Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1910-04-08
BIG BUDS LETTER
Editor of the Beacon

day, the 9th inst, but from all appear
ance we will not be able to get through
with our work, and the session Will
have to be extended again. The Sen
ate has been in executive session for
sometime investigating the alleged
bribery case of Senator BilbO. My
readers all understand that an execn-
tive session is a secret ses sslOn OF the
Senate, no one admitted, and they have
even excluded the reporters, but that
enterprising gentry generally get the
gist of the evidence, and all who see
the papers know about as much as any
of the members of the legislature
know. Some seem to think that the
Vardaman men promised Bllbo the
money and that it is all put up job
This cant be so, for had they done so
they would have, of course, demanded
and had an exposure before the election
of Percy The most feasible belief
that have heard expressed IS that Du-
Ianey paid the money and that Bllbo
intended to keep the money but got
afraid that the grand Jury was going
AA--O
out something, and thought best to
turn it up, as the grand jury was in
session for about two weeks before he
went before them to expose 1t gives
some reason for this belief. No won
der that Vardaman said that money
was being used to defeat him when
Bilbo was telling that there was an eff
fort being made to buy votes. John
Poindexter said he was told of this by
Bilbo, but he knew nothing more of
this than what Bilbo told him. He has
been down here and Deen before both
committees of investigation, and will
go before the grand jury.
Bilbo says that so far as he knows
Senator Percy knew absolutely nothing
of this attempt to bribe him, and that
he has witnesses to prove he voted for
Vardaman on last ballot. 1t is bad
and complicated affair, and | fear we
will never know all of the truth about
it but the Senate, the House investi-
eating committee and the Kinds COun-
ty grand jury all seem determined to
go to the bottom Of it, ''if it takes all
summer"
John Cavett never mixes in politics
at all took no part in the senatorial
fight. cid not attend the caucus meet
ings, went to the headquarters of no
candidate, and yet they have made him
foreman of the grand jury, and he has
to go into the details of the whole mat
ter, and is very, very tired of it.
There was proposition that we take
recess for a week and go home,
plant our corn, draw no pay or milage
and then come back and stay two
weeks, but we could not get the House
to consent to it. The very members
who go home the most objected to it.
The county attorney bill has passed.
This allows an attorney for each coun-
ty to attend the magistrates courts,
and represent the state, and Then to
help the District Attorney at court in
all criminal cases. He is to be on a
salary of not less than 100000, nor
more than $4,000 90 per year, and may
be attorney for the Board of Supervi |
sors and get $4,000 a year more for
this. We tried to make it elective
from the start, but the bill provides |
that the Governor shall appoint the
first incumbent. This gives the Gov
ernor 80 more offices to fill, and we
have two Supreme Court Commits ion
ers, new Circuit Judges, 2 additional
chancellors and A district attorneys to
appoint. Also the Attorney General
and the Assistant Attorney General. |
You can see what an immense amount of |
patronage he has to dish out, and l
forgot the trustees and the Superin-
tendeat of the. .Penitentiary. l do hope
to live long enough to see all these
places filled by the people, and hone
appointed. 1t gives too much power to
any one man.
We finally passed our Inter-insur-
ance bill. This bill provides that any
class of people can insure their prop
erty with each other, Each member
insuring all other members. For in
stance, 100 farmers can put in $40 |
each, making 81 200, and if House of
a member burns, that party gets the
$1,000, no one pays profit. The lum-
ber men have been doing this for about
ten years, and Judge Whitfield claimed
in his dissenting opinion, (when the
other two judges held that they did not
have the right to do this under the law
as it was before we passed this bilD
that the lumber men had saved over
$70O, 900 in premiums and fire losses as
their insurance premium on some of
this property was so high that it was
prohibitive, and had it not been for the