The herald., 1897-03-18
Legislative Charges Of Criminal
Negligence
HE WAS NOT ExoNERATED
Arizona Impatient to Hear From the
White House
Investigating committee's Report smothsrsd
In Joint Secret session-Deadiock IN the
Senate Over Prison Removal
Especial Correspondence to The Herald,

Especial Correspondence to The Heraio')
PHOENIX, Ariz., March 13.-The at
'mosphere of Phoenix has been over
heated this week and the tension OF
things about as near taut as possibie
without something swapping.
am not sure but what something has
snapped-the gubernatorial boom OF
Myron H. McCord, for instance. The
city has been excited over 1t for week.
Secret sessions of the legislature
in Joint assemblage to consider the find-
ings of a secret committee appointed
particularly and solely to investigate
the dofngs Of Myron H. McCord have
been held. A report censuring him for
criminal negligence and citing instances
upon which might have been founded
graver charges-smothered by the leg
islature. Telegrams to Washington de-
claring that McCord had been exoner-
ated and eulogized by the investigators
arriving simultaneously perhaps, with
the full text of the secret committees
secret report, sent out in toto and paid
for by the friends of other candidates
for the governorship. Refusal of the
C6lsl1t III e " tahC any sAoS Aai eaie 4SefA
rel-the legislature being Democratic
and the quarrel Republican. Final
publication of the scathing report in
the local evening paper-the Phoeni,,
Herald. These-these and other things
have made the air SO warm and the
tension so nearly taut in Phoenix.
SOME SERIOUS CHARGES.
One of the other things is the new
prison removal fight 1t is losing
fight in all human probability, for Gov
ernor Franklin has promised to veto the
bill But there's a chance that the
governors name will not spell that way
before the bill reaches the executives
desk
If Carpenter were entirely wise he
would have forwarded rather than re-
tarded the bill. for Governor Franklin's s
days may be limited, and should Nc
Cord succeed him, and have chance
to sign or veto the prison removal bill,
Yuma's cause would be forever lost.
Concerning the McCord fight-his
friends are frightened now, That report
was scorcher 1t is difficult to believe
that a man with such charges hanging
over him has yet a chance Of becoming
the governor of a great and important
territory.
The report was evidently not written
by a hand practised in the rules of syn
tax, yet the wording is not at all OBJ
scure, and 1 have thought it might be
interesting to quote some of it, partic-
ularly as the country has been flooded
with kilograms of quite different ma
ture, and the word has gone out to the
public that the report exonerated Nc
Cord
COLLUSION WITH A CONVICT.
A substantial part of the report reads
as follows:
/. They. the said board in the purchase
of the supplies for the prison and insane
psa aEsn H. G T. snS fossh foa
electric plants, one for each institution
at an exorbitant price. and for inferior
plants and materials, in plain violation of
qures the board to advertise for all sup
plies before contracting, and the said con-
tracts were made without advertisement
at all.
q That for the execution of the said con-
tracts in the receipt of the materials con-
tracted for, the drawing of the money to
be paid therefor and the general handling
of the same between the territory and the
man, j. Holt Gates Of Chicago, Illinois,
who sold the same. one John P. Irving, a
penitentiary convict, convicted for obtain
ing money under false pretenses. was, by
the governor and chairman of the said
agent, NJ. H. McCord, pardoned out of the
penitentiary and placed in full charge Of
the same: and that. through his manage
ment, and by means OF the advantages thus
given by the said board. unguarded and
licensed as he was. the legitimate charges
made for the said material were loaded and
raised, by adding to the freight charges.
and to the contract price first made as first
bid on said materials by Gates. over $1,000
That the raises thus made enabled the said
Irving to rake off, as he termed 1t, $1,000
on one of these plant schemes, with which
he left the territory, and all of which was
known to the said Hughes and McCord. and
all of which was perpetrated by him by
means of the advantages given him by
them. And all Of this was done over the
protest of the territorial treasurer. who
was. at the time. striving to stop the fur
ther investigation of charges pending
against the said Hughes al Washing ton,
and who was striving TO prevent his remov-
al from the office of governor, assigning
that the trust thus imposed In prison con-
Wet as Irving was, would tend strongly to
Hughes but all in vain. We also find that.
through the purchase Of supplies for these
plants and fixtures thereto by and through
the hands of the said Irving by the author
ity of the said board. moved by means of
the authority of the said purchasing agent
of the said board the territory was beaten
out of s1175. which can be seen through the
evidence.
A. We also find that. for the use Of the
territorial insane asylum there was bought
by the said board of control by and through
the said purchasing agent. NJ. II. McCord,
ten acres of land. That It was done, not as
the terms of the statute directs. towit by
etc, but by advising a real
estate dealer and broker that such thing