The Laurens Advertiser

What is this article about?

JESS SMITH KNOWN AS GENERAL "BOSS" Says He Was Right Hand Man of Attorney General Daugherty Washington, May 20.--Upon the authority of former Attorney General Daugherty, orders given by Jess Smith, his friend and companion, were taken and obeyed by the bureau of investigation of the Department of Justice, Lewis J. Bailey, its former acting chief, testified today before the Senate Daugherty committee. Bailey, now agent in charge for the bureau at Atlanta, was acting chief from October, 1920, to August, 1921. He said he was told by Mr. Daugherty to take up all questions with Smith. "Mr. Daugherty said he was a very busy man," Bailey testified, "but that Mr. Smith represented him. Anything that came up, he told me, I should see Smith about, and whatever Smith told me to do would be all right." "Did you do so?" asked Senator Wheeler. "Yes," Bailey replied, "except in one or two incidents, where I had some question as to Mr. Smith's judgment and went to the attorney general." The witness related how Smith had told an assistant chief of the bureau, "he had to get out." "Everybody around the Department of Justice recognized him as the man they had to pay attention to." Bailey said. "He was the most powerful man there next to the attorney general." "You understood that Smith was a sort of a messenger for the attorney general," asked George E. Chamberlain, attorney for Mr. Daugherty. "Well, I don't know as to being a messenger," Bailey responded. "He was some sort of a representative of the attorney general, though I don't say I was to follow his word entirely, without some indication that the attorney general approved." "Did Smith ever request you to do anything wrong?" Mr. Chamberlain demanded. "There were two or three little questions we could not agree on," Bailey said. "There was not any corruption in his request?" Smith got everything he wanted, Bailey said, when Senator Wheeler asked as to his access to official files. The bureau of investigation files were frequently furnished to him, the witness declared, though all the files he remembered Smith having were in reference to employees. "Everybody up there understood they had to do what he told them," Bailey added. "If they were like me, they figured they had better take his orders or look for a new job." J. Pierce Miller, a former Washington newspaper man, testified that he met Jess Smith, in February, 1922 while assigned to get news from the Department of Justice and that Smith's "general attitude was that of an official of the Department." Smith at the time had no particular office, he said, but "roamed around various offices, chiefly occupying the attorney general's office."

Clipping

OCR Quality