HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 103 TO INVESTIGATE THE EXPENDITURES IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT, ETC. JANUARY 25, 1912 WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE EXPENDITURES IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT. [Committee room, basement, main building. Telephone 278. Meets on call.] EXPENDITURES IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT. COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT, The committee met at 2 o'clock p. m., Hon. Courtney W. Hamlin (chairman) presiding. STATEMENT OF HON. P. C. KNOX, SECRETARY OF STATE. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Secretary, on the 23d of this month you were served with a subpoena asking you to bring with you and produce before the committee all vouchers or receipts covering any and all moneys paid out by the disbursing officer of the State Department, or by any other persons under the instructions of said department, out of the appropriation made by Congress "For expenses of the proposed celebration, during the first week of July, 1909, to commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of the discovery of Lake Champlain by Samuel de Champlain, $20,000," approved March 4, 1909. `Did you bring those vouchers with you? Secretary KNOX. Mr. Chairman, when I was here the other day you asked me if I would produce those vouchers, to which I replied that as the payments seemed to have been covered under the provisions of section 291 I had no authority under the Executive order of the President to produce them without his written direction; I told you, however, when you asked if I would take up the matter with him, that I would take the matter up with the President, which I have done, and after a personal investigation of the whole matter I have written a letter to the President telling him the result of my investigation and requesting that he give me direction to produce the vouchers. He has directed me to do so and I have them here. The explanation of the whole matter is contained in my letter to the President, and I desire to read or have that letter read as a part of my answer to your question. The CHAIRMAN. You have those vouchers with you? Secretary KNOx. Yes. But I would like the privilege of reading the letter in order to explain why I requested the President to direct that the vouchers be furnished. I might say that I have discovered that no money was paid out by the department on account of any expenditures connected with that celebration except to the commissioners of the States of New York and Vermont, under whose joint auspices the celebration was conducted, and that under the appropriation appropriating money for those expenses, the State Department had nothing whatever to do with them; the State Department was not directed by Congress to supervise the expenditures at all; the appropriation was not made to pay the expenses of the foreign guests of the United States, but was made to pay the expenses of the celebration |