The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-13

steamship line on the Pacific coast, caught the party by telegraph, invited them to transfer at San Francisco to his new steamer de luxe, the Alexander. Forbes accepted; they travelled north in Mir. Alexander's private suite. A public luncheon celebrated the arrival of the Alexander. l..
 Had Unsuspected Power All the way west Colonel Forbes had been revealing a power hitherto unsus- pected by his friends. He proved a magnificent rough-and-ready orator. He could stand up before a thousand people and make 'em laugh and cry as he wanted" says Mortimer. At this luncheon the artistic temperament took possession of Colonel Forbes and led him into indiscretions. At the end of a long passage in praise of MT. Alexan- der, he drew from his pocket one of the common little Harding medals of Washington at the time of the in- auguration and pinned it on his host. The President, before I left Washing ton, asked me to give this to you! he said. Following is Mortimers testi- mony:
 I asked Forbes-we were all sitting around laughing. and l said-"Charlie. tell me. did the President ask you to said, T just wanted to make him feel good" He said: "He was pretty good to me and put me on his psyaae su1s thing on the spur of the moment. :. But he is very spontaneous"
 In the northwest, MT. Mortimer, Thompson and Blacks agent for con- tracts with the government, began get ting down to business. Let me dis pense with the monotonous phrase, "ac- cording to Mortimer's testimony" To this end of this installment the rest is all taken from his examination before the Senate committee, as confirmed in spots by other witnesses or by letters, telegrams and documents. Forbes has declared that Mortimer's story is un- true in bulk and in detail.
 C. B. Hurley On Scene | C. B. Hurley had come, as requested, to San Francisco. In the presence of Mortimer he and Forbes spoke of the proposed government hospital at Amer ican Lake, Washington, one of the projects which had drawn Forbes west. Forbes had said to Hurley: "I cannot give you any work because l still own stock in your company" They held several private conversations. Then Hurley came out of a conference and said to Mortimer: Forbes has no stock in the company and we are in position to figure on the work" Hur- ley was awaiting the party at Tacoma i; J. NJ. Black of the Thompson-B Black combination, one of Mortimer's employ CTS in the business of getting govern ment contracts, was already in the northwest.
 thot n httS atmosphere thickens. Hurley called Mortimer into his office and imparted to him a simple sand useful code for communication regarding government contracts. The key was standard pocket dictionary. To get the code word. you counted back five words from the word you wanted to express. Man." for example, became in the code 'mammilia ;'' arrive" became array" and August" became audi torium.' This, of course, did not cover proper names. There was, there fore, q typewriter supplementary list, disguising the names of persons and cities. The Chief" tForbes) was 'McAdoo;' Sweet was Pickles" ;" O'Brien, Fox" Mortimer, "Moxey," and Hurley, "Hyder." The device of naming Forbes after a democratic leader gave the little circle many good laugh. Mortimer submitted to the Senate committee several telegrams and letters in this code, all referring to government contracts.
 Forbes Knowledge Of Code
 Forbes declared to the Senate com mittee that he had no knowledge of this code. and it is to be noted that none of the letters or telegrams sub mitted is addressed to him or signed by him. Mortimer testified to the con trary:
 Mir. Mortimer: l know that he was supposed to have one. (Copy of the code.) I know that everybody else had one, and he knew about it.
 The Chairman: How do you know he knew about it?
 MT. Mortimer: Because he asked me if there was something wrong with one