The Washington times., 1923-12-20
CRAFT CHARGED
TO-V|RG|N|A
OFFICIALS
Accounting of Funds Spent
by County Supervisors
Is Asked.

A prediction that the State of
Virginia may be shaken by sensa-
tional exposures of graft among
the various county officials was
made today by Attorney T. Morris
Wampler, following the filing of a
suit before Judge Samuel G. Brent
in circuit court at Fairfax to force
the board of county supervisors OF
Fairfax to give an accounting Of
the moneys they have expended.
First Accounting in Years.
According to Wampler, the county
supervisors have not given an &C.
counting of their expenditures for
years, despite the fact that the law
Of the State requires an accounting.
Among alleged gross irregularities
pointed out by Wampler are:
County supervisors spend from
5000 to $4,000 to secure the cleo
ton which cannot net them, legally,
more than $3.50 a year.
The roads tax is higher in Vir-
GINA than in Maryland and the
roads are the poorest in the coun-
try.
The county supervisors Of Fairfax
county have paid themselves as
high as $4,000 a year, when the
legal limit was $3.50.
Drawn Excess Pay.
Members of the board have at
tended, in one instance. twenty-seven
\ meetings and have drawn pay for
| forty meetings.
Attorney Wampler declared today
that he would ask Judge Brent to
call a special session of the grand
jury to Investigate the charges which
he has set forth in his suit before
the judge.
every county in the State should
be investigated" Wampler declared.
II believe that when the nature Of
| the charges becomes known over the
State there will be an insistent de-
mand for such Investigations and 1
predict that startling disclosures will
result"
For years and years Virginia
has been expanding enormous sums
on her roads-and she has nothing.
The good roads law Of the State is
one Of the best in the country, ano
it has teeth in it, but the county
supervisors have simply been ig-
noring it totally"
The petition filed by Attorney
Wampler- himself a resident Of
Fairfax county, is signed by F. M.
Mohler, C. B. Cooper, F. F. Thomp.
son, D. G. Mahoney, H. A. Sager,
c. M. budding, B. F. Mcclure, and
A. H. Kirk, all residents of Fair
fax county.
Supervisors Named.
Those of the board of supervisors
Of that county who were named
were: Commonwealth Attorney W.
son M. Farr, county treasurer F.
w. Huddleston, and county super
Visors F. l.. Ballinger, George F.
Harrison, w. p +. Reid, c.. N.
Stuart, and d. w. Buckley and
Donald Blake.
Ried has held office since 1909.
and Ballinger since 1915.
For the past several months At
torney Wampler has had an auditor
going over secretly the minutes of
board meetings. The attorney de-
CldTeU l1dL LnlS duQlLOr mad found
amazing breaches of the law COM
mitted. He found, it is alleged, that
many of the members had been
given as high as $4,000 and had
spent it without showing how one
penny Of the money was used
Ring Is Widespread.
Attorney Wampler declared that,
in his belief. many counties in Vir
GINA were confronted by the same
ring. He asserted that ATTORNEYS
living in the counties were afraid to
prosecute the supervisors for their
alleged Irregularities. AS exem-
plifying this Wampler said that the
committee that called upon him and
asked him to take the case said
that several attorneys living in
Virginia had refused to take the
case because they were afraid that
they would get in bad.
Commonwealth Attorney Furr is
said to have had knowledge Of the
alleged Irregularities, Wampler sets
forth in his petition, yet he failed
to, take action. There are thirty
seven counts In the petition filed in