The Washington herald., 1911-02-03
DENY THAT LIQUOR
LAWS ARE VIOLATED
Continued from PAGE One.

CoAtinued from Page One.
he has with considerable cunning accom-
acter without saying one thing that would
give me a chance to protect myself in a
court of law
Mr.. keane's Statement.
II have been practicing for twelve
years." said Mr.. NJ. p. Keane last night,
''and l have appeared at least 100 times
before the excise board. and 1 do not
believe l have been successful in Is per
cent Of the cases in which I appeared.
In the instances cited by Mr.. Bennett
there is absolutely no foundation for any
ipsinuation Of wrong. much less for any
charge. In the case of NJ. P. Keane,
referred to by him. the fact is that the
license was granted to Bernard Z.
keane, and it was given him in accord
ance with the long-established policy of
the board to grant licenses in all cases
where there was no protest and the
applicant was Of good character. At
that time 1 did not even know Mr..
Kalbfus.\ AS for ether cases, like that
Of ]. Brenner, I never saw the man in
my life, and did not know he was in
business. The Ellis case was another
one where there was no protest and the
applicant was of good character. 1t is
true that he followed the usual custom
of borrowing money to get his license
and purchase stock and fixtures. but he
Gid not need any influence to secure his
license, which was granted unanimously
by the entire excise board.
Cites Quinn Case.
ITO show how fiimsy are the founda-
tions upon which Mr.. Bennet bases his
attack. let me quote the case Of f. J.
Quinn. 1t is asserted that after a GER
tain firm of prominent lawyers had failed
to get the license. 1 was called in as
attorney and thus the license was secured.
Now. as n matter of fact a man from
Staunton, Va, bought out Quinn's sa
loon here and the question was raised
whether he was a resident 1t is true that
was asked to advise one of the attor
neys as to the law in the matter. but
was not retained and never received a
fee. and when the license was granted 1t
was after an opinion had been rendered
by the corporation counsel to the effect
that residence had been established by
certain affidavits.
There was absolutely nothing in any of
the cases cited which was irregular or
which was not known to the entire ex-
else board. or which I or any one else
wish not to have fully Investigated. l
could go over each case and relate its
detail if it was necessary, but / have
already shown enough to prove that regu-
lar and perfectly proper transactions
have been distorted SO as to give false
impression.
The Matter of Loans.
"All of the chattel trusts were given to
secure loans or anlecedent debts due the
brewery. and my stenoSrapher's name
was used just as a matter of convenience.
1t will be found that nearly every sa-
loon has been concerned in similar trans
actions. and this must necessarily be the
case when the proprietor has not money
enough to carry on his business. AS to
the other transactions, the very fact that
there was no effort to conceal them
shows that there was no taint attaching
to them. 4 man who is doing something
wrong does not publish it upon the court
records. / should also like to add that
the effort to connecumy name with that
of member of the excise board in these
real estate transactions falls 20 the ground
when il is known that At the time of
those transactions I was not the attorney
for any brewing company, and an affidavit
to this effect in on file at the Distric.
Offices -
Mr.. Kalbfus' Denial. >
When seen by a reporter for The WASH
ington Herald last night, Mr.. KaIbfus
said that he had not read the exact
language used by Mr.. Bennet. but that ,
he had received an intimation to its
''All l have to say he re-
marked. "is that the Commissioners long
ago informed Mr.. Horstmann that if he
had any charges to make he was at lib
arf1 70 10 n SileDt
for four months. and then cited some real
estate transactions which were public |
records. He did not make any charges I,
and cannot make any. The transactions
were all absolutely honorable. and If any |
authorized committee or the Commission |
ers want the details | am ready and will /!
ing to give them. The excise board has |
known for some time that an effort !
would be made to discredit 1t, so that !
these alleged disclosures are not unex- |
pected. My record is clear and clean. |
and while | do not regard it as necessary |
to explain everything in the newspapers. |
have already made my statement to the |
Commissioners. to whom l am response |
BILE"
Clerk williams Statement.
Roger c. Williams, clerk Of the excise |
b ,a-d. said:
II neeCed $500 last year to finance a !
trip of. my wife to Oklahoma to see our |
son. who was dangerously ill with ty-
phoid fever / had tha house in which |
1 live. but lacked ready cash. and used |
the house as security for the loan. I
got the money through Mr. Keane, whom |
1 had KNOWN for many years. 1t was a
purely business transaction, was prompt
ly put on record, and there was no rea-
son to attempt to conceal it. l have
been an employe of the District for
years, and do not see why.
in a family mergency, 1 should not be
able to realize upon my investments like
the ordinary citizen"
Nothing Wrong Has Been Done.
That there IS nothing heinous in a Dis
trict cmplcye OF any department borrow
ing a reasonable sum on any legitimate
he nay have. was the opinion
last night Of District Commissioner
He said the charges made
by Mr.. Bennett had been referred to the
district attorney. and he could not dis