Evening star., 1926-06-03
PEYSER DEMANDS
CLEANUP OF DC.
Charges of MisruIe Serve to
! EnIiven Proceedings at
Fenning Hearing.

Charges that the District govern
ntent needs a thorough houseclea ming
that out Of the $71 900 worth of Dis.
trict government contracts last year
with the Rudolph g. West Co. $50, 900
was awarded without competition, and
that Commissi oner Fenning. while
wearing the uniform of an officer In
the United States Army during the
war. displayed brutality" toward two
women, served. among other things.
to enliven the hearing by the Gibson
subcommittee OF the House District
committee, which continued its In
vestigation of municipal administra-
tion in the caucus room of the House
Office. Building last night.
Capt. Julius |. Peyser. formerly a
member Of the Washington Board Of
Education and now departmental
comma nder of the American Legion,
urged :. cleanup Of the municipal ad-
ministration. He declared that the
big Ave" previously mentioned and
identified at the hearings, dominate
city affairs. He reviewed his fght
for reform in the School Board, ties.
tifying he was ordered to vote for
former Representative James r..
Lloyd If he expected to hold his job.
and charged that some OF his support
ers on the board had been "bribed"
by appointment "plums" being given
to their relatives.
Rudolph & West Contracts.
There was put into the record a re-
port from a Baltimore Arm of auditors
indicating that out OF the $71 200
worth Of hardware business in one
year done with the District govern
ment by the firm of Rudolph & West,
in which Commissioner Rudolph holds
onethird of the stock. $4,000 was
awarded without competition. Repre-
sentative Gilbert quoted a statute to
show that all contracts made by tbs
Commissioners in which one Commis-
sioner in interested shall be void.
An affidavit by DIR. Herman Schoen-
field, former consul at Riga. ana now
a professor at George Washington
University, was laid before the Glib
son subcommittee. This reviewed ex.
periences his wife and daughter had
with MIR. Fenning. Virtually the same
story was related to the House Ju-
dietary committee.
M O. Eldridge. director Of ira af1c,
supported testimony previously given
to the committee by Sergt. Milton ID.
Smith OF the traf1c squad that the
district attorneys Office is not coop
Grating in traffic cases, Director
Eldffdge said he was very sorry" to
say this Is fact.
John o. Savage. for eight months
patient in ST. Elizabeth's Hospital,
having been sent there from Fed
eral penitentiary, where he was serv-
ing a sentence for fraud, and who was
in bringing about grand
jury investigation of conditions in st.
EliZabeth's following the alleged muir
der by guards Of William Green. an
inmate. testified at length last night.
He mentioned Frank Lewis. a patient,
as having been knocked down and
severely beaten. Lewis died six
months later from those injuries, Saw
age claimed. The death certificate
said he died from paralysis and pneu-
monia. Savage also mentioned the
case of another patient. Richard
Speaks. in May. 1925. who. he said,
was beaten so severely that he died
ths next day, and the death certificate
gave as the cause, 'paresis. duration
three months"
According to Savages testimony,
Frank M. Finotti. for many years
chief clerk at ST. Elizabeth's. had
taken out license as an undertaken
and it was the understa nding" that
he handle such deaths as the hospital
authorities did not wish to have in
vestigated.