Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-12
WHIIEWASH FOR Mr., DAWES
Populist Central Committee Viii, Remove
Stain from Superintendent.
RtPUDlATEs REPORT OF ITS COMMITTEE
Charges Against the Head of the
State Institute Are Wiped Out
mt the Instance of Political
BOSSES.

The popullst county committee had upon
the carpet last night no less parsonage
than Superintendent Dawes Of the States in
stitute for the Deaf and Dumb. 1t Will be
remembered that the fall county convention
OF the popullst party passed resolutions re-
fecting upon the management OF the afalre
of the asylum and appointed committee to
investigate its operations. That committee
some time since prepared report reflect
ing seriously not only upon the superintend-
ent but upon the Board OF Public Lands and
! lldings for the delay experienced in open
ing the institution this year, for hiring non
Union labor and for general mismanagement
OF the institution.
The county committee, which is dominated
by men in sympathy with the fusion machine
in this state, put off the hearing Of the report
OF the committee until last evening, selecting
a date after the election. Sixteen members
we're present and Superintendent Dawes by
invitation. When the order of business was
announced H. Cohen demanded the reading
of the resolution adopted by the county con-
vention, but it was not to be found and
Walter Breen of the investigating committee
read his report as already published as the
findings of the committee.
An immediate and urgent demand for in
formation arose as to how that report fell
into the hands of The Bee before it was
rendered to the county committee, but the
inquiry failed to bring any definite answer.
The report included the various statements
OF people who had criticised the manage
ment of the institution substantially as these
statements were printed in The Bee.
At the conclusion Of the reading of the
report Superintendent Dawes was invited to
make statement. He said that the COM
hnI ,,tt Cd tha ipcti tIt nd
that he had not been invited to attend it's
meeting, although he had asked that priv
ileges He read long list of questions which
the committee had propounded to him
through the mails and the answers he had
given Afterwards he discussed the persons
who had criticised his management. Several
he declared to be either discharged employees
or people who had failed to get work at the
institution One of them he accused Of being
incompetent
As TO NOnunion Labor.
In relation to the charge that nonunion
labor was hired at the institution he did
not fatty deny it, but intimated that there
was one case where a carpenter who was
suspended by his union for nonpayment or
dues had been employed and whom he had
refused to discharge. He did not consider
1t policy for the state to discriminate against
a man simply because he did not belong to
union, whatever discretion might be ex-
ercised in the employment of men in favor
of union men.
After he had been questioned at length
f. f. Morearty launched into tortured de-
fense of the superintendent and scored the
committee for having brought in a report
without having visited the institution and
allowed the superintendent to have his say
at a hearing He declared with genuine
populistic energy that 1t was a base polit-
ical trick to have an effect in the election
and asserted that the verdict of the people
on this report was rendered at the polls the
other day. He excoriated everyone who had
criticised the superintendent taking care
each time to say that he did not mean Mr.
Breen, who appeared to be the only one
present.
At the conclusion of a stormy discussion,
which. however, was all one-sided and
against Breen, II. Cohen moved that the
report be laid on the table, which was
done.
On motion of e. j. Morrow the committee
was discharged, but part of his motion to
the effect that the members of it be run out
of town" was not adopted.
Messrs. Barnett Cohen and Weisenand
were appointed a committee to bring In
resolutions removing the stain from the
escutcheon of Mr.. Dawes, placed there by
the county convention and it's chosen and
authorized committee, and another com
mittee was appointed to investigate and
report upon the financial transactions of the
county committee during the campaign.