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Show FALSE DEFENSE OFIJIIY Po cafe I In Tribune Misstates the Facts in Criticising Article of Salt Lake Tribuhne Man. GOVERNOR COUNTENANCED STAR-CHAMBER WORK This in Spite of Fact That Ho Had Promised fo Give Public Pub-lic Square Deal. BY O. E. ARNEY. Special to The Tribune. I30IS15. Ida.. Juno S. Tho Pocatello Tribune In Its lsuo of tho 2d criticises editorially an article written by me for publication in The Snlt Lako Tribune. In which I took Governor Brady to task for holding a secret session of tho state board of commissioners In the church hearing. This odltorial was written under tho caption. "Let Us I3o. Fair." It has been my privilege, as I have regarded re-garded It my duty, to make copious remarks re-marks on the church nffnlr based on the Importance of tho subject to tho people of Idaho. It has been my pleasure to compliment nnd my regret to crltlclBo tho chief executive. ex-ecutive. In his initial announcement to tho people peo-ple of Idaho there was groat hope. Ills language was patriotic, forceful and full of promise. I Immediately complimontcd him on those sentiments, which I nn-sunied nn-sunied were to be followed up by published pub-lished statements of facts revealing to tho people of Idaho tho wrong doing of his "elective associates In office nnd some of thoir appointees. 1 fnlrly and frooly praised tho governor and pcrsonallv callea on him and offered my congratulations. One Prank Statemont. Here vns tho governor's statement, which met the. hearty approbation of tho peoplo: "Any porson who nssumos a position of trust under the state government should devote his time nnd ahlllty for the good of the stat and should in nq way. directly direct-ly or Indirectly, havo any Interest In any proporty or claim whatsoever in which the state Is interested. No person can servo two masters nt the same time. They should either resign from, the position thy occupy or absolutely . refrain from taking advantage of tho position they occupy oc-cupy for the purpose of personal unln." This statement by the cxocutlvo breathes of the atmosphere of hopo and of expectation of tho exposure of those members mem-bers of tho governor's ofilclal family who were guilty of wrongdoing nnd the Pocatello Po-catello Tribune knows from long years of activity that tho newspapers of Idaho aro the best and most valuably weapons available for use of any official who. In the minority, actually deserves to expose culpability of his associate officials. No graft or favoritism or nopotlsm ever existed to nny npprcclnbln extent when especially the executive officer demanded publicity of the commission of those palpable orrors. Such faults only take root and fructify beneath the closed lid. It was my great regrot to be, as I was, denied admission to the governor's room at this church-state land board hearing, nnd I regarded It ns eminently "fair" to set tho seal of disapproval on the entire board the governor included for refusing to take the public Into their confidence on this, the people's business. busi-ness. In fairness tho Tribune of Pocatello Poca-tello cannot object to this attitude or call It unfair. The Pocatello Tribune does a mnnlfcst Injustice to Governor Brndy In this statement in their editorials edi-torials of June 2: "Everybody who knows Governor Brndy and who understands what his views aro on these questions knows that ho would have held the meeting wide open and Invited the'entfr'j public to tic present. It was not ' his ' fnult that the meeting was bo'hmtL1'-'" closed doors. " .;.' Not Stating 'ho Facta. Here Is whero the- "Pocnt(Mlo Tribune should robe Itself In Its . own-cloak of professed rlghteousnoss and' write one more editorial under the' caption. "Let Us Be Fair." for In thd 'Bi-onlng Capital Capi-tal News of date April ,2$, the day the state board of land cojTtmJsslonors refused re-fused to a,dmlt the newspaper men and the taxpayers to this ncurlng. Governor Brady, whom the Pocatello Tribune aspires as-pires to defend, made this literal statement, state-ment, which appeared In fairness to him, to Justify the criticism I havo undertaken under-taken to mnko of him and his associates for holding a closed-door session. Here Is the article complete: "Prior to appearance of Register Church before the land board ut tho session ses-sion this afternoon, request was made of tho chief executive and other board members that representatives of the press be admitted to the session of the bonrd. The governor slated he wa3 opposed to the presence of the reporters nnd declared de-clared for a private hearing. Thu question ques-tion of admission of representatives of the press was submitted to the board and a statement then made by Governor Brady ns follows: " 'I have been requested to permit the reporters for tho different papers to be present at the executive, sessions of the land board. " 'I have not granted this request for the reason that I believe that tho members mem-bers of tho land board constitute tho same relations to tho executive of the state as the members of the cabinet In our national government, and I do not believe that any good purpose could be served by making public the deliberations deliber-ations of the board when In executive session. A great many matters, necessarily neces-sarily have to he discussed pro and con and It Is my wish and desire that every member of the board express themselves them-selves freely and frankly without any restraint or thought of any unnecessary unneces-sary publicity, nnd after these discussions discus-sions have been flnlshod the bonrd has always given to the public tho result of Its deliberations, and. as a momber of the board, I nm willing to stand upon this nosltlon. " 'I do this for tho ronson that I believe be-lieve that both the exocutive and tho members of the board can do more effective ef-fective nnd officlcnt work that will be beneficial to tho peoplo of tho state, and for that reason only I cannot grant the request. " 'I have discussed this mnttor with the board, and this Is tho unanimous opinion of the members of tho board.' " Direct Contradiction. It will be observed that .in this contradictory contra-dictory statement of Governor Brndy to the attitude of the Pocatello Tribune, the executive refers only nine times to himself him-self by tho copious use of the personal pronoun "I." It comes with ,bad grace from the Pocatello Tribune to close Its editorial with this suggestion: "Though nofdoslring It. ho. (Brady) was obliged to submit to a secret meeting of the land board." It occurs to mo that the statement In the Evening Capital News bv the governor, gov-ernor, and those quoted from the- governors gov-ernors lending paper, the Pocatello Tribune, aro slightly (?) incongruous. Somohody has evldontly Hod, and. to bo perfectly fair, it is not tho Pocatello Tribune nor The Salt Lako Tribune, The Pocatello Tribune or no other Tribune can defend the published statement state-ment of Governor Brady on this matter. mat-ter. The Pocatello Tribune In this editorial gives Just credit to the governor for compelling an "unwilling minority" to censure the discharged roglstcr. I am I not quite sure but It should havo been more charitable and callod it an unwilling unwill-ing majority. This merely emphnslzes tho fact that the governor had within hln easy grasp the opening of tho door to tho newspapers newspa-pers and to tho public In this Important hearing. No, this was the executive's error, and ho stvunlod the nolo of the falling of tho lid by his Indorsement of this secret session, ses-sion, nnd, If I am any Judge of public sentiment. It will stand to nlagno him in tho hearts of an outraged public, whoso material Interests were being considered under lock and key. This was the shifting sign of Governor Brady from othor than toward the noblo sentlmonts expressed by him In his rainbow rain-bow of promise to tho people, hb quoted near tho head of this article. Not Equal to Occasion. lie had a glorious opportunity to take tho pooplo of tho state with him by do-nouncing do-nouncing a well developed system, which germinated during tho first and blossomed during tho second term of his predecessor. predeces-sor. Governor Gooding, and of which the deposed register. M. I. Church, was but an Infinitely small part. Tho public knows and tho Pocatello Tribune knows that the reveling In the states's assets by olcctlvo and by np-polntlvo np-polntlvo officers of Idaho, is Its ofilclal curse today. The public regrets that tho governor did not show signs of a spinal vortnbrae and call names, dates and conditions con-ditions by thoir right names, as thoy wore, nnd domnnd the resignations of clectlvo and tho prompt expulsion of nppolntlvo ofdeors who had profited by the Inside Information ncqulrod through their betrayal be-trayal of tho confidence of the. people. Theso things are known Just enough of to dlsgraco tho Republican party, the state of Idaho and Governor Brady, who Is tho head of tho present administration, administra-tion, and who volunlarlly sheathed his most powerful weapon when he closed tho door of his office to the secret hearing hear-ing of tho state land bonrd and protected tho other throe members, all of whom woro ns guilty ns Satan of the very charges made tho dny previous by the chief executive. In the fuluro It will bo a duty which will be performed graciously to point out trt" the rondcrs of Tho Snlt Lako Tribune. Trib-une. Including the Pocatello Trlbuno. many state land bonrd orrors of Govornor Brndy, some of which he has made use of as very cheap political assets. It is my nrdont hopo that I may stay close by the record In these deductions, as I havo done in tho closed door Incident, Inci-dent, for I assure the Pocatello Tribune of my serious, ambition to "bo fair" In all my writings, and especially whero thoy affect tho reputation, personal or political, po-litical, of any Individual, either In public or In private life. It Is now In order for tho Gale City daily to offer Its apology to Govornor Brndy Brn-dy for accusing him wrongfully of favoring favor-ing a public hearing In tho Church land board scandal mnttor. Come. "lot us be fair." |