Mr. DUNN. What time was that-since the department has been in the classified service?

Mr. SEAY. Yes, sir.

Mr. DUNN. What time of the year was it?

Mr. SEAY. It was in the summer of 1896.

TESTIMONY OF W. E. MULLINS.

W. E. MULLINS, being duly sworn, testified as follows:

Mr. DUNN. What is your business?

Mr. MULLINS. I am a butcher.

Mr. DUNN. In what department?

Mr. MULLINS. In the packing house; canning department.
Mr. DUNN. What position do you there occupy?

Mr. MULLINS. I have charge of the butchering.

Mr. DUNN. Do any of the employees of the Government in the Department of Animal Industry at South Omaha work in the same department?

Mr. MULLINS. Several of them.

Mr. DUNN. Do you know any of the persons who were working there during the years 1895 and 1896?

Mr. MULLINS. A few of them.

Mr. DUNN. Just state who they were, as you now remember.
Mr. MULLINS. Dr. Blackwell, George Guy, Mr. Murphy.

Mr. DUNN. Who is James Murphy; this gentleman [indicating] Mr. MULLINS. Yes, sir. James Murphy, Jim Kunes, Mr. Sherlock; I think there are two or three others whom I do not now remember. Mr. DUNN. Were you in a position during the time that the gentlemen referred to worked there to observe to any extent how they performed the duties of their offices; whether or not they neglected to perform their work?

Mr. MULLINS. Yes, sir; I was.

Mr. DUNN. I will ask you with reference to Mr. James Murphy. What was your observation regarding him so far as he performed the duties of his position?

Mr. MULLINS. I counted him an expert at the business.

Mr. DUNN. Did he seem to understand the business and to go ahead and attend to it properly?

Mr. MULLINS. Yes, sir.

Mr. DUNN. Do you know any time during his employment when he in any way neglected or failed to perform the duties of his position? Mr. MULLINS. I do not recollect any.

Mr. DUNN. The work there requires a man of activity and some judg ment, does it not?

Mr. MULLINS. Yes, sir.

Mr. DUNN. And during the entire time he worked in the department where you are he was on hand whenever there was any work to do?

Mr. MULLINS. Yes, sir; I can recollect no case when he was away. Mr. DUNN. You would say from your observation that he was a firstclass man and that he performed the duties properly throughout? Mr. MULLINS. Yes, sir; he was counted an expert.

Mr. DUNN. Did you ever talk with or hear any statement made by Dr. Schirmer or Dr. Blackwell or any other person there in charge regarding the work of Mr. Murphy?

Mr. MULLINS. No; I never did.

Mr. DUNN. Did you ever hear any complaints made in regard to his work?

Mr. MULLINS. No, sir; I never did.

Mr. DUNN. Is that work entirely disconnected from the work of the employees in the packing house; that is, if things are not done there but are neglected, would it be any part of the business of yourself or anybody connected with the packing house to make any complaint, say, to Dr. Blackwell?

Mr. MULLINS. Yes, sir; it is my duty to see it is done right.

Mr. DUNN. You have never had any occasion to make any complaint in regard to Mr. Murphy?

Mr. MULLINS. No, sir.

Mr. DUNN. How about Mr. Guy?

Mr. MULLINS. He was not in my department; he was in the hog department.

TESTIMONY OF ABSALOM WAGONER.

ABSALOM WAGONER, being duly sworn, testified as follows:

Mr. DUNN. What is your business?

Mr. WAGONER. I am in the live stock commission business.

Mr. DUNN. How long have you been engaged in that business in South Omaha?

Mr. WAGONER. About eleven years.

Mr. DUNN. Are you acquainted with Mr. Beal?

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir.

Mr. DUNN. Are you acquainted with the other men at South Omaha engaged in the Government service in the inspection of stock?

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir; I am acquainted with several of them. Mr. DUNN. Do you belong to the South Omaha Live Stock Commission Exchange, or whatever the name of the organization is?

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir; the exchange.

Mr. DUNN. Do you know Mr. Don C. Ayer, the doctor in charge of the Bureau of Animal Industry at South Omaha?

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir.

Mr. DUNN. Did you have an opportunity to judge of the efficiency of Mr. Beal and other employees of the Government in their different departments during the last two or three years?

Mr. WAGONER. I know Mr. Beal personally and his service and work there in that capacity.

Mr. DUNN. What do you say as to his competency?

Mr. WAGONER. I considered him one of the best and most competent men in the service.

Mr. DUNN. Were you in a position to know from day to day whether or not he performed his duties properly, or whether he neglected them? Mr. WAGONER. To the best of my knowledge, he was prompt and on the ground all the time, and was always attending to his duties.

Mr. DUNN. What, if anything, do you know about Mr. Don C. Ayer, the doctor in charge, as to his mode and manner of running the department, and his treatment of the employees and of the public? Mr. WAGONER. Personally, I do not know anything. I only know what I have heard.

Mr. DUNN. State whether or not the Live Stock Exchange at South Omaha interested themselves to any extent in the matter of the inspection of stock by the Government.

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir; they took that matter up, and had it in band, I suppose, eight or ten months or more; probably a year.

Mr. DUNN. Did they finally take any definite action by way of expressing the result of their investigation?

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir; I think they did.

Mr. DUNN. In what form?

Mr. WAGONER. In the way of a set of resolutions which were passed by the exchange.

Mr. DUNN. Can you state in a general way what those resolutions were?

Mr. WAGONER. I was present when the resolutions were read. I was not on the committee on resolutions. I do not know that I can particularly remember what they were, any more than that they condemned the course of Don C. Ayer.

Mr. DUNN. For what?

Mr. WAGONER. For the course he had pursued in regard to certain men; that he had misrated men there who were thought by the Exchange to be very competent and good men for the positions. He had rated them at 50 per cent, while men who were incompetent had been given as high as 100.

Mr. DUNN. Can you name any of the men to whom you refer?

Mr. WAGONER. Mr. Henry Beal was one who, as I personally know, was taken up by the exchange. His case was particularly taken up and noticed in regard to that matter, as he had been very prominent in the business from the day of the organization of the hog inspection, etc. The commission men all knew him and had known him for several years before. He was a butcher. We knew him and we had all sold him lots of cattle and hogs for years before, and we all knew him and believed him to be perfectly competent and a good man, and we thought it very strange when his rating was 50 per cent and others in our judg ment not so competent were rated at 100. I will speak of another case, that of George Guy.

Mr. DUNN. George Guy was rated at 50?

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir; that is my understanding.

Mr. DUNN. You have known George Guy for some time?

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir.

Mr. DUNN. What do you know as to his competency to perform the duties of his position?

Mr. WAGONER. I never heard a word said against him by anybody who was in charge of the business or anyone who worked by the side of him or in the same house where he worked.

Mr. DUNN. And the commission men. All of the commission men, or a good many of them, in dealing in stock come in contact more or less with the inspectors there?

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir.

Mr. DUNN. You have an opportunity to judge fairly well?

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir; it is a matter we are interested in and with which the live-stock commission men of the country have a great deal to do with, from the organization of the service in the first place almost, you might say.

Mr. DUNN. From your observation you would say that George Guy was a competent and careful man?

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir; I would.

Mr. DUNN. How ought he to have been rated?

Mr. WAGONER. As high as any average man in the line, I should say. Mr. DUNN. The only way to determine the value of a stock inspector

in the Government service is by his competency to judge of the differ ent grades of cattle or hogs, whatever he may be inspecting, to deter mine whether they are diseased or unfit for use.

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir.

Mr. DUNN. A man who has had experience in buying cattle or hogs in the butcher business would be more competent than a man who had not had such experience.

Mr. WAGONER. That is our judgment.

Mr. DUNN. A man who had been a farmer for a great many years might be a great deal more competent than a man who had been raised in the city.

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir; I think so.

Mr. DUNN. It was on that basis that the live-stock merchants based their opinion, and upon that basis they acted.

Mr. WAGONER. Yes, sir.

Mr. DUNN. Do you know whether or not Dr. Don C. Ayer has followed any vocation during the time he has been chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry at South Omaha?

Mr. WAGONER. Not to my personal knowledge. I have heard of cases where he did, but I do not know it personally.

TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH BUTLER.

JOSEPH BUTLER, being duly sworn, testified as follows:

Mr. DUNN. You were for some time in the employ of the Bureau of Animal Industry at South Omaha, Nebr.?

Mr. BUTLER. Yes, sir.

Mr. DUNN. What time did you begin work there?

Mr. BUTLER. On the 1st of June, 1893.

Mr. DUNN. When did you quit?

Mr. BUTLER. The 4th of last September.

Mr. DUNN. Do you remember an occurrence, namely, the meeting of the county central committee of the Democratic party of Douglas County, on the 11th day of April, 1896, in the city of Omaha?

Mr. BUTLER. I do not know whether that is the date. I remember the meeting where we selected delegates to go to the State convention. Mr. DUNN. You were at that time in the employ of the bureau as a tagger?

Mr. BUTLER. I was.

Mr. DUNN. You had prior to that time been associated politically to some extent with Mr. Martin and Mr. Sheean and Mr. McHugh in what was termed the gold bug or Cleveland wing of the Democratic party in this county?

Mr. BUTLER. I had.

Mr. DUNN. You were looked upon as an available man to help the cause in any contest that might come up?

Mr. BUTLER. I could not say that.

Mr. DUNN. You were called upon to do work at different times!
Mr. BUTLER. I was.

Mr. DUNN. On the 11th day of April, 1896, did you attend the county central committee meeting?

Mr. BUTLER. I attended the meeting, whatever was the date.
Mr. DUNN. At whose request did you attend it.

Mr. BUTLER. Mr. Sheean's.

Mr. DUNN. Did Mr. Sheean speak to you personally about it?

Mr. BUTLER. No; he wrote me a letter.

Mr. DUNN. Were you a central committeeman at that time?
Mr. BUTLER. I was.

Mr. DUNN. What time that day did you quit the department at South Omaha?

Mr. BUTLER. I should judge probably about 1 o'clock; perhaps a little earlier or a little later.

Mr. DUNN. Was your work all performed at that time?

Mr. BUTLER. It was not.

Mr. DUNN. Whose permission did you receive to quit work? Mr. BUTLER. Dr. Schirmer's. Mr. Zeller at that time was working with me, and we were figuring on getting off. Mr. Zeller went out at dinner time to get shaved, and when he came back he told me that he had met Mr. Ayer and that he and I were to be off for the meeting that afternoon. On the strength of that we went up there.

Mr. DUNN. Mr. Zeller told you that Dr. Ayer had told him

Mr. BUTLER. That we should be off for the meeting.

Mr. DUNN. You went up?

Mr. BUTLER. We made that report to Dr. Schirmer and he said all right; we were excused. We went to the office and met Dr. Ayer and Mr. Conoyer, I believe.

Mr. DUNN. What office?

Mr. BUTLER. The head office, over the Packers' National Bank.

Mr. DUNN. Did you in any way say to Dr. Ayer or was the information conveyed to him at that time that you had quit work and were on your way to Omaha?

Mr. BUTLER. I should judge he understood it, because he asked us how much work we had to perform, and I said I thought they would be done killing at 3 o'clock, and he said he had sent Mr. Murphy and Mr. Kunes from the Swift house to perform what work we had not finished. Mr. DUNN. You were working in what house?

Mr. BUTLER. In the Hammond house, under Dr. Schirmer.

Mr. DUNN. Do you know whether somebody was sent over to that house to perform your work?

Mr. BUTLER. I think, if I remember correctly, that Mr. Murphy told me the next day or the following day—I think this was Saturday-on Monday he told me he sent him over, but they got through killing quicker than they expected. I do not know whether he performed any duty or not, but he went over there.

Mr. DUNN. Do you know who was sent over to perform the work of Mr. Sherlock and Mr. Zeller?

Mr. BUTLER. I think Mr. Murphy and Mr. Kunes were sent to our house. Mr. Sherlock was working with Mr. Murphy at Swift's house; I think he was, at least.

Mr. DUNN. During the campaign were you at any time by any person requested to do any political work?

Mr. BUTLER. I was.

Mr. DUNN. By whom?

Mr. BUTLER. By Mr. Martin.

Mr. DUNN. How and from whom did you receive the request?

Mr. BUTLER. Through a letter from him.

Mr. DUNN. In whose care was the letter directed?

Mr. BUTLER. It was sent to me at the Bureau of Animal Industry, South Omaha.

Mr. DUNN. And naturally delivered to the office of Dr. Don C. Ayer? Mr. BUTLER. Yes, sir.