The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1908-01-23
INGRAM IS FREE
Sank Centre Lumbermdn Out
From Under Indictment
SHORT WORK IN COURT
Nineteen Dealers Indicted For Fraud
ulent Use of the Mails Held to
be Innocent

George C. Ingram of Sank Centre
and the eighteen other retail lumber
dealers who were indicted by the fed
eral grand jury Oct. s, 1907, on the
charge of using the mails with
fraudulent intent in connection with
the little black book" are free.
Judge VIM. Lochren dismissed the
case in his court at Minneapolis last
Friday, giving an oral decision dis
missing the demurrer to the indict-
ment. Naturally Mr.. Ingram. who
spent Sunday here, is pleased with
the outcome of the case He had lit
tie to say for publication beyond the
mere fact that the court had sustain
ed the position taken by the lumber
men.
The indictment was brought by
certain supply houses who charged
that the retail lumbermen had con
spired to ruin their business by send
ing for catalogues, asking for esti-
mates on building materials, etc.
This became a drain upon the supply
houses and they took the matter into
the courts. In the evidence submit
ted were a dozen postal cards asking
for catalogues. Judge Lochren holds
that the mere fact that a person or
ders a catalogue is not evidence of
conspiracy. Here follows the latter
part of Judge Lochren's decision:
Il think that when the indictment
rests upon conspiring, confederating
and agreeing together, it is necessary
that there should be by one or more of
the conspirators some overt act, and
that if the conspiracy ceases without
an overt act it does not constitute a
crime, altho when it is cosummated it
is a conspiracy rather than the overt
act which is the crime 1t seems to
me that the overt act must be an act
which has tendency at any rate to
carry out the object of the conspiracy
or in some way tends to make it
effectual. 1t may not be sufficient of
itself to complete the offense, but it
should have a tendency to do So I
do not imagine that any letter which
could have a tendency to mislead the
which are the alleged
victims could be claimed to be an
overt act at all. 1t must be an act
having tendency to effectuate the
object of the conspiracy
| have looked over all these letters
and it seems to me that there is none
of them that embraces the fraud al
legged. That is, there is none of these
letters which contain anything that
could be tortured or construed into a
of any kind that the
signer of the letter, or any of the de.
represented that he intended
to purchase any materials from the
or anyone else. Some
letters ask for catalogues which, ac
cording to the indictment, contained
a description of the merchandise with
prices; others ask for samples. I
think these are the two characters of
these letters. But there is none of
hem that contains any statement
whatever which under any rule of con-
structOn can be claimed to be
that the party writing
Intended to purchase from the corpor-
atoms.
"Of course, it is we'll known that !
any party desiring to purchase goods |
would be interested in ascertaining |
where they could be got and the prices |
It which they could be obtained; and |
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