Evening star., 1926-05-19
Former Commissioner Denies
President Compelled or
Tempted Him to Resign.
RAPS SENATOR NORRIS
FOR USING HIS PAPERS
Post in Rumania Accepted Because
Position Here Was Intolerable,
Committee Is Told.
BY the Associated Press.

ny the AssOclate0 Press.
Summoned from Rumania. where
he is American Minister, William 6
Culbertson, former tariff commits
sioner, today told the special Senate
tariff investigating committee that
he resigned from the commission be
cause his position had become intol-
cradle and not because he was either
forced off or tempted off.
He defended President Coolidge in
his relations with the Tariff Commits
sion and criticized Senator Norris.
Republican. Nebraska, who brought
about the investigation with a serief
of speeches in the Senate, and Com
missioner Costigan for using his pri-
Vate papers without his consent.
These papers. he declared. weV
purely private and We're never in
tended TO be anything else.
Norris Charges Denied.
Emphatically denying Senator
Norris charges that efforts We're
made at the White House to coerce
him into changing his stand on the
sugar case, he asserted that the
President never so much as inti-
mated that / change my position IN
the sugar case, and l never did
change it."
The President always respected
my view; OF course, l respected his.
he continued. HE never tried To
urge me unduly nor was he at any
time a party to the efforts which
We're made by disappointed apph-
cants and lobbyists to frighten me
into a more tractable position on the
! Tariff Commission.
so far as | was ever aware, my
personal relation with the President
continued as friendly after the Incl
dent concerning the sugar case as II
was before. His attitude led me To
believe that he viewed the sugar in
| cident as / did-namely, as an honest
| difference of opinion on what would
| promote the public interest.
Liked Coolidge Foreign Policy.
while 1 disagreed at times with
| the President on tariff and Tariff
! Commission matters, l agreed with
| his foreign policy, and 1 was glad to
accept under him the post of Minister
/ to Rumania. l resigned from the
| Tariff Commission. therefore, not be
| cause | was forced off, not because
l was tempted off, but because l
wanted to leave. To stay on the
| Tariff Commission was worse than
| futile, it was to continue to lend my
name as a sanction TO a situation
which for me had become intolerable.
| Declaring he had not furnished Sen
| ator Norris with the material on
| which he addressed the Senate, Mr..
| Culbertson said he first knew of the
! Senator's speech when he read it in
| the Congressional Record after it had
| GL@% L, 4
| not know of the use of his papers as
| testimony by Mr.. Costigan until he
reached the United States May Z.
II was never informed, directly or
| indirectly, that any one desired or in
| tended to publish my papers," he add
| ed. when / went abroad I did not
leave with my friends records to be
used to justify my conduct while a
member of the Tariff Commission.
Regarded Talk as Private.
MY personal conversations with
my colleagues were never regarded by
me as official communications for pub
lie use. | have no doubt that they
thought they were acting in the pub
lie interest. l am obliged, however, to
say that 1 gave them no permission
to produce my papers,
Deploring any tendency to increase
or decrease the tariff by politics, he
said Congress unfortunately had left
the elastic tariff section open to more
than one Interpretation. and if 1t did
not wish to make the law more def
mite 1t should abolish the commission
Il believe the Constitution requires
in the administration of the elastic
tariff section a judicial procedure, a
scientific finding of the facts and a
decision upon the public record" he
asserted.