Evening star., 1924-09-22

(RemuS) shortly after your Seaglrt
speech. in which you made reference
to his testimony, published full re-
traction and repudiated his testimony
before the committee. The whole
contemplate conspiracy of fraud and
deceit will be laid bare in due sea-
son. When that time comes you and
the country will &c astounded by
the revelations. even though two of
the members of the Senate commit
tee are now seeking high political
places in the Nation.
Transmits Means Letter.
In further support Of the facts, !
hand you herewith a copy of a signed
statement, dated September II. 1924,
by CASTOR B. Means, whom all will
recall was the frequent star witness
of the Brookhart- Wheeler committee.
You will observe that Means re-
pudiates his testimony in toto and
lays bare the details of the conspiracy
of majority of the Senate commit
tee not only to ruin me and those
connected with the Administration,
but to discredit the Department of
Justice. Means and Remus are the
only witnesses who have ever testi-
fled to having paid money supposedly
for improper purposes, which money
it was attempted to be shown was
intended to reach me. Both these
men now deny completely any and
all such transactions and repudiate
their testimony entirely.
In view of these statements yolun-
tarily offered, what will now be said
of the Senate committee that has pa
raded itself before the public in its
virtuous CD endeavor and upon which
record one of its members now is a
after betraying the Democratic party
while holding a seat in the United
States Senate, which he obtained as
Democrat. His whole stock in trade
as an aSpirant for Office is predicated
upon the committees record now
rapidly falling to pieces from it's very
rottenness.
Estimates Their Merits.
1t may be said that Remus and
Means, the former now in Atlanta
penitentiary and the latter under
sentence to prison, are not men of
sufficient credibility. 1t is entirely
adequate to answer that they were
the witnesses whom the committee
offered to the public and upon whose
testimony it was hoped to destroy my
character and injure the Department
of Justice. Means was the principal
agent. the indefatigable investigator
and witneSS-producer, whose testi-
mony was heralded more vociferously
through the press than that of any
other. and whose conviction at the
hands of the Federal court the COM
mittee had hoped to avoid. Some of
the same testimony he gave before
the Senate committee, was rendered
to the court at the time of his trial,
but was rejected by the court as it
should have been by the committee.
If l recall correctly in your speech Of
acceptance you took occasion to char
acterize the indictment of Senator
Wheeler in Montana as .frameup."
meaning, doubtless. to sac that there
was something improper in that action.
AS lawyer and as former officer of
the Department of Justice you know
that all indictments for crime are found
ed upon probable guilt, and are in their
very nature eX-parte matters. Did you
make inquiry at the Department of JUS
tice since | left it to ascertain what the
present Attorney General thinks about
that indictment? You certainly must
know that the jury in Montana which
indicted Mr.. Wheeler did not even meet
until some time after my retirement as
Attorney General, and your gratuitous
characterization of the indictment as a
'frame-up" was unwarranted when
you knew nothing of the essential facts
upons which Wheeler was indicted.
Sees Good Faith Lacking.
In view of the foregoing. which con-
Stitute only a part of my reasons there
fore, you may now understand why
did not appear before the Senate COM
mittee when it invited me to appear
after three months of villification and
after the court had denied the authority
of the committee to conduct its so-called
investigation. Had you followed the
proceedings Of the committee you would
have known that at no time, from the
introduction of the resolution of inquiry
in the Senate, had there been any inten-
tion to conduct in good faith an investi-
cation of the Department Of Justice
and my official acts.
To use the phrase common to those
directing the committee, the whole
purpose was ito get Daugherty."
Here you might properly say there
was a "frameup" on me, by denial
of witnesses in my behalf from the
outset, frequent insults to my coun-
sci, procured witnesses, introduction
of immaterial and irrelevant mat
terS, willful failure to adduce the
truth when it would have justifiably
favored the Department of Justice
and me, constant exhibition of malice
toward the department and me by a
majority Of the committee, contempt
for all rules of evidence and the
rights of individuals, heartlessness
and cruelty toward all whom the ma
jority of the committee could not
bend to the purpose of slandering
those connected with the administra-
ton are but a few of the. many rea-
sons for my refusal to appear, in ad-
dition to the fact that after three
months Of this outrage there was not
produced a single specification of ir-
regularity or inefficiency against me.
No inquiry whatever was made by
the committee regarding the subject
matter of a single complaint set
forth in the resolution or uttered
under immunity on the floor of the
Senate by irresponsible United States
Senators. What man with any self