The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-04-20
FORMER SENATOR ]. r. BURTON.

/ There was a wild crusade agains
accused officials in Missouri at tina
/ time, and the storm center was at st
Louis. Governor Folk, then circuit at
torney, had instituted prosecutions
against public officials and other per.
sons, and the excitement had grown
SO intense as to produce for time jul
| dicial anarchy in that place.
For some time vicious attacks had
been made throughout the country
against the United States Senate
Therefore the prosecution of a United
States Senator, in the City of st. Louis
furnished a shining mark for all the
hate that had been aroused against
high officials, and left to a man Their
in my position in a strange city very
little chance for fair trial. Roose-
welt, Knox and Dyer knew Of the con-
ditions, and that is why the Constitu-
ton was set aside, and was proceeded
against in Missouri.
Again, do not think that it is gen.
orally known that every witness who
testified to anything at all material
against me has either been promoted
in office or has received immunity from
punishment by the President But such
is the case. Nor did the President stop
with his rewards, in bestowing official
gifts to the witnesses who testified
against me. Every official who had
anything to do with my case, with one
exception, has been promoted by the
President"
HIS PROSECUTORS PROMOTED.
He went into particulars to show
how Chief Postoffice Inspector w. II.
Cochran, Inspector w. J. Vickery, IN
spector Fulton, and Paul Kaiser, a
clerk, had been promoted and prosecu-
tons had been stopped against three
others. Their testimony, he declared,
was largely false, Attorney General
Knox had been rewarded with a Sem
atorShip, he said; Judge Elmer D..
Adams, who presided at his first trial,
had been promoted to the Circuit Court
of Appeals; Col. Dyer, who prosecuted
him, has just been appointed, at the
age when Federal Judges are permit
ted to retire, to the United States dis
trict BENCH" G. H. Robb has been ap-
pointed to the Supreme bench of the
District of Columbia, while Judge
Vandeventer, who presided at the sec
ond trial, had been but short time
before taken by Mr.. Roosevelt from a
subordinate position at Washington
and elevated to the Circuit Court Of
Appeals, just one step below the Su-
preme bench
But the most regrettable circum-
stance in all the rewards that were
given by the President, contempora-
neously with the proceedings against
me- went on Mr.. Burton, was the
appointment of James Harlan, son of
Justice Harlan, on the Interstate
Commerce Commission. In 1905, when
my case was first before the Supreme
Court and was reversed, Justice Har-
Ian stood alone in rendering a dissent
ing opinion
At that time, he declared young
Harlan was a candidate for a Federal
Judgeship in Illinois and favored by
the President. Soon after Justice Har-
Ian had handed down the decision of
the court against Mr.. Burton his son
was appointed to the Commerce Com
mission.
Were all these promotions, rewards,
immunities, accidentally coincident
with my downfall?" the speaker ask
ed. Did my case have nothing to do
with bringing to these Judges, pros
ecuting officers, witnesses and GRIMM
ais all their good luck? Every man
must pass upon this question for him.
self. But does not the inquiry as to
the price of my blood obtrude itself,
when these facts are considered?'
A DEFENSE OF HIS LIFE.
He then entered into a discussion of
his life and work. He had been a. sue
cessful lawyer, he said, and had made
one competency, when the panic of
1898 came along and swept it away. 81
paid every debt" he said. ct challenge
my worst enemy to find any man who
will even say 1 defrauded him out of
a dollar" He made another compe-
tency before being indicted, but that
has all been swept away.
Everybody knows I have been ac-
tive in politics for a quarter of a CEN
fury" he said. But only a very few
know at what a great financial sacri-
hce it has been to me. My work was
done under the auspices of county.
Congressional, State, and National
committees, not one of which ever paid
me a cent for services or expenses
Aside from local entertainment, which
was sometimes provided, I paid all my
expenses in all my campaigns for the
last twenty-five years.
He denied that his seat in the Senate
was bought for him, and called upon
representatives of various railroads to
contradict him. He called upon men
Tor whom he had obtained appoint
ment to office to say if anv of them
had ever paid him a cent for prefer
ment.
HAS REFUSED AID FROM
FRIENDS