Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-07-16
LAMAR STORY STARTLES WASHINGTON
New York Broker Admits Having Posed as Various congressman
-S82 100000 Fraud in Union Pacific Is Charged
House PIaEs Extensive Inquiry.


lobby committee.
With unembarrassed assurance, Da-
vid Lamar, better known on Wall
street as The Wolf" told the senate
committee how he had impersonated
Democratic national leaders in tele-
phonic offers to some Of the most i'm
portant figures in the nations finan-
cial circles.
The intermediary whom he named
in those representations as the man
who could deliver this influence and
control congress and the department
of justice In behalf Of the New York
ers, he said, was Edward Lauterbach.
! New York attorney, who already has
| figured in the hearings, and who will
resume the stand tomorrow to tell Iris
side of the melodramatic story that
was rehearsed today.
/ 1t was an amazing tale throughout,
| and Lamar seemed almost to boast of
his offense. Yet the committee has
found no way in which 1t can recon-
mend punishment for Iamar's self
| confessed fraud, either under the
| federal statutes or those of the state
/ of New York. Neither have the men
whom he tried to defraud been able
to suggest penalty.
There IL still a grave possibility of
! perjury proceedings. however, in the
light Of discrepancies in the testi-
inony.
/ Confession Is Brazen.
On the stand today Lamar tried to
convince the committee that his tricks
had been carried out merely to In
gratiate "his friend Lauterbach" with
| j. p. Morgan & Co., and boldly de-
MED that they intended blacknlail of
any kind. With reckless braYado he
referred to his representations alter
nately as fraud and 'trickery," and
then as a Joke" and farce"
But he told an unabashed tale OF
having impersonated Congressman A.
Mitchell Palmer of Pennsylvania to
Lewis Cass Ledyard of counsel for
| the Steel corporation and the Morgan
firm, as the preliminary to proposal
by which Lauterbach was to control
the attorney generals Office, to pre-
vent criminal prosecution of the steel
I trust under special dispensation from
Speaker Clark, Senator Stone, Robert
L. Henry, William ]. Bryan and 9TH
ers. He admitted there was no basis
for the proposal and that he and
1.auterbach never had talked to these
gentlemen. But Senator Stone de-
I nounced him as a dirty trickster' in
he committee room and told him he
| ought to be in the penitentiary.
Startling Tales unfoided.
Then followed other tales just as
startling Lamar impersonated Con-
| gresham Daniel j. Rlordan of New
York to make r. 8. I,ovett, Paul D.
Cravath and Maxwell Evarts of the
| Union Pacific believe Lauterbach
could control the work of Attorney
| General McReynolds with reference to
the merger dissolution.
He impersonated Chairman w. F.
McCombs OF the Democratic national
committee in telephone conversation
with Chairman Charles D. Hilles of the
Republican national committee, again
in an endeavor to have Lauterbach
| figure in deal between the two par
ties to halt certain legislative pro-
posals.
He was charged with ilnpersonating
Congressman Riordan. again over the
| telephone, to John d. Archbold and
| General Counsel Elliott of the Stand
ard Oil company, in a promise OF i'm
munity for the "oil trust" and with
calling in person on s. W. Stroock of
the United Cigar Stores company to
promise it immunity from prosecution
He claimed to have been the man who
| Induced the Pujo committee to hear
| William Rockefeller testify at JekylI
island instead of at Washington, when
| the latter was sick. and also claimed
that had his advice been followed he
could have kept the money trust
committee from summoning ]. Pier
pont Morgan.
Takes Matter az Joke.
But Lamar passed all these off as
| Jokes" and not even the most sting
| ing invective of the cross-examining
senators could shake his smiling as
surance. A loud guffaw Of laughter
was his most usual reply to the as
| founded senatorial inquisitors. But
for the ingrown grin on Lamar's face
| the days developments might have
| been far more dramatic
| Names and titles worried him not
He refused to reveal his own name,
admitting that Lamar was an alias. He
! dragged in the names of Messrs. Nc
Reynolds, Henry, Clark, Stone. Bryan,
Palmer, Riordan, McCombs and Hilles
| without culver, and toyed with the
regulations of Louis D. Brandeis. J.
Pierpont Morgan, Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
and all the high lights of Wall street
| and Washington with irresponsible
| fippancy, refusing to take seriously
his impersonation of these men in the
most compromising negotiations. He
Courtesy Is Love of Man.
! Courtesy. This is love In society,