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HEARINGS

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES IN THE

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ON

HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 103

TO INVESTIGATE THE EXPENDITURES IN THE
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

JUNE 28, 1911

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.

[Committee room No. 286, House Office Building. Telephone, 583. Meets on call of

chairman.]

JACK BEALL, Chairman.

JAMES C. CANTRILL, Kentucky. WILLIAM F. MURRAY, Massachusetts. SAMUEL A. WITHERSPOON, Mississippi.

II

ELBERT A. HUBBARD, Iowa.
PAUL HOWLAND, Ohio.
STEPHEN G. PORTER, Pennsylvania.

JON. E. HOLLINGSWORTH, Clerk.

EXPENDITURES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.

THE COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES

IN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,

Wednesday, June 28, 1911.

The committee this day met, Hon. Jack Beall (chairman) presiding.

STATEMENT OF MR. EDWARD STANWOOD.

(The witness was duly sworn by the chairman.)

The CHAIRMAN. Where do you live?

Mr. STANWOOD. In Boston. To be accurate, Brookline, Mass. The CHAIRMAN. How long have you been a resident of Massachusetts?

Mr. STANWOOD. Since 1867.

The CHAIRMAN. What line of business are you engaged in chiefly? Mr. STANWOOD. My work is editorial. I am the managing editor of the Youth's Companion. I would like to say that the Youth's Companion is a totally nonpolitical affair and I think if you are going to print this record I would just as leave you would not put that in. Of course, if you insist on it, you can. I think it would be a little better not to do so.

The CHAIRMAN. I think everybody understands that the Youth's Companion is a nonpolitical publication.

Mr. STANWOOD. If the answer were that I was in the editorial business chiefly, would not that be sufficient?

The CHAIRMAN. When you come to revise your testimony you may eliminate that if you think it advisable.

What other business connections have you?

Mr. STANWOOD. I am the secretary of the Arkwright Club.

The CHAIRMAN. How long have you been secretary of that club? Mr. STANWOOD. Since 1891.

The CHAIRMAN. Since 1891 ?

Mr. STANWOOD. Yes, sir; 20 years.

The CHAIRMAN. How long has that club been organized?

Mr. STANWOOD. It was organized in 1880.

The CHAIRMAN. What character of organization is it, what kind of a club?

Mr. STANWOOD. I had a conversation with you beforehand, and if the committee will allow me, perhaps I can just answer the question by going into that a little in detail.

The CHAIRMAN. You may go into that as fully as you desire. Mr. STANWOOD. If you wish, rather than have me answer the questions.

The CHAIRMAN. I think the committee would like to have you make such a general statement as you desire and then we will interrogate you.

Mr. STANWOOD. The Arkwright Club consists chiefly of the treasurers of cotton mills, with a considerable sprinkling of treasurers of woolen mills and some machinery men. The qualification is limited to treasurers or managers of mills. The membership is personal; that is to say, if a man ceases to be a treasurer of a mill, he ceases to be a member of the club automatically, but the membership actually is a membership of the mills, if you see what I mean. That is to say, the funds of the club are contributed by the corporations, but the membership is personal, and when one treasurer ceases to be a treasurer he ceases to be a member and his successor has to be regularly elected to membership.

The club is a social organization and also a business organization. Its meetings are held monthly at Young's Hotel, in Boston, and the proceedings are simply that the members have a luncheon, rather an elaborate luncheon, and after the luncheon they discuss matters that are connected with the question of the textile industry. They also have committees for various purposes. The club has various activities. The chief activity, I think I might say, is one which is known as our commercial and transportation agency, which is rather a double thing. It has two functions, one is to watch and regulate as far as possible by consultation with transportation officers the rate of freight on goods and on cotton, to look after any irregularities there are of that sort, and I might say that through this agency some years. ago they succeeded in making a very important reduction in the rates of freight on cotton goods from mill points to New York. That is the transportation agency. The commercial agency is a cotton claim agency; that is to say, if a treasurer buys 100 or 500 bales of cotton and only a part of that cotton is received, some of it goes astray, the moment that that invoice is short, the treasurer notifies our commercial agency, which at once places the machinery in motion to trace that cotton and obtain it or to obtain redress. That is really the chief business.

Then, in addition to that the club has, I may say, a legislative committee for each of the States. The members of this association are almost entirely from the northern half of New England. I think we have only two members from Rhode Island and only one member from Connecticut, and he is a silk man, but the chief membership is from Fall River, New Bedford, Lowell, Lawrence, Manchester, Biddeford, Lewiston, and so on, the mill section of the northern half of New England.

We have, as I say, legislative committees which look after the labor legislation which is proposed in the different legislatures and oppose some and does not oppose other, but presents the side of the manufacturers. I may say that there seems to be some misconception about that and there is a great deal of misconception in the public mind on that subject. As I tell you, I have been secretary of the club and also treasurer for nigh 20 years. I am under oath, and I say that in all that time there has never been spent one cent of money in lobbying which was not reported according to the laws of Massachusetts to the secretary of state. There has never been one cent spent for lobbying. The members are-well, what they are, they are among the most respectable and high-minded men in New England.

Now, I suppose you wish also to know, I think that is why you wished to have me here-I think I have told enough about the gen

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