Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1886-04-21
THE PAN-ELECTR|C RuMPuS,
Attorney-G General Garland Appears Be-
fore the Congressional In
vestigating Committee.
He Gives a Straight Forward and Salts
factory Explanation Of His
Connection Herewith,
He Comes Out Of a Raking and Searching
Inquiry Completely Unscathed-
Committee AdjOnrns.

I Inquiry Completely Unscathed-
I Committee AdjOurns.
+ WASHINGTON, April l9.-The announce
ment that Attorney General Garland wa
to appear before the Telephone Investigs
i tion Committee caused long attendant
this morning. It was nearly ythree-quarter
/ of an hour after the regular hour of meetin
| when the Attorney General appeared, lool
Lug pale aud rather feeble. With a courteou
Isalute to the Committe he immediatel
ttook tine stand and ou Invitation OF th
81 chairman he began to make q statemen
! of his connection with the Pan Electrl.
/ He wished, he said, to lay before the con
/ mission and reaffirm the matter cOntaine
! in his statement to the President on Oct c
| ber eighth last.
HOW HE GOT IN.
In addition he wished to explain two o
| three points of that statement. In Feb
ruary, 1883, General atkins had said t.
witness that he believed the Pozers inven
tions were of great utility if properly han
died and that money could be made out O
them. Being poor man like himself, Gen
Atkins had desired the witness to ente
into this. II told him." said witness
that I had never undertaken to make any
money except by law and p ker. I had al
ways lost at poker and generally won a.
law. l was willing to 60 into this If b,
thought it offered any..inducements.' Con
tinuing, witness said that Senator Harris
made substantially the same statement
about the invention, and two or three
days afterwards he (witness) had been in
troduced to Mr.. Rogers and his son al
their home. He briefly told OF their.or
ganization of the Pan Electric Company, az
detailed by Senator Harris and other wit
nesses, and then turned his attention to the
applications made to hin
TO BRING SUIT
against the Bell Company. 1t was an in.
ference and not a fact, he said, that the
Pan Electric had made the application.
The inference was founded on two reasons,
viz: First, that Col. Young came with the
other gentlemen Tin the latter part OF july
and witness knew him to be Treasurer and
Secretary OF the Pan Electric; and second,
because witness had, on May 25, received a
letter from Rogers, requesting suit to be
Coupling these facts together, witness took
it for. granted that the Pan Electric had
made no ,pplica ton. Witness had treated
the Ben Rogers letter as personal, and he
knew Rogers ha no authority to make the
that such an application :" ust
be made from the President OF the Com
pany. Therefore, the
LETTER HAD REMAINED UNANSWERED,
and personal paper had next been filed.
In July Van Benthuisen had presented his
application for auit, basing it on a law
which he stated had been passed at the last
session OF Congress. Witness had not
heard of the law before, but made some
search, but could not find the act. The
application, however, was so well written,
and apparently set out the passage OF the
bill SO positively, that witness felt that the
bill had become a law. The application
1ad been referred by witness to the Interior
Department, where it should have gone in
The first instance, and witness had heard
10 more OF it until it had been returned
asst January, with other papers. After
receiving Van Benthuisen's letter witness
lad set to work to examine into the mat
er, for though he had no intimation to
hat effect, ne was satirfied other applica-
ions would be made. Looking over the
he concluded that he
COULD NOT ORDER SUIT,
md when Mr.. Van Benthuisen, Young and
The others came to him he had determined
hat he would not touch it at all, under
my circumstances. When witness was
till in the Senate, Senator Piatt had come
20 him one day with Mr.. Bell to authorize
he Government suits, and had asked his
opinion of it. Witness had asked his
opinion OF it; witness had looked it over
md had regarded it as unnecessary, and
hat it would do no good. That was all he
ver said or heard OF the bill until it had
,een brought to his attention, though the
application in the, early part of the fall.
dr. Humphrey. OF the Globe Telephone
company, had called upon him at the de-
,artment about the application. 'He
hought he was going to jump over on me-
hat he (witness) order suit, and he said
IT WAS VERY CURIOUS
BECAUSE he (witness) was in another COM
ANY that his (Humphrey's) rights should
,e disregarded He got mad because I
gould not do anything about it" said the
witness, land we parted not with mutual
aspect and admira ton at ALL"
Witness denied that he had ever given an
opinion about him. The opinion he had
iven and the only opinion, was to the
fleet that the Pan Electric Inventions were
ot infringements, that they were improve
nents upon the telephones, that were diff
erentIy patentable, well recognized prin-
pie. While a stockholder, he had
BEEN VERY DELICATE
n attending meetings for the reason that
he place of meeting was inconveniently sit
lated, that they were held at night when
witness merely went out OF his house;
although witness was attorney for the COM
,any, vet Mr.. Young and Senator Harris
Usually drew up the legal papers, and when
bev were refe: red to him, witness made
uch alterations as seemed to be necessary.
These papers had been submitted to him in
he Senate Judiciary room, but it was mis-
AXE to say that any board meetings had
,een held in that room. Witness was sat
SIZED that he had never attended meeting
# the company since the last Presidential
lection.
Turning his attention to the ordering OF
he Memphis suit, the witness said that he
lad arranged to leave Washington on Au.
ust p and spend the entire month OF Sep
hosen that time beca use he had found Sep
ember the best month to be out OF Wash
ngton, and because he could shoot deer in
Ark ansas in that month under the game
aw 1.-THE deer did not become ri pc until
september" said he. Mr.. Goode had re-
urned about the middle OF August, but
witness had said nothing to him about the
APPLICATION he had received, because he did
lot know exactly what to say. He sup
,osed the gentlemen who had made the
application
WOULD FIND THEIR REMEDY
they supposed they held one. When the
witness had come back to Little Rock he
eceived dispatch from the New Orleans
Times Democrat saying his admiring news
,a per friends were complimenting him on
'rdering the suit against the Bell Company.
Ie replied that he had not ordered any
uch suit. Hehad returned to Washington
bout October ], and when he called at
he White House the President had told
i'm the papers were speaking of the case,
he made the explanation that
lad been published. Witness had never
opened his mouth to Mr.. Goode about it,
because solely Mr.. Goode under the statue
vas perfectly free and indep ndent. and
witness had no more control over him in his
witness) absence or disability than he had
'ver the gent lemen in Congress-. He had /
ever to this day spoken to Mr.. Goode
bout the first suit or one alleged to be
'ending. Mr.. Goode had said something
bout counsel practice OF the Government
n dealing with counsel. He did not know
1hat was in the bill.
HAD NEVER SEEN THE PAPERS,
N which the suit was predicated. and had