The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-06-22

 CRITICISED Senate Committee Seeks
 Information. USED PENURED TESTIMONY Records of California Conspiracy
 Case Sealed Up. Inquiry May He Made Into Methods Resorted to by Department of Justice Under the Roosevelt
 Administration.

Washington, June 21.--Attorney Gen. eral Wickersham, by an order adopted by the Senate Committee on Judiciary today, is commanded to send to the Senate all of the facts relating to the prosecution of pr. E. B. Perrin, or Williams, Arizona, on the charge or conspiracy to defraud the government in California timber land cases
 This data was sealed by former At torney General Bonaparte and the packages which were left in the files of the Department of Justice were marked confidential"
 Several days ago, members of the substitute committee considering the re-appointment of Robert T. Devlin for United States Attorney for the North ern District of Californian requested Mir Wickersham to send these pack ages to the Senate. He declined be- cause of the endorsement placed on them by his predecessor, which he de- sired to respect. The order to send the data was made to relieve the Att torney General of this
 Confirmation of the re-appointment of MT. Devlin has been opposed be- cause of criticism of his course in the Perrin case.
 Perrin was convicted of the charges brought against him. but upon an ap-
  manded for retrial. The fact was brought out that the conviction had been obtained by reason of perjured testimony, given by a witness named Shell who had been in Perrin's employ. The chief criticism of Devlin, is that he has declined to nolle prosse the case against Perrin Devlin has been condemned also for failure to secure the conviction of SnclI on a charge of perjury.
 Some of the members of the Judi ciary Committee went to the Depart ment of Justice and Attorney General Wickersham opened the sealed proceed ings and permitted the Senators to eX- anime report made by W. R. Harr, fomerly a special government attor- ney in land fraud cases, which Stated that the Perrin case should be nolle pressed.
 The Harr report declares that the conviction of Perrin was procured by methods which could not be approved by the Department of Justice. Mir. Harr gave the details of the indictment of Perrin, which he attributed to a statement made by w. J. Burns, a United States secret service operative, whose services were loaned to Francis J. Heney in gathering evidence in the timber fraud cases. This statement Whlch was made To Lne grand guryb was to the effect that Burns had just come from Oyster Bay and he knew that President Roosevelt desired to have Perrin indicted.
 Criticizes BOnaparte.
 At a session lasting more than three hours today, the substitute committee discussed the Harr report. Senator Borah criticized the action of former Attorney General Bonaparte in sealing the information and declared that 1t was evident that MT. Bonaparte did not want to proceed on the line recom- mended by Mir. Harr, which called for the dismissal of proceedings against Perrin and the prosecution of Shell on a charge of perjury. MT. Borah in- sisted that the reason for MT. Bona parte's failure to act should be given to the committee.
 When a response has been received from Attorney General Wickersham of the order made today, a session of the full committee will be held and it is possible that the committee will in- quire into methods resorted to hy the Department of Justice under the Roose- welt administration, fin gathering evil denee in the land fraud cases.