The Butler weekly times and the Bates County record. (Butler, Mo.) 1918-1950, 1920-10-14

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l1pifaai SsectibiI feyts h y M sorry with
f6latths AZ NosteS, Mayor Cow
txilI Tdesday morning issued z
lstatement ecvere1y arraiGning Fos-
Itery Catserek Or, 4 Boetess ~
ftotney ana him6eIf D u candida tor
office: Arfhnr Hyde, Republican
Ecandidate for governor nffd The KAN
(AAs City Star for seeking to raise, .
|faise issus "A the state and county
x sn,syor s. j d. call. Il A attention - the
|fScf thAt when the CONTEXT Was H.
|6fituted, he offered to pay the cost
/ of the entire contest il he should lose,
|prnyided Foster would agree 70
Btsnd tlses expense If he should Be
tle loser Poster refused. Tie de-
The mayor ssases that despite the
fact that Foster and Orr took an
oath not to. disclose the findinGD of
the Investigation until IL \ WSG com.
|plet<d, both have made speEciJGSss h
which they as0ught by indirectibns 20
Ecfeate the belief that the probe 80
|far Has shown w3lc cIesaie fraud. z \, IL. !;
n The maxort aiso states that The
Star has enlarged upon the alleGa-
tiOns il these speeches. He calls at-
tention to the fact that contempt OF
court has been committed, every party
% the contest having been enjoined
to secrecy BY Judge Hall, in whose
court the contest was instituted.
The mayor says that the only legal
purpose Of the contest is to deter
mine whether he IS entitled to the Of
flee. and, in effect, asks if the con-
duct Of his opponents does not indiS
cate that it was brought in bad faith
and tpureiy for political purposes. His
statement in full follows:
ITO the Public:
The Democratic party and the
.peoplel of this. city, and state have
often honored me BY vote Of con-
ifdence apd a bestowal Of trust and
official obligation. / shall not again
seek office, but would feel myself
Unworthy of your confidence did !
not make answer to the. continuous
iHsinuations appearing III The. Kan
sas City Star that | am holding the
office Of mayor, by reason of open
aud wholesale frauds in violation Of
the criminal as we'll as the civil law
at bur state. " Al
hen this contest was, filed I
xhSllengk6 athe good falfii of Mn cis,
- E A1ot9d s1rEfA sytaS Il purely
iflGxl ui6gc. E has no legal;
1AndinG eKt&pt fiAt III III intended
S2 prove by secount Of the ballots
and an exposufeso the wholesale
fraaaH alleged in the petition that Mr..
Foster and not myself was actually
elected mayor of this city.
Before q single ballot box was
opened, i offered and. insisted, thas
the costs of this political move should
not be paid out of the money coming
into the treasury from taxes levied
against the. property Of our people
fot the purposes of city government;
that we should agree that the loser
pay the costs as in any other law
suit Mr. Foster Declined this. The
contest would have been completed
and the report made public long ago
It he had agreed. The delay is the
result of his refusal. When these
proceedings were opened every per-
son that had. access to the hearings
was required to take an oath not to,
directly or indirectly, disclose or di-
vulge to any person any fact or mat |
ler touching the recount or any result |
thereof, until the hearings had closed
md > final report been made in open |
Mr, Foster took this oath and yet
n- > pubished statement, by indirec-
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