Gould Denies Part in Paying a New Brunswick Premier, Tells Senate Panel

Senator Gould, a Maine Republican, steadfastly asserted his innocence in a long examination before a Senate elections subcommittee, the Associated Press reported in Sunday’s Evening Star on the committee’s Saturday session. He said he knew his associates in the railroad construction company had agreed to pay $100,000 to the New Brunswick premier in 1912, but that he did not know when it was paid and that it was done without his consent.

Gould said he never spent any of the company’s money and that the checks he drew were turned over to a partner who handled the finances. Senator Walsh, a Montana Democrat prosecuting the case, suggested he might have signed the checks. “I wouldn’t say I did or didn’t,” Gould replied.

A Liberal Party organizer from New Brunswick recalled to the stand gave a different version, saying the party understood the transaction was entirely between Gould and the premier. The New Britain Herald had reported the day before that Gould charged two former Canadian premiers with political corruption and said his New York associates paid the money to the Conservative campaign fund.