A Bishop's Bank Books

All summer plump, round-faced Basil Maxwell Manly has been quietly investigating the political and personal bank accounts of Bishop James Cannon Jr. of the

Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Economist, researcher, newsman close to G. O. P. insurgency, Mr. Manly was doing his favorite work as the special agent of the Senate Slush Fund Committee. His job was to find out what Bishop Cannon had done with almost $100,000 contributed for Democratic use in Virginia against Alfred Emanuel Smith in the 1928 campaign. The Bishop had juggled his accounts beyond all senatorial comprehension and then successfully defied the Committee's demand for an explanation under the Corrupt Practices Act. What Investigator Manly was principally trying to trace through a jungle of bank trans actions was $65,300 contributed by Edwin Cornell Jameson, New York insurance man (TIME, April 28, 1930 et seq.). Of this sum Bishop Cannon had failed to account to Congress for $48,300. Last week the Senate Committee, chairmanned by North Dakota's young, belligerent Nye, met to receive a report from Mr. Manly and hear other witnesses. The Bishop was abroad, visiting Paris and London. He cabled a protest to the com mittee in which he claimed the inquiry was "a purely personal attack by a vindictive Virginia Democrat [Senator Carter Glass] and a Boston Representative under Roman Catholic domination [George Holden Tinkham].*" He declared his campaign activities were for Presidential electors who, he claimed, were State officers and thus beyond Congressional jurisdiction. Overruling all objections, Senator Nye called on Mr. Manly to reveal his findings. A large chart was set up on which Investigator Manly had attempted to depict all the Cannon bank accounts and the connecting "pipelines" through which the Bishop pumped funds back & forth bewilderingly. Investigator Manly's disclosures:

Bishop Cannon maintained eight bank accounts, personal and political, in five banks in Washington, D. C., Richmond. Crewe and Blackstone, Va. Through these during the campaign passed deposits of $276,637. He signed the checks "James Cannon Jr.," "James Cannon Jr., Chairman," "James Cannon Jr., executor." When a Washington bank got finnicky about check endorsements, Bishop Cannon retorted: "As the Master said when he was asked to pay tribute to Caesar, 'Go and catch a fish and take the gold coin out of the fish's mouth and pay the tribute.'''

Among the Cannon accounts money was switched back & forth, apparently, according to Investigator Manly, for no other reason than to jumble the identity of contributions and block investigation. The Bishop would make a political deposit and straightway transfer it to his personal account. Of the Jameson contribution only $22,544 could be definitely traced through the Cannon accounts to the Anti-Smith Democrats of Virginia. "Unaccounted for" was $17,895 in a Washington political account. The Bishop as executor opened a special account for the estate of a woman long dead and then used it as a political depository. Another of his accounts was for a business concern whose charter had been revoked seven years before. From a political account a $528 personal note was paid.

In London Bishop Cannon tried to explain that the funds passing into his personal account had been checked out again and delivered to his anti-Smith committee. Remarked Senator Nye of the Manly disclosures: "When all the information is put together it will clearly show actual diversion of campaign money to the private accounts of Bishop Cannon."

Other facts the Nye Committee brought out last week:

P: Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen, onetime Republican Senator from New Jersey, sent Bishop Cannon a $10,000 contribution, in cashier's checks bought for cash. No record could be found of a report to Congress of this campaign expenditure by Bishop Cannon or Mr. Frelinghuysen. The latter is a director of "Fat Cat" Jameson's insurance company. P: Claudius Hart Huston, Tennessee Hooverite who later became Republican National Committee Chairman, donated $5,000 to Bishop Cannon's Anti-Smith fund which also was not reported.

P: Declared caustic Senator Glass as the hearings closed temporarily: "From the nature of the evidence adduced, it is not to be wondered that a physician gave the Bishop a certificate to the effect that it would endanger his life to explain his bank account to the Nye committee."

*Bishop Cannon has brought a $500,000 libel suit against Congressman Tinkham. Also awaiting trial are the Bishop's $6,000,000 libel actions against the Hearst newspapers and their publisher as a result of stories about his second marriage.

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