CORRUPTION IN INDIANA

Evening Star, Issue 19660, 13 September 1927, Page 10

CORRUPTION IN INDIANA

“'KLAfJSMAH'S " DISCLOSURES “NOT IN POLITICS FOR FUN.” | In American political circles there is: tumult because D. G. Stephenson told investigators “all he knows” about political corrupt ion in the .State ol .In-, (liana, supported by documentary evidence sufficient, it is thought, lo furnish the basis lor a political revolution in that State. Stephenson, a former “ Rian Dragon” of the mysterious hooded order, Kn Klux Klan, was once political “Tsar” of Indiana, and wimt ho I mows: ot bribery and traffic in offices j during the Klan regime has special interest for tlie authorities. To-day flic former “boss” is serving a life, sentence lor the atrocious assault] and murder ol a girl, which he com- 1 milted at the lime when his power | mark', him intolerably arrogant 11( I j when lie acted in defiance of the State police, also of public opinion. By making a clean breast, of ” all be knows ” the dethroned potentate expels lo obtain a reduction m bis sentence. lie says that a “new wing” ot tlie penitentiary will be necessary it ever' public official lie lias accused of corrupt ion is finally punished. .Every time be has, threatened lo speak hitherto (lie State] officials who were bis associates have, trembled ami sm-cceded in keeping bmi | “ incoinnnicado,” but lately a new m-, (iniry has been .started, with Mr \\il-. liam Remy. Public Prosecutor oi In- 1 dianapoiis. in charge. I To Mr Reir.y the convict told an extraordinary tale of bis manipulation ot the State' Legislature _in 1925. ot how j bo passed or killed legislative ineasmcs demanding financial tribute, and bow lie aetunliy bought elections and lined trusty I ion ton Jiu ts to do his bidding. Stephenson, a middle-aged man now grown very stout, made bis contcssiou j apparently without the slightest sense ■ of moral obliquity. He candid]' ml-| mitted that he was not “ in politics tori fmi,” and said that the machine bo controlled was neither worse nor better than the machines in other Stales outside Indiana. He did not think that Tammany Hall, a very poworlul imlitical organisation, was entirely innocent of political corruption. In some places neither nl the great political pai ties Republican or Democratic-—he suggested, was “ above suspicion so tar as traffic in offices and graft were concerned.” Stephenson’s downhill and the present inquiry are the^ result of the efforts of a small group of Inmana editors who were unable at first to make headway because, as they complain, nil departments of the State were controlled and the courts were dazed. 1 Suddenly Senator Duncan, of tho lni dinua Legislature, was tried and senj t°need for stealing an income tax 1 cheque for £6OO, and with this exposure 1 complete the barriers to further action were removed.