"Honest Grafter"

Three and one-half years ago, 1,530,000 men and women voted for a middle-aged widow named Mrs. Florence E. S. Knapp and elected her as New York State's first female Secretary of State. Last week, twelve New Yorkers, sitting on a jury, voted to send Mrs. Knapp to jail for grand larceny in office. During the taking of New York's 1925 census, Mrs. Knapp put her stepdaughter's name on the payroll, then received the stepdaughter's checks herself, forged the endorsements, spent the money on clothes. On the witness stand, Mrs. Knapp said her step-daughter had earned the money and knew all about how it was spent. The stepdaughter, a penurious school-teacher about the same age as Mrs.

Knapp, denied knowing anything at all about her relative's doings.

The presiding judge, Supreme Court Justice Stephen H. Callaghan, pointed out to the jury that Mrs. Knapp had lied to save herself. After the verdict came in, he deferred sentence until September because physicians said Mrs. Knapp was near a nervous breakdown. Deferred also were several other indictments against Mrs. Knapp on charges similar to the step-daughter graft.

Mrs. Knapp had been considered a gentlewoman. She was descended from Ebenezer Hancock, brother of famed John Hancock. She had held positions of high responsibility, including superintendence of public schools and the deanship of the Home Economics College at Syracuse University. Now, grey-haired, handsomely dressed, she must go to jail.

In his charge to the jury, Justice Callaghan said:

"I know . . . there is a common feeling that there are certain 'honest grafts' which may be indulged in with impunity, and certain people are said to have practiced it and escaped. With that ... we are not concerned.

"There is no such thing as graft which is honest. Let us stop that practice if there has been one. . . .

"This defendant . . . knew the basic principles of law. She knew right from wrong. She cannot plead ignorance. There has been no appeal made for her because she is a woman. . . ."