The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1912-01-13

fund sums of money to pay the ex-
penses of these trips, and also drew
the same or similar amounts out of
| the University and Hospital funds,
and this he regarded as positive proof
| of Misrepresentation of public funds.
NJ Moore, perhaps, did not know that
Governor Vardaman made an expert
I ment with bloodhounds following a
negro several miles around Oxford,
and finally freeing him in the court
house yard, as an object lesson to the
hundreds of darkies assembled there
at that time, and that he paid all the
expenses of the experiment, including
the hire of the negro, livery teams,
etc.; and he, perhaps, was not ap-
prlsed of the fact that Governor Var
| daman, on one or more of his visits
to the East Mississippi Insane Hospi-
tai, found it necessary to carry a pri-
vate secretary with him, and. of
course, his expenses were paid out of
the contingent fund; but he did know
that owing to delayed trains, caused
by wrecks or washouts, the expenses
of such trips are often largely in
creased, and the apparent double
charges which proved too convincing
to him and his aiders and abettors.
would possibly have never been
thought Of, except as a necessity for
campaign thunder.
Your committee believes that had
the joint committee of 1903 PROMPTLY
discharged the duty assigned them
Immediately after their appointment.
they would have found the account
for 1906 and 1907, correct, as did the
McGee committee, in the investiga-
ton of the accounts of 1904 and 1905
above cited, and the public would
nave been spared much of the humil-
iation and disgust begotten by this
| much ado about nothing We are
apprised of the fact that much money
was spent in the effort to recapture
| Reagan, and to discover and punish
the brute who assaulted poor Mamie
Marsh under the very shadow of this
capitol; some of the vouchers con-
nected with these cases are said to be
missing. We endeavored to deter
mine the amount for our own salts
faction, but were unable to do so. We
know, however. that this money would
nave gone far toward offsetting the
pretended deficit, and since both Ed
wards and Buck testify that the
vouchers were taken and filed for
every expenditure made out of the
executive contingent fund.- we unhesi-
| tatingly acquit the ex-governor of any
and all charges of peculation in con-
nection with the executive contingent
fund
The Meridian Cyclone Fund.
In reference to the Meridian cy-
clone fund, we find the following state
of facts
The governor is charged by the ex-
pert accountant with $4931.0O and
credited with 100000 turned over to
Col. H. M Street. In time of such
dire distress as prevailed at Meridian
when the city was visited by the ter
rible tornado, when live and dead
men were pinned down under the fall
en- houses, a methodical Wall street
banker would have scarcely thought
OF calmly paying out money and ex-
acting a receipt from every one with
mony of Col. Rachford and Mr.. w. Fl. |
King discloses the fact that Governor
Vardaman on hearing the news of the !
awful calamity Immediately chartered |
special train, engaged these gentle
men to secure as many negro laborers |
in Jackson as possible; that the train |
left here with thirty-five or forty of
these laborers; that it stopped at the |
Rankin farm and took aboard all of |
the able-bodied convicts; that at Pela-
hatchie a few more laborers were Sc
cured, and when the train reached
Meridian this force was put to work
clearing away the debris. Mr.. King
was furnished with the money to pay
the free laborers he employed The
governor, of course, paid for the main
tenance of the convicts while there,
and General Fridge, being on the
ground with the National Guard, was
directed by the governor to press
every able-bodied man into service
and compel their assistance in the
work of rescue, and that wellknown
and efficient officer tells your COM
mittee that he paid out to these i'm
pressed men S17350 which wac fur