Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 87, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1899 — A Deadener for the Dodger. [ARTICLE]

A Deadener for the Dodger.

The Remington Press Puts a Clincher'On the Evidence that Reformer Babcock Swore to a False Assessment in 1898. Honest and honorable Fred L. Griffin, present editor of the Remington Press, has now discovered that he made the mistake of his life when he put confidence in the supposed honor of the “Reformer” of the Jasper County Democrat, and wrote a letter in which he tried to help let the Reformer down easy after the latter had been proven to have made and had sworn to a false assessment return in 1898, in which he gave in only §3l of property to the assessor, and omitted a taxable debt of §I,BOO, due him from Mr. Griffin and his sister. After making a sworn statement in which it was conclusively shown that the §I,BOO was owed to Babcock at the time for which he was assessed. Mr. Griffin, yielding no doubt to the personal intercession of the Reformer, wrote a letter last October, in which he stated that Babcock had been honorable in his dealings with him (Griffin) and that to Griffin’s certain knowledge, he had used some of the money paid him for the Press in paying debts. This statement by Mr. Griffin cut no figure at all in the case against Babcock for omitting his taxable debt from his assessment, but Babcock had been making statements that this letter of Mr. Griffin’s confirms the Reformer’s own false statement that the sale of The Press was not consummated until after April Ist, 1898.

Mr. Griffin* does not propose to be made a tool and a stool-pigeon out of to help a sham Reformer dodge the collection of his taxes, in any such manner, and therefore, in tbe last issue of The Remington Press, he publishes a statement end presents the documentary proof for what he says, in which the fact is proven beyond the possibility, of question, that The Press was sold and iransfered prior to April Ist, 1898, and that on that day, the debt of SI,BOO was due to Babcock. The entire article from The Press is here re-produced: