The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1913-06-13
LOBBYISTS SMOKED
OUT BY COMMITTEE
OF INVESTIGATION
ANTlE Rec SSuGAR WORKERS
OWN Up TO THEIR .AC-
INVITES.
CLAIMS A WILSON COMPROMISE
Declare They Had Assurances That
the President Was Opposed to Free
Sugar-Repsesentatives Tell of At
tempts to Influence Law Makers.

WASHINGTON, June 12-Inyes.
tigation of the sugar lobby" by the
senate COMMITTEE today was, to a
marked extent, a controversy over
whether President Wilson had given
the sugar producers reason to believe
they would have nothing to fear"
from free sugar under his adm MIS-
tration.
Out of the days testimony in which
Louisiana and Hawaiian witnesses re-
peatedly declared they had not re-
ceived fair Treatment from the Pres
ident and had been nisled by others
as to his purpose, the committee sue
seeded in drawing what are believed
so be some OF the most important
aacts thus far developed. Some of
tae sugar mel, frankly admitted they
constituted il lobby although they
objected to the charge that any OF
their actions ! .ad been "insidious' or
in any way :ilegitimate or Gnderhand-
ed. They admitted that oomprehen-
sive campaigns had been organized
and carried our to create back fires"
on senators aud representatives from
their own states in the hope of win
ming their support to the anti-free SUI
gar side.
The prosl lily of Louisiana was
at stake" sanl Jules Godchaux, SUI
gar planter I'VE tried to get the
people we did business with to write
senators and representatives telling
them that free sugar would destroy
the business If the state. We asked
them to wle end write Washington
and to ask the merchants they did
business with in the United States
to do the same. We tried to estab-
lish an endless chain of letters and
kilograms to draw attention of con-
gress to our arguments"
Plainly resentful of the Presidents
recent statements as to the operation
of an ''insid;ous lobby" in Washing
ton, the Lalisiana and Hawaiian SUI
gar men enlivened the hearings with
frequent attempts to tell of the pledg-
es they believed they had received
that sugar would not be made entire
ly free. Jules Godchaux and Edward
F. Dickinson, the two Louisiana wit
nesses, declared that they had tried
in vain to see the President and had
been informed that he had all the
information he wanted on the sugar
tariff.
Charges of the sugar men that they
had been given assurances of the
Presidents sympathy on the sugar
question were based on statements
Representative Brossard is said to
have made to the witnesses after a
visit to President-elect Wilson at Sea
Grit.
The fact that the Baltimore conven-
tion did not endorse free sugar and
other circumstances Of the campaign,
the witnesses said, had led them to
work for the democratic ticket and
support Mr.. Wilson in the belief that
they would have nothing to Tear"
from any movement for free sugar.
I'VE cast 30 COO or $4,000 votes for
Mr.. Wilson In0 subscribed money to
his campaign in louisiana" said
Jules GodchduX, hotly, ION the as
surances we u fought we had he would
not favor free sugar"
After they got to Washington Mr.
Godchaux said the sugar planters
made vain Efforts to see the Presi-
dent and talk with him. I'VE went
to the White House and saw Secreta-
ry Tumulty," he added. HE told us
we could not see the President; that
he had particular instructions that
the President did not want any ap-
pointments made with any one from
Louisiana to talk about sugar; that
he had all the information he wanted
on that subject"