The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-20

statistics. When the probate court re-
search was abandoned THE Purchas-
ing Power of Gold" was taken up In
fact. some of the preliminary work was
done in the summer of 1895. He worked
2on the book during the months of July
and August, 1896. There were about
a dozen at work on it. They were &C
countants and copyists, not factory
inspectors, and they did their work i'll
an obscure room in the upper part of
the state house.
The committee ruled out a question
as to whether the employment of these
extra employees was contemplated Sy
the act creating the bureau.
Have you read the book?" asked
Mr.. Erwin.
Part of it,
"When?"
Last fall when 1 was making sound
money speeches"
Did you quote from it?"
mo, sir"
not read the book to have it placed IN
evidence.
AS to the charge that the mortgage
statistics were garbled, Mr.. Valesn
said every statistician had his own
way of presenting the facts that came
to his knowledge. Some statistics were
withheld
w as lHeIe any Arrangement OIL tnGn1
made to deceive?" asked Senator Nc
Hale.
The statistics of mortgage foreclos-
ures in these two cities, which appeared
excessive were suppressed. Mr.. Pow
ers asked if he did not know that
there was an error of 100000 in the
Minneapolis figures. He did.
Some man had come down from Min
neapoliS and told Mr.. Powers it would
make a bad showing to print these Gg-
ures. That might have been one rea-
son for the suppression. By the time
the second report came out, it had be-
come a matter Of general knowledge
that the foreclosures were abnormally
great.
Farmer Hayseed." This was during
the regular Office hours of the depart
ment. 1t took probably three or four
weeks. Ekman was on this too This
was by direction Of Mr.. Powers He
was told that it was desired to get to-
gether statistics showing the value Of
the crops in a certain group of states
He did not know that the tables were
for private venture until about the
time that the final proofs were brought
into the office to be read. The Rainy
lake expedition was also gone into
The purpose was to take up lands I'M
der the stone and timber act, to be
ScIQ 10 OIneT parties. WlIn0SS pro-
duced the contracts in the deal to show
that it was a scheme for private spec.
ulation.
The witness knew about the Leech
lake trip taken by Mr. Powers. but
did not know just how long it lasted.
A general course Of questioning ellie
tied the fact that there were no printed
or permanent rules in the bureau. the
commissioner was responsible for
everything done. The witness wrote a
portion of the report on apprentices and
trade unions, but not the conclusions.
Coming back to the Purchasing
Power of Gold" Mr.. Erwin elected a
conversation between himself and Mr..
Powers, in which he said the labor pec-
pie were satisfied to wait until some
future time for a labor report and do
without anything in this report.
On crOsS-eXamination the witness
denied any connection with the pro-
meters of the investigation. Nothing
new was elected in relation to the
mortgage or tax statistics. On Farmer
Hayseed" the witness discovered some
additional work he had done.
Attorney Evans attempted to show
that the Rainy lake trip took the place
Of the yearly vacation, but the witness
said that was not the case.
Mr. Erwin offered to rest his case
and let Mr.. Powers be examined and
reserve one evening for corroborative
testimony.
Mr. Evans objected very decidedly.
He wanted all the testimony in before
Mr.. Powers was examined. and insisted
that the usual rules CT trial should be
observed Mr. Erwin argued that the
matter was not ore of trial, but OF
inquiry The committee need not bind
itself by the rules Of criminal courts,
but might be governed by expectancy.
The committee, however, held that
the prosecution, so to speak, should
put in it's whole case before.
The committee then adjourned until
Tuesday evening at o'clock.