Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-08-23
THE RAUM INQUIRY
Cooper of Indiana Returns to
His Mutton.
DIFFERENCE OF VIEW AS TO SCOPE.

Whole Lot of Things That the Com
missioner Refuses to Divulge-Inter-
esting Episodes Of the Investigation
Carlisle on the Tariff OuestIon-Mason
After the Postoffice Depsrtment-The
Election Bill To BE Postponed.
WASHINGTON CITY, Aug. 23-Gen.
Raum, commissioner of pensions, was
again placed on the stand when the house
investigating committee met yesterday.
Representative Cooper, who so unceremo-
niously left the committee room Thurs
day, because the committee refused to al,
'ow him to ask Gen. Raum how much he
was worth, was present and conducted
the investigation. The commissioner de-
scribed the details connected with the
formation of the refrigerator company, in
January, 1890. He had paid part of the
money to the company due on hAtstock,
probably using some of the Lemon"
| money. He had a good deal of money at
The time and he drew check on the Bank
Of the Republic. He declined to say how
| much of the Lemon money he put in the
gypsum mine.
Making 1t Comprehensive.
Cooper wanted to know how much stock
Raum owned in the Gypsum mine how
much he paid for it, and whether he had
| any stock in a smokeless powder company.
There were protests and objections to the
last question. Then Cooper said that he
was endeavoring to test Raum's judgment
| by asking these questions. He was trying
/ to show that at the time when Lemon
went ON Raum's notes Raum was insol-
/ vent. He expected to prove further that
| Lemon knew that this was SO. Cooper
added somewhat dramatically that turpi
| lude was in every element of the case;
| turpitude had been shown by Raum when
ne allowed Lemon to so on his notes.
| Raum Defines the Question at Issue.
| Raum here rose and said he had not
been guilty of any misconduct in Office.
| The men who penned the articles against
| his character knew they were false Cooper
had said that he could produce testimony
| to prove the first charge (about selling
| stock in the refrigerator company. He de-
fed him to bring single witness TO prove
the charge. Not a single man, woman, or
boy of the !, 500 employees of the pension
office would testify in support of the
charge Under the guise of friendship
Cooper had stated he was seeking to break
down his (Raum's) character The issue
in this case was: Did ! eorruptly per-
form any act while in Office" He was
prepared to meet that charge. He did not
propose to have his private business ven
tilated He was not insolvent and had
never been insolvent.
As to Newspaper Article.
I Cooper had read an article from the
| Washington correspondent of the Gin
cinnati Commercial Gazette, published in
that paper on June 9th, 1890, in which it
was stated that the charges against Raum
| were untrue, and were circulated by dis
charged employees of the pension depart
ment. Cooper asked Raum if the article
was prepared in his Office, or written by
him. Raum answered in the Negative to
both questions. file thought he could
name the author but declined to do So
Cooper said that he expected to prove that
the article had been supervised or author
lied by Raum
Gen. Fl. v Boynton, Washington CORE
spondent of the Cincinnati Commercial
Gazette, testified that the article pub.
lished on June 9Th, had been sent out by
him. He had asked Raum for state
ment, but the article published had
been handed him by another correspon-
dent who said it was something that
Raum would probably like to have pub
| fished.
One on the Indiana Statesman.
Raum described i'll detail the operation
of business in pension cases. When he
had finished, Cooper said he objected to
taking cases from the pending files and
placing them on the completed files on
certificates of attorneys that they were
completed.
you did not always object, said Raum
Cooper asked for an explanation.
"Why," WAS the answer, "you have filed
5000 cases for one firm of attorneys
There was much laughter at this
Raum read statement giving the num-
Der of claims placed on the completed files
to Aug. l6 last. The total number was
l15, sd, and of these Lemon filed the great
est number by an individual, S1l0.
| No Favors Given to Lemon.
Martin Bailey, chief of the law division
of the pension Office, said Lemon had
never received any preference in the of
flee, nor had Raum ever given any orders
to that effect. Bailey said these things
could not happen without his knowledge.
Raum then submitted list of the stool
certificates of the refrigerator company
showing that he was the only man in the
pension office connected Herewith. He
would let Cooper examine the books only
in case the committee agreed to the pro-
position. The committee concluded that
Cooper should be satisfied with look at { he
list of stockholders, but he declined this
unless he was allowed to examine the
books also. The committee then adjourne
to Sept. l.