The Washington herald., 1910-01-30

before each meeting OF the assembly 20
put price on every suggested measure
Of legislation, and to appoint an agent
to collect the money StlH. when made
my campaign there was nothing more
real than gossip and indefinite accusa-
tons. I said in my speeches. however,
that if the rumOrs I heard were true I
would do all I could to punish the law
breakers"
After getting into Office you started
prosecutions against some of the men who
had helped you politically2'
1t came out, during an investigation
after the election. that men had voted
| unlawfully. I took the matter up and
had them indicted. do not think an
official has any more right TO pay po-
litical debts by prostituting his official
powers than he would have 10 pay per-
sonal debts with public money"
Next I said, you caught the tran
and followed the boodlers?"
Begins His Campaign.
Declining TO let mo put what he said
within quotation marks, Gov. Folk told
me he saw a 'vagrant item" in a news
paper that s1S5,o0O had been promised for
the passage of a suburban street rail-
way ordinance by the city assembly. He
did not know it then, but the grafters
themselves caused the publication Of the
| Item. The ordinance. introduced into
and bargained for by the house Of dele
gates, had been delayed through an in
junction of the court When finally
passed. an election having occurred
meanwhile. there were some changes IN
the membership Of both branches Of the
city assembly.
| The men who happened not to be elect
ed to the new house Of delegates took
| the position that they had broken the
ground for the passage of the ordinance
and were entitled to their share of the
$lS5,000, then locked in the vaults of two
| trust companies. The item they printed
it was no more than an ambiguous hint
was meant TO scare the railway company
| into paying the money over.
Mr.. Folk sent for the reporter who
| had written the article, but he had no
facts. The editor of the newspaper knew
Hess than the reporter. Then the presi-
| dent of the railroad was summoned Ia
Folks Office. He was elusive and moth
| ing was learned. The following day his
| lawyer called on Folk and IT knew al
| once that the right man had been sent
| for In the first place" The work of in
vestigatiOn was helped when the street
| railroad people learned that some of
| the grafters had turned States evil
dence. Folk went to the two banks
threatened the officers with arrest. and
when the boxes were opened saw the
money himself. "Twenty-three men were
| indicted, twenty-one were convicted, and
eight went to the penitentiary."
Elected to Governorship.
you were nominated for governor" ]
said, land carried every county in Mis-
souri, but fourteen, although the Demo
cratic State central committee and prac.
tically all. Of the party leaders and work
ers fought you viciousIy?"
| To this question Gov Folk replied that
he was told his oficeholding days were
over. He answered that he was glad OF
| It, because he wanted 10 practice law
| But, he was warned, "the interests you
| have been opposing will prevent you from
making a living at your profession. -
| Whereupon Folk informed his enemies
that if he could not stay in Missouri as a
lawyer, he would try to stay as governor
Going into the country. I told my story
TO the people. The Democratic voters or
the farms and in the viIlageu supported
/ my candidacy; the voters in the cities
made no response to my appeals. I was