The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-11-21
INDICTMENTS To FOLLOW
DISCLOSURE Of VOUCHERS.
Clerk MeheuIa Surrenders Evidences of PIunder
in House Expenses---UnparalIeIed Exhibits
of Graft---Terrtorial Authorities Reserved.

What the Territorial grand jury
slurred over with almost unconcealed
disdain. the Federal grand jury has
The vouchers of the House of Repre-
sentatives, for the legislative session
of 1903, We're yesterday produced before
the Federal grand jury.
Solomon Meheula, clerk of the House,
who had falsely stated that he did not
know the whereabouts of the vouchers,
in obedience to a subpoena issued by
Judge Dole carried the documents into
the grand jury room and hence was
then Immediately allowed to depart
Having the vouchers, the grand jury
next procured from the Auditors office
other evidences of legislative expenses.
Witnesses were excused for some hours
while the Federal grand jurors held
scrutiny of the tell-tale documents.
Though surrendered as stated, the
vouchers are not yet available for pub
lication. They are the property of the
Federal grand jury for the present
Nevertheless, from a little here and a
little there, it has transpired that there
was method in the futile attempt at
forever withholding them from the
light of day.
Perhaps as many as eight or ten poll
iticians who have posed as real some
bodies must have sadly bemoaned
through last nights watches the power
of an honest and fearless grand jury to
unearth corruption and rascality.
jury's secret chamber to justify q pre-
pairing of the public mind for revela-
tions of graft and downright stealing,
with regard to the disbursement Of
funds extravagantly voted for it's run
ming expenses by the House Of Repre-
sentatives, such as have no parallel in
the history of Hawaiian legislatures
and few if any in the annals of any
legislative body on earth for century
past.
There will probably be several in
dictments presented as result of the
examination of the House vouchers by
the grand jury. This is a gratifying
prospect, since it has been widely sup
posed that Federal law could not reach
beyond an inquiry as to whether or not
the vouchers had been destroyed, and
if the latter the Furnishing of the
agents of destruction under the United
States statute in such cases provided.
The exposure of the grafters alone will
have a wholesome effect on future leg
islation, much more so their due and
proper suffering of the penalties the
law may prescribe.
1t has transpired that many of the
vouchers are for money paid without
proper official approval. Prices for
supplies furnished and pay for services
purported to have been rendered are
in not a few cases outrageous. Wages
obtained by some hangers-on, upon a
per diem basis, represent several times
more days than the Legislature sat.
Two dollars a page for translating is
fairly stiff sample of charges for
work, while s34 for a dozen pens is
among the milder types of bills for
supplies. The printing and proof-read-
ing graft is parti- ularly bad.
On the other hand, there are appar-
emily honest bills cropping up here and
there, which seem almost ludicrous
O. Ct ttn Of
A comical aspect of the discovery of
the vouchers was the unblushing
audacity of some members of the
House, awaiting their calls as wit
nesses, up to the surrender of the doc
uments, These freak statesmen ques-
toned the right of the Federal grand