The San Francisco call., 1909-11-27
SEATTLE BANKER
IS ACCOMMODATING
Capitalist Henry Signed Any Af-
fidavit Cunningham or CLAWS
Brought to Him
Took II for Granted That Alaska
Coal Lands Grab Was
All Right

SEATTLE. Nov. 26.-Humor was in
jected into the inquiry into the Cum
ningham coal claims this afternoon
banker and railroad builder, was placed
upon the stand by the defense and
naively, admitted that he had joined
the claimants without knowing any
thing about the proposition and that
he had signed numerous affidayits
without knowing what they contained.
II got so in the habit Of signing
affidavits that / just signed anything
that Cunningham and CLAWS asked me
to- said Henry during his examination.
APPROACHED BY CUNNINGHAM
Henry said that he was approached
by Cunningham in 1908. Cunningham
told him that c.. j. Smith and former
Governor Moore of Washington were
interested in the claims and asked
if Henry wanted to file one. Henry
continued:
/ told him to go ahead and put me
in. | told him tnat ii ne wanted any
money TO draw on me. He always did
l didn't pay any attention 10 the
claims or what the other claimants
were doing because I was too busy
building railroads.
In the spring OF 1906 l took the con-
tract to build more than 500 miles of
the coast extension of the Chicago,
Milwaukee and st. Paul railway and
men at work and did not have time to
bother with this coal claim.
l let Cunningham look after 1T and
anything that he said went with me.
THOUGHT 1T ALL RIGHT
/ didn't have anything to do with
the (sn&QPnhPim negOtlattOnS and
didn't know that they, were being car
ried on Later, when l heard about
the Guggenheim proposition, | thought
that it was all right. | knew that 1t
would cost close TO S2,000,000 to build
railroad and docks to handle the
coal and l knew that one man couldn't
do it alone. When the Guggenheim
negotiations fell through we organized
the. Bering River. railway company. We
didn't have any intention of building a
railroad then. but merely wanted to get
a right of way so that some one else
couldn't come in and bottle us UP by
getting the only available route.
Henry was shown an affidavit signed
by him in which it was stated that he
knew most of the claimants He said:
That statement is false. | know only
three or four of these men. This shows
that l signed affidavits without looking
at them. Cunningham brought CLAWS
to my Office and asked me TO sign the
affidavit. They said it was all right
and l signed it.
DID NOT READ AFFIDAVIT
/ didn't read it over, for if L had
wouldn't have let false statement like
that get into il. / was so busy and so
in the habit of signing affidavits that
whenever Cunningham and CLAWS
asked me to sign one 1 did so. 1t is
humiliating to admit 1t. but that is the
truth.
During cross examination Henry was
shown a copy of the Cunningha jour
nal. When asked if he had seen the
original he said:
Il never saw the journal and didn't
know that Cunningham kept any books
until he told me that it had been
stolen
After he had you sign affidavits
that you say are not true do you be-
lieve that Cunningham told the truth
when he said his journal was stolen by
Glavis?" asked Sheridan, the govern
ment attorney.
Il believe that Cunningham told the
truth when he said that CLAWS stole
it," was Henry's prompt response.
Throughout his testimony Henry
frequently resorted TO the statement
that he couldn't remember what passed
between him and Cunningham.