The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-06-28
President MeIIen and Railroad Records Will Be Features al Next Session of Coroner PheIan's Inquest Tuesday Forenoon General Attempt to Cover Up
 Actual Duties of Officers of
 Various Departments

stant and entered an objection. The coroner asked him how such a c41es- | tfon could possibly tend to incrfmfnateI the witness, whose constitutional priv uege permitted the right to decline but in the opinion of the coroner did not | excuse him from testifying as to the | acts of another in such an investiga- | tton- The question was again repeat l ed and the answer returned by the l witness that it might tend to incrim- | grounds counsel had advised that it 1 be not answered.
 At this point Attorney Spock arose to again make the plea. that officials be excused from testifying upon this mooted point and ended up by saving that the State had been very ingenious in setting up charges against the of dcials of the road in this county and that they must consequently be per nitted to protect themselves.
 The relative strength between a wooden car of the +Sky1ark'' type and a modern steel coach.4 in cases of ac- cident, was then taken up and Whaley escaped deep and searching question ing only upon the plea that he had no personal Knowledge of the condi- ton of the car after the wreck and that the matter in his opinion was purely theoretical. He intimated as had previous witnesses that the only reason railroads were adopting that character of vehicle was because pub lie sentiment held steel dars in favor
 He was quickly excused.
 H. A Fabian, of Boston manager of purchases and supplies followed. He testified that he purchased upon reQuiSition,; and that considerable lee way was permitted him in Judgment of quantity and quality. The matter of brake-sf1oes was entered into in detail but upon the technical question nf zlhn used on engine and cars of the New Haven he de1nurred to testify1ng upon the grounds that he had been in sTucted it was deemed ssinadvisab1e'' to do so On the further question of equipment, he was asked if he report likewise objected to by counsel as tending to tncriminate.
 Upon being asked to define his posi- ton Attorney Spock said: eff the I equipment of the engine was found wrong, would it not have a bearing on this case? Further, if the person who purchased this equipment was found to be responsible, would it not have a bearing on this case ?''
 The railroad counsel again took an opportunity of outlining the railroads I position by saying: t'Mr Coroner we do not want to cloud this matter in any way but we think the facts have already been ascertained. If 1t | is a case of going into further testi- mony for the purpose of determining whether officials of the company are responsible then we must suggest to those officials that they protect themselves. We think all the facts in this case have been disclosed
 To which the coroner replied: 1tThe | people who are criticizing these ef- l forts are not the coroner. I want to be assured for the county of all the I I the responsibility. If the equipment was poor and any of your officials 1 knew that it was poor. want to find that out. Further, if improper help was hired. also want to find it out. I cannot find 1t out if you continue to i persist in your attitude.'
 1 MT. Spock: t'If you find that the of hcials were crimfnally at fault as you I did in the Westport wreck investiga- 1 ton then 1t rests with the prosecuting officials to go further and find out who, if any, are responsfb1eT The
 further contention of the railroad at I torney was to the effect that if a find
 ing was to be made against the rail- \ road over the testimony before the Il various commissions, which he beIiev-
 ed would vindicate the equipment, then the coroner was entitled to find corporate responsibility but that in 1 dividua1 responsibility was up to the
 
 discussion resulted in the excusing of ! the witness from further testimony At the request of Doherty's coun- sel, David Fitzgerald, testimony was read into the record that actual meas urements had been made under the
 direction of Doherty of the actual dis
 tances where he had first applied his
 brakes and that he wished these upon
 record in preference to those esti- mated distances which he had prev iously recorded in testimony before
 the Interstate Commission.
 The rest of the afternoon and late into the evening was consumed in the hearing of inventors and companies who had attempted to have the New
 Haven company consider inventions
 which they alleged if installed would : have prevented the wrecks at West ,l port and Stamford 'l Solomon TikuIsky, a former presi- dent of the Lecroix Automatic Stop Signal Company under oath, read a | number of letters between his com pany and the New Haven officials, in