Evening Star Newspaper, September 22, 1924, Page 5

TESTIMONY AGAINST DAUGHERTY “TISSUE OF LIES,” SAYS MEANS Senator W heele Up Accused of Plot for “Frame >>—Helped Alleged Scheme Because of Anger, Ex-Justice Agent Declares. By the Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio.. September 22.— Repudiation as a “tissue of lies” of all that he told the Senate commit- tee in its investigation of the ad- ministration of Harry M. Daugherty as Attorney General has been made in a signed statement by Gaston B. Means formerly Department of Just- « agent and star witness for the Daugherty investigators according to + e of the cment made publi it his hom vesterday by Mr. Daugherty The Means' corporated in a Daugherty 1o the Democtatic dent, in which here statement was In- tter sent by Mr. John w. Davi; nominee for Presi- the former Attorney tieneral takes the Presidential candi- date to task for statements which Daugherty’s letter says Davis has made in the course of an address over the country, “suggesting im- proper conduct by me in my official capacity The letter was dated September 14 United States Senator Burton K Wheeler, of Montana, prosecutor of the committee, now vice presidential candidate on the La Follette ticket, is charged in the Means statemen With having “put this tissue of lies in the mtuo hof Means “and the ajority of other witnesses.” Text of Daugherty Letter. Vollowing is the text of Daugherty letter to Mr. Davis Sir: At the time of the formal ac- ceptance of your nomination and sev- eral times since the newspapers have quoted you referring to me by various insinuations implying mis conduct on my part during my in- cumbency as attorney general of the United States. The latest of these references woming to my notice is that reported 10 have been made by vou at East- wood Farm, Bunceton, Mo., on Sep- tember 15th., last, wherein again by innuendo you suggested improper conduct by me in my official capacity. Resents Etiquette Remark. On that occasion you are quoted as saying that my party did, not choose me as the candidate to “give lessons in political etiquette.” This remark was explanatory of your to alleged corruption on the part of persons formally or in- formally so cha about you had been spe: Tt is probable that you were not chosen as a presidential candidate to give lessons in “political etiquette,’ whatever that term implies. Men are ¢hosen for that distinguished honor having qualifications that should waracterize gentlemen in debate upon public questions, as well as nossessing exalted ideals. a proper ard for the public intelligence, and e capacity to distinguish the false from the truc The reputation you have amony your fellow men as a high- minded man, your standing at the American bar and your varied public would lead me to expect different from you than references to which I the as seeming! Teferen enjoved experiences somathing the sonal have alluded, Thinks Davis Misinformed, Possessing the qualifications of a lawyer, which equip vou for weighing the value or want of value of reck- less charges made against public serv- ants, and with every facility to re- view the attempts by the senatorial investigating committee ta besmirch me, you should have been better in- formed than your quoted utterances indicate. To connect my name with others and insinuate something im- proper to me is neither in harmony with the facts nor consonant with the reputation you have enjoyed, a thing which would not be excusable in any lawyer of considerably less repute than vourself. The exigencies of a political campaign do not warrant such liberties. Your references to me are usually ~vague, and all the more reprehensi- ble If you are attempting to con- mect me with the much-discussed oil leases, permit me to remind you that in the bill of complaint drawn by the zovernment's special councel, Messrs Pomerene and Roberts (paragraph 241, there is a complete exoneration ©of me from any connection what- ever with the oil leases. I may add also, since yod have seen fit to in- «iude Mr. Denby, former Secretary . the Navy in your list of accused, that the report of the Walsh com- ttee of the Senate investigating the oil leases, (p. 21, Senate Doc. 794), exonerates him also from any im- proper complicity in these leases, so that vour imputations upon Mr. Den- by are without warrant or excus and do a wrong to a worthy gentle- man These facts were easily ascer- tainable by vou, since they are a of the public records and have «learly set forth in the public prints «uite frequently. Refers to Investigators. Now as to the alleged investigation Ay the Brookhart-Wheeler committee, 1o which you have doubtle: meant to «iirect public attention as relating to ame, though your references are quite ~veiled, let me say this: Tt would seem but proper that be- fore you lend the powerful influence ©f your position as a former presi- <ent of the American Bar Associa- Tion and as a presidential candidate, 10 the spreading of slanderous reports upon me and the Department of Jus- tice, with which you were once con- mected, you would have made sure of your grounds by examining into ‘sources of these slanders, weighing nhe evidence, so-called, and learning ®1l of the crooked ramifications con- aiccted with that alleged investiga- wion. T am convinced, however, that you %have no knowledge of the record in this smatter, but that you, like many others, Yave gained your information and wirawn your conclusions from newspaper “eadlines and imperfect newspaper re- Yorts, something a careful lawyer al- ways guards himself against. It was, -und is, a matter of common knowledge, #n Washington at least, that this whole Jnatter was a conspiracy of deep pur- yose and devilish ingenuity. Had you taken the precaution to analyze the rec- ord you would not have risked your reputation by giving seeming approval o these slanders. No Specific Neglect Charged. For your better information, and since $§t is impossible, as I trust it is unneces- wary, to go into all the mass of infamy ‘hefore the Senate committee, let me say vhat I have yet, despite the suborned testimony and the desperate attempts of the motley array of so-called wit- esses, actuated by the most unworthy ‘motives, to be charged with one epecific oftense reflecting upon my official in- segrity or personal honor. Even the Brookhart committee, perhaps reluc- tantly and from motives which will be revealed at another time, acquitted me of negligence or failure in connection “with the prosecution, under my direc- xion, of the cantonment and war-fraud cases, though this was one of the out- standing charges urged in connection with the passage of the resolution of dnquiry. The efforts made by corrupt means %o eonnect me with alleged improper transactions upon the part of the others failed utterly, despite the in- decent methods and prejudicial con- duct of the Senate investigating com- mittee. No lawyer, much less one of vour recognized ability, would under ny circumstances tolerate for one moment the character of testimony ~with which the committee burdened dis records. Ome of these witnesses which | (Remus) shortly after your Seagirt speech, in which you made reference to his testimony, published a full re- traction and repudiated his testimony before the committee. The whole contemptible conspiracy of fraud and deceit_will be laid bare in due se son. When that time comes you and the country will astounded by the revelations, even though two of the members of the Senate commit- tee are now seeking high political places in the Nation. Transmits Means' Letter. In further support of the facts, I hand you herewith a copy of a signed statement, dated September 11, 1924, by Gaston B. Means, whom all will recall was the frequent star witness of the Brookhart-Wheeler committee, You will observe that Means re- pudiates his testimony in toto and lays bare the details of the conspiracy of a majority of the Senate commit- tee not only to ruin me and those connected h the Administration, but to discredit the Department of Justice. Means and Remus are the only witnesses who have ever testi- fied to having paid money supposedly for improper purposes, which money it was attempted to be shown was intended to reach me. Both these men now deny completely any and all such transactions and repudiate their testimony entirely. In view of these statements volun- tarily offered, what will now be said of the Senate committee that has pa- raded itself before the public in its virtuous (?) endeavor and upon which record one of its members now is a candidate for the vice presidency, after betraying the Democratic party while holding a seat in the United States Senate. which he obtained as a Democrat. His whole stock in trade as an aspirant for office is predicated upon the committee’s record now rapidly falking to pieces from its very rottenness. Estimates Their Merits, Tt may be said that Remus and Means, thg former now in Atlanta penitentiary and the latter under sentence to prison, are not men of sufficient credibility. It is entirely adequate to answer that they were | the "witnesses whom the committee offered to the public and upon whose | testimony it was hoped to destroy my character and injure the Department of Justice. Means was the principal agent, the indefatigable investigator and witness-producer, whose testi mony was heralded more vociferously through the press than that of any other, and whose conviction at the hands of the Federal court the com- mittee had hoped to avoid. Some of the same testimony he gave before |the Senate committee, was tendered | to the court at the time of his trial, | but was rejected by the court as it should have been by the committee. If 1 recall correctly in your speech of acceptance you took occasion to char- acterize the indictment of Senator Wheeler in Montana as a “frame-up.” meaning, doubtless. to s that there was something improper in that action. As a lawyer and as a former officer of the Department of Justice sou know that all indictments for crime are found- ed upon probable guilt, and are in their very nature ex-parte matters. Did you make inquiry at the Department of Jus- tice since I left it to ascertain what the present Attorney General thinks about that indictment? You certainly must know that the jury in Montana which until some time after my retirement as Attorney General, and your gratuitous characterization of the indictment as a “frame-up” was unwarranted when you knew nothing of the essential facts upons which Wheeler was indicted. Sees Good Falth Lacking. In view of the foregoing, which con- stitute only a part of my reasons there- fore, you may now understand why 1 did ot appear before the Senate com- mittee when it invited me to appear after three months of villification and after the court had denied the authority of the committee to conduct its so-called investigation. Had you followed the proceedings of the committee you would have known that at no time, from the introduction of the resolution of inquiry in the Senate, had there been any inten- tion to conduct in good faith an investi- Zation of ths Department of Justice and my official acts. To use the phrase common to those directing the committee, the whole purpose was “to get Daugherty.” Here you might properly say there was a “frame-up” on me, by denial of witnesses in my behalf from the outset, frequent insults to my coun- sel, procured witnesses, introduction of immaterial and irrelevant mat- ters, willful failure to adduce the truth when it would have justifiably favored the Department of Justice and me, constant exhibition of malice toward the department and me by a majority of the committee, contempt for all rules of evidence and the rights of individuals, heartlessness and cruelty toward all whom the ma- jority of the committee could not bend to the purpose of slandering those connected with the administra- tion are but a few of the: many rea- sons for my refusal to appear, in ad- dition to the fact that after three months of this outrage there was not produced a single specification of ir- regularity or inefficiency against me. No inquiry whatever was made by the committee regarding the subject matter of a single complaint set forth in the resolution or uttered under immunity on the floor of the Senate by irresponsible United States Senators. What man with any self- H.iiiiiiiii!!iiifl i Drafting Instruments $1.50 per Set Up 100 Student Brief Cases Genuine Leather ‘While They Last | wife in indicted Mr. Wheeler did not even meet { THE EVENING respect would have offered himsalf to a committee that had covered it- self with such infamy? Doubts Gain to Davis. : These, Mr. Davis, are a few thoughts I take the liberty of bring- Ing to your attention in the belief that you have assumed some truth in the slanderous stream that flowed through the channels of the Brook- hart-Wheeler committee for many weeks to find its outlet in scare headlines of a press not always fair. Your continued effort to gain po- litical favor by setting up my of- ficlal acts as an issue, and basing your remarks solely upon falsehood and slander, will avail you little po- litically as a candidate and there- after as an American citizen and a leader of the American bar. There is something more important in this year of grace than election to office or political success. The funda- mentals of this Nation are besieged by a desperate element composed of the malcontents, the misguided, the revolutionists and the light-minded, ever ready for a change, no matter what. It should be the duty of all men and women who believe in our form of Government, who revere its founders, who treasure all its splen- did traditions und who appreciate Its greatness achieved under our insti- tutions—this land of opoprtunity and success where there is a broader and more general distribution of wealth than in any other country and where the highest attainable is within the sphere of any who strive—to pre- serve this ark of liberty’'s covenant. 1t is not so much whether we are Republicans or Democrats this year. The test is, are we real Americans and are we against those who seek the overthrow of this Government under leaders fresh from a baptism of bolshevism in lurid and suffering Russia. Our forefathers, with an as- tounding vision, set up here a nation for us with a scheme of government that has withstood the test of a cen- tury and a half and has been the pat- tern for all free governments since, one of which is not red Russia, where the only freedom the unfortunate en- joy is the freedom to die to escape a worse fate. Very respectfully yours, (Signed.) H. M. DAUGHERTY. Text of Means Statement. Following is the text of the Means statement incorporated in Mr. Daugh- erty’s letter to Mr. Davis: To whom it may concern: 1, Gaston B. Means, desire to make the following statement of facts re- garding my connection with the at- tack recently made by the Brookhart- Wheeler Senate Investigating com- mittee against former Attorney Gen- eral Harry M. Daugherty and the De- partment of Justice in particular and | the current administration: On February 8, 1924, at Palm Beach, Fla., I received a telegram from my ‘Washington stating that United States Senator Burton K. ‘Wheeler, of Montana, through a very close friend, had requested that 1 see him in connection with the above mentioned investigation. The infor- mation in this telegram came to me In connection with other information at that time. I promptly reported this to a close friend of Mr. Daugh- erty. The suggestion was made that 1 see Mr. Daugherty, and arrange- ments to this end were thought to have been perfected, but no such ar- rangement culminated successfully. I was advised to go ahead and get in touch with Senator Wheeler and find out what information Senator Wheeler was secking and what was the basis of any attack Senator Wheeler was about to launch against Mr. Daugherty and the Department of Justice. I called to see Wheeler and held numerous conferences with him, both at his home and at his office, all of which I have a record of. Says Attacks Were Planned. The only evidence that Wheeler had of any possibility of an attack on the Department of Justice and ir. Dangherty which he disclosed to me were some records in regard to bringing into Washington of mov- ing pictures of the Dempsey-Carpen- tier fight. Senator Wheeler had thi: evidence more or less in documentary form and stated to me he was going to use this as an attack on Secre- tary of State Hughes, President Cool- idge and others who attended the ex- hibit of these pictures. A former agent of the Department of Justice either directly or through some friends had furnished Senator | Wheeler with this information and evidence. I reported to friends of | Mr. Daugherty that this was the only | evidence that Senator Wheeler had.| In the meantime, Senator Wheeler, because of publicity that he was about to or had offered a resolution to investigate the Department of| Justice and Mr. Daugherty, began to have many callers at his office with the most sensational statements and stories as to conditions that existed at the Department of Justice, In each and every instance I explained to him that there was nothing of substance | in the statements that these visitors | were giving him, and showed why the statements could not be true and that they were emanating from peo- ple who had been discharged from the Department of Justice. Upon_my return from Florida and ART LEADED AND STAINED GLASS We specialize in making and repairing church windows; expert workmanship and best material WASHINGTON ART LEADED GLASS WORKS STAR, WASHINGTON, at a conference with Senator Wheel- er, it was agreed that I was to as- sist him in the investigation of the Attorney General and the Department of Justice in the way of furnishing of evidence, examination and coach- ing of witnesses, etc. Whecler grew desperate in his efforts to find some information on which he could base charges against the administration and against the Department of Justice, saying that he was working with La Follette and had certain plans in view that made it imperative that he make good in connection with his public statements as to the conditions in the Depart- ment of Justice, and that the Depart- ment of Justice be connected with the alleged oil scandals. These facts, and what was going on in Senator Wheeler's office and that an effort was being made to frame Mr. Daugh- erty were reported to Col. Thomas Miller, the alien property custodian, an official and personal friend of Mr. Daugherty, with the request that he | give this “information to Mr. Daugh erty. Col. Miller reported back that Mr. Daugherty said that it would be impossible for anybody to succes: fully frame him up, and that he “did not give a dam” about what going on, requested that the efforts However, Col. Miller, understanding more of the details of what was £0ing on requested that the efforts to secure this information not be dropped, but be reported to him, which 1'did, from day to day. Uses Stinton Letters. In the meantime Senator Wheeler had secufed some of the copies of the letters that Jess Smith had written to Roxie Stinson and with these letters as a basis, allowed them to be read in a way that was never intended on the part of Jess Smith, and inter- preted in a different way. All such letters were used the basis for the frame-up, Wheeler taking the position that he was forced to cor nect Jess Smith and Howard Manin ton andn others directly with Mr. Daugherty, all the while having in his possession (and he has now) the original statements taken from un- derworld characters and bootleggers that not at any time did they hear that Mr. Daugherty or the armini tration were involved in any way in any fradulent transactions. Senator Wheeler suppressed such information and would not allow any witnesses who supplied him with statements and in- formation showing conclusively that Mr. Daugherty was not involved in any fradulent matters at all. People who called to see Senator Wheeler furnished him with letters they had received showing that any attempt to reach Mr. Daugherty in any manner would prove disastrous to them. 1 have all this documentary evidence, which will throw an entire- ly different light on the Wheeler ir estigation. This documentary evi- dence is absolutely irrefutable Angered By Message. Up until the time T took the stana in the investigation I understood that 1 should seek information as to what Senator Wheeler was going to do, and on the day before I took the stand received information that Mr. Daugherty said I could “go to hell so far as he was concerned. kxcept for this message I would not have taken the stand the day I did. but would have stalled the situation alonz. I can and will testimony, pointing out statement for statement that I made for Sen- ator Wheeler at his suggesion that 1 knew not to be true, but that it would complete Senator Wheeler’s, chain of un-umqamul evidence, and, in addition to that, can show by physical evidence mal review my | i order | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER that at the time I called Senator Wheeler's attention to the fact that it was probable that these statements could not be true. In other words, I was at some other place and the records will so show entirely difter- ent from where I was alleged to have been at the time. The only reason I made the state- ments the way I did was because of the message recelved from Mr. Daugherty just before I took the stand. By quick review of the testimony before the Wheeler committee, with the documentary evidence available, it can be proved conclusively that Senator Wheeler knew that he was framing Mr. Daugherty and the Re- publican administration, and to some extent this involves the oil investi gation, because Senator Wheeler was constantly in close touch with Sen- ators Walsh and La Follette in con- nection with this inquiry. Brings in McAdoo's N; this frame-up was going on conference with Senator Walsh, Senator Wheeler, Senator Dill. Robert La Follette and Phillip La Follette. I have in my possession a subpoena issued by Senator Dill for me to appear before the Walsh com- mittee and to testify to evidence that they framed up and which plan was abandoned because Senator Wheeler decided that he did not want any fa- vorable publicity withdrawn from him in connection with the Daugh- ; investigation that might revert Senator Dill and the Walsh com- mittee. Briefly, While 1 was in there is available now all of the papers, documents and other material in connection with the Daugherty investigation which will absolutely offset the unfavorable rec- ord as it now stands: also, in con- nection with these documents, is a great deal of material in connection with the oil matter, including Mc- doo’s correspondence with Senators Walsh and Wheeler. The testimony given before the Wheeler committee by Roxie Stin- son, R. Momand, myself and the ma- jority of the other witnesses, was nothing but a tissue of lies put in the mouths of these witnesses by nator Wheeler primarily to con- found and discredit the Department of Justice and the administration Says Promises Were Made. These witnesses and myself were persuaded to make these false state- ments by Senator Wheeler under threats of indictment in some cases and by promises of gain and aid in others. Briefly stated, the letters, corre- spondence and documents available will absolutely refute and confound the Wheeler-Daugherty investiga- tion findings and throw an absolutely | different light on the oil investigation where prominent Democrats were urging that their names not be drawn into the matter. I spent weeks with Senator Wheeler, talked personally to nearly every witness that appeared before the committee, and gained Senator Wheeler's confidence to the that 1 read, assorted and handled most of the letters, documents, e that came to the committee. (Signed) GASTON B. MEAN Papering and Decorating WITHOUT DISTURBING YOUR HOUSEHO! 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