Los Angeles herald., 1906-11-04

charged with being CRATER" BLACK
Mailer" liar" etc. 1 have deferred
answering until all of his especial brand
of slush had been delivered. There will
be more possibly-there is postal card
being addressed now. What its con
tents are 1 know not They say "one
scheme Is now exposed and is in the
hands of the district attorney" etc.
The moment l heard of this l went to
the office of the district attorney and
insisted upon the fullest investigation.
This was made. The district attorney
investigated and his reply is: I'm the
above investigation the only matter
which would interest this (the district
attorney's) office would be as to
whether or not Mr.. Ward had intimated,
either by statement or inuendo, that his
official acts as county assessor would
be influenced by the purchase of these
documents" (There were ten firms in
all whose names were submitted) "All
of the above firms were interrogated on
this point and they all responded that
Mr.. Ward had not intimated in any way
that they would be favored in the mat
ter of assessment If they purchased, or
would be Disseminated against If they
did not purchase a list From an ex-
animation of the assessment they do
not appear to have been favored" He
concludes: t.
"I therefore hold that there is no evil
dence of any criminal intent on the
part of Mr.. Ward, and so far as the dis
| trict attorneys office is concerned the
matter is terminated.
~. d. ,FREDERICKS,
| iEt District Attorney
In this connection they try to make
it appear as a crime in the eye of the
voter by saying (referring to my nego-
| tiations with Mr. Barker of the Pacific
Purchasing company as follows)
Ward was at that time placing valu-
ations upon property for the purpose OF
making up the assessment" etc. They
refer to the date being March IA as the
date of negotiations; again, under same
section (viz., No. 12): by hands
stroke Ward had it in his power to in
crease or reduce their taxes thousands
| of dollars" Now have Mr.. Barker s
| signed statement, which reads in part
early in January Mr.. Ward called and
I secured this list and used the same,
paying for it in March, sixty days
later" In this conclusion he says (this
refers to the hands stroke" and the
| IDEA they wish to convey to you is that
| this and other assessments were re-
duced as a result of this-could they
do so it would be graft: "At the time
| Mr.. Ward proposed selling us these
| lists he neither said nor intimated any
| thing about lowering our assessment,
but as an actual fact, although our
stock was lower than at any time
previous, our assessment was increased
over $4,000.
PACIFIC PURCHASING COMPANY.
"By w. A. Barker, President"
Do these two statements look much
like graft? AS to the above / beg
to say that these lists were prepared
outside of business hours at not one
dollars expense to the county. Every
sheet of carbon paper, every ribbon
used, every sheet of paper used was
paid for by myself. This county was
better off by $3.50. being one-half
months wages of the typewriter that
l saved to the county by paying her
out of my own pocket. The list was
made from the records of this county.
They are absolutely open to the public
at any time during business hours, and
you are at liberty at any time to the
use of them. Why don't they charge
me with the same because of having
bought and sold real estate or a horse
occasionally, as we'll as other personal
or real property? / submit the state
ments of the district attorney and Mr..
Barker should answer this charge.
Again, under section IL, they charge
me with using the time of sixteen of
the county deputies in the circulation
of my petition to go on the ticket as an
independent candidate, giving the
names of the circulators, and adding,
every one of the above is a deputy of
Wards" trying to convey to you the
idea that l was using time of men paid
for by the small home owner and
wage Garner" Even If this statement
was in the slightest degree true the
small wage Garner" ETC., I venture,
would gladly contribute this proper
ton of the amount In order to have
me retained in the office.