Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-05-17 | Page 10 | Lawyers Tilt in Ford Libel Suit

WEBS TILT III ' FORD LIBEL SUIT ; Opening Statement by Counsel Occupies Day in ' '.; Noted Legal Bout. j ': Attorney for Chicago Tribune Trib-une Justifies Use of ! Word 'Anarchist.' I il' MOUNT CLEMENS. Mich., May 16. - opening statements of counsel in the libel i' :iuit of Henry Kurd againat the Chicago ,' Tribune occupied liio entire day In Judyo ;i Tuck v'a court. Weymouth Kirkland, of V coiin.-.el for the Tribune, who spoke in the afternoon, had not concluded when court j adjourned until next Monday. lie will re- sume then, a f tur which tlio question of Hcope of evideuco will be argued by counsel. . I-'urruer Judge Alfred J. Murphy, of coun.se) for the plaintiff, occupied the v forenoon in slating his case, In the course of which ho alleged that the Tribune's ad voci'.-y of inLer vent ion In Mexico was due to pro-Germanism and a desire to aid r' the International Harvester company and the Standard Oil company. V Mr. Kirkland, in his remarks, ridiculed , these claims and claimed not only justifi- c;i tion of its comment on Mr. Ford, In which he was called an anarchist and ac-' ac-' rusod of ignorance, -but asserted that, as, M ri" Ford's wealth, position and pacifist prupaganda had made him a public char-.' char-.' aetcr, it whs the plain duty of the newspaper news-paper to call him to account for a policy t which, in the Tribune's opinion, would , render the count ry impotent, while Ku-,;j Ku-,;j rope was in flames and anarchy raged ,'' south of the liio Grande. Refers to Mental Gymnasts. Mr. Kirkland referred to General Pershing Per-shing and to Marshal Haig and Gener-,. Gener-,. ulissitno Foch as among the soldiers on ,' whom Mr. Ford would emblazon the word "murderer." lie was on the subject of the military career of Colonel it. R. Mc-Cormick, Mc-Cormick, publisher of the Tribune, when ', tlie point come up. 't "McCormick got to be a lieutenant colo-f colo-f nol," said A ttorney Kirkland, "and General Gen-eral Pershing, one of the professional soldiers sol-diers that Judge Murphy says Mr. Ford said should have the word 'murderer' em-. em-. hroidcred on his breast, made him a colo-,'. colo-,'. nel.- And when they tell you that you cannot put more than one meaning on the word 'anarchist' I want you to remember re-member the mental gymnastics that Judge Murphy did here this morning in trying to make you believe that Henry Ford, i, when he advocated the brand 'murderer.' , did not mean the boys who joined the - army in 1917, but professional soldiers, ( soldiers like Pershing and Halg and Foch, . who have been professional soldiers all ihoir lives." Origin of Editorial. ' Mr. Kirkland told how the news item on which I lift allpfrpd lihplnne Pel i tnr i 1 fx-a a based had its origin. The national guard, he said, was bein rocruited for service ; on the Mexican border, and many eem- ployers were publicly announcing that the i- pay of their men who joined the colors ; would be continued and their Jobs held open for them. Inquiry at the Chicago branch of the i' Ford company elicited a statement that the branch manager was awaiting instructions instruc-tions from the main office. This was only two or three days before publication of the editorial on June 23, 1916, he said. The Detroit correspondent was then appealed ap-pealed to by telegraph. This correspondent, correspon-dent, the lawyer said, was Informed by . General Manager Klingsmith of the Ford company, a man who was customarily accepted ac-cepted as an authority on Ford policies, , that the Ford company would nou con- tinue the pay of Its men who enlisted, , nor would it hold their positions open Dor give them preference should they return and ask for their former positions. Murphy is Answered. Answering Attorney Murphy's charge : that the Tribune sought to embroil the , . United States In a war with Mexico so that munitions required at home would nol be .shipped to the enemies of Ger-many. Ger-many. Mr. Kirkland asserted that this was sufficiently answered by the fact that the Tribune had advocated intervention since 1912. He argued further that Mexican raids along the border, (he murder and robbery -of American citizens in Mexico and even in the United Slates, were ample reasons .why the Tribune should advocate intervention, inter-vention, and certainly, he said, more convincing con-vincing than a roundabout method of helptns Germany or aiding the Harvester eompany or Standard Oil. The relationship by which the two big corporations were said to influence the Tribune policies was said bv Judge Tucker, Tuck-er, on objection by Attorney Klliott G. t-tevtrison, of counsel for the Tribune, to bo irrevelant. As given bv Attorney Murphy, Mur-phy, it was that Harold McCormick, president presi-dent of the Harvester company, married Euith Rockefeller, a daughter of John D., and that Harold McCormick was a cousin of the late Ambassador K. S. McCormick, father of Colonel R. R. McCormick. Mr. Murphy drew conclusions from the Harvester Har-vester company's interest in Mexican sisal, and Mr. Rockefeller's in Mexican crude oil.