New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-11-20
PRICE FOUR CENTS.
THE CANAL INVESTIGATIONS.

"A
ITS SESSIONS OPEN TO ALL-THE SOLE RESTRICTION
THAT AS TO REPORTING TEsrMONY-OOMPosi-
TON OF THE COMMIssIoN-ITs SUCCESS IN OBJ
TANNING PROOF FROM THE CRIMINALS THEM
sRLyEs-FUTURE OF TIE COMMISSION.
TYRoh STAFF CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUSR.l
ALBANY, Nov 1s-Gov Tilden's Star Chamber"
investigation has been a favorite theme with the
Republican press during tho campaign. II has been
represented as a mysterious and awful tribunal.
whose secret sessions were scenes OF torture and
anguish and threatening. Innocent men were brow
beaten, weak women were scared into fits, the pub
lie excluded from all view Of the proceedings,
except snch they got in the partisan and doctored
reports of the Commission. The testimony was
manipulated suppressed, as the mood seized these
nquisitOrs and the feelings of witnesses were sub
jected 10 nhuman outrage.
1t was little surprising then, for one who had
read a great deal of this complaint and protest TO
find that admission TO the room of the Investigating
Commission not denied 10 any one, and that
newspaper correspondents were permitted to
attend, with only the priviso that they should not
report any Of the testimony. This demand was
made simply because tho plan Of permitting daily
nstallments Of testimony to go before the people,
with all their contradictions, unsustained charges
and unjust aspersone, confused the public mind,
The Commission meets in the Senate Library,
sunny in the northeast OF the Capitol,
opening from the Senate Chamber. Ii IL walled
about with law books and filed with the usual para
phernalia of a committee room. There are no
thumbscrews or other instruments OF torture
about--eYcept the Commissioners themselves. There
desks in the windows where the clerks and
shorthand writers sit and the Commissioners them
selves are grouped about long table in the center
of the room. Persons are continually passing in and
out, and no objection is made to the presence Of
curious observers. There is nothing in the bearing
of either the Commissioner the witness to indi-
cate that the one is yrant and the other VICTIM
The formal questions often trail off into an informal
consultation between the two in a courteous en-
deavor to get at the fact of which the first is in
search.
Mr.. Magone is the examiner-in-chef, and has the
constant assistance of his associates He is quick
nervous talker as keen, az bright, and swift as
sword-blade. The average witness who huns and
haws Legislative Committee Oft the track is
pierced ON the instant by Mr.. Magones thrust, and
he wriggles about it hcIplessly butterfly on
bodkn. To one who has watched the slipshod and
pointless inquiries that go by the name of Legisa-
tive investigations, these thorough and relentless
examinations 10 have pushed the art Of investi-
cation long series of years ahead. This result was
attained by the peculiarly apt and sagacious choice
Of the members of the Commission. There never
has been such Commission before in this state, and
there probably never Will be again. Mr.. Bgelow,
the chief brings to his work great natural force
highly disciplined and highly cultured mind, and
great practical knowledge. Mr.. MagOne ~ keen and
able LAWYER who understands the whole matter be-
fore him better than the man whom he is question
ing and is about as likely TO be thrown off the track
by an evasion a lie a locomotive is 10 get ont OF
the way of grasshopper Mr.. Orr is merchant OF
long standing, who has a thorough knowledge OF
accounts and books and has rendered great service
to the Commission in examinations of them. Mr..
Van Buren, is a quiet soldier-like man. master of his
profession, cool and careful and just to hair
more felicitous combination could scarcely have
been made. Each has peculiar qualifications which
another does not possess, and altogether they mike
o machine which keeps the Canal Ring in a cold
sweat.
For All honest man this is tribunal which has no
terrors All men, whether honest or not, are treated
with courtesy and dignity. But for contractors who
have stolen the money of the State for engineers
who have helped the fraud and shared the fruits IL
is Rhadamanthine indeed. Before beginning
their examinations the Commissioners make
thorough inquiry into all the facts and thus begin
the work with the same familiarity with the subject
that corps Of lawyers would have in conducting
case. Here is their advantage over the canal
thieves. They know every twist and turn of the
complicated transaction which they look
ing into, and the man they are examining
probably does not The moment he begins
10 lie he usually begins TO founder. And
then Mr.. Magone is merciless. If it is a "star
Chamber" proceeding TO compel rascals to confess
their own villainy by adrot and fearless question
;a, - ~ no VarVt r.t
magnitude. No honest man that have heard Of
has complained of his treatment there but do not
wonder that thieves who have been compelled to
bear testimony against themselves have filed the
Republican newspapers with complaints Of the
secrecy and brutality Of the Commission. A
man must have q pretty clean conscience to 20 be-
fore them without quaking. Bank officers who are
trying 10 cover up some Matchmaking officials come
in with salow checks and black circles abont their
eyes, and the canal thieves have fear written all
over their faces.
The best evidence Of the success of the method
pursued by the Commission Is to be found in the fact
that they have almost invariably got their best
proof of frauds from the men who committed them.
They hammered away at the thief until he confessed
his theft Even Babcock, who is credited with
greater "smartness' than most of the Ring can lay
claim 10, gave in finally. His examination was long
but It's close was fruitful There are times when
this kind Of examination Is exciting enough. Mr..
Magone never minces anything but the witnesses
and these he sometimes breaks down in inter shame
and humiliation.
II is cnrionsly complete answer to the charges
anOat against the Commission that l body which
has made so many enemies should be so feeby
as allied A good instance was the story put out
with much mock grief and lamentatiOn during the
canvass that the Commission had grossly insulted
Lady who cnllch 20 tell them that her husband could