The Detroit times., 1911-12-23
.LAFOlLETTE TELLS OF An
ATTEMPT TO BR|BE HIM
AND CORRUPT A JUDGE
Shock Sets Fighting Bob Inn
placably On the Trail of
Vested Interests.
HITS BACK AND WINS.
Says He Was Approached by
Philetus Sawyer, Then United
States Senator.

States Senator.
NEW YORK, Dec. 23.-The dramat-
ic moment when the late United States
Senator Philetus Sawyer, OF wiscon-
sin, tried to bribe the present Sena-
tor LaFollette OF the same state, to
corrupt Judge on the bench il told
Dy LaFollette In another instaIlment
OF his autobiography, printed in the
january American Magazine, out to-
day.
The state treasurer's job in wiscon-
sin had been rich pickings. Treasur-
ers deposited state funds where they
liked and collected the interest as q
personal perquisite. After many years
the state awoke. Suit YES instituted
against several former II Insurers and
their bondsmen TO recoy this inter-
est. The state finally " Judgments
aggregating s60SS SSsfa. .2aH
Sawyer. Repukitefn or the
state, was on - several ex-
treasurers hundreds
OF thousandS S brother
inlaw and 1e5ner. Robert
q. Siebecker, was the Judge to try the
cases.
Sawyer asked LaFollette to meet
him In a Milwaukee hotel. He led him
to q secluded nook In the Plankington
hotel and broached the treasury mat
ter. LaFollette tells what happened
then, as follows:
These cases are awfully impor-
4 t. aaNA o.
not AFFORD to lose them They cost
me a lot OF anxiety. don't want TO
have to pay - naming a large
sum of money-whether one hundred
thousand or more. I am not certain.
Now. / came down here to see you
alone. No one knows ! am TO meet
you here. don't want to hire you as
an attorney in the cases. LaFollette.
and don't want you to go into court.
But here is so dollars. | will give you
Ave hundred more or thousand tor
fve hundred more and thousand--l
was never able to recall exactly the
sums named) when Siebecker decides
the cases right
II said to him. Senator Sawyer you
can't know what you are saying TO
me. III you struck me In the face you
jcould not insult me as you insult me
now
He said. 'Wait-hold on
II was then standing up, | said:
No, you don't want TO employ me-
las an attorney. You want TO hire me
to talk TO the Judge about your case
on the bench He said: L did not
think you would take a retainer in
the case. did not think you would
30 int no q n
torney How much will you take as
la retainer?
Il answered: You haven't enough
money to employ me as an attorney
in your case after what you have said
to me-
"'Well. perhaps. l don't understand
court rules. Anyway, let me pay you
for coming down here.
II said Not a dollar. SIR and inn
mediately left the room.
Nothing else ever came into my
life that exerted such a powerful in
Ifiuence upon me. II was the turning
point, in a way, OF my career. Sooner
Tor later | probably would have done
what did in Wisconsin. But IL would
have been a matter of much slower
evolution. 1t shocked me into a COM
lplete realization of the extremes to
which this power that Sawyer repre-
sented would go TO secure the results
II was after
"Its effect upon me as an individual
was most profound. | had always had
La pride In my family-in my good
name. II had been the one thing that
my mother had worked into my char
acter. IL was this thing that she en-
phasized when she talked with me
about my father, whom ! never saw.
There has always been uncertainty
In my mind about the money he Of
fered me-the amounts. He named
different amounts. He was going to
give me a sum right then, and more,
conditioned upon the case being de-
cided right He had his pocketbook
in one hand. and a roll OF money In
the other.
For an instant | was dazed, and
then the thing surged through me.
felt that could not keep my hands
OF his throat stood over him, said
the things 10 him that / have re-
lated and then left him blindly. I
knew he followed me. I went rapidly
downstairs and out OF the hotel. The
hotel lobby was crowded. | saw mo-
body got out in the street and
walked and walked.
LaFollette revealed Sawyer's brib-
cry attempt 10 Judge Siebecker, who
publicly announced that he could not
'ttry the cases, bat did not give the
reason. LaFollette had not made pub
lie the Sawyer incident but some
newspaper shrewdly suspected and
published their surmises. Then Saw
yer rushed into print with an inno-
3 cent version OF his talk with LaFol-
lette. This forced LaFollette TO tel
what really happened.
Rig Business and the Republican
machine AT once raised a great cry.
eXerting all their power TO crush la
Toilette Senator Bob" tells how he
fought back-and won.