New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-11-04
MORSE TRIAL NEAR END
CASE TO JURY TO-DAY.
Judge Hough WM DehUer Charge
This afternoon.

The final arguments of counsel in the Morse
Curtis trial before Judge Hough in the United states
District Court drew a large crowd 70 the IeuerdI
building yesterday 1t the first time federal
court had ever convened in this district on Elecon
Day.
The Jurors who have been shut up at the Astor
House since the trial began three weeks ago
went to the polls to vote early in the morning in
charge of deputy marshals.
When court convened at l 80 O'CLOCK, ex-JuoSe
w NJ K Olcott counsel for Alfred II. Curtis, con-
tinued his final plea for the ex-presden of the Ne
tional Bank of North America He talked for over
an hour, and then Henry L. Stimson the united
States Attorney, began to sum up for the govern
ment At 5 o'clock while Mr. Stnson was still
pleading Judge Hough adjourned court until 10
o'clock this morning.
Mr. Stimson will take about hour this morn
ing TO finish his case and then Judge Hough will
charge the jury. AS Judge Housh is noted for the
brevity of his charges it believed that he will
not take more than two hours This VIII mean
that the case will go to the jury for decision some
time this afternoon.
The burden of Mr.. Olcott's closing argument for
Curtis that the ex-president of the National
Bank of North America. after than twenty
five years honorable business life, would not have
violated the federal banking laws when he was not
profting personally a single dollar by any or the
transactions which the government charges were
illegal. Mr.. Olcott dwet with great force on the
that Curtis had speculated n any of the
Morse enterprises in any other ventures. II
guilty of anything Mr.. OIcott argued. his client had
been guilty of overconfdence in Morse. a feeling
shared by all the other directors of the bank
Mr.. Ocott called attention to the fact that Curtis
had gone to ex-Justice Morgan J. O'Brien and had
consulted wit hhim in relation TO bank matters
when worried about the banks condition, that he
had then gone directors and then to the tel
Ter, and Had then written to Morse himself with
regard to matters. He declared that II Morse ana
he had been partners in crime Morse would have
said Don't come you Judas. Don't come
TO me with your pharasaical expressions OF hon
esty. You guilty as l.
Mr.. Stimson began his address With long
resume OF all the testimony in the case. He said
he had tried fairly, prosecuting only along
well recognized rules of evidence. He said that
while Morse and Curtis should be convicted If they
had Intentionally violated federal banking laws
or had ignored them tndiferently, they should be
acquitted if the opposite were the case
You have heard he said 'the two men on the
stand Curtis chiIdlike. overwhelmed with the
pov err and wealth of the other man and under the
influence of that other man. did things he admitted
amounted TO breach OF trust You have
heard the other man. Morse. where, tearing away
the veil of ignorance of banking matters with
which his counsel had clothed him he said. under
cross-examination that he didn't go to Curtis to
Curtis came to me- That, IN nutshell. puts
squarely tie relations of the two men throughout
all these transac tions.''
Mr. Stimson said that the government did not
charge that the in question had fixed
the books of the bank but that the two men so
shaped their transactions that they could go on the
books of the bank in accordance with the bank $
system and the Controllers reports also. in the
form they did.
There many women in the courtroom, In
Guiding the wives Of the defendants Mr..
Morse's eldest and his bride were also in court