Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1910 — GOVERNOR’S DEFENSE [ARTICLE]

GOVERNOR’S DEFENSE

In Paroling Winamac Bridge Grafter Without Any Investigation On His Part. W • 11. Blodgett, the well known traveling correspondent for the Indianapolis News, was in Rensselaer Tuesday afternoon and W ednesday forenoon securing material for an article for his paper on the bridge graft conviction in this county, which appeared in Thursday’s News. Mr. Blodgett interviewed Judge Hanley, Sheriff Shircr, County Attorney I lalleck and probably several others, hut there is not much in his article except what had already been told by Ihe Democrat ....

Ile does; however, refer to the alleged raising of the bid of the Winamac Bridge Co., from $1,240 to $1,400, on the Milroy tp., bridge in question, which matter, it is reported has been placed before the grand jury for its consideration. What induced Governor Marshall to interfere with the law’s course in this particular case ha 4 )een a mystery to the people of this vicinity, and Blodgett’s article caused the News to make an investigation at that end of the line which will be ,of interest to our readers, and we copy it in full:

The records in the office of the secretary of state in the case of Clinton L. Bader, of the Winamac Bridge Company, show that Bader was paroled by Governor Marshall March 18, after he had been convicted in the Jasper circuit court for presenting an alleged false claim for bridge construction work in the county in which ho was convicted. The parole, it is shown, followed the return of a verdict of guilty by the jury. In writing ‘the parole, the following conditions were imposed by the chief executive: The parole period was th end with the decision from the supreme court on an appeal from th'c lower trial court; in the event the higher court sustained the lower the term of Bader’s incarceration in state’s prison should begin from the time he enters tlie prison after the decision of the higher tribunal; bond pending the decision of the higher court was fixed at $2,000; thirty days from the issue of the parole was given Bader in which to appeal to the higher court. The two latter conditions of the parole have been complied with. Bond was given at once, it appears, and on April 15 Bader’s attorneys, filed the appeal with the clerk of the supreme court. The only communication direct from Bader to the found in the parole case records, ls> a short, note in which he thanked the executive, on behalf of himself and his family, for the clemency shown. After the parole was Issued and Bader was released on bond, the newspapers in Rensselaer, Remington and Winamac contained accounts of the action, and much bitterness, it appears, resulted because of the Governor’s action. On March 19, Dr. E. Besser, of Remington,* wrote to the Governor, inclosing a clipping from a Remington newspaper setting forth the fact that Bader had been released on the order of the Governor. Dr. Besser protested,” closing his letter by saying, ‘‘We want graft eliminated from contract work in the county.”

The Governor wrote at considerable length to Dr. Besser, his lettet running in full' as follows, under date of March 23: “I am extremely sorry if I mode a mistake in granting a parole to Clinton L. Bader. Facts must be understood, however, in regard to the effect of my parole: The supreme court of Indiana could not turn Bader loose because df a mere technicality. Indeed, It could not turn him loose at all. The only thing it could do jvcyild be to grant him a new trial on the ground that he did not receive a fair and impartial trial below. “The last general assembly passed a bill granting a man who took an appeal to the supreme court a parole, under bond, pending the determination of the appeal, and I would have signed it and mad? it become a law had it provided that in the event of the confirmation of the case by the suprejne court the punishment should begin at the time of the rendition of the judgment. “Representation was made to me that the judge of your court afi-

nouriced that he would be compelled to grant Bader a new trial, and that he went so, ( far as to notify parties at Winamac to come over and sign Bader’s bond.- I am not pretending to speak as to the guilt or. innocence of the man, but if a judge says he is going to give a man a new trial and then' fails, I do say that no injustice has b&gn done the public by the granting of a parole which provides that in case of appeal to the supreme court the .punishment shall begin with the denial. If it should turn put that this man was innocent instead of guilty, as you now believe him to be, do you not think it would be a little bit harsh to compel him to stay in the penitentiary while appeal for a new trial was pending? ‘•I always regret "to run counter to the opinion of the people of any community, but I am willing to abide by critlcsm when I know that the just punishment of a man will not be avoided by my conduct and that I am merely giving him full opportunity to establish his innocence./ . .' “Understand, I am not complaining of the critlcsm, because I think the people have just as much right criticise a court and assume that a has made a mistake as I have to critise a court and assume that a judge should have granted a new trial when he did not do so.”

On two petitions which came to the Governor’s oilice for th.e release of Bader, pending decision on his appeal, one from Pulaski county and one from Jasper county, there were eighty-nine: names, sixty from the former and twenty-nine from the latter. On the former were the names of Francis J. Verpillat, judge of the Forty-fourth judicial circuit; B. D. L. Glazebrook, prosecuting attorney for the district; H. L. Rogers, county superintendent of schools; M. H. Ingram, editor of the Demo-crat-Journal; W. M 3. Huddleston, president First National Bank, Winamac; W. F. Kahler, chairman Pulaski county Republican committee, and Carl W. Riddick, editor of the Winamac Republican and former secretary- of the Republican state committee. On the petition from Jasper county appeared the names of N. Littlefield, chairman of the Jasper county Democratic committee; G. H. Healey, editor of the Remington Republican; J. M. Wasson, president of the First National Bank of Remington, and Abraham Halleck, state senator from Jasper, White, Newton and Starke counties. Mr. Littlefield, however, withdrew his name froifi ' the petition by the following telegram, sent on March 14; “Misinformed. Please withdraw my name from parole petition of C. L. Bader.” On the same cfay F. E. Babcock, editor of the of Remington, sent the Governor the following telegram: “Court investigated thoroughly in question of Bader’s guilt. Inadvisable to interfere with verdict. If in doubt, wire, telephone or write Edward Honan.” No record of any word from Mr. Honan was found among the Bader papers. Neither was there any papers in the case, as filed, to show the source of the Governor’s information that the court- had said it would grant Bader a new .trial and that it had sent word to Winamac for friends of Bader to come over and sign his bond. Bader’s defense was chiefly in the hands of the law firm of Hathaway, Horner & Thompson, of Winamac. Mrt Hathaway,- it appears, took the lead in obtaining the petitions for the release of Bader. A long letter from James W. McEwan, the veteran editor of the Democratic Sentinel, was received askings for Bader’s release. ' Governor .Marshair says the representation ‘that the judge of the Jasper county court had said he would grant Bader a new trial and that he had sent word to Bader’s friends in Winamac to get ready to sign his bond was made by M. M. Hathaway, Bader’s attorney. The Governor .-aid he • had known Mr. HathaAVav for a great many years apd had absolute confidence in his integrity, and that on Mr. Hathaway’s word, he had proceeded with his action in the case. . “It must be remembered that the power of pardon and parole lies in the hands of the Governor, where it is placed by the Constitution.” sgid the Governor. “To the people is given the right to criticise when the Governor does not exercise this right to please them. But as for the Governor's right, it is his, not a town meeting affair, or an affair which calls for an election before the executive can act. I believe now, as I believed then, that I did the right thing when I paroled Bader. His aged father was ill, members of his- family were ill, and I was led to believe by one of my most trusted friends that the trial court had promised him a new trial. Under those circumstances I paroled Bader, and, under like circumstances, I would parole him again. I placed in the parole such conditions as would insure punishment if guilty, and gave him a chance to prove his innocence. If he goes to prison by a finding of the higher court, he will not have gained in freedopi part of the time that he has been sentenced to serve.

‘•I repeat what I t aid concerning appeals -to . .the supreme court in criminal cases, where thfec accused should) be givpn opportunity to give bond pending appeal, the sentence, if the lower court is confirmed, shall begin from the time of the confirmation. I said when I vetoed Senator Stotsenburg’s hill in the late session of the legislature, that’t ’was a measure bf justice if properly drawn. ’lndiana is far behind her sister states in that respect.” -. . • /. “It is reported that you had an understanding with one or more editors of the interested in the case 1 that if you were to parole Bader the newspapers were hot to ’roast’ you for it,” whs said to the Governor, “No such understanding existed. The only time the newspapers were mentioned in the matter was when I told Mr. Hathaway, when he spoke to me of petitions', that the petition, to be effective, should contain the names of the editors of the newspapers interested, and as I remember the petitions,"the editors signed them.” One newspaper, the Remington Democrat, scored the Governor heavily for the release, but subsequently took back what it had said and published an article setting forth the facts in the.case. The«artlcle was based on a letter from Mark Thlstlwaite, secretary to the Governor, similar to that written to Dr. Besser by the Governor. The Stotsenburg bill, to which the Governor referred, was introduced In the senate in the late session by Senator Evan Stotsenburg, of New Albany. As passed by both houses, it provided that the prison term of a convicted person should be held as counted from the time the lower court imposed sentence, even though the convicted person were released under bond pending a ruling on an appeal to the higher court.

The reference made above to the “Remihgton Democrat” and “Remington Republican” we suppose- means The Jasper County Democrat and Rensselaer Republican, and for the former’s part in this bridge graft expossure it is not side-stepping nor apologizing to anyone, not even Governor Marshall, for whom it ..has always had a high regard, and felt in this matter that he would be, making so great a mistake by interfering that we sent the telegram mentioned in the News article, after going to Mr. Honan and securing his consent to allow us to refer the governor to him for further information, as Governor Marshall was personally acquainted with Mr. Ho-, nan and could, if he desired to, secure information right here where the offense was committed. There was no need for his going wrong in the matter matter had lie cared to make a little investigation. This telegram was all the correspondence we had with the governor on our part, but we (lid receive two letters from him which bear on the case. Neither required any reply and none was made. The Democrat docs not aim to criticise anyone unjustly, nor does it think it has done so in this;case. It sjaid immediately after Governor. Marshall stepped in and halted the law’s .course that it thought he was not treating tl;c court, the jury or the prosecutor right in so doing'; that lie had evidently been misinformed as to the facts,or he would not have done so. and it has never ‘‘re-nigged” on that proposition, ami is. of the same' opinion still. Our remarks concerning this case .were made after hearing ]) ra ctica 11 y eve ry won 1 L. thee vi - deuce, the court’s instrirctions in the case and the verdict of the jury. But all the-articles pub-, fished by other papers were written by men who heard not one whit of the evidence and who were not in the court room at any time, during the trial, a fact all the court attaches know to/be true. ’ ' According to Blodgett’s article he, too, thinks it was a great mistake for the Governor to interfere in this case. -He had the right and power to do so, of course, but there are many people hereabouts who question the wisdom of his. action. If M’r. Hathaway represented to Governor Marshall that the court had promised to grant Bader a new trial he represented something that is unknown here, and this is the first time we have ever heard of anything of the kind. There was apparently not the slightest grounds for granting a new trial.* Mr. Hathaway was not here at any time during the trial or after, so far as we can learp, until the day sentence was passed, and if he had any information that the court had promised a new trial he must have got it second-hand.- jTdge Hanley did intimate that if the investiga-

tion of other bridges that he had personally caused to be made showed that the Milroy bridge was the only bridge short, that he would suspend sentence, but so far as 'l'hc Democrat can learn there is no grounds for the statement that he promised anyone that he would grant a new trial. Now, as regards Mr. Littlefield’s signature to the petition for parole, he states that he signed it in a private capacity, just “N. Littlefield,” while the News says as on file in the secretary of state’s office it shows “N. Littlefield, chairman of the Jasper County Democratic committee.” If Mr; Littlefield is correct in this, who took the liberty to add th 6 title after his signature? . > Ihe more this bridge graft matter is probed into- the worse it looks.