Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-31
"A. c. HARPER ON
! STAND MAKES A
GENERAL DENIAL
FORMER MAYOR FOLLOWS IN
KERN'S FOOTSTEPS
DOES REMEMBER ONE INTERVIEW
WITH NICK OSWALD
Early Part of Examination Taken Up
with Questions Already Answered
by Witnesses In Broad
head Case
A RTHUR c. HARPER, the recalled

~ mayor, under whose administra-
AA ton the events recited in the
Broadhead bribery trial took place,
was called to the witness stand yes
terday at the opening of the afternoon
session of court to testify for the de-
fense.
He was asked his age, which he
gave as 43 years, Al of which, he said,
have been spent in Los Angeles. Mar
ried? Yes, and has five children.
did you ever hold any official po-
sition before being elected mayor?'
was asked.
the manner of one remembering that
there is much left to be thankful for
after ALL Then the inquiry entered
upon certain phases of that single Of
fcial experience, which ended in hui
initiation and shame.
For more than an hour the eXamina-
tion, question and answer, differed lit
tie from the direct examination of Ed.
Kern. There were the same queries
as to whether the conversations be-
tween N. d. Oswald, Mayor Harper
id other as related by Oswald on
the witI4ess stand, actually took place.
and, according to the present witness,
none of them did.
Makes General Denial
As with Kern, tho plan of the de-
fense seemed to be to have Harper
deny everything, not only statements
which the redlight chief declared the
mayor had made, but statements re-
ported by others, sometimes in the
public press, heretofore undenied and
. generally considered to be the views
of the witness at the time he occu-
pied the position from which he was
ousted by appeal to the recall
4 SIS It not fact" asked the district
A attorney on cross-examination, that
the policy of your administration was
to handle the social evil by having II
segregated, rather than to try and
stamp it out?" 49,,
The heavy muscles about the thlck
lips of the witness wrinkled into
snarl.
ut is not a fact" he said.
The district attorney then read to
him excerpts from a newspaper inter
view published in the spring of 1907,
setting forth the views which A. &.
Harper generally has been supposed to
favor in the matter OF coping with
the social evil, and asked him If he
had made the statements there cred
tied to him.
Denies Alleged Interview
The witness laughed thickly, leaning
back in the witness chair as If he were
trying to appear at once very scornful
and entirely at ease, as he answered.
81 did not so state
W The intention of the defense appears
Eato be to have the jury believe a. Z.
Harper never did nor said anything
y he ever was generally believed to nave
said or done. The jury appeared bored
but polite while this was going on.
At another question the witness ad-
mitted he had made some OF the state
ments attributed TO him, but pe1ore
he could specify the nature and eX-
tent of this, his first admission, court
was adjourned. Harper will tell more
today hut no one who followed MS
testimony Yesterday will expect much
more in the way of admissions.
once in the course of the direct ex-
animation the witness appeared to feel
that he was denying too much ana
startled Attorney Appel with a reply
which certainly was not programmed
Oswald Appeal Recalled
Counsel had been asking about a
meeting between Harper and Oswald
at 1.-The campaign headquarters III the
German building in the midst of the
recall election. According to Oswald
testimony regarding such a meeting,
IL was between himself and Harper
alone and redlight affairs, the prospect
of reopening after the recall electlon
and such matters had been discussed.
According to Harper yesterday the
meeting was in the presence of Horace
II. Appel and bill" Taylor. Harper
had denied, in Kern-like fashion, prac-
tically all that Oswald had said about
that meeting, when the witness was
asked If Oswald had spoken OF times
being tough" with the recall election
coming on, complained of being broke
and asked for money.
"Yes, there was something like that,
admitted the witness.
"What!" calculated Appel.
Harper then declared that Oswald
Z had drawn him aside from the others
in the campaign headquarters and told
him that things were going wrong in
the Eighth ward
Was Told of Knocking
Savage is knocking you down
there" the witness quoted Oswald as
saying, and l think I can do you some
good If | can get little money. Those
people down there will have to have q
little money | told him / was prac-
A tically broke and referred him to Mr..
Cornish, my campaign manager"
VI The witness was asked about some
& libel suits brought by him against an
N evening newspaper, and said his recol-
4 lection was that they were for 100000
and $15OO00 respectively. He was not
asked what had become of them.
III In order to show that Harper had
plenty of money, Attorney Appel said,
in arguing against an objection to a
question he had asked, counsel sought
to bring out the amount of money de-
posted by Harper in his bank from
February to August, 1908. The amount,
as stated by the witness, was $4,000.
At the morning session an unsuccess-
full effort was made by the defense to
lav a foundation for the admission of
an alleged note executed by T. H.
Broadhead August 20, 1905 the date
of the closing of the ,redlight district
and the beginning of the real troubles
of the alleged conspirators, in favor of
DIR. Sumner j. Quint, without calling
that person to the stand.
Want Note in Evidence
Ouint had testified, it appears, be-
fore the grand jury that he had loaned
$500 to Broadhead on that most in
: teresting date, but for some reason he
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