The Washington herald., 1908-02-28
WOULD GUST JEROME
Committee Asks Hughes to
Remove Him.
CONDEMN DISTRICT ATTORNEY
Petitioners Charge that OmciaI
often showed Laxitx, and One
apparent Crime OF Grand Lar
ceny''-Accepted Contributions.

Albany. Feb. N.-William F. King and
his committee OF minority stockholders In
the Metropolitan Street Railway Com
pany fled with Gov. Hughes to-day a
petition asking for the removal of Dis
trict Attorney Jerome. The petition con-
tains twenty-five specific charges. which.
in the opinion of King and the other com
mjtteemen. show that Mr.. Jerome is un-
it to continue in Office.
Those on the committee besides King
are l. Blum. George l. Degener, Nathan
II. Heyman, John H. Parsons. and Will
lam Mas. Franklin Pierce and Eugene
j. Kraemer, as attorneys for the commit
tee. accompanied King and Secretary
Blum when they visited the executive
chamber
The petition charges Mr.. Jerome with
failure to prosecute the alleged Metro
polltan Jury. fixing cases. with neglect
and unnecessary delay in prosecuting the
insurance cases.
The petition condemns Mr. Jerome for
the way he handled the test case against
George W Perkins in the matter Of cam
paign contributions by insurance COM
panies. and accuses him of having failed
10 take up another New York life in
surance transaction in which Mr. Perkins
was concerned. This latter transaction is
characterized in the petition as an ZAP
parent crime of grand larceny"
Money Goes to HYDE.
The petition charges that James II
Hyde and his associates received syndi-
cate participation profit where the Equit-
able Life itself was the real party in in
terest- The petition sets forth In detail
q list Of transactions where. il is alleged,
money went to Hyde and his associates
which plainly belonged to the policy
holders.
The petition alleges that Mr.. Jerome
has done nothing In the Metropolitan
Street Railway cases; that he failed to
act. not only on complaints made TO him
before the public service investigation.
but that he has not accomplished any
thing since.
MI JerOmes statement in regard 10 the
bench, II IS charged, are not only i'm
proper, but scandalous in their nature
The committee charges that the district
attorney misconducted himself in failing
70 indict and seek conviction Of some OF
the officials of the New York Central
Railroad IN connection with the Park ave
nue. disaster in 1902: also that no action
was taken by him in the cases of the
United States Shipbuilding Company, the
New York Building Loan Banking Cam
pany. and the failure OF the Merchants
Trust Company.
Contributions Accepted.
The petition says that the acceptance
Of S5,0o9 from Samuel Untermeyer. James
II. Hyde's counsel. as a campaign con-
tribution TO the Jerome campaign fund
when Hyde was likely to be investigated
by the grand jury was entirely improper.
The petition charges further that $500
was contributed to the Jerome campaign
fund by a prominent banker whose firm
has been intimately connected with the
Metropolitan Street Railway Company.
The petition says that Howard S. Cans,
one OF MI Jerome's assistants, received
contributions in that campaign.
District Attorney jerome replied to-
night to the charges fled against him
by King. He went over the specific ac-
tions enc by one. but didn't seem 10 be
worried by any Of them.
I see there are twenty-three specifi-
cations" he said. with a laugh, "and /
understand twenty-three means skiddoo.
Earlier in the day Mr.. Jerome said that
charges had been preferred against him
number Of times. but he had never
been called upon to answer them. He
said Tonight that many OF the matters
contained in the King charges were fully
explained in 2 letter on file in Albany
which he had sent Voluntarily TO Gov
Higgins.