Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-19
TRACIn6 THE AUTHORSHIP
ANONYMOUS LETTERS IN THE
ELECTRIC BOAT co. INQUIRY.
Experts Gay Machines That Whote
heSLilley Documents Wrote
the Missives.

The authorship Of the anonymous let
ters that have been introduced IN the In
vestigation OF the Electric Boat Company
was diligently inquired into yesterday by
the House committee conducting the inves-
tigation David n. Carvalho and William
]. Kinsley of New York and Albert y.
Osborn of Rochester. handwriting ex-
perts and experts as to typewriting. tes-
titled that the two letters and certain
documents presented to the committee by
Representative Lilley. and which it has
been testified were written by Abner e.
Neff of the Lake Boat Company on
typewriter in the Lake company's office.
were all written on the same typewriter.
Neither Mr. Ldlley nor Mr.. Nef was ques-
toned by the committee on this point, but
both denied during the day that they had
written the anonymous letters or that
they knew anything about them.
It also has been testified by Benjamin
Webster. private secretary to Representa-
tive Lilley, that he (Webster) had done
some work on the typewriter In Mr.. Neh's
office.
Mr.. Lilley, at the beginning of the
DAVIS session, presented a letter from the
commissioner Of patents stating that no
patent has been granted to Charles r.
Nelson in the past ten years. This docu-
ment was introduced for the purpose OF
contradicting the testimony of the Elec.
trio Boat Company officials that they had
paid Mr.. Nelson. who is lieutenant In
the navy, 81 500 for patent he had Sc
cured. Mr.. LiIley also asked that Presi-
dent Bowles, of the Fore River Ship
building Company, and John p. Holland
be summoned as witnesses.
Testimony Of Experts.
William J. Kinsley, q typewriting expert
of New York, corroborated the testimony.
of Mr.. Carvalho that the anonymous let
ters and. the exhibits were all written on
the same machine. and gave his reasons
for reaching this, conclusion. He said
there were sixty-five .coincident character
istics in the documents in question.
Mr. Kingsley said that one indication
that the documents were all written by
the same person was that the capital "I'
had been used for the figure 81 This
was unusual. he said, as a great prepon-
derance Of writer's used the small letter
''l'' for this figure. as was intended to be
done by the manufacturers OF the ma
chine.
Albert s. Osborn of Rochester n. Y. an
expert In handwriting and typewriting.
also testified that in his opinion the
anonymous letters and the exhibits were
written upon the same machine.
Mr.. Osborn would not express the Opin-
ion that the letters and exhibits were
written by the same person. but he said
there We're two characterist'c which
might tend toward proving this to be
true. namely, the use of the capital letter
'..I'' for the figure ~ and the employment
of the dash as a punctuation mark.
Mr.. Osborn was still on the stand when
the committee adjourned until Monday
morning.
Mr.. Liney stated that he was not in
Washington on the days the letters were
sent Opt.
Benja min Webster. Mr.. Liiley's private
secretary. said that he never saw Oh heard
of the anonymous letters until he read
them in the printed testimony several
days after they had been introduced.