Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-22
Bethlehem ShipbuiIding Cor
poration officials Action
Seemed 'UnWise' by SchWab.
HEARING is EXPECTED
TO RUN INTO NEXT WEEK
Heads of Other Companies, Navy
Officers and Newspaper Men
May Give Testimony.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation,
will be called upon tomorrow morning
to tell the Senate investigating commit
tee why he agreed to employment of
William B. Shearer to represent his
company at the Geneva naval 'limita-
ton conference.
Charles M. Schwab, president of the
board Of the Bethlehem Steel Corpo-
ration, an $800,0O0,000 concern, and
z. g. Grace, president of the. Bethlehem
Ehipbuilding Corporation, owned by the
steel corporation, f1guratively washed
their hands of Mr.. Shearer and his
employment at the Geneva conference
at yesterdays hearing before the Senate
committee. Wakeman, they said, was
the man who authorized the participa-
ton of their interests in the employ
ment of Shearer. Such employment,
they testified, was in opposition to long
standing policies of the Bethlehem cor
porations.
Shearer Received $25,0O0.
More in sorrow than in anger, ap-
parently, they referred in their testi-
mony to the error which Mr.. Wakemar
made in going into a pool with two
other shipbuilding companies, the New
York Shipbuilding Co. and the Newport
News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Cor
poration, to pay Shearer $25,000 for
representing them at the Geneva limi-
tation conference
"Unwise" was the word Mr.. Schwab
and Mr.. Grace both agreed best charac-
terized the decision of Mr.. Wakeman
to 60 into this agreement for the en-
ployment of Shearer. They insisted
Wakeman had agreed to the employ
ment of the much-advertiSed big-navy
lobbyist so that he might obtain
technical information from the con-
ference. which the newspapers would
miss, and that Shearer was to go to
Geneva merely as an observer and re-
porter.
Tomorrow morning at $50 o'clock.
however, Mr.. Wakeman will be called
upon to tell his own story of the enl-
ployment of Shearer. He also will be
asked why he did not inform his
superiors, Mr.. Schwab and Mr.. Grace,
chow come" he agreed to pay one-thiFd
Of $4,000 to Mr.. Shearer.
will Call Other Officials.
After the committee hears Wakeman
It plans to put on the stand two ofl-
cials of the Newport News Shipbuild-
ing & Dry Dock Corporation, Homer
L. Ferguson, president and general
manager, and Frederick P. Palen, vice
president. According to testimony
given by Clinton L. Bardo, president of
the New York Shipbuilding Co., at Fri
days hearing, Palen suggested that
Shearer be paid $4,000 at the meeting
in New York when Shearer's employ
ment was agreed upon.
Investigation of charges that Shearer
was employed by the three shipbuilding
- I1t@I fvaef f1Nn
of the three-poWer naval limitation
conference in Geneva promises to run
for the entire coming week and beyond
that The committee, after hearing off,
cials of the shipbuilding companies in
volved, is expected to place Oil the
stand the naval officers who attended
the conference as advisers of the dele
gate of the United States to the con-
ference, Hugh Gibson, Ambassador to
Belgium.
Among these will be Rear Admiral
Hilary P. Jones. U. S. N. retired. Mr..
Gibson, If he were in this country
would be called. After hearing the
naval officers, it Is expected that some
of the American newspaper men who
attended the conference, will be asked
to testify as to Shearer's activities at
Geneva.
The committee plans to give Shearer
q full hearing before the inquiry is
closed. He may not take the stand
until the beginning of next week. One
purpose of the committee m its pro-
cedure. 1t Is rumored, has been to pre-
clude the possibility of Mr.. Shearer's
taking the stand and making himself
out martyr to the cause of naval pre-
paredness. The committee has insisted
that 1t intends to get at all the facts
in the case; that there shall be no
"whitewash" applied to any one, and
that it will show up a conspiracy, II
there was one. to defeat the United
States Government in its efforts for
an international agreement on naval
limitation.
Hunter Faces Questioning.
A witness whom the committee plans
to call is Henry C. Hunter, attorney for
Eastern shipbuilding concerns. 1t was
Mr.. Hunter. according to the testimony
so far given, who brought the repre-
sentative of the three companies to-
gether in New York to meet Shearer
and to employ him. 1t was Mr.. Hunter,
too, who wrote to Shearer under date
of December II, 1927, discontinuing the
employment of Shearer by the COM
panies. In that letter, Mr.. Hunter said:
I'VE have not fully completed our
commitments to you and you in turn
have carried out the obligation you as
sumed toward u.s."
The committee apparently is anxious
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