A Private Wire

The Senate Public Lands Committee, investigating oil, discovered that Edward B. McLean, publisher of the Washington Post and the Cincinnati Enquirer, had had a private wire installed between his Washington office and his home at Palm Beach where he was wintering. Besides, it secured copies of about 100 telegrams sent by Mr. McLean to his aides in Washington or by them to him. It was a Brobdingnagian discovery.

Mr. McLean was the man who ex-Secretary Fall had said lent him $100,000. McLean, through his attorney, A. Mitchell Palmer (first Alien Property Custodian and later Attorney General under Mr. Wilson), had confirmed this statement. Later, Senator Walsh of Montana had taken testimony from Mr. McLean at Palm Beach, in which the latter admitted that, although he had given Mr. Fall checks for $100,000, they had been returned uncashed. So Mr. McLean was indubitably connected with the oil scandals.

Besides, the Senate Committee had secured some delightful messages. A few of them were in code--apparently in two or more codes; they mentioned several Senators and Francis H. McAdoo (son of William G.), A. Mitchell Palmer, Wilton J. Lambert (all attorneys for Mr. McLean), J. W. Zevely (counsel for Mr. Sinclair). It was very interesting. Mr. McLean received more publicity than has been his lot in many moons.

The telegrams made one thing clear-- Mr. McLean wished to avoid being questioned in detail about his "loan" to Mr. Fall. There was also a curious phrase in one of the telegrams suggesting that the installation of the private wire to Palm Beach would afford "easy access to the White House." There was evidence that a telegraph operator at the White House had been employed after hours to operate the Washington end of the McLean wire.

Then The New York World discovered that four of the messages were in a code used by the Department of Justice, or at least a code formerly so used. The deciphered messages did not reveal much except what was already known--that McLean's employees were keeping him informed on the progress of the oil investigation, and sending him tips as to whether or not he would be required to testify. In one of the telegrams Wm. J. Burns, Chief of the Secret Service, was mentioned, thereby adding his name to the list of those implicated.

At once the Committee began to summon everyone mentioned in the telegrams. A. Mitchell Palmer testified that he had acted temporarily for Mr. McLean, while the latter's regular attorney was out of town. He declared that he had made no attempts to pull wires for the publisher, and denied connection with anyone else mentioned in the case.

Some of Mr. McLean's employees were questioned, but without startling results. Mr. McLean himself was placed on the schedule of those to be examined. Thus, from one attempt to avoid unpleasant testimony, Mr. McLean has apparently got himself into an even more unpleasant situation, where more testimony--accompanied by more publicity--will be required.

But Edward B. McLean has known publicity before. It was aboard his houseboat Pioneer that President and Mrs. Harding sailed the Florida coast just a year ago. His reputation did not begin there, however. He was the son of John R. McLean, millionaire owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer, of the Washington Post and, for a time, of the New York Journal. The younger McLean, now only 40, grew up in luxury and blossomed into a cub reporter (with a racing car) on the staff of the Washington Post. In 1908, at 25, he was to have married Evelyn Walsh, daughter of Thomas F. Walsh,* a gentleman born in Tipperary, who made his millions in Colorado mines, and struck up a close friendship with King Leopold of Belgium. Instead of waiting for a formal wedding, the young couple eloped.

Something more than a year later, their first child, Vinson Walsh McLean, was born. King Leopold sent a gold cradle. They have three other children, all carefully nurtured and protected from kidnapping by private detectives. Nevertheless, one day when their eldest son was ten years old, he escaped from his guards, rushed out into the street, was run over and killed by a Ford.

Ever since the Taft Administration, the McLeans have been noted for their entertaining, and their dinners, served on gold plate, another present from King Leopold. Mr. McLean bought his wife the famous Hope diamond, once the property of Jean Baptiste Tavernier, of Marie Antoinette, of Sultan Abdul Hamid. He was chairman of the Inaugural Committee which welcomed President Harding to the Capitol in 1921. He was a force in Republican politics, especially by reason of his intimacy with the Hardings. The elaborate McLean home, Friendship, on the outskirts of Washington, was a place where the late President often amused himself.

*Not to be confused with Thomas J. Walsh, Senator from Montana, who has been quizzing Mr. McLean in the oil investigations.