Bisbee daily review., 1911-11-03
MODEL TOWN MAYOR OH TRIAL TOMORROW
 BRIBE SOLICITING
Airing of Scandal involving Officials of 6aN
 Indiana
b EAL IN FRANCHISES

VALPARAISO. Ind, Nov. 2-To the court records Of Porter county there are about to be added several inter esting chapters that might be appro- priately entitled The Troubles Of a Model Town" The cases of Mayor Thomas D. Knotts and severah UheT officials of the city Of Gary. against whom serious charges are pending, are on the docket for next Saturday and it is expected the trials will be- gin here early in the coming week. II haH that has been printed concerning the alleged corruption in the model city planned and dominated by the steel trust is true, then revelations may be expected at the trials that will relegate the political grafters in some of the big cities to the shelf reserved for "pikers.
 The city Of Gary has yet to cele- brate its tenth birthday. but despite it's youth 1t is a city in all that the word implies Where scarcely a decade ago there was nothing but the long sweep of sand dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan there are now located the greatest steel mills in the country, to- gether with numerous other indus tries that have been attracted by the excellent transportation facilities and orther advantages offered by the new city.
 But with the virtues also came the vices Of a metropolis. For several years the newspaper have told of the moral and political corruption alleged to flourish in the model town" Many Of the vicious element driven out of Chicago from time to time are said to have found in Gary a most desir- able haven. Gambling houses are said to have been conducted almost open ly. Frequent arrests by the Federal authorities have given rise to the belief that the little city also has been centre for the white slave" traffic.
 Efforts of the better element to clean up the place long proved un- availing. The authorities were unmoy- able At the, head of affairswss Thor- Is E. Knotts. who held the mayoralty. it is alleged. by virtue of an election in which thuggery held the winning hand. Knotts came to Gary a few years ago from Hammond. where he eonducted newspaper and was prom inent in town politics. So far as known he was not overbburdened with worldly goods when he stepped off the train in the model town Today he is reputed to be in the nearmillionaire class. with heavy interests in realty. manufacturing, publD utility and bank ing corporations in and around Cary.
 Failing 10 make any progress in the crusade against vice, the reformers in the town turned their attention to the political corruption alleged 10 exist. Their progress along this line prom ised better results from the moment they hit the trail The climax came early in September when Mayor Knotts and several members of the city council were placed under ar- rest charged with bribery.
 It is charged by detectives, who have carefully worked up the case that the mayor and those arrested with him solicited a bribe of S8,OOo from representatives of a utilities com psny tO put through a heating fran chise which would have eutailed an expenditure Of many thousands of dollars by the city and public.
 Dictagrapb records will play a stei- lar pars in the coming trial It is said that dictagraphs were connected up in the hotel room occupied by T.. B. Dean, the applicant for the fran chlse, and also that one had been in- sfslled even in the mayors private onice.
 An extract from distagrsph records made public what parports to be a 
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