Omaha daily bee., 1906-06-23

defendants were tried were returned IN
Kansas City by the grand jury on Decen1-
Der IS The cases have been handled for
the government by a. 8. Van Valkenburgh,
the district attorney and HE assistant
Leslie Lyons. while the defendants have
been represented by some OF the ablest
counsel IN the west OF the eleven cases
brought up at this term the government
has secured seven convictions, one de-
PENDANT was acquitted and three cases
were dismissed.
George l. Thomas Of New York. a freight
broker. and his chief clerk. l.. b. Tsggart,
whose case was the first to be tried, were
convicted Of securing rebates from rail-
ways on shipments from New York TO St.
Louis and Kansas City dry goods con-
Germs. At their trial several prominent
merchants. who admitted having signed
contracts with Thomas, testified TO recciv-
ing at various times sums of money from
mysterious sources Many thousands Of
dollars were thus received and some Of
the witnesses admitted the likelihood of
1t coming from Thomas. The penalty pro-
vided is a fine Of not less than $1,000 nor
more than $1,000, or Imprisonment in the
penitentiary for not more than two years,
or both fine and Imprisonment
George II. Crosby Escapes Trial.
CAObbNt asSASAAhN AiNihhA
| traffc manager OF the Chicago, Burline-
ton & Quincy railroad who was charged
with conspirng with Thomas and Tag
! CART to pay concessions, was discharged
by Judge Mcpherson The court sustained
a demurrer. presented by Judge o. NJ
! Spencer Of st. Joseph, Mo. general solic-
! itor OF the railway, who contended that no
evidence had been presented to connect
Crosby with the alleged conspiracy.
The Armour Packing company. Swift and
| company. Cudahy & Co., and the Nelson
Morris company were tried Jointly and con-
| victed on the charge OF accepting con-
cessions from the Burlington railway, in
connection with connecting lines on pack
ing house products for export via New
York.
The Burlington Railway company was
convicted on four counts OF granting con-
cessions TO the packing companies Of Ar
mour, SWIFT, Cudahy and Nelson Morris
The penalty provided in the case Of the
packers and the Burlington involves a fine
of from $1,000 to 5000 on each count, but
not Imprisonment.
other Cases Dismissed.
The cases of the Chicago, Milwaukee &
St. Paul and the Chicago & Alton com
panies, charged with offering concessions
Kansas City. charged with conspirlng 10
secure concessions from these railways
were dismissed upon the suggestion Of Dis
trict Attorney Van Valkenburgh, VINO
stated that he believed the railroads in
this case had been imposed upon. As the
case against Kresky was predicated upon
that against the railways 1t was useless t,
try him.
In the case OF the Chicago & Alton Rail
road company and j. N. Faithorn il
former vice president and F. A. Wann, il
former assistant traffic manager, charged
with having given concessions to tn
Schwarzschild g. Sulzberger Packing com
pany, the defendants set up a plea of i'm
munlty upon the ground that some OF thei
employees had testified before fedora
grand jury at Chicago concerning the sam
transactions for which they later were in
dicted at Kansas City. Judge Mcpherson
sustained the governments demurrer L
this plea, but continued the cases owe
till next fall, when the similar cases a
Chicago probably will have been dispose
OF. This Alton case is distinct from tina
in which Kresky was concerned.