The morning journal-courier., 1908-10-24
MLEAN ON LrLLEy.

M'LFAN ON LILLEH.
 If any republican voice in the state of Connecticut can stem the rising tide of opposition to the election of MT. Lilley as governor of Connecticut it is the voice of former Governor George P. Mclean of slmsbury. A man of infinite personal charm and exquisite persuasive powers, even he, in his defense of his political friend and party candidate, finds 1t neces- sary, as does Mir. Judson, to Ignore the facts in Mir. Lilley's career which hopelessly condemn him. in order to play cleverly and deftly upon strings which have their beginnings nowhere and their endngs in the imagination. Such is the power of the trained ad- vocate
 Mir. Mclean joins in the chorus of criticism. which asserts that the in vestigating committee of tho federal house of representatives set out delib- erately to suppress the facts in Mir. Lilley's possession and to crush him under the weight of unfair procedure. 'It seems to me-" says MT. Mclean, that this committee, utterly failed to comprehend the fundamental purpose for which 1t was created" IL seems not to have occurred to Mir. Mclean that MT. Lllley obtained his right to introduce his resolution upon the floor of the house from the committee on rules, after his unsuccessful attempt to induce Mir. Sherman, the republican candidate for president, to barter with the naval committee in his be- half, because he swore that he him self had been improperly approached by threo of his own constituents, a deliberate charge which he failed ut- terly to substantiate before the com mittee. It seems not to have occur swore before the committee that his evidence consisted of "hearsay" and newspaper clippings" It seems not to have occurred to MT. Mclean that MT. Lilley having been confronted with the forged letters refused to show his copy and letter press book on the ground that he was protected under the fourth section of the consti- tuition of the United States It seems not to have occurred to MT. Mclean that every question put to the committee by MT. Lilley was in turn put to the witness on the stand, and that such subpoenas as he wished is- sued were issued. It seems not to have occurred to MT. Mclean that Mir, Lilley destroyed evidence of value and failed to tell the committee of the fact until confronted with. his wrong doing.
 We could fill page of this newspa- per with facts with which MT. Mclean shows no familiarity, facts the slight est consideration of which utterly and completely condemn MT. Lilley as a scrupulous and painstaking cru sader against evil doing. And it is because the Investigating hmmittee every man Jack of them, saw that MT. IIlley had no evidence of his own to present, and that what he un- dertook to present was given to him by the counsel and agent of the hos tile boat concern, that the committee ruled as 1t was compelled to rule against fishing excursion on Lilley's part "The committee of investiga. tion," says Mir. Mclean, admitted that 1t had the power to examine the books of the accused company, Why stop at the only door that would lead to the truth" AS a lawyer MT, Me Lean knows why the door was not opened. Mr. Lilley had failed to pre- sent any evidence that established wrong doing on the part of the accus- ed company and so long as he had failed to do that, as a lawyer Mir, Me Lea knows 1t would have been a gro, violation of the legal rights of the company to force it to open its books "Tho issue, says MT. Mclean lis not what Mr. LlIloy might, could or would have discovered had he not been hamperod as he claims" " Ger tainly not The issue is, and Mr. Me. Lean as lawyer must know it. that having failed to make good in a single instance, Mr. Lilley stood without right before the committee. Had Mir Ltllcy come to the scratch in q single instance instead of dealing in tea