GRAFT.

Grey River Argus, 23 April 1913, Page 7

GRAFT.

AMERICAN LEGISLATORS NR- : J RESTED. <■ | The American system 'of electing; Federal Senators by the State Legislatures seems inevitably to lead to scandal and corruption. Talk of brr- ; bery accomi>anies neairly I . 'every conr'. tested clecton, and all too frequently the charge is substantiated., as in the I rrialodorous Lorimer case. The Tatest I State to be involved in a scandal of this nature .is West Virginia, where" five members of the Legislature have been arrested charged with having >i accepted between tlvem- .£4606 to vote; for William; Seymour ' Edwards .for Federal Senator. The. candidate him self also has been placed under arrest on a bribery charge. -In West Virgi n i a the. Legislature hat's -been d.eadlocked for some: weeks on the election cf :i senator, three candidates holding about an equal number of votes. According to the prosecuting attorney, Delegate S. Rhodes, who is one of the "lleged bribetakers under arrest, was heard to remark that for something over 50,000 dollars he would change sfx votes in the two Houses. The prosecutor then secured the services of a number of private detectives,", who . are said to have treated with the corrupt legislators -for 'their -votes, and to have paid them 'in. marked money, which was found on them after their arrest. Two days after, the arrest of ti^e four a delegate, who .is also a ; clergyman, T. J. Smith, informed the ' House that Rhodes had offered him -000 dollars if he would vote for William Seymour Edwards and had thrust 500 dollars into his pocket. POLICE-PROTECTED VICE. An extraordinary and detailed confirmation of the story of. a compact between' the New York police force and organised vice, as revealed in the notorious Becker case last year, has rome to the ears of District Attorney Whitman of that city. Graft money running into millions has in recent years been paid by keepers of illegal resorts, hotels that violate the laws,, gambling-house proprietors,, pickpockets, and others to the supposed guardians of tile law and distributed in. fixed proportions amongst -the captains and inspectors and other;". "officers : "of the force. A series of sensational confessions seems to have split open the, whole nefarious system, and some of the most prominent police officers of New York have been suspended on charges of (receiving protection money. .' "■ . • . '

The confession of Eugene Fox, a policeman who was about to be tried on an accusation that he was a collector of corrupt funds, was the (first startling revelation. Fox -told the district attorney that from March, igoS, to 10,12,' he had collected from various Harlem hotelkeepers something like jC'oo a month, in sums from £s to month from each house. For this purpose he reguraly visited twelve hotels in a district assigned to him. Of the money collected he was permitted to keep io per cent. remainder went to a police captain named Thomas Walsh. Two days later came the confession of Captain Walsh, corroborating the. patrolman, and implicating men still higher up. Of the money received by him from Fox said AVf».lsh, he had retained 50 per cent, and paid the remainder to an inspector, whom he named ; he added that .the inspector divided his share with a man still higher . in the; service. Walsh admitted that of the "graft" money received, by him from hotels '.he 'had 1 handed between £5000 and .£IO,OOO to the inspector. After this confession Inspector I>ennis Sweeney,. Captain •■ Walsh*-- and two other captains were suspended, and it is .expected that they will be indicted and tried; .. : On top of this bursting open of the corrupt system comes the testimony before the Grand Juiry of James ;Pur■cell, a professional gambler. For.. 17. years, said Purcell under oath, he had run gambling houses in New York without interference by "doing business 1 ' with the police. In all he had given the' police more than ,£16,000 during the period, he testified. "I have paid money to every .squad triat was ever detailed from headquarters to suppress gambling, except one; they all took it except Captain Costigan's. squad," was one remark made by Purcell. When the police had to act on complaints from outside they "tipped him off," to the fact that a raid was about to be made. Police Commissioners and inspectors came and went dur ; ng the time Purcell was operating gambling houses, but it made no difference, he stated-