The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 17, 1919, Page 8

‘How the Special Interests Keep Track . Testimony on “Diamond T’ Letter Shows Elaborate System of Spying b | 1 'L»'; dailies. + officials who were known to be able to hand out i\ favors to their friends. . i counsel.” < ~ | . connection with the big packers was first Graom it e ey bR 1918 terest to us.” : ) | revealed to-the senate committee on agri- ST S b duin: f.‘v'"‘ “Why s it,” Senator Norris inquired, o t | culture. ! after Veeder had made a long series of T {1 Waahington, D. C., June 18, explanations of the secrecy of the whole e B fggfi%%figg}g&lfl(} farao P, Logan connection with the packers, “that I you can not produce before the committee - § | ! ;. morning from (diamond) T. ] AU SRS A S i B E 6:30 ! # Mr. Davies was placed in charge of the i fistration work. * * * . ¢ give plenty of time for readiness, It might Washington Bureau, - Nonpartisan Leader - ]HOMAS F. LOGAN was a news- | paper correspondent in Wash- ington, representing a standpat Philadelphia paper. He also furnished Washington letters to a protectionist weekly in Phila- delphia, to Leslie’s Weekly, to of the Wall street financial He cultivated the society of high public Logan got into touch with officials of the Atlantic ' Refining company, which is the refining end of Standard Oil, and began to draw $300 a month from that corporation for certain mysterious serv- ices which he claims were those of “publicity The Atlantic Refining company could i have made profitable use of a great deal of con- ' fidential information—for instance, as to the plans of the government departments with reference to . purchases of fuel oil, gasoline, ete. 'Logan lunched and dined and entertained at balls and theater par- ties the public officials in Washington who had such ' information. . impart any such He"swears he did not receive nor information—that. he never talked business with any of his guests, nor ¢ “tipped off” his clients on any confidences he received. Yet his salary as an adviser on adver- tising was raised gradually to $700 a month! The Standard Oil company of New Jer- sey heard of this wonderful “publicity counsel,” and for a time paid him $500 a month. The Standard Oil company of In- diana did the same regularly, and is still doing it. Then Swift & Co. paid him ; $6,000 a year, and the General Electric company paid him another $6,000 a year, and finally the Freeport-Sulphur company paid him still another $6,000 a year—all for “publicity advice.” This was Logan’s testimony, under oath, when his secret But afterward there was introduced in : evidence before the committee, during its ' hearings‘on the stockyards legislation, the . famous “Diamond T” letter, which the i Nonpartisan Leader reproduces on this i page in photostatic copy and the body of : which reads as follows: | E. F. S—C. H. S—G. F. 8. Jr—L. A. C. | _F. S. H—R. C. M. (Private) Chicago, June 20, 1917. Information received by Mr. Veeder this’ : (Telephoned Mr. W. B. Traynor) < LOUIS F. SWIFT 3 Washington, D. C., June 18, 1917. p. m. At a meeting of the commission today i meat packing end of the food invéstiga- ii tion; 'Mr. Colver in charge of wheat and ;( wheat products and the members allotted ;i other phases of the inquiry. il" This is under the resolution and appro- i priation recently passed by congress. i The work is to be done as planned, in i conjunction with the Hoover food admin- _Mr. Davies will ¢shortly wire for a conference in Chicago. 41 He will outline the procedure and ask for Eassistance. There will be enough delay to be suggested that you have in readiness what the government was going to do. The text of the letter is also - included, in January, 1919, in one check Y jeverything bearing on high prices and given in the accompanying story. The spy system of the special in- that was sent me each month.” x . "their causes, even though it should net be terests is evidently more efficient than that of the kaiser was, for it = ‘precisely what is desired. With your iknowledge you should be able to give isome good leads and suggestions for fur- i ther inquiry. : }~ Mr. McManus could be helpful “at this lend if he; could get back immediately. gExchange of telegrams are - inadvisable. ' Pleage destroy this immediately, " Forbes’ Magazine, and to one - e During the senate investigation of the packing trust Franci$ J. Heney secur- ed a letter coming from a mysterious “person who was able to tell the packers what the plans of the federal trade commission and the food administra- tion were. Thus forewarned they were forearmed, ready for investigation or to grab contracts. It confirmed the previous proof the people have had - that the special interests maintain a spy system against their competitors and their own government, more ef- fective than that of the kaiser because it produces all the information they need. On the other hand, public of- ficials appear to be very careless about . hobnobbing with those without - visible means of support. : 7/ Immediately the question was asked, “Who was ‘Diamond T’?” i One of the senators, who had brought out in the examination of Logan the fact that he had fre- quently dined with the secretary to the president, asked whether the mysterious source of this letter were Mr. Tumulty. > | THE FAMOUS DIAMOND T LETTER | Chicago, June 20, 1917 Information raceived by Mr, Vesder this morning s 9"'"" pedeval At a meeting of tbz wee pleced in dharge of the meat Investigat products recantly passed by O Thke work ias tc with the shortly wire rence ir Ch the procedu high prices anl thelr osuaes, ev precisely what ia desized, Wi R Here is an exact photostatic reproduction of the Diamond T showing how a special-interest spy kept his employers informed of ' yielded what they needed to know about government plans. letter, according to testimony by packing trust agents, was. written by one Thomas F. Logan, who kept on friendly terms with the biggest :in Washington by the entertainment route. . The packers used to send a beefsteak to' Congressman Mann now and then; they reached others through Logan’s ability to pay for steaks at-the big hotels. Is ALogan simply ‘a spy or is he a’concealed broker between the special interests and the politicians? | PAGE EIGHT - S 1 letter, on Government—Spies or Go-Betweens Entertain High Officials Finally, Henry Veeder, chief lobbyist and polit- ical agent for the Big Five packers, gave the secret away. - He testified that he had shown the text of - the letter to Logan and asked him if he (Logw\)\ wrote it, and Logan said that he did. \ “He said,” repeated Veeder, in reply to Senator Kenyon’s question, “he wrote this letter and sent it to me.” N\ . Veeder denied any personal recollection of havyt ing seen the letter until it was shown to the com- mittee by Francis J. Heney, who had made the photostatic copy of the original letter after it had been taken from the Swift files. Logan said that he had not placed the symbol—T inside the dia- mond—upon the letter. VEEDER TRIES TO EXPLAIN “Did he say why he put on there, ‘Please destroy this immediately’?” asked Kenyon. “He said,” replied Veeder, “that he put that.on because he thought the letter might be miscon- strued. For the same reason he put on there ‘Ex- change of telegrams inadvisable.’” “Didn’t you gather from that letter,” Kenyon asked, “that Mr. Logan had “received from Mr. Davies or the commission some confidential infor- - mation and was passing it on to you?” “Not necessarily.” = Veeder then admitted that he had suggested, a few days earlier, that this letter may have been anonymous. Now he could only say that Logan sel- dom: wrote letters, but gave his “advice” by word of mouth to Veeder, who called upon Logan regulgrly whenever Veeder came to Washington. asserted, “for the purpose of giving us advice as ‘we called upon him for it in Washington, in connection with trying to right ourselves before the public. What- ever information he picked up he sent on merely as a friend would do, as being something he thought would be of in- any lgtter or any writing to you, or to Swift & Co., along the lines of his em- ployment. It is apparent that all written communications’ that you say came from Mr. Logan, or in connection with any com- munications that came from him in writ- ing, were on some subject other than the line of his employment. Isn’t that true?” “Yes,” admitted Veeder. “I have no recollection of letters from him except as they appear here.” N It was explained that the series of ini- referred to the members of the Swift firm and their chief lieutenants, to whom copies of the document were sent. The same was true of a long letter sent by Logan . to the Swifts on May 15, 1917, telling-of a conference between Hoover and Presi- dent Wilson the night before, at which the president agreed to sweep aside the sec- retary of agriculture and permit Hoover to have full control over the proposed food administration. Veeder said he had no idea as to how Logan got _this information. LOGAN PAID THROUGH TRUST LAWYER “You did not carry Logan on your pay- - rolls, did you?” Kenyon inquired. Veeder explained that—*“I received a check from Swift & Co. and forwarded my check to Mr. Logan. Subsequently it was “Did you pay any one else that way ?” This “No.” “Did you know of anybody else who knew he was being paid by you?” 4T did not tell angbody. 1 had no oceca- sion to tell anybody.” “It wonld be very much easier for him to get information,” Kenyon remarked, “if : - - (Continued on page 13)" s “He was paid a salary by us,” Veeder- 4 .tials at the top of the “Diamond T” letter’