The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-07-07
WATSON NOW READY
FOR A fUM|GAT|ON
Arrives in Washington to BE
Witness in Lobby
Investigation.

| WASHINGTON, July TT am here
to be investigated and fumigated and
have come prepared to stay until
the investigating and fumigating pro-
! cess is over, if that takes all summer"
said James E. Watson of Indiana face
tiously as he entered Washington's
| leading hotel Sunday and deposited his
grip.
| He had come ahead of time, as he
was not requested by the lobby COM
mittee to appear before Tuesday and
there is a strong probability that he
will not get to the witness stand until
the latter part of the week. Later on
! he will be star witness, but there is
no sign that he is dreading the ordeal.
He wore a continuous smile and his
conversation ran largely to jokes.
F., 1t is going to cost Mr.. Watson lot
of money to be investigated and FUN
| iga.ed," as he expressed it. He had
chautauqua dates running all through
July at fancy figures and he has can
! celed every one of them after arrang-
ing that John Wesley Hill, another
chautauqua performer, should speak
at the chautauqua in his place.
May Wind Up Season.
This arrangement is helpful to Wat
son since it keeps him in good rela-
lions with the Lyceum Bureau, but 1t
is a finer thing for Hill, as he gets the
big pay that would have gone to Wat
| son If Col Martin M. Mulhall had not
gummed the cards with his expose.
Mr.. Watson still hopes to fill some
chautauqua arrangements in August
toward the flag end of the season.
"They can just fire any questions at
me they want to ask said he "and
they'll get the truth. l have nothing
to conceal"
When it was suggested that a large
number of letters which he is alleged
to have written have been sturned ov-
er to the lobby committee he said: 81
suppose there are a good many letters
written by me in the Mulhall collec-
/ ton, but l never wrote letter in my
| life was ashamed of, and so say, let
them bring on their letters. Coming
over to Washington l read Sunday
feature article about Mayor Gaynor of
! New York, in which he was quoted as
saying that if all the letters he had
written were published he would be
driven out of New York.
Admits Long Letters.
81 don't think it is quite that bad in
my own case" said Watson, laughing.
.'but | will admit that l am a volumi-
nous letter writer, especially in cam
paign times l try to smooth every
body the right way, and / answer all
communications. When l was run
ming for Governor in 1908 we had a
force of eight stenographers busy TAX
ing dictation, and you can guess that
some letters were turned out"
Mr.. Watson said it was true he rep
resented the National Association of
Manufacturers in working for a tariff
MED that the object in view was to
defeat genuine tariff revision, as
charged by Mulhall. Regarding the
story that he drank six cocktails at one
sitting when running for Governor and
that Mulhall will try to prove that he
did by exhibiting an entry in his ex-
pense account charging up the Ma
tional Association of Manufacturers
with six cocktails. Watson said:
Don't you think such proof is ire
sistible? The fact that a man like
| Mulhall puts an item in his expense
account is gust too convincing for any
use. BY the same line of reasoning he
could prove that / tried to blow I'D
the Washington Monument by putting
the price of six sticks of dynamite in
his expense account AS a humorist,
commend me to Col Mulhall."