New-York tribune., 1908-03-25
MCCLURE SUIT GOES ON.
Judge Hough Lets Jury Dec'de
Meaning of Lobbyist.

An effort to have the complaint dismissed IN TN
'muck-rake" proceedings, in which hiii'ahuri =
Phillips president Of the Union Refrlgefa'o1 ian
sit Company asks 100000 damages from the
c. Mcclure company for alleged hoeI, was ue'''
yesterday by Judge Hough, in the Uniteo states
Circuit Court, when the prosecution announces
that It had closed its case with the examination o.
several witnesses.
In the examination OF witnesses who were con-
cerned in articles written by Ray Stannard Baker
and printed in 'McC1ure's Magazine, where Phil
lips complains he was charged with accepting re-
bates from railroad companies EFFORTS were maoe
to define the words graft" and lobbyist {. l..
Burr of for the defence, denied that elthef
of these words had been used in an offensive
manner when Mr.. Baker told OF the reoates he
also added that The term graft was not lunoa-
mentally offensive
Judge Fough did not care to accept the word
lobbyist when Mr. Burr declared that Mr.. Phil
lips had proved among other things that he acted
as lobbyist in appearing before the wisconsin
Legislature
"A lobbyist is one who goes in and out of a
lobby and tries to influence legislation improperly.
added the iucge as he declared that he would
let the question of the of that Worp go oeiote
the jury, and th~ time refused TO entertain
the motion to dismiss he ease
Before the was put over for further e2am-
nation to-day Mr. Phillips. the complainant. and
John Phillips. who said he vas manager OF the
defendants magazine in tn. winter and spring OF
1905 and 1906. examined. with ). 3 Mcclure
denied that the rebate article was prlAteo with
intent to give out sensational news. He also saia
that he had ordered the exact truth to be printed
in all cases The only instructions he could recall
having given Mr.. Baker when he assigned hiin 10
take up question of railway discrimination were
10 get at the true facts
In his testimony Mr.. Mcclure told of the conil-
dence he held for the writer of the article ana
added that when Mr.. Baker explained that he 1ad
made a mistake in the story he gave further IN
structions TO have the error rectifed. Before Mr.
Mcclure was called witness, Mr. Phillips, VINO
is now connected with rival magazine. testified
that he knew writer of the rebate story and
told of the circumstances which led the publica-
tion He admitted that he read the manu-
script before its publication, but did not remember
much about it.
The testimony given yesterday largely on
the lines inst of the previous day Gilbert
Z. Roe, of counsel for the defence resumed his
examination of Mr. Phillips. The witness declared
that he did recall having had any conversation
with the agents of St Paul railway, but later
he admitted that there had been d conversation
with railroad representative in connection with
a refund Of 15 per cent cars carrying Pahst
Brewing Company freight.
The term mot strictly criminal was also dis
cussed, but Judge Hough declared that this was
the newspaper way of expressing entirely wrong
full Before Mr.. Phillips finished his testimony
he referred 10 article published in Milwaukee
newspaper, which showed denals made in conneC-
ton with the Mr.. Phillips admitted that ne
was d personal friend OF August Uihlen, whose
family controlled brewery, but he added that
he did not know that this company had any in
terest in the Northern Refrigerator Company.