The Minneapolis journal., 1906-05-11
.BECHTEL s FATE
WITH THE 4 !; JURY.
Continued From First, Page.

money ana care Tor the WIDOWS ana
orphans. You are not going to put
aside the reason with which you would
Judge the excuses Of "a common thief
who went to the vault in the night and
took the $3,5O0.0
Mr.. Smith then held up to, ridicule
Mr.. Bechtel s explanation Of his deal |
with. DR.. Force relative to the paying
of the 100000 as the price of DR..
Force g stepping down and out.
zee; - l.; ask you, gentlemen ne I sald, aha
why WASH t it spread on the records9
No. It was a secret agreement between
the officers te further their own inter-
ests and to defraud the policy holders
of the company.
Zone man carrying away $4,000,
another man carrying away over $780,
600. Raising the president g salary to
$2o,ooo-car3rying Force and zGettYy
lars Were these things. to. the, inter
est of the policy holders?
What does a president want? What
does he want from the poor, policyhold-
ers. who each day sweat out the money
to pay their premiums9 With a salary
Of $40, 900 q year, with a $4,000 con
tingent fund, Of which he says he had
he want? This defendant WASH It sat
isfed. He wanted and he had unlimit
ed power to draw checks and he
wouldn It show them here in court. -
re Judge Jamison objected to this state
ment and Mr. Smith replied: every
well, Judge, anything that you want
withdrawn [ will withdraw. I will
change that statement and say he did
not bring those checks to us and we
asked for them. I" /:
The prosecutor then contrasted the
two statements Of 8 Bechtel, the one
to Reed. 9 Maybe he e. : did bribe
Q ,Shaughnessy;y, exclaimed Mr.. Smith,
but the man who would bribe an Of
would not hesitate moment to loot his
company s4&f 1e~~
Mr.. Smith then dwelt upon the va
rious acts Of secretaries which he ar
gued proved the defendant IS guilty in
tent, and his knowledge that he had
no legal right to take this money.
afteE a;,t tlmpre4sslng upon the 59ro.s or
but to the public, and to themselves the
| Victor Welch, counsel for the defend
| ant, then addressed the jury. After
criticizing the remarks Of the county
attorney and asserting that they were
intended to arouse prejudice against the
defendant and insurance men In gen
eral, counsel entered upon lengthy
eulogy Of Mr.. Bechtel and his great
Mr.. Welch gave the defendants YER
sion Of his various transactions from
the time Of the consolidation on. and
but FOR counsePss explanations, very in
genious at times, the story did not vary
from that told by the defendant upon
direct examination. He continually
Iro * l;oh
the defendant had built up. : ,sgy
/ Mr.. Welch s argument was concluded
after the noon recess ~ - -.
I With the conclusion Of W. F. Bech-
tells testimony Before Judge F. G.
Brooks, yesterdays afternoon, e2ther de-
tense in the insurance Investigation
case rested, the state Had nothing more
s|to offer and with the exception of, the
;losing a srgumentsE gun Of f. counsel nS; the
4 lBechtel casecWas finished. 'N.ts.s. "
The sudden close Was someWhat unex-
pected and leaves the defendant s vim
dication depending solely upon the tes-
;timony&of six character witnesses, and
his OWL sworn statements that he took
a perfect right to take it and did not
intend to defraud the company. =
Assistant County Attorney John F
! Dahl saved one Of bis strongest points
until the last Yesterday afternoon
when he had nearly completed his cross
examination, he produced a letter writ
ten by the defendant to Albert Reed OF
Boulder, COL. a policy holder. This
letter was an explanation of the $500;
evidently inquired after reading the
report Of the consulting actuary, Wolfe
It contains an explanation directly at
variance with Mr.. Bechtel's explana
tion, given under oath on the witness
stand, and will be cited by the prose
cutor as showing the defendant IS de-
sire to conceal the true nature Of the
deal. The letter identified by Bechte
is as follows: .rs ~. ~. g..
: The statement made by Mr.. Wolfe
, that the personal accounts of some o:
the officers had been confused will
some Of the accounts Of the company
is absolutely unwarranted. The cas-,
!, referred to is the only one of it's char
acter upon the books Of the company
He used this single instance as illus
: trative of a class Of accounts.
"Dr. Emery should have made th'
statement and agreed to make the state
2 ment before leaving our office, tha
this item of $500 represented none,
which had actually been paid out by tn
r officer in. question for the good of tn
, company during the winter of 1900
1901, when the legislature was in ses
!. sion, and when it was necessary tt
! obtain new legislation in order tina
the company, then existing as an as
;; sessment. company, might be .converte,
! into a company upon the legal-reserv
!, basis. When, in 1908, a check fo
. $4,000 was drawn, instead Of maxim,
! It payable to the officer who had ex
!, pended the money, it was made payabl
I to a third party to whom he was in
3 sdebted, and Mr.. Wolfe having objecte
! to this account, [ personally agreed t
repay it to the company upon his i'm
piled if not expressed agreement not t
allude to it at all Every compan
has expenses of the character Indicate
by me herein. The items are usual
kept under the heading Of 'sLegislativ
Expenses. u IT. was an expense in
: Cured by the company in doing wha
it believed to be- for it's best interests.
Following this and some further ques
Is tions upon matters already covered i
!. the mornings cross examination, tn
! witness was turned over to the defens
: !. for brief and unimportant redirec
!. examination and was finally dismissed
e Hoodwtnks the oculist Madden Ey
Medicin cures eyes. lDon t s1nart.l CSC