The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1908-04-21
A'u|THOR| A J I ! / HIP
OF l ERS
HANDWRITING EXPERTS TEsTl-
II ~ IN LlLLEY INVESTIGATION.
NO PATENT TO NELSON.
Expert Dec'.res Anonymous commu-
3 nications Were Written 81 Machine
+ in Lake Torpedo Boat company,s
Washington Office.

washington Office. II
Washington April Is. Handwriting
experts were called today before the
house special committee which Is In
Vestigating the charges brought by
Representative Lil1ey of Connecticut
! that members Of the house had been
improp operly Influenced by the Electric
Boat company in the matter Of sub
marine boat legislation.
Chairman Boutell stated at the ont
set OF the session that of the many
charges brought before the committee
the most serious was that OF corrup-
tion and that means had been used to
secure or defeat nomination and cleo
tion of members of the present CON
gress.
Such charge reflects upon the in
tegrity Of the house and deserves the
most exhaustive examination by this
committee" he said.
'3The only case Of this kind, which
the testimony has disclosed is the
coWardly attempt made, partly
through an anonymous letter, to black
en- the name and ruin the career OF
Representative Loud of Michigan. AS
no one has had the courage to admit
the authorship OF the dastardly COM
munication, this committee feels that
the burden has been upon it to dis
cover, Il possible the authorship Of
the communicat Z
Compared With Documents. .
I He them called David N. Carvalhoe
to the stand. Mr.. Carvalhoe said he
had examined the two letters on the
question, one received by the Wash
ington correspondent Of the Detroit
Free Press and the other BY Frank
dinborough, state senator from
Michigan and now running for con
|gress against Mr.. Loud. He said he
had examined great many Of the
typewritten documents and compared
them with the anonymous letters. TAX
Ing photographs and preparing charts
showing his deductions.
Unquestionably, he said, the anony-
NOUS letters and certain Of the papers
were written on one and the same ma
chine.
B These documents, 1t has been testi-
fled. were dictated by former Senator
Thunston and written by Abner p.
Neffs, on q typewriter in the Wash
ington once Of the Lake Torpedo
Boat company.
The documents IN question with
questions and statements were pre-
sented to the committee by Mr.. Lilley
and signed BY him. .5..
Lllley Submitted Them.
Il know absolutely nothing as to au-
thorship Of the anonymous letters
that have been introduced in the In
vestigation Of the Electric Boat com
pany," said Representative. Lilley to
q representative Of the Associated
Press today. "The four documents
which Carvalhoe says were written on
the same typewriter as were the anon
ymous letters we're submitted to me
by an agent Of the Lake Torpedo Boat
company. signed them and submit
ted them to the committee
Mr.. Lilley at the beginning Of the
days session presented q letter from
the commissioner Of patents stating
that no patent had been granted to
Charles 3. Nelson during the past 10
years. This document was introduced
for the purpose Of contradicting the
Testimony OF the Electric Boat com
pany oflcials that they had paid Mr.
Nelson, who is a lieutenant IN the.
navy. $1,500 for patent he had ssens
cured. Mr.. Lilley asked that Presl-s5
dent Bowles Of the Fore River Ship I
building company and John F. Hol-
land, be summoned as witnesses.
The committee win be In session
Monday.