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137 With the execution over, it was gratifying to receive a letter applauding his decision to not stop the hanging. Hartley was smugly satisfied. If his constituents knew how he suffered from his treatment by the press. “The responsibility in such cases . . . is grave and exacts a service which tries the very soul. There is no rest for me on such a night. My time is put in, until the last moment, studying the affair and the data that is filed in connection with it,” he wrote in a letter to a loyal voter. “Those to blame for the controversy in such matters are dishonest, money grabbing , newspaper men, who lie and misrepresent the case, in order to sell their dirty sheets.” Miss Albright snapped the steno book closed and left the room. It was, after all, nice to know that he was appreciated by some of the voters. Hartley wished the rest of the populace would be so wise. He had filed a lawsuit to stop the Senate Investigating Committee from getting access to the Lands Commission audit or any of the other Chapter 14 138 books under his control, and that had rankled the troops. He was being crucified in the press from one end of the state to the other. The Walla WallaDailyBulletin had a front‑page story, quoting from his earlier campaigns when he had been a strong advocate of openness: “It’s high time that we got out from behind the bulwark and let the people know the facts about their own business.” He had said those words during a special message to the legislature on December 22, 1925. Those were the heady optimistic days when after three tries at running for governor, he had at last won. But things were different now. The state attorney general had ruled that the Senate committee has full authority to investigate the books, records, and accounts of all state agencies. Nevertheless, he again told Senator Sutton that he would not tolerate the investigation of any department under the control of the governor. They, of course, reeled with shock but before they could recover , he had dealt them one more blow—he denied the senate committee the use of the state capitol committee room. The Daily Bulletin noted that, too, and went on to quote his April 3, 1930, speech: “The honest man in public office with nothing to conceal will not object to an audit of his official records at any time, day or night. When a public official fights a lawful audit of his office you may be sure, he has something to conceal.” He had said those words, but the issue had been a “lawful audit.” Now the senate was planning to sue. In the meantime, some of Hartley’s constituents were asking if he was planning on attending the national governors’ meeting in Virginia in the upcoming month. In fact, several reporters had pressed him on the issue, which concerned Hartley greatly. As far as he was concerned, an absence would mean that he was abdicating his role as governor and would give “that long-eared, son-of-a-gun Gellatly” a chance to seize control of the chief executive’s office, since, when Hartley was out of the state, power was transferred. “If I go away they can just raise hob!” he thundered. Gellatly was challenging him for the Republican nomination in September. Hartley didn’t plan to give him a chance to get a foothold, not for a minute. • Chapter 14 139 Near Omaha a brisk wind whipped across the greening prairie. Spring had come and the boys were out tilling the soil, preparing to plant corn, beans, and potatoes. Mrs. Lamson was to arrive by train that evening. Leo Bozell, of Bozell & Jacobs, had financed her trip, both to Omaha and Detroit, where she would address the National League of Women Voters about the plight of Herbert Niccolls. Then she planned to travel to Washington for the National Pen Women meeting, where she also planned to rally support. After the months of correspondence, Father Flanagan looked forward to seeing her again, and, hopefully, to keep her encouraged. The fight seemed to be wearing on her. “The governor [is] . . . spreading all kinds of untruths about us all,” she had written in her last letter. “He tells that [Monsignor] Ryan did not approve of you. I asked [the monsignor] personally how the governor dared to make such a statement. He could not explain and...

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