Evening star., 1926-05-03
FENN|NG REFUSES
T0APPEAR ACA|NAT.
VETERANS HEARING
Declares Statement Already
Made Contains All Infor-
nation He Can Give.
COMMITTEE WILL SEEK
TO FORCE APPEARANCE
Resolution to Be Offered in House
Asking Right to Issue
Subpoena.

complete statement already made to
your committee contains all the in
formation pertinent to the inquiry
which 1 am able to give" Commits
sioner Frederick A. Fenning today
refused to appear before the House
veterans committee for further cross
examination.
The Commissioners decision, set
forth In q letter to Chairman John
son, Republican, South Dakota, pre-
cipitated row among the Democratic
members and resulted in instructions
being issued by the committee to Rep
resentative Bulwinkle, Democrat,
North Carolina, to prepare resolu.
ton asking the House to grant the
committee authority to subpoena Mr..
Fenning. The resolution will be re-
ferred to the rules committee.
The letter to Chairman Johnson fol.
lows:
My Dear Congressman Johnson:
Under date of April %, 1926, l ad,
dressed letter to you suggesting that
the inquiry now being conducted by
your committee with respect to
pending bill might be facilitated by
my appearance before your commit
tee, and at your invitation / appeared
all day Wednesday and Thursday of
last week. ] am now invited to again
appear before your committee this
morning. I am constrained to believe
that l can add nothing to the teStt-
mony given last week which will be
of value to your committee in its fur
ther consideration of the measure now
pending. My very full and complete
statement already made to your COM
mittee contains all the information
pertinent to the inquiry which [ am
able to give.
"Yours very truly,
(SigneO ''F. A. FENNING."
While the veterans committee was
meeting. the Gibson subcommittee of
the District committee heard an echo
of the Barney Mcbride unSolved mur-
der, when Edward Van Meter, pris-
oner at the District Jail, who had been
called to testify under a misappre-
hension concerning his identity, told
the committee that he had been put
in Jail as a result of his activities in
investigating this case. He shed no
light on the murder, however. The
subcommittee then heard two firemen
who are paid S2,100 year and who
are detailed as chauffeurs for Commits
sioners Fenning and Rudolph. They
stated they would rather be active
fremen than chauffeurs and both tes-
tified that they had driven members
of the Commissioners families on prt-
yate business.
BuIwinkle Is Aroused.
When the veterans committee,
which has been in recess since Thurs
day afternoon, at which time Mr..
completed, met at 10 o'clock this
morning, Chairman Johnson read the
letter. MIR. BulWinkle arose and de-
clared heatedly: Il move that this
committe instruct it's chairman to re-
duire Mr.. Fenning to come before the
committee. This letter is absolutely
false and he knows it, because in his
first letter to the committee he made
no mention about any BILL
Chairman Johnson suggested an ex-
ecutive session to consider procedure,
but Mr.. Bulwinkle continued: he
knows why he doesn't want to ap-
pear. We hadn't gone into the ques-
tion about the Norris case to get in
formation from him as to why he
went to the Veterans Bureau at night
for information when he should have
had II in hfs files. In the original re-
quest of April % he wrote: i observe
in the press that frequent questions
are asked pertaining to estates in
which / am acting as committee,
which questions cannot readily be
answered by the persons TO Wnom
they are propounded. This leads me
to suggest that undoubtedly the IN
oIffry now being conducted Will be
facilitated if 1 am called be1ore your
committee at very early date"
IL am reading this" continued MIR.
Bulwinkle, ito show the falsehood in
the letter. He now. says his appear
ance here was with respect to a pend
ing bill. The only thing he wanted to
do was to answer questions which he
was interested in. Mr.. Rankin here
has asked about only Is or 20 of the
cases he is guardian for.'
SO Cases Involved.
"There are So of these cases." in
terrupted Representative Rankin,
Democrat, Mississippi, in which DR..
White signed petitions asking that
Fenninc be appointed guardian, and
| wanted to go into every one and he
knew it because I said so Thursday
iRfeeepprUeossee;ntatke Milligan. Democrat,
Missouri. who was examining Mr..
Fenning when the committee adjourn
ed Thursday, arrived at this point
and wanted to know what the discus
sion was about.
"IH tell you," said Mr.: Bulwinkle.
"The witness has fiown-he took cold
feet and left"
Chairman johnson here renewed
his suggestion about an executive
session and Mr.. Rankin construed the
move as part Of the filibuster the
gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr.
Luce) threatened Thursday"
Declares 21 Removed.
"Mr. Chairman" he continued, II
want to insert in the record at this
point a list of 21 eX-service men who
were taken out of st. EliZabeth's since
this hearing began and carried to
Augusta, Ga. In the list Is the name
of Fred C. Hall, one of Mr.. Jennings
wards. and one of the chief cases that
ha: been under fire in the House."
Mr.. Milligan requested that the
Commissioner be recalled, adding
that 1.-The witness refused to answer
tn questions propounded to him and
now he refuses to come"
EYES," said Mr.. Rankin, he found
he could not run over this side of the
table, so he writes a letter saying he
has given all the information neces-
sary, as IL it's for him to say what
is pertinent to this inquiry
Mr. Bulwinkle got the floor and OBJ
Continued on Page 8. Column %