Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1902 — SNYDER IS FOUND GUILTY, [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SNYDER IS FOUND GUILTY,

St. Louis Man Accused of Bribery Given Five Years. The jury in the trial of R. M. Snyder, accused of bribery in connection with the passage of certain street railway bills in

St. Louis City Council, return'd a verdict of guilty. The punishment was fixed at live years iu the penitentiary. It was asserted that Snyder spent $250,000 for votes in the Municipal Assembly. Afterward the franchise he obtained waa sold to the Transit Company

for five times that amount. This is the first conviction of a bribe-giver in connection with the investigation that has continued since last December. There have been three other convictions, two of members of the Assembly and one of a witness. Snyder made no defeuse to the charge of bribery. He refused to plead when arraigned. All the efforts of his counsel were directed to show that Snyder was a resident of Missouri continually sinco the passage of the bill in 1898. If they had been able to prove this point the statute of limitation would have become effective, and there could hare been no conviction, regardless of the evidence. The testimony nt the trial was most sensational. • Robert M. Snyder is the former president of two Kansas City I Minks, the Mechanics’ and City National, and was formerly at the head of the Missouri Gas Company. He has for ten y»M» been one of Missouri’s leading financiers. Brief Hawn Timm. The Grand river in Missouri has been out of its bonks, and much damage has been done by the floods. Ex-Judge Mason B. Loomis, s wellknown Chicago jurist, died at btt horns In Evanston, of pneumonia. -SKW AS*.* &J Jl-iV. -ip. * ..v\l ... '

ROBERT M. SNYDER