Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-02-23
Another Pittsburg Scandal.

II
once mere PittsLurs stands N the
lime light as the foremost representa-
Tive of graft in this country. The rec
lord of Pittsburg in recent months has
been putrid with scandal, and the
number punished has been restricted
lbccausc of the clogging Of justice. In
dispatches of Thursday and Friday is
| told an amazing story of graft in TIL"
lPittsburg school board, exposed by the
| Voters Civic League. Just now. the
district attorney is waiting to asccr-
ltain If the league will make informa-
tons and take up prosecutions against
the alleged offenders, as it did in the
councilmanic graft cases, less than a
year ago.
| This civic League is an independent
reform organization. led by men OF
keenest intelligence and highest sense
of justice. They have sacrificed their
own material welfare in hundreds oil
ways to bring about that which they
believe for the citys interest, The
story of their work in the Smoky City
| in recent months is deeply interesting,
| tivcs have been employed and rcputa-
| lions have been wrecked by the score.
| In the graft scandal Of last spring
lncarly 100 men passed through the
Immunity BATH of the district at
turncys office, and several scores
landed in the Jail and the penitentiary.
The league intended to prosecute all
the offenders, but they We're 50 nu-
mcrouS that even the arrest OF all
would have clogged the wheels Of jus
tice.
In the present case, the bulletin Civ
en- the public is in the nature of
warning to wrong-d doors to mend their
ways. No names are mentioned, but
the personnel of the school board OF
the individual wards. a representative
of each of which composes the central
board of education, is attacked. The
charges made are, that the majority
are gamblers, bar-tenders. saloon
keepers, and political employees. who
have been placed on the boards to
control votes. 1t is charged also that
mill workers and laborcrs, with educa-
ton inadequate to govern the instruc-
ton of children. and score of other
characters of men equally objection
boards. 1t is also charged that graft
ing through contracts is prevalent to
such an extent that il cannot be de-
scribed. In few cases the league de-
clares. that as low as s25 has been
paid board members and as high as
$1,000 for votes to place contracts. On
one contract of 100000. it is asserted
that third of the amount was paid
to school board members in graft.
~ by the league. are that teachers
have been forced to pay for their APP
pointments; janitors and truant Off
GERS have been held up. and when ev-
erything else failed the grating MEM
bers could always borrow money from
agents and contractors who do bust
ness with the schools, and the money
is never returned. School picnics
have been promoted, although it is il
legal to spend school funds for such
purposes, and it is charged that some
of these school picnics have been
more than drunken orgies. for
the directors and their dissolute and
friends. Finally, the
league charges that children from the
schools have been taken to picnics
with men and women of the under
world: that they have seen drunken
women from the Tenderloin on the
dancing platform, and gamblers plying
their vocation on the picnic grounds.
a year ago it was thought that
Pittsburg had reached the depths OF
political depravity in the scandal
which was made public, but If the
present charges of the civic league are
true, all previous records have been
broken. Pittsburg stands at the head
with record which no city will envy
Or care to rival
hundreds Of embryo book agents arc