Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1904 — MACHEN ON THE STAND [ARTICLE]

MACHEN ON THE STAND

Explain* SI is Payment of Money to |«. ren* and llenimt Influence by the tiro IT*. Washington, Fob. 10.—The centra* figure in the postal trial. August W. Machcn, former superintendent of the rnral free delivery division, occupied tbe stand He said be assumed the responsibility for the acts of Miss Liebhnrdt, his chief clerk, who had initialed and signed letters from his division. He rehearsed the oil transaction which has figured so conspicuously in the trial, and said that the 925,000 received from l.oronz in payment of tbe Machcn interest in the old property was a bona fide sale. Tbe Gross fastener, be said, had been called to the attention of the department before he received bis appointment He denied emphatically that op to the time Ixirenz. in August 1895, spoke of having an interest in the d**vlee, he had any suspicion of the fact, and was equally emphatic in saying that neither lxirenz nor the Groffs ever influenced his action either in placing the first order for the fasteners or in any subsequent orders.