Bones Picked

He was a pretty good horse and had a "kind of nice gait." He was called The Senator, in honor of U. S. Senator James E. Watson of Indiana. Three terms served The Senator, one with Governor Ed Jackson of Indiana, one with David C. Stephenson, onetime Klan Dragon, one with Bert Schultze, Indiana apple-grower. It was during his service with Mr. Schultze that The Senator, greedily seizing a corncob, got that same corncob stuck fast in his throat. The Senator gasped, choked, struggled, died.

Last week, however, his bones were discovered in the closet where Indiana keeps its political skeletons, were dragged out and picked over. For he became Exhibit A in the expose of Indiana politics which Mr. Stephenson (in jail since April 1925 for murder) last fortnight began (TIME, July 18). Mr. Stephenson had begun his expose by confiding to Prosecuting Attorney William H. Remy many of the deeds performed during his (Mr. Stephenson's) tenure of office as Dragon of the Indiana Ku Klux Klan which then (1924) constituted the "invisible government" of Indiana. Last week Mr. Stephenson took the Indianapolis Times into his confidence and sent to the Times many of the documents contained in the "little black box" where he had foresightedly deposited written evidence of his transactions. The most startling of these documents was a check (which the Times reproduced across four columns of its front page) signed by Mr. Stephenson, made out to and endorsed by Governor Jackson, for the amount of $2,500. It was accompanied by a notation, written by Mr. Stephenson, reading: "This check is the first one-fourth of the $10,000 given Jackson personally for Primary expenses."

The publication of this check left Governor Jackson in an embarrassing position, inasmuch as he had (in 1926) denied that Mr. Stephenson had given him $2,500 or any other amount for his gubernatorial campaign. When the Stephenson expose began, Governor Jackson was in Kansas, where he occupied a pulpit and gave a sermon on the text: What is a, man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? After the sermon the choir sang a hymn: "It must be told." Then back to Indianapolis went the Governor and, at first refusing to comment on the Stephenson check, later gave an explanation of -- an explanation which brought the deceased horse and the horse's career before the public eye. Governor Jackson admitted that the check was authentic, but said it represented a business transaction and had no political significance. He said that he had sold a "valuable saddle' horse" (i.e. The Senator) to Mr. Stephenson and that the $2,500 was in payment for the horse and accessory equipment. Investigators pursued the case and found evidence that Mr. Stephenson had purchased the horse at no great bargain.