Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-01-09
BIZ RALPH SMITH.

| By RALPH SMITH
! WASHINGTON, Jan. S.-Authors and
| playwrightS in search of material fort
humor and comedy are missing an op-,
portunity if they are not following tnef
sessions of the congressional commit
tee investigating the leak" that is sup
posed to have enabled stock jobbers too
raid the New York exchange on the
strength of President Wilson's peace
note.
The initial session of the Henry COM
mittee furnished abundant material for1
a screaming burlesque =.
The developments of the morning in-l
| Dictated that the inquiry will be anotheri
| case of button, button, who's got thet
| button?" The impression is that in thet
end the culpabnity. if any is discovered. /
/ will be fixed upon the news agencieSf
that supply Wall street with its in,
formation.
The testimony Of the secretary off
| state. Secretary Tumulty and Thomas
w. Lawson didn't uncover anything of (
importance as bearing on the leak.
though Tumulty emphasized the despicM
ability Of repeating rumors on hearss
gossip.
Lawson was disappointing as a W
ness, and the committee, it appeart
was far too gentle in its handling
| him. He just rambled along and IS
nothing worth while.
BARUCH TO BE CALLED.
Bernard NJ. Baruch, who is suppos
! to have made killing, will be cal
| this afternoon or tomorrow. He kno'
nothing that win shed light on the
| quiry, but stands ready to furnish
committee with all thS-~i4Eorm2Gon
wants about his activity in the md
| ket.
Baruch viii convince the COMMITTEE
that he had no advance information and%
that this his first intimation of the note
| came from a legitimate source that dis
penses stock market news. He acted
| hastily and wisely on this information
The cutlery against Baruch comes
chiefly from Republican sources that
are ''peeved" because he was a large
| contributor to the Wilson campaign
fund This is not singular in the fact
| that he was on the right side Of the mar
| ket when 1T broke He has been on the
right side consistently for many years.
| At the outset of the hearing Secretary
| Tumulty read a statement, Endorsed by
| President Wilson, that he had no
knowledge whatever of the Presidents
note before it was announced to the
newspapers, and Secretary Lansing
gave testimony about the handling of
the document after it got to the state
| department. Both denied they had been
able to find any leak"
Lawson began his statement to the
committee with general declarations
| which soon led into an uproar. 1t ended
| by the clerk of the house forcing him
| to his chair and the committee voting
unanimously to expunge the whole ex-
change from the record. The stenog-
| rapher had missed much of 1t in the
confusion. 81
Finally when. Chairman Henry got
Lawson down to a crosS-examination,
the Boston financier said in effect he
could tell but wouldn't, and at that point
the committee recessed for lunch.
LIST OF WITNESSES.
Among those present to testify were
Secretary Lansing, Joseph P. Tumu1-
ty, secretary to the president; Thomas
W. Lawson, Boston financier; Charles /
H. Sabin, president Guaranty Trust COM
pany, of New York; Bernard NJ. Baruch E
and Otto Kahn, New York brokers';
Washington representatives of the Wall n
Street Journal Financial America and
the Central News association and the
managers of the local branches of the
Western Union and Postal Telegraph
companies.
When the hearing opened Representa-
tive Campbell, Republican, moved tina
the committee subpoena F. NJ. Lockwood
Co., brokers, 46-48 Broadway, Ney
York, to bring papers and document
showing sales from December 10 to q
The committee decided to consider it j
executive session. On motion of Rer
resentative Chiperfeld, the Boston stoc
exchange was ordered to preserve it
brokers' slips for the same period.
Joseph P. Tumulty, secretary to Pres
ident WILSON, was then called.
TUMULTY's STATEMENT.
Backed with an Endorsement by Pres:-
dent Wilson, Secretary TumuIty made
the following statement to the commit
tee:
81 appear before this committee
resent the unjust intimation that ga
information to B. NJ. Baruch in rega
to the so-called peace note sent to
European belligerents last month
the secretary of state. This intimatioI
was contained in a statement made to
this committee by Representative Wood,
of Indiana, a man whom l do not know.
To the best of my knowledge have new
er met Mr.. Wood. Certainly he tade
no effort to find out the truth from me
before dragging my name into this af-
fair.
Il wish to deny generally and specih-
cally that l gave advance information
to Mr.. Baruch or to anybody else in re-
gard to the peace note. 1 did not know
Of the existence of this note or that this
government contemplated the dispatch
of such a note until after printed copies
of the note had been given to representa-
tives of the press by the state depart
ment. was not consulted in the prepare
tion of the note by the president or by
anybody else The conferences and com
munications relating to the drafting or
the note and its dispatch were confiden-
tial between the president and the secre-
CONTINUED on Page 3. Col. A.