The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-29
Superintendent of Insurance Is MerCiIeSS In Probing
 the Matter
MANY LETTERS SHOWN ID
 PROVE BRIBERY FACTS
Buckley shows Tint He Was Employed at Large Salary to Control Legislation and to Kill
 Offending PHIs

New York, March 2S.-william H. Buck ley had a most uncomfortable time of 1t today in the fire insurance inquiry.
 State Superintendent of Insurance , Hotchkiss kept up mercilessly his exam ination into the lawyers services in con- necton with the legislation at Albany feP which Buckley received many thousands of dollars from the fire insurance com panes and once he denounced the witness bitterly.
 Aside from Buckley's testimony the most interesting incident of the day was the identification by George Seward. pres ident of the Fidelity and Casualty conn pany. of A. H. Brown of Mddletown, N. Y, as the man representing State Sen- ator Big Tim Sullivan in 1892 who asked for s10o0o on behalf of Sullivan to have q bill killed. This is alleged to have taken place in Sing Sing prison. Brown later denied that he ever mad such con- versation with Seward or had ever seen him before.
 William B. Smith. general counsel of the Travellers Insurance company of Hartford, testified that his company paid $21 400 to Buckley in 1903 to put through the liability reserve bill.
 Virtually all the evidence today was dug up by MT. Hotchlxss from letters ex- changed between Buckley and the late George P. Sheldon, who as president of the Phenix Fire Insurance company of Brooklyn collected from the various com panes the money which was sent to Buckley.
 The day was taken up chiefly with Buckley's work for the companies in 1904. Buckley agreed to do the work at AL bany that year for Sl5,OO0. The Buckley Sheldon letters told of the course of-in- surance Legislation and the triuinph of Buckley, who did not even permit strike blllse to be introduced One letter from Sheldon to Buckley dated August 29, 1904. referred to the coming election of state senators, and said
 T wish you would bear in mind the districts where little aid might be rem dered in the matter of election expenses and thus save our doing anything after the legislature comes together"
 Did Not Like Method
 Buckley. however. did not approve alto- gether of this method. He wrote back that "as a rule it is not altogether desir- able, because our friends forget that they have been helped when the crisis comes. It is better to te prepared to meet tho crisis when it comes.'
 But the lawyers memory was at fault when asked what he meant by the crisis He denied that he had made any campaign contributions to senatorial candidates and retorted hotly that MT. | ing into the letter.
 MT, Hotchkiss jumped to his feet.
 'I will read the lesson of this letter to the people of this state." he shouted. "and let them judge what was meant l by a letter like that"
 Buckley furious, eXclaimed
 Its all a grandstand play, this in- vestigation"
 On October H. 1904. Buckley wrote to Sheldon
 Regarding your suggestion of doing something to help the gentlemen in the Saratoga district, it will have to be done next week"
 Further letters showed that Sheldon had sent a check for $500 to Buckley for ''our friend from Saratoga" and had attempted to induce two other companies to con- tribute a like amount He failed and Buckley sent back the $500, saying he thought the Saratoga man should have at least 5000.
 Sends in His Bill
 At the close of the 1904 session Buckley sent in his bill for $15,00O. but he had trouble in getting the money. The bill was sent in April 19 with letter which showed Buckley took great pride in that years work. For the first time in years.' he wrote, strike bills were not even permitted to be introduced.' Sheldon sent back the bill. saying one particular gentleman on the underwrit- fAA that Buckley circumvent technicalities by putting in an item for services in col- lecting rate statistics.
 Subseauent correspondence showed hs fixed the bill as Sheldon commanded. | Matters dragged along until fal ana | still Sheldon could not collect the $l5.OOo Finally Buckley wrote twice to him, rep | sentins that he had loans which he must meet He admitted in his testimony that , he had no such loans
 ''Then that was a lie, wasn't ft?' MT. Hotchkiss asked.
 The witness admitted that it was a lie which he had used to hasten the collec- ton of his money. Late in the fall Shei- don collected fund to pay Buckley and sent the money to him.
 Buckley Again Called
 William II. Buckley, whose testimony so far has been the most significant ana important addueed at the hearing, was summoned to appear again as witness today and tell what was meant by various expressions in correspondence between him and the late George P. Sheldon, pres ident of the PheniX Fire Insurance com- pany of Brooklyn, and others relative to fire legislation.
 Another witness was Edward A. Brown of Middleton, who was state purchasing agent at Sing Sing prison at the time George r. Seward. president of the Fi- dclity and Casualty company, testified he visited Sing Sing prison, and was told by a man named Brown that $10.o00 paid to State Senator Timothy L. Sullivan would sufficiently adjust some bending inc sur3tnee legislative matters. There were three Browns connected with the prison at ,he time. One of these was the war den of the prison, whom MT. Seward de- careG was not the man referred to. Both