New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-03-21

credit for creating ais frame Of mind
in the Mayor.
Mr.. Moss showed that few weeks
before the letter TO Mr.. County was
written Mayor Gsynor, IN public let
ter. referred 20 the Il. r. I. AZ ram
shackle railroad on the verge Of bank
ruptcv." But MIR. Shonts persisted IN
disclaiming credit.
Earlier in his examination Mr.. Shonts
gave as an explanation why the Inter
borough did not 60 ahead with IT'S pro
posal 20 Mr.. Wilcox 20 build suDways
with its own money was because 10
learned that the city was contemplating
building subway up Lexington Ave
nue.. parallelling the route OF the IN
terborough's proposed subway up Nadl.
son Avenue. This. said Mr.. Shonts, o.
done by the city after the lnterborough
started building. would have ey@"tually
bankrupted the lnterborough.
Conference at Wilcox Home.
Mr.. Shonts was asked 20 tell about n
meeting at the home of Mr.. Wilcox on
March 2. 1910. the day he made III"
proposal 10 build subways with Inter
borough money. A. this meeting, which
lasted until . o'clock the next morning,
was also present lie Roy T. Hardness,
assistant counsel Of the Public Service
Commission Nr. Shonts said he could
not remember the details. and had only
a bare recollection Of the meeting. lie
said the proposal was discussed. ana
he recognized some of the pencilled M
terlineations on IL as having been made
BY Mr.. Wilcox himself.
Frequently during his testimony MI.
Shonts would answer 81 dOn't remem-
Der" or make some other reply that
seemed 20 indicate poor memory.
Are you paid 100000 year 70
have a good memory or good Tor
gettory?" asked Mr. Moss.
Neither" replied Mr.. Shonts. Il am
paid for exercising certain amount
Of judgment at certain times. ! don't
burden my memory with details
Mayor Mitchell was the first witness.
He was shown the proposal OF Narch
p. Asked If he had seen II before, the
Mayor read IL over carefully. Then he
replied:
IL should gay. 20 the best OF my
ability. that ! never saw this paper be
fore. | notice iu some Of the terms sug-
gested in 10 propositions so familiar
that I'm inclined TO think I've heard
their subjects discussed.
Mayor Mitchell Testifies.
The Mayor said he did not know tina;
such a proposal was put in writing.
II stood by subway building By city
money city ownership and ! might
have been told such proposition had
been made, but ! wasn't interested. and
80 / don't remember explained the
Mayor II was not Interested IN build
ing subway extensions with Inter
borough money. don't believe in u.
I didn't believe that any one m the
Board OF Estimate or the Public SER
wee Comm ssion believed IN IT,"
Answering other questions. he SAID
+, was possible that Mr.. Wilcox had
told him Of the contents OF the docu-
fnent. as "Mr Willcoy was very frank.
Controller Prcudergast followed the
Mayor lie was asked the same ques-
ton. and he replied that he never saw
the document before. He said, how
ever. that al about the time the pro-
posal was sent 20 Mr. Wilcox he told
him Of negotiations that he had with
Mr.. Shonts. and later Informed him
that these negotiations we're on.
"Did he tell you that the negola-
lions were formulated 100 letter
asked Nr Moss.
"rm not sure" replied Mr. Prcnder-
CAST. "rll not say he didn't tell me
that a memorandum had been submit
ted by Mr. Shonts."
He said that he never saw copy OF
the document. and did not know OF us
existence when he and Mayor HaynoT
signed the dual subRay contracts.
The committee vii not meet again
until Friday.