The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-01-08
LAWSON FLIES
Confined from PAGE one. }

Possibly 1 had better start said
Secretary Lansing, by stating that
assume that confidential communities
tions between the president and myself
are not a part of the inquiry. I car
give a physical history of the note
The draft of the note was received by
me from the White House at O'Clock
Monday afternoon. / called Mr.. Polk
counsellor for the department, and
Mr. Wooley, law adviser attache to
my office, and discussed the three
forms in which the note had to be
prepared and set forth. 1 then hand
ed it to Mr.. Wooley, enjoining the
strictest secrecy that he might take il
to three confidential stenographers
There it was to be prepared and de-
livered to MIR. Salmon, chief of the
index bureau.
The index clerk" continued the
secretary, was to encipher the note
and said that it would take so long
to cipher the three notes that he
would have to have an assistant.
directed that he engage his most conf
Dental man for the work. He did SO
was given the copies and the two men
locked themselves in the room. They
were given the copies at 8 o'clock and
at 2:30 Tuesday morning (Dec. 19)
the notes were enciphered, delivered
to the telegraph room and sent.
Secrecy as Courtesy to Nations.
ION Tuesday afternoon 1 discussed
with Ike president the time when the
note should be made public. The rea-
son for secrecy was the courtesy due
to the nations who were to receive the
note that it should not be published
here before they received it. We de-
cided it would take two days at least
for it to reach Austria and Rumania.
So We decided it should be made pub
lie on Thursday morning. Tuesday
evening, about 6 O'Clock, a copy of
the note was handed to Mr. James,
at once took it up with the printing
office
at was read by one man and then
sent to the printing office.
'At about IL o'clock 1 received the
newspaper correspondents and told
them that I would have an important
communication for them at O'Clock
to be released the next morning. 1 told
them in confidence as / was afraid its
contents might come back from Eu-
rope in garbled form. Further,
thought it courteous not to make il
public until it had been received by
the countries to which it was ad-
dressed. 1 told them it did not con-
tain any proposal of peace nor offer
of mediation.
That evening at my house Ambas-
sador Willard (of Spain) told me he
the note by the president and we dis
cussed the advisability of him address
ing Spain on the subject The next
morning the note was made public in
the press"
Mysterious s'Mr. Curtis
Mr.. Tumulty stated during his tes-
tinony he did not think the leak could
have occurred on the note thru any
employe of the executive office. He
editor of the Newark Morning Ledger
referring to the mysterious "A. Cur
tis," who wrote to Representative
Wood, author of the investigation res
olution.
What prompts nee to write" said
the letter, lis, L note, one by the name
! of Curtis brought IN as having writ
ten the Wood letter, using your name.
and l recall that on a number of occa-
sions under various suspicious circum-
stances since L have been in Newark,
[ have received telephone calls from
New York from a man calling himself
Mr.. Curtis and alleging himself to be
a banker or broker. In each case he
undertook to give me tips of various
sorts of what was happening, not only
in the financial and industrial world.
but on one occasion called me up on
the telephone to tell me that he had
good reason to believe that Dorothy
Arnold was at an Orange, N. J., hotel.
During the Standard Oil strike he
called up almost daily, giving what
purported to be inside information and
also predicting future developments
made considerable inquiry but could
never identify or locate Mr.. Curtis
Lawson Precipitates Riot.
The committee next called Lawson
who stepped smilingly to the witness
chair. He beamed at every rules COM
mittee member once and at each OF
the score of newspaper men twice.
81 have reason to believe 1 will be
stopped" Lawson complainingly re-
marked. Asked his occupation, Law
son paused, then said:
'FWell, We'll call it farmer" and a
roar ensued.
After explaining his lawyer had ad-
vised him the committee had no right
to demand answers or production OF
papers, and adding that he docs not
purpose to stand on that right" Law
son said There have been leaks from
the United States supreme court as
well as from the White House
st am going to proceed to Law be-
] fore the committee all that l consider
advisable to show up this damnable
situation that has existed for the past
two years and to help stop such g
| thing as happened the other day wher
many people lost two billion of dol
| lars Lawson said.
well, proceed interrupted Henry
shortly.
| '.I do not understand" Lawson said
/ that this committee is sitting to hau
any guilty persons out in the open an6
punish them.
There have been leaks and thou.
sands and tens of thousands of per.
sons have been ruthlessly robbed.
Leaks From Supreme Court
cone of the commonest things il
| Wall street where all these things cen