McCray Out

Warren T. McCray, ten years ago, was accustomed to spend many a morning inspecting his large stock farm of stubby-necked Herefordshire cattle. He would stand, smiling a little and very proud, pointing out to some visitor his prize heifer or a likely bull. Many friends came to see the stock farm, but more came to see the rich and influential owner. Finally these many friends, in 1920, nominated Warren T. McCray for Governor of Indiana. And caused him to be elected.

When he was Governor, there came a rumor that Warren T. McCray had met with financial difficulties, that his stock farm had been a failure, and that he was on the verge of bankruptcy. The Governor denied these rumors and said that in any case his private affairs could be of little interest to the public. The public, though, became interested later when they discovered that Warren T. McCray had been involved in a shady scheme to recover some of the wealth which he had undoubtedly lost. When he was convicted of using the mails to defraud, they were scandalized. When he was sentenced to ten years in Atlanta Prison, they were sorry for him. That was in 1924.

Among his many old supporters who grieved to see so popular and potent a politician in jail was Chase Salmon Osborn, millionaire and onetime (1911-12) Governor of Michigan, who in 1926 appealed to

President Coolidge that he be allowed to take the place of Warren T. McCray. Later both Indiana Senators asked that a parole be given the onetime Governor. Public sympathy mounted even higher when it was hinted that when indicted the Governor had refused a Klu Klux Klan offer of immunity in exchange for naming a certain candidate for public prosecutor; that he had named instead William H. Remy who then acted in the Governor's prosecution. This time public sympathy had effect; last week onetime (1921-24) Governor of Indiana Warren T. McCray, now convict 17746 in the Atlanta Penitentiary,* was granted a parole.

On his release from prison, reporters (men who remembered waiting to see him outside the Governor's office) flocked to greet him. They found him sad and thin, his face grooved with prison despair. He had been ill most of the latter months in jail; he had taught in the prison Sunday school; had edited Good Words, the prison newsmagazine; never, during his sentence, did Warren T. McCray, a proud man, allow his wife or any member of his family to visit him. When told of his parole, the one-time Governor had wept for a few minutes and then, in dim fashion, had begun to gather his possessions. Now he declared to reporters as he boarded a train for Indianapolis: "This is the happiest day of my life. ... I don't know what I'll do yet. . . . Right now I just want to be happy."

If Governor McCray was vague as to his future, the New York Times was not vague. Said the Times: "While in office he was indicted for a get-rich-quick-scheme. ... If he will go before the grand jury and tell the whole truth [about corrupt Indiana politics], regardless of whom it may affect and whatever it may cost ... he will have performed a public service that will do much to wipe out the stain upon his own name." Indeed soon after his release, the Marion Grand Jury/- planned to call Mr. McCray to testify on the subject of the Klu Klux Klan offer alleged to have been made by present Governor of Indiana Ed Jackson.

* Unless a pardon is granted "17746" will be his legal title until May, 1934, when his term expires; then he may resume name and resume U. S. citizenship.

tNow concerned with charges of political graft and corruption during the rule of D. C. Stephenson, Grand Dragon and Boss.