Evening star., 1935-07-19
Associated Gas & Electric
Co. Attorney Tells Senate
Group Consumer Will Set.
tie $500, 900 Bill.
MIDNIGHT CONFERENCE
OF WITNESSES REVEALED
Firm Manager Says He Ordered
Destruction of Evidence on
Own Responsibility-Admits
Action Anticipated Inquirv
Into Holding Bill Battle.
BULLETIN.


The Senate Lobby Committee ad-
journed this afternoon. subject IN
call of Chairman Black. after one
Of its members-Senator Gibson.
Republican. of Vermont-charged
that the Associated Gas g. Elec-
trio Co. had paid no dividends To
common stockholders for years. yet
had taken the good part of a
years dividend" to spend 100000
in an effort TO defeat the utilities
holding company bill.
BY the Associated Press.
Testimony that the ultimate con-.
sumner will have to pay the cost OF
the power company campaign against
the utility bill was given the Senste
Lobby Committee today b. William
A. Hill of Boston. an attorney for the
Associated Gas & Electric Co.
The committee also heard testi-
N. Y, securities manager for ASso-
ciated. that he instructed COMPANY
managers all over the country las
week to destroy" all their record
bearing on opposition to the legisa
ton.
Conference Described.
Details of a midnight conferenr
in a Washington hotel. at which Wit
nesses subpoenaed in the Senate Il
vestigation were said to have d.
o,,eSad u,haF inform, q tioy, fhay v-olrt
give. were received earlier today.
Beach, a middle aged. bespectacle
man in brown suit. said he ordered th
destruction on his own" respons
bility, although he had discussed i
with o. E. WaSser, A, G. E.. controllC
at Ithaca
81 told him" Beach said. "that
had told my managers it was OK. I,
get rid Of their records because. a
far as l could see. We we're througl
with working on it (the utility bilD.'
This was after the Senate investiga
ton had been ordered.
Didn't Wasser instruct you to orde:
the destruction" Chairman Black
asked.
No. He didn't say yes and didn't
say no when I discussed it with him"
A sharp conflict developed in the
stories of the midnight hotel confer
ence told by two witnesses, but botn
agreed attorneys told them to tell
the truth"
E. W. OBrien of Erie. Pa. declared
Attorney Hill read in detail at the
Wardman Park Hotel here Wednesday
night the evidence given at the first
days hearing before the Lobby Com
mittee.
1t told of the burning at Warren.
Pa. records of hundreds of kilograms
sent to Representative Driscoll. Dem
ocrat. of Pennsylvania. urging defeat
of the public utility holding company
bill.
Flatly contradictory evidence was
given by r. p. Heron. Warren bond
salesman. who had testified to using
city directory to get names for the
kilograms.
He denied Hill had read the testi-
mony to him or had discussed the
case at all.
Il was tired" ne said, land went
to bed"
Hill then was called to the stand.
He said those present were O'Brien.
G. K Munsen. Washington attorney.
and George Smith. another attorney.
He said Heron came in and out.
Package Of Testimony.
He added Smith had done some
work for A. G. E. and Smith evi-
IDENTIFY had brought package of COM
mittee testimony for him.
He said he read over part Of the
record while O'Brien and others were
in and out of the room.
At the outset of today's hearing,
O'Brien said he had discussed replace
ment of the burned kilograms with L.
S. Shew, Western Union manager at
Erie. after Shew told him the tele-
grams were missing and Represent
ative Driscoll had complained many
purported signers of the messages had
asserted they did not authorize them.
''I said it was possible to get relay
tSee LOBBY, Page So