| Show t IGHT ON THE CARTER CASE I Attorney Blair of counsel for the defense de-fense in the Oberlin M Carter embezzlement em-bezzlement I case takes the position that F his client has been made a scapegoat to boar away the blame that rightfully attaches 4 at-taches to certain prominent politicians whom the president is i trying to shield This is the first plausible explanation of Mr McKinleys peculiar treatment of the ease which has been in his hands Cora year and a half The reason Carter Car-ter has not beeen sentenced Is because of the civil proceedings which must follow this final act of the trial by courtmartial and the Inevitable revelations c rev-elations concerning the distribution of j the stolen funds Over a million and a half of public moneys appropriated for coast defenses de-fenses were illegally divided among 4 contractors and lobbyists who never tJ earned it and had no Tight to it The I names of theca beneficiaries of some j meF rascality have beea kept secret t so for The only person known to the t public in the Infamous transaction is I r Oberlin XL Carter a captain In the regular army an engineer and the officer I of-ficer in charge of the work and the funds appropriated to carry it on And while attorneys for the defence have a theory that Carter is innocent I of wrongful intent that he was merely N mere-ly a eats paw in the hands of designIng design-Ing men there Is every reason to suspect j sus-pect that he IS only a lay member of r a well organized gang of government looters who have made the army their especial point of attack It may be i true that President McKnHeys solicitude solici-tude as shown by hisfVnanifest 1 i reluc t4 tance to pass upon the case Is more t l for the political banditti that terrorize the capital at present than for the captain L cap-tain And it may be true also as Attorney At-torney Blair stafes In his affidavit that Ehvell S Otis presidentof court martial that convicted Carter received impressions fronv the outside during J the progress thetrial that he was made aware 6f tIle necessity for concentrating con-centrating suspicion dnd fixing the i puilt upon the prisoner and yet this doesnt prove < that Carter is guiltless 31 merely indicates that he is not the only criminal mixed up in this gigantic gigan-tic steal There were members of that tjouij and its verdict was unanimous who were and are above political intrigue in-trigue and whose subsequent treatment i treat-ment by the administration does not t savor of reward for special services k Attorney Blair has filed an affidavit with Prtisl3pnt McKinley accusing k4 H Gerieral Otis of grossly improper and luiprjifessfoijal conajUct hirjnsr the Car ri 00 lf ter hearing In an IntervIew printed In yesterdays papers ho was quojed jis ayThg1 U f J 3 Z HI lielve Captain Carter Ss the victim of a conspiracy to degrade him It is an American parallel to the Dreyfus case The same general features arc in both coses The accusers and prosecutors of Carter are of the general staff of the army as are those of Dreyus Jealousy and n deliberate attempt to carry out the wishes of superiors to pander to political influences has actuated the majority of the men on the Carter courtmarttal Secret Se-cret conferences such as that set out in my affidavit were the illegal methods to secure the con oUon of Captain Carter Every word of that may be true Carter Car-ter may be the victim of a conspiracy His accusers may be of the staff of the commanderinchief Fellow officers of-ficers may be jealous of his ability to make money rapidly His accusers at the trial onay have been carrying out the wishes ofsuperiors Political influences in-fluences were undoubtedly pandered to and secret conferences may have been held And still Carter may be guilty When is man is charged with the expenditure ex-penditure of a million and a half of dollars and it illegally disappears either he should name the thief or bear the blame If he was negligent so were those in authority over him and the public has a right to be protected from such criminal neglect If he was an agent of rascals he is equally guilty with them and deserves to be punished whether the others are apprehended or not It is thegovernments duty to hunt down these thieves of millions just as industriously and mercilessly as it would pursue the postag stamp stealer J |
