Judsonia weekly advance., 1917-03-07
PULASKI COUNTY GRAND JURY iNDIcTs REPRESENTATIVE
 OF CLARK COUNTY.
TWO OTHERS ARE ACCUSED
Senator Burgess and Walker Powell of Little Rock Involved in Charge of Common Conspiracy
 Powell Makes Statement.
Little Rock

Little Rock
 The Pulaski County grand jury. in it's final report submitted to Judge Lea, returned three indictments, one against Representative Stephen Mead or of Clark County, one against Sena- tor I. c. Burgess of Russllville and one against Walker V. Powell of this city The indictment against MT. Powell charges misdemeanor. Each of the indicted men was released on s1,00O bond
 Burgess and Powell are jointly charged with common conspiracy 70 hold up' persons interested in the sale of soft drinks through introduc- ton of a bill providing for heavy tax on the beverages. Common eonsplr- acy is common law offense, punish able by $100 fine or imprisonment in the county jail, or both-
 Meador, who represents Clark Coun- ty in the Legislature, is charged with proposing to Claude Ringo, Little Rock baseball enthusiast, that his sup port for the Sunday baseball bill might be secured by lifting S100 note which was about to fall due. Meador's defense, it was said, will be that the statement was made jocularly in reply to MT. Ringos question, and that he had no intention of seeking money for his vote.
 Powell and Burgess are charged with preparing bill to tax temper ance drinks and eonspiring to secure bribes from local houses interested in their sale. Henry Leiser of the Karcher Candy Company, alderman from the Second Ward is said to have been the principal witness in the two cases against Powell and Burgess.
 Walker V. Powell made the follow ing statement:
 q am charged with conspiracy in connection with two Senate bills, the object of which was to levy tax on certain soft drinks. am charged with preparing these bills and giving them to Senator Burgess to introduce, and then seeking to obtain employment to defeat them.
 'I neither prepared nor had prepar- ed, nor ever saw these bills, either be- fore or after they were introduced neither before nor after their introduc ton did l in any shape or form dis cuss the bills with Senator Burgess. except as I shall state later.
 q did not know such bills were entered, except that I read in the paper that they had been introduced. was standing in the lobby of the Ho- tel Marion one afternoon when two paged and, after finding me, stated their business, saying they were about to be destroyed, providing this heavy tax was levied on them I told then. I knew nothing of the bill in question, but while we were talking Senator Burgess walked out of the elevator and crossed the corridor, and I hailed him and asked him about the bill, and he said that it was introduced for the purpose of providing revenue for the State of Arkansas and had been sub mitted to Governor Brough and ap proved by him after making few mi nor changes. I told the two gentle men that I would make an investiga, tion of the matter and see what the chances were to kill the bill, and they agreed to meet me in the Hotel Ma rion corridor at 7:30 o'clock that evening. In the evening I met them. according to appointment, and sug- gested to them that the bill might pos sibly be killed by wearing it out, as l the session of the Legislature was so far advanced, and suggested that the first thing to dc would be to have the bill referred to a committee in order that they might be heard. They asked if I would name the fee that would charge to handle the bill for them, which I did. These gentlemen said there were others interested in this bill, associates of theirs, and sug- gested that they meet me at my of fee in the State Bank Building the following morning, which they did
 "The next morning they met me in my office and told them that it would not be necessary for them to employ me, as Burgess had been arrested and I that would perhaps end the whole I thing
 s'This is all the connection I had with the matter, and I went before the grand jury and explained 1t to them in detail"