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TELEGRAM A MYSTERY

"I ask you," continued the senator, "whether you know about the sending of that telegram, by whom it was authorized and from whom it was sent?"

"I do not, sir," said Franklin. "Since it was mentioned at the Waldorf Saturday we have had the entire passenger staff examined and we cannot find out."

Asked when he first knew that the Titanic had sunk, Franklin said he first knew it about 6.27 P.M., Monday.

Mr. Franklin then produced a thick package of telegrams which he had received in relation to the disaster.

"About twenty minutes of two on Monday morning," said he, "I was awakened by a telephone bell, and was called by a reporter for some paper who informed me that the Titanic had met with an accident and was sinking. I asked him where he got the information. He told me that it had

come by wireless from the steamship Virginian, which had been appealed to by the Titanic for aid."

Mr. Franklin said he called up the White Star docks, but they had no information, and he then appealed to the Associated Press, and there was read to him a dispatch from Cape Race advising him of the accident.

"I asked the Associated Press," said Mr. Franklin, "not to send out the dispatch until we had more detailed information, in order to avoid causing unnecessary alarm. I was told, however, that the story already had been sent."

The reassuring statements sent out by the line in the early hours of the disaster next were made the subject of inquiry.

"Tell the committee on what you based those statements," directed Senator Smith.

"We based them on reports and rumors received at Cape Race by individuals and by the newspapers. They were rumors, and we could not place our finger on anything authentic."