In Illinois

The great game of politics is played everywhere, but nowhere with greater zest than, in the State of Illinois. Governor Small (who had previously been State Treasurer) was indicted for embezzlement of state funds, in 1921. He fought trial for nine months, but when it finally took place, (1922) he was acquitted. Subsequently three of the jurors and the sheriff who had charge of the jury at the trial were given places on the state payroll. In 1923 a saloon keeper confessed having given a cash bribe to one of the three jurors. They were indicted. Two other men, one a labor leader, the other a detective, were subpoenaed to give evidence. They declined to talk on the ground that it might incriminate them. The State granted them immunity. They still refused to talk. They were sentenced to six months in jail for contempt of court. They jumped bail, one was recaptured, the other gave himself up. They went to prison.

Last week Governor Small pardoned them. There is little doubt that he had no legal right to do so, but the State Supreme Court will not convene until December and nothing can be done meanwhile. This act, said the Chicago Daily Tribune, "adds a cubit to Small's colossus of nerve . . . The executive clemency is extended to jailed citizens whose virtue is their silence on the methods by which a Governor was acquitted of embezzlement."