The Portland daily press., 1873-02-21
Il The Poland Report.

! e. The diversity Of opinion respecting the con-
% as remarkable outside Of Congress as in that
body. The Democratic press as general
! thing denounce not only the conclusions but
u the Committee probably forgetting that it
p was appointed by their party leader in the
! House, Hon.. $. s. Cox and contains two out
and out, Democrats, and Mr.. Banks the Dem
rs ocraticd candidate for Congress in the last
? election, thus giving a majority of that party
= on the Committee. A'gsAii,g g 3iioa
sai4 As to the testimony presented in the report
ID of the Committee, it must strike those who
have read the proceedings each day as being
4, both clear and impartial. Yet there are those
u who will not see this-those who have made
up their minds that all the men who have
been implicated in the transaction are equally
guilty and guilty too of the highest crime,
and this is their principal fault with the re-
port-that the Committee have not been able
$50 to present their testimony as to include all
z in the same list with Messrs. Ames and
Brooks. They pretend that they can see no
s difference between Mr.. Dawes who was in
a1duced to take the stock on Mr.. Ames's soli-
Z citation and promise that it was all right and
/, would yield a return of ten per cent. and
sbwho immediately returned it and received
"a his money when he learned its character
and, the possible bearing it might have
on his duty as a member of Congress, and
q Mr.. Ames who went about among his asso-
I ciates offering them the stock and assuring
!, them that it was perfectly proper Investment,
for the purpose of making friends when the
dark things connected with the Pacific rail-
d, road construction should be brought to light.
Messrs. Dawes, Garfield and others are no
q doubt to be censured for investing in this
stock before they fully learned its character,
! or rather the purpose which led Mr.. Ames to
" offer it to them; but no fair-minded man can
put them in the same class with Mr., Ames. - !.
i5 In 1867 these men in common with the
q whole country knew nothing of the corrupt
transactions of the Pacific Railroad Credit
/, Motilier ring, and Mr.. Ames was regarded as
+ one Of the first men Of the country, because
) hewas successfully building the railroad to
the Pacific coast which the whole nation de-
manded. But Mr.. Ames knew the whole of
the record Of rascality. He and his associates
foresaw- that a day of reckoning would be
likely TO come, and he was given this stock
TO place it where it would do good" when
that evil day came. seI .7-o< II aorS
With Mr. Brooks, too, the case was differ
> emf. de was government director and was
.s charged with the protection of its interests.
He was consequently fully aware of the ma
ture OF the transactions between the Credit
10 Mobilier Company and the Union Pacific.
BE secured a large amouet of stock by virtue
of his position in violation of law, and had
1t entered in the name of his son-in-law. The
: profits in his case were very large; in fact he
Is was really one of the principal operators with
Ames and Durant. He was inside the ring,
knew all about it, was really of it. The 9TH
ers, SO far as they are involved, were on the
surface III and were caught by Ames rather than
. moving IN the matter. He took one hundred
and hfty shares, while the others oct hut te,
or thirty at most. While he knew tho ,vbole
character OF the villainous transaction. 90 49,
twin corporations, the others did NOT ,nda.
stand anything of it, and part of them "a
turned it as soon asthey did, and the other, do
81, not show that they were Influenced by II
We do not palliate their mistake and are sure
!, that some of them have placed themselves in
worse position by lying about it.