The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-05-06
MISSOURI PURGED
BY ]. W. FOLK
Continued from First Page.)

|sixs ,ot Of them I'm confessed Jesse Then he
cratic boss of his city, Ed Butler.
Ee convicted him, but the state SUI
preme court turned him loose. In |
twenty-one cases tried he secured |
nineteen convictions, two of them
against millionaire bride givers.
Others, members of the municipalities
sembly fled to foreign countries. One
millionaire brewer left on hasty va |
cation more than two years ago and is
still absent from the United States.
While Folk was pushing his prose-
cutions In st. Louis and attracting
general attention, the charge was
made, one day, in the general assem-
bly, of the state, that bribery was going
tatives. 1t was made by the speaker
lof the house of representatives and
promptly taken UP by the house,
which appointed an investigating COM
m1ttee. 1t soon developed that sew
eral senator's had been making parade
Iof $1,000 bills. Some of them were
in the hands Of men who never hon
testify owned $1,000 in their lives. A
grand jury was called. The attorney
general, E. G. Crow took charge. The
Legislature adjourned in haste. Ten
days of investigation produced sem
Sation.
Lees Confession.
The lieutenant governor of Mis-
souri,, John A. Lee, up to that time
candidate for governor, made and
signed written confession to the eff
feet that he was a boodler and had
acted as the agent of the baking pow.
der trust in buying the votes of seven
state senator's for $1,000 each. He
had received $1,000 for himself as pay
for his services in properly placing
the Doodle.
Part of Lees transaction had been
in st. Louis Folk took up the inves-
tigation at once. In fact he was pre-
pairing for it when Lee was frightened
into confession. Folk developed evil
dence to prove that bribery. in the
legislature was common. He showed
how a state officer, r. B. Speed, q
coal oil inspector, had paid state
senator an $500 bride in the presence
of the chairman of the democratic
state committee, who is now the sec
rotary of state. He proved by eX-
Governor Stephens that on at least
two occasions bribe-givers had in
vaded the office of the governor.
Once it was to offer 100000 for an ap-
pointment, and at another time to Of
fer 100000 in stock of a corporation
that had bought bill thru the two
houses and wantetd it signed. He
showed how railroad companies, in
surance companies, stock yards COM
panies, a candy combine and score
of other concerns went into the legis-
1ature and bought votes right and left.
how lobbyists who distributed Doodle
sat in the senate chamber while the
senate was in session and wrote out
amendments to bills under consider
alton and had senators introduce
them; how bills were introduced hos
tile to corporations and senators
called on the managers and told them
In cold blood to pay $4,000, $4,000
tn piC1 two
bine or the bills would be passed. The
tribute levied on the liquor interests
each year varied from $1,000 to $780,
900, according to circumstances az
Woke Up the People.
These things went out over Missouri
and woke up sleeping people. Con
gresham Shackelford says the estab-
lshment Of 1900 rural free delivery
mail routes, within two years, made
the uprising possible. Z The farmers
read and studied and thought. They
talked to each other and began to
realize that they had been putting
too much stress on party interest and
too little on the character of their
candidates for office. They began to
demand that Folk run for governor
Those in power in state affairs acted
unwisely. The supreme court re-
leased three st. Louis boodlers or
IeCllIlCdllLleS llldI rIilen not VeISeu III
law failed to understand. Ed Butler
the millionaire boss, was released or
the ground that he had bribed the
wrong officials; but the city contract
he secured by the bribery is still il
force. A country editor criticised the
court and was hauled before that tri
bunal and fined $500.
When Folk began to run for GOV
ernor the entire party machinery
fought him. State officers, PERSONAL!
honest, hated him because he had dis
closed crooked work by persons close
to them. ''-- =
Rose Against Him.
The revelations of his grand jurie:
had shaken the publics confidence il
everybody about the capital so the