The Chitina leader. [volume] (Chitina, Alaska) 1910-1928, 1911-12-09
INDICATED By
INVESTIGATION

The Seattle Times has an &C
count of a matter of interest t
Cordova people as the former Off
cial concerned was deputy district
attorney here and the alleged brib
cry was supposed to have been the
result of an incident that occurred
here. Those who are familiar with
the circumstances realized the alb.
surdity of the story and are now
glad to know that Mr.. Martin has
been set right with the public. The
Times says:
Il have evidenced" declared Dele
gate Wickersham, before the House
committee last summer, that $4,000
was used to bride deputy district
attorney. This is the kind of mat
ter l vainly have been trying to get
the government to investigate and
prosecute.
Like the "Dick to Dick letter,
the charge which was made against
Harrison B. Martin, now of Seattle,
and formerly of Valdez proved ut
terly unfounded when investigated
Martin was accused of inducing a
grand jury not to bring indictments
in connection with certain election
frauds at Cordova. alleged to have
been committed in 1908, and that in
return for this he had received a
bride of $4,000 from the Alaska
syndicate. The report of B. D.
Townsend, special assistant attor-
ney general, who was sent to Alas
Ia to investigate the facts dis
closes an exactly contrary condition
to have been the case In reporting
the result of his investigation to the
attorney general, Special Assistant
Townsend says:
THE charge is entirely ground
less, and is as vicious a SANDER as
could be imagined
After reviewing all the evidence
collected verified by bank books and
the records of the court, the report
says:
1.-The charge that the alaska syn
dictate people bribed Martin to neg
lect the presentation of the election
fraud cases before the grand jury
is too palpably false to require much
comment. In the first place, it was
not within Martins power to prevent
indictments. District Attorney ]. J.
Crossley, his chief, was on hand and
had direct charge of the work. In
the second place, the record shows
that Martin left Alaska thirty days
before the investigation was com
pleted. In the third place, it is alb
surd to suppose that those people
would have waited till two or three
months after Martin mad left the
office to pay the alleged bride and
nearly year after the grand jury
session before paying the bride
money!.
The record clearly shows that
Martin borrowed $4,000 at a Seattle
bank; that wishing to evade the $50
exchange charge for sending it to
Cordova, he paid the money to the
Alaska syndicate in Seattle on be
half of the Cordova Townsite com
pany, in which it then had an in
bable there was a law which pro
vided that sea faring man could
vote at any place he happened to be
on the date of an election This
fact was magnified into a charge of
wholesale election frauds and led
and upon it was based a charge that
the attorney General of the United
States had been a party to shield
ing criminals in Alaska.
terest.
The evidence develops the fact
that the whole trouble arose because
Capt. John O'Brien went to the pol
ling place at Cordova, and asked to
be allowed to vote. There was no
lawyer present, and the election
judges, after disc Issing the propo-
sition in the preesnce of about 20
persons decided tnat it was pro