Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1913-06-27

with him, but promised to see him !
later, and even went so far as to de-
clare that in the next day or so he
was obliged to be in Bethlehem, which
is in my district, so that he could not
meet Mr.. Ledyard at an hour that Mr..
Ledyard suggested for a conference
mr.. Ledyard, through the tele-
phone company and l think through
various other agencies, made a very
earnest effort to locate the person
who talked with him over the tele-
phone. The best he could do was to
trace the telephone calls, and he
traced them to a place which salts
fled him as to who the party was.
''If the committee wants to go into
that further, it seems to me Mr.. Led
yard should be called, and l will leave
it for him to say what we found out
as to who this party was.
MET BY LAUTERBACH.
This person, who declared that he
was Representative Palmer, when
Mr. Ledyard was unable to get a per-
sonal interview with him, declared
that he would name a person in whom
Mr.. Ledyard would have confidence
and to whom he could talk freely,
and who would be able TO produce
evidence that he and this alleged
Representative Palmer would be able
to do what they said.
| Those statements finally led to
Mr.. Ledyard's making an appointment
to meet the gentleman whom this per-
son named, and at the hour of the
| appointment there appeared at Mr..
Ledyard's house Edward Lauterbach,
a member of the bar Of New York City,
as l understand.
FOLLOWS THE SAME LINE.
'Mr. Ledyard and Mr. Lauterbach
had a long conversation about this
matter, Mr.. Lauterbach taking it up
apparently from the thread which had
been laid down by the pseudo Palmer
over the telephone. Mr. Lautcrbach
declared that he spoke for several i'm
portant gentlemen in the house of
representatives who were able to do
the things which the person who had
been telephoning to Mr. Ledyard said
could be done; and when doubt was
expressed by Mr.. Ledyard as to the
truth of such allegations Mr.. Lauter-
bach, as l recall it, urged Mr.. Led.
yard to come to Washington or to
meet elsewhere in person certain gen.
tlemen high in the house organiza-
ton, even going so far as to mention
the name of the speaker and the floor
leader and, l think, one or two other
important members of the house.
After this had been told me | told
Mr.. Ledyard / did not see that / had
any interest at all in the matter. II
was an amazing proposition to me
had never seen or heard of Mr.
Lauterbach except in the most gen
eral way. l had never had any par
ticular interest in any of these mat
tiers which it was said could be in
n fluenced or controlled and therefore
said that l would prefer to have moth
ing further to do with the matter. ant
It was dropped.
DENIES LOVETT CHARGE.
Representative Daniel ]. Riordan o
New York testified that he knew moth
ing of the charge made by Rober
Lovett, chairman of the Union Pacifi
board of directors, that a man pur
porting to be the congressman hat
urged over the telephone the reten
ton Of Mr.. Lauterbach as counsel.
= Il never saw Judge Lovett in. m
life; / never spoke to him in my life,
said Riordan. 81 wouldn't know hir
If he came in this room tonight Il
this connection Mr.. Lauterbach'