Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-02-02
MOVE LEAKPROBE
HERE TOMORROW
House Rules Committeeman
End Hearings in New York
= This Afternoon.
OPERATORS DENY MESSAGE

..NE,W YORK, February 2.-Hearings by
rSe leak" investigating committee Will
ne resumed in Washington tomorrow AT
Z. o'clock. Chairman Henry anho'iiI.
tpday. George A. Ellis OF L. +. Hutton
& Co. who wrote the message warmth
brokers' of the coming of the PresiaeI'' :
cSace note. probably Will be the MS
witness.
Desnite possibility that the interha-
tfonal situation may demand their pres
S1ce in Washington at any moment
congressional investigators were Gun.
fronted by contradictory testimony Va
s,ch Importance IN the leak inquiry
TODAY that they decided to continue
their hearings. for
: Plans were fully laid yesterday IoI
disseminating the New YORK nejt IiiIa
Mst night. but the testimony OF J1'i!Ie
W Becker, n telegraph operator III Iil1
brokerage house of f. F. Hutton x No-'
changed the situation.
Operator Contradicts Washingtonlan
Becker fatty contradicted the dec
laration of F. A. Connolly. a WASH
ington broker, that on December ~
he sent n message containing advance
information on President Wilson's COM
ing peace note over private Telegraph
Wire between his Office and the Hutton
house.
That there may be no chance OF er-
ror, the committee has arranged to eA-
anime every telegraph operator in HUT.
tons employ today in an effort to De,
termne who. if any one, DID receive
the Connolly message.
Announcement was made before the
hearing that the committee would re-
turn to Washington this afternoon.
- w Frank Packard, n telegrapher or
the Hutton firm, the first witness. De
gan his testimony with voluntary at
tempt to discredit Beckers testimony.
He said it would be RIDICULOUS Tor an
operator to say he did or did not 70
ceive a message in December" Pressed
By Whipple. Packard admitted that he
overheard E. F. Hutton advancing TINS
argument TO Becker in his office TINS
morning
= Says Hutton Criticised Becker.
Hutton's attitude toward Becker.
Packard said, was that of criticism.
Becker, the witness said, made no reply
All of the operators in the employ of
Hutton were present when Hutton adj
dressed Becker, Packard said.
Packard was excused after saying he
had neither received nor sent any of
the messages in evidence.
F. NJ. Dick, an expert in values from
the Hutton house. who advises custom
ers regarding transactions, minimized
the Importance of the message fore
casting the Presidents note.
!. I'm the light of the many rumors we
have had in the last two years and
-n,tld
not have impressed me very much
- Dick further declared that the only
information he had about the note came
70 him in an offhand way from another
member of the firm. probably late in
the afternoon of December 20 Secre-
fary Lansing's statement about the
note. he said, did have an effect on the
market.
: Also Denies Receiving Message.
John F. HummelI a telegraph oper-
ator in the Hutton house on the south
En- wire there, testified that he did not
receive the Connolly forecast of the
Presidents message His wire and that
OF Joseph NJ. Becker. who swore yester-
0ay that he did not receive the Con-
molly message, are the only two be
tween the Hutton and Connolly houses.
. Humn!ell wa very posit4ye in his
declaration that he did not receive the
Connolly telegram. After reading the
Ellis warning, said to have been draft
81 from the Connolly information. he
Said such a message certainly would
bave impressed him.
You agree with Mr.. Becker that, on
account of the tremendous Importance
Of the message you would have
membered it il you had received it?"
y hipple asked
81 would have remembered it," Hum
nell testified.
Hummeu further said that the pr-
vate line between the Hutton and Con-
molly offices is interchangeable between
telephone and telegraph. Such change
he said, would require only ten o
fifteen minutes He added, however.
he did not think the line had beer