STATEMENT OF MRS. GEORGIA R. STEVENSON ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., October 25, 1924. I operate an employment agency at 113 North South Carolina Avenue, Atlantic City, N. J. On June 26, 1924, John T. Nolan came to my place of business accompanied by Mr. Murphy. Mr. Nolan stated he desired me to employ for him 50 white men to act as spectators at a convention to be held at the Traymore Hotel. I employed 50 men for Mr. Nolan at $3 per day by inserting advertisement in Atlantic City Press of June 27, 1924. Mr. Murphy furnished me with the funds each day to pay the men off, a total of $300. GEORGIA R. STEVENSON. Subscribed and sworn to before me at Atlantic City, N. J., October 25, 1924. J. W. JOHNSTON, Post Office Inspector. STATEMENT OF ALBERT GOLD, 173 SOUTH KENTUCKY AVENUE, ATLANTIC CITY, N. J. ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., October 25, 1924. I am employed by the Atlantic Foto Service at above address. I made arrangements with Mr. John T. Nolan to take a photograph of the convention of the National Disabled Soldiers' League held at Atlantic City in the month of June, 1924. On or about June 27, 1924, I went to the Traymore Hotel and to the room where the convention was being held, and at my request Mr. Nolan made an announcement to the "delegates" that the photographer was there and ready to take a picture, and so far as I know everybody in the room adjourned to the boardwalk, where I took the picture. Among the "delegates" to the convention who appears in the picture was one Isidore Goldman, a cousin of mine, who so far as I know was not in the military service of the United States during the World War. In view of this fact, I asked Goldman what he was doing at this convention, and Goldman replied that a friend of his was supposed to come to the convention but could not attend and asked Goldman to take his place. In conversation with another man, whose name I do not know, I asked him what State he was from, as I supposed he was a "delegate" to the convention. He replied to me to the effect that he was hired by an employment agency to sit in at this convention, and he said further, " So were most of those fellows." I understood from this young man that he was being paid for sitting in this "convention." I recognize and identify a photostat copy of the picture above described which appeared in the Atlantic City Evening Union of Saturday, June 28, 1924, which copy has to-day been exhibited to me by Post Office Inspector Johnston. As stated, Isidore Goldman, who was present at the convention, was a cousin, a distant relative, who I was not intimately associated with. and I did not know where he resided then and do not now know where he lives. ALBERT GOLD. Subscribed and sworn to before me at Atlantic City, N. J., this 25th day of October, 1924. J. W. JOHNSTON, MEN (50)-White, to act as spectators, good pay, by the day. Apply National Employment Agency, 113 N. South Carolina av. DISABLED MEN, ATTENTION ! NATIONAL DISABLED SOLDIERS LEAGUE Atlantic City, June 27 to 30 Members who are trainees are excused from training during convention period Transportation Furnished Free to Members For Further Particulars, Apply to Nat. Adj. K. D. Murphy, National Disabled Soldiers League, Washington, D. C. John T. Nolan, National Commander On information furnished by the Rev. Robert Arthur Elwood of Absecon, N. J., an investigation was made June 27, 1924, of the convention held in this city on that date by the National Disabled Soldiers' League, of which John T. Nolan was national commander. Applicants replying to an advertisement as follows: MEN (50)-White, to act as spectators, good pay, by the day. Apply National Employment Agency, 113 N. South Carolina av. were referred by Mrs. Georgia B. Stevenson, proprietress of the National Employment Agency, to the Hotel Traymore, where the National Disabled Soldiers' League convention was held. At the Traymore inquirers were referred to Commander John T. Nolan. In an interview with Mr. Nolan at the Hotel Traymore, Friday, June 27, 1924 (at which time and place were present in addition to the writer and Mr. Nolan, Charles P. Sweeney, a newspaper man, and John B. Geraghty, a Philadelphia publicity man employed by Mr. Nolan), Mr. Nolan was confronted with the advertisement and asked why those answering the advertisement were referred to his room at the Hotel Traymore. Mr. Nolan admitted that the advertisement was inserted by a member of the convention committee, but stated that it had been done to "dress up the meeting room, as there were but few local service men members of his organization. When asked definitely how many delegates were actually attending the convention he stated there were 66 about 42 or 45." Pressed for their names, he acknowledged that he knew the names of only the officers of the organization. The only names he supplied were those of the national officers of the organization. He admitted that the organization had no local post and could not give the name of a single local member of his organization. He further acknowledged that the only legitimate members of the organization present at the convention were himself and the other national officers, some four or five in number. Atlantic City, N. J. EDWARD P. BEACH. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 25th day of October, 1924. W. F. CHESTER, Post Office Inspector. As manager for Hotel Traymore, Atlantic City, N. J., I made an arrangement with John T. Nolan, commander of the National Disabled Soldiers' League for use of the hotel for his convention. The meeting was held the 28th day of June, 1924. Owing to conditions existing I asked that he discontinue his meetings after the date mentioned. He paid hotel in amounts as follows: Bill July 1, 1924, $418.86; bill July 5, 1924, $137.26; bill July 5, 1924 for Mr. Nolan, $40.34. Included in the bill July 1st, was $50.00 for use of the meeting room. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 25th day of October, 1924. Mr. JOHN A. NOLAN, W. F. CHESTER, Commander, National Disabled Soldiers' League, 1520 H. Street, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. NOLAN: Confirming your conversation with one of our room clerks, we take pleasure in advising that we have reserved a suitable meeting room for the National Disabled Soldiers' League, consisting of approximately 150 persons for June 27 and 28. Assuring you of the writer's interest in making satisfactory arrangements, and awaiting your further favors, we remain Yours very truly, HOTEL TRAY MORE CO., (Signed) H. B. MONTGOMERY, Assistant Manager. Atlantic City, N. J.-Informed that the National Disabled Soldiers' League, holding a convention at the Hotel Traymore, was not a bona fide organization, Mayor Edward L. Bader last week asked Commander John T. Nolan and the other delegates to adjourn and leave the city, it was learned after those attending the scheduled three-day session departed. The suspicions of the mayor were aroused when he read an advertisement calling for 50 delegates, to be paid $3 a day each. Communicating with H. E. Hepperle, State commander of the National Disabled Soldiers' League in Newark, N. J., Mayor Bader received a telegraphic advice that the organization at Atlantic City was not genuine and asking that it be prohibited from meeting. The hired delegates were paid off following Mayor Bader's order and the others departed, it is said. Nolan insisted that the league had collected $11,000 in a year and that $10,000 had been spent among soldiers for relief work. John T. Nolan, commander of the National Disabled Soldiers' League, lives at Washington, D. C. Last June he figured prominently in the convention that was held in Boston. The session began in the Arlington Theater, but wound up in a turmoil following a charge by Commander Nolan that the first vice commander had accepted money for putting through a disabled veteran's claim. Thomas V. Fields was the official referred to in Nolan's charge. Later Fields called two police officers to the theater to arrest Nolan. They refused to do so. The split in the convention became so great that the session ended with one faction finishing business under the leadership of Nolan and the other under the leadership of George T. Davis, of Indianapolis. The National Disabled Soldiers' League is not recognized by the Veterans' Bureau. ORDERS DISABLED VETERANS' MEETINGS BANNED [By the Associated Press] Atlantic City, N. J., June 28.-Mayor Bader to-day directed Chief of Police Miller to call together the heads of the various veterans' organizations in the city to suppress further meetings of the National Disabled Soldiers' League, headed by John T. Nolan, of Boston. SOFT PICKINS' BUDDY-PAID CHAIR WARMERS OPEN UP THEIR NATIONAL CONVENTION Unusual Opportunity Offered for Spectators to Sit in at Disabled Veterans' Sessions at $3 Per Day-Payable After Each Meeting at Boardwalk Hotel Leader Strong-Upsets Trolley Poles "Men (50)-White, to act as spectators, good pay, by the day. Apply National Employment Agency, 113 N. So. Carolina av." If you were out of work yesterday and failed to answer this advertisement in the morning papers, you missed the softest job ever offered-for real money. For you could have earned $3 by merely sitting in the rose room of the Traymore Hotel, acting as a disabled veteran of the war, and cheering the hearty words of John T. Nolan, commander in chief of the National Disabled Soldiers' League. Officially you would have been a delegate to the league's fourth annual convention. And, officially, you would have had your photograph taken in company with a lot of other spear-carriers who, like yourself, officially were, for the nonce, delegates to the fourth annual convention. It is, according to all local statistics, the only bona fide national convention of paid chair-warmers on record. Without much advance ado the convention blew into the Traymore yesterday morning. It came in the person of Commander in Chief Nolan; National Treasurer James F. McCann, of Philadelphia; National Adjutant K. D. Murphy, of Jersey City; and George Moran, of Waterbury, Conn., member of the convention committee. There was also a paid press agent. CLACKERS EASILY QUALIFY In all 42 men and boys answered the ad. And 42 men and boys were hired to act as delegates, to pack the rose room in other words; in the language of the theater, to paper the house; or as we know the business in grand opera, to clack, clack, clack. Commander in Chief Nolan hails from Boston. He is a 6-foot veteran of the World War, who enlisted a month before the armistice, gave battle to the Hun as a member of the intelligence at Camp Sevier, S. C., and was discharged as disabled from valvular heart trouble, four months after he offered himself to his country. This is according to the printed and authorized biography of the commander given out here. It also says, "Commander Nolan has always taken an active part in public affairs in his home city of Boston, where his efforts on behalf of the veterans and their families are known to every household. Commander Nolan was formerly connected with the National House of Representatives and is the best posted man on soldier legislation in the country." The commander admitted to having been a page boy in the Sixty-first Congress. Boston dispatches verify this distinction. Aside from a hectic career denying sundry and serious allegations made in various cities in connection with the National Disabled Soldiers' League novel method of selling by mail packages of pencils, of 12 pencils per package, at $2 to those of us who believe in aiding the disabled soldiers through the league, the commander has done nothing else but devote all of his time to the disabled soldiers for the last three years. Officially his salary for so doing is $6,000 per year, but he says he has never collected more than $150 per month of it. COMMANDER GREAT OPPOSER Opposed to the bonus bill, opposed to General Hines, Director of the United States Veterans' Bureau, to say nothing of Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, United State Senator Reed, of Pennsylvania, and even Calvin Coolidge, the commander stirred the convention at its initial session yesterdey by the depth of feeling he registered in favor of a good photograph of 42 national delegates to a convention of disabled soldier delegates grouped around their uttermost leader. The delegates began to pour into the rose room at 11 o'clock yesterday morning. The day was auspiciously cool. The $3 was paid after the first session adjourned. A clergyman, the Rev. Robert A. Elwood, pastor of the Boardwalk church, himself a veteran, delivered the invocation. Later he wondered. And still later at the local veterans' bureau headquarters he asked. And they told him they were not informed of the existence of the National Disabled Soldiers' League, but had wired their national headquarters for information. But if anybody ever doubts that the fourth annual convention of the league was not a success just let them take a look at the group photograph of the delegates. There they stand before the Traymore, proudest of Boardwalk hotels, arrayed as civilians now, but once they were all laid low by the cruel hand of war against starvation. "I've seen that fellow before," said the photographer to himself, regarding a boy of 17, who must have been one of those drummer boys of Shiloh that one reads so much about. But then the photograher saw another and still another familiar face, and he began, like a smart fellow does, to think that peace has its disabled solidiers no less than war. And, so far as he was concerned, wasn't the commander and his friends going to pay for the photographs anyhow? Yes, they were. ROUGH ON TROLLEY POLES Incidentally, Commander in Chief Nolan was pinched here at 2 a. m. yesterday. He drove his automobile into a pole at Atlantic and Boston Avenues and smashed both the pole and the automobile. But as in the war, he wasn't hurt. He was an hour late for his hearing yesterday morning, so he will get it at 9 this morning. He is charged with reckless driving for treating the pole so roughly. Politics was fabricated deeply in the commander's annual address to the convention yesterday. He is obviously a Democrat, although he expressed no preferences between the leading contenders at the Madison Square Garden contests. From Boston comes the information that all sorts of charges of misuse of the Disabled Soldiers' League have from time to time been made against Commander in Chief Nolan, as well as intimations that interests opposed to the soldiers' bonus bill aided his original organization efforts. The commander last night declared that the league, which has headquarters at 1502 H Street NW., Washington, spends $400 to $500 a week aiding soldiers who come to Washington to press claims before the Veterans' Bureau. The convention continues to-day. The $3 per day delegates will assemble at the usual hour to hear reports of committees and to elect officers for the ensuing year. Commander Nolan is unopposed for reelection. Elaborate methods of protecting the delegates during the balloting have been perfected. Police Put Stop to Gathering Purported to be Fourth Annual Convention of National Disabled Soldiers' League Men and Boys Hired "to Act as Spectators" "Commander in Chief" Nolan questioned by Atlantic City authoritiesAgrees to " 'call off" convention and pay off "hired delegates ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., July 9.—What purported to be the Fourth Annual Convention of the National Disabled Soldiers' League of the United States ended abruptly here under orders from Mayor Bader, after detectives had questioned John T. Nolan, of Boston, "commander in chief," and several of his cohorts for an hour or more. All went well enough until Nolan's press agent hired a photographer to photograph the delegates. The photographer recognized among them a number of well-known local characters and a lot of boys of 15 and 16 years. It was alleged that Nolan had advertised in a newspaper for 50 white men to "act as spectators $3 each a day and that there was not a "disabled" delegate among them. The only persons at the " convention,' except those paid, it was said, were Nolan; James F. McCann, of Philadelphia, "national treasurer"; K. D. Murphy, Jersey City, "national adjutant"; and George Moran, Waterbury, Conn. Detective Joseph Farley invited Nolan and his aids to accompany him to headquarters, where they were questioned and agreed to end the "convention." The men hired were all paid off. Discussing the "convention," the Atlantic Daily Press said: "In all, 42 men and boys answered the ad. And 42 men and boys were hired to act as delegates, to pack the rose room, in other words; in the language of the theater, to paper the house; or as we know the business in grand opera, to clack, clack, clack. "Commander in Chief Nolan hails from Boston. He is a 6-foot veteran of the World War, who enlisted a month before the armistice, gave battle to the Hun as a member of the intelligence at Camp Sevier, S. C., and was discharged as disabled from valvular heart trouble four months after he offered himself to his country. "This is according to the printed and authorized biography of the commander given out here. It also says: 'Commander Nolan has always taken an active part in public affairs in his home city of Boston, where his efforts on behalf of the veterans and their families are known to every household. Commander Nolan was formerly connected with the national House of Representatives, and is the best-posted man on soldier legislation in the country.' "The commander admitted to having been a page boy in the Sixty-first Congress. Boston dispatches verify this distinction. "Aside from a hectic career denying sundry and serious allegations made in various cities in connection with the National Disabled Soldiers' League novel method of selling by mail packages of pencils-of 12 pencils per package, at $2 to those of us who believe in aiding the disabled soldiers through the |