The Washington herald., 1912-07-07

his blunt lower jaw an upward slant
| Herman was active IN Cincinnati
| politics for thirty years and held q num-
Der of offices. Cox, on the other hand,
never held a public ONCE OF any kind.
No oath bound him; no law controlled
his conduct Herman. as ! have said.
performed at the city hall. Hynicka
bossed the courthouse. Herman spe-
cialized within the city. Hynicka, now
partner in the biggest vaudeville cor
poration in the country. looked after de-
tails in Hamilton County.
| Their Management Was had.
TT has been said that while the Cox
machine was offensive to decency. that
! 1T was progressive and competent in
| matters of government. Nothing was
ever more untrue. The government Of
| Cincinnati was astonishingly< inefficient
Records left behind show amazing care
| lessness, extravaganza. and incapacity.
The management of the public schools
| was absolutely disgraceful Cleveland,
at the other end of Ohio. laid tax of
| ID mills for school purposes;.we a
| tax of mills. The money that Should
| have been spent for the education of our
| children was squandered on an army of
| little officeholders. I suppose 1t was
| thought that funds devoted to the edu-
| cation of boys. some time to be citi-
| zens. would be bad for the machine
when the boys grew up.
The schools were purposely deprived
of support that an army of ward heelers
might get their names on the city pay
| roll The Cox gangsters are said TO be
scattered and jisheartened. Cox himself.
1t Is declared, has been broken on the
wheel of defeat and aged before his time
by losses and disappointment. ! do not
believe either statement. The. gangsters
I LNrr.
CRY wolves, they are watching at the
border line of the timber. Cox continues
to plan and hope, to sit and drink beer
at the same old table. He is only wait
ing. and will come back with a rush II
he ever sees an opportunity. Good men
in politics fight spasmodically. They win
and then are quiescent in their victory.
Meanwhile the bosses have passed from
view, but you may be sure they are not
idle"
How did Cox finally lose the city, I
asked.
"A committee from the State Senate
came here to learn what truth there was
in the long-prevalent rumors Of misgov-
eminent. The Cox politicians rushed to
the court for protection. There was no
standing in law for the committee, the
court said. because IL came from the
Senate and not from both branches Of
the Legislature. Besides. the investiga-
ton of municipality was a judicial and
not a legislative function. Although the
committee was stopped in Its work, we
learned officially that interest on public
money deposited in banks had not been
paid to the city. but to certain fndi-
| viduals.
Flew Again to the Judges.
THE following winter Columbus. the
State capitol sent US another committee.
I ID
ssntatives and met the main objection of
the court at the time the first committee
was declared to be without authority.
Again the Cox leaders flew to their
| judges for protection. The second COM
mittee, so the court held. had no power
because 1t was sitting and attempting to
do business after the Legislature had ad-
| journed for the session
only one man was got to the stand.
He swore that while treasurer of Hamil
ton County he paid Cox s55.ooo, or half
the interest he had received on public
funds deposited in the banks Of Cincin-
natl 1t had been known formerly that
treasurers of cities and counties in Ohio
loaned their surplus funds and kept the
proceeds. In those days two terms In
the treasury of a rich county or city
made the holder of the office a wealthy
man. A depository law was enacted,
however. compelling treasurers to deposit
their surplus money in the banks bid
ding the highest rate of interest, the
interest to be a part OF the public funds.
In some places-Cincinnai was one Of
them-the treasurers said they would
not risk giving the money into the Gus
tody of uncertain banking institutions.
They would keep 1t in their own vaults
where 1t would be actually and visibly
secure. Nevertheless. they loaned 1t out
on the sly. and pocketed the interest.
Well, here was a man, as I have stated,
who said he had paid Cox $4,000. But
the court choked off the investigation.
We had made demonstration, however,
and had caught the ear of the people.
II ceased to be a member of the Leg
islature in 1907. The following year I
was elected prosecuting attorney Of Ham
ilton County by a plurality OF 800 votes.
Mr.. German, a reform Judge. came into
Office with me. The Cox judges met
nine of them were then On the bench
and so arranged their assignments that
Judge German would not sit in the GRIM
inal court during the two years I was
to serve as prosecuting attorney. He
and I were to be kept apart and he was
only to hear civil cases. / began to
| browse among the records. One day !
found a transcript of the testimony
given by Cox before a grand jury spe-
cially summoned years before to do
neat job of whitewashing. Cox swore
that he had never received a penny from
| anybody as interest on public money.
Obviously, either he or the man who
testified that he paid him s55,0oO commit
ted perjury.
Packed the Grand Jury.
But I was helpless. The Cox Judges
came into Criminal Court in their agreed
upon rotation. They selected the jury
commissioners, the commissioners select
ed the grand jurymen, and the grand
jUrymen were friends Of Cox. But we
were not voiceless, being careful, how
ever. to keep the old testimony of Cox
TO ourselves. / was reelected by a plu-
rality of $500 votes. Moreover Judge Cor
man took his place on the bench of the
Criminal Court. He chose honest jury
commissioners and they picked fifteen
solid men to act as grand jurors. The
former treasurer to whom / have referred
was called in to testify. He came, bring
ing his check books and his family, and
we dynamited enough information out OF
him TO make a good case. as We sup
posed. Anyway, Cox was indicted for
perjury. The fight that followed was pro-
tracted and technical Cox for once was
thoroughly scared. He asked the public
to think him innocent until he was
proved guilty. Up to that time he had
gone on in sodden silence, seemingly in
different to protests and censure. 1t was
limited that his health was bad and that
he had met with financial reverses
"At last, after a long battle which I
fought with all the strength I had, the
court decided that while 1t was unlawful
for city or county treasurer tn nut ruh-