Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-08-13
RECORD SHOWS
UP THE SCHEME
OF THE ''RING"
Issues a Reply to the Testimony
by Payne Before the Investi-
eating Committee.
OTHER GRAVE CHARGES.

JERSEY CITY, Aug. 13-Corpo-
ration Counsel George l.. Record of
Jersey City issued a statement Satur-
day in answer to the charges made
against him by his former friend,
John C. Payne, secretary of the New
Jersey Board of Riparian Commits
sioners, before the senate committee
which is investigating the affairs of
the board.
The candidate for John f. Dryden's
senatorial shoes denied all of Mr..
Payne's accusations and Indignantly
declared that he had never benefited
by graft in any way. He character
lied the charges and the manner of
making them as manifestly unfair,
and said he never got a cent while
acting as counsel of the riparian
board that was not legally and legiti-
mately his.
Mr.. Record gave much space in his
statement to Mr.. Payne, who, he said,
had been most generously treated
as to salary by the members of the |
commission, and had been maintain
ed by the state practically all his
adult life
''1f he knew anything wrong in
connection wit my official acts
said Mr.. Record, lit was his manifest
duty to make the same known to the
members of the commission at once. |
When you add to this the fact that
he is self-confessed thief of my pri-
vate papers, as shown by his present
ing photographs of my private checks
the presumption of his untruthful-
ness is very apparent"
Mr.. Record told how he and Payne
occupied the same offices and were on
terms of intimacy many years. Then
he gave away the very interesting Sc
cret that several letters and docu-
ments issued by the reformers in
their fight against the regular organ
ization forces had fallen into the
hands of the opposition before they
were published. One was state
ment of Mr. Records ideas on the
way the Colbyites should conduct
their warfare against the machine in
Essex county, written at the request
of Senator Colby, a copy of which
subsequently fell into the hands of
Thomas n. McCarter, president of
the Public Service Corporation.
This Copy" said Mr.. Record, "of
course, must have been stolen from
my Office
The corporation counsel related
that after this incident he notified the
chairman of the riparian board that
he could not so on sharing offices
with the board if Mr.. Payne was to
be continued as its secretary.
A part of the famous statement is
sued by Mayor Pagan, denouncing
the leadership of Col. Dickinson, the
republican leader of Hudson county,
got into the possession of the colonel
before the time was ripe for the an
nouncement to be made. Mr.. Record
said that he made a draft of the let
ter at home, and on the following
day he gave it to a stenographer en-
ployed jointly by himself and Mr.
PAYNE to copy While she was work
ing on it, he said, it occurred to him
that 1T was unwise to have the letter
finished in his office, and he took the
rest outside to be finished. That af-
ternoon, he said, Col. Dickinson tele-
phoned from Trenton to City Collect
or Fry, of Jersey City, to dine with
him in the evening in New York, and
at the dinner the colonel showed the
collector so much of the typewritten
statement as Records and Payne's
typewriter had copied. Then the cor
poration counsel served notice on the
riparian board that it would have to
move
During all these years." contin-
ued Mr.. Record, Mr.. Payne had ac-
cess to my private safe, and all my
check books and bank accounts and
private papers were in an unlocked
drawer in my safe. l think no words
of mine can add to the picture of Mr..
Payne and the state house ring which
is portrayed by the foregoing facts"
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