New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-10-15
DO You Approve of Ben
sel?" Shouts District At
tOrney as 5000 Cheer.
ACCUSES GOVERNOR
OF NEGLECT OF DUTY
Warns Voters That "Cross" on
Ballot Must Be Placed
Under Emblem.

oNaAo campaign WIS hItu ny bleN>iNN
Attorney Whitman in Brooklyn last
night. The Republican candidate for
Governor spoke to an enthusiastic au-
dicnce of 5000 persons in Kismet
Temple, over which Representative
William NJ. Calder presided. The other
speakers included James w. Wads-
worth, jr, candidate for United States
Senator, and several of the other can
d:dates on the state ticket.
response in the big crowd to his ar
raignment of Governor Glynn for in
efficiency in Office and dereliction or
duty, in neglecting TO see that the
laws Of the state were faithfully en-
forced. He pointed literally with
an accusing finger at the Governor for
failing to stop the graft and corrup-
ton in the Canal and Highway de-
partments, and for retaining in office
men like State Engineer Bensel, who
he said had been bitterly condemned
as unfit for public Office by the Gov
ornor's own Investigator and By the
grand jury of New York County.
II want to ask Governor Glynn," said
Mr.. Whitman, land shall continue to
ask him every day during the cam
paign, unless he answers It: DO you
approve of Bensel?'"
Without revealing grand jury secrets
the District Attorney related with tell
ing effect his experience with Mr.. Be
sci during the state aft investigation
here, when the State Engineer refused
to 60 before the grand jury and tell
the simple truth" on the ground that
il might tend to incriminate him.
Speaking before the Brooklyn Young
Republican Club, prior to the Kismet
Temple meeting, Mr.. Whitman called
the attention of the voters to the "con-
fusing arrangement" of candidates on
the official ballot.
Mr.. Whitman said that the Demo-
cratic campaign managers were using
every means to impress upon the public
that to vote for Governor the cross
on the ballot should be placed at the
side Of the candidates name. That
was true in the Democratic column, he
said but not in the Republican column,
where the cross in voting for Governor
should be made under the party en-
blem. He cautioned the voters not 70
be misled in this respect
Referring, In his Kismet Temple
speech, to the suggestion by Governor
Glynn that if he, Whitman, was elected,
he would become the chief prosecutor
Of the state, Mr.. Whitman proceeded to
chow that 1t was the functions of the
Governor, pursuant TO his oath of Office,
to take care that all the laws are
faithfully executed" and that Glynn
had been sorely derelict Of duty in this
vau no t.fi .plt in lot 10 "a
Canal and Highways departments, where
rottenness and corruption had been ex-
posed, even by the Governors special
Investigator, James w. Osborne.
What action, If any, has Mr.. Glynn
taken since he entered upon the CUB
ernatorial office in behalf Of the proper
execution of those laws, which were
VIGOROUSLY violated both in spirit and
in letter by the Canal and Highways
departments of the state?" asked Mr..
Whitman. at, Of course, is not his
duty TO indict-that is exclusively with
in the province of the grand jury.
as that the only way by which the
Governor can secure the enforcement
of the law? Does he deny that the
money of the state has been wasted in
these departments? Can he deny, in
the light of the report of his own com
missioner (Mr. Osborne), that road
building work was political jobbery?
Is it a theatrical bid for votes for me
to declare, if elected, / will not permit
the money Of the state to be wasted
as it has been, and that ] propose to
take care that the laws are faithfully
Cxecuted?"
The District Attorney reverted 70 the
investigation in this county, to discover
il crimes associated with the state de-
partments had been committed in this
county, and called attention to the fact
that Governor Glynn, soon after the in
vestigation started here, appointed his
own commissioner, James W. Osborne,
to investigate and report to him.
lie read at length from Mr.. Osborne's
report to the Governor, only six months
ago, in which he condemned unreserv-
odly the scandalous conditions in the
Highways Department, and branded the
three highway commissioners, State En-
gineer John A. Bensel, superintendent
Of Public Works; Duncan W. Peck and
c. Gordon Reel, Commissioner of High
ways, as negligent of duty and inef-
ficient.
Mr.. Whitman pointed out that Ben
sci is still State Engineer by election,
and Peck is still Superintendent OF
Public Works by appointment. He
read Mr. Osborne's recommendations to
the Governor TO return to a bipartisan
board, for the Commission Of High
ways, like the one which was created
by Governor Hughes, and which was
wiped out by the Democrats in 1911,
when they assumed control of the
state government. In that way alone
= l. 4 -. 4 I
politics, Mr.. Osborne reported
Not one single recommendation,
continued Mr. Whitman, mot the
slightest effort on the part of the Gov
ornor of this state TO remedy the evils
by his own commissioner. lie doesn't
believe in being prosecuting octo-
pus. With all placed before him, with
the legislature waiting for his sugges-
tion and recommendation, with the
whole state afame as the result Of ex.
posures Of corruption and rottenness,
which, TO be sure, In most instances, is
difficult, if not impossible, to bring
within the strictly Technical provisions
of the penal law, why does not the
Governor of New York take care that
the laws are faithfully eXecuted-the
letter of the law ana the spirit of the
law?
"The superintendent Of Public
Works is his creature and the Com,
missioner Of Highways is his, and the
State Engineer, so bitterly condemned.
In the State Engineer to-day. The Gov
ernor of New York can't remove him.
That is true. Perhaps even the man
who claims to be the state leader Of
the Democratic party hasn't sufficient
influence with his own people to keep
that man from Office and from power,
but haven't noticed, however, that he
has exercised any OF his powers Of
leadership to prevent it."
Mr. Whitman followed IN his a.