Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-06-04
HITCHCOCK AND
MACK TO TESTIFY
Government Will Try to Show
Former Campaign Managers
Warned Newspaper Men in Ca
bic Dispatches.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind, June Frank
Hitchcock, chairman of the Republican
National committee Norman e. Mack,
chairman of Democratic National COM
mittee; members of the office staff of j.
Pierpont Morgan g. Company, of New
York, and certain officials in the depart
ments of the government at Washington
are to be produced as witnesses for the
government in the, prosecution of Delavan
Smith and Charles r. Williams, owners
| of the Indianapolis News. charged with
criminal libel in publishing intimatiens
that there was an enormous graft IN
] the purchase of the Panama canal by the
United States from the old French COM
panies that owned the property.
The governments attorneys, after the
Indictment OF Messrs. Smith and Williams
by a grand jury in the District of Co
J lumbia, made application to the United
States court of this district for their re-
I moval to the District of Columbia for
trial.
This order the court refused to make
until it was satisfied there was probable
cause for the indictment for criminal Ii
| bel, which, to be complete, must contain
the element of express malice.
ASKED FOR CONTINUANCE
Stuart Mcnamara, of the department
of justice, st Washington, and United
States Attorney Miller of this district.
| this morning at the opening of court
asked for continuance, saying that since
the court had decided to hear evidence on
the merits of the cause, the matter had
| taken a wider scope than they were pre-
pared for. The court demurred, saying
that counsel should have anticipated his
action and should have been prepared.
Commenting on the Panama situation in
general, Judge Anderson said he thought
the public had right to question the
| conditions of the transfer of the canal
because of William Nelson Cromwells
course before the senate investigating
| committee
This forty million, of dollars said
the court, that was paid for the canal
was the public's money. you must re-
member. A part of 1t was my money;
a part Of it was yours"
| HITCHCOCK AND MACK.
The governments attorneys then
| stated that they wished to produce
Messrs. Hitchcock and Mack to prove
| that each of them had announced that
the charges of corruption in the Panama
transfer had been disproved. Counsel
! expected to show that the indianapolis
News had possession of these facts
when editorials appeared in it further
| ing the allegations Of fraudulent deal
! ing in the matter by Douglas Robinson,
| William Nelson Cromwell, c. P. Taft,
j. P Morgan and others, and that this
| was malicious libel.
Members of ]. P. Morgan's staff were
| to be summoned, counsel stated, to show
/ the securities the company gave to the
! United States for $40,oOO,000, the pur-
chase price of the canal, and the re-
ceipts given by the French companies
for the payment for the securities SOLD
| to the United States. Counsel held that
i cats Of would show
/ that no go-betweens received cent OF
1 profit and that the deal was a clean
\ piece of business, as Mr.. Cromwell told
| the senate committee after he had de-
clined to reveal the names of the sub
scrfbers to a corporation that previously
had been planned to Americanize the
Panama canal, but had been dissolved
because the purchase seemed at the
| same time impracticahle.s
| Despite protests of the defense, Judge
| Anderson consented to continuance
and the government will introduce It's
witnesses in court here on october II,
| next.
DEFENSE OBJECTED.
Ferdinand Winter; for the defense.
stated that the governments attorneys
should have been prepared with their
witnesses. and Judge Anderson COM
mented that certainly government coun-
] sci should have anticipated that the
| court would go into the merits or the
cause and not order the removal OF the
J defendants to the District of Columbia
| for trial without having examined the
! facts to ascertain If the indictment OF
! them for criminal libel were valid, that
{ express malice was present in the alleged
/ libel $685.. rHc .- e..
The court then went on to give its
conception of the impression on the pub
lie mind of the Morgan committees in
| uuiry into the Panama case. He said
| that when William Nelson Cromwell, at
torney for the French canal company,
| refused to tell the committee the names
| of the members of the American syndf-
! Gates formed to "Americanize" the Pana-
| ma property, but abandoned because the
| purchase seemed impraeticable, he gave
| the public opportunity to infer that there
was something to- cover up. Judge An
| derson further said it was his personal
! impression that at the time OF the
| Walker commissions inquiry into the
| comparative merits of the Panama and
| the Nicara guam routes. "the people that
knew all about canal matters" had
! very quick sudden" change of heart
/ from the Nicaragua route to the Panama
! route.
THE TWO ROUTES.
|
gested that the commission favored the
i Panama route, but recommended the Mic
araguan route because Of the enormous
price asked for the Panama property. .
Judge Anderson said he was not speak-
| ing of a commission, but of those per-
sons about Washington and elsewhere
| that were interesting themselves in
South American canal.
| Combating the trend of the discussion,
| United States Attorney Mcnamara de-
clared that the defendant must have
known from published reports that at
! the close of the senate inquiry, Mr..
Cromwell said that he had not received
cent of profits from the canal transfer.
and no other American had. Furthermore,
/ Mr. Mcnamara said, the receipts of ]. P.
Morgan & Co. for the $4OOO0,OG0 paid by
the United States for the canal and the
receipts of the two French companies for
! the money paid to the Morgan company
! for their securities could and should be
y