The Farmington times., 1921-08-12
INVESTIGATIONS AND
REALTY DEALS

The marvellous report of the House
Committee on the extension of the
grounds of the Lincoln Institute con-
tinues to agitate few gentlemen,
who are probably Mortified because
the Board of Regents did not buy the
ground just across the road. One
would imagine that appropriations
for public purposes are made in Sc
cret session, and that they are blindly
proposed and blindly adopted. The
idea of defrauding the state on the
purchase of land for a public institu-
ton by some sort of vague conspiracy
is silly, particularly when it is land
located in Jefferson City. The appro-
priations committee of the House Wis
tied the ground proposed to be pur-
chased and the appropriation was vet
ed many weeks thereafter. with a
thousand opportunities to view the
premises, and call witnesses as to the
property's value 1t was only wher
some queer kind of a political ext
gency arose that it became necessary
to complain and Investigate" II
anybody is to blame for any misap-
preparation of the public funds. it is
the Legislature which made the ap-
preparation, not the people who sold
the land, even if there had been any
misappropriation, and there was none
Suppose the legislature had passed
bill to purchase the ground between
the capitol and the mansion, which
has been discussed for some years
and had authorized a commission tc
buy the ground within certain limit
! and the ground was duly purchased
Then, suppose, thereafter, it develop
ed that somebody had an arrangement
with a property-owner, by which he
handled the transaction as an agent
and collected a third as his commits
sion; would that invalidate the trans
action? Would it invalidate or affect
in any manner a private transaction
in which an agent made profit, Of
which the purchaser knew nothing
Of course not. Suppose, however
that some property owner between
the capitol and the mansion wanted tx
sell his ground, and the commission
for some adequate reason did not bu!
it, and then the property owner hap
pened to be a prominent politician, ca
pable of raising a noise? His frs
procedure would be to attack SOM
other property owner, whose land wa
acquired, and what better way thai
through legislative committee? An,
especially a legislative committee tina
sat in secret, excluded all persons ex
cept selected witnesses, and called NJ
witnesses except those calculated u
justify a preconceived notion and in
| tent of the committee, and then per
mitted no more than one witness t
be present at any one time.
The Investigation was conducte
with the deliberate and manifest in
tent of submitting certain conclusions
Their findings could have been ren
dered just as easily without callin
i any witnesses, and it was altogethe
unnecessary to go through the man
Z false motions that were made. Onl
1 witnesses were called who would b
d likely to testify to certain hypotheti
,beal facts, which the committee want
ed to prove its own case, and no on
was permitted to cro5ssexamine tn
witnesses or suggest the calling o
Eothers. Partisan newspapers who eS
'fproit this investigation and discus
the conclusions of the committee tina
conducted It have very little to d'
when they justify either.-Missoul
: State Journal.