Word: wes
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...worried as dust storms swirled across the state, silting down the new grass and dimming the sun. Across the U.S., politicians' eyes were watching an entirely different kind of Kansas storm, a political tempest, its gusts reaching all the way to Washington. In its center was Charles Wesley (Wes) Roberts, 49, chairman of the Republican National Committee...
...days later, State Insurance Commissioner Frank Sullivan provided the answer. Wes Roberts, who had represented the A.O.U.W. in the transaction, got the $11,000 as his fee. Reporters and legislators promptly raised some eyebrows and some questions. If Roberts had promoted the sale of the building, which had to be paid for by the legislature, wasn't he lobbying? He hadn't registered, as lobbyists must under Kansas law. Then an even more basic question arose. There was a 1927 letter signed by the state business manager indicating that the state expected to get the building for nothing...
Under all of these questions was the bigger one of principle. Had Roberts sold his political influence? The Kansas legislators created a special committee and began to investigate. One of the first witnesses was Wes Roberts himself...
...came forward to testify that he had merely reported the facts. Lieutenant Governor Fred Hall, who leads the G.O.P. faction that bitterly opposes Carlson, Arn and Roberts, mused to reporters that in contrast to Democratic five-percenters, Roberts had turned out to be a ten-percenter. Said he: "Perhaps Wes Roberts had to show he could double a Democrat ... His conduct in this transaction was, at the very least, morally outrageous." Aging (65) Alf Landon, a member of the Hall group, charged that Roberts had "made a raid on the public treasury . . . which stinks to high heaven...
This week the legislature's investigating committee is to turn in its report. Even if the committee exonerates Wes Roberts, the highest powers of the Republican Party are sure to consider the case. As some others before Roberts have learned, a national political chairman of this era must have a record which avoids the appearance of evil...