The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-17
MR. PHILLIPS PHILLIPS SCALP
THE BANKERS LIFE ASSOCIATION
ARMED AND GOING
AFTER 1T
seTEBoDY GUILTY OF LIBEL

And he Bankers Believes NJ. G.
Philips, United States District
Attorney for the Eastern District
of Wisconsin, Is the Man - The
Connection of the Oshkosh North
western with the Matter.
In the suit for libel brought in the cir
cult court at Oshkosh, Wis, by Douglas
! Putnam, secretary of the Bankers Life
! Association of Minnesota, against M. G.
! Phillips, United States district attorney
! for the Eastern district of Wisconsin, and
the editors and publishers of the Daily
! Northwestern, of Oshkosh, the defend
ants were examined at the instance of
the plaintiff before Court Commissioner
! Merrill, at Oshkosh, on Saturday. 1t will
be remembered that the federal grand
! jury at Milwaukee, April "a, found
indictment against the officers and trus-
tees of the Bankers Life association for
claimed fraudulent use of the mails
based upon the false and ridiculous
! charge that the association was organ
! lied pursuant to a scheme and devise to
J
| further the alleged scheme; that the Of
| ficers and trustees at once moved to have
the Indictment quashed, and that the
court promptly quashed it upon the
! grounds that the Indictment failed to
! charge any scheme or devise to defraud
| or any fraudulent use of the mails, and
| that the court had not, and could not
acquire jurisdiction. The indictment was
! returned about noon, April a. and in the
J afternoon of that day the Daily North
western published a very sensational
article, with startling headlines, on the
| front page of the paper. The article
! took up considerably more than column
j and consisted chiefly of an alleged inter
! view between a representative of the
| paper and District Attorney Phillips
| purpOrting to have been had after the
| grand jury had reported the indictment,
! in which Phillips was credited with hav-
! ing made many serious charges against
! the associa ton and it's officers, among
which were the following:
! The company advertised and claimed
! to be natural premium life insurance
company, with sufficient assets to guar
| antee and meet all outstanding insurance
! obligations, when, as a matter of fact,
as charged in the indictment, it is
crude fraternal assessment company or
| ganized for the purpose of running an
! employment bureau and only incidentally
| furnishing insurance to the families of
| its members. The plan the company is
! pursuing as well as the company itself
has been sharply criticised by number
| of the leading insurance journals in the
past two years. The gossip among in
surancc men IS that the funds of the
| company form the working capital Of a
! number of private enterprises that the
| 0thcers of the company are interested in.
| United States officials took UP the case,
! because, as the Indictment reads, some
/ Of the copies Of pamphlets containing
| fictitious ard untruthful statements OF
and concerning the nature and character
! of the system of life insurance furnished
! by such corporation and the amount Of
money assets available to such corpora
ton to enable it to meet and satisfy it's
outstanding obligations. were sent
monthly through the mails. The com
| parry in its advertising matter claims to
! be enc of the strongest when. as mat
ter of fact, It has not enough money on
| hand to pay the face OF the policies as
| legal reserve company and it lacks
| $24OOO,C00 funds on the basis Of it's total
| written insurance of being entered in
the class of natural premium company
The officers of the association claim
| that the conduct OK Phillips was such
! before and after the indictment was re-
| turned, that they were unwillingly led
| to the conviction that his actions were
not prompted alone by a desire to punish
! the guilty or to promote the cause of
| justice, and when the article in the Daily
| Northwestern was called to their at
| tentiOn it was determined to compel him
| to answer and attempt to make good his
| charges, in a suit for libel. The officers
say it was known that Phillips was in
Milwaukee when the Indictment was re-
! turned by the grand jury, and remained
| there hat
way, after the return of the Indictment
! for the representative of the Daily
! Northwestern to have seen a copy of the
indictment and interview Phillips in
| time to get the article in the Oshkosh pa
| per that afternoon, and that therefore
they were convinced he had interested
| himself personally in the matter and
given out information of some sort in
advance. The examination Saturday was
for the purpose of bringing the facts to
light Counsel for Mr. Putnam say that
| 1t appeared from the examination OF
Phillips and the city editor of the paper,
| Mr. Durham, that at Oshkosh on the
afternoon of April o. Phillips made a
statement to Durham for newspaper pub
| LEGATION concerning the Bankers Life as
| ISOLATION and a proposed Indictment.
| Durham testified that Phillips voIun-
! tcered the statement without being in
| terrogated by him; that he Durham
|
as Phillips related it, and that every fact
stated in the newspaper article was given
to him by Phillips and substantially in
the language published that Phillips told
him to call at his Office in Oshkosh on
the morning of the 24th and he would
give him a copy of the proposed indict-
ment; that he Phillips) would go to Mil
I waukee early ON the morning of the oath
and that if Durham did not hear from
him by wire to the contrary before the
paper went to press the interview could
be published; that about o'clock on
the morning of the oath Durham called
at Phillips Office in Oshkosh and was
given a copy of the indictment after
wards returned by the grand jury; that
he (Dunham) then went to the newspa-
per office and, not hearing from Phillips
and supposing the statements given him
to be truthful, in good faith caused the
interview to be published. Phillips ad-
mits the interview and the statements
substantially as published, except that
he says he thinks he told Durham some
of the members of the association had
stated that the officers had the funds of
| the association invested in their private
enterprises, but said he could not think
of the name of any member who in fact
had so stated to him. Many of the state
ments he admitted making to Durham he
was unable to support by telling how.
when, or from whom he obtained the in