Evening star., 1926-05-21
Declines to Object to Any Evil
Gence Despite Jurisdic-
ton Claim.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
QUERY PROSECUTOR
Representative Seeks to Prove Of
fetal Guilty of Barratry
in Practice.

Representative BlantOn today con
tinued TO place before the. House judi
riary committee documents in the
form of letters. court vouchers ami
recorded testimony in support of the
impea Chment charges he brought
against Commissioner Frederick y.
Fenning. The second days session
was conducted with the same dignit'
and orderly procedure that marked
yesterdays session, with the excel
ton of one or two tilts between Nj.
Blanton and Frank J. Hogan, chic
counsel for Mr. Fenning.
The committee adjourned at 1914"
O'Clock until Monday. al the request
of Mr.. Hogan, who explained he
would be out of the city this evening
and tomorrow. Chairman Dyer al
nounced that sessions would be held
all day Monday and possibly Monday
night and also stated that night meet
ings would be conducted during the
coming week. When the committee
adjourned Mr.. Blanton had not con-
pleted the presentation of his doCu
mentary evidence.
The session convened this morn
ing with the special subcommittee of
~ members, headed by Represent
tive Dyer of Missouri, in charge nf
the investigation OF the charges. Mr..
Hogan, at the outset, informed the
committee he would interpose no oh
lection TO the introduction of papers
relating to cases a number OF year
ago, but that he did want the com
mittee to have in mind that in con
sidering all such testimony he would
contend Commissioner of the Dis
trict of Columbia could not be in
peached by Congress. Such Com
missioners, he maintained, were. by
express act of Congress, made Of
ficers of the municipal corporation
known as the District of Columbia
and aside from that point, it was
! clear that an official even of the
! United States could not be impeached
! for transactions occurring before he
I took office. However, he expressed
| a willingness to have everything Mr..
Blanton wanted TO present go into
the record.
Cites Broad Powers.
Chairman Dyer informed the coun-
sci that the resolution under which
the hearings are being held is rather
broad and that the committee is not
governed strictly by rules Of evi
out he was not objeCting, but merely
calling his point to the committees
tention.
Mr.. Blanton centered his presenta-
ton of evidence today on his charges
of barratry and champerty. In this
connection. he presented volumes of
correspondence between Mr.. FenniuG
and H. P. Fellows of Boston. in the
case of Miss Endora s. Kelly. Mr.
Blanton contended that the case
which began in 1912. is still pending
His point was that Mr.. Fennire
writes to people and solicits them To
employ him as attorney" and this
| leads right up to the present" He
also sought to show by the correspond
ence that Mr.. Fenning was willing to
undertake claim for which he would
not receive anything until the claim
was paid.
These two examples. Mr.. Blanton
told the committee, constituted bar
ratry and champerty.
Interrupted by Members.
Mr. Blanton was interrupted fire.
quentIy by members of the COMMITTEES
with questions on what he was at
tempting to show. One of the most
frequent interrogators along this line
was Representative Hersey, Republi-
can, of Maine. The only decision rem
dered by the committee in its two
day session on the admissibility Of
evidence came when Mr.. Blantou
sought to read into the record extracts
of paragraphs of Mr.. Jennings pre-
pared defense statement made before
the Gibson subcommittee several
weeks ago Mr. Hogan strenuously
objected, and the matter was put To
a vote. The result was the majority
decision that all of the matter should
be read into the record.
After Mr.. Blanton had read cor
respondence in the Kelley case, begin
ming in 1912 and ending in April, 1924.
he requested Mr.. Jennings counsel to
produce three additional letters that
had been written by Fellows since
January l OF this year. Mr.. Hogan
replied if there are such letters in Mr.
Jennings files they would be produced
willingly, but as far as he knew the
last one bore the date of April, 1924.
Without making known his purpose
Mr.. Blanton switched over to a dis
cussion of the case of Adolph Adler.
a mentally incompetent veteran, for
whom Mr.. Fenning, until a few days
ago. was guardian. He read into the
record all bond premiums, notarial
fees and commissions to Mr.. Fenning
since 1920. Mr.. Hersey then asked
him what was illegal about them and
Mr.. Blanton replied that when he got
to the legal argument he would show
the relevancy. He then began the
reading of the report of Auditor Her
bert l.. Davis of the District Supreme
Court, in which Mr.. Fenning was
not allowed a commission of 10 per
cent for the final report rendered In
cident to turning over the estate to
the veterans father, who had been
appointed guardian.
Says Fenning Was Agent.
What is the purpose of that?'
asked Representative German OF II
linoiS.
ITO call to the attention of the
committee that Mr.. Fenning has
charged bond premiums when he did
not disclose to the court he was an
agent for the company and received
25 per cent on all premiums paid,
replied Mr.. Blanton. He admits
being a representative of the company
for years and has been receiving 25
per cent profit on the premiums.
Upon section S41 of the penal code,
which provides a forfeiture of com
mission when fiduciary violates his
obligations, MIR. Davis, the auditor,
based his action"
Mr.. German inquired If the court
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