Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-10-28

going Oil. An official may make
mistake but If his mistake be an
honest one and in the open, he
can not be criticised.
You will remember that / had
not been in office three days be-
fore Mr.. Richmond approached me
with the proposition of suppressed
ing me with two special states
attorneys. He and his committee
of five other republicans had
spent hundreds of dollars of the
taxpayers money gathering what
they called evidence of official
graft. Mr.. Richmond refused to
turn over to me this evidence and
TO this day / have never had my
hands on II. ] was somewhat sur
prised at these outrageous actions.
My suspicious soon became proofs.
| thought that the reason for the
special prosecutors was that Mr..
Richmond desired to control the
investigations. My search soon
revealed that Mr.. Richmond had
many times since he had been
chairman of the board of super
visors violated section 3 of chap
ter 102 of Hurd's Revised Stat
utes which provides: ut shall not
be lawful for any person now or
hereafter holding any Office either
by election or appointment under
the constitution of this state to
become in any manner interested
either directly or indirectly in his
own name or in the name of any
ether person or corporation in any
contract or the performance of
any work in the making or let
ting of which such officer may be
called upon to act or VOTE" and
which is punishable under section
of the same chapter which pro-
vides: ANY alderman, member of
a board of trustees, supervisor or
county commissioner or person
now or hereafter holding any Of
fee either by election or appoint
ment under the constitution of
this state or any law now or here
after in force in this state, who
of the preceding sections, shall be
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor
and on conviction thereof may be
punished by confinement in the
penitentiary for a term not less
than one year nor more than five
years, or fined in the sum not less
than 5000 nor more than $1,000. or
10th In .ba dfscratiop 0f the cOurt
before which such conviction shall
be had; and in addition thereto,
any Office or official position held
by any person or persons so con-
victed shall by the fact OF such
conviction become vacant and shall
be so declared as part OF the judg-
ment of the court; and the per-
son or persons so convicted shall
be disqualified from holding any
Office or position of trust and con-
fidence in this state for the pc
Rod of two years from and after
the date of such conviction" In
the past three years the concerns
in which Mr.. Richmond is a heavy
stakeholder have sold to Rock Is
land county s5.61217 worth OF
commodities. Without comment
this explains why Mr.. Richmond
desired TO control the investiga-
ton.
AS to the extravagances OF my
office. merely say that the figures
which you quoted are not true;
and II you are interested in tell
ing the truth you can look at the
records and find out that what
say Is true. | will say further,
that the expenses of my office are
far less than the expenses of
states attorneys Offices in coun-
ties of the same size over the
state. Without mentioning any
figures, suffice it to say. that
have paid into the county treas
ury every cent that belonged to
the county; and have drawn out
OF the county treasury what be-
longed to me. and no more or no
less. Can the ex-state's attorney
boosting Richmond say as much,
From your argument ! suppose