Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-04-20
GARLAND AND THE PAN.
A!torney-General Garland Appears
Before the Telephone Investi-
cation Committee,
q ''es a Definite Statement Of His
'aa oliss; - With the Pan.Elcc.
~ mpany.
He TENS How : Memphis suit was
ordered and How He sawed on
Old Van Benthuysen.


WASHINGTON, April l9.-The announce
ment that Attorney General Garland was
TO appear before the telephone investiga-
ting committee caused larger attend
ance than usual this morning. The at
torney general appeared, looking
pale and rather feeble, With
a courteous salute to the committee
he Immediately took the stand
and on the invitation Of the chairman be-
gan TO make statement of his connec-
ton with the Pan Electric company. He
wished, he said, To lay before the com
mittee and realiirm the matter contained
In his statement to the president ON Oe-
tober s, last. In addition he wished TO
explain two or three points Of that state
ment. In February, 1888, Gen. Atkins
had said to the witness that he believed
Rogers inventions We're Of great utility,
and II properly handled that money
could be made of them. Mr.. Rogers
being poor man himself, Gen. Atkins
had desired the witness to enter into this.
al told him." said the witness, "that had
never undertaken to make any money
except by law and poker. had always
lost at poker, and had generally won at
law | was.willing to go into this II he
thought 1t offered inducements.n
Continuing, the witness said Senator
Harris made substantially the same
statement about investigations, and two
or three days afterwards, he the wit
messy had been introduced to Rogers aud
his partner at their home. He freely told
of the organization Of the Pan-Elcctric
company as detailed by senator Harris
and other witnesses, aud then turned his
attention 70 the applications made to him
to bring suit against the Bell company. II
was an inference and not fact, he said,
( that the Pan-Klectric company made
the application. The inference was
founded GU two reasons; first
that Col. Young came with other gentle
men IN the latter part Of July tand the
witness knew him) TO the secretary and
! treasurer of the Pan, Electric; and sec
ond, because the witness had on May %
received letter from Rogers, requesting
that suit be brought as stockholder
| OF the company. Coupling these facts
together the witness took IL for granted
that the Pan-Electric made the applica-
tion. IL was simply an M
! ference. No name had been
mentioned. The witness had
treated Rogers letter as personal, and
knew Rogers had no authority to make
application, that such application must
come from the president of the COM
paDy. Therefore the letter had remained
unanswered, and the personal paper had
not been filed. In July Van Benthuysen
had presented an application for suit,
basing it on law which he stated had
been passed at the last session Of con
gress. The witness had heard Of the law
/ 10 4hnk haI L,1 -,
made, but could not find the
act The application, however, was
1 so we'll written, and appareSily set out
the passage of the bill so positively,
that the witness felt there must be some
mistake and that the bill had become a
law. The application had been referred
by the witness to the interior department,
where 1t should have gone IN the first In
stance, and the witness had heard nc
more of It until it had been re.
turned last January with other pa.
pers. After receiving VanBenthuyscn's
letter the witness had set to work TO ex-
anime into the matter, for though he had
no information to that effect he was salts.
fed that other applications would be
made. Ga looking over the authority be
had concluded that he could not order
the suit, and when the gentlemen had
come he had determined he would not
touch 1t at all under any circumstances
When the witness was In the senate
Il Senator Plat had come TO him one day
with bill TO authorize government
suits. He had asked his opinion Of IT,
The witness had looked it over and said
he regarded 1t as unnecessary, that II
would do,no good. That was all he ever
said or heard until it had been brought to
his attention through the application. In
the early part Of the fall Mr. Humphreys
of the Globe Telephone company called
upon him at the department
about the application. al thought he
was gong to Jump over on me-" said the
witness. Humphreys had insisted that
he (the witness) order suit He had
said it was very curious that because he
(the witness) was 10 another company, his
Humphreys rights should be disregard
ed. d'He got mad because would not
do anything about 1t, y said the witness,
sand we parted with no mutual re-
spect and admiration at ALL"
The witness denied that he had ever
given an opinion about him. The opiu.
ion he had given, and the only opin-
ion, was TO the effect that
the Pan-ElectTlc inventions were not an
infringement, that they were improve
ments upon telephones and were differ
emily patentable on a well-recognized
principle. Although the witness was at
torney toF the company, yet Young and
Senator Harris usually drew up the legal
papers, and when they were referred To
him the witness made such alterations as
seemed to be necessary. These papers
had been submitted to the witness in the
senate judiciary-room, but It was mis-
take TO say that any board meeting had
been held in that room. The witness was
satisfied that he had never attended O
meeting Of the company since the last
presidential election.
Turning his attention TO the ordering
OF the Memphis suit, the witness said he
had arranged TO leave Washington Aug.
" and spend the entire month OF Septem.
Der at his home In Arkansas. lie had
chosen that time because he had found
September the best month 10 be out OF
Washington, and because he could shoot