The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-09-29

school fund be published, for the rea-
son that persons who read the testi-
mony will form an opinion as to the
guilt of the party charged, and thus be
disqualified from being impanneled on
the petit jury in Shawnee county,
where said cause is triable.
And your committee respectfully rec
ommend the adoption Il the following
| resolution, viz:
! Resolved. That the seat of Andrew
7 Mowrv representative from the
Third district, Doniphan county, in the
\ house of representatives of the state of
! Kansas, be and the same is hereby de-
THOS. I. TAYLOR,
Chairman.
]. d. BRJTMBAUGH.
C. NJ. KELLOGG.
d H. PAGE.
SANFORD HAFF.
And recommended that said Mowry
be expelled from that body,-which was
done.
trated on said Comanche county as
aforesaid. the characters of w. H.
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. were badly disfigCred by that
jnvestiga ton. and the evidence of
fraud perpetrated on Comanche county.
and they each dropped out of pubic
life, and were heard or no more OIL
cially.
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 organization
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,
Of loot
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
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, twas reduced to
about S133, 900, and new bonds issued TOR
the latter amount in settlement of said
former fraudulent bonds, being much
less in amount than the amount OF
said judgment, interest and costs; (and
which bonds after partial payments
and compromises were previous 70
July 1, 1904, reduced to $123,000
of principaD and thus ended
one of the most gigantic
swindIes ever perpetrated in the south
west; and one which fastened upon
the people of that county 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; a crime that hangs like 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, Wom-
an and child in that county; a debt
which no child now living can hope
to see liquidated by taxation upon the
property of the people OF that county;
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 its 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.
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, bond buyer of To-
peka, Kan, was trying to dispose of
although he had offered said bonds to
said school fund commissioners in
January, 1904, and twice in March, |
1904, notwithstanding the fact that
they were drawing the high interest
of six per cent per annum; and for
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- !
nent school fund, composed of J. r. |
Burrow, secretary of state, 1. L. Day |
hoff, superintendent of public instruc- |
ton, and c. 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 T. T. Kelly, |
treasurer, informed the said H. B. KEEL |
ly, bond buyer, that he thought if the |
bonds were placed in the hands of said |
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.
t. Kelly, treasurer, and the said God |
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
an offer to each of the said school |
fund commissioners, BurrOw, Coleman
and Dayhoff, in writing, whereby he
offered to furnish the bonds to them
for said school fund at the face value
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
commissioners ever made any reply to
said Kelly.
That subsequently the said GODDARD
(and 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-
4 al.,,-. I,Lnf c,r.cn