The Attorney General, Harry M. Daugherty, is under investigation by a committee of the Senate. The inhabitants of Mars, if they read any U. S. papers, must be aware of that fact. But beneath this portentous event is a story which began several decades ago in the little city of Washington Court House, Ohio.
There was a young lawyer in Washington Court House, named Harry M. Daugherty, and also his brother Mai S. Daugherty, a banker. There was a little boy, Jesse W. Smith, bereft of his close relatives. The two Daughertys took it upon themselves to give the boy an education and see to his start in life. A few years passed and the boy became owner of a store. Then, in 1908, the boy married. The marriage lasted only about a year and a half, and was followed, in due sequence, by a divorce. More time passed and Lawyer Daugherty, who was in politics, conceived the idea of making a President. In 1921 Warren G. Harding became President, and Harry M. Daugherty Attorney General.
Meanwhile the attachment of the Daughertys and young Smith had not weakened. The Attorney General was a man of strong affections. Jesse Smith was likewise. There was mutual devotion. When Harry M. Daugherty went to Washington, Smith went, also. For a time, although Smith had no official position, he had an office in the Department of Justice. He lived with the Attorney General. He was a sort of unofficial right-hand man. Then Smith fell ill, with diabetes. He was operated on in Ohio; the Attorney General went all the way from Washington to be at his bedside. He recovered in part. It was said that his wound did not heal and might never have done so. His expectancy of life was short. On May 30 of last year he killed himself in the apartment of the Attorney General.
Last year there was an investigation of the Attorney General by the House of Representatives. He was acquitted. Last week a new investigation of the Attorney General was opened by a Senate Committee, with Senator Wheeler, radical Democrat from Montana, as its "prosecutor." The first witnesses called by the Committee gave sensational testimony. These witnesses were the divorced wife of Jesse Smith, and Gaston B. Means, former Department of Justice "investigator."
Roxie Stinson. Mrs. Jesse W. Smith, divorcee, resumed her maiden name of Roxie Stinson. She did not, however, break off her acquaintance with her late husband. According to her testimony they remained on friendly terms; he told her his financial affairs; he continued until the time of his death to support her, although a settlement had been made at the time of the divorce.
Tears were the order of the day on her first appearance as a witness. On her second appearance she was composed, but inclined to burst into giggles. "Daugherty's giggling nemesis," one newspaper called her. Tall, handsome, 30-odd, with her dark brown hair bunched over her ears, wearing a full-length black sealskin coat—so was she described.