The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-18

llhBS AuSSudy oL tHS COiHlHS WScA- It is the purpose of the Commission to get through with all witnesses oy the end of the week, and then the labor of compiling the evidence and writing the findings of the commission will be taken up and this will com plete the w6 of the body until report ia made to the Legislature.
 The investigation has furnished sub ject for the politiral gossips and coll umns for the newspapers for the past four months, ever since the converting of the Legislature. and 1t promises now to come to close with the face of the Commission set against the press of the State which has been hos tile to the administration though In the beginning the members of the Com mission were in apparent good humor with the world and his wife. The change has come about in way pecu- liarly characteristic of political af- fairs in Florida. 1t is to be recalled that the present Commission with the exception of two members is entirely different from the committee which be- gan the work and made report at the close of the session.
 The investigation was recognized as being demanded for political effect from the beginning. so when the Leg | islative Committee which found time during the session to go through only
 
 ent Governor and his immediate pred ecessor, and proposed to end the in vestigation there, it aroused the ire of the administration forces and a res- olution was passed calling for full and complete investigation and requir- | ing that the members of the Commis- | sion should be elected from the House and Senate and not be appointed. The | administration forces as well as many | of the others did not approve of the | evident attempt which had been made | by the Investigating committee to show up the doings of two administra- | tions without showing the others up in comparison. The resolution was car ried and the members of the Commits l sion were elected. In the Senate ev- cry member of that body was nomi- mated before the three members from | that body were chosen, because each 1 of the Senators except the three serv- ing declined to serN on the Commis- 1 sion.
 In the House there as also some l difficulty in electing the four mem l bers from that body. In spite of the | fact that the members were elected and l the fairest possible means used in their selection, and in spite of the call issued | by the Commission immediately after | its organization for voluntary contribu- 1 tions to the fund of information in 1 clearing up the cloud of doubt which | seemed to hover over the administra- ] tion of the trust, the anti-a -admfntstra- ton papers have charged from the be- l ginning that the investigation was to | be a whitewash, and though the Com mission has held open sessions since | its organization, no paper has had representative present with the except ion of publication at Tallahassee. un- | til three weeks ago, when The Times l fIninn sent CnrrnSnOndanf n | the meetings
 l It lsas just at this time that the l Go emmission had taken a temporary cessation of examining witnesses in | order to post themselves upon the lines which the further examination of witt nesses would require. Thus 1t was | that The Times-Union man came at a time when there was nothing trans | diring, yet he has kept the paper filled l with reports of the Commissions do- | ings at Tallahassee. The members of | the Commission have borne patiently | with the cstensible reports for a period 1 of three weeks, and last night, Chair man Carter handed out statement for l the state press, in which he stated that l tie reports sent out were misleading | to the public, and were done he believ- ed. for the purpose of preparing the ! public mind for non-acceptance of the I Commissions findings.
 Mr. Carter rehearses the fact that the Commission was busy for weeks before The Times Union ever thought | 1t necessary to have reresentative at Tallahassee, which he points out as 1 probably unparalleled by conditions in any other State where a matter of such interest to the public was being probed | at the Capital of the State, and the foremost newspaper of the State fail | ing to print anything about it, or make | any effort to get at the truth of the matter In the statement given out last night, the Investigating Commission says:
 'The Legislature at it's last session appointed a commission to investigate the acts and doings of the trustees of l the Internal Improvement Fund, this | fund never having been overhauled | since its creation in 1855. The com mission has been engaged in tracing the legislative and judicial history of the fund while the expert accountants are st work on the books of tine trus- tees. Quite recently a newspapers cor respondent has appeared in Tallahas- see for the express purpose of report | ing the proceedings of the Commission, and some papers are being gulled into publishing the matter sent out by him. The ways of this correspondent are like those of the heather Chinee. In- stead of coming manfully to us for
 
 CT for us to furnish him he keeps him self in out of the way places and then copies literally from the ancient min utes of the trustees and sends it to the papers which Is published under such headings as are calculated to make the casual reader suppose it em- anates from the commission. Thus this East Coast importation in forder to make a show for his pay in the ab- sence of definite and truthful infor- nation copies old minutes of the trus- 1 tees and fires them in as new matter | appearing before the commissioners. It l is difficult to understand what induces these papers to print such glaring mis- statements under the caption of acts l of the commission. It cannot be from | ignorance so the general opinion is that there is some concealed purpose behind it."
 A Lengthy Opinion.
 The Supreme Court has just handed down the most lengthy opinion in the history of the court perhaps. being upwards of 10000 words. in which 1t Is declared that the contract entered into by employees of the Atlantic Coast Line in accepting benefits from the relief and hospital department maintained by the road through the contribution of the employees, does not constitute a bar to action against the road for per- sonal injuries. The opinion is written by Chief Justice Shackelford and is concurred in by Justices Hooker. Whit field and Cockrell. Judges Parkhill and Taylor filed dissenting opinions The