The Washington herald., 1917-01-09
lawson De6es House.

a sight for the gods. When P. T.
Barnum said the people liked to be
! humbugged he uttered a veritable
truth, but when Thomas w. Lawson
said "he would stir up the animals"
he said mouthful, again using the
' .rnacular.
The doughty Boston banker, fnan-
cier, investor, Wall Street speculator
and connoisseur OF the arts in jewels
and flowers, appeared before a solemn
committee of the House of Repre-
sentatives and heckled its member
ship. He defed its authority. He
tried to intimidate several of its mem
bers and he misused and manhandled
the English language in manner
calculated to stir the hearts of his
countrymen.
He did not produce one syllable of
fact or fancy that was new. He did
not contribute an iota of information
that might lead to the discovery of
the great leak he exposed in the last
days of the last year, leak which
he said had betrayed to Wall Street
the text of President Wilson's peace
note and had ruthlessly looted the
American investing public of $4,000
1000.
and in the same breath he said he
had gone short of the market and
made money, how much he did not
volunteer.
The palmiest days of frenzied
finance were outdone. The members
let him ramble on. Time after time
he repeated and the sum total of his
enlightenment to the astute investiga-
tors was that he could give them
formula" for an investigation.
He volunteered to show them
through the mazes of brokerage
house bookkeeping. In this way and
through back accounts he would be
able to ascertain who had been the
benehciaries of the recent bear raid
on war stocks. That the raid had
not been made on intuition and busi-
ness judgment, but on a leak was
his deduction.
The leak? Where? Oh, Mr.. Law
son knew where it was. But he
would not tell. The committee was
not a real investigating committee.
Besides, his evidence was only hear
say. He would tell it in confidence
I to one member.
Only one thing he would say fat
ly. There have been leaks from the
White House, the Supreme Court of
the United States, the State Depart
ment and goodness knows where else
for the last forty years.
Pinned down for specific occasions
he had recourse to his privilege to
refuse to answer. He ventured the
opinion that the leaks were charge
able to persons intrusted with state
ments issued in confidence. This
adroit reference to the newspaper
correspondents only caused laughter,
because if one class of people on
earth have been kind to Mr.. Lawson
since he burst into public view it has
been the newspaper men, who gloried
in the stuff he wrote because it
seemed to have a punch and was writ
ten in that inimitablc style so Law
sonesque.
But now Mr.. Lawson hates pub
licity. He shuddered yesterday at
the thought of the headlines. He
J shrank back in timidity at the idea
that somebody would put words in
his mouth and create a feeling Of
unrest in the country.
Finally Mr.. Lawson decided to
stand on his rights as a citizen. He
refused to answer. He advised the
committee early in the proceedings
that he had received advice from
eminent counsel, Mr.. Samuel Inter
myer. Everybody who heard him
agreed that Mr.. Untermyer is handy
adviser in a pinch.
Mr.. Lawson's defiance of the COM
mittee and his refusal to answer
questions under oath, although quite
glib in circulars and interviews, will
not result in any personal inconven-
fence.
The committee may hale him be-
fore the bar of the House and he
may be cited for contempt of the
House. In due course of events, fol-
lowing the legal procedure ordained
and established, the Speaker of the
House would refer the citation to the
District of Columbia grand jury.
If an indictment were returned and
Mr.. Lawson tried he could appeal
from any penalty. Now all this takes
time and before the legal tape would
be unwound the Sixty-fourth Con-
| PreSs would have adjourned sin. die