Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-06-19


now that they were missing
| The books in the auditors office always
showed and do now. inst how NV salary
and expense account stand. 7 have never
made any concealment in that respect.
and the books have always been open to
the Inspection OF the proper officials.
Il nave requested the Hon. o. NJ. Bar
Der OF Bennington, a Judge of the United
states court or custom appeals, and my
predecessor IN the Office of auditor of ac-
counts. to make a thorough examination
OF all books and papers in the auditors
office and to report the exact situation;
and humbly ask the people Of the State
to reserve their judgment in the matter
until Judge Barber reports his findings"
1t transpired that when State Bank
Commissioner F. C. williams discovered
to Attorney General Herbert g. Barber.
After most unaccountable delay the sit
uation was put before the grand jury and
indictments were found not only against
Williams, who took the initiative. but
also against Purchasing Agent Hanley,
former deputy Of Graham as auditor,
whose threatened exposure while consid-
ering the possibility Of running for auditor
against Auditor Gates, was the cause Of
bringing the whole matter. or what the
public knows of It, to light, and against
Governor Graham himself.
BY some strange freak Of procedure. the
man who took the initiative in seeking a
remedy for the situation was brought to
trial first, and convicted Of not discover
Ing and reporting what the figures ought
to show. The trial of the other cases was
postponed, and the public was given to
understand that as soon as the Legisla-
ture met the State would get to the bot
tom of the whole station.
When the lawmakers assembled, how
ever. the soft pedal was put on and put on
to discover not a single official develop
ment in that connection came in the Leg
islature while it was in session. One Of
the arguments advanced was that this was
a situation for the courts to take care Of.
When the recent term of the Washington
county court arrived the cases against
Graham and Hanley were again put over,
and we do not know whether important
evidence witnesses have had time to
disappear or not.
| In the meantime ugly reports became
who desire to use the machinery of the
Republican party for personal preferment
are interested in trying to cover up this
whole rottenness.
Be all this as 1t may, we are constantly
in receipt of evidences that the people
of Vermont are becoming extremely res
tive under the imputation which has gain
ed printed circulation that we are a set of
crooks" and the fact that we are giving
color to this assumption by the way in
which we are neglecting the cases against
public officials.
Stripping Grahams statement Of excuses
land extenuatng statements, the two
outstanding features are, first, his admis-
sion that he did wrong, call it what one
may, SeCoHu, MS request LOT the pubic TO
withhold judgment until Judge Barber at
his request reported the exact situation.
So far as we have ever learned nothing
has come from Judge Barber even if he
consented to act. We do know that in ad-
dition to the money replaced number of
prominent Vermont republicans are cred
IDLY said to have contributed further sums
to make good the shortage in Graham S
accounts. Why?
Having in mind the way in which Will
liams was prevented by the rules of evil
dence and so on and so on from telling
what he knew about the case, we suspect
the people of Vermont will have difficulty
in finding out through the courts what
they want TO know and what they have a
fright to know about this whole situation
AS time goes on they will want to know
also who is holding up the trial of these
cases against Graham and Hanley. and
why.
Possibly another governor and new
Legislature may be elected on this
issue. but II the people of Vermont con-
tinue to have their publicity thus cen
sored' we suspect there will be a surpris-
ing change in the political complexion OF
things at Montpelier.