Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-04-07
INOU|SITORS STIR
Up BAD MIXTURE
GAME WARDEN STONE CONFESS
ES FORMER TESTIMONY
WAS FALSE.
M'MAHON TESTIFIES STEPHEN
SON RECORDS WERE NOT
BURNED.

Sensations marked the investiga-
ton yesterday. 1t began with con
fession of Game Warden Stone that he
had testified falsely the first time he
was called on the stand, and ended
with frank testimony of E. M. Nc
Mahon of Milwaukee that had illu-
mined considerable of the field in
which the inquisitors had been CROP
ing. The governor was dragged in as
recipient of $1,000 from the game war
dens presented to him for his cam
paign.
Mr.. Mcmahon was the secretary of
Mr.. Edmonds in the Milwaukee Office.
He stated that there was a carbon
copy of every letter written in the Of
flee and also a complete file of letters
received from the field. The cores
pondence together with other records
of the campaign were boxed up for
shipment to Marinette.
Mr.. Mcmahon was the first witness
to give definite testimony of the rec
ords of the Stephenson headquarters.
Every member of the office that had
testified stated that the letters and
other papers were destroyed when the
Office was closed after the primary
election. Mr.. Mcmahon stated that
when the office was to be closed, Mr..
Edmonds telephoned Mr. Stephenson
for instructions, and he was told to
ship them to the Office of the senator.
The letters after being boxed up, were
placed in the vault of the Milwaukee
Office. That was the last Mr. McMa-
hon had seen of them.
Mcmahon Throws Light.
Mr.. Mcmahon was a voluntary wit
ness. His name has been mentioned
in the testimony of Stephenson wit
nesses among five that had handled
$50. OOO-Puelicher Edmonds, Sackett,
and Van Cleve being the other four.
Mr.. Mcmahon innocently protested
that he had not had anything to do
with it. He received $500 in salary
for four months services, and $500
which he disbursed travelling through
the state That was all the money he
had handled His name was included
among the five that had been in touch
with the $4,000. because he was trust
ed with the checks drawn for the Of
fee. but he did not seem to take the
testimony in that light. He came to
the committee to clear his name OF
anything unpleasant that might have
been unduly attached to it.
Considerable versatility was dis
played by Mr.. Mcmahon in the cam
paign. Coming to an editor in Mon
tello who was not familiar enough
with the situation to write a Stephen
son editorial, the young secretary sat
down and ran off a few editorials
which the Montello scribe agreed to-
print in consideration of regular
rates." The witness amused the au-
dience of the investigation in trying
to explain what regular rates OF the
editorial columns were of the Montel-
10 paper. He could not recall the
name of the daily that charged him
the usual rates" He remembered,
however, that it had no political COM
plexion when he had made his edito-
rial contribution.
Mr.. Koehler demonstrated that
money ruled at the primary. Men
that had worked for him went over to
other candidates because better offers
were made. TO make his point clear
he took hypothetic case of candidacy
and he showed that money could have
elected him. "Supposing you take an
imaginary candidate for senator and
name him anything you please was
the hypothetic case. Gould you elect
him. if you had enough money!" he
was asked. 1--WE could at least make
a good showing he affirmed. He Ia
beled wards in Milwaukee as bad"
and good" The goth and 22d wards
are among the bad Money can ac-
complish nothing there.
Game Warden Makes Confession.
But the most startling witness was
the state game warden. He came
with a resolve to relieve himself of
the facts that proved upon his mind.
He was permitted to testify by the
assemblymen because he commenced
his testimony before the Bray resolu-
ton was adopted to suspend the ex-
animation of Stephenson witnesses.
The first day he testified, Mr.. Stone
refused to give the names of the men
he gave money to. ON the ground that
he would not betray his friends. The
following day he decided to give the
names to purge himself of contempt.
Yesterday he gave full list of the
game wardens he gave money to with
the amounts placed in the hands of
each.
Taking the stand he said he had
some time to think the matter over
and that he wanted to make a full
statement of facts. He avowed that
-. .,,-,,-;r,,c +ocfiraony was false The