New Britain Herald Newspaper, April 3, 1914, Page 12

NEW B'RITAIN DAiLY HERALD, FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 1014, MAANRRU VAR VR AN A Day ~Wztb District Attorney =K Ivymk:p.n Press Auodltlon. riot, mmoy Whitman, Mrs. 5 itmun ‘and’ Olive Whitman, their . (md[m 2—Mr. Whitman' at tele- 4,:5 and 6—Cha nchrutm .:’Wfiltmnn. FOULD you care to spend & _working'day with Charles S. Whitman, the district, g attorney of New 'York % whose heavy handed blows at and ‘political 'corruption 'have gen resounding’so laudly through tm State? t me 'warn mnowltwlllbau.d.l.y in action. It will take you into usiest law 'office in the world. “n!uy have ,b !without luncheon, ‘be!late to dinner.. But -to take these chances to" know what tran- scenes in the district on the average work- o Juw . departm res at His odoa on the third floor ot Criminal Courts dullding, 32 street, at '10'a. m. Eight 6r nme rs of merve racking work are ahead - him-—the work of 'keeping’ his fin- on the ki of the big legal ma- %mu which grids out and disposes of 0 indictments & year, obtains some einvlo:mns for felonies and 5,000 lor ‘misdemeanors, 'disposes mflnflm- for bail bonds and and’ one other duties de- jpon’ the prosecutor's office. It ALOUSLY it of secret tests it has Been ' demonstrated that the defenses of the Atlantic ter- »m;a.l of the Panama canal jte . to protect the Gatun nflW séven ‘miles inland. t wflruq»da by the third di- the' Atlantic: battleship fleet, "of Rear Admiral Nathan- /in conjunction. with ‘the s leryand engineer officers of 5 "commission. The M*vhu;h ‘were’ obtained by the naval observers with the aid of marine glasses were forwarded to 'the joint - army and navy board, which referred the navy report to Colonel ‘Goethals and’ the coast artillery officers of the is no slight task that is performed daily by the district attorney of New York county. Mr. Whitman's sturdy figure, whose square jaw and firm mouth denote.de- termination in every line, has just en- tered his private office by way of the judges’ chambers, which abut the dis- trict attorney’s suit in the rear. He always uses the rear entrance, thus avoiding the early callers who congre- gate in the main office. In a moment Mr. Whitman's hat and coat are off, and he plunges into ‘the office’ mall. This has been opened ‘and assorted. His secretary and his’'able stenograph- er, Miss Marguerite Deterling, who has {{Mr. Whitman turns from the telephone, | v . been Mr. Whitman's aid for seven years, attend to that. “No callers until the desk is cleared,” is the morning order. ' For half an hour the, district attor- ney dictates rapidly and the pile of mail fades away. Hurried notations on some of the letters indicate to his secretary, what disposition of the mat- ter, is to be made. The phone bell rings.” It is Colonel Alexander Bacon on the wire. Willlam Sulzer, the im- peachéd ex-governor of New York staté, has some documents_ bearing on the highways and canal contracts in- vestigation which he wishes personally . waiting visitors and the nature of the Staff who have left word with the dis- to place in Mr. Whitman's hands. An engagement is made for 11:80 a. m. glances swiftly through the list of business on which they come, sees the | -ones whom his assistants cannot han- dle, thep sends for the membpers of his trict attorney’s secretary that matters of importance must be discussed. Downstairs a murder trial is pro- ceéding.’ ‘The district attorney i8 rep- rederited there by James A. Delehanty. New évidence has been -obtained, but before -offering it Mr. Delehanty de- sires to consult the chief prosecutor. Mr. Whitman leaves his office, hurries to the supreme court and confers there with Delehanty. Recsives Call From Sulzer. Back to his office, where Ex-Gov- ernop Sulzer, now an assemblyman from the Sixth district, awaits him. “The same old Bill” explains his visit, i8' questioned by Mr. Whitman and leaves, after pledging his aid in the district attorney's effort to convict any grafters who may have figured in the | & holdup of contractors -during the last few years. Later deliveries have brought more mail. Telegrams have also been re- @eived. A magazine desires Mr. Whit- man's picture and copy of a recent ad- dress on simplifying the code of civil procedure. = Autograph collectors re- quest a sample of his chirography; eollege men, preparing papers, want in- formation; a,student of crime desires assistance in his studies. These and a hundred kindred requests come through the mail, by messenger or over the telephone. It is the lunch hour, but Mr. Whit- man has no time to leave the Criminal Courts building. N “Get a bite sent in,” is the instruc, tion to Louis Hoffman, the genial guardian of the outer office. Louis is off to a nearby restaurant with the order—chops, a salad and a pot of coffee. Before his lunch arrives Mr. Whit- man confers with Chief Magistrate McAdoo. They ‘are still in earnest conversation when the tray is brought in, It is the signal for the chief mag- istrate to leave, for he has a luncheon engagement outside. - The “bite” is spread upon a table in the “inner sanctum,” as the district attorney's staff call a small private room in the rear of Mr. Whitman's office. It is in this small room that some of his most important conferences are held behind closed doors. No attendant ever en- ters there while his chief is engaged in the inner sanctum. During the hasty lunch Mr. Whit- man continues to work. There are let- ters to sign, documents to scan or memorandums of evidence to weigh. These papers are spread on the ‘table, some of them between his dishes; Fif- teen minutes pass, the dishes are hus- tled away, -and Mr. Whitman for an hour is engrossed in legal documents. A call comes from the special grand jury room. Through the rear door he hastens and a' moment later is befor‘ the jury which is hearing state con< tract graft evidence. It is late in the afternoon when Mr. Whitman, tired out by the strain of questioning re- luctant state officials or former offi- clals, returns to his private office. Gets Report on Becker Case. There is more work ahead however. The threads of evidence to be used in the retrial of Police Lieutenant Becker for the murder of the gambler Hers man Rosenthal’ have’ to be gathered. The prosecutor’s assistant, Frederick Groehl, has been out interviewing wit- nesses all morning. He is ready to re- portgo Mr. Whitman. For an hour they are closeted, going carefully over the case, weighing the evidence, discarding some, accepting some. Lawyers for several of the principals in the first trial—Rose, Schepps and Webber—are communicated with by telephone. Fi- nally Mr. Groehl leaves the inner sanc- tum. But the day’s work is.not over. The courts have closed for the day. The judges have gone home. ' The average lawyer is homeward bound. Night is closing in. From the dim hulk of the dows of the district attorney’s office. Again he is-at-his desk.- There are more visitors to see, more conferences with his aids—fifty-two of whom con- stitute his . legal . staff, fourteen full fledged assistants and thirty-eight deputies. Of course all of them do not confer daily with their chief. Barly in the evening the pnewspaper men seek an audience with Mr. Whit- man. A volley of questions greet the prosecutor.” Sothe are answered, some are not. To all questions bearing on ending grand jury proceedings Mr. itman turno a deaf ear. They are tabooed. As the newspaper men leave, a stack of letters dictated "during the day is placed before Mr. Whitman and for ten minutes his pen is busy. There is time for a smoke—the first cigar of the day. Duyring the evening he will smoke two or three more. A final talk with his aids in the state contract graft inquiry and Mr. Whitman leaves for home, choosing the subway rather than his own machine. There is a function to attend. A quick change to evening dress, a hurried bite of din- ner. Midnight comes before the day's work is really over. Every public man will tell you that speechmaking is work, and ‘hard work too. The day with Mr. Whitman léft the writer dizzy, but to the district at- torney there was nothing unusual about it. “Some time I'm going to take a day oft and get a good rest,” he says. It the prosecutor rests as rapidly as Criminal Courts buflding lights shine brightly through the third floor win- he works a lot of resting will be crowded into that day off. GUATRD GA commission for furthdr investigation. Colonel ' Goethals .reported that the data obtained by the battleships:would not have been of any value to an ene- my’s fleet and that the height of the intervening land would prevent hostile fleets from dropping projectiles ‘into the Gatun locks from the open sea. To keep ‘a hostile fleet farther away an important modification of the de- fense arrangements was made by Co- lonel Goethals. This' was the exten- sion of the breakwater from ' Toro point, some distance farther out to sea than was :originally intended. Such action was taken because the navy de- partment suggested: the desirability of providing'a safe snchorage within the PANAMA -CANAL. TUN LOCKS harbor for at least sixteen battleships, and on. the sea end of the breakwater 1ong range guns will be erected. The joint army and navy exercises to test the forts which--wese set for February, following the advance base maneuvers in" Porto Rico, have been postponed until 1915 at the request of the war department. In suggesting the postponement the offi¢ials of the army | said that it would ' be more advisable to defer the maneuvers until the land' fortifications had been entirely finished and all the fire control instruments in- | stalled. As the exercises were initiat- ed by the war department the navy department agreed to the postpone- ment. | ocean to ocean. DIMENSIONS OF GREAT GATUN LOCKS. Length over all, 3,500 feet. Width oyer, all, 350 feet. Valume 'of concrete construction, 2,043,730 cubic yards. ‘Width of side walls at base, 52 feet. ‘Width of side walls at top, 8 feet. ‘Width of center walls, 60 feet. Height of walls, 81 feet. Dimensions of lock chambers, 1,000 by 110 feet. Depth of water in lower lock chambers, 40 feet. Depth -of water “in upper lock chambers, 41% feet. Length: of lock gate leaves, 65 feet. Height of lock gate leaves, 47.4 to 82 feet. ‘Weight of largest gate, pounds. 1,483,700 The present scheme of protecting the, canal on the Colon end provides a fort on Margarita island, where eight mor- tars of a new type having a range of 20,000 yards, two fourteen-inch guns and two six-inch guns will be mounted. ©n the Toro point side there will be eight mortors, two fourteen-inch guns and two six-inch guns. In addition heavy guns will be erected on the end of the breakwater running. out.from Toro point.. There will also be two six-inch guns on Manzanilla point, op-~ posite the city of Colon. On the Pacific side a question con- cerning the adequacy. of the defense has been raised by some coast artillery officers ‘because of the lack of fortifica- tions on Taboga island, which is about 12,000 yards from the end of the Pa- cific terminus of the canal. Some ex- perts say that an enemy’s vessels could take up a position behind Toboga is- land and attack the Panama fortifica- tions. - This and other important ques- tions were considered during the re- cent trip of Mr. Garrison, the secretary of war, to the isthmus. Mr. Garrison was accompanied by Brigadier General E. M. Weaver, chief of coast artillery. Gatun lake, when full, will cover an area of 167 square miles, being the largest artificial body of water in the world, with the possible exception of the lake in Egypt, created by damming the Nile. It constitutes the summit level of the Panama canal. Through it wvessels will steam a distance of twen- ty-five miles on their journey from The lake was formed by building a massive earthen dam from bluff to bluff across the Chagres valley at Gatun, impounding the wa- ters of the Chagres river. A re-en- forced concrete spillway is located near the center of the dam. °* WALTON WILLIAMS. COXEY"S WASHINGTON Photos by American Press Association. COXEY AND SOME ENERAL JACOB 8. COXEY, who in 1894 made a name for himself when he headed a mighty army of the unem- ployed from all sections of the country to march to Washington, planned to have his next “invasion” due at the na- tional capitol on May 22, 1914. He ar- ranged to have the general advance begun on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. April 16. The horses that drew his phaeton twenty years ago are dead, but the phaeton was repainted in preparation for the new journey. As in 1894, the army will “hike” by divisions and will represen* all parts of the country from points as. far east as Boston, as far west as Seattle, as far OF HIS FOLLOWERS. south as New Orleans and as far north as Detroit. The division that the commander in chief will personally lead will be assembled in Massillon, O., the home town of General Coxey. General Coxey directed the organiza- tion of the New York division from the Waldorf-Astoria. _According to the figures submitted by the generalissimo, if even a third of all the unemployed now in the United States manages to reach Washington it means that the capital city will be swamped with about 1,000,000 idle and penniless men. If all the unemployed went along, ac- cording to General Coxey, it would 5,000,000 mean an army of between 4,000,000 and i IN VASIO,N “When we get to Washington,” the general, “it shall be the purnou a the leaders to impress upon the gov- ernment that there is an army of the unemployed in this fair land of o and that it is a mighty huge one at that. “Today there are between 2,000,000 and 8,000,000 more unemployed in this country than a year ago, and som thing must be done, and that's why the army is being ‘organized to march on ‘Washington. The country will finan the undertaking, just as it did in 18 the people in the towns and vill through “which the various divisio will: pass being counted upon to shq thelr patriotism by providing food, al shelter when needed, to the marche; And the people will ‘help, too, whef they realize what jt all means.” At this point.General.Coxey let out secret. It was the “why” of the whole great umdertaking. A conspiracy, he said, had been entered into by the rich men of the country. “First of all" said General Coxey, “these conspirators wanted to have certain sort of currency bill passed- a bill that would suit them to a ‘t.” And they got it, although they managed to make the people think they were againstit. . The bill as it passed wa (2 ‘Wall street measure pure and simple. “Secondly, the conspirators have a scheme to force the_ interstate com- merce commission to, grant a § pel cent increase. In freight rates. Thirdly, they began to give smaller orders for railroad equipment, closing many plants and compelling the others to reduce prices in order to get business. This threw thousands of men out of employment. “In the fourth place, they wanted and succeeded magnificently in creating an army of unemployed men, whom they will use as a club against the em- ployed to make cheaper wages. Fifthly, many manths ago they unloaded stocks at par, and now they are buying them back at 60 and 75 cents on the dollar, * A smart crowd that, I tell you.” “Why don’t you have a division of suffragettes?” General Coxey was asked. “Maybe we will,” he replied, “and we do a woman of national fame wil lead it. And the Chicago suffraget| band will play the music for them to march by.” Asked what the army would demand from congress in the way of legisla- tlon, the commander in chief said one thing would be government ow} railroads, and two others would make possible the getting of money to live by those out of employment at about 2 per cent interest. ARTHUR J. BRINTON,