The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-10-08
ICE TRUST TRIALS
Expected to Be One of the Most
Spectacular Trials

New York, oct. 7.-One line of de
tense with which the American Ice
Company lawyers will meet the legal
attack by the attorney generals de-
partment on the so called Ice Trust
was apparently revealed yesterday
shortly before II was decided that
special jury of business men shall try
the corporation for alleged violations
of the Donnelly Autobiography act.
In meeting the issues raised in the
present case the ice company lawyers
will rely in a general way upon the
right of any person or corporation to
buy out the business and good will
of a competitor.
That the life of the American Ice
company is at stake in the present
action was admitted yesterday during
the argument for a special jury be
fore Supreme Court Justice, Wheeler
in the Criminal Courts building. John
b. Stanchfield, one of the company's
lawyers. said that the American Ice
company would be prohibited from
doing business in this state in the
event of conviction.
The Ice Trust lawyers based their
request for special jury of business
men on the ground that fair-minded
jurors could not be obtained from the
ordinary panel. Julien I. Davies, one
of the large staff of ice company at
torneys, produced a stack of newspa-
per clippings and cartoons purporting
to show that the public mind had been
inhamed against the corporation.
The newspapers of this town, as
anancnd tho
officers and directors of this corpora
ton of every crime on the calendar,
said Mr.. Davies. "They have even
gone so far as to abuse the district
attorney of the county because he
! could not find that the statements
printed in some OF the newspapers
had any truth in them. 1t has been
a daily practice, since 1905, of certain
newspapers to present their readers
with their breakfast roll an attack on
| the Ice Trust"
Mr. Davies read some of the news
paper attacks and showed some of the
cartoons to the justice, who looked
| them over and smiled.
1T Is accumulative evidence ad
nauseam' commented Mr.. Davies.
The attacks have stirred up and kept
alive feeling against the American
] Ice company-one which makes II al
most impossible to obtain an unpre-
JUDGED jury in any part of the state
| of New York in any case in which the
! American Ice company is party
even in the trial of an accident suit"
James w. Osborne the deputy at
! torney general, who, with Deputy At
/ torney General Roger p. Clark, was
| appointed to prosecute the ice case,
objected to Mr.. Davies remarks.
| This is simply a scheme for delay
"a time-killing device" he said mo
special panel is requiredi II is not
an intricate case, but 1t seems to me
from the tactics OF the defense that
! it will be a long drawn out one. we
will prove our side by documentary
| evidence"
Mr. Stanchfield jumped into the dis
! cussion. He took exception to Mr.
| Osborne's statements about time
killing" then went on to explain the
legal ground on which he and his le-
gal associates would stand.
THE law of the case simply mar
rows itself down to this he said. "A
has drug store at the southeast cor
ner of Fourteenth street and Fifth
Avenue and b has one on the oppos-
lite corner Would it be crime for
A to buy out B for $1,000,000? The
stock in trade might not be worth that
much. but A might be willingsto pay
that for the good Will"
Mr. Stanchfield then spoke OF the
! life of the ice company depending on
the outcome, and said:
Barring the Thaw case, no case in
New York has attracted so much pub
| licity as this. What we want is
| jury of business men-men Of trade"
Justice Wheeler granted the motion
for a special jury and adjourned the
( case until Monday, Oct. Is. panel
of 100 business men will be drawn
| in the meantime