The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-04-21

From Fridays Daily.
Judge Cray shortly before noon today
held Philip Liesch, editor of The Brown
County Journal, to be in contempt of
court and sentenced him to pay fine
of $50, or to be confined in the Blue
Earth county Jail for period of six
ty days. A stay of execution was ask
ed for and granted.
Closing Testimony.
Mr.. Walters, Mr.. Liesch's editor, was
on the stand for some time yesterday
afternoon. He said that the transcript
of the Todd county case was received
five weeks before any article in refer
ence to the Sable case was written. In
the Minneapolis journal article it was
stated that Sable was an uncle of DR..
Koch. In directing the copies to Man
kato people, the names in the directory
in black type and the business houses
were taken. Papers were sent to farm
ers on two rural routes in Nicollet
county and on two in Brown county.
About $50 papers were sent to people
in Springfield, and 200 to Sleepy Eye.
Papers were not sent to any Blue Earth
county farmers other than those whose
names appeared on the city list.
L. T.. Nerosia Vas callef, .sill testi,
fled that he is on the present jury
panel. On April 18th his wife received
a copy of the Brown County Journal of
the issue of April Sth. He had not
looked at it, as his eyes do not permit
his reading.
ID. L. Clements, another juror, testi-
fed to receiving copy of the paper
The address on the paper is Clements
& Son." 1t came April 18th.
w. B. Walker, still another iuryman
said that he had received a copy of the
paper. II was addressed to w. B.
Walker & Son, and was received April
18th.
Philip Liesch was recalled and said
that he is the proprietor. and manager
of the Brown County Journal and the
Nolksblatt. Nothing of the same sub
stance of the article in the Journal
was published in the Volksblatt.
Charles Z. Richardson was called for
the defence. He said that his home is
in Minneapolis and that he is general
r,t,to ,1a,+ 81 he IT,, Ct.ta ,,,1
Twin City Telephone companies. The
Tri-State is a competitor of the North
western Telephone Exchange Co. He
met Mr.. Liesch at New Ulm about
March 2lst He attended large meet
ing there at the opera house, to get the
independent people together. He again
met Mr.. Liesch April 5th and arranged
with MIN for the publication and ex-
ira copies of the paper containing the
article Witness wanted 10000 copies,
as the article was good one for his
purpose. He said that he could hardly
get out so many, but could get out s.
900 copies. He agreed to do this, and
arrangements were made for the paper.
Witness had suggested that 1000 cop
les be distributed in this territory. He
had suggested Mankato, Sleepy Eye and
Springfield and also Nicollet county.
The idea was to get the papers out in
this part of the state. He had no
knowledge of any other article in the
paper. This article related to the grand
jury investigation of the telephone mat
ter at Anoka There was no other
thought than to get this article before
the people. The arrangement was made
for the Tri-State company.
On cross examination, Mr.. Richardson
said that the Tri-State company is in
terested in Mankato in that the presi-
dent, Mr.. Moulton, is also president
of the Minnesota Valley Telephone Co.
The Tri-States company expects to build
toll line from Mankato to New Ulm,
becausing it is working with the Mime
sofa Valley company. Mr.. Richardson
said that he was the one who caused
the publication and the distribution of
$500 copies of the Brown County
Journal. He purchased the papers. The
Tri-State company is engaged in COM
petition with the Northwestern Tele-
phone company at many places in the
state. The article was first published
at Anoka and then in the twin city pa