Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1911-06-09

AnyLhlng OF the KIND, out so ANXIOUS
am | to have some suspicious some peo-
pie have about this matter put at rest,
| will pay another $500 to any charity in
the state you may suggest II you will
produce the names and amounts contrib
uted TO that fund while you were Gus
todian, and show, by proofs satisfactory
to an impartial committee, where you
kept this money the years you had it,
and that you did not, as alleged by
some, have to borrow it with the aid of
some of your friends in Jackson when,
after a long controversy, you had to
pay it.
Mind you, I am not asking you to
subject your private bank account to pub
lie scrutiny. [ just want you to show
where you kept and what you did with
these public moneys. The people who
contributed the 'Battleship Fund have
a right to know that their contributions
reached the source to which they were
contributed.
Another $500 Bonus.
Mind you, 1 am not making any in
timations, but being anxious that all
these matters be put at rest, | will con-
tribute another $500 to any charity you
may suggest, if you will permit any
reputable auditor to go with you and
show that the moneys you took from the
contingent fund and put to your private
bank account, and the Spanish merican
: War u which you had for more than
four years., to your private account and
until a legislative investigation devel-
oped it a considerable time after the
expiration of your term of office.
Nov, understand, I am not intimat-
ing anything, but there has come up 50
many curious things, especially about
the contingent fund, and l think it so
desirable that it should all be properly
explained, that 1 would cheerfully give
the money, although ont flushed with
money, to know that everything had been
all right. It is humiliating to me, a
proud-spiritcd Mississippian, to even have
the suspicion abroad that the Governor
of my state, whom I helped to elect, had
iproven himself a common CRATER. There
fore l call on you to help disprove all
these charges.
"You will remember the legislative
committee appointed to investigate the
contingent fund, on which was some of
your warmest supporters, made q very
damaging report against you. You will
also remember when they first asked
you for your vouchers, you said you
didn't have to take vouchers, and when
shown you did lave to take them, you
accounted for your inability to produce
them by asserting that they had been
stolen after you went out of the Gov
ernor's office, presumably by Gov. Noel.
"Then take the something over 81, ZOO
taken by you from the contingent fund
in one week and placed to your private
account in bank-you can go to the bank
and show the auditor what has been done
with these and other amounts placed to
your private account. Of course, [ know
you nave denounced all intimations or
assertions that these things are not all
right, and the people who made them as
slanderers, liars and assassins of charac-
ter, but, major, this is not satisfactory
to all, even to your friends. I have
heard some of them say that they want
ed to vote for you, but could not do it
unless these matters were cleared up.
These are not trumped-up charges. They
are records you made yourself.
Denunciation Cheap.
another thing which makes people
suspicious is the fact that on twelve
different occasions when visiting the hui
name institutions of the state, you col
lected from both the contingent fund
and these institutions the money for
your expenses, and in every case, l think,
the amount you collected at each end of
the line was ample for any legitimate
expense you could nave incurred on these
trips. l know some very good men who.
like you, out how can they vote to send
a man to the senate from this state with
all these matters unexplained?
"a good many men whom you APP
pointed to office seem to feel that they
owe you their support, regardless of
these charges that nave been made
against you, whether true or false. 1t
seems to me some of these gentlemen
do themselves great injustice. They GER
tainly think you appointed them because
they were worthy and you thought them
the best men for the places. If so, what
do they owe you?
Now, major, [ feel your present plan
for meeting the many charges brought
against you will not prove satisfactory
to all of those friends of yours who like
you and want to vote for you. 1t is
easy to denounce people as liars, slam
derers and enemies. Denunciation is
cheap, but it does not prove anything.
When proof is submitted in court against
one charged with crime, if he could es-
cape the consequences by telling the
judge that these witnesses are all enc
mics of mine, are liars, slanderers and as
sassins of character, set on me by some
heartless corporation or governor-if this
would free him, we would nave no more
convictions in our courts. This would
SimnlifU the criminal nrantico rorr unoh