Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1911 — HEARS OF TWO “JOKES” [ARTICLE]

HEARS OF TWO “JOKES”

Lorimer investigating Committee Is Entertained. Narrative of “Plot for Hopkins” to Enliven the Deadlock Astonishes U. S. Senators. ■■■■ 1 ' Chicago, Nov. 10. —Two jokes figured in the Lorimer inquiry before the United States investigating cornin'ttee. One was revealed in the testimony of Former Representative Walter A. lantz of LaGrange, a Tippit Democrat, who voted for Senator Lorimer. Mr. Lantz testified to a suggestion he said had been made to him by John Corwin, several years ago a legislative correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and now United States special customs agent at Baltimore, that the late Robert W. Patterson, who was publisher of the Chicago Tribune, might be elected senator. Mr. Lantz, in a rigid examination, said that he considered some of the remarks which he attributed to Mr. Corwin as “a joke.” Mr, Corwin said at Baltimore that he never made such a statement to Mr. Lantz. He said he did not represent the Tribune when in Springfield in 1909 and never knew that Mr. Patterson was a candidate for the senate. A phase of the proceedings which caused the members of the committee to sit back in astonishment was the testimony of John H. DeWolf of Canton, a former Democratic representative, who told them he believed a joke perpetrated by himself and half a dozen other legislators was the basis of the much investigated alleged plot to purchase seventeen Democratic votes for Albert J. Hopkins. The motive for th* joke Mr. Lantz testified, was “to get some of Roger Sullivan’s big black cigars.”