The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1915-10-22
THE FORMER
BEN RINGO
The commemorative Attor-
ney Changes Tune.
Instructions to Grand Jury in
October 1913 Differ Greatly
From Oct. 1915.

Extracts from Mr.. Ringo's instruc-
ton to the grand jury:
Gentlemen of the grand jury. there
are just some matters OF much i'm
/, portance that | want to speak to you
about.
That the public in adcance may
undersnd what they are going up
against / want to say these few
things to you good men. l know
this county as well as any man, and
know the good people who live here
/ want to do the right thing. The
people of Ohio county do not want
to violate the law, and the majority
are good, law abiding citizens; but a
/ long time ago there grew up in this
county a tendency to use money in
, elections. Some of you older men
remember. That was an evil day
for us all. During my residence in
! this county l took an active interest
1 in pOlitics-mOre than / ought to
have taken, because we are ALI one
race and one blood, and lore our
country and her government the
same. And the lineup with the
parties is just an effort to get what
the good people consider best for
the public welfare. There are men
who line up with the different par
ties just to get the dollar, but the
good men of Ohio county do not do
that. You know that and do. But
there were some good men around
here who made up their minds they
could influence the election by put
ting out some dollars. They put out
the poison, and ever since that time
that some men got into their minds
that a public election was just a pri-
vate snap, and they went into it for
just what they could get out of II.
That went on until it finally got so
these men around this court house
could not win an election without its
taking three years OF salary to pay
| the expenses OF the election. These
men are honest men. but sometimes
men of other kind get into Office,
but l never knew dirty dollar to
pass the hands of any officer of Ohio
/ county. But when "a man has to
spend the hard-earned money of
many years labor to get into office.
it takes hard fight not to fall to
the temptation of getting it back
when he had to spend il in getting
his office.
In the beginning many thought it
was all right to pay man for his
time in going to the election. when
he worked at sawmill. or some
thing, it was alright to pay some
one to work in his place when he
went and voted, and IS on the side:
/ but that has grown into such pro-
portions that we see now the evils of
! this and know the custom should
never have been established. The
public knows this is wrong. and you
and / know it is wrong, and the
thing to be done is to suppress 1t. |
am not speaking on account OF any
, bOdy's party, but on my own respon-
sibility. | am not representing any
party. 1t is true affiliate with one
party. as yon know. but | am not
going to permit myself to be led by
any political party. but speaking for
the State OF Kentucky. which l rep
resent. want TO say TO you that the
last bit OF power that the State
which represent has. is go
ing to be used In an effort
to have an honest election In
Ohio county. We have clean set
of men around this court house and
many around here have said We
don't want this business have re-
ferred to any more: and the Com
monwealth of Kentucky is going to
help them have a clean election this
time. I'll read to you the Statutes
pertaining to this matter which the
law-making power OF this state has
made. (The Statutes relative to
bribery were read.)
That means that any man convict
ed under that statute shall not only
/ be fined and sent to jail but shall be
DISTINGUISHED. That statute is going
to be enforced in Ohio county, be-