Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1912-07-13

ON REQUEST
TO THE POOR
STORY OF HOW CORRUPT
BENCH AND BAR CARVED THE
PAT ESTATE LEFT BY STRAIT
TON, AND STILL SLICING AT 1T.

A Denver dispatch of July 10 says:
Sensational exposures were made
today OF the way in which judges
and lawyers and their relatives and
friends have gutted the estate of
Winfield Scott Stratton, the famous
Colorado mining king who left an
estate worth $2O,0O0OO0.
"Stratton had been a poor man and
worked for 20 years as a carpenter,
using his earnings to grubstake him
self while he prospected in the Grip
pie Creek district He. struck it rich
in the Independence mine, the great
est producer of its time
"Strattons sympathy was with the
poor. He left a will In which he di-
rected that his wealth be used to
found the MyrOn Stratton home for
friendless aged men and women, and
for homeless boys and girls. His
great heart was moved by the misery
of penniless old age and helpless
childhood.
Fatten on Estate.
From the day Of his death the
bench and the bar have been slicing
away the estate in huge chunks.
Judges and layers, executors and adj
ministrators, and their sisters and
their cousin and their aunts" have
made a Gilbertian farce out Of the
grand old miners dream.
''Not a shoyelful of dirt has been
turned, not a thing has been done to-
ward carrying out Stratton's orders.
Year in and year out, for 10 long
years, the judges and lawyers have
been fattening on StTatton's money
while the poor old men and women
and homeless children for whom
Stratton intended a home should be
built, remain without shelter or food
or education. Honest lawyers view
the case with shame.
"The buzzards of the bench and
vultures Of the bar are nov being ex-
posed, Their work is being held up
before the eyes of tae world, their
names are being sounded SO that all
men may know these foul birds of
the law for what they are-lower and
viler than any common criminals
"The scandal has created such
high feeling in Colorado that the
guilty lawyers and their rotten
courts have become a kissing on the
lips of the people.
But every other western state is
interested in this expose Of the jack
ais of the law, and the lesson is be-
ing pounded home TO every man OF
money that If he wants TO do good
with his money he should see that
the work is done before he dies, be-
cause II he is fool enough TO leave
II to the INSCRIPTIONS members OF
the bench and bar, his will is almost
certain to be ignored and the money
will only go to the ravenous sharks
Swan In Graft.
The leaders of this gang Of estate
looters are Attorney Tyson Dimes
d. II. Rice, Carl Chamberlain and
William Lennox. Dimes was at one
time one Of the biggest lawyers in
Denver He assaulted John Mullins
and old, broken-down man, with a
dog whip, beating him frightfully
The affair caused such feeling that
Dimes got out of Denver and went
to ST. Louis. where he built one OF
the finest homes in the country with
Stratton's money He has lived high
ever since.
dimes and his outfit slipped $4,000
to w. S. Morris. Then when Morris
got in as district Judge, he carried
out his part Of the conspiracy by fix
ing outrageous salaries for the trus-
tees The gang swan in graft The
law was violated by paying apprais-
crs more than $500 each a day
though the legal limit is 81 for such
/ work.
one honest judge rises out Of the
riot of theft One honest judge shines
among the crooks as n candle in a
dismal swamp That lonely honest
man Is Judge Robert Kerr, OF the
county court, who wouldn't stand for
the l0oting Of the estate But the
crooks soon got rid of him. becaus,
when he came up for office again thu
crooks saw to Il that he was defeat.
ed ON a political combination"
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