The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-11
W.T. NN WAS
 Ci THE STAND ( -lebrated Holmes Cot ' ton Leak Case. SECRETARY IS QUESTIONED Defense Vainly Endeavor to Mix up Agricultural Chief. Wanted To Show He Was Prejudiced And That He Had Given Out
 Crop Information In
 Advance.

Washington, June 10.--Secretary Wilson. of the Department of Agricul- ture, was the principal witness before the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia today in the trial of Former Assistant Statistician Holmes on the charge of prematurely divulging cot ton condition reports. Holmess's attor- ney made an effort to show that the secretary was prejudiced in his state ments and tried -unsuccessfully to make him admit that he (the secre- tary). had been guilty of giving out crop information in advance of it's legitimate promulgation and of sup pressing information indicating fraud |. He also questioned the secretary about charges against himself.
 William A. Cochran, manager of the Planters Hotel, St. Louis, was the first witness today in the trial of Holmes He produced the register of the hotel for November, 1904, showing that on the fourth of that month Holmes and his son, MT. and Mrs. Frederick Peck ham and Moses Haas of New York. and Mrs. Tompkins Of Chicago. had been guests of the hotel and that their names had all been registered by Holmes. The object of this testimony was to show the relations of the par ties.
 Bartholomew c. White. special cot ton crop agent for the Department of Agriculture. identified a number of re- ports made by him in 1903, 1904 and 1905. In some of these he said there had been changes in his figures which were made without his authority. The reports were sometimes mailed to the office and at others handed in either to Mir Hyde, then chief statistician, or Mir. Holmes. He had frequently been present in the statis 'ician's office when the final report was being prepared and said that when Hyde and Holmes were both present the two worked on the report, but when one was absent the other did the work alone. He knew that Hyde was in the habit Of giving especial credit to the report Of the special agents and the State agents in preparing his final figures and also Knew that Holmes followed the same plan.
 On cross examination MT. White said that his reports and those of tho State agents were always opened about g. o'clock on the day the report was promulgated and that the final result was announced invariably at 12 o'clock. He admitted that in some instances he had his reports typewritten in the of- fee but said that he had always re- tatned possession of the original copy. On some occasions Hrs. Burch, private secretary to MT. Hyde, had made copies of the final reports. but the re- ports of agents were never concluded more than half an hour before com pletins the final report. [
 Secretary Wilson Testifies. f
 Before MT. White concluded, Secre- tary Wilson made his appearance in the court room and White was ex- cused in order to permit the secretary to be examined. After drawing out from Mir. Wilson the fact that he had been at the head of the department since 1897 MT. Beach questioned him concerning the preparation of the re- port, but the witness said that as rule his services in that connection consisted in signing the report. Gen. orally he was not present when the report was in process of preparation.
 He said that Holmes had been desig- mated as associate statistician on the recommendation of Mir Hyde and that while the office is not specifically au- thorized by Congress, he considered that he had full authority to make the appointment Of the eight thousand employees of the department. he said, fully three quarters are paid from a lump sum as was Mir. Holmes. He said also that Holmes had charge of the crop reports and that 1t was under stood that they were to pe Iieatou aS strictly confidential.
 Speaking of his estimate -ot MT Holmes, he said:
 T never had the least suspicion con corning him until this case came up.
 All possible precautions were taken to keep the reports secret.
 "The telephones were disconnected. nobody was admitted and the workers were locked in." He had given both written and verbal instructions to the statisticians to observe the utmost secrecy in the matter.
 MT. Worthington brought out tho statement that there had been but one written order on the subject or secrecy and tried to make the secretary ad- init that he had forgotten It's existence. The witness said his habit was to in- struct the chiefs of departments as to what he expected of them.
 In response to e question as to the criticism of the cotton report for Ds- cember 1904, he said:s
 T remember that thcre has always been an outcry against that report ano it is still going on
 At the afternoon session number Of clerks of Washington hotels were cali ed to testify as to tae presence of Peckham and Haas in this city on var ions dates in 1903 and 1904.
 secretary Wilson Recalled.
 On being recalled to the stand, Sec retary Wilson maintained that the rule of secrecy had been enforced and an- swered In the negative when Mir. Worthington asked him if he had not himself given out in speeches. advance information concerning the crop re- ports. He said that since the discov- cry had been made concerning Holmes S methods he had had all the reports from the field sent to him, He also said that he had never sent his son, Jasper Wilson. to the bureau of statis- tics to represent him during the prep aration of the report. Mir. Wilson stated that he had never tried in any way to influence the conclusions of the statistician He would not admit that the statistician's report had been more influenced by the newspaper crop esti- mates than the official reports Asked about statements made by himself to the newspapers in 1905, the Secretary said he could not recall what he might have said. "I have some recollections about that time, but I don't think they would be to your edihcation," he said.