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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

AUGUST 14, 1911

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. [Committee room 286, House Office Building. Telephone, 583. Meets on call of chairman.]

JACK BEALL, Texas, Chairman.

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

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

JNO. E. HOLLINGSWORTH, Clerk.

EXPENDITURES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE.

COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES

IN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
Monday, August 14, 1911.

The committee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Jack Beall (chairman) presiding.

There were present also the following members of the committee: Messrs. Murray, Hubbard, Witherspoon, and Howland.

There appeared before the committee Mr. Oberlin M. Carter, John B. Daish, Esq., and John C. Howard, Esq.

TESTIMONY OF OBERLIN M. CARTER.

(The witness was sworn by the chairman.)

The CHAIRMAN. Where do you reside?

Mr. CARTER. Boise, Idaho.

The CHAIRMAN. What is your profession?
Mr. CARTER. I am a civil engineer.

The CHAIRMAN. Were you ever connected with the Government service?

Mr. CARTER. I was an officer in the United States Engineers. The CHAIRMAN. Capt. Carter, this is a committee to examine expenditures in the Department of Justice. Of course, our jurisdiction is limited to matters pertaining to expenditures in the Department of Justice. You have asked the privilege of appearing before the committee, and, after consultation with a number of the members, they all expressed perfect willingness to have you appear and to give such testimony as you think is proper and such testimony as is within the limitations of the powers of this committee. We will be glad to have you proceed in your own way and give such facts as are within your knowledge in connection with the litigation that has been pending between the United States Government and yourself, and Greene, and Gaynor, and with which Mr. Erwin was connected as Assistant Attorney General, and Mr. Johnson was connected as special counsel on the part of the Government.

Mr. CARTER. I think, before stating what I have to say, I would like to make this remark, that there was a time when I felt very bitterly, and when it would have been difficult for me to have expressed myself temperately or calmly; but I have passed through all that, and I do not think there exists in my heart any bitterness what

ever, or any desire to have those who treated me so hardly suffer on account of that; but my sole object is to bring out the truth, and that I would like to see done here, because the committee will appreciate that an individual is sometimes powerless to bring out the truth, when a coordinate branch of the Government is not powerless to do it.

This matter came into the hands of the Department of Justice in the following way: As a reward for work that I had done in Georgia the President appointed me a member of the Nicaragua Canal Commission, and military attaché to the Court of St. James, and I was succeeded at Savannah by an officer of the Corps of Engineers who developed bitter personal enmity toward me, and who, during my absence in Europe, caused charges to be preferred against me, and when I returned I found these charges in existence, and I was tried by a military court for having caused the United States to be defrauded.

The CHAIRMAN. Right there, in order that there might be an understanding by anyone who reads the record, will you give just a brief statement of the capacity in which you served at Savannah, and the matter over which the trouble came up?

Mr. CARTER. Yes, sir. I originally served at Savannah in 1884 as an assistant to Gen. Quincy A. Gilmore, one of the most distinguished officers of the Corps of Engineers. I graduated from West Point in 1880, and, after serving two years at the School of Application at Willets Point, I then served on the staff of Gen. Pope, at Fort Leavenworth for two years, and then came to Savannah as Gen. Gilmore's assistant. My duties there were in connection with the improvement of the harbors on the coast of Georgia and northern Florida, and in connection with the fortifications along the coast, extending over about 200 miles of coast, and the fortifications extending all the way to New York City. Gen. Gilmore being in ill health, I soon took practically charge of all the work that he had down there, in conjunction with another officer of the Corps of Engineers, Capt. Abbott, who had half of the district, and I had the other half. He had the South Carolina half and I had the Georgia half.

When Gen. Gilmore died in 1888 I was placed in charge of that district, although I was only a first lieutenant of engineers, and in 1890 I was promoted to be a captain of engineers.

The problem down there was to improve those sandy harbors permanently. Up to that time I may say that the money that was expended one year was practically wiped out the next by the sand filling in as fast as it was dredged out, and my idea was to make a permanent improvement. The only way I could make permanent improvements was by means of brush structures, because if we used other structures they would sink down in the sandy bottom, so that the cost would have been prohibitive. Finally I succeeded in doing this work in a manner which was satisfactory, and then I let a contract, which was approved by the Chief of Engineers, Gen. Craighill, of the Army, for giving 26 feet of water in the harbor of Savannah, and I let a number of other contracts in other places. We used there brush mattresses and brush fascines, the brush mattresses being simply rafts of artificial logs made out of brush, which were called fascines, and those were sunk by broken stone being thrown on them; and after I had been at work for a little while I found that the load

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