Omaha daily bee., 1902-03-16
GOVERNOR SAVAGE AND EDITOR
BROWN.

tween Ezra p. Savage Of Custer county
and NJ. A. Brown Of Buffalo county, the
citizens OF Nebraska have no concern.
But when Ezra p. Savage over his sig
nature as governor Of Nebraska ad-
dresses an open letter to NJ. A. Brown,
editor OF the Kearney Hub for the spe-
clic purpose Of justifying the pardon
Of Joseph s. BARLEY the controversy
enters the domain Of state politics and
becomes a subject for public discussion.
Governor Savage calls attention to
the fact that thousands Of dollars of
state funds deposited by the state treas
urer were lost by the failure Of banking
houses of Kearney during the panic.
One Of the banks, he charges, had a So
600 state deposit at the time 1t failed and
among it's assets notes and obligations
Of Editor Brown amounting to almost
$4,000. When the receiver undertook
to realize on some OF these assets he
was unable to find a purchaser who
would give anywhere near the face
value. With these facts as a basis, the
governor submits these questions to
Editor Brown, "Who Is the real culprit,
the man who deposited the money in
the bank lawfully and presumably In
good faith or the man who borrowed It
from the bank and never paid 1t back7
" You are not the only individ-
ual whose attitude on the question is
to minds Of honor amazing and re-
proachful. There. are many others who
contributed In the same way to this mis-
guided mans downfall who apparently
are just as vigorous In denouncing the
exercise Of clemency as you are. ..
Morally you directly owe this money to
the bank and indirectly to the state. If
YOU who borrowed the money could not
and can not pay back what you bor-
rowed, how is the bank going to be pre-
pared to pay or how do you expect Mr..
BARLEY to payF'
In response to these questions, Edi-
tor Brown admits personal obligations
to the Kearney National bank amount
ing to about $4,000 while the other loans
were made by the publishers Of the
Hub all secured by mortgage on city and
farm property regarded as ample un-
der ordinary business conditions. But
when these properties were driven to
forced sale they brought a compare
lively small figure.
This explanation should be satisfac-
tory to Governor Savage n exculpating
Editor Brown from any culpability for
the loss sustained by the state which
should have recovered on it's depository
bond IL reasonable vigilance had been
exercised by the state authorities.
But the governor persists in labor
ing under the delusion that Mr.. BARLEY
was a misguided man whose downfall
Is due to the financial distress following
in the wake Of the drouth and general
business depression. The governor
seems to be oblivious of the fact that
the crime for which BARLEY was con-
victed was not the failure to collect
money lost in failed state repositories
but for money deliberately embezsled
from the state treasury. The 20ayear
p~enitentiary sentence imposed upon
BARLEY was for converting to own use
the proceeds of q state warrant drawn
for S1s1 900 and no part of these steal
ings has even been disgorged although
BARLEY has expended thousands Of dol
lars for lawyers, bail bonds, and pardon
petitions. The man whom the governor
considers a misguided martyr Is known
to the people to have looted the treas
ury of hundreds Of thousands OF dollars
for lawless speculation and political
loans he never expected to see repaid.
Governor Savage forgets that the
press has its duty and function as well
as the executive. Mr.. Brown as a citi'
zen would have a right to repress his
personal feeling or resentment over the
extension of executive clemency to q
great embezzler but as editor 1t wat
his duty to voice the sentiment Of the
community for which his paper assumes
to speak. That he has honestly voiced
this sentiment nobody will gainsay
Had he failed to do so for any persona,
reason, he would have justly meritet
the withdrawal of public confidence
from the paper he edits and destroyed
its influence as a molder of public opin
ion.