St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-12


Elliott, of the firm of Shaw Il Elliott.
Attorney r. L. Penny, who repre-
sented the First ward aldermen, made
strenuous objections to allowing the
witness to tell anything that other peo-
pie had told him, but the objection was
Overruled.
Mr.. Varnum, continuing, said that
Mr.. Cole had Informed him that when
Shaw q Elliott wanted the street va
Gated he discovered that two of the
aldermen from the First ward were
opposed to it. Cole went to another
member of the council and asked him
who would be the proper person to see
to get the aldermen to consent to the
scheme. The other alderman said that
a certain city official would be the
proper person to see, and MI. Cole took
Mr.. Elliott to the city official and intro
| duced him. The city official, so Mr..
| Cole told Varnum. informed MI. Elliott
| that the aldermen wanted 500 each to
| favor The scheme. Then somehow the
| amount got up to $500, and finally
dropped to 800. Elliott was going to
| pay the money, but Aid. Cole advised
him not to. That day the matter came
| up in the council, and two of the First
ward aldermen opposed it. Then Aid.
Cole made his dollars and cents"
| speech.
''Will you give the name of the alder
man who suggested the city official to
Aid. Cole?' inquired Mr.. Russell.
eve must instruct our client to de-
cline to answer for the present." said
the attorney for the defense.
'Will you give the name of the city
offical?'
BY the advice of counsel Mr.. Varnum
again refused to answer.
In answer to the city attorneys ques-
! tons as to what other peculiar trans
actions" he was familiar with or
had knowledge of, Mr. Varnum said
that he had no positive infOrma-
ton except that it was generally
supposed that $4,000 had been paid to
to the council during the Anderson &
Douglass fight for street franchise,
but no one could get down to any facts.
Definite charges had been made that
! the gas committee and a certain city
official had made $1,000 out of the recent
contract for street lighting, but the wit
| ness could not remember VINO gave him
his first information. Aid. Cole had been
offered stock in the proposed East side
cemetery if he would agree to Vacate
the streets in Thwing's Highland Park
addition. Mr.. Cole had said that both
he and President Johnson had been
offered stock, and both of them had re-
fused; another alderman, however,
| wanted 10 per cent of The stock for his
vote and influence. Mr.. Varnum
said that city official gave him
this information, but by the advice OF
his attorney he refused to diVulge who
the official was This made Aid. John
| son angry, and he declared that the at
torneys for the Times hadn't the manli-
ness to give the committee any tangible
proof Of croOkedneSS. The attorneys
answered that they were only protect
ing their clients from suits tor SANDER,
and that il the committee could guar
antee them protection they would be
perfectly willing to name everybody
connected with all the deals. In con-
cluson Mr.. Varnum said that Gel tain
alderman of the Eighth ward had inter-
eSted himself in the vacation Of a strip
of land which was opened for street
purposes. and that he had gone to the
agent of the property and informed him
that it would be worth $500 to MIN to
have the strip vacated. He had also
been told this by a city official, but
under the advice of the attorneys be re-
fused to name the official.
II. NJ. JOheSOn, president of the cOun-
ell, was the next witness. Mr.. johnson
started out by saying that he wasn't
afraid Of any suits for SANDER. and
then he roasted the attorneys for the
Times for reiterating the stories which
had already been published without
giving the committee anything to work
upon. In regard to his having been
| offered stock in the East side cemetery
he said that Mr.. ThWing'S Office and his
own were in the same building. One
day he met Mr.. Thwing on the elevator
and Thwing asked him if he would like
TO be one of the incOrporat0rS of the
new company. He had told Mr.. Thwing
| that he was connected with as many
corporations as he wanted to be and de-
clined the invitation. Aid. Cole after
wards told him that he had also been
invited to become one of the lncOr-
pOratOTS but that he had declined. In
regard to the charge that the Mime
apolis Street Railway company had
expended money during the franchise
! fight Mr.. Johnson said that it had been
| charged that he was the paid attorney
| of the company. This statement he
| wished to deny. He hadnev received
| one dollar from the street railway COM
pany or from any one else for anything
| he had ever done in the council. The
! day that the vacating of Water street
was brought up in the council Aid.
Cole, in company with Mr.. Elliott, had
called at his office and there Mr.. Elliott,
in the presence of Aid. Cole, had told
him substantially the same story as re-
peated by Mr.. Whitley before the COM
| mittee. Mr.. Johnson said that the
aldermen referred to were Messrs.
| official was City Clerk Haney.
City Clerk Haney was on his feet in
an instant and demanded that since his
name had been drawn into the matter
he be allowed to be represented
by counsel. The committee allowed
this, and Mr.. Haney stated that
| as his attorney, Judge K0on, could not
be present, Ralph Whelan would repre-
sent him temporarily. In answer to
Mr.. Whelan'S questions Mr.. Johnson
| said that the conversation with Elliott
took place in his (JOhnsOn'S] Office. He
could not remember the exact words Of
the conversation, but the substance of
| it was that City Clerk Haney had
THE NECESSARY INFLUENCE
to get the required consent of aldermen
! from the First ward. Elliot said that
| Haney had told him that he couldn't do
anything with them, that they wanted
money. and then the $500 was men
toned. 81 was surprised" said Mr..
Johnson. land l told him | didn't be-
lieve that there were any Of that kind
of men in the council"
The attorneys for the Times at
tempted to cross-questiOn Mr.. Johnson,
| but he refused to answer any questions
they put, saying that when they were
ready and willing to come out in fair
way and give to the committee the
source of all their information, he would
! recognize them as having the right to
question hun, but not before. He
was perfectly willing, however,
to tell the committee every
thing he knew, and he would
answer any question the attorneys for
any of the accused aldermen or city Of
iicials might ask. When questioned by
City Attorney Russell, he said that he
| had heard great many rumors. One
was in regard to $1,000 or $1,000 beng
paid to the gas committee. He had
talked about the matter to Aid. Smith
and Aid. Loye, both of whom were
members of the gas committee.
and both of whom thought with
Mr.. Johnson that the council