The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-11-28
Under Three Charges and Will Face
Them Tomorrow When Seven
Ex-officiaIs viii go on
Trial.
sPITZER MAY TELL ALL
One Of the Men is Expected to Turn
States Evidence and Then
There viii Be
Trouble.

[Gate City Leased Wire Service.
81 NEW YORK, Nov. Monday will
begin the sugar trusts trial in the
criminal court, for seven ex-of1icials
and employessWill be put on trial be-
fore Federal Judge Martin, Of Vel-
mont lin the United States District
Court in New York, on the charge Of
under-weighing sugar and conspiring
to defraud the government.
The preliminary steps taken thus
far by the seven defendants show to
what extremes the trust Is going In
its fight to present their conviction
realizing that il they are convicted
there may result sensational denoue-
ments which will leave the trust in
an unenviable position before the law.
The indicted men, whose trial Is
slated to begin Monday, are James F..
Bendernagel. former general superin-
tendent OF the Brooklyn plants Of the
American Sugar Refining Co.; Oliver
Splitter, former dock superintendent
OF the company in BROOKLYN; Thos.
Kehoe, Jean M Voelker, Edward "A.
Boyle, John r. Coyle and Patrick Hen.
nessey, weigher. Voelker is critical
ly i'll and may be unable to appear in
court with the others. 1t is not belfev-
ed the trial will go on until every
legal obstacle the attorneys for the
defense can throw in the way have
been overcome. The attorneys
for the sugar trust have prepared a
number of demurrers which must be
argued so that several days are ex
| pected to be consumed In the lega
technicalities.
/ Turn States Evidence.
The rumor is still current In New
! York that one of the indicted official!
1 is prepared to turn states evidence
and lay bare the gigantic plot to de
1 fraud the government of millions.
Oliver Splitter. the former docl
4 superintendent, is the man named II
4 these rumors.
Special Deputy Attorney Henry I
4 Simpson. appointed to prosecut,
the Sugar fraud cases; District At
torney Wise, together with Wilfret
Dennison and Felix Frankfurter, MI
Stimson's assistants. kept away from
their offices today and it was reports
they had gone into seclusion to pre-
4 pare final plans for the prosecution.
i The trial. when it is finally on, vii
be great mass of figures and dry de
4 details.
i There are three counts In the ir
1 dictments. The first charges under
4 weighing, the second conspiracy t
i underweigh. and the third conspirin
to defraud the government by thu
4 under-weighing.
The cargo of the steamship Strait
yre. from Java. which was unloade
at the Brooklyn docks of the suga
company, on Nov. 90. 1907, is th
4 specific cargo upon which the indict
ments are found, while part of tn
conspiracy is based upon the use {
4 a device found on the scales by whic
( thev failed to measure true weight.
. This device was the steel spring |
hole at the side of the Scale an
when a bag of sugar was placed onst
a slight pressure on this spring woul
prevent the scale from weighing tn
full measure of sugar. 1t was frol
!. the hole on each of the seventee
scales that the SUGAR fraud cases d
I veloped its now frequent name {
The case of seventeen holes"
Bendernaeel and Splitter are tn
: highest officials Of the trust yet el
tangled in the meshes of the Law
Bendernagel has been with the con
many thirty years and his salary
$4,000 year. Spitzer has been en-
ployed an ennal length of time an
: was getting $4,000 year at the tin
!, , of his arrest and resignation
Z T,Ft TaILe Ahn,,} ~
WASHINGTON Nov. 27.- Pres
). dent Taft told Representative Week
. of Massachusetts, today he firmly b
iieved some of the high officials of IL
sugar trust would eventually be Ian
ed in the penitentiary because of tt
: frauds unearthed at the New Yol
i customs house. He declared Attornt
General Wickersham was determine
e to press his Investigations. The Pres
: dent said the attorney general W;
convinced he was upon the right trs
and that before very long he would
Il able to bring some of the men "hig
W er up" to book