The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1872-03-04
THE PRINTING FRAUDS,
OVerchsrges Of s5,s7l.O7in Printing
Three Books.
HAVE WEG 1AHRAnY IL WEST VIRGINIA

The attention Of the public Is invited to
the interesting documents elsewhere
printed, relating to the investigation in the
Legislature into the charges Of peculation
and fraud brought against Mr.. HESRY s.
WALKKR, thu, State Printer. They arc
LIST, the resolution Of instruction under
which the Judiciary Committee Of the
House made It's inquiry; I'd, the majority
report ofthAt committee; Sd, minority
report from the same; and 4lh, state
ment made TO the House by Mr.. STURdIss,
Of Mouongalis, a member Of the commit
toe. For the latter, which made a pro.
found sensation In the House and among
the spectators, VIC ask special attention.
The reader will perceive that while the
particular charges brought against MIR.
WALKER failed through technical error
in the specifications, yet frauds of mag
nitude beyond anything contemplated by
the accusers have been brought to light,
and the evidence Of them Is utterly over.
whelming.
The history oil this investigation, while
Ret forth pretty fully in tho documents
referred to, may be briefly rccapitulated
here. During the recent session Of the
Legislature, the PRINTER being unableto
print in his own Office with sufficient
speed an the bills Of the House, employed
Messrs.i CENTERS & DENNIS, Of the Re.
publican newspaper, to print nineteen
such bills. For this work their bill was
$95, which MIR. WALKER refused TO pay,
on the ground that 1t was excessive and
would be-" fraud upon the State"
Upon this the bill was reduced $40 and
paid. The voucher in the Auditors Of
fee shows that for this same work Mr.
WALKER charged the State $21G. This
fact becoming known TO Messrs. CENTERs
& DENNIS, they concluded il $05 would
have been fraud, $2lO was necessarily a
bigger one; and they preferred charges
accordingly. These were presented to the
House by Mr.. RAIDER, Of Nicholas, q
Democrat; but being objected to, lay over
till next day, when the mover withdrew
them. They were offered again, however
by Mr.. SIDEBoTToM, Of Boone, also 0
Democrat. Then occurred very extra
ordinary proceeding. Mr.. WALKER
without any official notification Of charges
against him, was allowed to come upon
the floor Of the House and speak in
Standardization. His speech did not
however, consist so much in Vindica'
ton OF himself as in abuse OF his &c.
cuscrs, and in its character was neither
creditable to himselfnor respectful TO the
House. Upon the conclusion OF his re-
marks, he proposed TO give O bond in
$4,000 TO secure payment Of costs if he
were found guilty, on condition the &C.
cusers gave bond in like sum toipay tho
costs il he were acquitted. This unprece-
dented proposition was embodied in res
Olution offered by Mr.. WEST, Of Harrison.
The purpose was, Of course, to rule the
accusers out of court, it being presumed
they were not men Of sufficient means TO
give bond of such magnitude. Our
readers can make their own comments on
the monstrous character Of this PROPOSE
ton, which was in effect TO forbid poor
man from becoming the accuser Of pub
lie official, and TO make it costly and diff
cult for any one to make such accusation
-requifinga private individual TO pay
the costs Of o public prosecution Think
Ofan accused person harang uing grand
jury, before which the prosecuting Wit
nesSes were not allowed to appear, and
proposing that such witnesses should not
testify unless they first gave heavy bond
TO prove their case. Think of the &c.
cuSed proposing TO the ju:y that the nc.
cusers shall be tried first, and that the
case shall be dismissed il they be found not
his equal, in wealth or social position
That was about the spectacle presented.
There was enough sense of justice in the
House, however, not 10 stihc investiga-
ton in that way, and the resolutions were
allreferred to the Judiciary Committee,
who subsequently reported to the House
the resolution printed elsewhere, which
was adopted and under which the inquiry
proceeded. 1t will be seen that under it
the powers Of tho committee were not
limited to consideration Of the particular
charges specified by Mr.. MERRILL The
committee could have made the investiga.
ton Is wide and searching as they chose,
It Is to be regretted that they chose 70
look no farther than the one matter re.
feTed to by Mr.. MERRILL, viz: the
charge as to the nineteen House bills.
The accusation claimed that those bills
should be measured as "book work" In
this 1t was found they were m taken, it
appearing that the work belonged to the
class for which the Code fixes no definite
price, but for which 1t provides "the low.
est customary rates" among printers. As
the specifications were framed on the
basis Of book work they were necessarily
not sustained. There remained the
question whether the charges were in OK.
cess of the "lowest customary rates" and
although the testimony before the com,
mittee showed that they were largely so,
the committee appear not TO have taken
enough heed orhc testimony to form an
opinion on that. point, and confess Tor
profess) in their report that they do M,