Evening star., 1926-06-12
LONG LINES WAITED
FOR PRIMARY PAY,
SAYS P|NCHOT MAN
Most of "Workers" Received
$40 Bills. Declares Pitts
burgh Attorney.
yARE'S HEADQUARTERS
REPORTED AS BUSIEST
Anybody Who Spends Enough Can
Swing His City's Elections,
Witness Asserts.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

By Ii. GOULD LlNCOLN.
Anybody who spent enough money
could swing Pittsburgh in an elec-
ton
This was the statement this morn
ing of Frederick Beutel. a Pittsburgh
attorney and teacher of business law
in the University Of Pittsburgh, and
also chairman of the Pinchot speak
ers and meetings committee in that
city, before the Senate committee in
vestigating the recent Pennsylvania
primaries.
Mr.. Beutel testified that he person
ally had watched the Pepper Fisher
and Vare-Beidleman headquarters
paying off watchers and workers after
the primary election.
He described a line at the Pepper
Fisher headquarters on Wednesday.
the day after the election, 200 rect
long. The men in this line. he esti-
mated, were paid off at the rate of
from 200 to 800 an hour. All day
Thursday the paying continued active
ly. and on Friday the paying seemed
to continue constantly; on Saturday
there was little activity.
Says Most Got $40 Bills.
The witness said that it was an ex-
ception when a man got single bill
when he was paid off. Most OF the
money was in $40 bills, he said. One
man came away from the paymaster.
he said, with a role, apparently Of
$40 bills, as fat as he could hold in his
hand.
The workers apparently We're paid
on certificate and slips of paper.
Mr.. Beutel testified that he also
visited the Ware Beidleman headquar-
ters He had first been attracted
there, he said, early Wednesday morn
ing by crowd which was apparently
clamoring for money. The Ware head
quarters were right next door to the
Pinchot headquarters. The crowd In
the Ware headquarters was even
larger. he said, than at the Pepper
headquarters; apparently they were
not as expeditiously handled.
Tear Bomb Routs Crowd.
Mr.. Beutel said that tear bomb
exploded in the Ware headquarters
while paying off and drove the crowd
into the street and payments could
not be resumed for about an hour
mo gas masks were available in
Pittsburgh" commented Senator La
Toilette.
Mr.. Beutel said that the banks in
Pittsburgh usually put a tear bomb
in bag of money so that it will
explode If it is not properly opened.
Payment by the Ware people, he
said, continued at headquarters until
Thursday evening and was then
transferred to the office of an alder
man and he understood was con-
tinued during the next week.
The scene at the Ware headquarters
while they were paying off the watch
ers, Mr.. Beutel said, was like run
on a bank"
Scarcely less amazing was the
description given by T. Henry Wal
nut, chairman of the Pinchot Phila-
delphia committee, of the conduct of
elections in Philadelphia. Mr.. Walnut
told how ballot boxes We're opened
after a municipal court judge election
last year in Philadelphia and it was
found that the votes varied by a
hundred to each division from the re-
turns given out by the election Of
flcials. He estimated that easily 50,-
90 votes might be changed by ma
nipulation in the Philadelphia election
II it is necessary.
Acquitted of Frauds.
Were election officials in these
wards where the ballot boxes were
opened in that election prcsecuted?"
asked Senator Reed.
"Yes"
What happened to them?''
'"They were acquitted" replied Mr..
Walnut.
Senator Reed wanted to know if
like conditions had obtained in the
recent primaries in Philadelphia.
"All l say is that conditions like
that obtain generally in elections in
Philadelphia, replied Mr. Walnut.
Has any one asked to have the
ballot boxes opened since the sena-
torial primaries?" asked Senator
mo-" said Mr.. Walnut. THE re-
suit apparently was so unsatisfactory
that every one has quit"
isn't it a fact" asked Senator
Reed, that since the election peace
has been made by the VarePepper
organizations"
II will answer that this way" said
the witness. ''If Harry Baker gets
the Ware votes today in the election
for State chairman in Philadelphia I
would say that they had not made
peace. but if w. L. Mellon gets the
Ware votes for chairman of the State
committee they have made peace"
Why No One Contested.
THAT would account for no one
bringing a contest, wouldn't it?" ask
ed Senator Reed.
"Yes, I think 1T would"
During the hearing today. Col.
Smith w. Brookhart, who last Mon
day defeated Senator Cummins for
the Republican senatorial nomination
In Iowa, entered the committee room.
The proceedings were temporarily
suspended while Col. Brookhart shook
hands with Senator Reed, the chair
man of the committee: Senator La
Toilette ard Senator King Of Utah, the
other members present. Senator King
Iaughingly remarked, 1--WE are going
to investigate you next" Col. Brook
hart said he was entirely at the COM
mittee's disposal.
He said that no effort had been
made to raise funds in the city Of
Philadelphia and explained that the
P.nchot people felt they had money
enough with proper regard to what
should be expended in an election.
Mr.. Walnut testified that he knew
there had been 400 watchers at the
polls paid by the Pinchot people In
Philadelphia. Other watchers. he said,
had probably been paid through ward
or division leaders, but he believed the
maximum number would not run over