The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-01-14
The Returns Are Not Made Public, ms
Twenty of the Men Indicted Are
Not Yet Under Arrest.
POLICE POLITICAL ACTIVITY
1T is GIVEN A VIGOROUS SCORING BY
THE INVESTIGATORS.
Mayor Scathed for Neglect of Duty
EleemOsynary Institutions Are in
Shameful Condition.

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 13.-The final report of
the grand jury, composed of prominent
business men, who have been investigating
municipal matters, has been returned.
Twenty-four indictments, only four of
which, for minor crimes, are made public,
were handed down. The remainder, which
are all against persons not yet in custody,
are withheld. Among the twenty indict-
ments is one against an official of the
House of Delegates, who is charged with
attempting to bribe States witness
against man accused of highway robbery.
He will be served with a bench warrant
on Monday.
The Post-Dispatch says of the report:
Accompanying the indictments was the
report of the grand jury touching the in
vestigations of police bribery and elec-
tion fraud charges together with the re-
suit of their investigation Of public criti-
cisms on the conduct of the police depart
ment.
Lack of cooperation between the board
of police commissioners and the chief Of
police calls forth censure; corrupt use of
the police in politics drawn from instances
during the past election as investigated
by the jurymen is condemned. and in this
connection a meeting at the Planters
Hotel preceding the last election, where it
is charged that the police heads and DEM
ocratic state officials discussed the instruc-
tons TO be given to the police in their con-
duct toyarfheputy sheriffs under Repub-
liean administration, are stigmatized by
the jury as reprehensible.
"The jurymen throw up their hands when
they come to that portion of their report
treating Of the many charges, specific and
general, of wholesale election frauds. They
dismiss the charges as simply appalling,
by reason of their multitude and varied
character. So vast was the evidence of this
sort of corruption that the jury expresses
itself as utterly inadequate to cope with
the situation because Of the limited time at
its disposal
"a short chapter of censure is devoted to
the failure of the mayor to attend the meet
ings of the police board, of which he is an
ex-officio member by law. The jury says
that opposite political affiliations are no
excuse for the persistent, and. to them,
studied absence Of the city's chief execu-
tive.
"Wineroom evils are branded as being
among the worst iniquities of municipal
life. and the evident failure of the police
to crush this violation of good morals re-
ceives a brief but sharp rebuke. and the
efforts of civic influences to eradicate the
sin are applauded with the admonition that
the police exert a more potent power in
dealing with the ISSUE
1.-The condition of the city's eleemosynary
institutions is classed as wretched. What
the jurymen saw during personal visits to
these places is painted in the most depreca-
tory manner, and the kind of administra-
ton of public affairs making possible such
conditions is referred to in an ironical
strain.
''In the above connection the report says
that enforced economies and overcrowding
are carried on to such extremes that, so
| far as they relate to the methods they
| have made it necessary to employ, there is
| an uncomfortably close relation between
lack Of FUNDS and crime"