Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-12-06


The special committee of the House of Rep
resentatives to investigate the defalcation of
Cashier Silcott met in the room of the House
committee on public lands at 10 o'clock this
morning. Every one but the members of the
committee and the witness under examination
at the time was excluded from the room, and
messenger was placed in the corridor
to guard the door. Mr.. Leedom, the
sergeant-at-arms, wes first examined. He
appeared with Phil Thompson, whom he had
employed as his attorney. Thel committee re-
fused to admit the attorney. Mr.. Leedom was
put through an examination which lasted from
about 1890 until II O'Clock. He made COM
plete statement of all he knew of the case, sub
stantlally as 1t was stated in The STAR yester-
day.
WHO LOSES THE MoNEY-S71 500.
When the committee had finished with him
Assistant United States Treasurer Wheipiey,
who had been kept in waiting outside, was
called into thereon and put upon the stand.
The purpose of taking his testimony was to get
the treasury view as to whether the loss falls
upon the government or upon the individual
members OF Congress who signed the receipts,
according to custom, before the money was
drawn.
Before the committee met an examination OF
the safe was made and it was fovnd that the
deficiency in the official accounts was 81 300.
This OF course, does not include any losses by
private depositors.
1T Is THE PURPOSE OF THE COMMITTEE
to act as promptly as possible. Their object
Will be to fix the criminal responsibility for
the defalcatiou, which it does not take long to
do, and then to determine where the loss shall
fall. They want to determine positively what
the governments responsibility is--whether
Mr.. Silcott was the agent of the individual
members or OF the government. If they de-
eide that he was an agent of the government
they will propose that an appropriation bill be
passed to pay the members their salaries,
leaving the government to look to the bonds
men OF the defaulting cashier and of the
sergeant-at-arms to make good the loss. If, on
the other hand, they decide that the members
receipts absolve the government from RESPONSE
bility for the payments there are several sug-
gestions as to how the m after will be settled,
one OF which is for the House to vote the
money to pay its members. This plan will
meet with opposition if it is proposed on the
floor OF the House.
MEMBERS ON THE ANXIOUS BENCH.
Most Of the members are anxious for the
money and the committee will settle the mat
ter promptly. They will probably be ready to
report to the House on Monday and if the loss
Is put upon the government an appropriation
will be passed at once for the amount and the
new sergeart-at-arms will begin paying as soon
as the bill can be passed by the Senate and re-
ceive the approval of the President. If this
course Is not followed the new sergeant-at-
arms, Mr.. Holmes, will have to begin his ac-
count with the December salaries and can
make no payments until the end of the month.
Mr.. Holmes was at the sergeant-at-arms'
Office today and is ready to begin business as
soon as the affairs are Strengthened out in some
way.
This morning members were still crowdIng
about the paying tellers desk, not in the hope
OF getting any money, but to be on hand il any
of their checks or drafts came in to take them
up and save them from protest. They have
given out these checks and don't know at what
moment they may be presented for pay
ment The only way to prevent their GO
ing to protest, when it is not known
cashed, Is to be on hand to take them up.
This occasions many hours of anxious waiting.
Some OF these checks have been sent by men,
bers to their families to bring them on to Wash
ington and 1t is question in most cases
whether the checks have been cashed at
some bank or whether their families are
on their way with nothing but
worthless checks to pay their expenses with.
A deal of telegraphins is being done to stop
checks and to get money or to ascertain
whether any families of members of Congress
are stranded on the road. Here is where the
books of telegraph franks that most of the
members have come in handy, for in their
present straitened circumstances the expense
of telegraphing would be heavy draft ON their
resources.
FORTUNATE AND UNFORTUNATE CoNGREssMEN.
Many of the members who we're depending
on their accounts at the sergeant alarms Office
to meet their ordinary expenses are stranded.
Some Of those members who are fortunate
enough to have bank accounts in the sound
repositories of Washington were prompt in
Offering to cash checks for some of their I'M
fortunate colleagues. A few only of the men,
bers had drawn out their full accounts includ-
ing the December pay, before tho crash came.
Roswell ?. Flower and General Spinoia were
among these fortunate ones. General Spinola
drew all that was due him on Tuesday.