The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-21
White House Statement Re- garding Lorimer Elec-
 ton Is Read
TAFT REFUSED FAVOR
 TO ANY CANDIDATE
Aldrich Asserts He Had Several Con- versations With Hines Concern ing Taft's Attitude To-
 ward Illinois Race

Washington, July 20.--The story of the admlnistratons attitude toward the cleo tion of Senator Lorimer as told by for mer Senator Nelson w. Aldrich of Rhode Island and the activities of R. J. Shields of Superior. Wis. an insurance agent Tn collecting affdavits from witnesses in the investigation featured the Senate Lorimer committee hearing today.
 Instead of sending Edward Hines. the | Chicago lumberman, to Springfield with
 word from the Washington administration
 that Lorimer should be elected, MT. Al
 drich testified that he. told Hines Presi- dent Taft was not supporting the can didaoy of any one but that Lorimer was
 not objectionable to him. The former senator said he told Hines previously that | the President had no objection to Albert
 J. Hopkins or Henp s. Boutell for the senatorship.
 A statement from the White House last March in regard to the election was read to the witness. The only point concerns ing, which he said he knew nothing was
 the declaration that a request had been z made on the President to sign a telegram
  dacy.
 The White House statement. given out March %, was follows
 "The facts with reference to the Pres idents relation to Senator Lormers cleo ton are this
 That during the tariff fight gentle men came to him and expressed their interest in passing the tariff bill, and said that it had been suggested from Illinois that it would be wise for the President to express an opinion in favor of the election of MT. Lorimer. He did not know MT Lorimer well, although he knew that he was an influential mem Der of Congress, but did know Hopkins. He knew very little about Illinois poli- tics, but expressed desire that there should be two republican senators from Illinois, but when asked to put that in the form Of telegram urging the cleo i ton of Nd. Lorinier he declined io uo so@
 The statement by MT. Hines that the | President was anxious for, and was urg-
 ng the election of Mr. Lorimer is wholly unfounded."
 l c. F. Wiehe. secretary of the Edward Hines Lumber company, said R. J. Shields | lad collected the affidavts of witnesses who testified yesterday that Wiehe did nut remark to William Burgess on the 1 Winnipeg Flyer last March that he sub | scribed s10,000 to a Lorimer election fund. | Wiehe said no arrangement had been
 made to pay Shields anything, but that he had asked him to collect the affidavits 1 rust as l would ask the senator to hand 1 me a fan"
 Collected Affidavits He said Shields spent two weeks tray-
 cling in Kansas. Iowa, Northwest Cana
 da and Washington to find the witnesses.
 The witness said Shields had drawn upon | the lumber company for his expenses. | For an hour Wiehe was questioned as | to whether Shields represented the Hines company in Wisconsin politics and how 1t happened that Shield would leave his own | business to hunt up evidence for others 1 W ithout some kind of an arrangement about compensation. Wiehe knew noth- iur of Shields political activities for the company but called attention repeated ly to the statement that Shields got about Ss000 out of the Hines company as insur- aAce premiums He said he expected to pay Shields if he presented a bill. Wiehe said he could not assist the com inittee in locating Shields. MT. Aldrich, the first witness today, said he had three or four conversations with Hines about the Illinois election, but could not recall on whose initiative these oc- cured.
 MT. Hines" continued Mir. Aldrich, said ir the first conversation that in his judgment Hopkins could not be elected end he asked me what the attitude of the President was. said the President was desirous for the election of a republican,. while naturally he was friendly to Hop k'ns because of the primary result and perhaps other reasons: still, he did not intend to take any active part in trying to influence the election of Hopkins or any other candidate" "Did you say there were several sched- ules coming up in the Senate and that It was very important to have every re- publican vote to assist in the passage 1 of them?" asked Attorney Marble.
 reading from Hines testimony. do not think that I said any | thing to him about schedules" re-
 piled MT. Aldrich
 MT. Aldrich testified that Hines came
 to him later with the statement that | there seemed to be possibility of
 agreeing on Henry S. Boutell, then rep
 resentative in Congress Hines said he
 was anxious to know what the Pres idents attitude was to Boutell's can
 ddacy for senator. "Iater" continued MT. Aldrich, "I
 reported to MT. Hines that the Pres | ident would be agreeable. that he was ! only anxious to have republican
 elected and that he was satisfied with
 Beutelrs republicanism." The next COnVerSdtlOn MT. AluTlCn | said was about May 20.
 Boutell Impossible "Mr Hines then told me- said Mir. l Aldrich that it was impossible to agree on Bouteli and that he believed
 there was a possibility of agreeing on Iorimer. He was anxious to know the attitude of the President toward I.orimer. I told him would give him an answer later. I told him then Mir. | Lorimer's candidacy would not be ob- | iectionable to the President. Then" continued MT Aldrich. MT Hines asked me if l would say that 1 to anyone who inquired of me. I told | him that I would say thst Mir. Lori mer's candidacy was not objectionable
 to the President"
 1 Did you tell MT Hines that re-
 publican senator from Illinois was
 needed?"
 No. as a matter of fact, as far as
 the tariff was concerned, we were bet ter off with vacancy than with IL senator. With vacancy we needed
 only 4k for a majority; with him we
 ncededv41,"
 | MT. Aldrich said he never had any