The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-12-04
PARR EXAMINED
IN SUGAR TRIAL
Story of False Weighing Is
Told eefore the Court
TRICK SCALES ARE USED
Methods of Weighing Sugar Are De-
tailed and 1t Is Shown That Two
Pounds Are Lost in Each
Thousand Weighed.
TRICK SCALES ARE USED

New York, December S.-The storm cen
ter of the sugar trial today whirled about
Richard Parr the special agent of the
treasury department. who was foremost
in discovering and exposing shortweight
frauds on the Williamsburg docks of the
American Sugar Refining company. Parr
rehearsed once more his story of how he
caught Kehoe, q tally clerk, manipulate
ing the crooked scales; how Oliver Spit
ger, one of the six company employees
now charged with conspiracy, offered to
let him name his own price for hushing
the thing up, and how Brezinski, Spitzers
partner, hooked him by the elbow and
asked anxiously:
"Dick, this fellow says you're all right
Does that go?'
Nothing goes with me-" Parr testified
he said.
Told with heat and great circumstance,
the narrative made a visible effect, and
counsel for the defense was quick to re-
tort with an attack on PARIS credibility.
You started to investigate without or
ders from any superior officer?" he was
asked.
IF you call President Roosevelt and
his secretary (now Collector Loeb SUI
perior officials, I was working under or
ders," replied Parr; but if you mean
the Secretary of the Treasury, then I
was working without orders
Further inquiry along this line was
dropped.
Questions designed to show that Parr
had once written shests for pool and
Aar axr ft.A
court. but Parr insisted on an angry
denial.
The wire with which 1t was shown at
a former trial the scales were manipu-
lated was produced in court again today
and identified and a working model of
the scales was exhibited for the benefit
of the jury.
Parr told how he had raided the VIII
liamsburg docks on November II, 1907.
His skry of the discovery of the trick
scales, familiar as it now is, lost moth
ing in the retelling. He described the
manner in which the manipulators, by
means of steel rod pushed through
concealed hole, were able to make the
scales record less than the real weight,
while the Weighing for the purpose OF
computing the duty was in progress.
The dramatic moment thus far In the
trial came when Parr detailed his dis
covery of the steel spring which manip-
ulated the scale. He had observed Ke-
hoe, one of the defendants, STOPPING over
in a peculiar position, he said, and be-
gan an investigation. Feeling down the
wooden stanchion he felt foreign SUBJ
stance on the scale and lighting match
discovered the steel spring.
after l came out on the Dock con-
tinued Parr, Splitter met me, took me
by the arm and said: This thing must
be fixed up L said there was no fixing
up to be done. Splitter said that we
were all Masons and this would make
trouble for everyone around. l said that
l couldn't help it, they had made the
trouble themselves. He said l should
report the scales out of order, and |
could name my own price. He said he
had already fixed others the same way,
and would sooner cut his arm OF than
give anyone away. 1 told him that Ma
sonry had nothing to do with 1t.
Later l met Splitter on the string piece.
He said I was fool not to take the
money and lose the spring. He said:
The offer is good yet If you'll lose that
IRON I said there was no chance. 1 had
the iron in my pocket.
The witness described his visit to 9TH
er scale houses where he found Coyle
and Hennessy working as checkers.
He inspected the scale there and found
holes in the stanchion but no wires
Par described test OF the scales with
out the false springs and how he found
them weighing two pounds short on the
thousand. He was closely examined by
the defense.