The Forrest City times., 1905-08-25
sENAToR CovINGToN
Makes Statement Regarding Re-
 eent Bribery Trial.


 l Senator 4. Y. CoViagion comes out in a strong statement of denial of charges of bribery Of which he was accused and recently acquitted in the Pulaski County Criminal Court, in the Johnson County Herald of last week. Alter com plete review of the charges and the apparent motive of the accu- sation. he thus concludes his state ment:
 Notwithstanding my aequittal- regardless of the fact that there was never q particle of evidence upon which to base the indictments, the warfare still goes onS though only as an incident, within some of the fertile and ever blooming areas of modern political campaigning Under the present morbid con dition of partisanship, whore there Is too little effort to distinguish truth from faisehood - where de. merit is % generally preferred to merit-capacity for traduction may prove successful standard of fit- ness for office. No one cries. Stop thief" so loudly anl un- ceasingly as the real thief. By this he may shield himself. and throw of the consequences Of his crime onto some one who Is jnno- cent; and politicians, whether old and mature, or Of the politico-em- bryonic class, conscious of their own unworthiaess, may, from kin dred motives, cry that the bill for the completion of the State capitol building was q steal, and that all who favored [, or were connected with il were thieves; but this does not make II so. h the inception for the movement for that build ing, l was opposed to. It's location, as unsuitable, and 10 its construe- tion; but when, a was the case at the time of the meeting of the last general assembly. over four hun dred thousand dollars had been expended upon t, the only sensi- ble thing 10 do, as anyone who will take the trouble to reflect is bound 10 see, was 10 go on and complete 1t IS soon as practicable. That this was then the least expen- siFe, and most profitable course to the State. was manifest. And ID what respect was the bill a stealZ Its provisions were most carefully guarded. Only so much of the money appropriated for the com. l Pletion of the structure as was necessary for that purpose could be drawn from tho treasury. Not dollar of 1t could be touched without the sanction of the five commissioners, McCaleb, McFar- lane, Matthews, Flenniken and Alexander, all gentlemen of ap- l proved integrity. Whoever will read that bi,l and then say that there could have been any steal under t without the concurrence of these commissioners Is either a fool or liar.
 To you, my telIow.men of Ar. kansas, perhaps owe you an apology for burdcnine you with this appeal 10 your honest jud 2. ment; but l have been wronged- cruelty, outrageously wronged- and il is only to you that 1 can ap. peal. l therefore ask you to let 
 your sense of right govern Tn the judgment l ask you to make up within your conseienees. Ii is nc less than l would do for you under like circumstances. write this in no spirit of malice toward any one, but because 1t Is the only means l have of getting the truth before you, among whom my chil dren will live when 1 am no more and whose good opinion l prize higher than do my own temporal existence. 4. ". CoyINGToN.
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