The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-08

? said spock, "alI Of the higher officials are to be subjected to charges or criminal negligence on action of the acts of any of the 3oo0o men under them then we are getting to a point where 1t is going to be difficult to operate such a great property as the New Haven road"
 ! MeIlen at this point, could stand the strain no longer and he interrupted to say, MT. Coroner, I am but a lay man and do not know the meaning Of all this fine train of words. I came here on the advice of my personal counsel I am under arrest and am to be tried in September. I have been instructed not to say anything defin- Ing my own or the duties of any other officer under arrest in connection with the Westport affair. For my own part, see no reason why [ should not answer all your questions but you will appreciate a 1ayman must entrust his affairs to lawyers and then must either follow or discharge do not feel competent to conduct my own case and must therefore refuse to an sWer under advice Of counsel
 Coroner PheIan believing that MT. Spock was responsible for the refusal, started to remind him that, as had previously been decided, Me1len might refuse to answer upon the ground that IL WOulQ lnCTEnlnGL0 n1KQ DuI that where a third party was concerned he was not entitled to the constitutional privilege. It appeared that the ir- Structions had emanated from Attor- ney Homer Cummings, counsel of rec ord in the Westport trials in the eu- discussion and Coroner Phe1an fin ally consented to waive the forcing of MelIen to answer the question as put at that time
 Questions as to the various duties of other presidents then followed which showed that each operating head had certain duties that devodved upon him moEe through tradition than rule and that MelIen was an adjudicator Of differences though often having to place matters before other committees or the board of directors. Taking up the question Of the duties of the roads secretary, Phe1an asked: Are you above the seer retary?'' Answer "I have nothing to do with the secretary. He is a member of the board of directors. 9
 Then he is the man to furnish rec ords?''
 Have you any control over the books of the superintendents or-?''
 Spoclx, at this point again arose to object and again brought to the at tention of the coroner the contention of the railroad counsel that the rail- road men under indictment must be kept clear from all question that might prejudice their case. Again Mellen ex- plained his position and added that he would be glad to clear up all mat ters under inquiry were he not one of three men jointly indicted in the Westport affair
 @'I have not the slightest desire to evade or refuse to answer Questions,' 2 said the head of the road, regarding responsibility, were I not under this indictment Jointly with NTcHenry, Ror- mer vice-president), and B. Campbell, (the present incumbent.)'' Me1Ien then argued that while he might not be thought to incriminate himself by an swering questions relating to others as he. had been Jointly indicted, his an- swers if discriminating might react l1p- on himself.
 This statement from MeIIen was eli- cited after the witness had seemed greatly pained from the trend Of the discussion between Coroner and coun- seI when the investigating authority had said:
 MT. spock, we merely want to root out the evi1-doer and MT. MeIlen, if tn- nocent, should gladly point out that eviI-doer.'' nothing of importance MT. Mellen was excused and quickly left the court house.
 c. H. Morrison, head of the signal department was then placed on the stand and asked about automatic stop signals. He was unable to give any particular use for automatic stop sig nals other than to avoid accidents on short cross-overs. He testified that no particular design had as yet been se- lected and no point for their inStalla- ton had yet been decided upon. J General Manager c. L. Bardo was the next witness and testified that his opinion of what would have happened to Doherty had he failed to answer the spare board" call on the morning of accident was different from that al- ready expressed by Doherty. He said he would not have been disciplined. Several questions on the rule were sub mitted by Attorney Mitchell of. coun- sel for Doherty and then the engineer himself took the floor and told the coroner of an incident happening about seven years ago, which had firmly impressed with the belief that hel would have been disciplined
 Doherty said that when working in the Harlem river yards, at a salary of about $7 he had lived in New Haven with hardly enough money to pay his board and lodging. He was unable to live in New York. He there fore travelled back and forth daily One morning he took the Colonial Ex- press which was hours and 10 min utes late. He teIegraphed the des- patcher that he could not arrive on time He was demertted six points, which still remains against him. At that time he was told that 12 hours notification Of absence was required
 Bardo asked to comment upon this charge said that he believed for the benefit of the service it was right and that to maintain discipline such action was proper. Whether the cost