The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-07-13
SOUTH CAROLYN SCANDAL
Rotten Condition of Affairs In the
Government of the Palmetto

Augusta. Ga. July 13.-Detective ".
- Burns was the star witness before
the special investigating committee OF
the South Carolina legislature. which
has instituted n probe into the old
state dispensary system. The hearing
was primarily called 10 take the tes-
timony Of Thomas Z. Fielder. the At
lanta attorney, who represented the
commission which wound up the dis
pensary affairs.
Testifying at last nights session Of
the hearing. Detective Burns asserted
| that the records which are TO he in
troduced by his men would show
whether or not Governor Cole l.
Blease Of South Carolina has been
grating as governor and senator"
Evidence taken by a telephone de-
vice and personally by a detective was
was submitted yesterday purporting TO
show that Governor Blease secured
$4,000 for pardoning Rudolph Rabun,
convicted of receiving stolen goods.
Testimony from the same source was
to the effect that Governor BIease re-
reived $500 for blocking railroad
legislation; 5000 for thwarting the
first attempted dispensary investiga-
ton and that the governor gets his
share of the blind tiger protection
money from Charleston.
Mr.. Burns himself on the stand said
he would prefer that the committee
hear the records his men would have
to submit in the case. When asked If
the work he had done would show
whether or not please has been graft
ing as governor and as state senator,
then the direct question was applied
to him:
do you mean that the records will
show whether or not he has been
grating as governor and senator?"
YES" quietly replied Burns.
Previously Mr.. Fielder had promised
the people of South Carolina that ne
would, when he got on the witness
stand, LAY Cole Bleases record bare
TO the bone"
| William J. Burns. the detective, who
put the Los Angeles dynamiters be
hind the bars, was quoted from the
, witness stand as declaring that the
. San Francisco graft cases were in
, finftesmal compared with the condi-
tions which have existed in South
Carolina"
Piece by piece, Fielder in his testi-
= mony made alarming and startling
| revelations of corruption For five
lnOuTS OF more ne sat Oh the W llIltS'
stand and alleged unlimited graft leg
r islative "syndicates" controlled by
Cole L. Blease as senator, of money de
manded by the syndicate to block edu
cation; of pardons purchased from thu
governOr-One in Charleston havin9
cost $4,000; Of corruption money col
, lected from the railroads for engineer
= ing out of the legislature bills tn,
r railroad didn't want; Of a frame-ul
, made in Atlanta by Blease and Hub Il
Evans with Blumenthal and Bickert,
, wholesale whisky house, for aiding
rebates to the cost of whisky sold TIL
q state dispensary, so the rebates coult
y be turned over to the board of cOntrO
! by the wholesalers; of $1,000 in on
. lump paid into the hands of Cole. L
o Blease and Hub Evans by Munro
O Bickert when the deal was first fran
7 ed on the occasion of the visit to tn
= liquor house in Atlanta; of the SEIZED
!, lule of protection tax levied on TIL
n Charleston blind tigers by Blease an
Ibis share with Chief Constable StOthaT
q in that monthly tax.