Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1910 — HOW IT'S DONE IN NEWTON CO. [ARTICLE]

HOW IT'S DONE IN NEWTON CO.

Prosecuting Attorney Longwell After Grafters There IN RAILROAD TAX SWINDLE According to An Article By W. H. Blodgett In the Indianapolis News—Same Scheme May Be In Operation In Many Other Counties In the State.

Prosecuting Attorney Longwell is gaining laurels through the public press in his efforts to stop graft in his bailiwick and bring the grafters to justice. His course is being commended by the public and local newspapers generally, and four articles have lately appeared in the Indianapolis News, —which sent its staff correspondent, W. H. Blodgett, here to write up the bridge graft —highly complimentary to Mr. Longwell for the service he is doing for the public good. . Mr. Blodgett made two trips here, the last time going from Rensselaer over into Mr. Longwell’s home county, Newton. Monday evening’s News contained an article from Blodgett’s"pen relative to swindles that are alleged to have been worked in Newton county in working out road tax of railroads. The article is quite interesting, and we publish it in full: Kentland, Ind., May 23.—The authorities of Newton county believe they have discovered a scheme to swindle the taxpayers, and from the evidence they have at hand they think the swindle is being worked all over Indiana. If it is, the different townships of the state are losers by thousands of dollars every year in the collection of road tax. The steal is made possible under the law that permits railroad corporations to work out their road tax Instead of paying it in cash or working it out in person, as the ordinary property owner has to do. 411 that is necessary is a crooked contractor and a dishonest supevisory and you have a combination that gfves the pebple the worst of it, not only in dollars and cents, but in poorly constructed roads. J Asked for an Immunity Bath. Such a combination has been dis. covered in McClellan township, Newton county, and the supervisor has told his to Prosecuting Attorney Longwell, in hopes that the prosecutor will allow him to take an Immunity bath. Mr. Longwell, however, has made it plain to the supervisor and his lawyer that as far as the prosecutor’s office is concerned there is no bath annex, but if Judge Hanley sees fit to suspend sentence, the prosecutor will not protest. Under the law railroads are taxed a certan amount for keeping up the roads. The company may pay this

in cash or it may work the tax out on the country road. Of course, the railroad corporation can not take a pick and shovel or a team and work out its road tax, so it lets out the contract to do the work. The contractor represents the railroad and is paid for his services by the railroad. After the contractor has performed his job a receipt is given him by the township trustee, who gets it from the supervisor of the district in which the work is done and this receipt the contractor turns over to the railroad company and gets his money, while the railroad company hands the receipt in at the treasurer’s office and receives credit for so much tax paid. How the New Graft Was Discovered. Prosecutor Longwell is the fearless state’s attorney’’ for* the circuit composed of Jasper and Newton county, who is exposing the bridge grafts and punishing the grafters. And it was while looking into the bridge graft that he came across the graft in working out the. road tax. In examining a lot of receipts in the offltee of the treasurer of Newton county he found this one: ROAD TAX RECBIPT. McClellan Township, Newton County, Indiana, September 2, 1909. This certifies that the C. & I. S. Railroad Company has worked out its road tax to the amount of $333.20 (three hundred and thirty-three 20-100), for the, year 1909, in road district No. 2. WILLIAM FENTERS, Supervisor Roard District No. 2. . Now, Mr. Longwell is hot only a good lawyer, but he is a shrewd business man, and farmer-born, he knows something about fbads, and it struck him that if $333.20 worth of work had been done on the roads in McCleHan-toWnship by one individual; and that individual the Chicago & Indiana Southern railroad, there ought to be more than just a tax receipt in, the county treasurer’s office to for it, so» certainly the roads did 1 not offer any evidence of work done. And so he sent for

Fenters, the supervisor of toad district No. 2, and asked him about the work. . f Admitted Work Was Not Dorie. Mr. Fenters at first stood pat and declared that the work had been performed, but finally, under a most searching questioning.—an inquisition that would be called "the third degree”? in a police chief’s office— Mr. Fenters weakened and admitted that the work on-the road had not been performed. ' “Then why did you give the contractor this paper?” sternly asked Mr. Longwell, suddenly flashing the receipt filed in the treasurer’s office by the Chicago & Indiana Southern railroad. Mr. Fenter hesitated a moment and the replied that the contractor was a personal Zrierid of his, n£eec|ed monej’ badly and tfie receipt had been given that he might get money from the railroad company. “And what did you get out of it?” asked the prosecutor again. Supervisor Fenter stood pat again. He declared emphatically that he had not received one cent in money, no favors, or anything of value in return for issueing the receipt. He had issued it purely as a matter of friendship for a financially embarrassed friend. He would not admit receiving a bribe, *in other words. But the prosecutor is not satisfied that Supervisor Fenter gave the contractor that receipt out of pure friendship, and when the Newton county grand jury meets the matter will be more thoroughly in. vestigated. Other Graft Cases to Be Probed. But this is not the only case the prosecutor will look into. He has in his possession a number of receipts for supposed work done in Newton county that he is satisfied has never been performed. He has evidence, that certain contractors have attempted to bribe supervisors, and there is no doubt, Mr. LongweW says, that the Newton county grand jury will return indictments against a prominent Republican politician living in northern Indiana for attempted bribery and for perpetrating a fraud in the working out of road taxes for railroads. An attorney has already approached Mr. Longwell with a proposition that immunity be given a certain supervisor in return for revealing a scheme that has bjfijn worked in Newton county. The prosecutor, however, declined to accept the proposition. He said he had evidence enough to sendsome one to the penitentiary for frauds in the road tax matter or tot purjury. The result of the prosecutor’s firm stand is that he has received a lot of pointers and direct evid’ence against both contractors and supervisors and in one instance a .ownship trustee is supposed to be involved. It should be'stated that, as far as has been discovered, the Chicago & Indiana Southern (which is a part of the Big Four system) is not involved in the McCleUlan township deal. IThe officers of the road acceped the'Teceipt from the contractor at its face and turned it in to the county treasurer in good faith. An Easy Grafting Scheme. The possibilities of graft in the working out of the road tax can easily be seen. All that the contractor needs is a pliant supervisor. There, is no one to inspect the work after it is done, and the contractor and supervisor have the whole thing in their hands, unless the trustee gets suspicious, and there trustees whose only suspicion would come from the fact that the supervisor is “holding out.” The remedy, of course, is a change in the law, so that railroads must pay their road tax in cash. Several times bills to make such a change in the law have been introduced, but t’hey were always smothered in committee or defeated on the floor. The railroads and the contractors who worked out the. road tax always- did the asphyxiating or the beheading. One of the stock arguments they used was that to compel the payment of the road tax in cash worked a hardship on the farmers, but no one ever saw any real farmers about the general assembly lobbying against the bill. Prosecutor Longwell is satisfied that though the majority of contractors and supervisors are honest there are enough crooked ones amonp them to cause the state to lose many thousand dollars every year in the item of road tax alone. And, so far as Newton county is concerned, he says it will stop.