The morning journal-courier., 1908-12-21
Claims to Have Affidavits of Voters Who Accepted Bribes and Mass of Other
 Evidence.
ENTIRE STATE COVERED :?
New York Evening Post Thinks pc- cular Election Returns in New Haven Significant of Evil
 Practice.

the following from its New Haven cor- respondent
 The proroundest sensation for many years, If not In the whole political his tory of Connecticut has been caused | by the action of MT George l., Fox of this city in securing, under the corrupt practices act of the state. so-called election court As a result, the gov ernor-elect of the state, George l., Lll- ley of Waterbury and Isaac l., tllman, the local republican "boss" of this city, are to be summoned before the court conssting of two high judges, on al- | legations of violation of the act especi- ally in the use of election funds the act itself win be Interpreted and clnri- 1 fled; and, unless technical obstacles prevent, a startling condition of affairs in this state, relating to the use of money at elections, particularly in the saloons, may be disclosed.
 The act, under which proceedings are brought was passed al the legislative session of 1905 and was amended in some important particulars at the ses- sion last year IL was in the main, drawn by Mir Fox after a study when abroad O. the English corrupt prac- tices act, and in many features was based upon it. In committee, a num- Ter of it's stronger provisions were struck out. The act is very long, somewhat intricate, and many of its | provisions easily open to evasion, But its real sting is in the election court, with its radical power of investigation which forms the tail ot the measure, and which now appears for the first time in the states political history
 The court has also broader sIGnfl- canoe than Is limited to Connecticut as 1t Is the first of It's kind on the Eng fish and Canadian model in this coun- try
 Tho events of the last campaign In this state, the revolt against Lilcy and against the Fyler machine and Lilleys fall behind Taft by almost 3O,000 votes at the election, are matters of recent record Not so clearly recorded or re- called arc some of the final features Of the canvass, Up to tho last ten days tho republican managers needed money badly. Prominent wealthy rcpubli- cans of the state whose purses were usually open in a presidential cam paign had either refused to subscribe or sent their subscription 10 the na- tiona committee under condition that lt should not be used in Connecticut, where the electoral vote was assured for Taft Suddenly, during the last few days o' the canvass. an abundance of republican money appeared and ap- parently was specifically for Lilley the only state candidate whose election
 was menaced
 The money according to insistont re- port was placed largely in the saloons. Theories as to its source were various Some attributed it to the republican national committee. some to Mir. 1.illey himself, whose final accounting after election showed total contribution of S23. GOO: some to tho brewers Of the state. who at the last election worked, hy all accounts actively for the rcpuh- llcan ticket in order to stand in with the dominant party and its leaders and better the chances of successful resist ance 10 threatened legislation against the saloon during the coming le2isla- tive session The boards of county commissioners all republican, which in Connecticut are boards of excise in H. ccnsing saloons naturally were report ed as working also through the saloons lea, t,,1 ,f cratic voters-and workers in favor of Illley. Incidentally, also. it is to be re. marked that the brewers, who, In Con necticut as elsewhere finance many of the saloons, exercise for that reason immense voting influence.
 On election day in this city, It Is cer tain. sinister forces in favor of IiueS became evident Report followed re, port that the saloons and democratic ward workers by the wholesale were active in his interest The returns on election night were extremely slgnih. cant The republican wards with theli "beter elements" were revolutioni2ed against the republican candidate, The Tenth ward of the city, with normal majority of two or three 10 one, gave q democratic majority on the governor ship for the first time in Its history The First, Second and Eighth wards largely "college" wards and strongly republican, reversed the usual figures and even the Ninth-the "colored' Ward-cut down its normal republican
 vote by several hundred, But even In
 those wards many Lilley pastors ap- peared on democratic ballots, and in
 the democratic and saloon wards they
 were legion quite offsetting the anti
 Lllley pastors
 In a general way, New Ravens story
 Of democratic work for Lilley was re
 peated in other cities and large towns
 of the state, though in less emphatic
 form, And in one large town several
 members of the democratic town com
 mittee announced their resignatons on
 the ground that other members of the committee had openly peddled Lilley
 pastors In the aftermath of the excit-
 ing election 1t now appears, however,
 that good many political workers over-dld the business; that in sheer ig
 norance of the new law they pursued
 their old practices, confident Of the old
 immunities; and that now the law,
 through the agency of the novel elec-
 ton court, may deal with them short
 handed the outlook being particularly
 hopeful because of the provision of the
 act which, while penalizing perjury
 gives full immunity against self-in-
 crimnation on the witness stand. By virtue of that provision, aflidayits
 have been secured from voters in one town who actually accepted brlbes, and
 it is understood a great mass of evil
 dence of corrupt practices elsewhere in
 the state awaits the findings of the