Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1907 — STILL MORE PERSECUTION. [ARTICLE]

STILL MORE PERSECUTION.

Republican County Chairman Files • Libel Case Against Democrat Editor. The persecution that the editor of this paper has been subjected to in the past nine years—or during bis connection with the Democrat —was given another twist last Saturday when he was arrested on an affidavit filed by Abraham Halleck, ex-county commissioner and at present county attorney and chairman of the republican county central committee, charging criminal libel in the publication of the following article last December. The squabble in Newton county over the new court house iurniture contract calls to mind a little interesting history regarding the $14,000 furniture contract in this county some years ago—a little unpublished history. The story as told to us —and we have every reason to believe it is correct—is as follows: When the furniture came on here there were three handsome leather covered couches, one for each commissioner, as a present from the concern that furnished the stuff. John Martindale of Newton tp., one of the commissioners at that time, refused to accept his couch or take it home with him, and the other members didn’t dare to take theirs unless John did. As a result there are three leather covered couches in the courthouse today that didn’t cost Jasper county anything—that is, no bill was presented for them. One of these couches, we believe, is now in Judge Hanley’s private rooms in the court house, one is in the “ladies’ waiting room," and the other one we are not advised what has become of it. If the reader cares to investigate this story further he might ask John Martindale about it. It will be remembered that Mr. Martindale refused to sign the •Detract for the $27300 clock, when that was purchased, and the records show that he did not join the other commissioners in said contract. It will no doubt puzzle most people to determine just how Mr. Hallock is libeled in the above article, but he comes in in his affidavit and swears that he and Fred Waymire and John Martindale were the county commissioners in 1898, when said furniture was shipped here, and that the article meant “and intended to charge and being understood as charging that said Frederick R. Waymire and this affiant, Abraham Halleck, were willing to receive and did receive from the said Conant Brothers Furniture Company, each a leather covered couch, in consideration of said contract so entered into, carried out and performed by them as members of the Board of County Commissioners of Jasper County, Indiana, in violation of their official oath and of the criminal laws of the state of Indiana.” Now, to show the personal animus of this man Halleck —who, we have reason to believe has been the directing spirit in practically all the persecution we have been subjected to here in the past nine years—we desire to say that ueither he nor Mr. Waymire were even members of the board of commissioners at the time the court house furniture contracts were let, and so far as we know now were not at the time the furnishings were shipped here. Therefore they had nothing whatever to do with the “entering into or carrying out said contracts,” except possibly allow the bills when presented.

He also swears that the furniture was shipped here “some time during the spring or early summer of said year” (1898), when as a matter of fact it was shipped the year previous and was stored here a long time before the court house was completed; and the building had been accepted, the furniture placed in position and all the officers had moved in as early as March 1898. So it would appear that there is quite a discrepancy as to dates, and that venomous zeal rather than accuracy actuated the making of the affidavit. Mr. Halleck says the couches were received and paid for with the balance of the furniture. Well, perhaps they were; we simply gave the story as told to us and stated that if the reader cared to investigate the story he might ask Mr. Martindale about it. The furniture bill, as filed and allowed, was in a lump sum, we believe, and we have never seen an itemized bill or oontract, if such exists. The story was told us by a reputable citizen and was given us told, without making any charges whatever, And if the company felt that it was a large and liberal contract and that they wanted to present the commissioners eaoh with a conch, we know of no law to prevent them nor that the commissioners would be criminally liable in aooepting them.

It would seem that the prosecution is purely malicious and that if anyone oould be libeled, by any stretch of the imagination, it would be the commissioners who constituted the board at the time the furniture contracts were entered into, and certainly neither Mr. Halleck nor Mr. Waymire were on the board at that time. While Mr. Waymire’s name is mentioned in the affidavit, he does not join in the prosecution of the case. The case will come up at the April term of court here.