New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-01-12

this committee will be valuable ref
crence book for the people of this
country, because of the information
1t will contain. 1t is only numbered up
with lot of extraneous matters, affi-
davits in the first place that the
sponsor admits do not support the
charge that was under investigation,
followed by the trial Of murder cases
and the trial Of a personal dispute be-
tween an accountant and Mr.. Becker,
and l, therefore, make the motion that
the record be purged by striking from
the record and not printing in the
record the cross-examination that has
been conducted and the affidavits that
were presented by Mr.. Becker in con-
nection with his testimony that have
been the basis of the cross-examina-
ton, and I suggest this in order that
this committee may preserve at least
the dignity Of it's own record"
II am much obliged to the gentle
man for his intimation that my cross
examination is utterly worthless" said
of this gentleman, think the commit
tee needs new counsel"
Opening of Session
The first question taken up when the
committee met was an attempt by Sen
ator Reed to show that Bolo would
have been foolish to go about at all
with Bernstortf. as he is alleged to
have done, if he were engaged in pro-
German plots. Mr.. Becker pointed out
that Rolo had actually made no secret
of his relations with Adolph Paven
stedt, a wellknown German agent, and
further, that neither the British,
French nor American Secret Services
were active here at that time. There
was some discussion of whether or not
Hearst kept open house, and Becker
stated that so far as he had been able
to learn, Bernstorff was the only man
to whom the right to go up to Hearst's
flat unannounced had been granted
There was more discussion. which
brought out no new facts. about the
amounts paid the witnesses, and then
Senator Reed took up the refusal Of
United States Attorney General Greg
DRY to let the vouchers come to the
committee.
Correspondence in Record
Senator Overman put into the record
the correspondence on the subject
which showed that they had been sent
to Mr.. Gregory by the New York State
authorities on his request, at Mr. Reeds
instance.
II am confident the Governor will
comply with your request as chairman
Of the subcommittee he wired
please attend to this at once, as it is
important that action be taken before
the Governor goes out of Office on
December 81"
ordered, sent both by Governor Whit
man and by Governor Smith. Mr..
Gregory. however, declared that GER
tain of the vouchers affected pending
and future Federal cases, and the ma
terial was taken back to Albany.
Senator Reed stated that this action
approached contempt of the United
States Senate" ana demanded that they
be brought back. so that the commit
tee itself could pass on whether they
should be made public.
The question was finally referred
to executive session, with the prob
ability that 1t will again be put up
to the Attorney General.
There was another prolonged discus
sion of the amounts paid to agents and
rehashing of the activity of these
agents chiefly Phillip NJ. Musica and
Jacob Lubln-in various New York
cases. There was then a consideration Of
the cause of the statement, widely pub
lished, that Boyd and Won Papen had
been at the Bolo dinner, when, as q
matter of fact, they had sailed for
Germany. Mr.. Becker corrected his
previous statement that this was due
to rumor included in the report of
Perley Morse, the accountant, and
stated that while the matter was very
vague in his mind he had been told
that 1t was due to the misplacing of a
semicolon in the story Of the dinner in
The New York Tribune. Mr.. Reed chat
lenged the possibility of this and Mr..
Becker read the passage. showing it
might occur.
Puts in Long Statement
At the close of the crosse amina-
tlon Mr.. Becker made a long statement
IN rebuttal, giving a connected story of