following statement: "No matter what statement is given out to the con- trary, the Republic has not made, or at any time proposed to make, a compromise with Mr. Cardwell. No person representing the Republic, or of the Re- public's knowledge, has even approached Mr. Card- well or his representatives with a proposition to give any compensation or to grant any concession for the purpose of effecting a settlement. So far from that, the Republic has refused to entertain any sugges- tion of compensation or of apology. If Mr. Cardwell has dismissed the suit, it is his own act, done for reasons of his own. The Republic has been per- ' fectly satisfied with the prospects of the suit and has hoped that the testimony might later uncover all the evil in the politics of the state without regard to party politics. When Mr. Cardwell says, if he does say, that a representative of the Republic paid him money, or even requested him, to dismiss the suit, he has either been deceived by an imposter representing somebody more anxious than the Re- public for a dismissal, or willfully and shamefully lies." SEIBERT ARRESTED. Saved From the Witness Stand by a Very Timely Settlement. James M. Seibert, chairman of the Democratic state committee, was arrested at noon Wednesday on a writ of attachment from Albert M. Ott, the 137 STATE REPUBLICxiN CAMPAIGN BOOK. notary public at Independence. The warrant was served by John T. Neagle, constable in the Eighth district. Mr. Seibert was found on Fourth street, St. Louis. "I have an attachment for you, Mr. Seibert," said the constable. "I waive it," responded Mr. Seibert. The constable explained that it was a writ commanding him to ap- pear in Independence in the 1 case of W. O. Cardwell vs. the St. Louis Republic. "I said I would not go, and I will not," said Mr. Seibert. After some discussion Mr. Seibert and Con- stable Neagle proceed to the office of Mr. Seibert's attorney, in the Equitable building. After a con- ference with his attorney, Mr. Seibert agreed to meet the constable at the Southern hotel at 5 o'clock in time to go with him to Kansas City. The constable then released his prisoner and Mr. Seibert and his atiorney continued togeiher for some time. Mr. Seibert's attorney had been in communication with a gentleman at Kansas City over the long-dis- tance telephone. He received word that the Card well suit might be settled, and when a reporter asked him what steps would now be taken, the attorney said: "There is a chance that the suit may be compro- mised. I am waiting for a message from Mr. Walsh, who is at the Planters' hotel." Mr. Seibert's attorney had not placed entire depend- on the message from Kansas City. He had pre- pared a petition asking for a writ of habeas corpus for Mr. Seibert. Arrangements were made with Judge Shepard Barclay, of the St. Louis Court of Appeals, to hear the petition a! four o'clock. It was about four o'clock when Mr. Seibert's attorney stepped into the reception room of his office and announced that the Cardwell suit had been dismissed and he would not present the application for writ of habeas corpus. He 138 INFAMOUS CARDWELL CASE. had the paper in his hand signed and seal all ready to present to Judge Barclay. Mr. Seibert was in the office at the time and he seemed to be relieved at the news. His face resumed its pleasant expression, which has not been so evident since the proceedings at Independence began. "Are you satisfied with events?" Mr. Seibert was asked. "I have nothing to say," said he. "I don't want to be quoted at all." RICH AND INSTRUCTIVE TESTIMONY. Representative Ransdell Tells of Seibert/ s Interest in Stock Yards Bill. Questioned by Walshj Ransdell told of his legis- lative experience. He knew J. M. Seibert, who, in 1899, was state auditor. "Some one came to me," he said, "one day while I was in the house and said Mr. Seibert wanted to see me. I went to his office. He asked me how I stood on the stock yards bill, then pending. I said I meant to vote for the bill. He asked me if I would not vote against the bill, and told me the stock yards company had contributed to pay the expenses of the Democratic campaign. I said I could not vote against the bill." "What was the bill?" Walsh asked. 'It was one to reduce charges at the stock yards." "How did you vote on the bill? What does the record show?" "I voted for the bill." Questioned by Morton Jourdan, attorney for the St. Louis Republic, Ransdell said the conversation was between him and Seibert while they were alone in the auditor's office. He had not told it to many 139 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. people. Jourdan pushed hini to tell when he had told it, and to whom. He said he thought he might have told some member while the bill was pending. He did not think he had made a speech on the stock yards bill. The conversation took place while the bill was pending, before it was placed on its passage. "You say," Jourdan said, "that Seibert asked you to vote against the stock yards bill because the stock yards contributed to the campaign fund?"' Jourdan said inquiringly. "Yes, sir." "Did he tell you to whom the money was paid?" "No, sir." "Did he tell you the amount?" "I don't think he did." Walsh took up the thread and asked if Seibert ever told him of having been sent for by the chair- man of the state committee to come to St. Louis and raise money from the corporations. Ransdell said he was not sure. Seibert told him that it was the state chairman who sent for him, but he had told him on another occasion that he, Seibert, had raised $16,000 among the corporations for the Democratic campaign fund. This was after the talk about the stock yards in another conversation, had in Seibert's private office. Jourdan brought out that Seibert had said he raised the money and distributed it. "At that time," Jourdan asked, "wasn't Mr. Sam Cook chairman of the state committee?" "He was." "And .Mr. Virgil Conkling was secretary V" "I think so." •■And Air. Prank P. Walsh was chairman of the finance committee?" "I don't know; Seiberl spoke only of himself." At (his point Ransdell was excused. 140 INFAMOUS CARD WELL CASE. SAM B. COOK TESTIFIES. Explains Relations Between the Brewers, the Transit Company and the State Committee. Samuel B. Cook, secretary of state, was called to the witness stand. Lie testified that he had been chairman of 'die state Democratic committee for about five years, and was chairman of the committee at the time of the campaign which elected the legislature of 1899. In the campaign of 1896 he had received $2100 from Col. W. H. Phelps, of the Missouri Pacific. The treasurer of the state committee had credited Cook with the $2000 which Mr. Phelps had paid. "In the campaign of 1898 did you collect money from the corporations?" "I think John H. Carroll gave us $1000." "Did you collect $6000 from the St. Louis Transit company?" "I did not." "Did Mr. Seibert bring $6000 from the Transit company?" "He brought some money given him by II. S. Priest, a lawyer of St. Louis." "Attorney for the Transit company, wasn't he?" "I believe he was." "Did Mr. Seibert get other money and bring it to you 9" "I think he collected $3000 or $4000 more." "Did he bring it to you?" "He distributed most of it himself." "Did Mr. Seibert tell you where he got the money?" "No; I understand Mr. Priest and Col. Carroll as- sisted Mr. Seibert in gathering this money. I don't know where they got it." Cook said Seibert went to St. Louis to raise money and help in the campaign. He had gone out and got ju STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. money and handled most of it himself. About the beer money the witness said: "The brewers had given the Republicans $5000, I understand, and they came to us and offered $2500 for our campaign fund. It was given to Mr. Seibert by the brewers' agent, with the request that it be not reported in the ordinary channels. They did not want the Republicans to know they had given us any money." Cook said he knew where Seibert disbursed the money in the close counties of the state. SAM PRIEST'S '-GIFT." Referring to the transit company's contribution of $6,000, Walsh asked if important legislation affecting the transit company was not passed in 1899. Cook said it was true. He had talked with Judge Priest about the legislation when they met in St. Louis. Jourdan cross-examined Cook, who said he did not know where Priest got the $6,000 he paid to Seibert. He did not know where Carroll got the money he paid in, but his own check for $1000 was Col. Carroll's personal contribution. He knew of the brewers' money, but did not know whether the stock yards company had contributed any money. •'There was no agreement," he said, "made by me or with my authority, consent or knowledge, with any corporation or interest that promised any sort of protection against legislation." "Did you collect money from the telephone com- panies?" "I did not." "Was money collected from them?" ••I don't know. I never heard of it if there was. I never heard of money being collected from the stock yards until Mr. Ransdell spoke of it." "Both might lane contributed?" INFAMOUS CAIIDWELL CASE. "As I said there was money raised through Col. Carroll that I did not trace the origin of." "Where was the money so collected spent?" Jour- dan asked. "Some of it came to Kansas City. There was $1000 sent to Mr. Walsh or Mr. Sebree. I don't remember to whom it was sent, though I have seen the check. There was $300 sent to Cedar county to help elect Mr. Ransdell and his county ticket." COOK AND WALSH MIX. "I understand," Mr. Cook continued, "that during the last campaign Mr. Seibert, at the request of Mr. Frank P. Walsh, called up Walton H. Holmes over the long-distance telephone and asked him to give the county committee $1000 for the county campaign. Mr. Holmes told Mr. Seibert that he had already arranged to do so." "If Mr. Seibert told you that he told a falsehood," declared Walsh. "It is not true. I did not ask him to call on Mr. Holmes for money and when Mr. Holmes did contribute $1000 it was promptly returned to him." "That's my recollection of the fact," replied Cook. "Mr. Seibert did call on Mr. Holmes for money for us, but not at my request," said Walsh. "He told me it was done at your request," was Cook's answer. "Now, don't you know that without any request from me Mr. Seibert did ask Mr. Holmes for $1000 for our campaign and that we sent it back at once?" Walsh asked. "I never heard of any money being sent back," said Cook. "When you sent $1000 to help the local campaign you did not tell us it was corporation money, did you," Walsh asked. 143 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. "The money was sent from the general fund col- lected, as I have already told you, from various sources. I don't consider the collection of campaign money from corporations, which are willing to give without exacting promises, to be improper." "Mr. Cook," asked Walsh, "in your letter about Cardwell you treat an attack on you as au attack on the Democratic party; are you the Democratic party of Missouri?" "I certainly do not regard it in any such light as that. I do say, though." said Cook, ''that a man who attacks Mr. Seibert, who is the head of the party organization, as Mr. Seibert has been attacked, is attacking the honesty and integrity of the party." "In the campaign of 1898," Mr. Cook continued, "there was but one such proposition made. There was a contest in the 18th senatorial district between Mr. Boyden and Mr. Tandy. It appeared that if Boy- den was placed on the ticket it was in the interest of Mr. Landrum, the Republican nominee. You (to Walsh) was there and wanted to recognize Boyden. We took a recess and during that lime a member of the committee came to me and said we could get all the campaign money we wanted if we would recognize Boyden. 1 said I would resign the chair- manship first and fought it out and Mr. Tandy was elected." Walsh insisted on the members' names being stated publicly. Cook said it was not Walsh, but he would not name the member unless forced to do it. "BILL" PHELPS 5 DONATION. Cook said he wished to explain what had been referred to in the testimony about the Phelps' con- tribution in 1896. "I was chairman then," he said, "and Col. Phelps gave me his check for $100. Afterward we needed i 14 INFAMOUS CARDWELL CASE. $2000 more. Col. Phelps paid it. Col. Carroll had paid $1000 in the part raised for Gov. Stephens. When it came time for us to file our report a personal friend of Gov. Stephens came to me and, on behalf of the governor, asked that the $2000 given by Col. Phelps be entered as having been given by some one else. At the request of Col. Phelps, in compliance with the governor's wishes, I entered the Pheips' $2000 as paid by myself. I also, in 1898, entered $1000 paid by Col. Carroll as collected by myself." "Who came to you from Gov. Stephens?" "I prefer not to tell." "But we insist." "It was Mr. Ed. T. Orear." (Mr. Orear was in- surance commissioner under Stephens.) Walsh — "Did you ever ask a governor to sign a bill while you was state chairman?" "I did." "Did you go among the members of the legislature and ask them to vote for any bill?" "I did. I stayed in Jefferson City several days urging the passage of what was called the horse breeders' bill." "And you know this bill authorized or legalized the betting on horse races inside of inclosures?" Cook — "It broke up the poolrooms." "But it legalized gambling on horse races." "Possibly it did. I was requested by Dr. McAllis- ter, of my home town, Mexico, to go to Jefferson City and urge the bill, not because I was state chair- man, but because of my acquaintance in the state." Jourdan followed with a line of questions which brought out the statement that the breeders' bill had driven poolrooms out of St. Louis. The bill was the one which legalized selling pools at race tracks on payment of license. It was the cause of a hard fight in the legislature of 1899. 10 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. "I want to say something about Col. Carroll," Cook said. "He has always been a liberal contributor. He gave his check for $1,000 in each of two state campaigns and gave the national committee $3,000 at one time. He has always given freely. In no in- stance has the party been obligated because of any contribution given by him personally or collected by him. As an evidence that we have not been influenced by contributions, I want to call your attention to the fact that, although we understood the Metropolitan Street Railway Co., of Kansas City, had contributed $1,000 to the local campaign fund, we raised the valuation of that company's property $1,500,000 this year." GOVERNOR STEPHENS' TESTIMONY. More Egg" Shells Exposed in the Refreshing Cardwell Suit at Independence. The substance of Gov. Lon V. Stephens' testimony follows: "Mr. Cook," began Attorney Walsh, "stated in his deposition given here last week that a certain con- tribution had been made by Col. Phelps. Col. Phelps is attorney for the Missouri Pacific railroad, is he not?" "Yes, sir." Mr. Cook's original statement was then read, as follows: "Col. Phelps brought a check to. headquarters about the close of the campaign of 1896, a few days after its close. It was entered on my books to his credit. Later, when we made up the statement for publica- tion, I mean the sworn statement by the treasurer, the personal representative of the governor insisted the contribution ought not to go in as coming from 146 INFAMOUS CARDWELL CASE. Col. Phelps, and it was at his request that I went over and saw Col. Phelps and told him the objection to it. He wrote out an order to the treasurer to credit it in my. name. That is how it came to be reported in my name instead of in the name of Col. Phelps. I do not know how he raised the money. This altera- tion in the record was made at the personal request of Gov. Stephens' personal representative." Afterward the witness, Mr. Cook, said he had in mind Ed. Orear when he spoke of Gov. Stephens' personal representative. Attorney Walsh resumed his examination of Gov. Stephens. He asked: "When did you first learn Col. Phelps had made this contribution?" "I think it was two years afterward." "Did you ever send Ed. Orear or any other per- sonal representative to Mr. Cook with the request that the contribution from Col. Phelps be placed in the records and sworn to as coming from Sam. B. Cook?" "I did not." "Did yon ever authorize Mr. Orear to see Mr. Cook at all with reference to this $2,000 contribu- tion?" "I did not." SAM COOK AS A LOBBYIST. This finished for the moment the reference to the hiding of the $2,000 worth of shells. Turning on another tack, Attorney Walsh asked the governor if he recalled Mr. Cook lobbying for the breeders' bill. The witness answered in the affirmative. "He called on me frequently," said the governor, "in relation to the bill after it had passed the house and the senate. I do not know how long he was on the ground looking after the bill, though he was there a great deal of the time." 147 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. "Did Mr. Cook ever have any conversation with you before you signed the bill, in which he stated the capacity in which he was acting?" "He called on me on one occasion a little bit ex- cited because I held back so long and because I would not give him positive assurance that I would sign the bill. He asked me if I would object to him walking over as far as the Mansion house. I said I would be glad to have him accompany me. It was at this time he told me that it meant a good deal to him in a financial way; after the bill received my signature he would receive a fee, a pretty good fee, for it." "Did he state the amount of the fee?" "I am not sure about that. I can not recall that he stated the amount." "Are you sure he said he was receiving a fee for it?" "Oh, there is no — I am very sure about that." The witness was then cross-examined by Mr. Leh- mann, but on the advice of his counsel declined to answer. Mr. Lehmann placed the witness in a very embarrassing position, showing that Mr. Stephens was governor when many questionable things were done by the legislature and must nave known about them. Redirect examination by Mr. Walsh: "Mr. Stephens, Mr. Lehmann asked you about the occupation of Col. W. H. Phelps, and you stated what it was. Was that his occupation in 1896, when he gave Cook the contribution of $2,000, which after- wards appeared as a contribution of Cook?" "Yes, sir." "Do you know whether or not the statement of it, as to whom they got this money from, was ever published in the newspapers?" 148 INFAMOUS CARDWELL CASE. "I think that came out in the controversy in the early part of January, 1899." "I will get you to state, if you have not already stated, if you directly or indirectly authorized Mr. Cook to take the contribution of $2,000 from William H. Phelps, about whom you have already testified, and put it in the sworn report of the treasurer as the contribution of Sam B. Cook?" "I had nothing whatever to do with it." SEIBERT AND THE BREWERS. "Mr. Lehmann also asked you the question in reference to whether or not you had heard that any- body got any money from the brewers in 1898; and you stated that you heard that Mr. Seibert had got- ten money from the brewers. Do you recall who told you that Mr. Seibert had gotten money from the brewers in the campaign of 1898?" "He told me himself." "State whether or not to your knowledge Mr. Sei- bert was at that time attempting to defeat this beer legislation." "Well, I don't know; if he did, he did not intimate it to me. I favored that very strongly as a revenue producer. Everybody knows what I — " "What did he tell you he got from the brewers?" interrupted Attorney Walsh. "I think it was $2,500." "Did he tell you what he did with it?" "Yes, sir." "Did he tell you whether or not he gave it to mem- bers of the legislature?" "Well, he told me that in districts, senatorial dis- tricts and representative districts, where our Demo- cratic friends were in danger, he went to them and gave it to them himself from his own hands." "Gave it to whom?" 149 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK, "Candidates for representative and senator." "Did he state or do you know whether or not some of them were afterward elected that he handed this money to?" "Yes, sir; I think he gave some to our senator, Tandy." Attorney Walsh (interrupting-): "Well, I don't care about that; I just want to know whether they were elected that he gave it to?" "And he stated that he took this money which he had received from the brewing corporations of St. Louis and with his own hands gave it to men who were running for senator and representative in that campaign?" "Yes, sir." "I believe that is all," replied Mr. Walsh. HOW THE MONEY WAS SPENT. Re-cross-examination by Mr. Lehmann was then begun. "Who were the men that Mr. Seibert stated to you he gave the money to, and who were running for the legislature and who were elected?" "I don't remember now. I thought Mr. Seibert's motives were altogether pure. I saw no wrong in his doing what he could to help elect our candidates, and I don't remember who they were, but in the close districts and counties in the state he helped them to the extent of his ability." "At the time and before the influences of the present controversy had exerted themselves, you were of the opinion that the conduct of Mr. Seibert was entirely proper?" Mr. Walsh: One moment; I object to that as im- material, and calling for an improper conclusion of this witness." 150 INFAMOUS CARDWELL CASE. At this point, counsel for defendant apparently at- tempted to show that the alleged high-handed meth- ods of Chairman Seibert met with the governor's" approval until after the close of his administration. All of which questions Gov. Stephens refused to answer. A few of them, however, follow: "You were interested in the result of that election because you were governor of the state at the time, and you desired, did you not, an expression of the people at the polls which would carry with it an endorsement of your administration?" Mr. Walsh: "We object to that as immaterial as to what his desires were at the time, and I ask that the witness decline to answer." "I decline to answer," said the governor. "You would not have consented for one moment, would you, to the use of corrupt or venal influences for the purpose of securing an endorsement of your administration; you wanted that upon its merits, or not at all?" Mr. Walsh: "I object to that as incompetent, irrele- vant and immaterial, and not meeting any issue in this case, and ask that the witness decline to an- swer." "I decline to answer," was again the response. "Did you rebuke Mr. Seibert at the time he told you what he was doing and say to him that his methods, if known, would be a scandal to the party?" Mr. Walsh: "I object to that as incompetent, irrele- vant and immaterial — any proposed rebuke to this innocent gentleman." "I decline to answer." "Did you tell Mr. Seibert that his methods were improper, and did you ask him to discontinue them?" Mr. Walsh: "I object to that as incompetent, irrele- vant and immaterial, and because the witness has already testified that Seibert told this after the legis- 151 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. lature was in session, and ask that the witness de- cline to answer." "I decline to answer." WHERE THE EGGS CAME IN. "Mr. Stephens, you have referred to the period when you first became aware of the fact that Mr. Phelps had made a contribution of $2,000 to the Demo- cratic committee funds, and have fixed the date with reference to a controversy that broke out. I will ask you whether the controversy to which you refer was the one in which the poultry business of the state was in a measure involved?" "I don't understand your question at all." "The one in which Mr. Phelps conceded his habit of sucking eggs, but disdained any imputation of hiding their shells?" "I think possibly his Carthage speech was the first knowledge of that contribution." "This matter of hiding the shells had reference to the hiding of the source from which money was re- ceived, had it not?" "I think so; yes, sir." Mr. Walsh then asked: "What he said about that was that he and ex-Gov. Stone agreed on the consumption of eggs being proper, but they disagreed as to the disposition of the shells?" "Yes, sir." * * *•* * * * * "You say that you were not aware that Phelps had made a contribution in 1896 until some time in 1899?" "I think it was in 1899 when I first heard about it." "You knew Phelps to be active in the political life of the state, did you not?" "Yes, sir." 152 INFAMOUS CARDWELL CASE. PHELPS A HANDY MAN. "You wrote a letter, did you not, or a statement to Hardin, a lawyer of Nevada, Mo., in which you stated that you would like to have Phelps sent be- cause he was a very handy man?" "I did, sir." Walsh: "Governor, if you will please not answer those questions you will oblige me very much." The witness: "I wish you would tell me not to.". TONY STUEVER CONTRIBUTES. "Was it unusual, during the campaign of 1896, when you were a candidate for governor, for a con- tribution to be made to the Democratic state com- mittee, or to the candidates, or to the representatives of the party in the conduct of that campaign, and report that contribution in the name of some other person?" "I know very little about the conduct of that cam- paign." "I will ask you whether, during that campaign, a contribution of $1,000 was made by Mr. Tony Stuever, of the city of St. Louis?" "I think he made more than that, Mr. Lehmann." "But he did make a $1,000 contribution, did he not?" "I think he made two or three $1,000 contributions." "Did he not make a contribution of $1,000 during that campaign which he made directly to you?" "I think he made it all to me." "At Jefferson City?" "Yes, sir." "How was it reported?" "It was turned over to Orear, and by him to the state committee. I don't know how it was reported." "In whose name did it appear in the accounts of the committee?" 153 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. "I am sure I don't know, sir." "What direction did you give in this respect?" "I gave no direction at all." "Did you not know that that contribution did not appear in the name of Stuever?" "From the manner in which contributions have been reported, I would not be surprised at anything — any disposition that was made of it." Lehmann: "Now, Mr. Stephens, do you know why the contribution was made by Mr. Stuever to you, and not to the committee?" Walsh: "That is objected to for the same reason, being entirely immaterial." "Do you decline to answer that question?" "Yes, sir." T Addressing Mr. Walsh, Mr. Lehmann said: "I would like to confer with you a moment." Mr. Walsh: "With me?" Mr. Lehmann: "Let the record show counsel for plaintiff and witness retire for consultation," to which there is no objection by the defendant, except de- fendant insists on its being shown upon the record. Mr. Walsh: "There is no objection to that. You might say if defendant objected, counsel would go anyhow." WHY STUEVER PAID STEPHENS. Plaintiff's counsel and witness retired together from the room for a short time, and on returning, counsel for plaintiff, Mr. Walsh, said: Mr. Stephens Risked me to please let him state why Mr. Stuever made the contribution to him, and inas- much as he requests it, I am going to let him put that in, but I shall object to any more of that irrele- vant testimony not part of the issues as to whether or not Cardwell lied when he made that statement." 154 INFAMOUS CARDWELTv CASE. The witness: "Are you ready for my statement— my reply to that question?" Walsh: "Reply to the question as to why Stuever made the contribution to you direct." "At the time," said the governor, "I was confined to a darkened room on account of the serious con- dition of my eyes. I had also inflammatory rheuma- tism, which kept me in a month or two, or possibly longer, during this campaign. Mr. Stuever called upon me at a time I was quite ill; it was the first time I had ever met him. My wife allowed him in my room, but he was introduced to me by a Jeffer- son City friend. He told me I was being betrayed by the committee; that they were really doing noth- ing to advance my interests, and that in the southern part of the city of St. Louis there was nothing that appeared in any of the German papers concerning me or my record, and nobody seemed, in the commit- tee, to be willing to do anything that would help me in any way, directly or indirectly; that he felt like something was rotten, and he wanted to do something that would help me down there if I had no objection to it; that he would not turn the money over to the committee himself, but would turn it over to me for the purpose of getting out some German literature or getting something before that section of the city. He had no interest in it further than he was a Demo- crat and wanted to see the governor elected, and he said he would turn over— contribute freely — for that purpose, and that purpose alone. I told Mr. Stuever that I would not accept money under any such terms; that if he contributed at all, he would do it volun- tarily, and it would go into the committee, and he at first thought that would benefit me, but if I would put it in the hands of those there they would do something to help me down there, where not a thing had been done at all in the interests of the gov- 155 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. ernor. And I did not see very much of him, and he left at that time a check with my wife, and I did not know what it was, and I had her write a letter, either to Mr. Cook or to some one connected with the committee, and turn it over to them; and it was found to be a thousand dollars. Subsequently he con- tributed more. I don't know whether it was $1,000 or $2,000, but as fast as it was given to me it was turned over to the committee. What disposition was made of it I don't know, any further than I presume it was used for the purpose of helping elect the whole ticket." "Who was the friend that introduced Mr. Stuever?" "I don't know that that has anything to do with it. But to satisfy your curiosity I will tell you it was Mr. Ellsner, of Jefferson City." Lehmann: "Now, what was the aggregate of Mr. Stuever's contribution?" "I don't know." "I believe from what you have stated here, that I here was at least $3,000," said Mr. Lehmann. "It might have been more, and it might have been less." BRADLEY'S EYE-OPENER. Rev. .Tames Bradley, a Baptist minister of Audrain county, represented his county in the legislature in 1897 and was chaplain of the senate in 1899. He said Sam B. Cook asked him to vote for the breeders' bill. Frank P. Walsh, Card well's attorney, asked: "Did you ever see a telegram from Mr. Cook to Mr. Clark in 1899 in reference to the St. Louis street railway con- solidation bill?" This is the bill of the St. Louis Transit company, which Mr. Walsh has endeavored to connect with the $6000 contribution of Judge H. S. Priest, attorney for the company, to the state com- mittee. 156 INFAMOUS CARDWELL CASE. The witness answered "Yes," and upon inquiry testified that the telegram asked Mr. Clark to give the bill his earnest support, and that the bill was passed before supper at the afternoon session of the house. The bill had already passed the senate. It was Mr. Bradley's opinion that Mr. Clark did not vote at all on the bill. ED. OREAR TESTIFIES. Ed. T. Orear, superintendent of insurance under Stephens, was asked whether he had asked Cook to report the Phelps contribution of $2000 in some other name. Orear said he had not asked him. Cook sent for him to come to St. Louis. He met Cook with Stone. Cook told them that Phelps had given $2000 to clear up all the debts. "My recollection," he said, "is that Gov. Stone said it would be improper to re- port the Phelps' contribution in the name of Col. Phelps because Mr. Phelps represented corporations. We finally agreed that if Mr. Phelps was willing it might be best to use some other name. Mr. Cook went to see Col. Phelps, and I was told later that Mr. Phelps consented." Orear said that he was not at St. Louis as the personal representative of Gov. Stephens and he did not know whether Stephens heard of it until he told him about a year later. He did not tell him until a year or more after the close of the campaign. Cross-examined by Mr. Lehmann, Orear said the meeting in St. Louis was after the election. He had himself suggested the reference of the question of whose name the Phelps contribution should be en- tered in to Col. Phelps. "Did you have any idea at the time," said Mr. Leh- mann, "that there was anything improper in the party receiving money for the campaign fund from Col. Phelps?" 157 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. Attorney Walsh objected, and Orear refused to answer. "Had you any information of any impropriety in the conduct of Col. Phelps at any time?" Orear again refused to answer, at the request of Attorney Walsh. "Did any one present suggest that you send back to Col. Phelps the $2000?" asked Mr. Lehmann. Witness declined to answer. Orear did not know just how much money Tony Stuever, of St. Louis, gave in the campaign of 1896. Mr. Stephens in cross-examination had admitted that it was in the neighborhood of $3000. Lehmann: Do you know it to be a fact that this money given by Tony Stuever was all reported on the books of the committee as having been given by Gov. Stephens? Orear: I refuse to answer. FINANCE COMMITTEE. Dr. E. P. Chinn, a member of the state committee from Boone county, testified that in 1898 and 1900 his name had been advertised as a member of the finance committee. He did not know anything about money being given by the corporations. The finance com- mittee never held a meeting. Walsh: Was it a working committee or a sham? "I considered it a sham," replied the witness. THE "OLD POLITICIAN'S" LETTERS -^ AS PUBLISHED IN THE St. Louis Globe-Democrat. EGGS AND EXPERTS. "THE OLD POLITICIAN" FINDS SOME OLD NESTS AND SOME NEW ONES. The Evolution of the Lobby Committee from Partisan War Prejudice. Joe Bowers and Sallie's Keel-Haired Baby — The "Expe- rience Meeting" at Independence. [From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.] JEFFERSON CITY, MO., December 14.— "Joe Bowers," said the Old Politician, "bad a good deal more horse sense than he has ever got credit for. He was a Pike county man, and most of them knew beans when the bag's open. But that song where we hear of Joe as the man who got the mitten is the place where he falls down in our estimation. Bob Campbell is responsible for a good deal of that, for he has give it out cold that the song was com- posed out of derision of Joe Bowers after Sally had given him the sack. That part's all right enough, for Joe was just so broken-hearted that he give him- self dead away to the whole camp; but I was there, as much as Bob Campbell or any of the rest of them, and while I own up that Joe was a fool for saying anything about it in a mining camp, I'll tell you a little story that will show you that Joe Bowers wasn't as big a fool as he looked. "One night there was a bunch of us and if I'm not mistaken Bob Campbell was there and Ave got to talking about things back in old Missouri. Joe 161 11 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. Bowers was down in the mouth, and, as I recollect it, it was Bill Burbridge who went to rubbin' it into him about Sally and the butcher. Bill was from old Pike himself and he knew the whole shootin' match you hear about in that song. Bill said that Joe had been tellin' him that he had heard that Sally had had a baby. 'And I have offered to bet Joe,' said Bill, 'anything he wants to bet, that that baby has got red hair, like its daddy.' " 'I'd be a damphool,' said Joe Bowers, 'to take a bet like that, for 'taint only the butcher that's got red hair — Sally's got red hair, too.' "It was either me or Bob Campbell who told Bill Burbridge he'd never get any bets at evens on that game, and that it would be a chump who would take him up at any odds. 'Because,' said Bob Campbell or me (I disremember which), 'nature always takes her course in them kind o' cases.' And we might have said more if 01 Tolbert, who was runnin' the gambling joint next door, hadn't just then sung out a side bet in roulette, 'The red wins.' BETTING ON THE RED. "If Joe Bowers had stuck to his horse sense he mightn't be as famous as he is, but he wouldn't be a joke either. Maybe they'd cuss him like they do me, but they wouldn't laugh at him, or pass ironical resolutions, and go through ironical motions, for the erection of a monument to his memory. I'd a bet everything I could beg, borrow or steal that that baby was going to have red hair. You've heard me say before now that when I know a thing I know it, and nothing will ever get me out of that habit ex- cept missing out in the game oftener than I hit it. Maybe if that baby hadn't had red hair it might have shook my confidence in myself, but everybody up 1G2 EGGS AND EXPERTS. in Pike knows that that boy's head would 'a set fire to a water tank. I seen it myself, and ever since then, whenever my opinions is based on the course of rfatnre, I just stick to 'em and wait for nature to take her course, no matter how many gentlemen of veracity enter the same kind of sweeping and em- phatic denials that Mose Wetmore does when he is getting ready to sell out to a trust. It never makes any difference to me what they say whenever I get my nose to the ground and find the direction of the waterfall, for that's the course of nature, and my money goes on nature every time, no matter whether nature expresses herself in red-headed babies or in politics, for I know she expresses herself in every- thing and always according to her own laws. "I was betting on the red Avhen I said that Kohn & Co. got the interest on the government bonds they bought from Missouri, which were sold as a private speculation, in defiance of the legislature and of pub- lic opinion, without authority of law, and at a price so far below the market price for bonds on that day, that it was a dead open and shut that some of the men who were acting for Missouri had sold out the state. They made a raging bluff at first, but na- ture had to take her course, and now they have ad- mitted that the tail went with the hide, and that Kohn & Co. got the interest, and that the price they did pay for the bonds and the accrued interest was away below the market price. A dead silence has fallen upon them all in that direction. They want to change the subject. They want to talk about something else, and I'll be darned if it isn't a fact that there is something else to talk about, and I'm goin' to talk about it before I- get through talkin' to- night. But whenever nature is takin' her course, and you want to bet on the place she will bring up at, 1G3 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. you can't just fall in on her trail at any place that suits your convenience and go on from there. If you're goin' to be up to date you've got to know all the things that's gone before the date you start in at. I'll show you the processes of evolution that has made the Democratic party so rotten that when they lifted the lid off of it at Independence, every body in the state took hold of their noses and held on until they slammed the lid on again so hard that they cracked the pot in doing it; and from now on the smell will be coming out on the installment plan. "I always begin a thing at the beginning. Even in religion, although it looks only to the future, some of them want a pointer on the past. Parson Bradley was the preacher of a Baptist congregation in Boone county .before the war. He always had a revival in winter, and sometimes he would work in an extra one in summer. It was at one of the summer re- vivals he brought Tom Liston to see the error of his ways. Tom was known to have done a great many things in his life which were not good in the sight of the Lord, and it was suspected that he had done a great many more of them kind of things than any of the folks in Boone county knew about. So the night he went forward there was a big sensation, and the congregation had its ears pricked up to hear what revelations he would make in his 'experience.' When the parson whispered in the ear of Tom and told him he was expected to make confession of his sins and the repentance that had brought him to the throne of grace. Tom said he didn't know he had to do that or he wouldn't have come forward. So the parson he up and said to the congregation : " 'Brother Liston is not willing to tell his experi- ence. To make sure of his salvation, through the washing away of sin, we will not baptize him until 164 EGGS AND EXPERTS. after the fall rains, when there's more water in the creek.' CARDWELL'S REVELATIONS. "Some of them have been telling their 'experience' up at Independence, and their confessions are enough to call for heavy rains all over the state. But they couldn't get the creeks high enough in Missouri to baptize the gang unto a life everlasting, for none of them have told a patchin of what has been agoin' on in the last half a dozen years, and not one of them has gone back to the primal sin, which was the first committed by the party after it was restored to power, and that it was in the sale of them bonds. They knew that we were all in exactly that condition of mind, on getting back into control of the state, that all they had to do was to say 'Count Rodman' or 'Drake constitution' and we'd all come arunnin'. no matter what they did. The way we used to all come a runnin' whenever the Democratic party lead- ers in this state blew the horn reminds me of a ser- vice I once saw Pete Trone hold in Shelby's camp. The chaplain had noticed that we were growing away from grace a little faster than he thought we ought to, and it was a Sunday morning he was giving it to us on the line that we had a worse enemy than the Yankees, and one that we ought to fight harder. 'I would rather,' said he, 'see you fight the devil more and the Yankees less.' Right at that point we (heard a volley, and we knew our picket line was bein' attacked. The congregation broke up, and the parson yelled above all the infernal roar, 'Come on, boys. We'll fight the Yankees to-day and the devil to-morrow.' "That's the way we've been doing in Missouri for thirty years. 'Tain't because we haven't seen the 165 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. devil's horns and hoofs a-stickin' out at us time and time again. We seen it on the bond deal, because we're not fools, and we can see a thing as quick as anybody, 'specially when it's a plain as that was. We all seen that the devil was a-fixin' up that law of 1883, which give them the power to move school moneys out of the revenue fund into the school fund, and from there into the sinking fund. The devil it was sure, that was fixing up that temptation to sin. We all saw it. But about the time we made up our minds to fight the devil and all his works, some- body would give the alarm that the Republicans were coming, we'd hear a few shots, and the congregation would break up and the parson would tell us that the devil could wait. That's the way we've been goin' on. "But there's one excuse for us. We didn't know how badly it really was. When I commenced hunt- ing up the evidence in this case I got a pretty good idea of what Bill Phelps meant when he talked about sucking the eggs and hiding the shells. I found out before the experts did that there was no entry in the books of Missouri of the transactions of very near $4,000,000 with the New York firm of Kohn, Popper & Co. Of course, they wouldn't believe me when I told 'em so in the campaign of last year, because they didn't want to, but now they've gone and paid several thousand dollars to experts to sell them the same thing I told them for nothing. Well, now, that's bad enough. Hiding the shells in the politics and administration of this state commenced in the Democratic party before either Bill Phelps or Bill Stone cut any figure in it, and bear that in mind, for I am going to show you, before I stop talking, the evolution from* selling state property the legisla- ture didn't want to sell to selling the legislature 166 EGGS AND EXPERTS. itself. And, to understand the whole thing, I have been hunting for a month back to find them egg shells that the books of Missouri show were hidden some- where. I had my money bet on the red, and I wasn't goin' to let go of it until they could show me that nature hadn't took her course. FINDING THE SHELLS. "Where do you reckon I found them shells? No- where in Missouri. I had to go to Washington, and the thing that started me there was their claim that the government bonds were due and had been called in for cancellation by the secretary of the treasury. I didn't believe it. It was a lie invented to excuse a usurpation and a deliberate defiance of the people and their elected representatives. I sized it up that if the bonds were on the point of cancellation Kohn, Poper & Co. would not have paid any premium at all for them, and, in fact, would not have bought them at all. Deducting the accrued interest, which went with the bonds, from the total premium, Kohn & Co. paid, although they paid away below the market, $200,000 more than the face of the bonds. I could see it plain enough that if the treasury had called these bonds in, it would have to be a crazy man that would pay a premium for them, and then I saw that, on the day of sale, the class of bonds to which these bonds of ours belonged, ranged from 15 to 20 per cent premium. 'This is a bull con they're aranning here,' said I to myself, says I; 'and if them bonds were due for cancellation Kohn & Co. would not have bought them at all. When Jim Seibert got Mr. Popper to come out here a few weeks ago to take up this bond matter, and put up a defense for the Democrats, I was waiting to see what Mr. Popper would have to say in explanation of his queer conduct in buying a 1G7 I STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. ■ lot of bonds that had been called in. I wanted to know if he was the same kind of a financier that Dan Moore was, who used to live over in Audrain county. Dan bought a horse that was no good, and it died on his hands the first week he had it. The one thing that consoled Dan was that he wouldn't have to feed it, and I was wondering if Mr. Popper was going to say that he paid a premium on the bonds just be- cause it wouldn't cost him anything to keep them, when I got word, that he had left St. Louis and re- turned to New York without saying a word. I had seen it stated in the Republic that he had come out here for the purpose of explaining the whole deal v and I wondered why he hadn't done it. "I packed up my red and yellow carpet sack, and started for Washington. I had got to the point by that time of knowiDg that nature was taking her course, and of being willing to bet that the baby was going to have red hair. I could see that red head before I got over the mountains, and when I got to Washington I got another illustration of the fact that whenever you bet that nature is going to take her course it's like finding money if you can get any- body to bet with you. I have practiced in all the de- partments at Washington in my time and I knew how to make the necessary professional connections to get a lawyer to take a squint at the records of the treasury and see when those bonds were redeemed and in whose favor. I had a complete list of at least three-fourths of them, numbered in their order, and the result of the investigation was astounding. Not one of the bonds was redeemed for years after the sale. A number of them went into the hands of national banks as security for circulation. The ten bonds numbered from 4845 to 4854 for $1000 each were finally redeemed by the First National Bank of 168 EGGS AND EXPERTS. New York. The National Bank of Norwalk, Conn., got $10,000 worth of the bonds by transfer. The Dry Docks Savings Bank of New York, got $10,000. The National Park Bank got the same. A like amount went to the National Broadway Bank of New York. Same to the Poughkeepsie Savings Bank. Most of the bonds went to the banks I have mentioned, the trustees of the London Assurance corporation and Drexel, Morgan & Co., Vermilye & Co. of New York got Nos. 781, 782, 823, 824, 853 to 857, 787 to 793, 818, 819, 821, 825. The treasurer of the State of Maine bought Nos. 778 and 779. The Dime Savings Bank of New York took in the num- bers from 771 to 774, inclusive. The Howard Insur- ance Company of New York bought bond 776 for $10,000. In short, nearly every one of our bonds is accounted for as having been in circulation for years after they were sold by the fund commissioners for $70,000 less than they were worth according to the current market prices, on the day they were sold. Who got the rake-off? I have found the shells, but who sucked the eggs? THE EVOLUTION OF BROWN. "Now, if I hadn't been nearly as big a fool as Thompson's colt, that swam the river to get a drink, do you reckon I'd a put off finding these shells, or even looking for 'em until this late day? Do you reckon I'd a blinked at the sale o' them bonds with- out inquirin' the price and wantin' to know why we couldn't get the market price, if the bonds were still to run, and what in the devil Kohn & Co. wanted with them if they didn't have some time to run yet? If I hadn't been as full of vulgar and ignorant po- litical prejudice as the Republic is full of the pic- tures of Pave Francis, I would have got right up 1G9 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. then and said: 'Here, I'm from Missouri, and you've got to show me about this thing; or, if you can't, there's enough of us like me around here to sink you into kingdom come.' Say, instead of doing that, we would go to the place where the egg suckers would have a man to make us a speech, who would wave his arms and lift up his voice and cry out to us to stand by the old party, stand by the lost but not dishonored cause, stand by the holy memories which clustered around the graves of our^ heroic dead. And we'd throw up our hats and yell while the pickpockets who werei working up all the excitement were going through our pockets. I never think of them days that I don't think of the time Riley Elk- ins got his pocket picked at a Democratic meeting at Moberly. Riley was one of us who was standing by the holy memories, and didn't care a damn about the price of United States bonds. He took up with a stranger who swore that McNeil was worse than Benedict Arnold, and Riley flashed a roll in front of him. When they got into the crowd in front of the stand another fellow picked a quarrel with Riley, and while he had his hands up his pocket was picked. But he didn't see the connection, and I guess he's voting the straight ticket yet. "Along in 1883, seeing how we took the hook, with that kind of bait on it, they put through another conversion of the school fund, and this time they just put the key of the state treasury in their pockets and walked off with it. They give themselves the power to take any money out of the school fund they found in there, 'from any source whatever,' and that was nothing more nor less than opening the treasury and giving them the combination to the Lock. I gagged a good deal at that. I could see that nature was goin' to take her course again, and 170 EGGS AND EXPERTS. that there was sure to be another red-headed baby in the family; but I went to a meeting and was asked to stand by the holy memories, and I done it. And if you want to see that red-headed baby, I'll tell you two places where you can find it. One is in Auditor Walker's report, where he reports the moving of over $200,000 out of the revenue fund into the school fund, and from there into the sinking fund 'for the liquidation of debt,' and where he also reports that all of the bond cancellations of 1885 and 1886 were made out of other funds than the school fund. You can see the red-head again in the Allen part of the expert report when the auditor admits that bond cancellations have not been coin- cident with the issuing of certificates of indebtedness to the school fund. I saw that red-head a-comin' in 1883, but I let my fool prejudice keep my mouth shut, and I kept a-hopin' and a-prayin' that the Lord would reverse the laws of nature in this case. I didn't expect it, but I kept on prayin' that the baby wouldn't have red hair; but, oh, Lord, it's so awful red that even when I shut my eye I can't fool myself that the Lord has listened to me, like Job Hyatt's mother thought he did to her. She was a good old lady who lived down in Bollinger county, and she had a son Job, who came out of the war with a wooden leg on him. He married the girl he had left behind him, and the only cloud in his mother's sky was that his wooden leg might be an inheritance of his posterity. But the old lady had a heart of gold, and kept her secret anxiety to herself, irom everybody but the preacher, who she asked to pray the Lord to save the children. He put up a prayer which, he told her, was sure to be answered, because it was made in perfect faith that it would be. But nothing would satisfy the old woman until the little 171 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. stranger that put in an apearance was discovered to have two well developed flesh and blood legs on him. Then the old lady threw up her hands and cried: 'Bless the Lord for that; he has turned aside the law unto them that have faith.' "But I can't get any such satisfaction as that poor ignorant old woman got. I know the law has not been suspended, and never will be. A red-headed baby was born in 1883 because nature took her course, and he turned up at Kansas City the other day and registered in the name of E. O. Brown. That E. O. Brown is several red-headed babies done up in one package. He is the natural consequence of what we were doing a quarter of a century ago when we were allowin' the state officers to burglarize the school fund, to take property out of there which the legis- lature had refused the state the right to take, and to sell it for less than the market price. He saw the thing done. It was a bold daylight robbery. The burglar didn't run, but he walked down the street and we didn't ever cry 'Stop, thief!' as he went by us, because he had it fixed that, as he came out with the boodle, a band turned the corner that was play- ing 'Dixie,' and we all raised the rebel yell. "Brown is an evolution. He is the natural result of the laws that we have all seen working before our eyes and made no effort to counteract because these fellows who never smelt Yankee powder in their lives have been appealing to us to stand by the men in gray. Last year they turned down Frank- Pitts, who lost an arm with Stonewall Jackson, be- cause he lived up to his official oath as state treas- urer, and they couldn't trust him as auditor, and they put in that place a man who had been Jim Sei- bert's chief clerk for a long time. There's a red- headed baby in that, too. You can't make cats out of rabbits. Nature takes her course every time. 172 EGGS AND EXPERTS, THE SHELL GAME. "That's why we've got Brown. I've had such a time hunting the shells on these two bond deals that I've only had time to dip into this Cardwell business once, but that was often enough to let me find the course of nature in the- case. Sunday two weeks ago I put it out cold that Col. Phelps was trying to pull the thing off. Everybody else thought he was the man behind the scenes who was pulling the strings that worked the dancing figures on the stage. The colonel is pretty good at that sort of manipula- tion, and in the beginning he was the man behind the curtain on this deal. I am sure of it. Stephens was in on it, too. The men they had started out after were sometimes the same, and sometimes different. Stephens was camping on the trail of Sam Cook; Phelps was after Stone. But between you and me he was just as much after Dockery and John Carroll, and he had to go after Seibert, not because he wanted to do up Seibert, but because he hoped that if he ever got Seibert on the stand he would bring out the corporation contributions to the Dockery cam- paign fund, and show up that while Dockery was swatting the trusts at the forks of the creek and de- manding in thunder tones a corporation franchise tax in Missouri, both the trusts and the franchise corporations were putting up their money to elect him. Then he wanted to hit the trail of John Carroll as king of the lobby in the first Dockery legislature. There's a big story in that. I've told a good deal of it, but Phelps wanted to bring it out under an oath by state and committee officials. "I don't believe that Phelps started out after Stone. 'Tain't that he loves Stone. He is against him on every proposition, but he started out this thing on another trail. Stephens wanted to go on the stand, 173 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. and hurried back from New York to get a chance. But before that, and after Sam Cook and some others had testified, and it was known that Seibert was the man they were after, a tremendous pressure was brought to bear to put a stop to the whole thing. As soon as Stephens struck St. Louis the interests in that town which very often influence him were put on to him to get him to use his pull with Phelps to call the thing off. None of them down there seemed to know how bad Stephens wanted to tell that story about Sam Cook and the breeders' bill. It had to come out, and that is the principal reason why Brown didn't show up a week earlier than he did. I'm givin' it to you hot off the wire in tellin' you that. It's nature taking her course again, and maybe we'll get another red-headed baby out of it. I said that there was a pool of the Burlington and the Missouri Pacific in the mad rush to put terminal facilities to the Cardwell suit. There is a community of interest there always, on political lines, and Phelps found that he was without underpinning to stand the storm. He made a bluff at calling the thing off or urging Walsh to call it off, but Walsh didn't scare at the bluff, and Cardwell said that bluffs would not go, and that nothing but cash bets would be considered. It couldn't be shut off until niter Stephens had his say. After that Stephens wanted it called off as much as anybody, particu- larly when it got up close to the transit consolida- tion deal, and there were relatives of Stephens in St. Louis who were as anxious as he was to not let the tlpng go too far in that direction. Stephens being one of the main reliances of Phelps in state politics, what he said to the deposed king of the lobby was apt to go a long way, and everybody knew it. ITt EGGS AND EXPERTS. It did. Brown didn't show up until the ex-gov- ernor had sung his little song. And before the Lord, that was the funniest proceeding I ever read about. Do you hope to fool men of sense with such monkey performances? Depositions give a man opportunity to say anything he wants to, but whenever a ques- tion got to Stephens that would lead up to these other things I have been telling about, Walsh would ob- ject to his answering, and the ex-governor would at once fall back behind the objection raised. Why, it's as plain as daylight that Walsh had his cue to ob- ject to everything except the line which had been indicated to him as the line that Stephens was anx- ious to testify on. The stage machinery was all be- hind the scenes, but it creaked so loud in putting the thing through the motions that it was given dead away. It all reminded me of a show I saw at Iron- ton one night during the war. They were trying to show off a storm, and the machine they made the thunder with groaned so you could hear it all over the house. Ted Pritehett, who was in our party, asked what made the moaning. "Oh," said Tom Ford, of Warren county, "that's the wind that can't get out of the box, and it makes more noise than that that does." Which isn't saying, by a long shot, that Stephens didn't release enough of it to raise a cyclone. He did make some of them hunt their cellars, and it is all up with Sammy Cook now. He got to the cellar, but Stephens blew his house down on him. Sammy is a hasbeen, a back number on the files, a two-spot found in a last year's bird's nest. And it doesn't add to his peace of mind a bit for him to know that Stephens was the prime mover in his downfall. But he knows it all right enough. I have played no favorites in that game, but I knew where the feud 175 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. commenced, and what it fed on, and I can give it out cold, and give the story to back it up if anybody calls my hand, that justice between man and man has been done in this destruction of Cook by .Ste- phens, and that the ex-governor has played his hand well. If he hadn't, particularly on the stand, he and Cook might go together and be buried in one grave, which would have to be a mighty wide one to accom- modate them. THE GUM SHOE. Where the gum strikes in on this trial is an in- teresting point for me. Phelps found that he was up against it in his own company. Mart Clardy was attorney for Seibert, and also the attorney of the Missouri Pacific railroad. He was in favor of calling the thing off after the first hearing, and he didn't give a damn for Stephens, either. Phelps did a lot of telephoning to Walsh, but it didn't count, and Phelps said that nothing but the long green would fill the hole. They went to work to raising it, and they raised it not only among the corporations of Missouri which are in the line of legislative as- sault, but among the bankers and brokers who are associated with such interests. They went around and passed the hat, and I can find men who will go on the stand and swear to it. This money was put in the hands of Phelps for delivery where it would do the most good. Who Phelps got to deliver it is a question which is a groat deal more interesting than it is important. What is both interesting and im- portant is that letter of Bill Stone defending all of the transactions which were exposed at Independ- ence, which apeared in the Republic the day after Card well withdrew his suit. All of the testimony was in three days before that. It was known what had been brought out, but the Lord only knew what 17G EGGS AND EXPERTS, was. going to be brought out if Seibert and Stone had to go on the stand, and this man Walsh, with all of his intimate knowledge of the ground floor work in the Democratic state committee, was to put the screws to them. There's where your gum shoe fit in exactly. William J. was apealed to by both Sam Cook and Jim Seibert to come to their rescue. They wanted him to defend them against the charges of corruption, and try to make the boys at the forks of the creeks believe that the corporations had been handing over money to the Democratic state com- mittee to help it put them out of business. They told him that he was the only man in Missouri who could induce the mossbacks to believe that Sam Priest, as the attorney of the consolidated street railways of St. Louis, had given thousands of dollars to support an antitrust platform in 1S98 just out of a desire to see the party succeed and without any pledge that it was not to oppose the street railway consolidation bill. William saw the danger of rushing into the fight until it was all over. He wanted an assurance that the deposition mill was to stop running. He was in consultation with Clardy and Seibert in person, and had frequent talks with Sam Cook over the wire. W T hen he got the word that the whole thing was off, he rushed down to the Republic office the copy of the brief he had written in the pleadings in defense of Seibert and Cook, and the other men now indicted before the people of Missouri. Stone is about as much of a criminal lawyer as he is a corporation lawyer on technical points. It is my opinion that the whole outfit of bunco steerers, flim-fiammers and egg suckers are on their last legs. The men who suck eggs and hide the shells to-day are the legiti- mate descendents of those who did it in 1875. But L2 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. they are not going to walk off with it like the old fellows did. The men who sucked the eggs they found in the government bonds walked around with the yellow streaks on their chins, after they had hid the shells. The men who sucked the eggs they moved out of the revenue fund into the school fund and from there into the sinking fund, wiped their mouths on their sleeves and you could see a long yellow streak there for a long time afterwards. But we weren't particular then. We weren't through fighting the war yet. I guess we're through now. If we ain't, we're not going to have eggs enough left in this state to make an omelet. We can save the shells and hatch another expert out of them. I would call Stone's defense of boodling and sandbag- ging a mistake if I was not sure that everybody else thinks so. You all know it, so there's no use a-telling you so. I think it is the end of Bill Stone and I believe that William himself will begin to see it before long, when the details of these transactions begin to come out. And they're a-comin, I'm hunting more shells. i rs SCHOOL FUND LOOT, THE "OLD POLITICIAN " PUTS FINISHING TOUCHES TO FRAUD AND PRETENCE. How the Chief Witnesses lor the Defense Impeach Themselves and One Another. Where the Rat was Caught— Supt. Shannon's Shower of Bricks— Interest Deducted from Premium. [From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.] JEFFERSON CITY, MO., December 7.— "I've caught the rat," said the Old Politician. "The trap I used set the Republic to figuring interest and premium on the government bonds we sold when we began laying the ground floor for the sinking of the school fund in the sinking fund. I figured it out that we got less than 12 per cent premium, when the marKet premium was away up over 15 per cent. I knew I was right on the general proposition, but if I had made my figures capable of a mathematical demonstration the dignified silence we would have had on the other side would have been like that of Jack Weatherford up in Grundy county the time he was running for office. The editor of the opposi- tion paper had Jack's record in his hatband, and he give it out on the installment plan. He said that Jack was a horsethief and also a perjurer, and that he came to Grundy county as a fugitive x from jus- tice. The committee told Jack he would have to take it up or get off the ticket. 170 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. " 'I've challenged him,' said Jack, 'to tell the color of the horse he says I stole. If he can't do it, the whole charge falls to the ground.' " 'They fired him off, but as long as the world stands men of his type will attempt the old trick, and I have known it for, lo, these many years. And I was dead sure that the error in the figures would smoke 'em out. I didn't have to wait long. 'Since when,' the Republic asked, 'has $242,366 come to be less than 12 per cent of $1,671,600? A premium of $242,366,' it said, 'is exactly 14.49 per cent.' I told 'em to go up head, for they had turned down the whole class, as the rest of us had been calculating that the interest which Kohn & Co. got, along with the principal, ought to be set off against the total premium, and that would bring it down to somewhere about 9.9. 'Wrong again,' cried the little school- marm of the Republic, clapping her hands in rapture, 'for, taking out the interest due, the premium would be 11.29.' And right then the trap was sprung. THE RAT SQUEAKED. "The next day the rat squeaked. If you have ever seen a caged rat nosing around for an opening to get out, you must have had some temptation, if you are a man of any feeling, to open the door and let him go. That's the way I felt about the Republic for a few days. But as I always have to kill a rat, in spite of my feelings, for the good of society, I can make no exception in this case, although the squeaking has appealed to me. 'Kohn & Co. never got the interest.' the Republic squeaked, 'and the books will show that they paid it to the school fund.' The next day it squeaked that the premium on the bonds in- cluded the premium on the interest, and that Kohn & Co. paid premium on the interest due on tin' 180 SCHOOL FUND LOOT. bonds, which will show you how badly the rat was scared, and the desperate attempts it was making to get out of the trap. They couldn't name the book, or the page of the book, or the set of books it be- longed to, but they were sure it was there. Where the trap closed up tight, was at the place in the expert report, where it is said that the books of state show nothing of an account of the transactions with Kohn & Co. Another place where the trap was closed was in the extract from the books of Kohn & Co., which appears in the expert report, on page 47 of the statistical exhibit, showing that the only interest ever paid by Kohn & Co. to the state of Mis- souri, amounted to just $1750. That was all. And the interest due on the government bonds, on the day they were delivered to Kohn & Co., was not two thousand dollars short of $50,000. "Then came Shannon. Shannon is a man who works hard without knowing it". He always reminds me, in an argument, of the Irish hodcarrier, who was asked if his work did not tire him. 'Begod,' said he, as he pointed up to the bricklayers at the top of a four-story building, 'it's the min up there who do all of the wurruk.' But Shannon does the sweating. And he sweats blood. He carried the hod on this deal, and did most of the work of putting up the house, but he didn't want to do it, and the brick- layers on the top got a darned sight more money out of it than he ever did. But every time this question is brought up he rushes to the front with his old hod on his shoulders, and goes to carrying a lot of bricks up the ladder, when there's no call for it. And he slips, and stumbles, and let's the bricks fall on the beads of the- people who are boosting him up the ladder. He let a whole hodful fall on the heads of his party last Monday, when he tried to climb the ladder and stumbled at the third floor. isi STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. CASE CLINCHED. "The Republic, inspired from the statehouse, had said that Kohn & Co. paid all of the interest due on the bonds at the date of transfer into the school moneys of the state. They figured it out at nearly nearly $45,000. The expert report settled that claim by showing that the only record of interest ever paid by Kohn & Co. to Missouri was in the firm's own books, and was for only $1750. Nothing more was needed to clinch the case. The nail was driven home. The dog's eyes was sot. But as soon as I saw that Shannon was starting up the ladder with a hod on his shoulder I knew that there was going to be a shower right away, and that people who didn't stand from under were sure to get hurt. And, sure enough, when he was about half way up, the bricks com- menced falling so thick that none of the anxious crowd below, all of whom were looking up to see how the thing would work, got away without a broken head. The biggest brick in the whole lot was big enough to cover the whole gang, and that's just what it did. 'The schools of the state did get that interest,' says Shannon, 'out of the premium paid for the bonds, and that's as plain as daylight' True for you, Shannon; that's just what it is. and that's just what I said at the start. They wouldn't believe me. The Republic calculated that $242,366 was 14.49 per cent premium on the bonds, arid, of course, it was if there was nothing to come out of it. If the interest was added to that $242,366, and made a part of the premium, then the premium would be more than 14y 2 per cent, wouldn't it, Shannon? It would lie about 3 per cent more, wouldn't it? But tho> auditor s;iys it was 1-1 '/ 2 , the Republic says ii was 14y 2 , and you say it was 14%. Well, 1S2 SCHOOL FUND LOOT. then, since the interest was not added to the pre- mium, it's a dead sure shot it was deducted from it, or, rather, made a part of it. When you talk about making the interest due on bonds a part of the premium on the same bonds, Shannon, you've got to have either addition or subtraction in the case. There's no getting away from that. One or the other has got to come as sure as you're born. It can't be a part of the apparent premium without being ad- ded to or taken from the real premium. You can't eat your cake and keep it, too. You can't include in- terest in premium without putting the premium up or down. And, since you all have figured it out that the premium was 14%, including the interest, deduct the amount of the interest due on the bonds at that time, almost $50,000, and you find that the real pre- mium paid on them bonds was less than 12 per cent — 11.29 the Republic figures it. There's where the rat died. A FEW MORE BRICKS. "It has not squeaked since the Shannon shower. You see nothing and hear nothing more of the claim that the United States bonds in the school fund were sold at 14y 2 per cent premium. They do not dare to keep up that claim, in view of the report of their own experts, of the books of Kohn & Co. and their own confessions. If they did, Shannon has dropped a few more bricks out of the hod to settle them at short notice. To tell the truth, every time they have opened their head Shannon has had a brick for it. Of course, he doesn't mean it that way, but every time' he makes a confession it costs him and his party dear, and reminds me of a story I have heard of Col. Boulware, of Fulton. Col. Boulware is one of the most able and eminent criminal lawyers in 1S3 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. the West, whose light is too brilliant to be hid under a bushel, but who has a criminal practice in most of the states west of the Mississippi. Once he was de- fending a man in one of the counties on the Missouri border of Kansas against a charge of murder. I have heard it said that Col. Boulware would a great deal rather clear a guilty man than an innocent one. There is more of professional pride and glory in it, and I have heard him say that a guilty man is al- ways willing to shell out a bigger fee than a man who knows he is innocent and thinks the world ought to help him prove it. This fellow who had retained him out in west Missouri kept a sticking to it that he was innocent, but when the colonel put him under a private cross-examination he made so many dam- aging admissions and contradicted himself so often that the colonel was satisfied of his guilt, and his profesional enthusiasm was aroused. It was a very difficult case to handle, though, and the more he tried to train the fellow the oftener he blundered. At last the colonel said one day, after a rehearsal in which he had taken the part of the state's attorney, with the prisoner on the witness stand, says he: 'If you can be as big a damphool to the jury as you are to me, I'll put you on the stand, and they'll never hang you. That's the only way I can save your neck.' SHANNON "ALL RIGHT." "And that is the same kind of reasoning that has always made me think that it wasn't Shannon who got the swag of them two bond deals. If it had been he wouldn't be always bobbing up and giving himself dead away as he does. I know it is not always a safe thing to acquit men on that kind of rea- soning. The jury that acquitted Col. Boulware's 184 SCHOOL FUND LOOT. client made a mistake, but I have always insisted that Shannon's telling- the truth the way he does ought to acquit him, whether he is guilty or not. Shannon is the best hand at telling the truth that I know of, because it comes out of him unconsciously. He never intends telling too much of it, but he meets with accidents because he allows himself to get mad and splutter. He starts out with the best intention in the world to distort a fact about something, and before he gets through he has revealed a fact his friends have tried to conceal. The story of the in- terest is one of them. In the same pile of bricks are the market quotations he cited to prove that he did not buy the state bonds above the market price. Nobody ever said he did, but I have said, and still say, that the evidence of conspiracy and betrayal in that case is in the facts, admitted by Shannon, that the state board of education made no effort to buy any of these state bonds which were being sold by the fund commissioners in 1875, until after they had all been sold to private parties, at a discount. Then the state comes in and buys these same bonds of Kohn & Co. at a premium, paying the New Yorkers $20,000 more for the bonds than the state could have got them at two weeks earlier. Shannon starts out to misrepresent the facts in the case, and makes references to dates, but he begins dropping bricks before he is past the second-story windows. He names dates on which the Missouri bonds were quoted higher in the market than the price he paid, and gets people to look up them dates. And, of course, while they're at it, they conclude to see what the price of the government bonds was on the same days. And that's where Shannon drops another brick, and hits the Republic so square be- tween the eyes that it looks like it's got three eyes 185 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. now. Both the Globe-Democrat and Republic of November 13, 1875, the day on which, the Republic and Shannon say, the government bonds were sold, show bond quotations on the St. Louis and New York market. Both of their reports are 'corrected by P. F. Kelleher & Co., bankers and brokers, 307 North Fourth street,' so you see there's no room for argument between them. And both of them say that on that day when our government bonds went, according to Shannon and the Republic, at less than 112, the selling price of the 5-20 government 6s of 1886 was 116%. We were just about 5 per cent be- low the market on two-thirds of the bonds we sold, for $1,150,000 of our bonds were 6s of 1865, registered in the name of State Treasurer Bishop. LOSS TO THE STATE. Now, I'm going to do a little more figuring. That 5 per cent loss on the 1865 6s was $57,500. Then we had $151,100 in government 6s of 1865, registered in the name of the state board of education and of State Treasurer Dallmeyer, on which the loss of 5 per cent amounted to $7555. Our 5-20 bonds of 1864, amounting to $152,000, which we sold at less than 112 on the 13th of November, 1875, were worth on the market that day 114y 2 . Our loss was about 3 per cent and amounted to $4560. Then we had $13,000 in bonds of 1867. According to the market reports, "corrected by P. F. Kelleher & Co.," they were worth 121% on the day we sold them for less than 112. Our loss on that deal then was about $1300. In our batch of bonds were others of which I have not been able to find a record, but these I name I have got nailed down, and you can add it up for yourself to find out how much we lost in selling them at the figures Shannon and the Republic say we got. How 1SG SCHOOL FUND LOOT. much is it? On the issues of 1865, $65,055; on the issue of 1864, $4560; on the issue of 1867, $1300. Total $70,915. Add this to the profits of Kohn & Co. on the other bonds I have enumerated, and their profits of about $20,000 on the state bonds, in two weeks, and you can see it was about $100,000 of Missouri money they walked away with. These are not my figures. They are the figures which appeared in the Missouri Republican of No- vember 13, 1875, "corrected by P. F. Kelleher & Co., bankers and brokers, 307 North Fourth street." It makes no answer, to them to put the "Old Politician" a-roosting. on the limb of a tree in a Republic pic- ture. If you ever get me to roosting on a limb you can bet your last nickel that I won't take a saw and saw the limb off, like Shannon and the Republic do. If I'm going to hit the ground, somebody else will have to do the sawing, and nobody has done it yet. I never in my life saw a finer piece of work in the way of sawing off of that kind than the Republic did when it took me up on the assertion that this sale of government bonds was done under cover be- cause it was known that if it was submitted to the legislature there was every prospect that it would be defeated. What I said last Sunday was that "none of us knew what was being hatched until the whole thing was done. They were afraid to lay it before the legislature, because they knew if they did it would at once raise a howl that would frighten the legislature from ever agreeing to it. This entire thing was done under cover, and that's the worst feature about it all." MUST "SHOW" MISSOURIANS. The Republic quotes that, and then proceeds to prove it. It -calls up the effort made in the legisla- 1S7 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. ture of 1874 to put through a bill "to transfer the United States bonds in the school fund to the sink- ing fund, and to reimburse the school fund." That was a bill to sell the government bonds. What be- came of it? They got it through the Senate, but be- fore it was discussed in the lower House they com- menced hearing from the people. It failed to pass the house, and when no effort was made to put it through in 1875, we all thought, as a matter of course, that we had heard the last of it. That's what made me say that none of us knew what was being hatched until the whole thing was done; that they were afraid to lay it before the legislature again after it had once been defeated there. And that's just what they were afraid of. If the thing hadn't been brought up once and defeated, we wouldn't have been so sure of it, but after the scheme had passed the senate, and then the people had defeated it in the House, we thought they had given it up for good, and we never dreamed that they would go ahead and do it anyhow, without ever laying it before the legislature again, when the legislature was holding annual ses- sion, and could have been called in extra session at any time by the governor. We were Missourians, and we thought we would have to be shown, but they didn't show us then, and they're trying to keep us from finding it out now. What they did was an act of usurpation. With- out laying the proposition to sell the bonds again be- fore the legislature, they went ahead, in an under- hand way, which I use no improper term in denounc- ing as conspiracy, in the exercise of a power which had been expressly withheld from them in the or- ganic law, and which had been denied them by the lawmaking power of the state. If you want to see the shadow of that conspiracy, read Shannon's com- 188 SCHOOL FUND LOOT. inunication to the Republic in the issue of November 4, 1900. He says there that everything was to be done quietly. There was to be no publicity about the matter, he said, for prudential reasons connected with prices. And, he says, when it came to dealing with Mr. Popper for the sale of the government bonds, the fund commissioners would not deal with Mr. Popper directly, but had Mr. Shannon carry his figures into them, and then authorized Shannon to close with him on the terms he had offered. But in order to understand all of that better, you will have to read, in that same communication to the Republic, of how Shannon had tried to get out of this job. The people had condemned the sale. The legislature had refused to authorize it. The men be- hind the deal had been afraid to resubmit the propo- sition to the legislature only a few months earlier. And now they were preparing to do that thing which they had been refused the power to do, and which they knew the people did not want done. I don't wonder that the fund commissioners avoided the re- sponsibility. Shannon himself tried to avoid it. "I protested against the order of the board, and pleaded that I be relieved of further responsibility," he says. But they nailed him to the cross. They accepted the first bid Mr. Popper made, Shannon assures us, and he afterwards got it raised $10,000, because he thought it too small. And I believe he is telling the truth. BLAMES THE "OLD POLITICIAN." "Now you can talk all you please about governor this and that or senator so and so. Some of them are dead, and I will not assail them, but Shannon is alive, and him I will defend. He can call me a liar until he gets black in the face, a dastard, a scoundrel and everything else he can think of, but I STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. understand hiin. He is sensitive because he knows he was imposed upon at that time, and made to as- sume a responsibility which did not belong to him. He knows who is to blame, but he is too much of a man and a gentleman to squeal that he got the worst of it, or to go about in wild and weak complaining. He would rather take it out on me than violate what he holds to be an honorable confidence. He is sore on the whole question, and whenever the thing is brought up he has got to get to the front to try and show that it w r as not such a bad thing after all. If it relieves him any to jump on to me, I'm willing to stand it, for it's my opinion that there's something coming to Shannon from somebody. I am sure he'll never squeal or turn state's evidence, and if it will do him any good I'll agree to be to him w T hat Bill Wells was to the editor in Tiptonville. There was an editor in that town once who had been getting the worst of it in several engagements. Bill Wells was the champion of the town, but he had a big heart in him, like a brave man always has. One day when he met the editor with his eye in a sling he stopped him and says: "Say, seems to me you're gittin' too much the worst of it around this town. If it'll do you any good or keep these fellers off o' you, I'll agree to take a lickin from you and not charge you a cent." Then the editor thought about it a minute and then he said: "'Wouldn't it ruin your reputation, Bill?' " 'Oh, no,' said Bill, 'they all know you.' CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. "They say all this is circumstantial evidence. That's the kind of evidence that is said by groat lawyers to be the strongest in the world. Gov. Johnson was once defending a defaulting county 190 SCHOOL FUND LOOT. treasurer who was away short in bis accounts. The money was missing, and he couldn't account for it, although he kept on insisting all the time that he was not guilty of robbery. " 'It's only circumstantial evidence against me,' he said. 'The money has disappeared while I'm in office, but nobody saw me take it.' " Tf somebody had seen you take it,' said the gov- ernor, 'we might impeach him, or strike out his tes- timony, or make him contradict himself on the stand.' " 'Then,' said the defaulter, 'it's only circumstan- tial, isn't it?' " 'Yes,' said the governor, 'It's only circumstantial in your case, but badly reduced circumstances in the case of your bondsmen.' "The governor gave a flashlight on what a skillful lawyer can do with direct testimony that he can't begin to do with circumstantial evidence. The men who are convicted on circumstantial evidence are the most surely convicted, in nine cases out of ten. And these same people who say that it is only cir- cumstantial evidence which points to a rake-off for somebody, wouldn't raise a voice against the value of circumstantial evidence if it was brought against some poor devil who is on trial for his life. We have hanged a hundred men in Missouri on circum- stantial evidence weaker than that which convicts somebody of having stood in on the deal with Kohn, Popper & Co. The evidence is a good deal stronger than what made Joe Padgett, of Randolph county, tell Riley Hall that he couldn't go back to Congress. Riley, you know, cottoned to the Populists and got himself elected on a fusion arrangement in his dis- trict. He was for silver up to the hub, and he used to scream about it at the Populist meetings. He was elected in 1892, but as early as 1894, the boys in both 191 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. parties had begun to suspect him, and in the Demo- cratic state convention at Kansas City that year they challenged his poll of the Randolph county dele- gation, because they were afraid he was leaning toward Dave Francis and against Dick Bland. They had some circumstantial evidence, but it wasn't enough to convict, and so they sent him back to Con- gress for another term. In that term, though, he piled up the circumstantial evidence still higher by standing in with Cleveland and all his works, and when he came home he didn't ask for another nomina- tion. I don't believe Riley got any cash money for deserting the party, but they all thought he did, and Joe Padgett told him so. Riley denied it, but Joe up and said: " 'Well, Riley, if you done it all for nothin' you're too big a fool to send to Congress. When this dis- trict is sold out I want somebody to get something for it.' BAD TRADE. "That was the circumstantial evidence in the Hall case, and it hanged Riley higher than Haman, in poli- tics. And it wasn't near as strong as the evidence in this case. Here we were, with interest-bearing securities bringing in $100,000 a year from the outside and not costing us a cent. If we could have made anything by selling the bonds for what they were worth it would have been a good job. But «vhen we got rid of that much money every year that was coming to us without taxation, and when taxed our- selves to get it back again, we surely ought to have got the best prices going. Instead of that, we let the bonds go for $70,000 or $80,000 less than they were worth on the day they were sold, only a week after we had bought state bonds, according to Shannon and the Republic, by paying $20,000 more than they SCHOOL FUND LOOT. were worth a month earlier, when Ave could have got them as easy as not. That's stronger than the cir- cumstantial evidence that put Riley Hall out of poli- tics, and don't you forget it. It's a trade like the one Gabe Fannin made when he was a boy. Gabe was born up in Ralls county, and for a good many years he wasn't near as sharp as he got to be, and is now. It was the war that sharpened him up, for he was one of us, and I have heard him tell this story himself. He had been sent by his father to go with a cow that was to be sold to a neighbor, but on which no price had been set. The old man gave Gabe the top price and the bottom price, and the bottom price was $20. When the neighbor asked the price, Gabe said, 'Dad says he won't take less than $20.' i " 'All right,' said the farmer; 'driver her in.' "I met Gabe the other day, and, said he: 'At the time I done that you could have made me believe that selling them government bonds, and then tax- ing ourselves to raise the interest on them, was a good thing, but you couldn't do it now.' " 'I reckon,' said I, 'that nowadays you don't give your bottom figures first, either.' " 'Not when I'm selling,' said Gabe, ^but when I'm buying I do just like that New York fellow who sent in his bid for the bonds to the fund commissioners, in the hands of Shannon. That was his bottom price, and they never asked him for a higher one, although he was away below the market.' SANDY HOOKER'S BREAK. "But the trade in the bonds was more like the one Sandy Hooker made with Jim Marvin, up in Moni- teau. Sandy had a threshing machine which was bringing him in good money, but he began to get 193 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. gay and wanted a horse and buggy to take his girl out in. Jim Marvin had what he wanted, and of- fered to trade hiin. It was the best trade Jim ever made, and he dates the beginning of his fortune from that day. But Sandy's troubles were not long in coming, and as soon as they commenced a-coming they kept a-coming fast. He got to going with a girl whose father dropped around one night with a shot- gun and invited him out to marry her. They dated the license back a few months, to get a good start, and went to housekeeping. But Sandy had to trade his rig for a plow and a horse that couldn't pull it across a ten-acre field oftener than a dozen times a day. He saw he had got the worst of it, and vamoosed the ranch, but his wife came after him with a suit for a separate maintenance, and the court allowed it to her, and Sandy's a-paying it yet. His threshing ma- chine's gone, his horse and buggy's gone, and all he's got is the certificate of indebtedness in his sinking fund, which the order of the court makes sacred and inviolate, non-negotiable and non-transferable, and which there is no danger of anybody in the world trying to steal from him. Sandy knows something about conversions in property. He is in the certifi- cate stage right now, and is going to vote for the constitutional amendment in favor of repudiating all certificates now outstanding." 1!U THE SCHOOL FUND THE "OLD POLITICIAN" PROVES HOW THE TAIL WENT WITH THE HIDE. Bonds Sold Seven Per Cent Below the Market Price, Including' Interest. Record as to the Accrued Interest on the Bonds— Books at Jefferson City and New York. [From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.] JEFFERSON CITY, MO., November 30.— "I don't expect," said the Old Politician, "that an experted ma- chine and its suporters will agree with me. What I do think, though, is that they ought to agree with one another, and that each and every one of them ought to agree with himself. But they don't do it. The Republic called me a liar because I was figuring that the state didn't get 14 y : , per cent premium on the amount of money it turned over to Kohn & Co. on them government bonds, but when I got them around to my basis of figuring that the tail w^ent along with the hide, and that the New Yorkers got the accrued interest, as well as the principal, the Republic figures it out that the premium would be 11.25 on the whole transaction. The Republic seems to feel tow T ard me like Deacon Groves, w r ho used to live in Knox county, felt toward a backsliding member of the congregation, whose alleged transgressions had been brought up before the deacons. 'That man,' said Deacon Groves, 'ought to be kicked by a jackass, and I'd like to be the one to do it.' 195 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. "TheRepublic has kicked at me every day this week, but, as I was saying, if it could only agree with itself it wouldn't remind me so muck of Deacon Groves. I insist that ll 1 ^ per cent premium isn't 14y 2 per cent by a long shot, when you let the tail go with the hide, and that's what I was doing, in my calculations all of the time. And that's what I'm doing yet, al- though the Republic insists that I am an old fraud, .and that the entire accrued interest, amounting to over $40,000, was paid to the school fund by Kohn & Co., and that the amount was credited to them in the state's books. The Republic isn't what you might call an expert, but it seems that, on this point, it is more expert than them experts we hired, for they couldn't find any such a credit. They couldn't, find any of the figures in the books, and in their report they say (page 67), that 'there is no formal account on the general books of the state showing the trans- actions had with this firm.' Now, I don't want to call the Republic a liar. That is not my style of de- bate. What I am going to do about this is to prove that it is the experts who have told the truth, and then the Republic will not be under the necessity of confessing that it has lied, for I will be as easy on it as Dr. Pope Yeaman was on one of the brethren years ago when there was a church trial, in which one of the parties was shown to have broken the com- mandment against bearing false witness into a thou- sand pieces. It was proved so pat and clear that there was no doubt about it. and it was expected that the sinner would surely be called on to humiliate himself before God and men by making a public confession. But Pope Yeaman's great soul was too white for such torture, and he said, after the congregation broke up: 'I think that the case is so clearly proved that we need qo further testimony from brother — ' L96 THE SCHOOL FUND. " 'But how about the Lord?' asked one of the anx- ious brethren. " T think,' said Dr. Yeainan, 'that if the Lord is not satisfied with the punishment already infiicted, he will find a way to inflict more.' "And after I prove the Republic out of line with all the other testimony in this case, they needn't confess to me, or to the people. Take it to the Lord in prayer. REMARKABLE RECORD. "Now, the experts say (page 67) that there is nothing in the books of the state showing any of the transac- tions of the state with Kohn & Co. Not a figure, or a line, or the dotting of an i or the crossing of a t, to indicate what was passing in the deal. They don't deny the deal, though, for it is reported in total figures in the auditor's books, showing the amount of bonds sold and what they were sold for. but nary a scratch of a pen indicating the payment of a cent by them for the then accrued interest on the bonds, amounting to a semi-annual coupon. I have already asked the Republic to tell where, in the books, or in what books, it finds a credit of more than $40,000 showing that Kohn & Co. paid the ac- crued interest on the bonds, and it assures me, in reply, that I am an old liar and an old fraud, and a defamer who is gangrened with malice. But where's the page? That's what I want to know. And that's what the experts want to know, too, and what they couldn't find. In order to get any kind of trace of this deal they had to go to New York and consult the books of the National Bank of Com- merce, which was the fiscal agent of the state at that time, and also such of the books of Kohn & Co. as they could get hold of, as the firm has now gone 197 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. out of existence. And they didn't find, in any of them books, any record of more than $40,000 in ac- crued interest paid to this state by Kohn & Co., or Kohn, Popper & Co., along with the face and pre- mium of the government bonds they bought. Not much ! "On page 41 of the statistical exhibits made by the experts you will find what they got out of the books of Kohn, Popper & Co. and the National Bank of Commerce. It is very enlightening on this point about the interest on the bonds. The face and pre- mium of the bonds are set out in two separate items, and then, included in this transaction of the bonds, comes this entry: 'Interest, $1750.' And that is the only sum of interest referred to, and it's as plain as shooting that it was the only interest that passed in the whole deal. If the Republic can cite the book the page and the number, where any other interest is entered, it will accommodate a good many people who want to know the truth about this deal and who don't think that calling me a liar settles anything. The experts say that there is no entry of the deal in the state books, and in the figures they give from Kohn & Co.'s books they show that there's no such entry there. Now where is it? Of course, I know, Republic, that in the transfer of negotiable paper the seller is entitled to that part of the interest already accrued, and that's what makes me so all-fired mad about this thing, to think that we Missourians, who boast so much that we have to be shown, were taken in and done up so completely by a New York house. that we not only let our bonds go at less than the market price, but didn't get what always goes in such deals, the interest on the bonds up to the date of the transfer. 198 THE SCHOOL FUND. PRICES AND INVESTMENT. "I tell you, if we could have sold them boiuls at the highest premium going that year it would have beeu a bad investment. They went as high as 125, and the lowest they went in New York that year, according to the bank reports, was 118. Ours went at 11.25, according to the Republic, if we include the interest, and there isn't a scratch of a pen in any ledger account or any auditor's report to show that we didn't include it. But if we had sold at 118 we would still have been losers, for the reason that a man would be a loser if he should trade off a good, strong, working horse for an old one that he would have to feed. That's it exactly, and you can't figure it out any other way. In them government bonds we had a source of revenue that didn't tax us. It came out of the people of all the states, and came into our treasury, $100,000 a year, just like finding it. But if we had sold at 118 — and we could have done it without any trouble — it wouldn't have paid us to sell at that figure if we were going to take the money and invest it in state bonds and put them in the school fund and collect the interest by an anuual tax on the people of Missouri. No, sir; it wouldn't have paid us even at that, for we would just have been throw- ing away a hundred thousand. dollars a year we were getting from Washington, and turning around to tax the people of Missouri to get it back again. That's what we did, though. "Some- man writes to me, through the Globe-Demo- crat office, and wants to know why I didn't roar at the time this was done. He doesn't sign his name, and is what the Republic would call 'anonymous,' but that cuts no ice with me, for his question is a fair one, and I will give it a fair answer. None of 199 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. us knew what was being hatched until the whole thing was done. They were afraid to lay it before the legislature, because they knew if they did it would raise a howl that would frighten the legisla- ture from ever agreeing to it. This entire thing was done under cover, and that's the worst feature about it all. On the 4th of November, 1900, in the St. Louis Republic of that date, Richard D. Shannon, of Warrensburg, who was the state superintendent of education at the time the sale was made, an- swering the first letter I wrote to the Globe-Demo- crat about this bond cod version, says that the mat- ter was never thought of or discussed by himself. or the fund commissioners, until a few weeks before the sale was made, Shannon is not specific as to dates, but he thinks it was in the latter part of Oc- tober he was notified that one of the series of bonds held by the school fund were called for redemption, and he says he had private information that another series would be called before long. Who it was that gave him the tip, he doesn't say, or what series of bonds that was which had been called, he doesn't say. The fact is, that throughout the whole of the discussion over this matter there has never been a man jack of them all to step forward with a full, clear, connected and intelligent account of the deal, giving the facts and the figures, the dates, the files of the books, the numbers of all the bonds, and the series to which they belonged. They just lay back and say that every man who asks for the facts is defaming the state. BUILT AN INTEREST FUND. "One series of the bonds was called for redemption. Shannon says. Well, the others were likely to run for several years after that, for the government was 200 THE SCHOOL FUND. just then beginning to accumulate gold in the treas- ury in preparation for the operation of the Sherman resumplion act, which had just become a law. But supposing that all of them had been called, what then? -What was the proper thing to do? Why, it was to sell at the market price, which was apt to be somewhere about 120, but if it was only 118, which, according to the bank reports, was the lowest figure for 6 per cent 5-20s in the New York market that year, our bonds would have brought $1,972,488. Do you think I would have invested that in state bonds and collected a tax off the people of this state to raise an interest fund in place of the one destroyed by the sale? Never in the world. Look at the United States Statutes (16272) and read the refunding nets adopted July 14, 1870. There you will find that all of these bonds could have been exchanged for the 5-20s which had been called in, par for par, or the government would sell the new 5s to purchasers at not less than par. Now consult the treasury reports, and you will find that the entire issue went at par. Well, now, they had not less than ten years to run. Why, any man who could run a threshing machine would see that the thing to do was to sell, if he was going to sell the bonds at all, and reinvest in the new issue. And $1,972,488, at 5 per cent, would bring into the Missouri school fund $98,624.40 in interest every year, every red penny of which would come out of the United States treasury. And they could have got it right along for a good deal more than ten years, and then they could have sold out again and con- verted the proceeds into 4 per cents and have them yet. "But what did they do? Well, we all know now, but, as I was saying, none of us knew then, and it was to keep us from knowing that somebody kept the whole of the proceeding out of the legislature. I 201 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. don't know who was responsible for that, but what we all know was that Gov. Hardin was not aware that anything was going on in that way when the legislature met in 1875, and it was not until 1877 that he made a report of the transaction, after everything in the way of a government bond we had was gone. We bought some more later on. But that's another story. HOW IT WAS DONE. "Before I get through with this one, I want to tell how Shannon described the w T ay this sale was made, in the Republic of November 4, 1900. 'At that time,' he says, 'the state did not contemplate the conversion of the securities from United States to state bonds. Nothing had occurred to suggest the necessity for the change.' And yet, under the refunding acts of 1870, they knew that the bonds would be called in the course of time. It was, perhaps, their intention to refund in the new 5 per cent, and if so, they ought to have stuck to it. But all of a sudden, it appears like they got a tip that the devil was to pay. A Mr. Dewitt C. Stone, who had formerly been a partner of Treasurer Salmon in a banking business, was act- ing as the 'confidential agent' of Shannon to keep Kohn & Co. from skinning us. Kohn & Co. were then in Jefferson City buying up state bonds at less than par, for the purpose of selling them back to us, in less than a month, at more than par. It was while this deal was going on and the fund commis- sioners were selling $1000 bonds to Kohn & Co. at $988 apiece, which the state bought back in a few weeks at more than $1000 apiece, that Shannon was notified that the government was after our bonds. He got notice of one of the scries, and got a tip about another. Who gave him the tip he doesn't say, but anyhow he go1 sc.-uvd up, because, says he, 'when 202 THE SCHOOL FUND. a bond was called for redemption it at once fell to par, all premium ceasing.' "Now, will somebody tell me why, if the bonds, being called in, bad lost all their premium, and fell to par, Kohn & Co. paid even as much as $11.25 premium on the lot? Will somebody tell me that? If they were worth only par, what made Kchn & Co. pay more than they were worth? Mr. Shannon says he had to watch them in the deal on the state bonds to keep them from bulling the prices when he started in to buy their bonds. But he failed. For the bonds they had bought at $988 apiece they sold back to him for $1003.75 apiece. They were business men who were consulting their own interests and not those of this state, and when it came to buying the govern- ment bonds you can gamble all the way from here to the Yukon and back that if the bonds had fallen to par they ' wouldn't have given $11.25 for them, al- though $11.25. was nearly 7 per cent below the mar- ket price for that class of bonds that year, according to the bank reports. INTERESTING DEAL. "But Shannon's description of the deal is one of the most interesting things I ever read. Mr. Popper, the member of the firm from New York, who was in Jefferson City running the deal for his house, was not taken into the fund commissioner's office. 'I gave Mr. Popper a seat in my office,' says Shannon, 'and took his bid into the board. This bid was care- fully considered and unanimously accepted.' But Shannon, it seems, wanted to get a little more, and so he told Mr. Popper that the board insisted on hav- ing $25,000 more, which Mr. Popper refused to give, but offered $10,000 more, and this was accepted. The entire transaction, it seems to me, was strange, pe- culiar and mysterious and it is made more so by the 203 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. fact that nowhere does Mr. Shannon mention the figure at which the bonds were sold. 'This bond bid,' he says 'was carefully considered and unani- mously accepted.' What bid? What were the figures of the bid? 'Mr. Popper,' he says in another place, 'at once emphatically declined to accept my offer.' What offer? What was the size of the offer? 'Mr. Popper finally agreed to add $10,000 to the sum.' To what sum? What was Mr. Popper's first bid and what his second? Why can not these people, in deal- ing with an important matter like this, be specific and not vague? But all of them who talk about it always withhold some point of fact, the understand- ing of which is necessary to an intelligent judgment. And if Mr. Popper agreed then and there to pay the accrued interest on the bonds, why doesn't Mr. Shan- non say so? He didn't offer to pay it. He never did pay it. "Jim Seibert has written to Mr. Popper to come out here and help straighten this thing out. Mr. Pop- per is on hand, but he has nothing to straighten. I guess if I had been in his place I would have played it the way he did, but if I had been a sworn officer of Missouri, intrusted by the people with looking after their interests, he would have known there was somebody in Missouri who had to be shown before he got away with all he took with him. You can call it a mistake, and say that men like Gov. Hardin could never have been corrupted. You can't get me to fighting tombstones, but I stick to it that it was a bad day's work for Missouri when such a groat interest-bearing fund, free of taxation, as we had in them government bonds, was sold out, and the same amount of money raised for the school fund by tax- ing the people to get it. Missouri is the only state in the world that ever did that. And she is the only state that has ever issued certificates of indebtedness 201 THE SCHOOL FUND. iii place of cash money taken out of her school fund. Other states have issued certificates of indebtedness in place of cash money taken out of her school funds, but they have always been free gifts, added to the school funds already on hand. But here, in 1883, they made the school fund a regular looting ground by declaring by statute that any moneys which got in there 'from any source whatever' should be liable to be taken out and put into the sinking fund. THE BIG "GRAFT." "They have been keeping that up ever since. The biggest graft they have got out of it was from the money received from the United States government in 1891, and which was applied to the seminary funds. I think there is something of a story in that, but it takes time to go through the figures of experts whose chief work is to deceive. The $201,000 taken out of the revenue fund and put into the school fund in 1885, and taken out of the school fund into the sink- ing fund the same year, is not found figuring in any of the bonded debt reductions made either in 1885 or 1886. I charged this last week, and you don't find any of them coming back at me about it like they all would if I should say twice two is three. Oh. they are an amusing lot, and they give their hand away after every deal, so that I can tell about what they're holding, and I'll tell you right now, my boy, there isn't an ace of clubs in the whole lot of them. They haven't got the cards, and if they had the cards they wouldn't have the nerve to play them. For they're up against it, good and hard. Things are a-keeping on a-happening to them like they did to Tom Blakeley the day the mule kicked him. He fell off a house, and into a well, and it was just after getting out of that he was kicked by the mule. Then he said it wasn't his lucky day, and went home 205 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. and went to bod without nerve enough left to play a full hand against a bobtail. And things are keep- in' on a-happenin' to these folks in such a way that their nerve is gone for anything better than calling a man a liar, which is mighty little, between you and me. Seibert is surely losing his nerve when he sends to New York for Popper, to bring him out here as a witness. Popper is the same kind of witness, if he goes on the stand, that Sol. Mason was up in Gentry county. He had been subpoenaed for the defense, and after the direct examination the state's attorney . began to cross-examine him. " 'Now, look here,' said Sol, 'it's no use to go to try to tangle me up, for I'm a man that stands by my friends.' "I guess that's the way Mr. Topper feels about it, for he certainly owes a good deal of his fortunes to the Democrats who have been running this state. He ran another million dollar bond deal for them along in the eighties, which, I think, is another rat hole that will bear looking into as soon as I get a little time. But what I was talking about just now \v;is the troubles of the Seibert ring. THE CARDWELL CASE. This Cardwell row is one with feathers on i;, and spikes in its teeth. They're doing their best no/w to call it off. When I was in the telephone exchange yesterday there was a fearful racket over the wire and it sounded to me as though it might be Bill Phelps, in St. Louis, telling Walsh, in Kansas City, to call the whole thing off. I'll bet a horse that Phelps was after Walsh a dozen times yesterday. I thought so last night, and when I picked up the paper this; morning ami saw that Lon Stephens had got to St. Louis, I'd 'a' hot a span on it. And then I know 206 THE SCHOOL FUND. they've been bringing a pressure to bear on Judge Cochran and other men in the railway line to put a spoke in Bill's wheel. There is something like a 'community of interest' now between the Missouri Pacific and the Burlington, and then, you know, neither Stephens nor Crow would like to have that thing pushed too far. And that's just why Sammy Cook let out a few lines more in his testimony than anybody was expecting him to. He didn't tell all of the truth by a sight, but he told enough to scare up some people who were throwing stones because they had forgotten they live in glass houses. Oh, they're all tarred with the same stick. They put me in mind of them fellers that were at the court of Henry III., of France. In one of that crazy monarch's religious spasms he issued an order that all of his courtiers should flog themselves for their sins. There was a great deal of the noise of flaggelation around the palace, but very little of the real thing, and then Henry gave orders that, in the courtyard, they should flog one another. He superintended the thing him- self, and it turned out well, because they all had their secret grudges, and every feller took a swipe at those he didn't like, until it had gone all around a good many times before Henry cried: 'Hold, my children, I don't think a sinner among you has escaped, and justice has been done.' Well, I don't know how long it will be until they get clear around in this game. They have only commenced now, and there are some, who haven't got a whack yet, that will come in for several. They can keep it going as long as they please, and I don't care how often they get around, they'll never stop if they wait for me to stop them. "All the same, there's a mighty big effort being made to stop them right now. The wires were hot all day yesterday, and they're still hot to-night. This 207 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. man Walsh is a stubborn fellow, and he thinks he has a grievance, and I guess he has. Sam Cook threw his crowd down in the last ditch at Kansas City last year, after Sam had played them to get himself elected again as chairman instead of Seibert. He couldn't play openly, and so he encouraged the Walsh ment to fight, thinking to gain by it himself. He threw them down when he found he had to, and they have, had it in for him and Seibert ever since. "And I don't think they can stop them. But what if they could? The cat's out of the bag now. To gag the thing now, after as much has got out as has, can but add to public suspicion and distrust. No gentlemen, the cards are running that way, and changing the deal and getting out new hands would attract attention like what happened the night Mrs. Murphy reached inside her clothes for a card she had put there for an emergency. " 'Mrs. Murphy, mum,' said Mr. McFinnegan, 'we know it's all right, mum, but scratchin' wid kyarcls is forninst the rules. It not only gims the kyards, but it delays the game.' " 208 BOIDS AND CERTIFICATES. "THE OLD POLITICIAN" GETS A CLEW AS TO WHO GOT THE $50,000 INTEREST. The Difference Between Market Prices and What the U. S. Bonds Were Sold For. Figures Which Show Where the Interest Went— Real Pre- mium and the Apparent One— Loss to the State. [Prom the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.] JEFFERSON CITY, MO., November 23.— "When I was in Paris last summer," said the Old Politician, "I noticed a lot of fellows drinking green and yellow chartreuse. A few of them took it yellow and a few of them took it green, and now and then you would run across a fellow who drank it in both colors. It is a tradition of the boulevards there that a man's mental temperament takes on the color of the char- treuse that he drinks. If it's green, he's green. If it's yellow, so's he. This interested me so much that I asked a garcon in a cafe if a man would be yellow and green, too, if he took both. 'Ooee, muncher,' said he, which means, in United States, 'yes, sir.' "Well, sir, I've found a man who drinks both colors. He's on the Republic, and he's all the time saying that I am an anonymous contributor. Now, I'm no more of an anonymous contributor than any other impersonal contributor to a newspaper, and the editor of the Globe-Democrat knows that along with the first of my letters went the assurance that if any question arose, I asked no exemptions and did not seek to conceal my identity, or propose to allow any 209 14 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. roan to shield ine from my just responsibilities. So much for the yellow tinge in the Republic, which I perhaps have no right to allude to here, seeing it is personal to myself. But the color of the green char- treuse is a matter of public interest, and in my opin- ion green is the predominating tinge, although the yellow comes out strong. "When you're fishing for big fish it's mighty little consolation to you to get a long string of minnows. As I was saying last week, I put out some calcula- tions on the premium paid for them government bonds sold in 1875, in which there were palpable errors in computation. I was after ex-Treasurer Sal- mon, but, although he came back at me, he only smelt at the bait on that hook and didn't bite. But the Democratic press of Missouri, from the Republic down, raised a howl, just like they all raised when they 'said that Stephens' store, which I had located 'on the other side of the river,' was not on the river at all. They've been after me, and are after me yet, like Jim Cockrell's pack of hounds were after the. fox up in Lafayette county. They tell it up there that that pack of hounds went nearly all over half of the county one day. People who were going along the roads could hear them ofi; in the fields, and every now and then the whole pack, followed by Jim and 'Lias Marmaduke, would break across the road. Along about dark, they came into Lexington, and they hadn't seen the fox since morning. Somebody poked fun at Jim about it, but he only said, 'My dogs are trained to trail foxes that run crooked and double on their tracks, but this one runs straight ahead.' WIDE-MOUTHED SUCKERS. "As I was saying, I caught a long string of min- nows. They're all suckers, but the Republic is the 210 BONDS AND CERTIFICATES. only wide-mouthed sucker on the line, and if you're ever fished much you know that the wide-mouthed sucker takes more of the hook than any other kind. That's what the Republic's done. I said that the bonds went at less than 12 per cent premium, and they did, if the semi-annual interest of $50,148, then due, went along with them, and that's just what I wanted to get some of them to admit. I wanted to land Maj. Salmon on that, but he ain't a wide- mouthed sucker, and I didn't catch him, although he nibbled strong at my bait. But the Republic takes it all in beautifully. It says: 'Missourians will have to study a new arithmetic before they believe that $242,266, the premium actually received, or the differ- ence between $1,913,866 and $1,671,600 is less than 12 per cent of the principal, or $1,671,600. According to the rules generally accepted in banks and other counting rooms, $242,266 is 14.49 per cent of $1,671,600.' "Sure. But is it 14.49 per cent of $1,721,748, which is what the principal of the bonds becomes when you add the $50,148 in interest which was due on the bonds at the time they were transferred to Kohn & Co., of New York? Now, keep your eye on the rat hole, for he's going to come out in a minute. The question I have raised as to what became of that interest, and who got it, has been troubling them mightily, and well it may, for, if they can't account for that interest, they stand discredited before the state as a party utterly unworthy of trust and en- tirely unfitted for any responsibility. They are hear- ing from this in every section of Missouri, because it's a practical, common-sense, everyday question, that all men can understand, and it's got to be answered. They're trying to answer it, and in making the at- tempt the Republic has swallowed hook, line, bob and sinker back of the bait that Maj. Salmon only 211 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. smelt at. Hold in mind that the Republic, in the words I have just quoted, admits that the principal of the bonds was $1,671,600. That's right, and that's what it said Monday, November 18. TAIL GOES WITH HIDE. Friday, November 22, it said: "The anonymous Old Politician, who is vouched for by the Globe-Democrat, simply falsified the records when he stated that the interest due on the United States bonds at the time of their sale was not accounted for to the state. The books show not only that the interest was accounted for, but that the state in fact realized a premium on the interest." If a premium was paid on the interest, then the interest was not transferred to the state from the government, as it should have been, for the gov- ernment never pays a premium on the interest it pays out on its bonds. If a premium was received, then that is evidence that the interest went along with the bonds to Kobn & Co., of New York. It was a mighty long tail to go with the hide, but the Republic says it did go. Well, then, just add up that $50,148 interest to the $1,671,600 which the Republic says was the principal of the bonds, and what have you got ?-r$l ,721,748. Now the Republic said that $1,- 913,866 was the price paid by Kohn & Co. to the state, and that's what the auditor says, too, in his official report for 1885-1886. What's the difference between $1,721,748 and $1,913,866 ?— $192,118. That's right. And what per cent is that of the $1,721,748 Kohn & Co. ought to have paid for the bonds and the coupons at par? Is it 14% per cent? Not by a long shot. Is it less than 12 per cent? Yes. Is it less than 11? Yes. Less than 10? Just a fraction less — 9.9 would hit it off about right. There you are. The Republic says we sold our government bonds, and the interest accrued upon 212 BONDS AND CERTIFICATES. them at the time of sale, at 9.9. That's a good deal lower than I put it. And it's a darned sight lower than government bonds were being sold for at that time. Now consult the reports of E. B. Elliott, pre- pared for the United States treasury, setting out the average premiums on government bonds from the time of the suspension of specie payments until their resumption in 1879. These reports cover the average values of gold in paper currency in the New York market and, of course, the average premium on all kinds of government securities redeemable in gold, as our bonds were. What was the average premium on all classes of United States bonds then, in Decem- ber, 1875? Elliott says it was 13.9 — 2 per cent above the price at which Kohn & Co. had cleaned us out of our bonds and our interest account, then due. Say, it's strange we should fall so far below the average level of the market, particularly when we were throw- ing in $50,000 of interest, which you will hardly ever find done once in a century, when the interest is already or nearly accrued, and the price paid on the principal is less than the market price. And don't forget that when Kohn & Co. drew that $50,000 of interest from the government treasury they made $7000 more clear profit on the deal, by turning the gold the treasury had paid th£m into greenbacks, even if they only got in at the bottom of the market that month. AWAY BELOW THE MARKET. So far I have only given you the averages on all kinds of government bonds at that time. The Re- public has proved me to have been right in my as- sertion that our securities went at less than 112, if the tail went with the hide. I am sorry I can't re- turn the compliment and show that the Republic is right in any of its calculations, but I follow the 213 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. records, and I don't drink chartreuse, green or yellow. And now I'm going to follow the records some more. I have shown that, if the Republic tells the truth, our bonds went away below the level of the market for all classes of bonds. But they were 6 per cent 5-20 bonds, remember, and to find out just exactly how far the Republic says we were below the market price for that class of securities we will look up the bank reports on that special issue. The bank reports set out the highest and lowest prices paid for any class of securities for a long series of years. I will take the report of the Maverick National bank, of Boston, because that bank has always been one of the largest dealers in government securities, and be- cause its reports as to prices, and also as to oppor- tunities for investment, are credited everywhere. And what do I find there? Why, that the lowest New York market price for all of the 5-20 bonds that was touched during the year of 1875 was 1*18. Our bonds, you see, according to the story told by the superin- tendent of education at the time they were sold, were not sold in New York, but in Jefferson City, but I'll be hanged if I can see why they ought to go any cheaper here than anywhere else, or why we should be nearly 10 per cent below the New York market for something that is just as valuable in one of the United States as it is in another. Now, you see that, if the Republic is telling the truth, we were worse skinned than I said at first. I didn't want to be too hard on them, but the Republic puts them in the hole and nails them to the cross. Having admitted that Kohn & Co. got the interest, it had done the worst it could do, and ought to have stopped, but both the green and yellow were at work that day, it seems, and after the green had made the damaging admissions, the yellow stepped in and fab- ricated stories as to their official confirmation. There's 214 BONDS AND CERTIFICATES. no doubt that the Wall street house got the interest, as well as the bonds. The Republic says the interest was included in the amount they paid the state, and it adds that the auditor's report will show it. Where? Quote your volume and page, as I am going to do now. In the auditor's report for 1885-1886, where this sale of bonds is gone into extensively, as a part of an exhaustive statement of state finances, the like of which we have never had since, there is nothing said, in that part of the report dealing with the school fund, about the interest being paid to the state. The auditor there figures out the premium paid on the principal of the bonds, and makes it out to be 14y 2 per cent, because he does not include the interest on the deal. If the Republic means that the interest was paid to the state out of the United States treas- ury, why does it not say so? It is trying to run an- other Bourbon bunko game on the people of this state, but I shall make it my business to look up the matter as it stands in the books of the treasury at Washington, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where experts never break through and deal. Whether it is the green or the yellow that is getting the upper hand in the Republic, in what it has to say about me to-day, I don't know. I guess it's a little of both, particularly in the evasion it at- tempts as to when and where this interest was paid. "The books do sk<5w," says the Republic, "the amount of interest collected on these bonds, sold by the agent of the state board of education. The exact interest collected up to date of the transfer, in the latter part of November, 1875, was $40,898, which was properly placed to the credit of the state's school moneys for the education of the children." FRAUD AND DECEPTION. "Now, look here; you can see how far fraud and deception have been carried by these people in the 215 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. government of Missouri when they put out a claim like that. The interest was paid on these bonds twice a year, once in June and once in December. The bonds were transferred December 24. If they were transferred in November, how in the devil did they get the government to pay an interest ahead of date? I don't think they did. Do you? Not on your life, my boy, and the Republic knows it, for just mark what it says about the interest: 'The exact interest collected up to the date of the transfer in the latter part of November, 1875, was $40,898.' 'Up to the date of the transfer,' mind you. How much was col- lected on the date of the transfer? That's what we want to know. Of course, more than $40,000 had been collected as interest on the bonds 'up to the date of the transfer.' Fifty thousand dollars had been col- lected just the June before, but how much was col- lected on the day the bonds passed? That's the point, and you bet your life the people see it, for they're catching on to the fact that this is the only state where an endowment of government bonds in a school fund was ever sold out, lock, stock and barrel, prin- cipal and interest, hide and tail, and the money that had been coming into the state from the outside as so much clear gain afterwards taken out of the peo- ple in taxes. And, by the way, that reminds me of a fellow in the Republic who says he has fired a 13-inch shell at me in that paper. I don't very well see how a 13-inch shell can be fired out of that gun, but as long as he thinks it's as big as that I won't argue the point. What he says is that it is better for the people of this state to have taxed themselves for twentj'-six years to raise less than half a million dol- lars more than they could have got out of the gov- ernment for nothing in the same time. That's his 13-inch shell, and I still think that as little as half a million dollars gained for the school fund in twenty- 216 BONDS AND CERTIFICATES. six years by trading credit for debt, and taxing your- self to pay the debt, don't pay the people who have the debt to pay. They can't even show me that the school fund was benefited by throwing away from $75,000 to $100,000 a year and then going to work to tax ourselves to get it back. And when you can't show that the schools are benefited by it the bottom drops out of the whole thing, and I think I've shown that in showing that taxing ourselves for twenty-six years to raise the money that we used to get for nothing don't pay a little bit when the school fund gets an increase of only $412,000 in all that time. The game ain't worth the candle, and it's because the people are dead onto that fact and are noticing that the men who managed the state's finances in that way are not managing their own on the same plan that this here school fund question is a hot one, and is going to keep on being hot, and is going to get hotter and hotter until it will be as hot as the fire at the barbecue that was run by Capt Lamothe down in St. Charles county. The captain had a fine pecan grove on his place and it was a splendid place for barbecues, and the captain used jto give one once in awhile, particularly when he was interested in the success of any local candidate for office. On one occasion, when John McDearmon was up and the captain was supporting him, there was a barbecue there and the captain was superintending the ar- rangements. Tsn't the fire hot enough yet, captain?' some of them asked, who could feel the heat coming up through the top layer of charcoal like a breath of Gehenna. "It's hot enough for beef," said the captain," "but it will take ten degrees more for a hog." What I mean is that we're going to have hog heat in this school fund fight before we're through with • 217 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. it, no matter how the people with their noses and all their four feet in the trough squeal and grunt about it. THE SCHOOL CERTIFICATES. I've been looking a little over this here expert re- port that they've got out in a salmon-covered back and called "Missouri Finances." I haven't gone deep into it yet, but I expect to, when I get time. But I'd like to ask Allen a question, and I'm only asking for information because I don't pretend to be an ex- pert and what I work out of "Missouri Finances" is worked out by the same kind of sense that helps a man to make a living and a little more; the same kind of sense you find all over Missouri. My ques- tion is: Why do you allow the experts to put on the credit side that $900,000 certificate of indebtedness, which was issued in 1872 to cover the money due the school fund out of the proceeds of the sale of stock of the Bank of Missouri in the list of redemp- tions in the period between 1873 and 1900? Is it redeemed? Why, of course not. We all know that. It is drawing interest to-day right along, and will for ten y'ears to come, even if the consti- tution isn't amended, but if we do amend the con- stitution, we will have it with us till the day of judgment. Now, they have put it down as being- wiped out, when it hasn't been wiped out any more than I have. And it hasn't even been refunded. I could understand, if there had been a refunding and the old certificate had been taken up with a new one, why it might go into the debt statement as be- ing retired or redeemed, if the same amount of in- debtedness, at the lower rate, was carried in the new issues of bonds for that period. But nothing of the kind has happened. All that has ever been done to it was to consolidate it with other certificates, 218 - BONDS AND CERTIFICATES. and that gives it no call to be counted for nearly a million dollars in the cancellation of state debt, when it couldn't cancel anything, and hasn't as much intrinsic value as a copper cent of Boer money in London. This looks to me like another discrepancy, and a rather serious one, but I'm only asking for information now. While I'm waiting I have a few remarks to offer about them certificates, and which I can offer with- out asking any questions of Allen or anybody else. For it's always been a peculiarity of mine to know a thing when I know it, and I'm dead onto this. The question about these certificates, as I have said be- fore, is not one of 1872 or of 1881. It is one of 1883, for it was then that the mischief was done. I have quoted the statute of 1883 before now. but it is bound to become a vital point in the controversy, and a great deal will be found to hinge on it. The certificate of 1872 was issued to meet a deficit. That of 1881 was issued to take the place of the original one and nearly $2,000,000 in state bonds, canceled and retired. But when they got along to 1883 they began to see what a big thing there was in the exer- cise of this great power over the -school fund, if it was carried farther in removing funds out of the school fund into the sinking fund, on the presump- tion that all such money was to go out of the sinking fund in the liquidation of the bonded debt of the state. There were hundreds of thousands of dollars, in it, and maybe millions in the course of time. Now let 'em howl about defamation and slander. I say that as long as a poor girl who is guilty of an in- discreet or unthoughted act, without wrong inten- tion, must suffer in reputation for it it, men of re- sponsible age, and who claim to be men of sense, can't go on doing unexplainable things and insist that 219 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. they shall not fall under suspicion. "The king can do no wrong" is played out, especially when it is cried by the Republic, which the other day put it in the picture of a little boy and told the story of his disgrace, because he had taken some money of his employer, who did not prosecute, and thus make a record in court upon which to base and excuse the report. Say, I will go up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and papers that do these things to little children can't talk to me about slander. WHERE THE WOLF CROSSED. Where was I at? Oh, the act of 1883! Read it. I call it a most remarkable statute in the tremend- ous grant of power it confers. It was entitled: "An act to provide for the permanent investment of any moneys remaining in the state treasury and belong- ing to either the public school fund or the seminary fund." The vital clause comes in when it provides that when any moneys come into the state treasury, "from whatever source derived," whether from grant, gift, devise, "or any other source," to be credited to either the school or seminary fund, the same should be taken from the school fund and put into the sinking fund, a certificate of indebtedness, in an equal amount, and to bear 5 per cent interest, to be issued to the school or seminary fund in exchange. Isn't it a nice system? "From whatever source derived" and "any other source" are broad grants of power, particularly when, under the terms of the act there is nothing but an implied pledge that the money is to go toward debt redemption. It was stipulated in the act of 1881 that the bonds replaced by the certificates should be canceled in the presence of the fund commissioners. In this act of two years later it was assumed, by that 220 BONDS AND CERTIFICATES. class of legislators who always assume everything, that the money taken into the sinking fund out of the educational funds would be used immediately in the reduction of the debts. Let's see how that worked. I said last year that there was where the wolf crossed, and I've seen nothing since to make me change my mind. The very next year after they got that power they commenced to take money out of the revenue fund and put it in the school fund, and from there switch it off into the sinking fund, where it at once commenced sinking and kept it up a long time. Look on page 258 of the auditor's report, 1885-1886, and you will see where $200,000 of the money in the revenue fund was moved into the school fund, and from there into the sinking fund, and on the next page you will find how the fund commissioners issued a certificate of indebtedness for it. Now follow it after that. Turn to the reports of the state debt, page 234. The auditor says that $2,626,000 of Missouri bonds were canceled in 1885-86, and of this money $1,350,000 was the proceeds of the sale of refunding bonds. Where did the rest come from? Was any of it that $200,000 put into the sink- ing fund, through the school fund, in 1884? Nary a penny, according to the reports. The auditor says, in two different places, that the money came out of the state interest fund and the state revenue fund. On page 5 he says: "From receipts into the state in- terest fund the interest on the public debt has been promptly paid, and the sum of $1,134,282.81 trans- ferred to the state sinking fund and used in the re- demption of bonds of the state." And on page 233. he says: "Surplus money in the state revenue and state interest funds and the proceeds derived from the sales of the funding bonds enabled the fund com- missioners, in 1885, and 1886, to purchase and re- 221 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. deem the following ($2,626,000) 6 per cent bonds." Now figure it for yourself and see where that $200,000 conies in that had been taken out of the revenue in 1884. It didn't come in anywhere, according to the reports. Half of the money came out of the sale of refunding bonds, and the other half from funds taken out of the revenue and interest funds. Where was that money? Was it loaned out, and somebody getting the interest on it? HOLE IN THE SCHOOL FUND. There's where the wolf crossed, sir. It's the hole in that school fund that took two months in the effort to cover up, and it's like a blood stain after a murder. You can't wipe it out. Allen works all around it, but he leaves it there at last, in the admis- sion that there have not been cancellations of bonds against the certificates since 1883. He tries to qualify this by saying that the fund commissioners have kept a general balancing in view, but that don't an- swer my question of who had that money, and was getting the use of that money for more than three years. How much longer I am not yet prepared to say, but I will be soon. Now, no doubt, they will cry out with a loud voice that I am anonymous. . But my figures are not. I have given you pages and numbers as I went along. I am making no innuendoes, but charges such as lawyers make, and judges make in a court when there is a strong circumstantial chain of evidence against a man who has been unable to prove an alibi. What they do in the courts I can do in the newspapers. The evidence is the thing, and not the witness, as long as the witness is unimpeached, and as the main witness I am putting on the stand is a Democratic auditor, if they want to try to impeach him they can 222 BONDS AND CERTIFICATES. do it. But I think I can impeach Dockery first. In his experted address to the people, he said that the auditor did not keep all of the accounts with the bank acting as the fiscal agent of the state. The ex- perts say the same thing, and admit that there is nothing in the auditor's books giving a single figure of that bond deal with Kohn & Co. that I have been writing about, in which the state was skinned like a boiled potato with the jacket on. But Dockery finds that, on the auditor's books, there are figures showing that more than a million and a half of -dol- lars are put down in the books as having been sent to the fiscal agent bank, which the books of the bank do not show was received. This, of course, was in Republican times, Dockery says. Well, then, it seems that the Republicans did keep all of their financial accounts in the auditor's books, and even put down the figures that would give them dead away. Say, governor, them experts ought to put you through another rehearsal. You are forgetting you* lines. They never told you to say the like of that, did they? It proves to me, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that there is no such entry on the books as that you talk of. Stick to it that there has never been, at any time, an account kept on the books with the fiscal agent. People may believe it, although they will wonder at it greatly. But when, for the pur- pose of making a case against the Republicans, you say they did keep such accounts, and we dropped them, the best you are giving us is the worst of it. And folks will toss up to settle which were the biggest fools — the Republicans who wrote themselves down thieves in their own books, and handed these books over to the Democrats, or the Democrats who took the books in that shape, and didn't find out how they had been "worked" by the Republicans, to whom they give a clear receipt, for thirty years after. THE BOND DEALS. "THE OLD POLITICIAN" GOES INTO THE FACTS AND FIGURES OF BOTH OF THEM. The Revelations Growing Out of Ex-Treasurer Sal- mon's Denial of His Responsibility. Bare Hooks to Which Suckers Will Rise on [Sight— Begin- ning of the Deal with Wall Street. [From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.] JEFFERSON CITY, MO., November 16.— "There's more ways than one," said the Old Politician, "of skinning a cat. I told them two or three weeks ago that they could put me on my uppers at the beginning of a hard winter if they could produce the official report they have said was made by Jim McGinnis, to the effect that the Republicans had robbed the state of $20,000,000 in railroad deals. I challenged them to show it, and offered odds they couldn't do it. I haven't heard of any of their newspapers, or any of their leaders, taking me up, and not one of them has disputed the statement I made as to just what it was McGinnis said and how he came to say it. There has been a silence all along the line so deep you could cut it with a knife. "Now, I haven't lived a long time in this world for nothing, and the next week after that I worked in a story, to illustrate a point, in which I said that Stephen's store, in Callaway county, is 'on the other side of the river' from this place. Lordy, lordy, how they come a-runnin'! The Rev. Dr. Burnham, of Ful- 224 THE BOND DEALS. ton, the Fulton Sun, the St. Louis Republic, and divers and sundry other country papers, in all sections of the state, join in the chorus that Stephen's store isn't on the river at all. Well, who said it was? They're after me on that point so strong that they think they can put the people to sleep about what it was that Jim McGinnis said. But as I was the boy who wanted to know, when the fire that was started to smoke a rat out of his hole had burned up everything on the place, what had become of the rat, I hang onto that point like a bull pup to a bone, and insist on knowing what it was that Jim McGinnis said, and I'll double the odds to all takers that they can't prove up what they said he said. This bet is open for a few weeks longer, and if somebody don't cover it I'll tell what it was that Jim McGinnis said, myself. "DIGNIFIED SILENCE." "And as I was saying, there's more ways than one of skinning a cat. When pompous asses or Pharisa- ical knaves pretend that they maintain a dignified sil- ence toward facts and figures that they can no more answer than they could go to hell in a hand basket, leave them a little opening on some utterly imma- terial point, and see how soon that dignified silence will come to a sudden stop. It comes to a sudden stop exactly like Rufe Hybarger's broncho did. I used to own a cattle ranch in the Panhandle, and Rufe was one of my cowboys. He came from Illinois, and was a good horseman, but the broncho was a new proposition to him. He wasn't well ac- quainted with him, and had too much confidence in his own toes, if he once got them in the stirrup. He came down there with his broncho campaign already mapped out, and it was a very simple one, too. He would dig his right spur into the brute as he swung 225 15 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. himself on, which would start the thing to goin' be- fore he got in the saddle, for he had heard that the bnckin' always comes after a man gets in his seat and before he can get the beast to get a move on himself. The idea is, or was, that it's the gettin' in the saddle that makes the trouble, and that if the varmint can be started off a second before that hap- pens, he'll keep a goin'. I'd seen it tried before, but I kep' still, because I wanted to see Rufe try it, be- cause I'd heard he was a man who wouldn't believe a mule would kick unless he was kicked by one, and I knew that nothing I could tell him would do any good. Well, he tried it, and the thing started off ac- cording to the programme. That broncho got a move on him, and when Rufe got a firm seat the beast was goin' at a rapid gait. Maybe he went half a mile, but he stopped all of a sudden like, and tried to put all his hoofs in the circumference of a silver half dollar. I think he done it. and so does Rufe. We picked Rufe up with his mouth full of sand and blood, and when he come to, the first thing he said was: 'My dignity's gone, but I might stand that if I hadn't lost nearly all of my teeth.' "That's what's become of dignified silence around here. It's not only their dignity that's gone, but their teeth, too, for the people won't go much on dignity that keeps silence in the face of the most serious charges they are challenged to disprove, and then rushes out with a foaming mouth and a bloodshot eye to claim errors in local geography which Avere never made. Say, they give themselves dead away, and they'll do it every time, just like a sucker will rise to a bare hook as often as you throw it at him. The sucker is hard up for something to chew, and so are they. There's not only more ways than one of skin- ning a cat. but there's more ways than two. Last 226 THE BOND DEALS. week I offered a hundred dollars a name, for every name that Dockery, or Allen, or Salmon, or any of them could give me of members of the legislature who voted to sell the government bonds, because I said, the government bonds were' sold without con- sulting the legislature at all. Just think of that! Focus your intellect on that proposition for a minute. An asset of the state worth nearly $2,000,000, sold our by a little crowd of men without ever calling the di- rect representatives of the people in to ask their opinion about it. That's why I offered a hundred dollars a name for every member of the legislature who voted for the bond sale. Put your ear to the ground and see if you can hear 'em comin'. But don't keep your ear there until you hear 'em, for a hard winter's comin' and you'd get it frost bit. I'll tell you when to keep your ear to the ground till you hear 'em comin' after me, and it'll be the week after I put it out cold that Lawson is in Ray county. They'll send it out to the Republic and the rest of their coun- try press, that Lawson's right on the edge of Ray, Caldwell and Clinton. That's the time to hold your ear against the ground till you hear 'em comin'. They're sure to come. THE BOND DETAILS. "Some of 'em are comin' already. Ex-Treasurer Salmon is out in a card, for distribution in the coun- try press, in which he accuses me of doing him an in- justice in the charge that he negotiated the sale of the bonds. Here's what I said: 'The men who first proposed that bond sale never told us the amount of premium secured on the bonds in any statement they made during the discussion of this question last year.' I guess the reason Maj. Salmon takes it as personal to himself is that he wrote a communication to the 227 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. Republic, in the discussion last year, in which he claimed the credit for originating the proposition, while he was in the office of state treasurer. That's what started me off on the thing, and I am glad to see the major is now disavowing the responsibility he was so ready to assume last year. But to get back to the point, what he is trying to do, and what his party press is trying to help him do, is to convict me of error and injustice when I am guilty of neither. They have risen to the hook this week as readily as they did last, and if I throw out another one next week they'll rise again. ''But the major is a shrewd old fish, and doesn't swallow hook, bob and sinker. He nibbles around. Why doesn't he point out the errors of calculation in the computations of premiums on the sale of them bonds? There's discrepancies for you, but so plain that anybody can see they are intentional; I mean anybody of the sense and shrewdness of Maj. Sal- mon. Some of the little fish of the press are deep in the figures over it, and you can hear them screech- ing, 'Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.' All right! But I would like to have got the major on that hook. Perhaps he remembered that when I traversed this same subject last year the discrepancies didn't occur. That's a fact, because I used, along with them, some other figures I haven't used yet this time, but which I'm going to use now. "But, first and foremost, to go back to the rat. 1 was on a jury once, when we tried a man for murder. An old woman and a little girl had been murdered in a lonely farmhouse, and some money in the house was gone. Suspicion fell on the old woman's son, be- cause he had fallen out with his mother on account of his wife, and because he was the only heir. But he hired a lawyer, who discovered that the day before 228 THE BOND DEALS. the murder a cousin of the old lady who lived in Ohio had called on her, on a visit, and had been seen going down the road by a number of men who lived in the neighborhood. A CLEAR "ALIBI." "When the murder was discovered, the second day after it happened, the cousin had disappeared, but when the lawyer heard of him he went back to Ohio and located him, working on a railroad. He was ar- rested and brought to Missouri on a requisition, in- sisting that he had never been in the neighborhood before. Some of the best men in the county identified him as the man they had seen going down the road, but he brought out a whole raft of people from Ohio, including the engineer, the conductor and the other brakemen of the train he worked on, who all swore that he was on the road the night the murder was committed. It was the clearest alibi I ever heard, and as long as the witnesses were unimpeached I felt it justice to give their evidence its full weight. And so did nearly all of the other eleven, for the first bal- lot showed ten for acquittal and two for conviction, and one of them come over in an hour. The other was a bullet-headed fellow, who kept on sayin' all of the time: 'Where's the fireman at? Why didn't he come?" We humored him for awhile, but when we began to get hungry and found out there wasn't a pack of cards in the whole crowd of us, we began to get riled. We reported late the next day that we couldn't agree, but the judge held us in and said the case was so plain that we couldn't help agreeing. It seems he had heard that there was only one man standing out, and he offered a few remarks about stubbornness on a jury, but the bullet-headed fellow ups and says, 'Where's the fireman at?" and the 229 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. bailiff ordered us out. But when we got back to the jury room, you can bet that fellow had a picnic on a rainy day. He wouldn't give an inch, but kept on sayin' 'Where's the fireman- at?' till after dark, and then I got him by the throat and bumped his head back against the wall. 'Darn you,' said I, 'the fire- man's gettin' his three square meals a day while you're keepin' us here, and he's gittin' his drinks reg'lar while you're a-holdin' us in here as dry as mackerel. If you don't give up I'll shut your wind off.' And, sure enough, his tongue did begin to loll out and I had to ease up on him, and what do you think? As soon as he got his first wind he gasped. 'Where's the fireman at?' Well, sir, the next day the judge had to let us go, disagreed. At the next terra of court the state had the fireman, and he swore that the prisoner was not on the train the night of the murder. The engineer and the rest of them who swore that he was failed to show up and couldn't be found. He was convicted and would have been hanged if the jail hadn't took fire and burnt him so bad that he died ten minutes after making a confes- sion that he did the deed. WHO GOT THE INTEREST? "Ever since that I've liked the man who will stand by an idea he gets in his head all the way through thick and thin. And now I don't care who can prove an alibi or who can't, I've got an idea in my head, and I've got a question to ask, and here it is: Who got the interest? Them bonds were sold in Decem- ber, 1875. At that same time $50,148 in interest was due on them. Who got it? That fact is not brought out in the expert report, any more than the fact of where the fireman was *at' was brought out in the evidence. The state didn't get it. That's as plain as 230 THE BOND DEALS. daylight. Even Shannon, who has been foolish enough to say that he ran the deal that sold these bonds, doesn't claim that the state got that interest. Of course, then, it went to the Wall street firm of Kohn, Popper & Co., and now let's see whether they are entitled to it or not. "In order to cut off a slice like that the Wall street firm of Kohn, Popper & Co. ought to have paid more than the market premium, oughtn't they? Well, I guess yes. I figure that, with such a tail to go with the hide as that, they might at least have paid the lowest open market premium on 6 per cent bonds which was being paid in December, 1875. Don't you? The lowest premium paid on 6 per cent 5-20 bonds at that time was 18 per cent. The highest was more than 25 per cent. I take my figures from the treasury books; 125X is the exact fraction that records the high-water mark of that class of bonds then; 118 is the round figure that represents the low-water mark. Don't blame me, gentlemen, if these figures don't suit you, or carry out ihe sleight-of-hand devices with which you are attempting to deceive the people. 1 am not a contortionist, a juggler nor an expert. I go by the books, and it's the books I'm giving you now, and you know it, for they're as open to you as they are to me. And what I'm betting is that you are going to answer these figures with dignified silence, unless there should be a typographical error which will stand some of the figures on their heads. "Who got the interest? Do the books show it? Not on your life. I guess this is one of them financial accounts, which the governor says the books don t show. The fact is I know this is one of them, for the experts, in their report, say that there is no trace, anywhere in the books, of any of these transactions with the Wall street house of Kohn, Popper & Co. 231 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. Here is the language of the expert report. Speaking of a little balance that didn't balance in some ac- counts with Kohn, Popper & Co., the experts say: 'Sales of United States bonds and purchases of Mis- souri State bonds were made through this firm. There is no formal account on the general books showing the transactions had with the firm.' "TOUCH" THE "OLD POLITICIAN." "Now, gentlemen, I've got you. Your assertions are no better than mine, and not nearly as good, be- cause I am proving mine, as I go along, out of the books of the United States treasury. If you could bring the books of the treasury of Missouri against them, I would admit the raising of an issue, but your own experts prove all that I have said, last year and this, that Kohn & Co., handled both classes of bonds in the conversion, and that there was nothing in the books of Missouri to show how much they made out of it, or how much anybody else made out of it. Say, if they're going to make a private touch to raise the money to pay the experts, they oughtn't to overlook me, for begod, I am getting more vindica- tion out of their work than anybody else I know of. And what I want to know is, who got that interest. Kohn & Co., paid Zy 2 per cent less for them bonds than they would have brought in the open market, and took along, in addition to their face, $50,148 in accrued interest. Why, say, I wonder how we ever got so stuck on ourselves that we got to saying that we are from Missouri and they'll have to show us. when for thirty years after this was done we have kept in power the party that done it. I've helped to do it, and am privileged to cuss, on that account. All of us have got what Lacey got, because we have been the same kind of fools that Lacey was. Lacey THE BOND DEALS. was a tenderfoot in a mining town, with more money than sense. The whole camp caught onto Lacey, and there was always a crowd when he was playing poker, which was nearly all the time. Every time Lacey lost $250 the bar set up the drinks to the house, and Lacey got his drinks along with the rest. That's what he got out of the game. "There's only one man who has ever given it out flat that he sold them bonds, and he says he hated to do it mighty bad. It was on the 4th of November, of last year, in answer to one of my statistical analyses of the bond situation, that in a communica- tion to the Republic, R. D. Shannon, who was the state superintendent of education at that time, owned up that he was the man, and he did it in a way that convinced me that while he was, perhaps, the man who made the last deal in the game, the cards were stacked by somebody else. 'I employed,' said Shan- non, 'as a go-between, or agent, Mr. D. Stone. The larger his purchase of bonds (state bonds) the larger his commission.' Shannon tells us that he was anx- ious to get these bonds from Kohn & Co., who had been let in on the ground floor of the fund commis- sioners, who were conducting the sale of state bonds. They had run a corner on the new issue of state bonds, although Maj. Salmon had warned the fund commissioners that the government bonds held by the state were liable to be called in at any time. Shan- non is sure the matter had not been thought of until after Kohn & Co., had run their corner; and then, be says, he noticed that the bonds held in the school fund had been called in by the secretary of the treas- ury. He at once began trying to get some of the bonds which had been sold to Kohn, & Co., and em- ployed Stone as a confidential agent, in order to not let the New Yorkers know how bad the state needed STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. the bonds it had just sold to them. But they appear to have found it out, for they kept on putting up their price all the time, until at last they got above par. They had bought the bonds, only a few days before, according to page 242 of the auditor's report for 1885, at 2 per cent below par. When they got above Shannon seems to think that the sooner he closed the deal the better, and be bought 1250 bonds of them, paying them about $190,000 more than they had got the bonds for. Now, Salmon says that the change was made for the purpose of helping the state's credit in the purchase of her own bonds, but it seems, according to Shannon, that Kohn & Co. had more faith in our credit when the bonds were put on sale than we had, although they didn't have enough, at that time, to pay par. But their faith in our credit took a big jump in a few days, when they discovered in spite of all Shannon's desperate efforts at conceal- ment, that the state wanted to buy them back, for they advanced 33 points in one night. FAMILY AFFAIRS. "Now, nobody would call this a good trade. The man who would make a horse trade like that would never do for the Mullanphy market, but it seemed to tickle the fund commissioners immensely. They insisted that Shannon should go to New York and sell the government bonds. 'I protested,' says Shannon, 'against the order of the board, and pleaded that I should be relieved of further responsibility.' But the fund commissioners were lost in admiration of Shannon's great financial feat, and he was getting ready to go, when Ed. Popper, a member of the firm of Kohn & Co., turned up here and told Shannon he understood that he had some government bonds to sell. Poor Shannon! All his plans for secrecy seemed 234 THE BOND DEALS. to fail. He asked Popper to make a bid. Popper made it, afterward raised it $10,000, and the thing was done. Nothing said about premiums in the open market; nothing said about who would get the in- terest due in six weeks; nothing but a lump sum named and taken, the bonds to be delivered in De- cember to Kohn & Co., when the state bonds were to be delivered from Kohn & Co. to Missouri. Nice little family arrangement, wasn't it? But before you drop it, figure out who was ahead on the deal. What we lost was the difference in price of the state bonds from what we could have bought them at ($988 per bond), and what we paid when we bought 1250 bonds of Kohn & Co. at a % per cent premium. Put that down at $100,000. Another loss was between the 14y 2 per cent premium Kohn & Co. paid us for the government bonds, and the lowest market premium paid that month, 118. Put that down at $58,000. Then there's the interest due the month the bonds were sold, $50,148. Add all that up and you'll find our loss to be $298,000. After you find our loss you know Kohn & Co.'s profit, for all that we lost they gained. "And there's not a scratch of a pen in the books of Missouri to tell of the ins and outs of our dealings with this house. No wonder. I have dug it out of the United States treasury books, and the reports of bond sales, and the fluctuations of the New York stock exchange in the premium list. But there are some points I can't make clear. Shannon says the bonds were called in in the latter part of October or the early part of November, 1875. That date would carry them through December and give the state the bene- fit of the accrued interest of $50,000, even if the secre- tary allowed three months, and, under all of the re- funding laws, he could not allow less. What I sus- pect is that there was a long time left. If there 235 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. wasn't, why would Kohn & Co. pay any premium at all? If the bonds were to be canceled at once, or lose their interest-earning power, why in the devil would as shrewd men as Kohn & Co. proved them- selves to be, pay 14y 2 per cent more than par for them? Say, don't you know that if all the deal was straight I wouldn't have to be asking these questions now? Not on your life. All these matters, so es- sential to any intelligent understanding of the case, would have been laid before us without the asking. And that's a fact that makes me say that we haven't got to the bottom of it yet. I will keep on until I find what made Kohn & Co. pay more than par for bonds that were right at the point of redemption. Watch my smoke! A LITTLE FIGURING. "I want to call your attention to one item in the expert report. It's the one covering the interest on the certificates of indebtedness, $4,970,436.27. An aw- ful big pile of money, but what I want to do is to figure the interest on that part of the sum that rep- resents the bonds. At the time the bonds were sold to Kohn & Co. the government was selling and ex- changing 5 per cent bonds to replace the issue of which our bonds were a part, and what we ought to have done, and what we would have done if there hadn't been a big job in it, would have been to sell the bonds and invest the proceeds in the purchase of these new 5s. We ought to have got over $2,000,000 on the basis of the market premium, but, taking it on the basis our bonds were actually sold at, we could have bought $1,913,866 of new 5 per cent bonds. Five per cent for one year on that sum is $95,693.30. We could have drawn that rate for six years and got from the government $574,159.80. From that time on, 236 THE BOND DEALS. by refunding, we could have got an interest of 4 per cent per annum, or $1,531,092.80 in the twenty years since 1881. What we would have got out of the gov- ernment on them bonds since they were sold to Kohn & Co. for less than their market value is just $2,975,- 282.60. We would have been getting that for noth- ing. Now, on the certificates of indebtedness for the same amount, at the annual interest rate of 5 per cent, we have paid out in the twenty-six years since the bonds were sold $2,488,025.80. The schools have got out of us in twenty-six years all that they would have got out of the government and $412,743.20 more. I don't see how anybody can figure a good specula- tion out of that. There is less than half a million dollars added to the school fund in nearly a genera- tion by changing the form of a source of income from the general government to the taxpayers of the par- ticular state. All this reminds me of Dave Kyle, who used to live up in Saline county. He had a mortgage on the farm adjoining his and was getting 7 per cent on it flat, but- he wanted more and sold the mortgage and buried the proceeds in a hole in the ground and issued himself a note against it. When the interest was due he would go to the hole and get it out. They caught him at it at last and sent him to the Fulton asylum, and he is there yet for all that I know. The court said he was not capable of managing his af- fairs, but the last time I saw him Dave swore, as he bumped his head against the padded walls of his cell, that he was taking bigger interest out of the hole than he got out of the mortgaged farm. CERTAINLY NOT FOOLS. "And he's just like these fellows in another respect. He never made a record of his remarkable financial transactions in his books. His affairs were in a very 237 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. involved condition when they sent him down the road, but nobody accused him of dishonesty. What I expect, though, is that the fellows who got away with our bonds would rather be called knaves than fools, and what they particularly congratulate them- selves upon is that the people have not yet declared them to be either. And the next step they took after selling the bonds, in the way of wiping out the school fund entirely, is a pretty good sign that they are not fools. You see, the constitution of Missouri is very strict in its powers granted for the raising of taxes. The largest rate it authorizes is the interest tax, and it puts a strict limitation on this after the bonded debt is extinguished. After the government bonds had been sold to the great advantage of somebody who got the rake-off, it suddenly dawned on them that such large purchases of state bonds for the school funds as had been made, particularly if they were to be continued, would, too, soon wipe out the bonded debt of Missouri, and stop the running of the interest tax. Now, don't forget it, that's right where the line crosses on this second deal. They had to re- tire the original batch of bonds, for which the first certificates were issued, in 1881, but what's that Allen says about bonds retired since then? No record of bond cancellation with the money taken out of the school fund, since then, does he say? Of course not. Getting rid of the debt, and stopping the interest tax has never been what they wanted. There's another rat hole there, but I haven't time to look into it now." THE EXPERT WORK. "THE OLD POLITICIAN" THINKS IT WAS DONE MANY YEARS AGO. The Origin of All "Discrepancies" and "Mistakes" in Bookkeeping in Missouri. One of the, Strangest Financial Deals in the History of Any State Auditor and Fiscal Agent. [From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.] JEFFERSON CITY, MO., November 9.— "I'm from Missouri and you'll have to show me," said the Old Politician, "what's become of the rat. I was the boy you've heard tell of who didn't lose sight of the main point in the case. A lawyer had an examination of a number of boys who wanted to go into his office and qualify for the profession. He didn't want but one, and so he put them all to a test. 'Once,' said he, 'there was a farmer who got after the rats in his corncrib, and built a fire to smoke them out of their holes. There was only one come out, and he made a dive for the rear end of the crib, with the dogs and the farmer and all the boys after him. He hid away under the corn, and while they were after getting him out of that the fire set fire to something else and the whole crib was ablaze before they knew it. There was a high wind blowing, and the barn and all the other cribs caught fire, and it wasn't long till the house was smoking, too. The barns were full of stock and feed, and the farmer had $4000 in cash and 239 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. notes buried under one corner of it. Before the fire got through pretty nearly everything was gone.' "Then the lawyer waited for remarks. Some of them talked about the necessity of insurance, and some about the value of fire departments, and some wanted to know if the farmer saved the money he had in the hole. But one boy chirped up and said: 'What I want to know is what became of that rat?' 'You're the boy I want to study law,' said the lawyer, 'because you don't scatter, and can keep your mind on the beginnings of things.' You bet. And I've been that way ever since. And I was never more so than when I look through the auditor's experted figures and the governor's experted communications and official declarations on the funds. Say, where's the rat? There's lots of smoke, and you bet there's lot of fire to make it, and while they're trying to put out the fire that rat will get away if somebody don't go after him. So here goes. WHERE THE RAT IS HID. "I'll begin by showing you the compile he's hid under. Read what Dockery says and what Allen says about the origin and development of the school fund. It is governor this and that said so and so about converting the canceled government bonds into certificates of indebtedness. It is senator so and so who voted in 1881, and 1883, and 1885, to issue certifi- catetes in lieu of bonds, or in lieu of cash, transferred from the school fund to the sinking fund. In all of the legislation relating to the issuing of these certifi- cates, both the governor and the auditor are very specific. They are so specific that they remind me of Sam Arnold the night he made his grand bluff in St. Joe. You see, he had been having a run of luck in the early part of the night, which he knew wouldn't THE EXPERT WORK. stay with him long, because it never did. The strength of his game was in the dead cold nerve with which he could run a bluff on a bobtail, or a pair of deuces, and one way he worked that along was by showing his hand, face up on the board, every time he was called and made a winning. In that way they got scared of him and didn't know when the bluff come in. In St. Joe that night, while his run of luck lasted, he had taken in several bets on great big hands, and always showed his hand down to prove it. When his luck turned, he lost for awhile, and then brought in the grandest bluff he ever run, on nothing higher than a pair of tens. There was al- ready $2000 in the center when he raised it another thousand without batting an eyelid. He had made that win many a time before, and he was sure it would go again. But there was a man in the game that nig»ht he had never played with before. I guess it must have been the feller that grew up out of that boy that wanted to know where the rat was. Any- how, he up and said: 'When a man is so kind that he shows his hand for nothing there's no use paying him for it. Take the money and show your hand.' 'I'll take the money,' said Sam, as he raked it in, 'but this is the place where I avail myself of the rule of the game, and throw my hand in the discard.' "You see he didn't have the cards to show. When lie had the cards he showed 'em up, and when he didn't have them he kept still about it. And that's just the trick Dockery and Allen are working on the school fund. They tell you the names of all the men in the executive and legislative branches of the gov- ernment who have ever written or voted for' the con- version of the state bonds into certificates. But that'snot where the fire started. Go through Allen's report and you'll find a missing link in the chain of 241 16 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. governors and legislators who are in the line. That link is dropped out at the place where the sale of the governmentbonds, and the purchase of the state bonds *in their place was engineered. This occurred, says the auditor, under the wise administration of Gov. Har- din, but neither he nor the governor quotes any official document of Gov. Hardin recommending any sale or conversion, and I will pay a hundred dollars a name for every name of a senator or representative you will find in either Dockery's or Allen's experted contribu- tions as having voted for that sale and conversion. The reason is that that proposition was never sub- mitted to the legislature. What do you think of that? That was the first time in the history of the Missouri school fund, since the state 'had such a fund, that anything of importance was done in connection with the management of that fund without consulting the law-making power. If they ever said anything to Gov. Hardin about it he must have refused to rec- ommend it to the legislature in his official message, for it never got before that body, and more than a million and a half dollars in government bonds be- longing to the state of Missouri were sold without consulting the representatives of the people. That's why you don't find the names of the Republicans in that legislature who voted to sell the government bonds. Why, if that proposition had ever got before the legislature it would have been beaten so awful bad that it would never have been heard of again, and they knew it. THE RAT HOLE. "That's the rat hole. There's where, the fire started, and Dockery and Allen can't pump water enough to put it out. Allen says: 'Tn December, 1875, under the wise administration of Gov. Charles 242 THE EXPERT WORK. H. Hardin, the state board of education sold the $1,671,600 of United States bonds for $1,913,866, and with the proceeds of the sale, other receipts and the cash awaiting investment $1,949,000 of 6 per cent Mis- souri bonds were purchased for the fund at a cost of $1,958,846.40, including $2512.50 paid for brokers' com- missions. The result was that the state school fund was increased more than $200,000 without costing the taxpayers a cent.' "This is a rat hole that will bear looking into. There was $1,671,600 in government securities sold without the authority of the legislature for $1,913,866. They ought to have brought more than that. The premium in gold bonds in December, 1875, was 14 per cent. Look at the bond reports of the United States treasury if you don't believe me. Now it's an easy matter of figuring, in which we won't need any New York expert assistance, that 14 per cent on $1,871,600 ought to bring back, principal and premium, $2,340.- 240, but it didn't fetch it. What did come back, ac- cording to all the auditors who have reported the matter since, was $1,913,866, or less than 12 per cent premium on the face of the bonds sold. It is right at this point that the cry of fire is raised, but keep your eye on the rat hole. If you don't you may make as big a fool of yourself as the auditor did in 1885, who reported that the $1,913,866 the face and prem- ium of the bonds brought together was 14y 2 per cent premium on the $1,671,600 the bonds were worth at par. Look on page 255 of the auditor's report for 1885, and you will find that statement made. Now figure it for yourself, and it won't take you five min- utes to see that that rate of premium ought to have given the state $2,420,398. I wonder if that was one of the mistakes in the bookkeeping we hear so much about. If them bonds were sold at 14y 3 per cent 243 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. premium, who got the. $500,000 over and above what the state got? Keep your eye on the rat hole. "The men who first proposed that bond sale never told us the amount of premium secured on the bonds in any statement they made during the discussion of this question last year. I file notice of priority in this discovery of a new discrepancy in the auditor's reports, involving another half a million dollars, and the men who engineered that bond sale had better hire these experts, before they get out of the state. to fix it up. The fact is, I hardly think they could have got 114 y 2 in December of that year, but they could have got 114 or 113.9 and turned over half a million dollars more to the state than they did. The price they did sell at, according to the face of the bonds and the amount of money they turned into the treasury after the sale, was, approximately, 111.9, or a loss of $2 on every $100 of bonds sold. "Now, why was such a sacrifice made, without any authority of the legislature of Missouri? It is dark in the rat hole, but we had better look a little farther into it. STATE AND GOVERNMENT BONDS. "The excuse that has been offered for the sale was that the government bonds were short-time bonds, having been called in by the government for redemption at an early day. But there were two pay- ments of interest on the bonds, to be made between the date of their sale and that of their cancellation. Bear that in mind. Six per cent annual interest on $1,671,600, if you don't make a discrepancy in the counting, will be found to be a little over $100,000. The difference between the price the bonds went at, and the market price in the open market in Decem- ber, 1875, was about $425,000— $425,000 less than the 244 THE EXPERT WORK. market value for bonds, with two interest coupons attached, and which, within an hour could be sold for the full amount of their face, interest and pre- mium, in gold, for at that time gold was being ac- cumulated by the government for resumption. Say, it makes me blush in bed at night to think how Mis- souri was taken in and done for by Wall street on that deal. They just took us in and peeled us like a bannana, and then threw away the skin. This was done by Kohn & Co., of Wall street, who dealt with Dewitt C. Stone, a partner in the banking business of Maj. Harvey Salmon, who was then the state treas- urer of Missouri. "At that time the government was offering to ex- change at par for such bonds as it was calling in 4 and 5 per cent bonds to run for thirty years. An ex- change of the Missouri 6s for these was the thing to do, and we would have them yet, and would have saved that $425,000 we lost in dealing with Kohn & Co., and we would have been saving $70,000 annually which we have been raising out of the taxpayers every year in the interest we would be drawing on the face of them bonds. But Kohn & Co. were not through with us yet. They had to have another pull at our leg. Salmon and Stone told them the money received from the sale of the government bonds was to be invested in Missouri state bonds, and I guess they invited them out here to be in at the killing. Anyhow Kohn & Co., of Wall street, were on hand, and the first sales of the new issue of state bonds were made to them, and they got them at less than par. Consult the reports of the auditor, page 242 of the 1885 issue, and you will find that the bonds sold by the fund commissioners went at less than par. Then turn over to page 255 and you will find that ail the bonds bought by the state board of education 245 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. with the money realized from the sale of the govern- ment bonds, with the exception of $40,000, were sold at a premium. You will ask, of course, why the fund commissioners would sell Missouri bonds to Kohn & Co. cheaper than they would sell them to the state board of education, at a time when the plea was that the government bonds had been sold for the sake of the premiums in order to get as many of the state bonds as possible into the school fund. Hold on, now; don't be too fast, for you're going to hear the strangest thing you ever listened to, and which 1 could not have believed if Dick Shannon, who was superintendent of public schools at that time, hadn't said so himself. The state did not put in a bid for bonds until after Kohn & Co. had got about all there was for sale that year, and then they found out that they had to have them, and that they must have them right away. Kohn & Co., had cornered the market, but they offered to sell the state board of education what they needed at a premium. They had bought the bonds at about $988. They sold over 1000 of them to the state board of education for a premium ol three-eights of 1 per cent and went back to New York with another clean profit of $150,000. The member of the firm who was in Jefferson City negotiating these deals stepped across from the fund commis- sioner's offices to the office of Supt. Shannon and made the dicker, and that night he left for New York. And if ever I meet him again I will say. "Shake, old man. You caught a sucker and you bumped his head, as you had a right to do, and Missouri is able to lose the $700,000 you rolled her for.' And if he should lean over in my ear and whisper, 'Maybe 1 didn't get it all,' I would ask no questions — for the honor of the state. I'd know that the rat had got in his hole and pulled the hole in after him. 246 THE EXPERT WORK. AUDITORS AND EXPERTS. "These experts have been hired to push it in, but I'll show you where it is befre they get it all away. Now they say that other states have school funds with certificates of the state's indebtedness to them as a basis of security. But where can they show me another state where a $2,000,000 fund in govern- ment bonds was sold out to make way for certifi- cates? Every state but this, in which certificates have been issued, has had no other basis of credit in the fund. The crime of Missouri was in the deal in- volved in the sale of the government bonds and the purchase of the state bonds for the school fund, and the truth is just as sure to come out some day as it is the truth that I am not any of the individuals people take me to be. I call it a crime, for I believe it was one, but if it was a blunder, or a series of blunders, such blunders are worse than crimes. "Before the experts get that hole all pulled in. on the installment plan, I am going to take another look in it. Allen is as shy on another point as he is in quoting the names of legislators who voted to sell the government bonds. He says the fund commis- sioners have been careful about the exercise of the power for the retirement of state bonds through the absorption of school moneys into the sinking fund. But their powers in that respect are unlimited. Allen quotes only part of the statute concerning these, ab- sorptions. The fact is, you know, that it was not until after they got into the certificate line of busi- ness that they began to see what there was in it for them. They kept on working a good thing for all there was in it, and I guess they're not near through yet, if they can keep in the saddle and the nag don't buck and throw them. Section 10,530 of the revised 247 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. statutes gives them the power to take out of the treasury 'any moneys, from whatever source derived, whether from grant, gift, devise or any other source, to be added either to the public school fund or the seminary fund of the state,' and expropriate it for sinking fund uses. And they have already exercised this power in more than one case. The treasury itself is open to them under the construction that the part of the state revenue set apart for the use of the schools is a part of the school fund. RAT-HOLE AND RAT. "And the man makes no mistake who concludes that the rat hole and the rat are the two things out of the hunting of which all this fire and smoke have come. Right there, in the sale of the government and purchase of the state bonds, are the t|wo black seeds of this Jonah's gourd, which has spread over all the state. Corruption grows with what it feeds on. The Bourbons know it, and Dockery admits it in the claim that the auditors' reports do not include all of the financial operations of the state. That's so. You'll not find anything about the two deals with Kohn & Co. in them, except as it is put down in the figures showing the size of the transactions. What Dockery says, though, is that the auditor does not have to in- clude all of the figures of financial operations of the state in his reports. That's a new one on me. I wonder was it one of the experts who put Dockery onto that, for, by the mass, no man of an ordinary mind would ever think of it, and Dockery, if left to himself, no matter how hard up he might be for a reason for the discrepancies, would ever think of that. I believe that must have come out of the brain of an expert who knows how to juggle figures, and nothing else. For what in the name of the Lord is an auditor 24S THE EXPERT WORK. worth to a state if bis reports do not include and set out all the financial operations of all the departments of the state government? Such an auditor would be like a bookkeeper that Si Farber, who used to run a mill up in Louisiana, had for awhile. He would take money out of the safe and not charge himself with it, but it wasn't long until Si found out what was going on. and he roared out one day: " 'See here, why don't you charge yourself up with that money, in the books?' "'Why,* Mr. Farber,' said he, 'these books are to show the condition of your business, and not mine.' "Si Farber was a man who could always tell a miller by the inside of his hands when it w T as in the clays of buhr mills, and no counterfeit could ever get a job with him. 'No matter how slick a feller can talk about milling,' he used to say, 'if the inside of his hands don't show the marks, he's a fraud.' Begod he was right, and that's the way to analyze these reports which are coming out on the installment plan. And Dockery can't show up the cracks in his hands when he says that the auditor is not under obligation to report the work of the fund commission- ers and the fiscal agent. By the way, w r ho is the fiscal agent of Missouri? Is it Kohn & Co.? But, never mind. Section 7491 of the revised statutes of Missouri says that the fiscal agent shall be appointed by the fund commissioners and that it shall be a part of his duty to certify both to the fund commis- sioners and to the auditor all the figures connected with the dealings of the bank, which is the fiscal agent, with the State of Missouri. It is, in that sec- tion, made mandatory upon the auditor to get from the fiscal agent of the state a full statement of the amounts of money received by the fiscal agent from the fund commissioners and expended for interest on STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. the debt; 'whereupon the state auditor shall credit the fund commissioners and charge the bank there- with.' STATE FINANCIAL REPORTS. "If that isn't opening an account between the auditor and the bank which is the fiscal agent of the state, you couldn't open one with a crowbar. If that statute can't put the auditor and the fiscal agent to doing business with each other, I don't know what could. And as to the business relations of the fund commissioners with the auditor, section. 7490 says that the fund commissioners shall draw their war- rant on the state auditor for every dollar of interest on the public debt that is to be paid out. I rather think the constitution and laws of Missouri have made it impossible for the auditor to go out of busi- ness with the fund commissioners and the fiscal agent, or with anybody else who handles the cash of the state. Why, lookee here, 'sposen' it's true, as Dock- ery says, that the auditor's reports don't cover all of the financial operations of the state, how long would it be until, in the course of human events, you would get an auditor and a treasurer together who would say: 'This is a dead easy game for us if we work together, for if there's anything wrong in the books the governor can tell the people that the books are no good and can't be relied on to show the condition of the public funds.' Say, that would be pie for the men on the inside, but the men who made the consti- tution and the laws of Missouri saw it all just as plainly as I see it now, or as any sensible man can see it when he shuts his ej^es and imagines he sees an auditor who is only responsible for a part of the si .-lie's book-keeping. "Who is responsible for the other part? That's a mighty big question right now if Dockery is going to 250 THE EXPERT WORK. stick to his point. Where are the reports of the fund commissioners and of the fiscal agent published? I guess they're published about like the reports of the treasurer as to the money in the vaults were pub- lished until this last month. You know the constitu- tion says that the treasurer shall make a monthly publication of the cash on hand in the various funds. For several years back they have concluded that writing it out on a piece of paper and sticking it up on a wall of a statehouse corridor would meet the legal view of publication. But since work was sus- pended so long on the Farmington asylum, after the appropriation was made to do it, an idea has got around the state that them funds were loaned out, and I'll be cussed if I don't think they were at that. They made a big hurry up to get them in, though, and last month the statement of the funds in the treasury was given out to the newspapers for the first time in many, many long moons. All of the Farmington money is accounted for. But why couldn't it have been done before? THE "DAMNED" REPUBLICANS. "Things like that, when a man begins to find them out, make him sorry that he ever voted for the party, but they're not a-patchin' by the side of the way he feels when he strikes this talk of minority respon- sibility, or the way the Republicans have done them up. Say, I don't like to belong to a party that owns up so often that it can be done up by other one. As I expected, they have got it down that all the mis- takes in bookkeeping occurred under Republican ad- ministration, and that the Republicans worked off several gold bricks on us when they turned over the books. We didn't see what we were getting, and didn't find out what we had got until thirty years 251 STATE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN BOOK. after we had had it and been handling it, and now we have found it out and would give hell to the men who played the trick on us if they weren't all dead. I wonder if Kohn & Co. is dead yet. The way the Democratic party of this state has been imposed upon is something awful. Wall street knocked our eye out for something like $700,000, and only a little while before that the Republicans had turned over a lot of phony books to us with a job lot of dis- crepancies in them, and figures that can't be made to balance, and we took 'em and give the Repub- licans a clear receipt. "And they're after us yet. Sam Cook says it was the Republican minority that run that bad legislature in 1899, in which so much mischief was done, and in which the lobby was so powerful. It has been charged by two of the Democratic members of that legislature that the Democratic state central com- mittee was a part of the lobby, and did most of its work, and as Sam was chairman of the committee at that time, the remark is personal to him. But, after all, says Sam, it's the Republican minority that is responsible for all the devilment done at that session. The Democrats elected Cockrell to the Senate that year. They elected Ward speaker of the house, and they appointed the chairman of every com- mittee in the house and senate, but after all that was done, says Sam, the Republicans come a-bilin' up, and run the whole shootin' match from that time on. If you want to end the lobby, says Sam, end the Republican minority. "I'll be darned if that ain't good advice. Make a swap of parties. The Democrats say thai a minority can run a legislature better than a majority. Well, then, if you Avant things done, put your party in the minority. Let's get in the minority and put the 252 THE EXPERT WORK. Republicans in the majority, and then we'll have 'em right where we want 'em. Give them the senator- ships and speakerships and the chairmanships, and we'll take the minority and make the laws. Maybe we can get something done that way. "But a good many of the old-line Democrats in the state, who are thoroughly inoculated with the old Democratic doctrine of party responsibility act- ing through majorities, can't catch on very easy to the idea of having to get in to the minority in the legislature to get something done. A good many of them are beginning to feel like Joab Watkin's wife, who used to live near Gaines' mill, in Laclede county, Joab came home one day with his nose and his lip split open, and both of his eyes blackened, and he had to own up that the thing had been done by a man about half his size. " 'Joab,' said his wife, 'I know you're an awful liar, but I married you because I was shore you could whup that feller who ain't morn'n half of you. Good-by.' "Things are coming too fast for lots of them. Sam Cook's story of the Republican minority running the Democratic majority in the legislature isn't a week old until this one comes out of the Republicans put- ting off a lot of bad book-keeping on the Missouri Democrats that they didn't find out for thirty years, and when they read this true story of mine about how the Missouri Bourbons were worked by a Wall street house, and skinned in a coon trap that cotched 'em both coram' an' goin', they'll go out behind the house and ask: 'Are we as green as we look?' and most of them will kick themselves and answer, 'Not by a darned sight' " IINDBX. Page. Violation of the Constitution 5 people's Money Expended Without an Ap- propriation 7 Official Proof of the Foregoing 7 Unconstitutional Appropriation of People's Money 12 Evolution of the Lobby 14 "Pay Check" Scandal 16 Fall of Lawmakers 17 "Sara" follows "Jim's" Example 18 Proof of Guilt 20 A Startling Record 21 Way to the State Treasury Made Easy 22 State Treasury Made a Lobby Fund 24 More Constitution Smashing 27 Unlimited Taxation 28 A Man's Shave Taxed 30 Dead Men and Undertakers Taxed 32 Franchise Tax Fiasco 33 Democratic "Local Self-Government" 33 Other Fields to Invade 34 School Fund Investment Void 36 Pending Constitutional Amendment 39 Bonds and Certificates of Indebtedness 40 Allen's Review of the School Fund 41 Democratic Platform of 1900 Lied 44 Dockery- Allen-Expert Exhibit 48 School Fund Assets Not Used to Cancel State Bonds 48 State Debt Increased $1,132,720 Illegally.... 48 What State Auditor's Reports should Contain 54 254 INDEX. Page. State Funds Misappropriated 57 Interest Fund Misused 57 State Bonded Debt Perpetuated Indefinitely. 57 The Taxpayer's Dilemma 59 Juggling of State Trust Funds 62 What Auditor's Reports Show 62 Revenue Fund Unlawfully Used 62 Interest Fund Manipulation 65 State's Faith Pledged 67 Diversion of the Interest Fund 67 Gov. Stephens Confesses Guilt 71 Great Loss to the State 72 Allen- Williams Case 76 Money Taken from State Treasury by State Officers 76 Ed. Butler Collects Debts from James L. Seibert 77 Despotic Rule in Missouri , 80 "Imperialism" a Democratic Policy and Practice 80 Discredited Democratic Administrations Saved by Machines 80 Government by State Boards 82 Isaac W. Morton Grand Jury Report 83 November (1900) Election Conspiracy 84 Southern Hotel Caucus 85 Police and Election Machines 88 Police Campaign Contributions 90 Jefferson Club Padded Registration Lists . . 91 November (1900) Election Frauds 93 Police Protect Repeaters 94 One-Man Election Board Under the Nesbit Law 95 Judges and Clerks of Election 96 James M. Seibert as Excise Commissioner. . 98 Hawes Police and Street Railway Strike 99 Record of the Dockery Machines 100 World's Fair Mayor Election 100 Blanke Grand Jury Report 101 Dockery Judges and Clerks Indicted 102 Future Elections Fraudulent 102 Grand Jury vs. Rolla Wells 104 Even the Nesbit Law Violated 105 Republican Election Officials Thrown Out. . . 107 255 INDEX. Page. Nesbit and Police LaAvs 109 Dockery and Butler Prevented Amendment. 109 Entire State Affected 110 Nesbit and Police Law Amendments 112 Democratic Caucus Bill 115 Sam Cook for Honest Elections 116 Planned to Steal Elections . 118 Republicans Appeal to Washington 119 Betrayal by Francis Republicans 121 Non-Contestable Elections 123 Parker- Wells Contest 124 Governmental Policies ; 127 Corporations and State Taxes 127 Proposed Perpetual 3-Cent State Tax 127 State Institution Machines 129 Legislature Used by Lobby 130 Dockery Machines Used Against Democrats. 132 Infamous Cardwell Case 133 Democratic State Committee Convicted of Perjury 133 Cardwell's Attorney Talks 134 St. Louis Republic's Denial 137 James M. Seibert Arrested 137 Seibert's Interest in the Stock Yards Bill 139 Sam B. Cook's Revelations 141 Sam Priest's "Gift" 142 Cook and Walsh Mix 143 "Bill" Phelps' Donation 144 Govenor Stephens' Testimony 146 Sam B. Cook as Lobbyist 147 Where the Eggs Came In 152 Phelps a Handy Man 153 Why Stuever Paid Stephens 154 Bradley's Eye-Opener 156 Ed Orear Testifies 157 Democratic State Finance Committee 158 The "Old Politician's" Letters 159 Eggs and Experts 161 School Fund Loot 179 The School Fund 195 Bonds and Certificates 209 The Bond Deals 224 The Expert Work 239 25(5 I am Missouri "at run to the i. lands and pi grains. My uplands, fruits of / peo J bar r y gr< L™of fi ^ land [From Missouri State Republican.! take a look at me, and my mighty rivers ea — at my mountains and valleys, my wood- ims, my mineral, my timber, my live stock ai towns and my cities, my schools and my homes my lowlands, my black wax and loams; the! :ny orchards, the coal in my hills, the corn of prairies, the woof of my mills ; the thrift of my sle, their labor and toil, which bring forth the rest from bounteous soil, unto which responding' ?at bosom yields the food for the cattle of thousands^ elds. No state that is richer in forest or mine, a of the honey, the milk and the vine ; with people God-^ ring as any, I trow, who live in the pride of the sweat ^ of the brow, and who wonder, as working the long ye through, why Missouri 'gains not as her sisters do- -_ sisters less temperate in climate than she, and lacking he rivers that run to the sea ; and lacking the railroads which came in the quest of a world-circling route from the East * he , West - 0h > great is their wonder that these things should 1 and when they say, "I'm from Missouri ; show me," they mean that the mystery of such things has made, the man from Missouri for (ever afraid of the books that don't balance, discrepancies that mount; auditors who don't audit; experts who can't count: lobbies in power who make all the laws; judges in ermine who I indicate flaws in the state constitutions by books or bv hooks, and !wno quash indictments of election crooks: commissioners of int^ W 6 l m Z P at r im ony out; fiscal agents who never tell what dnnhf £h & ^° U *5 ai l d e^ies without vouchers relieving them of tn ™™ 2? u U T nds w } lc ^ hav6 dlsa PPeared without a restitution,leave holes, *§ sunk mn^l * m a J k u d *r° mend mj institution ; a sinking fund in which is the n m n[« ^ the £ 6b l* l ° W ?L an ^terest fund to which I've paid more than wf.,M-n P l™ °« * * T + h u fas te. r rhave paid it off, faster it see ms to grow. If vol feten£t oK™ *> 6 trU , th ? f th & don,t to m y records go. The bondsfthe price/the btatf™ l P ? u' my books Wl11 never show - For the party who keepsme out of my J lohl wW??.: t U Undel * machine dictation. The committee's in the lobby, and the Butif tw> e * brone and the experts hunt for balances, and all my people groan . Dutntheyrefrom Missouri, and really must be shown, just look at me, as I stand w^wl yed f r ° m ZOne to zone ; and in m y southeast corner, projection they will find wnicc they can use to serve or save, as they may be inclined. If ] teat to milk me dry, no doubt. But if I" m a man, it is a i«"(>*iw»k the J rascals J f ou , Missouri ^^ State ** Republican State Republican Campaign Booh. AND RECOGNIZED AUTHORITIES On Affairs of State Complete and Official Record. as Far as Available, of the Government of Missouri. pD inj ? < PAPER, ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR. rlVl^lL:$ CAM p AIGN BOOK, FIFTY CENTS. Missouri State ®^ Republican State Republican Campaign Book. AND. fij £f RECOGNIZED AUTHORITIES On Affairs of State ■ — Complete and Official Record, as Far as Available, of the Government of Missouri. T>U TOIT 5 PAPER » ON E DOLLAR PER YEAR. rlVl^l^:{ CAM p AIGN BOOK, FIFTY CENTS. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide )ate: AIJ(? «» BBftKEEFER PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES, LP. 111 Thomson Park Drive rranberrvTownshiD. PA 16066