was still due on the new press in addition to the $170,000 if I would sell, and I told him-well, they told me that they would give me employment at a higher salary than I had ever received. I said, "Who with" and they said, "It would be with the Hearst publications." I said, "I do not want to have anything to do with Mr. Hearst."

I asked them if Mr. Doheny had anything to do with the deal. They said "No; Mr. Doheny does not have anything to do with it." They said that Doneny was not in a position to buy anything. They said he was so hard up-well, they said, "He loaned us $250,000 when we started the Herald," and Guy Barham, since dead, was there with Dr. Frank Barham at the conversation, and he said:

He loaned us $250,000 when we started the paper, and he came to us last year and said he was so hard up he could not borrow money, and he came to us to borrow money, and we loaned it to him for 60 days, and he has had to renew it ever since.

I thought that was a good alibi at the time, and subsequently I concluded it was a blind. I had the idea that Mr. Doheny knew something about it, or was interested in the Los Angeles Herald, and that it was he who had sent the Barhams to Albuquerque to buy the paper. That was my judgment at least.

The thing drifted along for a month or two, and a man carrying credentials from the Denver Post came to me and wanted to buy the paper. I told him that I hoped still I would be able to finance myself, but that I would hold on in the fight I was in.

The CHAIRMAN. What time was this?

Mr. MAGEE. This probably was in April, possibly the middle of April. He then offered to buy a part interest in the paper, or to help finance me. And I seemed to be a little particular, because I told him I did not want to have anything to do with Tammen or Bonfils either. He told me that I was a damn fool, that they would show me how to make more money than I had ever made in my life if I would just go in.

They went away, and then about the 15th of May or a little before that, early in May, I saw that I was not going to be able to make the riffle financially, and I told Weil I was willing to sell. Weil took a sheet of paper and sat down and said he believed he could get this man to go in $25,000, that man $15,000, and another man probably $20,000, and made a list of how he thought he could get them in.

I said, "In view of the fact that I have got to sell I am going to get all the money I can. I am not going to be particular who I sell to, but I am going to get what I can because I have made the fight and failed, and have got to quit." He said, "I will go to Three Rivers and see Fall, and to El Paso and see Jim McNary."

He came back in two or three days, and my recollection about it is a little bit different from that of Mr. Weil. My recollection is that he said that he thought Mr. Fall was not interested, but that some of his friends might be in buying, and that he might help. And my recollection is that McNary said about the same thing, that he said that was what McNary said. But he said nothing could be done until Josh Raynolds got there Saturday night.

On Sunday there were some conferences. On Monday morning he came by my office and said, "Well, Iam going down to see McMillen." They thought I did not know he was negotiating with them.

They had instructed Mr. Weil I am sure not to tell me. I was not willing to negotiate with Mr. Weil unless I knew the source of his negotiations, because I knew he did not have any money to buy with. He revealed to me that it was the First National that he was talking to.

He went by my office Monday morning and said he was going down to see them, and in a few minutes he came back and said Mr. McMillen was in court, and he could not see him until 4 o'clock, I believe it was. At 4 o'clock he stuck his head in and said he was going down to see Mr. McMillen, and in about 20 minutes he came back and said it was a go.

I was rather paralyzed, and I asked, "What?" He said, "The sale, at $250,000." Then he began to talk to me about where we would close the deal. He went on to argue with me about having it closed somewhere else, and said that if anything slipped up it would not be good for me. I said, "Well, if we can not close it here, why not close it in Tulsa?" That was where a good part of the securities were, and I had lived in Tulsa. He said, "No; I prefer to close it at the First Trust & Savings Bank in Chicago, and it must be put where it would be unlikely anybody would know the First National Bank crowd was the purchaser."

He then suggested that a contract be drawn. I drew the contract that was read to you here this morning. He took it and went to Mr. McMillen's office with it. I had him followed to see whose office he went to. He went to Mr. McMillen's office with the contract. He came back and said it was all right, with one or two minor changes. He then suggested that he did not have any money to go to Chicago and asked me to let him have some money. I told him no; that there was no money being put up, and I would not go to Chicago until some money was deposited; that I was not going to make a trip up there and have no deal.

I was hanging off because the $25,000 was not being put up in some form right then and there, to be put in Chicago. I would not go; but I took Mr. Weil's receipt as trustee for $10,000 worth of bonds, which I was to deposit, and let him go to Chicago, and if he got the deal through, all right.

He went out of the office and in a little while came back and said, "All right, I have the money." And he took the train to Chicago. Then the extra $25,000 came about by their sending the cash there in time; they wired another $25,000 so as to get it there on that date for fear I might renege if not deposited at the date specified. Two weeks later, approximately two weeks later, Mr. Weil and I went to Chicago together, and the dael-we dealt with Mr. Julian and some other man in the bank, I have forgotten his name. Mr. Julian was the trust officer, and he detailed it to somebody else. And all these drafts I have had sent in, with bonds and stocks attached. I signed the stock in blank, and we consummated the transaction just according to this detail.

Now, Mr. Weil on the way home stated to me on the train, "I wish you would not say anything that would indicate I am not the purchaser of this paper, because I want to try to make a deal with these people whereby I can get control of this newspaper." He added, "I believe I can put it across to make a deal with them. I think what they wanted was to get you out, and I think I can make a deal."

That was the 1st day of June, and on the 22d day of June I started a weekly paper, as I testified here before, under the name of Magee's Independent, there having been nothing specified that I should stay out of the newspaper business, and which subsequently I turned into my present paper, the New Mexico State Tribune.

And we rocked along for about 30 days, and I knew, or thought I knew, why Mr. Weil was sitting in there--to conceal the ownership of the paper and I wanted the public to know what the ownership was. So I came out one day with a blast that the paper was bought by the First National Bank from me and was owned by them. And it was only within the last 30 days that Mr. Weil has been speaking to me, as he was out of the paper in about 30 days after I said that. Then the paper announced that Mr. Joshua Raynolds was the owner.

That is about the extent of my information on this transaction. Who put up the money I do not know. Mr. Weil told me that the First National crowd was putting it up; that he was dealing with Mr. McMillen. He is mistaken, I am sure, when he says Mr. Raynolds came a week or two afterwards. Mr. Raynolds came on Saturday night before we closed the deal on Monday, and was in the city at the time we closed the deal, coming, I think, by way of El Paso from Florida.

Senator WALSH of Montana. That is all I wish to ask.

The CHAIRMAN. Any questions?

Senator KENDRICK. It has been testified here that the paper is a money-making enterprise. Was that your experience with it?

Mr. MAGEE. Yes, sir; the paper was a reasonable investment at $200,000, Senator. I had installed a press, which I had bought before the conditions got bad, and I got into a good deal of difficulty over that $25,000 or $30,000 additional money involved in the press deal; and we were going through that period of very high paper cost, when paper cost 11 cents or 12 cents a pound, and made my paper cost up to $45,000 when it had been previously $12,000. But we were coming out of that situation and the paper was beginning to pay, and the last three months I had the paper it made about $2,200 a month.

Mr. Weil is entirely mistaken as to its circulation at the time he bought it. It was 8,900 at the time he bought it of me, having been 7,000 or 7,200 at the time I bought it, giving $115,000 plus the interest, about $117,000 at the time I bought it.

He is also mistaken on another case, another statement he made, as to how much money I paid down when I bought. I paid Mr. Fall and his associates in full in cash. I borrowed the money from other people, but I had no relations with them whatever after the purchase of the paper.

But the circulation had greatly increased and the prestige of the paper had greatly increased. I was selling the paper at a strong but a fair price, upon which it could earn interest at the time I sold it on $200,000. Although I do not think that the $200,000 was paid me by people who were not newspaper people for any other purpose except to eliminate me from the equation in New Mexico. But they forgot one essential part of their contract, that they did not specify I should stay out of the newspaper business.

The CHAIRMAN. Any other questions?

Senator DILL. What about the attitude toward Mr. Fall in this investigation, after you sold the paper?

Mr. MAGEE. What was that question?

Senator DILL. What was the attitude of this paper after you sold it, in regard to Mr. Fall in tnis investigation?

Mr. MAGEE. It was friendly to Mr. Fall throughout, until the $100,000 episode came out, and it was actually shown by Mr. Doheny's version that he had $100,000 in his suit case; and then they had a little line or two, or some three or four lines, of some criticism. But otherwise notning.

Senator DILL. Who owns the other paper, the Herald?

Mr. MAGEE. Mr. A. B. McMillen.

Senator DILL. What has been its attitude?

Mr. MAGEE. Exactly the same. The ownerships may not be technically identical, but they seem to be in fact identical. The minute they got my paper they purchased the other paper, evidently with the idea of a monopoly on publicity; and which I thought opened the door for me to go back into the newspaper business.

Senator WALSH of Montana. Mr. Magee, do you recall about the time of the occurrence of the episode of which you told us when you were on the stand before, when Secretary Fall came to your office and rather vigorously denounced your editorial policy?

Mr. MAGEE. I remember the circumstance; yes, sir.

Senator WALSH of Montana. I am speaking about the time, when that was?

Mr. MAGEE. That was about July or August, 1920.

Senator WALSH of Montana. You took charge of the paper, my recollection is, in-well, when?

Mr. MAGEE. I was in Three Rivers about the 10th or 12th of February. It took them until about the 1st of April to assemble their securities. They were widely scattered, and the deal was consummated the first days of April, and I think it was about the 8th of April that I took charge of the paper.

Senator WALSH of Montana. My recollection about the matter is that you testified that the particular thing of which Senator Fall at that time complained, in respect to your editorial policy, was as to the attacks you were making upon the administration of the State land office.

Mr. MAGEE. Yes, sir.

Senator WALSH of Montana. Were you at that time making any attacks in the paper upon Senator Fall, either in connection with his administration of the office of Secretary of the Interior or

Mr. MAGEE (interposing). He was not Secretary of the Interior at that time. He became Secretary of the Interior the 4th of March,

1921.

Senator WALSH of Montana. Yes; you are quite right.

Mr. MAGEE. He was United States Senator at that time, and I had made no criticism whatever of Senator Fall. I was criticizing the mine tax law, which virtually allowed mines to pay taxes at the county rate on their income instead of on their valuation basis in the land office. It seemed to be about the land office that he had particular fault to find at the time of his visit to my office.

Senator WALSH of Montana. The attacks that your paper was making related more specifically to the administration of affairs in New Mexico than to the administration of Secretary Fall as Secretary of the Interior?

Mr. MAGEE. He was not Secretary of the Interior at that time. Senator WALSH of Montana. Oh, yes; but later.

Mr. MAGEE. Well, later on, after Mr. Fall left my office that day, I attacked him every day or in every way there was to attack him. I have been attacking him in any way that was legitimate ever since except in his personal life. I never attacked his personal life, but politically I attacked him from the day he left the office, in every way I could.

Senator WALSH of Montana. You think it was in the month of December, 1921, that you had the talk with Mr. Weil in which the possibility of interesting Secretary Fall was considered?

Mr. MAGEE. No, sir. My first talk with Mr. Weil was in December, 1921, in which he approached me about the question of selling the paper, and I told him I did not want to sell, and he merely asked me at that time that if I decided later to sell would I give him the first opportunity to buy. That was the December conversation. I think perhaps he said to me a time or two in the next two or three months, "Don't you want to sell?" And I said, "I do not." But it was some time in the early days of February when I sent him the telegram at Los Angeles.

Senator WALSH of Montana. But, Mr. Magee, both you and Mr. Weil have told us of a visit made by Mr. Weil to Secretary Fall in relation to this matter.

Mr. MAGEE. Yes, sir; he did make that about the last days of April or the first days of May, Senator Walsh, and that is what we both testified to.

Senator WALSH of Montana. Of 1922?

Mr. MAGEE. Yes, sir.

Senator WALSH of Montana. That is all.

Senator DILL. Do you know Mr. Fox?
Mr. MAGEE. Yes, sir.

Senator DILL. Do you know where he is?
Mr. MAGEE. Yes, sir.

Senator DILL. Where is he?

Mr. MAGEE. He is at the Auditorium Hotel, Chicago.

Senator DILL. Did he have anything to do with the purchase of this paper?

Mr. MAGEE. I do not think so. If he did I have not the slightest idea of it. Mr. Fox was the editor of the paper during the time it was owned by Mr. Fall and his associates.

Senator DILL. Who were Mr. Fall's associates?

Mr. MAGEE. The Chino Copper Co., the El Paso & Southwestern Railroad, John W. Weeks, the present Secretary of War, and the firm of Coolidge and somebody-not the President layout-in Boston, and I have forgotten what the name of the firm is; and Price Kinney, of Cleveland, I think that was the crowd.

The CHAIRMAN. You testified to that before.

Mr. MAGEE. Yes; I think so.

Senator BURSUM. What is Mr. Fox doing in Chicago, if you know?