St. Paul daily globe., 1895-10-29
SENATOR MAGNIER,s CRIME.
His Acceptance of n Driba Caused
His imprisonment

Ills AmD~t4On ment-
The trial Of NJ. Edmond Magnier, SEN
ator of the Var, which resulted in his
conviction on Oct. 10, developed facts
OF interest in view of the resulting
crisis. He was charged with receiving
1880 francs from the late Baron
Re1nach as bribe for promoting in the
Var general council a scheme of the
Southern railway. The indictment
stated that the Var had to pay the COM
pany 1,476,550 francs, as interest guar
anteed by it under the agreement of
1889, and that, though the defendant
ostensibly received the $500 francs for
advertising for the sch me, he paid only
1880 francs of it into the Golfers of the
newspapers. 1t also alleged that the
fifty articles published by the Evene-
ment could not be worth 81, 500 francs,
especially as the company itself paid
1850 francs direct to the newspaper.
He was therefore indicted as a public
official for taking money for an act in
(, discharge of his public duties In the
course of long interrSgatory NJ Mag
nier was twitted with having spent
1,Ge0, 600 francs on a villa in the Riviera
and with becoming bankrupt with liza
biIities of 500,0 600 francs and assets of
only $4,000 francs. He insisted that the
railway line was projected in 1879, a
year before he was elected councillor
as a strategic line in the great Frey
cinet scheme, and that he could not be
held responsible for it's financial fail
ure. He reported in its favor and the
report was adopted by the Var council
and the concession was ratified by par
lament He pledged himself, more
over, as a candidate to promote line,
and the Southern company seemed
most fitted to carry it out. AS for the
sum paid him, they were his profits as
! a journalist, and were handed to him
after the scheme, for the line had been
settled and when he was perfectly un-
fettered. AS for Reinach, he had ar
ranged that the Evenement for five
years should support all the schemes
in which he was interested, and this
contract had simply been carried out
without anybody being bribed. Asked
in conclusion why he did not hand over
the 81, 500 francs to~the Evenement the
defendant replied that, though not
figuring in the books, it had been ap-
piled for the benefit of the newspaper.
The defendant was, nevertheless, con-
yicted and sentenced to one years I'M
prisonment.
i
Dupuy cabinet on Jan. IA last, which
resulted in the resignation of Presl-
dent Casimir-Perier, grew out OF a de-
bate on the government railway. The
government held that its guarantee of
interest to the railways expired in 1914,
but the council of state, TO which the
dispute was appealed, decided that the
guarantee was perpetual The cham
ber of deputies censured the ministry
for having submitted the question to
the council of state ard the cabinet
resigned, the president following suit
the next day. In a cable letter of that
date from Paris Mrs. Emily Crawford,
writing of the government conven-
tions with these railroads, said:
These conventions, involving the
most gigantic scandals of all time,were
signed by NJ. Raynal, as minister of
public works in the Ferry cabinet in
1883, of which cabinet NJ. Casimfr-
Perier was under secretary of state.
A syndicate of railway companies in
that year spent 10000, 900 francs in buy
ing journals and deputies. The con-
ventions were so drawn as to, in many
cases, allow interest of % per cent on
the capital subscribed. They allowed
guarantees of interest on all the capi-
tai in shares and bonds, but were sill
ent as to the date when the interest
guarantees were so cease. AZ one sit
ting of the chamber, in 1885, SO0,OC0
francs ($160, ,O0O) was spent in gaining
three votes. NJ. Ferry had lived in
tenement house lodging up to 1883. He
resided subsequently in a splendid
house built for himself in the aristo-
cratic district of Paris. 1 am acquaint-
ed with deputies who were poor before
the conventions were voted, but who
have since formed costly art coilec-
tons"