The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-20
DID MR. TAFT EVER
 SUPPORT LOR|MER? Bank President Reynolds Testifies in Lorimer Case SEARCH FOR TRUTH
Much Disputed Conversation on the Winnipeg Flyer" Still Bafflcs Committee - Cook and
 Burgess "Frame-Up"

| I | Taft administration wanted Lorimer
 elected to succeed Hopkins as Illinois
 senator, and whether former Senator | Aldrlch of Rhode Island, then the re publican Senate leader, was the means | through which that wish was conveyed | to Edward Hines. the lumberman, probably will be developed tomorrow. Mir. Aldrich arrived in Washington to- night and is ready to appear before | the Lorimer committee al once to eX- plain his alleged activities iu connec- ton with the Illinois senatorial cleo ton.
 Hines has testified thst he waitA until midnight at the Washington home of Senator Aldrich, while the latter, st the White House, talked over the Illinois senat torial deadlock with Pres ident Taft. At the conclusion of the conference Hines says he was told by Mir. Aldrich that the President wanted Mir Lorimer elected. MT. Hines has sought to prove that his own energies were directed toward the election of Lorimer as the result of that alleged conference at the White House and he
 declared he believed he held the com mission of the administration. Following MT. Hines testimony a statement of the Presidents attitude toward the Illinois election contrary to the impression created by Hines was | issued from the White House. The tes- timony of MT. Aldrich has been await ed with much interest.
 | George M. Reynolds. president of the | Continental Commercial bank Of Chicago, who was reported to have declined the | treasury portfolio in the Taft administra- ] tion, today told the Senate Lorimer con- | mittee what he knew of Edward Hines de- 1 liverng an alleged message from the ad- ministra tion at Washington to Governor tDeneen to aid Lorimer's election. He recit- | cd how Hines, on the day of Lorimers election, consulted with him as how to | deliver the message to Deneen. c. F. Wiehe, secretary of the Edward Hines Lumber company, declared that William Burgess of Duluth, Minn., was an absolute liar If he testified to what was read as Burgess testimony. Bur gess had said Wiehe had told him on | the Winnipeg Flyer March !, 1911, that 1 he subscribed 5000 to e Lorimer election ! fund. Wiehe told the committee he be lieved there was s frame ID" between I Rurges sand W '. Cook. The latter re- l | phoned from his room in Chicago the day
 Iorimer was elected that he Qdines)
 would be down to Springfield with all the | money necessary for Lorimer's election. | Wiehe said he believed Cook would per
 jure himself to injure Hines.
 Wiehe denied that he had ever heard of | the Father Green incident as Burgess
 related it. Wiehe, however, recalled 8 ] rumor that Detective Keely of the state I ftar nnxrfc off in l to Father Green about the work assigned | to him in the Lorimer case, and that | Keely got Representative Beckmeyer
 drunk and then that Beckmeyer was l taken down to the restricted district and
 a compromising photograph shown him
 when he would not testify as wanted
 Samuel J. Cushion of Virginia, Minn., a l stockholder in the Edward Hines Lumber company: John B. Price, lumberman of Seattle. Wash, and B. A. Johnson, for merly of the American Lumberman Of l Chicago, told of being on the 'Winnf-
 peg Flyer" but denied having heard the
 remarks attributed to Wiehe.
 | Search for Truth
 1 Repeated efforts were made to as- certain the truth about the much dis
 puted conversation on the Winnipeg | Flyer" running out of Duluth, Minn., last March, when c. F. Wiehe, secre-
 tary of the Edward Hines Lumber
 company. is said to have remarked that he had subscribed $lO,o00 to a | Lorimer election fund.
 B. A Johnson, until recently gen.
 eral staff representative of the Amer ican Lumb was ross-eXamined as to his testimony in which he denied | Wiehe made such statement. In so doing he disa greed with the testimony | of William Burgess, a Duluth business
 man.
 | Senator Fletcher called attention to 1 testimony by Burgess that he (Wiehe) and the young Canadian were In the
 smoker when Wiehe made the remark, Johnson had said he was in the smoker practically all the time when Wiehe ' was there Johnson said he could not altogether reconcile his testimony with Burgess The witness said Wiehe might have returned to the smoker after he followed him out.
 John B. Price. a lumberman of Seattle. Wash, son of J. H. Price, for mer Secretary of State of Washington, | testified that he was in the smoker that he did not hear Wiehe or anyone else say anything about the Lorimer election.
 President Reynolds testified regard | ing the alleged Hines telephone conversation on the day of Lorimer' S eleCt1On.
 I'll ines came to me that morning, May 1 26,' said Reynolds today, and said he ] bore message that would have an i'm portant bearing on Illinois politics; that
 it came directly from Senator Aldrich | and in reality from the administration
 of President Taft and was to Governor | Deneen"
 | According to Reynolds, Hines re- marked once to him that he (Hines) probably was instrumental in Lorimers S
 election, evidently referring to his mes | sage to Deneen. The only time the use 1 of money in the election was suggested, Reynolds said, was when Medell Me
 Cormick, then manager of the Chicago Tribune, came to him with the state ment that he had done nothing, that
 some one took $12s.oo0 to Springfield. | "McCormick,' he added, said he knew knew about the message to Deneen anc asked If knew anything about the money
 Attorney Hanecy asked Reynolds if President Taft had once asked him to be secretary of the treasury, but the wit ness did not care to answer
 T rcvTy VX1TTT NHATnD