The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-06-26
The Graham Case Again.
Burlington Free Press. }

The more the people of Vermont |
learn about the case involving the |
shortage or whatever may be the tech |
meal name for the wrong dong
which Graham admitted in his letter
written for him by a steering com
mittee,' the more mystified must they
be. 1t will be recalled that in the let
ter in question printed in the Vermont
newspapers in August, 1913, there APP
peared this statement:
Il have requested the Hon. O. NJ.
Barber of Bennington, Judge of the
United States court of customs appeals
and my predecessor in the office of aud
itor of accounts, to make a thorough
examination of all books and papers in
the auditor s 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"
Months passed, and "the buck was
also passed" back and forth, the di-
rectors of non-pnblicity in the case say
| ing first that the case ought not to be
| tried in court as the Legislature would
go to the bottom of the whole matter,
and when the legislature actually met,
urging in turn that the courts had the
matter in hand and the Legislature
should not interfere.
When the Washington county court
met, the trial of the case was further
postponed, or in court terminology or
! intcrminology, continued as was al
so the case against former Purchasing
| Agent Hanley.
| On June IA last the Free Press,
moved by the inquiry of resident of
Burlington as to the status of these
cases reprinted the whole letter stated,
and raised the question why the people
/ of Vermont had never heard from this
personally conducted investigation, dur
ing which they were asked to suspend
judgment.
The Free Press has received from its
Bennington correspondent one answer
to the question as follows:
Judge o. NJ, Barber of the United
States court of customs appeals, who
has just arrived at his old Bennington
home for the summer recess, was this
afternoon shown q copy of the Free
Press containing the editorial urging
that former Governor Graham be tried
for the charges preferred against him
and which resulted from his admins
tration of the Office of auditor of ac-
counts.
- 1t is true said Judge Barber,
that | read Governor Graham s state
ment at the time it was published in
the newspapers. 1t is also true that /
declined the governors request
Further than making this state
|ment Judge Barber did not discuss the
matter and shifted the conversation
into another channel"
In other words, the "steering com
mittee,' having asked the people of
Vermont in the name of Mr.. Graham
TO suspend judgment until Judge Bar
Der could report, never took the people
of Vermont into his or their confidence
by telling them Judge Barber had de-
clined to act, or rather he or they
played a "confd.nce game" on the
people of the state by letting them
think they would get a real statement
of the whole situation from Judge Bar
Der and then leaving the whole matter
Iup in the air, when Judge Barber de-
clined to accept the task
To paraphrase famous utterance
the steering committee not only dis
sembled their love for the people of
: Vermont but also kicked their publ
city department downstairs
The people of Vermont would now
like to know various things:
First, are they to look for anv real
disclosure of the whole matter in the
court, or must they expect to have the
testimony sifted through the meshes of
the rules Of evidence and other red
tape, which will prevent them from
finding out what they want to know
, and what they have a right to know.
J Second, is the steering committee
still steering or has Mr. Graham been
east adrift to look out for himself9
Third, if the steering committee
has not discharged itself, are we to have
Q another postponement of the trial un
, til the next legislature meets in Jan
: uary, 1921, and then another continue
ton and so on indefinitely? Are III,
people of Vermont to be forced to de
wise some other way of getting at thu