The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1905-10-20
.uAY ARREST ONE WITNESS
PLuNkiTT MAY BE PROSECUTED
FOR PERJURY.
DENIES GETTING THE MONEY

Counsel Hughes Applauded by Spec
tators for Scoring McCurdy fo'
Making EvasiVo Answers--Jordar
Wanted as Witness.
New York, oct l9.-The district at
torncy's office was called upon by
the legislative insurance investigate
ing committee because of the tcstt
mOny Of one witness and the question
OF an arrest Tor perjury is now being
considered by Assistant District At
torncy Rand. The witness In qucs
tIon Is George J. Punkitt, an eightCon
ploy of the stationary Arm of l.. W.
Lawrence n Co, from whom the Mw
tual Life Insurance company pur
chased great deal OF It's supplies OF
this nature. II was brought out In
the testimony that among the vOuCh.
crs for money charged to legal ex.
penscs was one for S90l, signed by
George j. Plunktt. His identity was
not disclosed until Plunkitt was called
TO the stand. He testified as to his
employment. and when shown the
voucher denied that he had ever
signed It. He further denied that he
had ever received that amount of
money from the Mutual Life Insurance
company or that he had rendered the
company any service, Mr.. Hughes
asked Punkitt to write his name In
ink on u piece of paper, which he did.
This and the voucher were then Of
fored in evidence and the similarity
of the signatures was called to the
attention of the district attorney.
Another feature of the days hearing
was the passage at arms between
Chairman Armstrong, Counsel Hughes
and James M. Beck, counsel for Presl.
dent Il. A. McCurdy. Mr. Beck ac.
cused Mr.. Hughes OF misleading the
public by not following out his lines
Of Interrogation to the end, and as.
serted that he dropped a subject be.
fore tho witness was allowed to ex.
plain. Chairman Armstrong then said
that the work OF the committee must
not be obstructed. The committee.
he said, wanted all the information It
cou'' get that would be helpful and
the r'aced himself in the
position gof W his ron.
tinual ,.~.
strong said fur,nor
will be treated with
esy. Mr. Hughes thea
cred II was by showing courtesies
when circumstances justified an en-.
tlrely different course, adding that
evasion would be held up to the con.
tempt II has always received. There
was spontaneous outburst Of ap.
plause when Mr.. Hughes had conclud.
ed, which was stopped only by a
threat to clear the room.
The matter OF the subsidiary COM
panies OF the Mutual Life was taken
up and Mr.. McCurdy said the prosper
ity OF these companies was largely
due to the interest of the Mutual Life
in them. but the Mutual Life did not
formation Of the subsidiary companies
Mr.. McCurdy explained, and said:
"Premiums began to come in with far
greater rapidity than we anticipated
and we had to find an immediate
means for the fructifcation OF the
money. 1t was felt the company
should get closer to the market, but
we had no organization for the pur-
pose and our officers were not trained
to do 1t. The only thing we could do
was to invest In trust companies"
An attempt was made by Mr.. Hughes
TO get trace of Thomas d. Jordan,
former controller of the Equitable
Life Assurance society. Frank B. Jor-
dan was called under a subpoena and
he said he saw his father last Labor
day. He did not know then that he
was going away and did not know
| where he was now. Under persistent
questioning by Mr.. Hughes, young
Jordan said no mail was forwarded
TO his father, and that he did not
know whether his father or his mother
were living or dead.