The Oskaloosa herald., 1913-12-25
VAN WAGENEN IN
SERIOUS CHARGE
.oePosEo IOWA ATTORNEY SAYS
CHIEF rs ALLIED WITH TRUSTS
REVENUE COLLECTOR ANSWERS
Louis Murphy Says Reason for the
oustins of Sioux City Man from
Office was Because Of His
Unfitness for Position.

unfitness for Position.
Sioux City, Dec. 22.-Accusing At.
affiliated with the trusts and assail.
ing the department Of justice in gen.
Ieral, A. Van Wagenen, until Satur-
day attorney of the northern Iowa
district, took the first step in his de-
Tense. Besides attacking the integ.
rity of the attorney general, the dis
missed official accuses several Iowa
officials of the department with petty
misconduct. .
The order for Van Wagenen's re-
moval, which was received here from
Attorney General McReynolds, was
followed by another appointing Grow
er NJ. Neese, who has been Mr.. Van
Wagenen's assistant, to act as attor-
ney until a successor is named.
In his statement Mr.. Van Wagenen
says in part: ..........
81 have kept quiet just as long as
the matter could be held in allegiance
so as not to air my grievance like
the attorney general has at the other
end. 1t is time for me now to give
my side. .....
"The real cause of serious differ
ence of opinion between the attor-
II ey general and myself arose, as
nearly as I can tell, out of the trust
prosecution against the Master
Plumbers association. Early in the
summer 1913 Mr.. Piper, of the firm
of Piper G Larson plumbers. came
to my office and reported to me that
the Master Plumbers association of
Sioux City, Iowa, together with the
state and national associations con-
stituted an iron clad trust, the trust
maintained an officer in an out-ofthe-
way room on the third floor OF the
every Monday night they met and as
signed jobs by rotation among the
members.
"The plumber who was assigned a
job could bid as high as he pleased
and all others were bound by a sol
emn oath, the original of which we
secured in the raid of the office here,
to bid at least 10 per cent higher.
This referred to jobs coming from
the architects offices. The ordinary
work was assigned to the men who
first reported to the Office and every
plumber thereafter had to bid 10 per
cent higher than the man who first
reported on the job. They kept a
man in this office and paid him a
salary for doing noticing else but sim
Iply assign jobs. Every plumber be-
longing to the trust had to pay per
cent of all his earnings to support
| the trust.
What the attorney generals OBJ
ject is in not prosecuting fragrant
matters like this cannot understand.
| Sometimes | think he is in league
with the trusts and at other times
that he is infatuated with some pet
scheme of his own But absolutely
every turn the attorney general
makes looks TO me like he Is inter.
ested in the corporations and trusts.
The deposed district attorney criti-
cises the attorney generals anti
trust policies, declaring the recent
Bell Telephone compromise leaves
the corporations just where they
we're before and generally in posi-
ton to carry out their combination,
intrenched behind the law.
Murphy Makes Reply.
Dubuque, Dec. 22.-Louis Murphy,
collector of internal revenue for Iowa,
has given out a reply to District At
tcrney Van Wagenen's attack upon
Attorney-Gen McReynolds, declaring
that his dismissal is due not to the
causes assigned by Mr.. Van Wagon
en-, but to the latter's failure in office.
AS the only representative of the
administration in a major federal Of
flee in Iowa.. says Mr.. Murphy, Il
feel it to be my duty to reply to Mr..
| Van Wagenen, informing the public
J of the actual facts of his brief and
unfortunate administration of his Of
fee. do this reluctantly because
! have been Mr.. Van Wagenen's polite
al friend. / sought to persuade him
! to resign voluntarily because my
knowledge of his record convinced
me that his continuance in office
must be disastrous to the interests
! of justice, and so to the administra-
| ton.
TO my uTgencies to withdraw,
Jerry b. Sullivan, who has also been
his friend added his. But Mr.. Van
lWagenen insisted that he would hold
on until put out, apparently in the de-
lluded notion that he could fashion for
n1fDSel1 u martyr y CIO"u Dc az
counted another bleeding victim of
the trusts.
In the light of his record, his at
tempt to appear a martyr will arouse
pity where 1t does not excite con-
tempt, and his attack upon the at
torney general will be accepted as an
expression of vindictive hate.
Criticism of the attorney general
long ago became a habit with Mr..
Van Wagenen. His own imperfections
he has contorted into his. Nor has
Judge Reed escaped. The fact he
won not single case in court Mr..
Van Wagenen blandly ignores as
something presumably of no coGsc
quence.
''The proceedings against the al
legged plumbers trust will be resumed
probably in the southern district of
Iowa, where the state headquarters
of the association are located-just
as soon as the necessary preparation
can be completed and an attorney
shall become available. l think this
will be within a short time.
THE facts in the alleged plumbers
trust investigation disprove complete
ly the charges made by Mr.. Van
Wagenen against the attorney gener-
al. There will be no doubt in the
mind OF anyone. after reading this
statement. that the attorney generals