The Washington herald., 1907-06-07
WILSON TO TESTIFY
Secretary Will Be a Witness
in Holmes Trial.
CASE IS BITTERLY FOUGHT
Attorneys WranRle over Introduce
tiOn of Evidence Tending to show
Estimate Cotton Crop for SpecuIa-
tive PurpOses-Bar Much Testimony

The District Attorney will place Secre-
tary OF Agriculture Wilson on the stand
sometime during the trial OF Edwin S.
Holmes, jr., IN the cotton leak case in
connection with q letter addressed 10 the
President. which in part is as follows:
Il beg 70 acknowledge receipt Of your
letter Of the 18th instant, inclosing a cir
cuar letter from Hubbard Brothers and
Company, of New York, and letter from
Mr. L. Mandelbaum. Of the New York
Cotton Exchange VIII reply to Mr..
Mandelbaum's assertions seriatim as
follows:
"First-That the report published De-
cember 3 was known C. parties outside
previous TO its official issue Is absolutely
false. The report Of December was
made up from the returns Of six different
series Of correspondents. supplemented by
the reports Of special field agents. These,
the original reports. were tabulated by
different sets Of clerks in different parts
Of the building. and were turned over
10 the associate staistician on the "a in
stant The returns were transcribed on
separate sheets on the 81, and In the
private room Of the statistician. but the
actual work % determining whether the
percentage Of abandoned acreage and the
average yield per acre Of lint cotton in
each State was not done until the morn
ing Of the 3d. This was done by the as
sociate statistician on the morning Of
the 3d. with one clerk 10 assist him, and
neither he nor the clerk left the statis-
tIcians private room from the time this
work was started until the finished report
was taken 20 the telegraph office. An ex-
animation OF the tables will show the i'm
possibility of any clerk on the preliminary
portions Of this work being able to make
even an approximate estimate Of the fig
ures issued.
'Second-The charge that the crop has
been Uuderestimated not less than a mil
lion bales In the light OF the knowledge
in the possession Of this Office. verges on
the ridiculous"
Various Steps Outlined.
The letter continues, outlining 10 the
President the different steps connected
with the getting out OF the report. and
ends with the suggestion that an estl-
mate which was made by a Philadelphia
firm az Waco, Tex, as 20 what the gov
ernmenJs report would be. and which
was given out just preceding the gov
ernments report. led 10 the rumors that
there had been leak In the Bureau Of
Statistics
Another witness 10 testify as 10 the
manner Of conducting the operations Of
the statistical bureau Of the Agricultural
Department and the secrecy imposed
upon all the clerks and employees fin that
division as regards crop reports. was
placed on the stand by the government
yesterday in the person Of DR.. Charles c.
Clark. the present associate statistician
and acting chief OF the Bureau Of sta
tistics.
Attorneys for the defendant and coun-
sci for the government wraugled all day
over the question as 20 whether Holmes
was IN q position 10 estimate the results
0f the cotton crop for speculative pUr-
poses. and the government. in order to
strengthen its contention IN this direc-
tion. again recalled Statisticisn Olmsted.
who explained in detail exactly how the
reports are handled in the bureau.
Dr. Clark testified that when a Teak"
was first suspected, the chief Of the bu-
reau insisted there was no leak" that
such a thing was impossible. and that q
letter 90 that effect was prepared. Dr.
Clark stated that Mr.. Holmes and Mr.
Hyde. the former staustician had always
been on intimate terms.