The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-13
MILAN ON STAND Insists Facts Of Loan Told Walsh In Palm
 Beach, Fla.
TOLD FORMER TALE
 AT FALLS REQUEST
This Is Explanation Of Dis crepancy In Testimony Re-
 Garding $1OO,000 Loan
TRYING TO AID FRIEND,
 ILL AND BROKEN, HE SAYS
Publisher Denies Knowing Do- heny Or Sinclair Or Connec-
 ton With Slush Fund

WASHINGTON, March 12.-Ed- ward B. Mclean, publisher of the Washington Post, told the oil com mittee today that he had been drawn unwittingly into the oil scandal through well-intentioned effort to aid his trusted friend, Albert B. Fall. He insisted that the true story of his $1OO,O00 loan to the former secretary was that which he told Sena- | tor Walsh of Montana at Palm Beach in January; that he had given Fall checks for that amount in November. | 1921, and that they had been returned to him uncashed.
 His previous statement that the loan had been in cash, he said, was made because Fall requested at a conference in Atlantic City last December that he make that statement, if it became necessary.
 He testified that Fall, i'll and a broken man, assured him that his wor- ries and embarrassment had nothing to do with Sinclair or the Teapot Dome. | It was not until after he had tes- tified in Palm Beach, Mclean de- clared, that Fall told him he had ob- tained $1OO,00O from Edward l.. Do- heny November 30, 1921.
 Denies Dishonest Dealing Declaring he had no other con- nection with the whole subject under investigation did not know either Sinclair or Doheny; and never owned stock in any of their oil companies, the publisher summarized his situation thus:
 T was trying to go down the line as far as I could for a friend. I have never done dishonest thing in my life financially. have never had anything to do with this darned Teapot Dome thing. That is really the truth. You can decOde telegrams, you can look through them for the next year and you can never find anything sdishonest l. have done" ]. fhzS Statement came near the end of more than two hours of questioning l during most of which time the pub fisher leaned across the table toward the committee with head half bowed and forearms resting on the little table before which he sat.
 Sheds Little Light
 1 Although hailed as one of the more important of the witnesses of the in- quiry, Mclean shed little additional light on the situation and his testi- mony was anything but thrilling. De- spite this, his every word was followed with intense interest by the crowd which crowded the committee room.
 The publisher was not subjected to vigorous cross-examination. Time and again he told the committee he wanted to be frank with it and tell it all he knew. The only variation from his Palm Beach testimony was the time of giving Fall the checks as the last week of November, 1919, in stead of the last week of December of that year.
 Mclean followed to the stand sev- eral White House and Washington Post employees. He wore dull 1 colored tweed suit with brown sweat CT underneath. His attorneys, Wilton J. Lambert and William Leahy. accom- panied him into the committee room and remained seated throughout his ex- animation, questioning their client briefly to emphasize certain points of his testimony.
 Unable To Translate Wires Mclean emphatically declared that he had had no connection with any slush fund, rumors of which have reached the committee. He was un- able to aid the committee materially in translating some of the mysterious telegrams, explaining that he could not recall details, as he had received and sent hundreds of them while at Palm Beach.
 In view of the conflicting state. ments made to the committee hereto fore, Mclean said he could not be cer- tain what person was meant in the cele brated principal telegram; that Inc had thought it was either Attorney General Daugherty or Senator Curtis of Kansas. and that he did not think that President Coolidge was referred to
 The publisher said he had been made