Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-03
THE PRICE OF VICTORY.
Secrets of the Indiana Campaign
Letter from Hoosier Politician
Showing that the State was Bought for Har-
rison, Who Lives in Terrier Lest Details
Should Get Out
Chicago Herald

man temporarily sojOurniDg in washing
ton from one of his friends at Indianap-
oils. 1t is letter which throws some
light on the methods of the Republicans
in the last campaign and on the anxiety
of President Harrison to suppress all
statements tending to rouse curiosity
concerning tine use of money in carrying
Indiana. The statements made in the
lie tier given herewith may be relied upon
as absolutely correct:
INDIANAPOLIS, IND, July 23.-Some
of the granger members of our Republic
can state committee were greatly sur
prised at the proceedings had in the Sc
cret meeting Of the committee last week.
Chairman Huston made little speech
on resigning the craftsmanship, and for
perOration declared he was ready to aC-
count to the committee for all the funds
in his possession and turn the same over
to the treasurer. He then reached down
and picked up a small handbag which he
had brought into the room with him, and
from this he began taking big stacks Of
currency A friend OF mine who is a mem
Der of the committee, says the eyes OF
the country members bulged out as they
saw the large sums of ready cash which
MIR. Huston drew from his bag-more
money than some of them had ever seen
in their lives. The amount was $40 800,
and the treasurer of the committee was
so much surprised by the sight of such Il
big pile of stuff that he Teceipted
for it without count. Huston
was warmly praised for his honesty
and fidelity in handling the committee
funds, and is said to have left the
room because the members were so en-
thuslastic in their compliments. l am
informed by member of the committee
that this sum of SO 800 was left over out
of total amount of 1925, 900 handled by
Huston i'll Indiana last year. All but
thirty or forty thousand of this came
from the East, as Indiana contributions
were small and scarce. This sum of S425,-
900 was handled by Huston personally ana
every dollar put where it would do the
most good. Remittances were made him
from the East in his own name, and not
q dollar of the money that was used for
the ''blocks Of five'' passed through the
hands of the committee i'll the regular
way. Huston carried the money on his
person all through the campaign, as the
funds were such that he did not dare put
them in bank. That was responsibility
Would you?
This method of Huston's in handling
the money explains why he was not called
before the grand jury that was investi-
eating the election. Scores of prominent
Republicans, members of the state COM
mittee, county committeeman and others
were summoned before the Democratic
jury, but Huston was not called. The
prosecuting attorney had received a tip
that such call would do him no good,
for Huston was ready and even
anxious to go into court with
the books of the state committee
under his arm. By these books he would
have shown where every dollar used by
the committee had come from and where
and for what purpose expended. All
this represented the ordinary expenses of
the committee for speakers, printing,
etc. II the jury had asked Huston for
statement concerning his personal ffnan-
ces or other moneys that passed through
his hands, he would have declined TO an
swer, standing on his right to keep silent
where testimony was likely to incrimi-
nate himself.
Another phase of the story which may
interest you is told by some of the Niche
ner and Ransdell fellows, vino are the
personal representatives of the president,
and inclined 10 throw stones at Huston.
They say Huston, proud of the success he
had won in the campaign and of the fact
that he had large enough balance left
to set the committee up in business for
another year, was determined to go be-
fore the committee and make full state
ment of the financial operations during his
charrmanship, and give this statement to
the press. Of course this statement
would have covered only the ordinary
expenditures, and had nothing to say
about what was done with the hundreds |
of thousands of dollars handled by Hus-
ton personally, and of which no record
was ever made. But Harrison wOuldn t |
listen even to that much He
would have no public report made at |
all, and bis representatives here say i5
took him two hours to talk Huston over |
to his way of thinking. said one of them |
TO me: ''But for the president Huston |
might have been just fool enough to have |
blurted right out in meeting the fact /
that we bought Indiana, and that it cost |
pretty nearly half million Of dollars to |
do it, Harrison knows Indiana was |
bought just as wen as we DO, and |
he is living IN mortal ter |
ror lest the facts should come |
out. He wants the country TO be- !
lieve it was his popularity that carried |
the state, while we all know it was the |
skill with which the large sum of money |
sent here from the East was handled that |
saved him from an ingIorious defeat at |
home Some of the presidents friends /
here are talking TOO much about the man
ner in which Harrison sat down on Hus-
ton s plan to make public report, and it /
is stirring up some hard feelings. If the
boys get to Quarreling the public may
yet get all the facts, even though Harri-
son pleads to have them suppressed.
Personally, 1 don It believe Huston would
have said an indiscreet word in his public
report, but Harrison is so timid and so
awfully afraid the facts about Indiana
will get out that he wouldn t let Huston |
say a word about finances.
Another bit of gossip which you may be
glad to hear is that among the Republic
cans who gathered here during the meet
ing of the state committee Harrison is
looked upon as a single termer. The
talk here is that the president does not
want to run again, and in good time will
make an announcement of his intention
to retire. He is not as popular here as
he was before he became president, and
that ism Il saying much.
When asked fO-niUht about the state