The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-17

i.t- his secretaries to have charged, and tn, Western Union Telegraph company t, charge, his personal messages to his per sonal account.
 Mr. Simpson, in his testimony yester day after considerable hesitancy, as hi: evidence hereinafter published will indi cate. gave 1t as his best recollection that he had been instructed to charge these messages of a private nature to ths state He drew the line with Governor | O'Neal sharply. however, when he con | cluded his evidence by declaring in un-
 equivocal terms that he had never beer instructed net to charge these messages | to the state.
 YERBATUM TESTIMONY i OF THE WITNESSES
 The verbatim tcst;aony of MT. Simp-
 son, as reported by Salem Ford of the ! Birmingham Court Reporting company ] and which in another column of today s Age-HeraId Governor O'Neal declares to | be false, follows:
 , Q. MT. Simpson, where do you live? A.
 I live in Birmingham.
 | O. Were you connected with the state
 in any official capacity, or have you been
 during the past four years? A. I was
 personal secretary to Governor O'Neal
 from October, 1912 until May 1, 1913 e. Do you know of any transactions or I dealings in cotton futures that went on | in the governors office during the time | you were there? A. Well, that was a personal and private matter between Gov
 ernor O'Neal and myself. But it has 1 been brought out here. If 1t hadn't I wouldn't care to answer it. He did deal | in cotton futures.
 c. The point we are particularly inter- ested in, did you take the dictation? A. 1 took his private dictation, peIcsonal mat ters.
 | Q. I mean this dictation in regard to l cotton futures? A. Yes, sir, some of those.
 Q. How were those telegrams marked as regard who should pay for them? A. We'll the ones I wrote after I finished the telegram I would mark down in the cor
 ner. Charge to the state" Q. What did you do with those mes | sages after you wrote them? A. Well.
 I usually called messenger from the tel egraph office and while the messenger was coming I took them into the governor for his approval and then delivered them to the messenger to be transmitted to the Q. After they were written, after they were dictated they were carried or you called a messenger? A. les, sir. Q. You took them into the governor? A. Yes, sir.
 Q. And he approved them? A. He looked over them to see if they we. e correct.
 .. And you had on each one of them charge to the state?' A. l couldn't say as to each one of them, but that is my recollection.
 Q. And soon as they were handed back to you, you gave them to messenger? A. Yes, sir
 c. Did you deliver them to Mir. McNeel or MT. Nunnallee? A. Mo- sir, my recol- lection is I always delivered them to the messenger.
 Q. Did you have any instructions one way or the other from Governor O'Neal as to who they should be charged to? | A l don't think there ever was a word 1 stated as to how they were to be charged | at all.
 Q. How did you come to mark them charge to the state,'' MT. Simpson? A.
 I don't remember now how l got started
 to charging them that way. I think pos-
 sibly the governor said mark them
 about that.
 1 2. That is the best of your recollection,
 is it? A. That is my best recollection. 1 Q. You said they were dictated, did you sign them A. thing I wrote 'Emmet
 O'Neai' on them on the typewriter. | Q. And he approved them? A. Yes, l sir.
 l c. How long a period of time did that 1 extend over? A. Well. I couldn't say exactly, I think that he had cotton fu- | lures when I went there, and still had | them as I remember when l left there. l Q. Did you leave there before the Lacy dedication? A. Did I leave before? | c. Yes? A. No, I was there about ..
 month or six weeks after that, I think. | Q. Didn't hear of any after that. did you? A. l couldn't say whether he had
 any cotton transactions after that or not. | Q. It extended on up until that time? :?
 A. That is my recollection; yes, sir. n -lx.l s...t.
 to charge those telegrams to the state?
 A. No, sir.
 1 The session in detail follows:
 Brown First Witness B. G. Brown, former collector of au- 1 tomobile licenses in Jefferson county, was the first witness He testified that
 last year he collected $49, ,10050. and that the state still owed him S119450. He said 1 that his wages last year amounted to | $4e00. He said he caused the arrest | of about 700 people for violating the
 auto law in six months. He testified
 that a collector in Jefferson was neces-
 sary. He said the duplic license sys-
 tenn was subject to criticism. The com | mittee was apparently anxious to know l from MT. Brown what attaches of the of | flee of secretary of state did while visit ing Birmingham. The witness answered 1 by telling what duties in his knowledge
 the clerks had performed while here Asked to give names of prominent peo.
 pie here who violated last year the auto | law, the witness said: "R. w. Massey l had two licenses for three cars. He later
 bought third license. Maj. E. M. Tut wiler operated two cars under one If 1 cense. I detected one local man manu featuring tags. He was arrested. made
 bond and went to Chicago. I detected
 one man selling tags. My successor i' A. P. Stevens.
 TOwne on Military
 | Charles l.. Towne of Huntsville, on, Il of the state examiners of public ac Il counts, was then called. He was asked
 regarding his inspection of the militar, department of the state. He testified that he accompanied Captain Goodwin
 of the United States army on a tou
 of inspection, but did not complete thu inspection, having been assigned to othel II duty by the governor when Captain
 Goodwin was called off the work. H. testified that the property of the gov ernment was found to be in bad shape
 and that several companies during thu inspection were mustered out. He swor'
 that some of the property was in per sonal use, that much of it was recov cred.
 He was next asked regarding caml
 located near Montgomery, which thu chairman called "rooty'' camp. He tes tified that there government propert, was in use, and that he took charge O. it. He said he found no immoral prac tices there hut that someone had tes