The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1901-09-19
MORE ARRESTS WILL FOLLOW VERY SOON.
Warrants For Arrest Of Aldermen Charge Them With Receiving
$500 For Their Voes Complaints Filed by District
Attorney Buckmaster Monday Afternoon.

The investigation of the passage of
the Street Railway ordinance in the
City Council granting franchise for
a. street railway to Messrs. Haynes
and C1ausen, of Chicago, is on, but
how different is the manner to the one
expected by the Aldermen who on Sat-
urday were clamoring for ''pry open"
of the affair. In this new and better
Investigation Judge S1osson is not ap-
pointing the committee to investigate
the matter, but District Attorney A. E.
Buckmaster stands at the bar of JUS
tice demanding that the Aldermen ap-
pear before the court and answer a
charge of receiving money for giving
fne streets away to a foreign corpora
ton. The blow fell late this after
noon when the District Attorney ap-
peared before Court Commissioner
Myron A. Baker and filed complaints
against Alderman Albert Smith, jun
Tor Alderman of the Seventh ward,
and Alderman Peter Pirsch, senior
Alderman of the First ward.
The complaints are specific and
warrants were at once issued for the
arrest of the men accused.
This action of the District Attorney
has only been taken after evidence of
tn. rost convincing nature has been
secured and it is not thought posi- bic
for the men accused to get around the
terrible evidence now in the hands OF
the court officials.
For weeks and months the District
Attorney and his aids have been seek
ing the evidence in this great con-
spiracy to defraud the people of the
city of the streets and after this long
and arduous work the final nail has
been driven in the coffin of bribery In
the Kenosha City Council and the full
guilt or innocence of all the men con-
nected with the passage of the railway
ordinance will be shown forth in the
clear and searching light of an un.
preiudiced court.
In the denouement which is to fol-
low the beginning of these proceed
ings it is possible that men who have
for years borne honorable names will
be. smirched with the dirt of suspicion,
but the people have demanded that the
guilty be punished and no stone will
be left unturned to make this investi-
CATION one that will go to the very
root of the matter.
While there have been but two war
rants issued, and while Aldermen
Pirsch and Smith are the only men
directly accused, other warrants will
undoubtedly follow within few days
and from the present appearance six
or seven of the city officials will be
landed behind the bars.
The working up of the evidence
against the accused men has been
fought out with the hardest conditions.
Every thing possible has been done to
prevent the officials securing the facts
in regard to the passage of the ordi-
nance, but the shrewdest detectives in
the West have been in the city for
weeks and the matter was finally Sc
cured.
Some of the police of the city are
under the ban, for at times it is al
legged that the police have offered aid
and succor to the accused Aldermen.
With this state of affairs the work
of the District Attorney has been
hampered, but it is now ready. and the
men who have opposed the officials in
their work will probably be forced to
appear on the witness stand and give
some account of themselves and their
connection with the many deals.
The investigation now started IS not
of the mushroom variety, but one that
forces men to stand in the presence OF
prison bars IF found guilty of the
charges which have been brought
against them the courts can have nc
other recourse than to send the men to
long terms IL the State prison or to en-
force heavy fues.
According to the warrant the alder
men were not high priced. Aldermen
Smith and Pirsch are charged with re
ceiving the sum of three hundred dol
lars for their votes IN favol
of the passage of the ordinance
and it is claimed that some of the vote
were secured at even lower rate. A
soon as the other warrants are ISSUED