WANT VACHERON TRIED.

New York, 1895

REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPERS ARE NOT FRIENDLY TO BRIBERY.

Some Comments About the Accused Assemblyman Which Are Refreshing — Because Other Indicted Bribe Takers Escaped Trial No Reason Why Mr. Vacheron Should.

The Republican newspapers of the state are having a good deal to say about the indictment of Assemblyman Vacheron on the charge of demanding and accepting a bribe of $3,000. The belief seems to prevail that political influence will save Mr. Vacheron from the consequences of a trial, and this belief does not please such high minded journals as the Buffalo Commercial. THE FARMER cannot find space for the comments of all the newspapers, which are incessant and general.


(Buffalo Commercial, Republican.):

The charge of bribery against Eugene F. Vacheron, member of the assembly from Queens County, is a serious one. He has been indicted for asking and receiving a bribe in connection with a bill forbidding the cutting of ice in the Hudson, above Troy, and is held to bail in bonds of $10,000.

Members of Assembly have been indicted for bribery in Albany before; but no one has ever been tried. Political influence from all sides has usually secured a hushing up of the scandal and quashing of indictments. The present district attorney of Albany county is a Republican, and is said to be an honest and fearless man. It is to be hoped that he will do his whole duty and that if Vacheron is proven guilty he will be punished to the full extent of the law.


(Albany Evening Journal.):

The alleged bribery took place in connection with Mr. James M. Campbell's bill to prevent ice cutting between the southern boundaries of Albany and Renselaer counties and the state dam at Troy. In its original form it would have ruined the ice business of both counties and sunk over $1,000,000 of invested capital. It was amended so as to make the southern boundary of this city the limit instead of the boundary of the county, which is just eight miles below; but even in this form it was vigorously opposed.

It is understood that the Ice Dealers' Association conferred with the friends of the introducer of the bill, with the result that it was agreed to kill the bill for $3,000. A leading member of the Ice Dealers' Association called at the bank with one of the Republican Assemblymen and asked the bank to cash his check. He told the cashier what the money was for. The cashier would not cash his check, and the officer of the Castleton bank upon which the check was drawn, was sent for.

The money was then obtained and paid to the Assemblyman on the street outside the bank. The bill was then abandoned. The news of this reached a number of prominent citizens, and by them it was told before a high state official, who laid the matter and evidence before the officers of the law.

It is said that there are several ice dealers who have been in straitened circumstances through poor speculations and that they have been carried on in their business by a bank in a place not many miles down the river. If the bill would pass, it would not only utterly ruin the ice dealers, but it would possibly cause the bank to suspend. The ice dealers were at their wits' end, as were the bank directors, and it was their interest to have the bill buried in committee, and with this end in view, it is said that money was raised. The action in the grand jury room followed soon after, and on Monday certain ice dealers, among whom was George Best of Cedar Hill, appeared in the grand jury room and gave testimony against an Assemblyman, who, it is said, received bribes amounting to $3,000.

A well-known lawyer stated that an ice dealer within his acquaintance had been asked to give up $250 towards having the bill buried in committee.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, May 31, 1895, p. 8.