Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1920 — HOW NEWTON COUNTY RECORDS HAVE BEEN CHANGED [ARTICLE]

HOW NEWTON COUNTY RECORDS HAVE BEEN CHANGED

In Interests of the Republican Candidate for Governor of Indiana. MCCRAY OWNEB SI,BOO GOVERNMENT BONDS MARCH 1,1919

According to Assessor's Return of f .1919 —Figures Have Recently Been Altered by Adding a Cypher. “During the, war he (Warren T. McCray) led every Newton county activity In support of our government. He gave unstintlngly of his time and money, and was an untiring worker at home, and was one of the recognised leaders In state and national war work.” The above paragraph In an advertisement published in practically every Republican and Independent paper in Indiana a few weeks before the primary election In May, In the Interests of the candidacy of Warren T. McCray, one of the several candidates for the Republican nomination for governor, which advertisement purported to have been paid for by “citizens of Kentland,” and alleged to have been signed by perhaps 160 Kentland and Newton county people, was referred to by The Democrat at the time as not being supported by the official records.

The advertisement quoted from at the beginning of this article caused considerable comment over the state, and a Chicago paper published "a couple of articles regarding the advertisement and concerning Mr. McCray’s personal assessment for taxation purposes, compared same with his blooded cattle sales, etc. In one of these articles was the statement that Mr. McCray’s tax return for 1919 showed that he was the holder of SI,BOO to government bonds. Apparently after these utricles were published In this Chicago paper, someone went to the court house In Kentland and to the book of assessment sheets of the town of Kentland to which the SI,BOO hmount was officially recorded and added another 0, making the figures read SIB,OOO Instead of SI,BOO. The county auditor discovered the mutilation of the record —the legal term for the unauthorized changing or altering of a public record —and wrote to Ink immediately the figures on the same assessment sheet, the following notation: “The above amount has been changed from 1800 to 18000 within the last few days. • S. R. SIZELOVE, Auditor.” Dated April 29, 1920.

(The reader will note that we have not added the $ sign to the auditor’s notation, as It is given verbatim ae It appears on the assessment sheet.) The mutilation of a public record is a crime punishable >by imprisonment under the Indiana statutes, but if it is suspected who altered the figures in this official assessment return no legal action has as yet been taken. Now, regarding Mr. McCray’s “leadership” in other war work, the official records do not bear out the paragraph cited in the advertisement, as has been heretofore stated in this paper. The Democrat cited the statement issued by the Federal bank of Chicago, which had charge of the Liberty loan drives In this, the Seventh federal reserve district, which showed that Mr. McCray’s bank, The Discount & Deposit State bank of Kentland, of which Mr. McCray is the president; in response to the government’s request that the. bank subscribe to the amount of one per cent per month of their resources to the treasury certificates of Indebtedness Issued in anticipation of the Third Liberty Loan, took but 12,000—11,000 Feb. 27, 1017, and >I,OOO April 22, 1017—a smaller amount than was subscribed by any other bank in Newton eounty, except the Lyons bank of which did not take a dollar. Even the little bank of Mt. Ayr, located in a town of perhaps 150 population and no doubt not having a dollar of county funds deposited therein —in contrast to the thousands of dollars of such funds in the McCray bank —took |3,000 of these certificates —Meh. 20, 1317 —as shown by the Federal Reserve bank’s official report

The subscription for all the eight banks of Newton county for certiflcates Issued in anticipation of this Third Liberty Loan was but $45,600. -Of which amount the Kent State bank —the only other bank located In Kentland—took $20,000 against $2,000 for Mr. McCray’s bank. Geo. O. Bales of Goodland, took SII,OOO and the Colburn-Bales Lumber Co., also of Goodland, $3,000, according to the official report. (Five of Jasper county’s banks took certificate® of $243,000 —the Bank of Demotte not taking a dollar —the little Bank of Wheatfield taking $5,000, or $3,000 ipore than McCray's bank! This, bear in mind, was when tha war was on and our boys were “going over the top" after the Huns on. the bloody battlefields of France, and we at home, too old to fight, were straining every nerve to help our government meet the huge expenses necessary to provide them with food, monitions, etc., to maka success certain. We ; were told to . -‘give—tn thia case io lend—until It hurt,-’ and tha "hurt" evidently came very soon to, Mr. McCray’s bank.