Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1910 — CAN THIS BE TRUE? [ARTICLE]

CAN THIS BE TRUE?

The Review, a Benton county paper, has made the direct statement in a late issue that congressman’ Crumpacker had compelled his appointee in the town of Fowler to split his salary for his benefit- - We can scarcely believe that a man of Judge Crumpacker’s experience and supposedly probity ■has ever committed such a blunder or crime. In its zeal to secure the defeat of the Judge at the forthcoming election that paper has we hope laid itself open to swift reprisal on the part of the Judge il the charge is unfounded. The story as told by the Review is to the effect that Crumpacker compelled his appointee to pay so large a portion of his salary to his local 'henchman that the worry jn trying to maintain his family and satisfy his creditors brought him to that -tage which ends in „ death. If true, it is a thrilling melodrama, with the republican candidate for congress playing the "heavy” part. That a man holding a position so important as that of congressman to practice an art that has gone out of style Jn even such communities as the ‘-’East Side” in Xew York, or Hinkev Dink’s bailiwick in Chicago, or should attempt in any manner to direct ‘how the-salary paid - employees of the government is to be expended even though recommended by him. is both immoral and indefensible. .In the charges made by the Review it is made to appear that the new appointee. Cox by name, was compelled to pay a certain amount of his salary to one Williams, who had .held the office tor eight years before, and he could have or dispense with the services of this man, as he chose hut the money was to be forthcoming anyway. What the relations between Crumpacker and Williams were, they could not have been, if this story is true of a defendable nature. Whether Mr. Crumpacker was under such obligations to Williams that a monetary compensation was due him. and he compelled his appointee Cox to pay the debt or whether Williams was simply campaign or pri-