TESTIMONY OF GERALD MONTAIGN, ASSISTANT TAX COMMISSIONER OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE, WILMINGTON, DEL. (The witness was duly sworn by the chairman.) The CHAIRMAN. Your full name is Gerald Montaign? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And your residence is in Wilmington? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. You are serving in some official capacity, are you? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. What is it? Mr. MONTAIGN. Assistant tax commissioner of the State of Del aware. The CHAIRMAN. Your offices are where? Mr. MONTAIGN. In Wilmington. I am also vice president of the Delaware School Foundation. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Montaign, in the campaign leading up to the recent Democratic State convention did you have any part at all? Mr. MONTAIGN. None whatever. The CHAIRMAN. Did your office have any part? Mr. MONTAIGN. None whatever. The CHAIRMAN. Did your office conduct or have any hand in the conduct of a poll to determine the choice of the people of Delaware with respect to candidates for the United States Senate? Mr. MONTAIGN. The office furnished a list, which is a public list, open to public inspection at any time, to a newspaper. The CHAIRMAN. Was that the list furnished to the Every Evening? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. When was this list furnished? Mr. MONTAIGN. Some time in August. The CHAIRMAN. At the request of the newspaper? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. The list is public property, I take it? Mr. MONTAIGN. Absolutely, yes; by statute. The CHAIRMAN. Did your office aid in the addressing or directing of those ballots that were sent out? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes. May I explain that? The CHAIRMAN. I wish you would explain in a general way the situation under which the work was done. Mr. MONTAIGN. The situation is this: The State law requires that we have a list of every taxpayer and send a report, but they did not furnish any money to put up that list, and Mr. du Pont, out of his ówn fund, the tax commissioner The CHAIRMAN. Mr. du Pont is tax commissioner? Mr. MONTAIGN. He is tax commissioner. The CHAIRMAN. What is Mr. du Pont's full name? Mr. MONTAIGN. Pierre S. He furnished, out of his own pocket, the money, bought an addressograph machine and a great deal of other furniture and loaned it to the State. The addressograph is his property. The cost of getting up the list was his expense, and he paid the rent for the room in which the machine is housed. There was no State money expended, not a cent, for any of these lists. We furnished one to the Association Against the Prohibition Amend ment; furnished one to the Every Evening; and we offered a list to both of the major parties, and those two lists of the major parties were at Mr. du Pont's expense. He bore the expense of that. The expense of the other two lists was paid for by the Every Evening and the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment. The CHAIRMAN. Now, you spoke of bearing the expenses of these two lists. You mean the expense of preparing the list? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Or the expense of mailing? Mr. MONTAIGN. Well, the lists were not-the lists to the two parties were not mailed. They were simply cards. It is much simpler for us to make a list than to have somebody come in and go through them and copy them, so all we did there was to make lists of the voters' names, or the taxpayers' names on cards, and offer them to the committee. The CHAIRMAN. Then, you did not address envelopes for the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment or for the Every Evening list? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes; the Every Evening list and the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment list, the envelopes were addressed in the office that I spoke of, which is not the State tax office. The CHAIRMAN. What was the expense of each of those lists? Mr. MONTAIGN. I think it amounts to about $1,400. The CHAIRMAN. For each list? Mr. MONTAIGN. For each list; that is, for those two. I think that is about what they paid-$1,400. Each of those bore the expense of mailing, of the addressograph The CHAIRMAN. The Every Evening and the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment bore the expense of mailing? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes, sir. It was not done in office hours. It was done after office hours and mostly by outside employees. The CHAIRMAN. Did you supervise the work of addressing? The CHAIRMAN. Who did? Mr. MONTAIGN. My assistant. The CHAIRMAN. Did you see any work done so that you could tell us what the arrangement was, what the plan was, what was mailed out? Mr. MONTAIGN. I think I could say what was mailed out I think on the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, I think I saw what went out. On the Very Evening I did not, because I was away. The CHAIRMAN. What went out in the association's letter? The CHAIRMAN. Was there any propaganda inclosed with the questionnaire? Mr. MONTAIGN. None that I could see; simply a questionnaire. The CHAIRMAN, Of course your office had nothing to do with receiving the returns as they came back? Mr. MONTAIGN. Absolutely not. Nothing whatever. The CHAIRMAN. Do you by any chance have a copy of that questionnaire with you? Mr. MONTAIGN. No; I do not. The CHAIRMAN. Do you know where one might be available? Mr. MONTAIGN. I should think the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment would have one. The CHAIRMAN. You have told us that your office prepared a list to be available to both the Democratic and Republican State committees. Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Did they avail themselves of that offer? Mr. MONTAIGN. The Democratic State Committee did. The chairman of the Republican State Committee-I got him over the telephone said he was glad to have it, and to send it to the Republican headquarters. Later he wrote me a letter and said they would not use it the committee would not use it. The CHAIRMAN. Was there any reason given for not using it? Mr. MONTAIGN. They said it would be a wholly improper use of the list. The CHAIRMAN. They said it would be an improper use of the list? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. You feel that under the law there was nothing improper about its use? Mr. MONTAIGN. Absolutely not. If you want, this is my reply to them [handing letter to the chairman]. The CHAIRMAN. You replied, then, to the chairman of the Republican committee? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes, sir. That is a copy of the letter. The CHAIRMAN. Your letter was dated October 2, 1930, addressed to Mr. J. Warren Marshall, chairman of the Republican State Committee, in which you said: MY DEAR MR. MARSHALL: I fear that unintentionally your letter of September 29 in reply to the offer of this office to furnish to your committee a list of all taxables in this State to assist you in securing the names of the voters of this State may create an impression that the tender of the list to you was an improper act on the part of this office. Consequently, I feel that I should point out to you that paragraph (n), section 12, chapter 8, volume 36, Laws of Delaware, provides that the tax commissioner shall: "(n) Prepare and record in a form of convenience for inspection a list of taxables for the current year and of those exempt from tax under this act giving full name and address of each taxable. This list shall be open for public inspection at all times." Inasmuch as the list of taxables required by the statute to be prepared and recorded in a form convenient for inspection is, under the terms of the statute, "open for public inspection at all times" it seemed to this office that having a copy of this list in your possession would enable both you and this office to escape the annoyance of frequent reference to the original list in the event you desired to use it as an aid in securing names of voters who were not registered or in purging the registration list of names, if any, illegally on said registration list. A similar tender was, of course, made to both of the major political parties in this State. Instead of the tender of the list to you being an improper one, I take it that since the list is a public one under the Statute, it would be impossible to conceive of a use for it that would be more promotive of the public welfare or more conducive to the best interests of the State than that of its use as a means for bringing about or assuring the purity of elections and the integrity of the ballot. Yours very truly, STATE TAX DEPARTMENT, Assistant Tax Commissioner. Then you, Mr. Montaign, signed it? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. As assistant tax commissioner? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. In your tender of the lists to the Republican and Democratic State committees did you expect any remuneration at all for them? Mr. MONTAIGN. Absolutely not. The CHAIRMAN. Have you prepared lists in that manner in other years? Mr. MONTAIGN. No. The CHAIRMAN. This was the first time? Mr. MONTAIGN. Yes; the first time we had a request for the list. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Bayard do you wish to appear further than your letter? Mr. BAYARD. If the committee desires, I will do it, Senator. Perhaps if I make a short statement to you it would clear the ground for you. The CHAIRMAN. If you wish to, the committee would be glad to hear you, Senator. TESTIMONY OF HON. THOMAS F. BAYARD, CANDIDATE FOR OFFICE OF UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM DELAWARE, WILMINGTON, DEL. (The witness was duly sworn by the chairman.) The CHAIRMAN. Senator, under date of October 6 you wrote me as chairman of the select committee which letter, if agreeable to you, I would like to have made a part of the record at this point. Mr. BAYARD. Mr. Chairman, you wrote me under date of September 29. The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Mr. BAYARD. Are you giving the reporter a copy of that for the record? The CHAIRMAN. Your answer. Mr. BAYARD. My reply is under date of October 6. That will go on the record without any further to-do. (The letter referred to is as follows:) Hon. GERALD P. NYE, WILMINGTON, DEL., October 6, 1930. Select Committee on Senatorial Campaign Expenditures, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SENATOR NYE: I have been delayed in acknowledging your letter of the 29th instant and also copy of S. Res. 215 covering the qualifications and powers of your committee, and now in respect thereto and in answer to your questions I beg to reply as follows: All the following statements are made in regard to what we call our primary campaign, which here in Delaware covers the operation of electing delegates to a State convention, which delegates in turn elect the candidates for the national ticket. In this instance our primary election for delegates was had on September 13 instant and the convention at which I was nominated was had on September 16 instant. Answering your first question, I beg to inform you that I did not pay anything during this primary campaign. Answering your second question, I beg to inform you that I received no contributions at any time during this primary campaign. Answering your third question, I beg to inform you that I have had no expenditures during this primary campaign. You will understand that each of the foregoing answers covers the period to and including the 16th of September when the convention was held at which I was nominated. Answering your fourth question, I beg to inform you that several of my friends formed what was known as the "Bayard Committee" who had charge of all the expenditures looking toward the election of delegates and my nomination for the Senate. I will request this committee at an early a date as possible to furnish you with the amounts received and the sources thereof as well as the disbursements connected with the primary campaign and any nomination. By reason of the fact that there is no law covering such a procedure, either State or national, there may be a few days' delay in getting together all the material from the "Bayard Committee" which you ask for, so that I will ask your indulgence until such time as I can secure the same and forward it to you. Very truly yours, THOMAS F. BAYARD. Mr. BAYARD. I can not be sure of the exact date, but I think it was July 30 or 31 that I made my announcement that I would be a candidate in the Democratic primary, as we call it here, and may I pause for a moment to explain to the committee, if they do not understand it, that we have a convention system here. That is o say, our primaries consist of the election of delegates to a convention and the convention in turn nominates or elects the candidates for the various offices to which they aspire. That convention elects the candidate for the United States Senate, the candidate for United States Congressman, and the several State offices for which candidates run throughout the State in the coming election. That, as I say, is the last day of August. After I determined to become a candidate I found this situation confronted me. I had made no effort of any kind, I had made no statement of any kind in regard to my candidacy, and no effort of any kind to obtain delegates to the pending convention. On the other hand, I was met with my opponent, Mr. Josiah Marvel, who had been very active for, say, at least two years, certainly since the election in 1928. So that I found that my work would be well cut out for me in the pending six and one-half or seven weeks between the time of my announcement and the convention, which was to be held on the 16th day of September. I thereupon, after consideration, asked a great friend of mine, Mr. Charles F. Curley, if he would not assume, as chairman of a small committee, the management of the selection and election of the delegates to the convention, who in turn would, if chosen in sufficient number, bring about my nomination in September, and that was done. Now, of course, I collaborated with that committee and Mr. Curley from time to time as to what was going on in a general way. The details of the work of the committee and the men and women who worked under Mr. Curley are matters that I would only know by hearsay, and I myself can not testify to that. But that went on with the result that on the 13th of September the primary elections, as we call them, were had and delegates were elected to the convention, which was held in Dover on the 16th, and at that convention I secured 115 votes and Mr. Marvel secured 95 votes, there being a total of 210 delegates. Am I going into too much detail, Mr. Chairman? The CHAIRMAN. Not at all. Mr. BAYARD. I am trying to paint this picture, to let you see what went on here. |