The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-04-14
MORE FAKE. NEWS.

Some of our Kansas cotemporaries are
evidently getting onto the ways of the
Capital as will appear from the follow
ing item taken from the last issue of the
Clay Center Times:
Both the Capital and Kansas City Journal
INSIST that the jury in the Lnwood wrecking
ease tred A in this county last week stood nine in
Inc fact OF the matter is that the jury stood
in the Capital were wonderfully biased. An un-
% goars the eaf ROCK 5
lslss Island crowd and drawing his pay from the
Same source. as he probably was
1t was very apparent from the reports
themselves, that they were written in
the interests of the Rock Island COM
pany.
For the purpose of gaining more in
formation upon the subject a reporter
called at the office of A L williams,
general attorney of the Union Pacific
system this morning. Mr.. Williams was
out of the city, but Mr.. Loomis. his
sIstant. was in the office and did not
seem ayerse to telling what he knew and
thought about the Capital reports con-
corning this case.
stAlr. Loomis, have you any informa-
ton in regard to the Capital reports of
the Linwood wreck case recently tried
at Clay Center, and especially. as to
whether those reports were correctI''
81 am fully informed about those re-
ports. and know them to have been not
only Incorrect but Intentionally so. The
correspondent of the Capital was sent TO
] Clay Center as the paid servant of the
Rock Island company to write up the
case in the interests of that company
"Was there any color for the report
which appeared in last Sundays Capital,
to the effect that upon the discharge of
the jury, they stood nine for the Rock
Island. and three for the PLAINTIFF"
Absolutely none. The jury stood
eleven for the plaintiff and one for the
Rock Island Co. from the time they went
to the jury room until they were dis
charged This information was freely
given out by all of the jurors as soon as
they were discharged, and there was
no possible chance for any doubt upon
the subject. The statement of the Capt.
tabs correspondent in reference to nine of
the jurors being for the Rock Island
company was willful falsehood. l will
say further that before the case was SUBJ
mitted to the jury it was well known to
myself and several other parties that the
jury would hang, and we also knew the
name of the man who would hang it. l
satisfied that the Capital correspond
ent not only knew before the case was
submitted to the jury that it would stand
eleven to one, but also knew who the one
was, and knew why the jury would stand
eleven to one. If the cores pondent of the
Capital had actually been in Clay Center
at the time the jury was discharged, he
talk, that the foreman of the jury, in the
presence of all the other jurymen, de-
nounced the man who hung the jury, as
having been bought and paid to do it.
And he would have known that the en-
tire community, without regard to their
feelings in reference to the controversy
between the two roads, believed the fore
man told the truth"
"Mr. Loomis, can you briefly state the
nature of the controversy between the
different parties to that case?"
81 can. Upon the second of January
last, Rock Island freight train ran into
a Union Pacific freight train at LinwOod,
Kansas, killing seven or eight persons
who were on the Union Pacific train.
The rear lights of the Union Pacific train
were continuously and plainly visible
from the Rock Island train for at least
mile and half beyond the point of the
collision, and the men in charge of the
Rock Island train knew the Union Pacific
train was Immediately ahead of them,
for the Rock Island train had pushed the
Union Pacific train over a grade at Law
renee, which was the station west of the
point where the collision occurred The
collision was necessarily the result of
negligence upon the part of one
or both of the companies. Both
could not be guilty, but both could
not be innocent Any effort made by
one company to eXOrerate itself would
of necessity have tendency to throw
the blame upon the other. Casper Dit
mar, one of the parties injured in the
wreck, sued both companies. In the trial
which followed each road claimed that
the collision the fault of the other,
and it was therefore, legitimate fight
between the two companies to establish
the guilt of the other, but the question
belonged to the courts and not. to the
newspapers The case, however, from
start to finish, tried in the
Capital, cOntempOraneously with Its
trial at Clay Center For this purpose
the Rock Island company hired reporter
to send an account of what did not take
place, to the Capital. The reports which
appeared in the Capital from day to day
were SO favorable for the Rock Island
company that it was necessary to make
a more favorable showing to how the
jury stood, upon their discharge, than the
facts would warrant. The correspondent
therefore drew upon his imagination
and stated that nine of the jurors were
for the Rock Island company, knowing
at the time he made the statement that
only one of the jurors was in favor of
that company"