The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-02-10
OLD CUSTOM HOUSE
 CAUSES SQUABBLE
Allegation of Wrong Doing is
 Made Before Committee
TAYLORCALLED TO EXPLAIN
Maintains That City National Bank Has Made No More Out of Prop erty Than Congress
 Had Allowed.

Washington, February 9-A hearing was held today before the committee on public buildings and grounds on the reso- luton introduced by Representative Sul- ger of New York on the sale of the old New York custom house property. The resolution called for information as to when the deed was executed, where it was deposited and why it has not been recorded in New York county, and for other information in connection with the sale of the property.
 MT. Sulzer stated to the committee that the authorities of New York have never been able to find when the deed was ex- ecuted or where fl was deposited or any information concerning 1t. He also assails the treasury department for the transac- tion. calling it an unspeakable outrage of the government and of the city of New York. He stated that the property was worth s6.O00OO0 when it was sold and is worth Sl0O00000 now. He stated that the custom house covered two large blocks about 500 by 400 feet He stated that more than $loo0,OOO had already been paid to the National City bank for rent He further stated that not a dollar had been paid for the property by the National City banlo-that the transaction was sim ply a matter of bookkeeping, transfer ring the purchase price of $9,265,OOO from one account to another. He declared that there ought to be an investigation by Congress of the whole affair.
 Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Taylor, who had been invited to be pres ent at the hearing replied in detail to these charges.
 Deed Was Never Executed
 "In the first place." he said, mo deed had ever been executed therefore it could not be deposited anywhere and could not be recorded. The reason tne deed had not been executed was because the property was not fully paid for and under the contract the National City bank was not compelled to make final payment and get the deed until the new custom house was completed.
 MT. Taylor said the records showed that the property sold under act of Con- gross was offered at one time for S4.OO, . 0O0-that $2OO0 was spent in advertising it in efforts to secure bidders, and not bid could be secured. He produced letters from a former assistant secretary of the treasury under MT. Harrison, and from an acting secretary of the treasury under Cleveland, stating that 1t was doubtful whether the property could be sold for as much as $s,OOO,o0O. and suggesting that it would be unwise to place this limit in the bill because if no bidders could be secured the sale could not be made He also said that under second act of Con gross fixing the minimum price at $3.O00,- 900 the property was advertised in eleven leading New York papers and efforts were made for months to secure bidders and the highest bid of the three submitted was SS,265O0O. or S265, ,00O above the amount fixed by Congress. He further showed that the government, instead of having paid 100000 in rentals had paid less than one-half that amount. He showed that the size of the lot instead of being two large blocks was less than one-half of one.
 Full Amount Was Paid.
 In reply to the charge that the National City bank had not paid a dollar for the