The Wagner post. (Wagner, Charles Mix County, S.D.) 1912-current, 1912-05-10
SMITH IN new YORK
ON TITANIC INQUIRY
Much Concerned About Tele.
gram Said to Have Been
Received After Accident.

new York, May 6. - Senator
Smith. chairman of the Senate commit
TO confirm the report h a message
telling OF the Titanic's fate was re-
ceived In New York early on the Nom
day morning after the wreck have thus
Tar proved fruitless after two days of
examination Of witnesses here.
What concerns me most said Mr..
Smith, lis the Postal telegram given
the operator on the Carpathia early
Monday morning addressed to Isle
Frank and signed 'Yamsi' which told
OF the sinking Of the vessel and Of the
serious loss Of life.
II am most DESTROYS Of knowing
where that message was the following
Franklin says lie did not receive 1t till
Wednesday. The Californian. which
was within easy reach Of the Carpa-
thia. could have sent 1t and the Car
pathia's operator, Gotham, testified that
he had sent it,"
Jack 6inns On Stand.
Jack Binns. wireless operator on the
Inflated steamer Republic, was called
to testify today concerning the wireless
the Titanic. and said the responsibility
for the lack of news rested with Oper-
ator Gotham. While the Carpathia's
equipment could only send q message
200 miles, he said, h was in touch
with the Californian and h Califor-
MAN could have relayed the news to
the Olympic. which could have sent 1t
ashore.
Melville e. Stone, general manager
of the Associated Press. was called to
testify concerning the efforts of the
Associated Press to obtain news. MI.
Stone presented documentary records
showing the source Of the various news
lynnnA oA~.
which the Associated Press sent out.
Harder . Witness.
George A. Harder, Of Brooklyn, who,
with his wife was one Of those saved
from the Titanic, testified concerning
the apparent failure Of the mechanic
ism of one of the ships watertight
compartments to work. Harder said
that when he went down to his room
to get life belts he saw foul or Ave
members of the crow IN E deck or the
starboard side with wrenches in their
hands, one of whom was trying to turn
a bolt in a plate in the f1oor marked
wv. T. c." which Harder said he as
su meant "watertight compart-
ment."
The witness said he heard one Of the
men say: It's no use; this one won't
work. Let's try another
Harder, who was in the lifeboat COM
manded by Third Officer Pitman, on
frmed the statement that passengers
had begged the officer not to put back
to rescue other passengers. they fearing
for their own safety.
There were AZ people in our boat"
said Harder, land believe me, there
was no room to spare. At that time
we thought the walls of the drowning
were the hysterical cries OF the steer
age passengers on RATS"
Senator Smith will take the testi-
mony Of other witnesses today.
Storage Passenger Testifies.
- Daniel Buckley, who vas a steerage
passenger on the Titanic, testified that
a fireman who was on the steamer
told him that the Titanic did not, he
believed, hit an iceberg, but that while
trying to make a record the boilers
burst. Buckley did not know the name
of the fireman.
Buckley said hat he thought the
Storage passengers were given -
good an opportunity to escape as the.
first and second class passengers.
The witness said he got into the sixth
lifeboat to leave the ship and that
when the order came for men to leave
the boats he was crying. A woman
whom he thought vas Mrs. John Jacob
Aston saw him and covered him up
with a shawl in order hat he might
escape. He testified that the officers
fired at men in the lifeboats and mace
Them come back to the ship.
Dauler On Stand.
Fred Dauler, a clerk employed by the
Western Union Telegraph company,
was examined today by Senator WILL
lam Alden Smith, chairman of the Sem
ate committee investigating the Titanic
disaster. Mr.. Dauler, is the father of
the young man who informed E. j.
Dunn, a New York merchant, that
news of the Titanic sinking wa 10
ccived here early Monday morning,
April Is.
Mr.. Dauler testified that he had told
his son nothing whatever of any such
alleged message. The only message he
mentioned to his son, he said, was one
received here Thursday morning, April
Is, from j. Bruce Ismay to P. A.. s.
Franklin. vice president of the White
Star line. This was the message, he
said, in which Ismay expressed the de-
sire to return on the steamer Cedric.
.