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Show NEW YORK WORLD CASE C. P. Taft and Robinson Appear Before the Grand Jury Washington, Jan. 19. When the fed-oral fed-oral grand Jury, which Is Investigating tne alleged libel case against the New York World and the Indianapolis News, met today, Charles P. Taft, In ther of President-Elect Taft. was ready to appear as a witness in answer to r subpoena served on him in Augusta, Au-gusta, OtherB summoned are a former Washington correspondent of the World and -men now connected with that. paper's Washington bureauJorc-miah bureauJorc-miah A. Matthews, now of the New York Sun bureau in tliis city, but formerly for-merly Washington correspondent of the Indianapolis News, was the. only vitness to appear yesterday before tho L'rand jury. Douglas Robinson, brother-in-law of ' President Roosevelt, is here personally personal-ly ii. answer to a subpoena to appear "r'efoie the grand jury. Delevan Smith, publisher of the Indianapolis News, was in the city yesterday, but went to New York. Libel, where .malicious intent to In- j jure is supposed to exist, is a criminal ofTense In the District of Columbia. District Attorney Baker is basing this ' cast on grounds that an alleged crime against citizens of the United States i ha.i been brcoght to his attention and i that It Is his duty to Investigate and , b.Ing to trial the person or persons ' supposed to be guilty of the alleged J crime. New York, Jan. 19. With both com- plalnant and the defendant in tho ; main Issue involved still unidentified. Judge Ward, in the United States circuit cir-cuit court today received briefs from the attorneys who are engaged In a : preliminary" skirmish here over what ! are believed to be criminal proceed- j lngs by the federal government as the J result of recent newspaper statements J in connection with the Panama canal j purchase. The fight began in the I courts here yesterday .morning, when attorneys for the New York World J asked Judge Ward to quash subpoenas which had been served upon two of Its employes to appear before the federal . grand jury for examination. The na- j turo of tho proceedings was not sped- : i'.cn. and on this ground the validity j of tho subpoenaes was contested. The j biiefs filed today followed extended i arguments before Judge Ward yesterday. yester-day. A decision on the point Involved Is not expected until tomorrow. In . the meanwhile witnesses who have not , attempted to question tho regularity j of the methods used to secure their j presence were present In Federal court today. Only two such witnesses were examined yesterday. Four oth-eu oth-eu who were present, but did hot tes- , tifv were on hand again this morn- J lug. They were John E. Weir, a New j York newspaper man; A. C. Rouseln. . another Boston newspaper man; Har- . rise M. Crist, Washington correspond-ent correspond-ent of the Brooklyn Eagle, and E. N. L'ngleman, employed by a news association. asso-ciation. All efforts to ascertain tho exact nature na-ture of the proceedings In the federal courts have so far been unavailing. In his arguments, Federal District Attorney Stlmson never once intimated intimat-ed who or what was back of the proceedings. |