The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-04-23
HEARST APPEARS BEFORE COMMITTEE Defends His Suit Against the
 Coal Companies WAS ASSISTED BY COUNSEL The New York Representative Reads Largely From Documents Before
 Him In Showing Justice
 of His Contention.
WAS ASSISTED BY COUNSEL

Washington, April 2-(specal)-Th fierce determination of the Judiciary com mitee to find out whether Representa- tive William R. Hearst can make speech resulted in that statesman's ap- pearance before it today. The committee, aroused by the numerous inquiries on the subject in the house and elsewhere, de- cided to perform a public duty by set ting all doubts at rest, and it sent Mir Hearst a written invitation to appear to- day and explain his coal trust bill
 MT. Hearst got the invitation on We'd nesday and promptly teegraphed to New York for his counsel. Clarence J. Shearn. Shearn is rumored to be the "Wiiam Randolph Hearst of whose deeds against the trusts so much is heard. He respond ed to MT. Hearsts appeal and the two sat up late last night over the mass of testimony brought over by MT. Shearn.
 Mir. Hearsts speech was largely read from the documents he had on the table before him He was only interrupted a few times by members of the committee, and managed to answer some of the questions given him with the assistance of Mir. Shearn.
 The attorney general has been brood ing over that evidence like an old hen on door knob for eighteen months. He has not acted in any way and wont let anybody take it away from him." said MT. Hearst
 Spoke for an Hour.
 MT. Hearst occupied the attention of the committee for an hour in the first argu- ment he has made in his capacity as a member of the house. He reviewed in de- tail the proceedings instituted by him self against the railways and demanded that action should be taken either by the attorney general or that the house should appoint a committee of seven of it's mem bers to compile anew the evidence in the possession of the attorney general with a view to securing action against these roads under the Sherman antitrust act.
 The precise manner in which the anti trust was being violated as claimed by MT. Hearst was when it became known to the six coal carrying roads that the in- dependent coal mining operators contem- plated building q road of their own to tidewater. To prevent this the roads bought the property of Simpson X Wat. kins, owning eleven colliers, the largest of the independent operators. They also bought the Temple Iron company capt talized at $240,OOO and recapitalized 1t at 0oO guaranteeing 6 per cent annual interest on it's capitalization. The price of coal in New York was then raised 90 cents a ton, netting an increased annual earning of S20,000000.
 This according to MT. Hearst, consti- tutes violation of the sherman anti trust law and he declared he had placed reliable evidence in the form of affida- wits to substantate the same in the hands of the district attorney for the southern district of New York. This official had investigated the evidence and MT. Hearst said he had been informed, though not officially, that the district attorney had reported the case to the department of justice eighteen months ago. with re- commendation that a case be made out.
 Republicans Ask Questions.
 Republican members of the committee questioned the necessity of calling upon the attorney general for evidence inas- much as MT. Hearst had furnished it to the district attorney in the first instance and could as well furnish it to the com mittee Representative DeArmond of y ought to know why the attorney general od not proceed in the matter Mr. Hearst said 1t was impossible for him to procure the report of the district at torney who had investigated the evidence furnished by him that it would have to be obtained from the department of jus tice.
 The informant, he said in that report was entirely unofficial but he believed trustworthy. It had been obtained from a person connected with the district att torney's office, but he declined to state from whom, because it might embarrass the person in question.
 Representative Palmer republican of Pennsylvania, asked if the present price of coal was an unreasonable one and if the incident in the price had not occur red after the commission appointed by the President had increased the wages of the miners 10 per cent. This latter fact MT. Hearst conceded to be the case. He said that the commission. however. was re- alizing $0,000000 a year out of the pre- servation of their monopoly and that the 10 per cent increase to miners did not abount to an aggregate of more than $3'o0o'0OO to $5,0OO0O0 year