Document OEX6eKmerBX1Kvoq6oXRj2ENL

COPI 6th, May, 1923 E. W. Webb Ssq, 25 Broadway, M m Xoxk citar, u. s* a . Bear Earle? You ill have naturally received sy cable long before you ill get this? letter and t do not know if there is anything such sore tangible than I have given you, from necessity, very shortly la my cable concerning yesterday*s ridiculous evidence of Coplans 'before the Committee, However, I ill give you a fee typical sidelights which will shew the calibre of the man and his lack of work in his so-called personal in vestigations, The eating was taribly hashed'up and disjointed due both to the attitude of Coplans and his lack of knowledge and of tangible data given to the Committee. Xn th first place hie appearance m s totally against him, he looking exactly like a little East-side Jew that we sea wherever we turn in Hew York* He started in the usual typical Jewish cocky fashion and immediately cade the grave error of losing his temper and antagonising the Committee, Sir Frderick Willis, who is the Chairman, asked a lot of very pertinaci questions to all of which he had either to- say ifX do not know1* or tried.to vaie or worn out by countering, with mother question This went on for a tine until Sir Frederick himself lost M s temper and told hi that he, Coplans, was there to answer ques tions before the Committee yes or no" and not generalise and parry with, questiona to the Committee* His reports given to the "Baity Kail8 were gone into question by question around the table by each cue of the Corns!tiee. He was asked first, why he did not examine the garage mechanics in question before the teat and why he did not use control mechanics. He tried to evade these questions eqyixig he did not think it was necessary due to the evidence in the literature Sir Charles Martin asked, hia directly if he as a scientist thought for one minute that by steading for an hour in Piccadilly Circus that he would get lead poisoning from the exhaust of automobiles, His answer was 8very'short people with their noses close to the ground might run a risk over a period of time of getting lead poisoning (Cm. you beat it for an. answer?) He wag asked again if fro a scientific view point he thought that the lead which he found on the overalls of the workers should necessitate special laundering conditions. Els answer was that he thought that probably this would b & better precaution. The Committee and Sir Charles Martin told him flatly that thqy did not agree with him. He was asked by various member of the Committee if he had done any personal experimentation either on animals, man, or in fact any individual research on lead poisoning, possible hasards from automobiles using Ittyl Petrol and so forth He said; that he had not* Be was asked by another Committee man if he had had ary experience with heavy metal poisons or lead poisoning* He said "no, except with the experience my medical profession hap given mo8. H was asked by another concerning hi foolish statement of pollution of wells with Etlyl Petrol. #2 Ha hedged and aid probably if th patrol was takaa into the* Doctor Chasten Chapman looked at feta la 'utmost disgust and said "ho about if someone poured soia cheep dip into a wall8 mtmsh to the amusement of all bonds* Copious* total evidence - if you could call it evidence - was really sot ridice at all but eeusisted of reading fragments from Flynn*s report* He delivered a - m y eloquent oration that it was not so much the sales he m s foraying about with Ethyl Petrol but the poor wesson and children and that it was conclusively preyed by Professor Flynn that when he put Ethyl Petrol on a goat said goat aborted, therefore, the goat being a female and behaving thus , it m s quite evident that h m m fsales sight behave thus. This caused M g laugh by the Committee* Ho next proceeded to read one of the beautiful eulogies of Dr, Alice Hamilton which had nothing to do with the situation* Being stumped at this point and seemingly not knowing what to do ha pulled out a voluminous stack of papers and read aloud a clipping fro some medical journal in Bern fork which stated according to M s interpretation that the Standard Oil had had to pay #300,000* damsges for workers in Ethyl Patrol and ihat suits of 1,000,000. addi tional were pending* "Dim Sir Frederick Mills asked hi distinctly if he did not know that this was due to the accident at Bayway with workers in the sana- faetur of T,B*L* said Coplmy hedged very nicely sad said that he did not know that, from the wording of the article he had presumed it had something to do with Ethyl Petrol* ^. . His co-worker Howell, who carried out the engine tests and stripped the engines, was evidently so disgusted with Coplans that when he, Howell, got on the stand he sad a fin; testimonisi on, our behalf* When asked by one of the Committee men if ha thought the presence of lead in the faeces of on of the mechanics was dangerous ho aid he did not and volunteered the further information that fhss* they found that this mechanic had lead in his faeces he was ' sent to a specialist end the specialist ;was asked if in his opinion this trace of lead was in" any way injurious to the asm. Th# specialist-said it was not and probably it was derived from handling solder which this maa had been doing quite a bit in the engine laboratory# Howell, when asked iy another Committee aa If he attached any significance to the finding of lead dust on the overalls of mechanics, said ha cat certainly did not. He then volunteered 00a information which dlmost knocked Professor Copiane cold, - that in the normal course of events f:;i mechanics: in hi laboratory sere forced to put on clean overalls one a seek but that when they begun th Ethyl Tests he was ordered that they war to wear the same overalls for th whole period of th tests which ran over covarci months and that the overalls were in a very dirty condition at the end of the tests. This morning the papers m& out, 1 m sorry to say, with reports ^ which would lead th unsuspecting laymen to think that Copiosa was the wisest man ;| in Sagland - of course, we had expected It in the Mail,, This, of course, worries ^ the Anglo and doe not help the least bit in bolstering up their sales* However, as I see it, having had a long telk with Mr. Powell and Mr* Hamilton this morning, there is nothing that we can do which would be politic until the Committee brings out their report* Frankly it has been one beli of a job and which, believe no, I will be thankful when it is over - to,get the Anglo personnel fro bursting out into prist almost ary tin daily with statements which sight put them 1 a bad fix l:- ' itf.  #3 s'ltb. the Cessiti* Of course, w@ appreciate their position as they are not only >n triai with respect to sales but 'With respect to 40 years standing i&th the public m to have ell of these ridiculous statesata coming from Copions and to he' twisted around In the press is not conducir of ease of sind* Sincerely, AECH V KE 0001287