Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-03-02
PROVING A COWS PiRAcT.

Regardless of the final outcome of the
senatorial investigation. after all the tes-
timony given shall have been duly
weighed by the committee, it is clear to
every independent and impartlal oo-
server that the defense has succeeded in
establishing it's claims that = conspiracy
was organized against Senator Clark.
While a great deal OF evidence to that
end has cropped out from time to time
during the progress of the investigation,
it was reserved for Congressman Camp
bell. attorney for the prosecution, to
definitely settle the question. His testi-
mony admits of no other construction
than that prominent democrats, backed
by pledges of unlimited financial re-
sources, organized themselves into a con-
spiracy to defeat the senatorial aspira-
tions of Mr.. Clark.
Mr.. Campbell recites that a private
meeting was held for that purpose, in
which he acted as chairman, and at
which ways and means We're fully dis
cussed. At this secret meeting it was
agreed that no limit should be placed
upon the expenditure of money in the
way of procuring evidence which would
blacken the reputation Of the senator,
and his friends! Acting in line with the
agreements reached, Campbell employed
detectives and corlsecrated his own ener-
gies to the work of the sleuth. 1t ap-
pears from the evidence given, during his
cross-eXalnination, that he was mot only
particeps criminis in opening and read
ing a private letter, thereby violating the
laws of his country, but that he procured
a duplicate key and entered the private
apartment of another, in order to feloni-
ously acquaint himself with facts which
he believed himself able to procure in no
other way! In addition to these crimes
against decency and the law, it appears
that he likewise wrote letters of a char
acter too vile to be read aloud by the
committee, into whose hands they have
fallen, and perpetrated other offenAses of
the most disgusting type.
All these acts We're performed in line
with arrangements entered into by h
Campbell's only Justification of them is
his statement that in order to find out
what there is in mud one must wade in
mud! While the evidence given by Mon
tana's congressman is humiliating to
every decent citizen of the state, it
proves the contention of the Clark men
that not only was a conspiracy entered
Into for the purpose of defeating that
gentleman. but that Illegal means have
been freely resorted to to accomplish
hat end.
Had the prosecution pursued a manly.
courageous course in a conscientious eff
fort to expose wrong doing, it would not
now be compelled to hang it's head In
shame before the stern gaze of an ONT
ragged public. But i'm it's alleged cam.
palgn for purer politics, it's accredited
leader stands as a -self-confessed violation
of the federal statutes and the laws of
Montana. With ample funds at his
command, it lay within the power of Mr..
Campbell to employ all the mail robbers
and housebreakers that the exigeucies Of
the situation required, without himself
going to the extreme of being a party to
the riff1ing of private letters or the feloni-
Gus entry of private rooms.
Whatever may be the opinion of the
committee, respecting the political meth
DDS of Mr.. Clark in the expenditure of
large sums of money to carry out the
ends he had in view, it can have nothipp
but a wholesome contempt for a prose-
cution that is represented by Mr.. Camn-
bell. The conclusion Is irresistible that
If Montana's congressman tells the truth
upon the witness stand, as to his own
shortcomings, no limit can be placed
upon the possible extremes to which the
Anemies OF Mr.. Clark may have gone in
their efforts to make a case before the
committee.
Mr.. Campbell has hoodooed the prose-
cution "to a fare you WE'LL" as Mr.
Whiteside might put it. and while he has