The citizen., 1905-08-04
WASHINGTON.
Legislative and Gem
eral Topics from
the Capital.
July 80, 1905.

VoStlgatl0n OF Cne cOtuOu leak IIom
the Department of Agriculture.
Two of the witnesses summoned
from New York to answer ques
tions in the investigation before
the grand jury looking to the in
dictment of Holmes and perhaps
other persons in connection with
the leak have refused to answer
and the court has given them one
more day to consider their de-
cisiOn before sentencing them to
jail for contempt. The ground
taken by these witnesses, Haas
and Peckham, both of whom are
advised by counsel, is that the
court has no jurisdiction to COM
pei them to answer and that their
answers might tend to incriminate
them. Mr.. Haas read a long
statement to the court, prepared
of course by his counsel, and ask
ed the jury to make it matter of
record. How far the witnesses
will 60 in their refusal to answer
the questions of the District At.
torney is of course question, but
the ground on which they have
based their refusal makes il possi-
BILE that the court will not compel
them to answer. At the same
time their refusal on the ground
that their answers might incrimi
nate them, while it may be purely
technical, renders their refusal the
more interesting and probably
will convince the jury that they
known something worth revealing
or perhaps better worth keeping
secret. La either case it makes
the proceedings of the grand jury
more mysterious and interesting
than ever and serves to convince
the general public that the Dis
trict Attorney is going to have a
whole lot of trouble i'll getting to
the bottom of the case. He has
promised that there is already
sufficient ground for criminal pro
ceedings but this is only natural to
a man in his position and people
will he more ready to believe that
he is right after he has secured a
conviction than before, The
court has since refused to compel
an answer on the ground that it
might tend to incriminate the wit
ness.
1t seems however. tn a h e
trouble in the Department of Ag-
riculture did not stop with the
cotton leak There have been
other troubles under the surface
in the Department and one of them
was brought to light today by the
resignation of DR.. GeOre T. Moore
OF the Bureau of Soils. Secretary
Wilson has complained year after
year that he could not get men OF
the scientific calibre required by
the Department for the wages that
the Government was willing to
pay. The Government has been
pretty liberal aud the appropri
atiOns for the Department have
about doubled since 1898 but it
appears that the private employ
ers are still able to out bid the
Government. DR.. Moore while in
the employ of the Department de-
vised nitrogen compound that
Was supposed to be highly bene-
fetal as soil enricher aud the de-
vice was patented under his name
by the Agriculture Department
and a number of pamphlets writ
ten on the subject. Ii was about
as good an advertisement as a
patent compound cOul d have
though the fact that it was pat
ented by the Department preclud-
ed the possibility of there being
any commercial monopoly in it's
use. However, there was com
pany formed in West Chester, Pa,
which was willing to take the risk
and offered DR.. Moore a substan-
tial salary and a good block of
the company's stock to come with
them. The Doctor thought over
the proposition and dickered with
the Department for a raise of
salary. The negotiations dragged
on and the raise was deferred for
a long time. Meanwhile a block
of stock was made in the name of
the Doctors wife and stood that
way till a hearing was had the
other day from a couple of men
on an agricultural paper when all
the facts were brought out. DR..
Moore wrote letter to the Secre
tary rendering his resignation and
stating that he did not want to
embarass the Department by con-
tinuing IN his present position if
it should be any embarrassment.
Secretary Wilson did not say
whether it was an em mbarassment
or not but he accepted the resig.
nation.
In addition to the fresh row in
the Agricultural Department, the
Government is confronted with
more trouble in the Government
Printing Office. That big insti.