The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-20
HOLMES TRIAL DRAGS SLOWLY Van Riper Repeats His
 Charges. ADMITS SURPRISING NAMES Had Made No Direct Agreement With Holmes. Attorney worthington Takes Witness Through Series of Questioning
 Regarding Alleged Manipula-
 tions of the Markets.
ADMITS SURPRISING NAMES

Washington, June 19.-In the trial of former Associate Statistician Holmes of the Agricultural Department, on the charge of conspiring to defraud' the Government by giving out crop report information, the District Attorney to- day produced the affidavit presented by Witness Van Riper to Secretary Wilson when he made his first com plaint in 1905. It proved to be re- cital under oath of the charges made by Van Riper against Holmes and 1t contained nothing new. It, however, formed convenient basis for long series of questions by MT. WorthinEton.
 In reply to these, Van Riper reiter- ated his statement that he had made no direcp agreement with Holmes for information and again said that ne did not consider that his conduct had been improper. He said he had suppressed the names of Price and Haas in his statement to the Secretary. because ne did not desire to involve them unneces- sarily. He also said that the under standing was that for the manipulation of the market Holmes should give any figure he might see fit in the crop re- ports. in the absence of Hyde in Flu rope.
 Van Riper said that it had become important to know in advance the pur-
 
 port of the Census Bureau on the amount of cotton Of the 1904 crop that had been ginned. and that Holmes had seen Director North of that bureau, who had assured him that his report would confirm the Agricultural Department figures.
 Van Riper said that he had not seen Peckhan since June, 1904. but that so far as he knew, their relations were H-sn 1fxr aAk ks..xn h0 |. ham had threatened to kill him.
 With reference to his failure to de- stroy letters as requested by his vari- ous correspondents, Van Riper said that he had intended to tear them up. but that he had put them away and neg lected to do so.
 s'Why. then, did you rescue from the waste basket the agreement between Holmes and HaasF' he was asked e
 Because" he replied. T had reason to suspect that Haas was unfriendly to me-" ~
 The witness declared that he had no understanding with Special Govern ment Attorney Reach, or any one else, that he should not be Indicted. al- though Mir. Reach had said information he might give should not be used against him.
 The witness said Holmes had told
 
 $49.000 as the result of operations on the brokers report. Van Riper said he never before mentioned this fact because he had not been asked about 1t. Afternoon Session.
 At the afternoon session half Q dozen bank books were introduced to give testimony concerning the deposit and withdrawal of money by Van Riper, Haas and others. The purpose of their appearance was to substantiate Van Riper's statements concerning his transaction in cotton.
 When these bank men were excused D. M. Carvelho, the New York handwrit- ing expert was called to identify the writing of some of the exhibits, the contents of which were not divulged
 MT. Van Riper was then recalled, and, being questioned concerning Holiness relation to Statistician Hyde. said that Holmes had told him that he (Holmes) always made up the re- ports and that Hyde never failed to accept his recommendations as to the estimates He contended that the win dow signal arranged for in case Hyde failed to accept Holiness figures on the October report was merely pre- cutionary measure and not because of any doubt He did not at that time consider the signal arrangement wrong because he considered 1t 'le- gitimate to get information any way you can"
 MT. Van Riper had not concluded when court adjourned for the day.