Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-03-17
THE SMALLEST TRICK OF A
CAMPAIGN OF PETTY INSULT
House AdOurnS Until Monday Morning at Nine O'Clock After
Passing Number of BIIS-BII to Allow ExConvCtS to Hold
Office Is Passed After Amendments Requiring Ten Years
Good Behavior-No Action on Veto Message

!
! this session, the attempt to injure the
character of the auditor was a rather
! laughable fiasco. 1t is made worthy
of note above the others because of
] the extreme littleness of it,
The matter came uu in considera-
! ton of council bill No. 115. This is
an act which seeks to restore to the
several territorial Institutions money
] which has been paid out to the United
States land board to cover the expense
of selecting lands for the several in
stitutions under the act of congress
/ of 1898, and amounting for the edu-
, cational institutions to an average of
about $l,500 each. 1t is well known
that the institutions need this money.
/ Yet through their effort to use this
/ bill as a vehicle for an insult to the
/ auditor, Holt and Beach have deib-
! eratey imperiIed the chances Of the
institutions getting this money for at
! least two years to come since it is
well known that the council will not
concur in the insulting amendment at
tached to The Bill and which has no
! connection whatever with the purpose
of the bill itself. The bill was taken
up after a caucus lasting three hours.
1 Mr.. Holt moved the amendment.
which was to the effect that nothing
! in the bill snail relieve officials or
boards from prosecution for wrong
fully diverting funds from the several
iterritorta funds ME-. TruiillO moved
/ to 'tabie the dfhehdmerft. and # was
unon discussion of the motion to ta
BILE that the purpose of the amend
ment made the astonishing statement
/ that the auditor mad Illegally dis
i bursed nearly $4,000 of the terrific
/ rial FUNDS and SAID that suit should
/ be brought to recover the money. The
/ whole tenor of Beach's statement left
/ the impression that he was charging
/ the auditor with having converted the
money to his own use. Holt followed
with the same line Of statements al
though his assertions were not so Vio-
lent as those made by Beach.
! Then Mr. Hudspeth, of Lincoln, be-
gan to ask questions, and as soon as
/ he began, Holt and Beach began to
/ back uu Holt said that there was
mo question as to the auditor having
converted the money to his own use;
that he had not done so. He made
this statement after Mr.. Hudspeth had
saked the direct question if Holt and
Beach meant to charge that the aud
itor had converted funds to his own
use
1t was, Mr.. Holt said, simply case
of misinterpretation of the act of con-
gress as to the use of these funds.
| He said If the auditor was responsible
on his bond II was a matter for the
law counsel Of the territory to deter
mine, Holt finally went so far as to
state that if there was any blame on
the auditor it was because he had
acted on the law of 1903, without Sc
curing the opinion of the interior de-
partment on that law. Holt did not
refer to the fact that at least two at
torneys general preceding the present
one had approved of the law of 1903
by drawn their salaries under it, ana
that it was not until Attorney Gen
eral Reid got into office that such
use Of this fund was stopped.
Beach also followed with a retrac-
ton of his statements. saving that
while the auditor didn't know his busi-.
ness. he (Beach) had not meant TO
charge a theft of funds. Mr.. Rud-
speth closed the argument with the
, statement that the auditor had acted
under plain and simple law. and
that the legislation proposed by Mr..
Holt's amendment was the smallest
piece of legislation he had ever seen
attempted.
pesoI,,,;o,, ,o I,yes,iooto ,be Auditor
Anra;o,tt,, an,oraJ h,, tbo failrre
of fbaIr attey,nt att ntn ins,it tba anditnr
poach 1ate,. IN tbe session introdncad
bn',sa ioint rosoi,,tion ~ ~ wbinh
iii,e mo an,ended hiiI nasssd on n
,iy, ,,oce vote Tbe reeoIrtiop nro-
,,idos fn,. ho oa,,,ai,,t,,a,t ,f cn,,-
mite nr thrae ~ investigata tbe
n,anne,, in which The auditoT has dis
iiid""s' "a "i'NIl ''iS "uNi''i H'' "'0