The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-05-08
HISTORY MADE
BY CRUSADE OF
i times in STATE
Battle Exposed Indiana
Corruption Ring, Led
by Stephenson.
Continued From Page Il

iCUuLnuuSu TEUIu rage ~
Senator, and continued to rule over
q sarcastic and guffawing State.
The Times also produced the car
bon copy of letter written by
Stephenson to jackson reminding
him that Stephenson had spent
some $4,000 to secure his nonina-
ton.
The State began to wake up. The
Times produced other checks, which
according to attached notes in
I Stephenson's handwriting, were
! drawn in payment to preachers,
I race newspapers, politicians.
n r
FTHE climax, as far as Governor
Il Ed Jackson was concerned,
came when The Times printed,
without qualification, a copyrighted
story by Frank J. Prince who had
done much of the investigation in
other cases,
It revealed that when a candidate
and Secretary of State he had Of
fered bride of $4,000 and an offer
OF immunity before any jury, local
or Federal, to Warren T. McCray,
then Governor, in return for the ap-
pointment of a henchman of the
Klan group as prosecuting attorney
of indianapolis.
McCray was then under indict-
ment in Federal cuorts. He re-
fused the bribe, was convicted and
served forty months,
After three weeks of silence, Gov
krnor Jackson wrote a letter Of de-
NAL to The Times and the next day
was indicted by a grand jury, which
in it's indictment, said that the facts
had been concealed from the prose-
cutor and the public until published
by The Times.
This allegation was made in order
10 set aside the statute of limita-
tions and to charge -concealment.
At his trial the charge Of The
Times was substantiated by McCray;
by his son-in-law; by others who
were sent to McCray by Jackson and
George v. Coffin, Republican county
chairman, indicted with Jackson on
the bribery charge.
At the conclusion of the testi-
mony, the attorneys asked and Sc
cured his dismissal on the ground
that there had been no proof that
jackson had actively concealed his
crime.
The statute of limitations oper-
ated, and saved him. The Gov
ernor, despite Statewide demands,
refuses to resign and has made no
further statements.
TN its exposure Of the sources OF
l. misrule in the State, The Times
exposed the fact that the two
United States Senators actively had
interested themselves in behalf Of
the Rev. E. S. Shumaker head Of
the Anti-Saloon League then who
was under charges of contempt of
the Supreme Court and later was
convicted.
Correspondence was produced
that verified these charges.
Clyde Walb was chairman Of the
Republican State committee when
Stephenson came into control OF the
State.
Walb now is at Leavenworth,
Kansas, in the Federal prison, con-
victed of conspiring to loot the bank
Of his home city through forged
notes.
Here again The Times forced the
exposure and the prosecution. 1t
printed the facts concerning the
forgeries at a time when powerful
influences were operating to hide
the facts.
A former State Treasurer is under
indictment for taking commissions
from banks on State deposits. That
prosecution is based on facts by
The Times.
Five other minor city officials Of
Indianapolis have been indicted.
Two of them have been convicted.
One other has pleaded guilty.
AS an incident to lJS general ex-
posure and q demand for complete
investigation, The Times was re-
SponSible for the bringing Of i'm
parchment charges against Judge
Clarence w. Dearth of Muncie, a
Klan product, who mad confiscated
newspapers which criticized him.
The house Of representatives
voted SO to / to bring the charges.
The Senate failed to convict under
the necessary two-thirds vote by a
single ballot.
II
THESE are some of the results
L obtained by The Times in its
effort to give the people the facts
concerning their government.
The facts were obtained despite the
pressure of official power to suppress
them; against the use of money to
purchase the evidence; against the
combined efforts of a great political
machine to discredit and to terrify.
The machine, of course, hi It back.
There was an effort to indict Boyd
Gurley, its editor, in the Federal
court, by the use of a forged aft1-