Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-03-25
DES MONIES LETTER.
JULIEN RICHARDS BELIEVES BYERS
WILL BE ExONERATED.
House Sensation Falls Flat-Places Two
Members OF the Lobby In an Unenviable
POsition-AnotherJ aclsman Letter Made
Pubiic-Revenue ItiII Passed.

/
the house, connected with the passage
OF the building and loan bill at the reg
ular session of the general assembly.
The sensation, however, fell fiat and in
stead OF smirching the reputation of any
OF the members of either house, it has
simply placed two members of the lobby
in decidedly unenviable position. In
brief, the sensation consisted in a report
supposed to have been made b. Gee B.
Jackman, to the officers and members of
the "Iowa federation of building and
loan managers" 1t seems that Jack
man and another representative Of the
building and loan interests named
| Qulmby had been appointed as SUBJ
committee by this federation to repre-
sent them and have charge of their in
terest in regard to legislation which was
pending at the regular session. Both
Jackman and Quimby live in Des Moines
and each one is connected with large
building and loan associations in the
capital city. Some time previous to the
session it appears that they informed
the members of the federation that it
would take considerable money to secure
the passage of the building and loan bill,
and the result was that $2,395 was sub
scribed by different association in Iowa
and Michigan and placed in their hands.
When the session was over it was neces-
sary that they should make a report as
to expenditure of this money. 1t might
be said In passing that there was never
at any time any question but that the
Twenty-sixth general assembly would
adopt the building and loan law. The
members of the Twenty sixth general
assembly expected that some building
and loan measure would be passed and
there was but little difficulty i'll recon-
CLING the differences between them, and
the measure was adopted with little
opposition. In fact, such bill as was
finally passed would have been passed
without any lobbying in it's favor.
Necessary to Make n showing.
So much for the true history of the
bill in the Twenty-siXth General Assem-
bly,, bat the lobby had about $2,4OU to
spend and when it was all gone it was
necessary to make showing as to how
it was spent, and so this report which
was marked confidential" was issued
soon after the adjournment last spring.
1t was so worded as to suggest rather
than expressly state that the lobby had
had hand i'll securing the election of
Speaker Byers and that they had worked
''day and night and Sundays" to get the
bill through. This confidential" re-
port IN some way got into the hands of
Mr.. Lambert Of Jackson county. He
read part of it on the floor but de-
clined to finish the reading Then, by
vote OF the house, the sergeant at arms
was instructed to take the document
from MI. Lambert and turn it over to
the clerk by whom it was read in full.
When the lntimatiOn that the lobby had
worried to secure the election OF 5peake
ByerS was reached, that gentleman left
the speakers desk and demanded the
appointment OF committee to give this
statement full investigation. The
=. protfer of q resolution of confidence was
. at once made, but Mr.. Byers refused,
saying that he wished to have the mat.
ter thoroughly investigated. The result
was the appointment of a committee,
which has been hearing evidence fo1
several days and will probably report
today. The evidence which has been
produced proved what every one knew
. must in fact be the true state of the case
JacAman and Quimby were among the
witnesses. The statement of both the
, the lobbyists was TO the effect that they
had written some letters TO different
building and loan people in Iowa sug
/ costing chat they use their influence
with their members Of the house il
favor OF Speaker Byers rather than Mr.
I Allen, his competitor.
Tell why They Favored Byers.
v When asked the reason they preferred
MI. Byers to Mr.. Allen they said the,
had noticed that Ill the Twenty-t1Uh Gen
y eral assembly Mr.. Byers appeared t
favor restrictive legislation Oh the sub
Ject OF building anG loan associations
Il and for that reason they believed ht
would favor the same sort of Legislation
by the TWenty-sixth general assembly
Both witnesses stated positively tina
they had had 10 understanding will
Mi. Byers and no conversation with hin
n or any one representing him, and they
O did not believe that he knew they haC
written these letters i'll his behalf. Ii
regard to the formation of the commit
t tee Ill the house they as positively STATED
q they had had no conversation and made
no arrangement whatever with thu
speaker. Concerning the expenditure o.
t the money referred to III the contiden
tial report, the witnesses stated that no
a member Of either body had been ap
preached directly or indirectly with any
: offer of money to influence his action o.
vote with regard to the building ant
loan legislation. This is about the ex
s tent that the committee went ON thi
IS line, for the reason that joint commit
tee Of house and senate has also bee,
appointed to investigate thoroughly tn,
use Of this money. That committee vii
~ begin work today. There were SOM
e peculiar items i'll this report, anon,
;, which were q statement that $S45 ha,
been spent for "sundrles," also that $40
had been spent for cigars, and quite al
a amount for advertising, railroad fare
Il show tickets, entertainment, stree
> car fare, etc. There was also one iten
10 of $40 for newspaper putfs, and tn
u next item under it in the schedule wa
= $l6 for newspaper silence" The wit
nesses stated in regard to these item
= that the reporter of certain Iowa pape
outside of Des Moines, who, by the Way