Evening journal., 1907-12-11
Mr.. I1offecker's Statement.

Eultor ItiE EVENING JOURNAL.
/ felt little hurt tonight when
reed the article in your paper (,sritter
by a reporter 1 judge) commenting OF
my article in THE JOURNAL, OF
Thursday, 9Th inst, (he said Friday
ahout IN accord with his other state.
ments. lie states that 1 charged tho
Levy Court OF New Castle county Of
having permitted the removal Of grave
lrom a pit in st. Georges Hundred
without exacting a price for the ma.
terlal This is not correct, 1 did moi
make the above charge did sas
that / wrote TO Mr.. Salmon, he beinc
ifom our district, and not receiving
any reply ! wrote TO Mr. McFarlir
with the same result. Had either gen.
tieman dropped a postal to me say
ing. Yours received, my communica-
ton would not have appeared in youi
paper I have, however nothing tc
reiract or apologize for 1 wrote the
truth and thought that I was doine
both the taxpayers and the Levy
Court q kindness by reporting The
facts as I knew them; for, right here
let me say that 1 do not believe The
Levy Court knew anything about any
person removing the gravel before
advised 10 of the fact.
do not question but what AZ loads
OF gravel We're reported and paid for
because I told both the party who
hauled the gravel and the supervisor
that J would report the matter to the
! Levy Court, and it Is unfair to me thhi
the court, or anyone else should fee
bitter about &c. / also stated thai
hundreds Of loads OF gravel have beer
taken from the pit for private use.'
and, that / have no knowledge Of an,
money having been turned into the
hundred or county for the same
| How should L know? Your reporter
says shat I charged graft" This is
absolutely untrue and, 1 refer sou OF
the Levy Court TO my article Of the
9Th inst, IN Justification
In reference to the large quantity OF
gravel that had been removed. [ did
not say or intimate that IL had all
been removed since April last as your
reporter would infer.
The report of today has garbled my
communication and misquoted me and
l am surprised that such an article
should follow so close upon mine OF
only a few days before-might have
reread mine and been fair
When / make a statement 7 ALWAYS
try TO be fair and truthful and think
that, il the parties interviewed had read
my article more closely, they would
have been more just than to have put
the construction upon it that they did
You say, mir. Wilson has confidence
IN Mr. Aston" $50 has the writer)
and that Mr.. Alston or Mr.. Salmon
will see that it is paid for" I do not
doubt It but, how is either gentleman
to know who gets gravel, if some one
does not inform them? Perhaps your
reporter may be able to inform us. !
do not know
NOW if the Levy Court thinks that
a taxpayer does wrong by giving
notice of depredations upon county
property, I fai, to see It.
If the gravel pit was not transferred
10 the county as was other property
and material. thar was not any fault
OF the taxpayers. And if the public
ity" had not been given. most likely
.it never would have been transferred
ard, the public would have continued
to haul away the taxpayers' gravel
as IT has done for the past twenty
years
Perhaps II there was a little more
publicity given to all public matters
IL would prove the better plan In
conclusion, this viii be my last COM
muncation to THE EVENING JOUR-
NAL as, it is not calculated to make
one feel good TO be mallciously torn
TO pieces by a writer who is too mod
est to sign his name The ear marks
indicate a paid for article
J. r. HoffeclSer
Middletown, Dec. ..
Grand cantata benefit Y. m. c. A.