Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1908-02-20

myself, 1 want to make this state
ment as having been very active in
the prosecution OF these claims be-
fore the commission, that not the
slightest inducement has been held
out to any man to come here and
furnish eveidnce. The commission
passed a rule requiring all claim
ants to produce their books and pro-
duce the representative that con-
Quoted the negotiations with the
South Carolina dispensary, which re-
lated to these sales. And when their
books are produced and their agents
are produced and examinations are
made, the commission then, without
oHering any reward, taking these
claims as they present themselves in
the books, making deductions as they
did in the Paul Jones claim of the
amounts that their books show to
be overcharges, purging the claims
as the evidence demanded, have CIV
en- Judgment for the balance. am
acquainting you with that because
under your statement you say YOU
want to be perfectly fair, not only to
the commission but to all the parties
at interest.
Mr.. Koester: 1 must absolutely
disavow any intention to reflect
against any member of the commits
sion.
Mr.. Stevenson: Mr.. Chairman.
there is another suggestion 1 would
like to make. Mr.. Koester' states
that it was the policy of the COM
mission he was criticising when he
made this charge about the Attorney
General. This commission would
prefer to have the criticism made
against it in it's own proper person
and not against the Attorney General
and | would like to ask Mr.. Koester
a few questions.
Stevenson Questions Witness.
Q. Mr.. Koester, the member of the
investigating committee to whom you
referrer, IL was the realizing of Mr..
Hermann account you referred to in
your paper? A. Yes
q. Do you mean to charge Mr..
Hay, Mr.. Blease, Mr.. Christensen, Mr..
Spivey and Mr.. CASTOR with buying
evidence? A. 1 don't remember who
voted for 1t or anything of the sort
Q. Mr.. christensen and Mr.. Lyon
were then on the committee? A.
drew the inference from the fact that
all claims were held up and ordered
not paid. but that when Mr.. Hermann
came and testified that he had done
wrong, Immediately on his doing
that his claim was ordered paid the
first one.
Q. This cricicism was directed
first at the old investigating COM
mittee and secondly as this commits
sion and their actions? A. Yes.
Q. But Mr.. Lyon was made the
sole target?
Mr.. Patton: There is another in
commission is being handled by the
Attorney General; If you were here,
as the other newspaper men are, you
would know that this commission is
not handled by the Attorney General
or by anybody else.
Col. Fielder: Although Mr.. Her
mann came here and made the full
est statement in regard to this mat
ter this commission has not ordered
his claim paid.
Mr.. Koester: 1 did not refer to
what this commission had done.
AT the conclusion of this incident
members of the commission assured
Mr.. Koester in the kindest way that
he had been laboring under mis-
apprehension in regard to the pro-
cedure of the commission, and that
they invited the fullest scrutiny of
their official acts in regard to these
claims; that their sessions were open
to the public in considering these
matters and that newspaper men were
welcome to attend and that others
had attended constantly. Mr.. Koester
was informed that the commission
would be glad to have him present
to see for himself what the commits
sion was doing. With these assur-
ances the matter was closed and the
commission took up other matters,
adjourning soon afterwards.