The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-02
Cipher Message Signed Mary To Palm Beach
 Carries 1t There NEW AMMUNITION
 GIVEN TO PROBERS w. J. Burns, Secret Service Head, Involved By Telegrams, To Get Chance To Testify DRAGNETS FOR WIRES
 COVERING, WIDE FIELDS Telegraph Operator Witness Ad- mits Destroying Messages
 After Dispatch To Mclean


 WASHINGTON March 1.-(By As sociated Press. 1.-The long, long trail of the oil inquiry led today into the de partment of justice.
 A cipher message signed Mary ana found among the celebrated Mclean telegrams, carried it there, and the oil committee immediately made plans to follow it wherever 1t may go. From William J. Burns, chief of the departments bureau of investigation Mrs. Mary Duckstein, special agent of the department, and others, the oil investigators will seek to learn:
 The truth about reports that Edward B. Mclean, publisher of the Washing ton Post, and central figure in the inquiry, is himself a department of justice agent, and in possession of the departments code.
 Whether Burns directed Mrs. Duck stein to send message to her husband who is one of the Mclean employees saying that the Mclean investigation is under way by special agents of the justice department" and that he believ ed the information is important"
 How Did They Get Code?
 How Duckstein. and other repre- sentatives of the publisher came into possession of q copy of the code.
 Whether all of the code messages found in the Mclean file of telegrams are like the Mary" message, in a cipher code once used by the bureau oi investigation.
 The Mary" message was sent from Washington on February 2, to W, O. Duckstein, described to the committee as nesof McLean's confidential men, at Palm Beach. Fla.
 A paraphrase of it, furnished to the oil committee, reads:
 Sent for by Burns, who told me to say Mclean investigation is under way by special agents of justice department He believes information is important.' ?
 The message was sent by. Postal tele. graph and at the bottom appeared this notation
 stein.e
 Arthur D. Marks is business mana. ger of the Post.
 The paraphrase furnished to the connittee bore the signature, "ATary'' tQuigley, chief telephone operator of Washington Post(.
 Asked today, how her name became confused with that of Miss Quigley, whose name appeared in one of the ! Mclean telegrams, Mrs. Duckstein said:.
 Mary Her "Pet" Name
 sOh, very few people know that my pet name is Mary Her name is Mrs. Jessie Duckstein.
 Mrs. DucAstein was then at the oil committee hearing room in response to a subpoena and she declined to discuss the reference to the Mclean investiga- tion in her telegram.
 Expressing his willingness to tell fhe oil committee all he knows, Burns said ne understood the code employed in the Mary message was used at one time by agents of the justice department.
 Probe Covers Wide Field With the issuing of these subpoenAs the committees dragnet for teleera ma exchanged between the more important personages whose names have been brought into the oil scandal covers a wide field. .
 But the investigators probably never VIII get trace of hundreds of messa ges that It desired, particularly those that passed over the private wire Mclean nad installed to Palm Beach at the time his representatives were seeking to Keep him off the witness stand.
 Major told the committee today that he personally had destroyed the comics or those sent from Washington and mat the copies received at Palm Beach also had been destroyed. It was the practice to destroy them each night he .estifled, adding that there was moth. ing strange as they were private mes. sages relating to McLean's' business.
 Senators said the telegrams furnished Dy the Western Union contained Hnoth- ng sensational" unless it be that mat ters of that character will be disclosed before the decipbering of the code tele- grams. They, added, however, that some or the telegrams were expected to fill gaps left by some of the messages pre- vlously read into the records.
 Teiegrams from the Washington of flee of the Western Union and Postal company are looked for by the com mittee when ethe search of the files of nose offices has been completed on the Dasis Of the new subpoenas calling for messages sent to or received by Fall, Harry F. Sinclair, E. l.. Doheny, Me Lean and others from December 1. 1923 to February 2S, 1924.
 
 Records of a number of long dis tanee telephone calls made from Wash ington to Fall and others were sup piled today by c. T. Clagett, of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone company, but committeeman said they showed no calls made to these persons by any of the oil investigators or ad. ministration officials. The four calls put through to Fall without the name of the persons making them has aroused the curiosity of the investigators, who expressed surprise that such trafsac. ton could be possible Their belief is whoever called Fall must have been of much more than passing prominence and influence.
 Not since the oil inquiry got under way last October here, has there been a larger array of witnesses on hand than was present today in the com. nlittee room. They included Francis IT. McAdoo of New York, counsel for Mclean, and son of William G. Me Adoo.
 The photographers sought to get a
 (cSRtlRusd on Pasa Tvs. Column TWSl