Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1910 — MOTIONS WERE OVERRULED; BADER WAS SENTENCED. [ARTICLE]

MOTIONS WERE OVERRULED; BADER WAS SENTENCED.

Convicted Head of Winamac Bridge Company Must Serve Penitentiary Term Unless Pardoned. • - Judge Hanley overruled the motions of the attorneys for C. li. Bader, who had argued for a new trial and also for an arrest of judgment, Monday evening at about 5:30 o’dock, and aftei asking the defendant if he had any reason why sentence should not be passed, he sentenced the convicted man to the northern penitentiary for a term of two to fourteen years and placed him in the custody of Sheriff Shirer. Mr. Bader evidently did not understand the court when asked ii he had any reason why sentence should not be passed. He made no response hut when the court had sentenced him he showed the same emotion that he had on the morning almost two weeks before when the jury had returned a verdict of “guilts.-” The ruling of the court came 'as a surprise for it had been understood that the court would grant a new trial and Attorney Hathaway, who had accompanied Mr. Bader from Winamac, did not make any argument on behalf of his client, who is also a business partner in the bridge business.

Prosecuting Attorney Longwell cited some new authorities and referred tc the statute requiring that when a man is arraigned under a false name, he state his right name before pleading and Mr. Longwell again pleaded forcefully against the support of the motions. Mr. Williams then cited several cases in support of his motion and had hardly taken his seat when the court made his ruling. It is possible that some means may yet be found to prevent the convicted man from going to th,e penitentiary but this is improbable unless Governor Marshall should pardon or parol him. The friends of the man at# Winamac were shocked at the news that sentence had been passed and telephone messages from there indicated that the feeling there was that of Universal sorrow and that an effort would be started to appeal to Governor Marshall to at once parol Bader. This position is based on the general conviction that Bader is not intentionally a criminal and that he is the victjm of circumstances that he did not himself kno& the seriousness of. Mr. Bader has been a resident of Pulhski county for twenty-flv,e years. He lived for many years at the town of Pulaski and was engaged in the milling business. He has been connected with the bridge company for only about two years and has followed an aggressive business policy. He has met the united opposition of other bridge companies, whom his friends assert were leagued against him and who they say are believed to have often framed up to secure good big prices for their bridges to the detriment of the taxpayers’ interests. A Winamac citizen who talked with the Republican this morning said that he knew that the Winamac Bridge Co. had been approached by other bridge companies and asked to get in the ring and frame up with them. He said that this matter was presented to Mr. Bader, who said that he would engage in no business of that kind, but would go it single handed and take his chances in a fair method of competition. That it would be hard to prove that the other bridge companies

have been guilty of framing things up is no doubt but a man who has frequently filed bids for bridges in Jasper county said to the writer some weeks ago, that he knew it was a common practice and that his company was not altogether averse to that pla% if they could get a better price for bridges by so doing. If this is the case, Mr. Bader has, as the Republican stated in a recent issue, been a benefactor to Jasper county and it would, be a travesty on justice if he is sent to the penitentiary because of guilt in a single Instance. Mr. Bader’s Winamac friends, and that is said to include practically every man, woman and child in that town, feel that- they know him well enough to say that he was not intentionally l or knowingly a party tp any fraud. They say that his bidding has saved every county in which business has been done, a lot of money and that if the bridges he has built are compared In price and workmanship with bridges built by any other companies, it will .be proven that he has saved Jasper county a lot of money.

After Mr. Bader had been taken to the jail Monday evening by the shetiff. the writer called on him there and asked him every question we could think of, pertinent and impertinent, and in a thoroughly frank and honest manner, Mr. Bader gave a history of his business in this county. Prior to two years ago the Winamac companj had not been doing any business here. They had been busy in other fields. There was a lot of dredging going on here, however, and the qompany decided to enter the field and they have built some 16 or 18 bridges here since that time, possibly 85 per cent of the bridges. Mr. Bader stated that he has figured very closely on these bridges and has built them conscientiously according to specifications and has put up the best bridges ever built in Jasper county. Mr. Bader said he would like to have these bridges measured up to prove that they were just what the people were paying for. H 4 stated that he had violated his specifications in the construction of two bridges besides this one. One was a case in Wheatfield township where a 45 foot span was ordered. It was during the threshing season and outfits could not cross the temporary bridge that had been built a mile east of Wheatfield. There was urgent need of the bridge and he informed Commissioner Pettit, who was importuning him to hasten the bridge through, that he did not have the material and would not be able to get it at? once, but that he had a 48 foot span of the same specifications which he would substitute. When he reached Winamac he found that the bridge he had on hand was 50 feet long instead of 48 as he had thought and thus 5 feet longer than called for but to accommodate the users of the road he shipped it to Wheatfield and thus put in a bridge that was 10 per cent longer and in every other respect equally as good. For this he received no extra pay. A bridge ovef the Howe ditch and only a mile or two further east than the one under dispute called for tubes of a certain length. They were placed on the ground but when the men came to construct the bridge it was found that they were too short to answer needs and work was suspended. Mr. Bader came to town and conferred with Auditor Leatherman and the commissioners were called by telephone and told

of the needed change in the plans Longer tubing was ordered, which meant a change in the specifications, and the bridge was completed. Mr Bader’s bill stated that the bridge had been completed according to specifications. Technically he was guilty but not intentionally. Told that the commissioners of Jasper county were being, criticised in the matter, he said there was no reason why they should be. He said he had but one criticism, to make against the commissioners and that was the fact that they could not recall the conver-

sation held in April when he had said that he could not get the material called for in the specifications and they told him to go ahead and put in a “good bridge.” He said that Denham was the one who had recalled that conversation. Mr. Bader had prepared some figures on the bridge’s shortage bailed on Marshall’s claim that it was seven tons short of metal, which he says ha does not accept as right. But allowing that shortage for the sake of arguthat the shortage for the sake of argu-

ment, Bader’s figures show that th» shortage of metal was $278.12 instead of $312.41, as figured by Marshall. He then showß that the wheel guard shortage was $8.40 instead of $26, on the basis of Marshall’s figures at S3O per thousand while he buys it at $26 per thousand. He also shows that rivers cost less than bolts, .although it costs more to set the rivets. The bolting system is given preference, however, when bolts are properly set and the bolts were used instead of the rivets because that custom is generally followed. To have used rivets instead of bolts wotrtch have made a difference of $20.74 instead of SSO as Marshall figured. The backing used for the bridge cost Bader $47.95 more than the backing called for in the specifications. For it he was allowed $25. Deducting the JIQO which the commissioners had taken from his bill, it looks like the actual shortage was $175.81 instead of $438.41 as claimed by Marshall’s testimony, and this shortage exists only provided Marshall’s figures of the weight were correct, which Mr. Bader is unwilling to admit, although he had no one at the trial able to controvert them. If Marshall was as biased in his testimony regarding weight as he apparently was in the matter of cost and wheel guard expense, and since his testimony was prompted by malice, it is probable that there is a shortage amounting to but little more than the SIOO deducted by the commissioners. This would not serve to overcome the fact that he had certified to a false claim but it would considerably minimize the thing and might suggest as the writer now verily believes, that Eader is absolutely innocent of the actual shortage of the bridge. Persons who have accepted plans for the erection of a house know that it is invariably necessary to alter them and thgt alterations cost money. Bader kne\v that the plans were altered, was frank about it and never denied it. Had he been less honest, he mighFnot have been convicted. He stated that he considered the prosecution by Marshall prompted by spite and that he never expected to be called upon to produce evidence about the material in the bridge. The writer believes Clinton L. Bader is honest and believes that to send him to the penitentiary, would be a crime worse tjjan his.. Mr. Bader has a wife and five children, three daughters and two sons. When the writer asked Mr. Bader if the questioning was displeasing ’to him, he said that it was not, that he wanted every one to know the true condition of things and that he would gladly tell any one just exactly what he knew about the matters in this county and in relation to the bridge. He was down-hearted, well nigh disconsolate, and a more thoroughly crushed man we have never seen. If the law is a corrective measure and not a persecutive one, Clinton L. Bader has been punished now as severely as the crime he committed justifies and the intention of the law of justice has already accomplished its end.