Valdez daily prospector. (Valdez, Alaska) 1905-1918, 1917-08-11
OF FIGHT ON
TEXAS OFFICIALS
GOVERNOR AND THREE
OTHERS ARE ACCUSED
Secretary of State, Building Superin-
tendent and Insurance Commits
siOner Alleged to Have Misapplied
Funds.

AUSTIN, Tex, Aug. ll.-GoVeTnoT
j. E. Ferguson who was recently In
.dicted by the Travis County grand
Jury on nine counts, seven charging
misappropriation of public funds. one
diversion of public funds and one
charge of embezzlement, vehemently
denies that there is anything to the
charge and says that his political enc
mics are jobbing him. The Governor
refused to make any statement as to
the foundation for the charges but
says he will run again when his pres
,ent term expires.
c. J. Bartlett, secretary Of state,
was indicted on six counts, charging
misapplication of public funds. c. j.
Stone, state superintendent of build
ings and grounds, was indicted on one
count. C. C. Austin, commissioner OF
insurance and banking, was indicted
on four counts
Other indictments were returned,
but have not been announced. Fol-
lowing Gov. Ferguson's appearance
before the grand jury. several days
ago, sensational developments had
been expected.
During the last half year the gov
ernor has been the center of series
Of exciting instances. Last Monday
Fl. o. Fuller, speaker of the Texas
house of representatives, called a spe-
cial session for August to consider
whether articles of impeachment
should be presented against the gov
ernor.
In his call Fuller said that there
y we're four matters to be considered,
most important being the action of
the governor is vetoing the appro-
priation for the University of Texas
aand alleged Misrepresentation in
the awarding of the West Texas A.
and M. College to Abilene.
This was the second attempt made
to impeach Gov. Ferguson this year.
The first was in March, when spe-
cial house committee went into ex-
haustive investigation of mansion ex-
penditures and the affairs of the Tenn
pie State Bank, of which the govern
or formerly was president.
The indictment charging embezzle-
ment against the governor contains
only mention of the sum involved and
the identifying date. The amount is
$1,000.
OF the seven charges of misapplica-
tion of funds, one refers to the sum
of $1O1, $50 collected by Gov. o. B.
Colquitt, Ferguson's predecessor, as
insurance on the building of the West
Texas normal school at Canyon City.
The governor is alleged to have re-
'ceived this sum from Colquitt and to
have placed it in the Temple State
Bank. Each of the bills returned
against Secretary of State Bartlett
charges misapplication in that he is
alleged to have failed to pay into the
state treasury funds held in his GUS
tody until after the time specified by
law.
In the case of C. o. Austin, COM
missioner of insurance and banking,
the indictment charged these misap-
plications:
December 6, 1915, $962; Septem-
ber 2S, 1916, $1,595; December 8,
1915, 1892. so; September IS, 1915,
$3,O35.
The indictments against Charles L.
Stone, superintendent of public
buildings and grounds, charges the
misapplication Of $644.16 November
"a, 1915. AS in the other instances
there were no additional specifica-
tions in the documents returned by
the grand jury.