Youngs Is Scared Now

New York, 1895

TRYING TO DISOWN THE COMMISSIONER OF JURORS BILL.

He Lobbied for its Passage Until the Day the Albany Grand Jury Took Up the Vacheron Bribery Charge — Two Interesting Letters.

William J. Youngs is receding from his position on the Commissioner of Jurors bill, which Mr. Vacheron tried to have passed to provide an office for himself. Mr. Youngs has been a persistent advocate of the bill at Albany, and he has defended it at home. He finds that the bill is awfully unpopular, and wants to be relieved of responsibility for it. Some of the newspapers have said that Mr. Youngs was the father of the bill, and he certainly created the impression that he was by his speech. The bill was introduced on April 3d, but not until May 10th did Mr. Youngs think it prudent to disown the paternity of the bill, and he only did so then, we believe, because he came to the conclusion that the bill was dead in the Senate, strangled by Mr. Childs.

Mr. Youngs does not send a signed letter to the newspapers to deny that he is the father of the bill, but he sends a letter to Governor McCormick, requesting the Governor to state his case for him. The Governor has complied with his request, and the correspondence is given to THE FARMER for publication:

MR. YOUNGS' LETTER TO MR. M'CORMICK.

OYSTER BAY, May 10, 1895.

Hon. Richard C. McCormick:

MY DEAR SIR — I have been so wantonly and unjustly accused of being the father and instigator of the so called Commissioner of Jurors bill, and the public prints have taken occasion to make so many false statements regarding it, that I would be much pleased if you would write me for publication exactly what I had to do with the bill. You know perfectly well that I did not instigate it, and that I had never seen the bill until after it had passed the Assembly, and that we were in perfect accord with the matter at the time, each of us saying that if it was a necessity, or even if it would be of benefit, we saw no objection to its passage, and I am sure you will be willing to put this matter straight before the public, as I would certainly do were you placed in a like unfavorable position.

Very truly yours,

WM. J. YOUNGS.


MR. M'CORMICK'S REPLY TO MR. YOUNGS. JAMAICA, N. Y., May 16, 1895.

Hon. Wm. J. Youngs:

DEAR SIR — Upon my return from Washington I find your letter of the 10th in waiting. You did not instigate the Commissioner of Jurors bill, and should not be accused of so doing. It was first proposed by Mr. Vacheron, who desired to fill the office of Commissioner. My recollection of our conversation with him agrees with yours, but when I read the bill, after it had passed the Assembly, and found how loosely it was drawn, and the large expense to which it would put the county, I promptly informed Mr. Vacheron, as I did you, that I could not favor it, and advised Mr. Childs that the popular sentiment in this county was against it.

Mr. Vacheron labored to prove that the opposition to the measure was all from Democratic sources, and upon political grounds, but I assured him that it was generally condemned by the tax-payers of the county.

Truly yours,

R. C. McCORMICK.

Mr. McCormick's letter puts Mr. Youngs in an exceedingly bad plight. Mr. Youngs tries to make Mr. McCormick assume equal responsibility with himself for favoring the bill. Here is the language of his letter:

"We were in perfect accord with the matter at the time, each of us saying that if it was a necessity, or even if it would be of benefit, we saw no objection to its passage."

Now mark what Governor McCormick says in reply to this statement by Mr. Youngs:

"I promptly informed Mr. Vacheron, as I did you, that I could not favor it."

Whether Mr. Youngs drew the bill or not is immaterial, the essential point being that he strongly advocated its passage.

Governor McCormick is perfectly frank and consistent in his statement. He was against the bill, and he advised Senator Childs that the people were against it, and when Mr. Vacheron tried to prove to him that all the opposition was Democratic, Mr. McCormick rebuked him by saying that the bill "was generally condemned by the tax-payers of the county."

One of the extraordinary features of the affair is, that though the Commissioner of Jurors bill has been before the Legislature since April 3rd, and although Mr. Youngs is a prolific letter writer and loves to be interviewed, yet we know of not a single word being written or spoken by him in denial of the charges made against him about this bill until Friday last, May 10th, the date of his letter, and the day Mr. Vacheron left Albany for Ozone Park, and when the grand jury were considering the charges of bribery against him.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, May 17, 1895, p. 1.