The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-05
Kansas, be and the same is hereby de-
clared vacant
Chairman.
]. d. BRUMBAUGH.
C NJ. KELLOGG.
D. H PAGE

Chairman.
]. D. BRUMBAUGH.
| c. NJ. KELLOGG.
| D. H. PAGE.
SANFORD HAFF.
| And recommended that said Mowry
be expelled from that body,-which was
done.
aforesaid, the characters of w. II
Smallwood, then secretary of state,
and H. D. McCarty, then superintend-
ent of public instruction,-who made
made such purchase of said two one
thousand dollar bonds,-for honesty
and capacity in the discharge OF pub
lie duty. We're badly disfigured by that
investigation and the evidence OF
fraud perpetrated on Comanche county.
and they each dropped out OF pubic
life, and were heard of no more ofh-
cially.
Effort to Collect on Bonds.
That thereafter, along about the
middle of the sos, known as the boom
days in western Kansas, four or five
thousand people settled in said Co
manche county and an organlZatlon
thereof effected, when the eastern
bond holders found that there were
people there and officers to sue (not
heretofore in evidence), commenced
action upon these fraudulent bonds
and, after years of litigation, the case
going to the courts of last resort, both
state and national, ended in judgement
against said county for the principal
of said bonds, interest, and costs OF
litigation.
That in 1890 after said Judgment
had been obtained against said Co
manche county, a compromise was
effected whereby the amount of said
bonds, interest and costs, was reduced to
about $133, 000 and new bonds issued for
the latter amount in settlement of said
former fraudulent bonds, being much
less in amount than the amount OF
said judgment, interest and costs; Cand
which bonds after partial payments
and compromises were previous to
July 1, 1904, reduced to $123,0O0
of principally and thus ended
one of the most g1gantlc
swindIes ever perpetrated in the south
west; and one which fastened upon
the people of that county a mountain
of debt which was never authorized by
the people of that county; a crime that
injuriously affected the name of every
one actively participating in the trans
action; crime that hangs like a mill
stone around the neckS of those who
make their homes therein; a burden so
onerous that no man living there can
afford to be prosperous, else his prop
erty goes to pay this fraudulent debt
thus fastened upon every man, woIn-
an and child in that county; a debt
which no child now living can hope
to see hquidated by taxation upon the
property of the people of that county;
Crime Hangs Like Mortgage.
a crime which hangs as a mortgage
upon the property of all people there
in, and that so large that, when TAX
en- in account with the character of its
soil and altitude, it leaves no possible
hope of it's ultimate extinction wrung
from these people. All of which was
and is a matter of record in the state
offices at Topeka, Kansas, and known
to all men for thirty years last past
who have ever heard of the Comanche
county frauds; frauds that all intelli-
gent men in Kansas are as familiar
with as they are with the name of
Comanche county.
No Market for Bonds.
That those bonds for $4,000.
clouded as they were and are, of nee
eSSity, were a drug on the market eV-
erywhere where their antecedents
were known. so that their holders were
seeking opportunity for the disposal
of the same on the best terms possible,
and H. B. Kelly, a bond buyer of To-
peka, Kan, was trying to dispose OF
them, for which he received no offer,
said school fund commissioners in
January, 1904 and twice in March,
1904, Notwithstanding the fact that
they were drawing the high interest
that purpose the said Kelly solicited
A. a. GODDARD, late attorney general of
Kansas, to assist him in selling them
to the commissioners of the perma-
y X.
secretary of state, /. L. Day.
hoff superintendent of public instruc-
ton, and @. c. Coleman, attorney gen.
eral of the state of Kansas. Suisse
quently t. T. Kelly, the treasurer OF
the state of Kansas, approached said
H. B. Kelly to know if he had the
bonds for sale, and was informed that
he had. Thereupon the said I. 7. Kelly,
treasurer, informed the said H. B. KEEL
", bond buyer, that he thought if the
MI in "a Of
Goddard, that the latter could sell them
to the school fund commissioners. Sub
sequent thereto the said H. B. Kelly,
becoming suspicious that the said T.
ard, were trying to effect the sale of
said bonds to the said school fund
commissioners, and leave him out of
the deal, the said H. B. Kelly made
fund commissioners, Burrow, Coleman
and DayhOf, in writing, whereby he
offered to furnish the bonds to them
for said school fund at the face value
thereof, and six per cent per annum,
and to run until 1920, and made the
same verbally to c. c. Coleman, one
of the board of said school commits
sioners. to which neither of said school
ever made any reply to
said Kelly.
The Eight Thousand Commission.
That subsequently the said GODDARD
land the said State Treasurer Kelly,
then acting for and with him, ascer-
tanned the whereabouts of the owners
of said bonds, and) on June 4, 1904,
purchased the same, as this defendant
believes, with the funds in the custody
and control CT the state treasurer of
the state. and such bonds were deliv-
cred to the said A. A. GODDARD before
the 18th day of June. 1904. And on
June Z, 1904. the said A. A. GODDARD
effected a deal whereby the officers of
said Comanche county were induced
to call in and cancel and reissue that
amount of bonds, drawing interest at
the rate of four and one-half per cent, |
instead of six, as they were then draw
Ing, which was done, and for which
the county commissioners of said Co.
manche county agreed to pay the said
GODDARD $4,000, as and for his conpen-
satiOn therefor, and said reissue was