The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-08-01
GIVES ALL FACTS.
Attorney General Dawson Holds
Back Nothing.
In Answer Filed in Court Tells
Dreadful Secret.
DISMISS THE CASE.
Says Governor Had No Right to
Bring Suit.
Stuff House Drank at Erie Was
Only Near Beer.

Attorney General Dawson today
filed his answer in the supreme court
to the governors mandamus suit in
the j. E. House case. However, he
gave out the text of the answer yes
terday before it was filed in court.
The answer is long and strange and
winding. 1t gives the governor all
the information he brought suit to
find out about. It admits all the al
legations in the governors except the
date of a letter, which was of little
consequence. It claims that J. E.
House did not drink beer at all over a
bar, as he claimed to have done, but
that what he really drank was silver
top or near-beer. 1t gives the name
of the small town" where House
drank as Erie and the name of the
club, a private organization of which
Seth Wells, former state auditor, IS
president.
The attorney general. in his answer,
did not appear to question the cover
nor's right to demand him to subpoena
court that there was no need to sum
mon Mr.. House as Mr.. House did not
drink any beer Mr.. House merely
thought he drank beer but was i'm
posed upon with near-beer. The an
swer is a reflection upon Mr.. House $
discriminating taste as a judge of in
toxicants.
Tells All the Facts
The answer explains everything. and
yet it fails to explain. The newspa-
per man (Mr. House) declared some
time ago in a letter to the papers over
his own signature that he drank beer
over a bar in a small town in dry tor
ritOry." The governor ordered the at
torney general to subpoena the news
paper man and make him tell what
ne knew. The attorney general re-
fused to do so. The governor filed a
writ of mandamus in the supreme court
to compel Dawson to summon Mr..
House and also to compel the attorney
general to tell the governor the facts
he had gained from a private confer
ence with Mr. House.
Now the attorney general, who says
he has investigated the Erie club
some weeks after Mr.. Houses visit
down there, declares that Mr.. House
drank nearbeer. House, who claims
to be judge of brews. cocktails and
highballs. claims he drank beer. The
controversy may yet shift from the
governor and the attorney general
general over their respective ability
to Judge between beer and imitation
beer. In this latter contest the odds
ought to be three to one on the news
paper man
Again, in his answer. the attorney
general tells the whole state things he
formerly refused to whisper in the
governors ear. The name of the tow n
and the club are out, tie stuff the
newspaper man imposed upon has
been labeled. and all this letter writ
ing between two state officials and
their quarrel and appeal to the highest
tribunal in the state has been over
nearbeer, a sodapop staAd, a lemonade
counter Well, well.
But still. there is the newspaper
mans word that it was beer. The at
torney general says nearbeer. Which
sold beer in Erie on the occasion of
the House visit, it is certain they are
selling nearbeer now, for the attorney
general gives his word for it.
The attorney generals answer to
the governors nlandamns has appar-
emily changed the whC1e complexion
of the case Before it was a question