Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-04-01
PLEAD STATE RIGHTS -FOUR ARE INDICTED
Governors File Brief in U. S. Action Against Drainage and
Supreme Court. irrigation Officials
HARMON HOL DS RECEPTION RESULT OF INVESTIGATION
Chamber Before Charged With Presenting
Opened. ing False Vouchers.
RATE REGULATION INVOLVED SCOPE OF THE ACCUSATIONS
of Busines Event Sa to Have
Be Beer Approved.
Action Against Drainage and
irrigation Officials.
RESULT OF INVESTIGATION
Charged With Presenting OF Approx.
ing False Vouchers.
SCOPE OF THE ACCUSATIONS
Payments for Services Not Actually
Rendered Are Said to Have
Been Approved.

Charles G. Elliott, chief of drainage
Investigations, office of experiment sta
lions III the Department of Agriculture
Aiianson ID. Morehouse, acting chief in
the same office: Ray +. Teele former as
sistant chief of irrigation Investigations,
and Frank {. Singleton. accountant in
that office, were separately indicted today
by the federal grand jury on charges of
presenting or approving false vouchers
against the United States and making
false certifica tes in order to obtain the
approval and payment of such claims.
The technical charge in all the indict-
ments is the violation of section o4:,S of
the Revised Statutes of the United States
as amended by act OF May 30, 1903 The
indictments cover 1?7 pages of typewrit-
ing.
Ihe indictments grow out of an investi-
cation conducted by United States Attor-
ney Wilson and Assistant United States
Attorney Huidekoper at the request of At
torney General WIckersham, to whom the
matter had been referred by Secretary of
Agriculture Wilson. The attention of
Secretary Wilson was called to the al
legged approval of false vouchers during
the agitation over the appointment of an
investigating committee of Congress in
reference to the Everglades matter
Irregularities Alleged.
1t was pointed out that during 1909
certain irregularities had occurred in con-
tracing for work in excess of appropria-
lions for the office of experiment stations.
When the Department of Agriculture
looked into the matter. Teele had already
left the service. Elliott and Morehouse
were dismissed and Singleton suspended
pending further Investigations
The scheme of the indictments is that
the defendants made. presented and cer-
titled claims of persons assuming to act
as agents or engineers for the govern
ment, claiming pay for services which
had not actually been rendered The
charge is made that when the appropria-
ton became exhausted for field work IN
certain states, men were secured who
were willing to advance the necessary
money to carry on the work. To secure
reimbursement, these persons ma king the
advances, ii is charged. were appointed
or designated on the rolls of the depart
ment as agents or engineers and were
paid salaries until such time as the
amount advanced by them had been re-
paid
Several Enterprises Involved.
Three or four separate departmental
enterprises are involved in the transac-
tions. Some of these might have been Sc
riously affected, 1t is stated, had the work
not been continued after the failure Of
the appropriation. 1t is practically ad-
mitted by the department that the United
States suffered little or no loss from the
alleged irregularities, and that the viola
tions of the law are technical, although
such action is distinctly forbidden by the
statute.
Witnesses were summoned before the
grand jury from North Carolina Okla
homa, Louisiana. Georgia and Alabama,
although the operations affected were
principally in North Carolina and Okla
homa.
The indictment against Elliott covers
forty-eight typewriter pages, and con-
tains twelve counts. The charges against
Morehouse are set out in seventy-two
pages, comprising eighteen counts. 1t
takes forty-five pages to set forth the al
legations against Singleton, which involve
fourteen counts. Nine counts are con-
tanned in the Teele indictment, which eX-
tends over twenty-eight pages