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VOL. XVII, NO. II
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA, SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1002
ESTABLISHED IN 1SS!
THE POTE,NT POWER OF POLITICS
It Raised Joseph S. Bartley to a High Official Station,
Then Sent Him to Prison, Jjg
And After a Lapse of Five Years Finally Set Him Free.
"I lioie that no official act of mine
may cause the party to regret the
choice you have just made."
The speaker was a tall, black-whiskered,
well-groomed, tine-looking
young man, not yet thirty-five yeais
old. It was the republican state con
vention he was addressing. The dele
gates were crowded into the new Oliver
thftre a hot day in August of 1SD2.
Ti day before the convention had met
and fought long and bitterly over the
selection of a candidate for governor.
A truce over night settled the matter.
It also disposed of the ambitions of
several other gentlemen and when the
roll was called on nominations for state
treasurer, Joseph S. Bartley, of Holt
county, was named before it was half
tinished. It was, in fact, never com
pleted, the call being suspended and
the Humiliation made by acclamation.
Cries for the nominee brought foi -ward
Mr. Bartley. It was then that he
spoke the words given above. How
well he kept his promise is history.
This was not the first appearance of
Mr. Bartley in state polities. Almost
from the time when a young man of
twenty-six he founded the Exchange
bank of Atkinson he was a power and
a prominent figure in state politics.
Active, energetic and alert he easily
took rank at state conventions among
the leaders. In the old days the worthy
ambition of every country banker in
terested in politics was to become state
treasurer. Mr. Bartley was among
them. He first shied his castor into
the ring in 1SSS. The completion of
Charley Willard's second term left the
field open to all who aspired. A dozen
or mere republicans, most of thtm
bankers, came forward.
This was shortly after the Elkhorn
railroad had brought north central
Nebraska into close touch with Hie
state capital. The evening train over
that road the night before the conven
tion brought two special cars in which
traveled the delegates from Holt and
adjacent counties, the men pledged to
support Bartley for treasurer. B.mnets
depending from the sides of the car
announced that the choice of that sec
tion for state treasurer was Joseph S.
Bartley, of Holt. Accompanying the
delegation was a fine brass band, and
it announced the arrival of the dele
gation in no uncertain tones. The en
try of the Bartley delegates to Lincoln
was spectacular and they hewed to
that line until they went down in de
feat. Bartley was the third man in
the race on the first ballot, but he nev
er came within sight of the goal. The
fight narrowed down finally between
Einsel of Phelps and Hill of Gage, and
Hill won.
Bartley made such an impression,
however, that four years later he found
the plum easy picking. But in reach
ing the goal of his ambition he laid
the foundation for trouble of the bit
terest sort.
Mr. Bartley was born in Indiana in
185S. Ills earlier years were spent on
farmB In that state and In Illinois.
In lSsO he came to Nebraska and home
steaded in Holt county near the town
of Atkinson. He became interested in
farming and stock-raising, and in 1S8I
established a bank that was a money
maker from the start. It went down,
however, in the stress of the panic in
1S97.
Bartley bears in his person none of
the traces of the hard toil of his earlier
years on the farm. When he became
state treasurer he was but thirty-five
years of age. He was courtly, suave,
polished a distinctive man of the
the last term he served. His excuse
was that it was necessary to save the
banks. That he did prevent failure in
a number of instances is a fact too
well known to ! disputed. In other
cases, however, where he deposited
sums largely in excess of the amount
the bank's bond called for, the state
lost heavily through the subsequent
failure of the institutions. It has been
charged and never denied that in a
good many instances the state treas
urer loaned the state's money to banks
and kept the interest for himself.
Jm
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JOSEPH S IIAUTI.KV.
world. There was pride, amounting al
most to imperiousness, in his bearing.
His position as st.ite treasurer placed
him in the possession of the state's
millions, made him part arbiter of the
financial destiny of banks innumerable
in the state. Just before he took
charge of the office the legislature
pasted a law requiring the deposit of
certain funds in such banks as could
give approved security in the shape of
pergonal bonds. This curtailed great
ly the power of the treasurer in the
disposition of state's moneys, but
still left him a considerable leverage.
He could disregard the law if he cared
to run the risk, and he did so during
Twenty-five hundred dollars a year is
all the statute allows the treasurer,
but for years it was a well-est.ibllshed
tradition that by farming out of state
funds the otlice was worth all the way
from $20,000 to tlQ.uflo a ear His pre
decessors had done it and Bartley fol
lowed the old, profitable custom.
When Bartley was called upon at the
end of his second term to turn over
the state's cash, he found himself lack
ing in ready money almost three-quarters
of a million dollars. Just how much
of this had been lost in banks or how
much he had lost In private specula
tions of his own, only Mr. Bartley him
self knows and he shows little disposi
tion to tell. The democratic attorney
general found, however, thnt the re
tiring treasurer had sold a state war
rant for J1S0.00O anil turned the pro
ceeds into his private account. In the
Capital National bank failure the
state's sinking fund had lost that
amount, ami in order to restore it the
legislature passed a law oppropriatlng
that sum from the general fund. All
that was really necessary was for th"
treasurer to make two entries of trans
fer on his books. He chose, however,
to issue and market the warrant and
when the state was finally called upon
to pay it had reached the amount of
$JOl,80O. It was because of this trans
action that Bartley was convicted and
sentenced to twenty years in the pen
itentiary. He was released after actu
ally serving four years and live months.
Joseph Bartley Is a man of indomit
able spirit. It was not crushed by im
prisonment. It may have been because
he held in his hands the power to
make proud men bow before him. be
cause he possessed information that
would have brought sorrow and de
gradation upon them a power that
he well knew would speedily force his
own release. A weaker man, one with
a coarser conception of fidelity, with
less tact and acuteness, would long
ago, to save himself from the pangs of
imprisonment, have made a clean
breast of it all. But he would have
come out from prison a man without
those same powerful friendships that
a man like Bartley finds the savor of
life, he would have emerged a pariah,
a scorned and despised man. As it is,
he was released upon petitions signed
by the most influential men in the
state, and although the act of the gov
ernor has met with a storm of criti
cism, Bartley finds friends and sym
pathizers by the score.
There is little in Mr. Bartley's face
and person to indicate that he has just
emerged from so long an Imprison
ment. His countenance bears little
trace of suffering, his hands are as
soft and white as ever. Prison life for
him was not the rigorous, monotonous
round of existence that Is the fate of
the ordinary criminal. Much of his
time was spent in the greenhouse,
where he had access to company and to
friends and where his tasks were the
lightest. He slept in the hospital and
not in a cheerless cell. He has come
out full of life, full of hope and vigor.
He avows his intention of remaining
in Nebraska and proving to Its people
that he was not so black as he has
been painted. The future will prove it
all.
The storm of protent and criticism
that followed his unconditional par
don astoundeii both Bartley and his
friends. They realize now that they
misjudged the sentiment of the people,
but they seem to believe that expiation
aoids explanation anil the man who
loaned the state's money and the men
who borrowed it hae all taken out
charter membership in the Don't Tell
club.
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