A Streetcar Magnate Denies Bribery and Blames an Alderman's Grudge

E. F. Wittler has replied to the charge of Alderman J. Eugene Jordan that he attempted to buy the alderman's silence regarding the obstruction of Lewis Street at the time the Union Trunk Line was building its Rainier Heights branch, and his reply is a positive denial of the charge. Mr. Jordan charged that Mr. Wittler, then president of the Union Trunk Line, offered him $100 and a life pass if he would stop the fight against the piling of earth on Lewis Street. City Clerk Stewart, by order of the board of aldermen, wrote to Mr. Wittler informing him of the charge and asking for his reply. Mr. Wittler wrote:

St. Louis, Feb. 27, 1895.

Hon. Board of Aldermen—Gentlemen: I am in receipt of a communication signed R. F. Stewart, city clerk, of February 5, 1895, informing me that J. Eugene Jordan has accused me of an offer to bribe in connection with some legislation affecting the Union Trunk Line, requesting me to inform you when I could be present to offer defense to said accusation. In answer will say that I expect to be in Seattle some time during the month of May next, at which time I am not only willing, but anxious that a most searching investigation should be had; but until said investigation can be held, permit me to assure your honorable body that said charges are absolutely false, and the fact that both witnesses, your honorable chairman, and Mr. G. A. Upper, that the gentleman cites as being cognizant of said offer, stated that they knew nothing of such an offer. When said investigation takes place I expect not only to prove said charges false, but prove that Dr. Jordan's every official act affecting the Union Trunk Line has been actuated by private interests and maliciousness.

When the gentleman first introduced the resolution for the removal of earth from Lewis Street I called upon him in person to know the reason, explaining to him that the waste earth would be required in low places when Lewis Street came to be graded, to which he answered that he owned six lots on said street and that when the street was graded that he would have to pay his proportion of removing said earth, whereupon I informed him that there was no earth in front of his lots, and requested him to go out with me to investigate, which he did. Arriving upon the ground he took in the situation carefully and informed me that while there was no earth in front of his lots, if the entire street was graded in one contract his lots would have to bear the proportionate cost of removing said earth, and that he must insist on pushing the resolution, which he did, and, to quote his own language, 'made it pretty hot for them,' meaning the Union Trunk Line.

I charge him with maliciousness because of his resolution introduced in your house compelling the Union Trunk Line to put two men on each of its cars at a time when the receipts were less than expenditures, and when the company had successfully without accident operated some of its cars for years with but one man. I again called upon him to know the reason of this attack, whereupon he gave me various but unimportant reasons, but wound up by saying: 'You can't blame me for trying to get even with Lowman,' meaning J. D. Lowman, a large stockholder and secretary of the Union Trunk Line.

The Union Trunk Line has always refrained from any action that could possibly be construed into a bribe or a sop. During the first years of the operation of its lines Dr. Sweeney, a member of your honorable body, was its regular physician, but when that gentleman was elected alderman his employment was mutually abrogated and another physician elected in his place in order to avoid even a suspicion of favoritism to a councilman. Previous to the adoption of the new city charter, when the councilmen were serving without pay, many of the street railway companies tendered the councilmen annual passes, but the Union Trunk Line never tendered the city council any passes until the latter part of 1894, and then only to the street committee, who were constantly required to investigate some trivial charge about one or the other of its five lines, usually instigated by Dr. Jordan 'to get even with Lowman.'

In closing, I can't help but call your attention to the ungentlemanly action of Dr. Jordan in attacking me in this manner at a time when I was thousands of miles away, when my absence from home and family was enforced upon me to a considerable degree by his unwarranted impositions of hardships upon the Union Trunk Line, entailing expenditures which necessitated my going back to my former calling in order to enable me to meet continued assessments upon my stock in said company. Hoping that this, my denial, may be given the same publicity as the accusation, I remain your fellow citizen, E. F. WITTLER.