The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-09-20

object of any part of these criticisms
it is doing a great injustice to Mr..
Hoch. There is not a man in Kansas
who knows the history of the Conan
che county transaction who believes
that Ed Hoch would have permitted
such a deal had he been a member of
the state school fund commission. Ed
Hoch's honesty is not to be impugned
by deserved criticism of the acts of
other men who happen to be on the
ticket with him.
The newspapers which are criticising
the deal didn't force the school fund
commissioners into making it. The
fight on the ticket comes from the
men whose acts weaken the ticket,
not from the newspapers which call
those acts into question. A fight on the
ticket is promoted by condoning the
wrong-doing of state officers and not
by requiring that such transactions as
the Comanche county bond deal be ex-
planned. A fight that is more serious
still-a fight ON the party-is establish
ed when party newspapers prefer to
overlook transactions that must be
condemned by ordinary business judg-
ment, when such transactions concern
the most sacred fund entrusted to the
care of state officers.
The Comanche county bond deal IN
wolves the investment of $685. OF the
money accumulated to support the pub
lie schools. This money was invested
by ]. r. Burrow, l. L. Dayhoff and [.
c. Coleman in the securities of county
having but 1900 people already loaded
down with debt already in de-
fault to the school fund on all the Sc
curities held by the school fund, and al
ready on record as having compromised
the Indebtedness paid to the state in
the past at ninety-five cents and less on
the dollar These bonds were bought at
par, bearing four and a half per cent
interest, when they were offered 10 the
board a few months before bearing SIX
per cent interest. They were bought at
four and one-nalf per cent when IN
vestors throughout the country had re-
fused to buy them at less than par even
though they bore six per cent interest
They were bought after it became nee
essary to almost double the county val
uation returned by the county clerk 10
make the issuance of the bonds legal
and this increase of the valuation was
by members of the school
fund commission, acting in conjunction
with members of the board of equallza-
ton. They were bought when an agent
received $4,000 commission from Co
manche county for selling them to the
state.
They were bought on the opinion OF At
torney General Coleman, recommending
the purchase, when the records in the at
torney generals office show that the orig
inal Issuance of bonds which this present
issue refunds was absolutely fraudulept'
that a gang of grafters from eastern
Kansas organized Comanche county when
there was not a settler on the PRAIRIE
issued bonds by legislative permission and
pocketed the money, saddling this debt
upon the later settlers who afterward ae-
the legal organization OF the
county. The state has invested $l2S.OU or
its school money in bonds to secure this
kind of a debt of a county already delin-
auent on what it owes the state and I'M
der circumstances which would warn the
Judgment of any sensible business man
to keep away from the deal 1t bought
them at par bearing AZ per cent interest
when only the year before it had COM
promised some Comanche county indeot-
edness at 50 cents on the dollar
And the Capital calls a criticism of this
transa elton a fight on the ticket If the
Republican ticket or any part of it is so
weak that it can not have its official acts
reviewed, how does the Capital propose
to have the party strengthen it sufficient
ly To entitle it to an election?