The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1911-02-02
TO PROSECUTE MANY
PAPERS FOR FRAUD
Rumored That Attorney Hopes
to Make Money
AKERMAN HAS BIG LIST
Atlanta JourneI Case Turned Out I'm
satisfactory and May Have Given
the WOuld-Be Reformer n
Cold Chill
AKERMAN HAS BIG LIST

Atldntd, FEBRUARY l-NopeSiai3H
According to club gossip anent the
effort to indict two OF the Atlanta news
papers for conspiracy to defraud the
government in the matter of postage,
Alex Alderman of Macon is another OIL
those government investigators VINO
hopes to pick up a neat sum through
the discovery and prosecution of frauds
against the United States, and he has
selected the newspapers as his field of
operations.
Report here has it that the effort
to indict criminally the Atlanta Jour
nal and the Atlanta Constitution is
only the beginning of vast campaign
which. will take in many newspapers IN
many states; it is said there are 30
or 40 of them on the list, and that
the Atlanta prosecutions which, by the
way, turned out sadly for the prose-
cutting officer, are really only a drop
in the bucket.
Ever since a government inspector
discovered that the sugar trust had
been defrauding the government
through false scales and by other meth
DDS and got a hundred thousand or so
for his information, government in
spectors and agents have been con-
stantly on the job. it is said, looking
for other opportunities of the same
sort.
From whatever standpoint 1t may
be viewed all the indications seem to
point to the fact that Mr.. Alderman has
enter field of doubtful fertility.
The grand jury refused outright to
find a true bin against the Constitu
ton, and after having found one
against the Journal on an evident tech
nicality, Judge W. T. Newman threw
it out of court on demurrer. So the
two Atlanta papers have come out OF
the fracas with clean records, and it
looks as If Mr.. Alderman will have to
pillow considerably deeper If he ex-
poets to get his pile out of the par
ticular form of alleged graft to which
he has turned his attention.
Besides the sums alleged to have
been involved III the cases of the At
lanta newspapers. even If the govern
ment had been in any way defrauded,
were too small to be of any moment.
In both cases combined the govern
ment could not have claimed much
more than $1,000, even if it had been
able to show that there had been
violation of law or postal regula ton
Everybody is satisfied that no reput-
able newspaper Is going to seek will
fully to defraud the government in the
matter of postage; and, of course, the
only thing to do in such cases where
the government may discover that there
is some discrepancy in what 1t re-
ceived and what 1T should have re-
ceived, Is to bill the paper for the diff
ference, and in 80 cases out of 100
on proper showing, it would get the
money promptly without any dispute
about it. -ssAe f-r 4
But for some mysterious reason not
yet developed, it was decided to institute
criminal proceedings in these cases. and
1t is rumored that similar course will
be pursued in the cases of other newspa-
pers which Mr. Alderman has on his list
1t is a question, however as to how
much encouragement Mr.. Alderman has
received as result of his Atlanta ex-
perience, to go on with similar prosecu-
tons in other sections Of the country.
With two failures at that start 1t may be
that he will feel a cold chill for a time,
though he has given notice of a motion
to appeal from theFcourts decision sus-
tanning the Atlanta Journals demurrer.
The chief thing which the government
agents and inspectors have been trying
to prove is that these newspapers con-
spired to violate postal regulation which
prescribes that only 10 per cent of sam
pie copies as compared with the total
subscription list of publication, may be
sent through the mails at the second class
rate of 1 cent pound. Above 10 per
cent, such copies are charged for at the
rate of cents a pound.
1t was sought to prove that conspir-
acy had been entered into, for the pur-
pose of defrauding the government by
sending an excess of sample copies above
the 10 per cent allowed. at the lower rate
of l cent per pound, thereby defrauding
the government of cents on each pound
of such excess.
The government also tried to make out
several instances of collision between
newspapers and postoffice employees. as
a result of which, it was charged, there
was underweighing of the mail, but not
enough ex parte evidence could be found
in connection with these charges even to
make out a grand jury indictment.
So far as it has gone in Atlanta, the
government has fallen down ingloriously.
and whether Mr.. Alderman will turn his
attention to new fields in the face of
these defeats remains to be seen.
1t has cost the government some
money, too this investigation has. To
get a no bill against the Constitution and
to have the indictment against he Jour
nal thrown out of court, the government
has spent possibly some 5000 in the last
month, not to speek of extensive inves-
LEGATIONS by inspectors which took place
prior to that time. OF this amount pos
sibly more than $500 was consumed in
witness fees, as about 100 witnesses were
summoned in the case of the Contitu-
ton and half a many in the Journals
case. Some of these came from dis
lance, one or two from as far away as
Texas, and. of course, their railroad fare
and hotel bills had to be paid.
The indications are, therefore, that the
government is spending some of the good
money it got back from the sugar trust
without result for it seems in this In
stance to be case of paying out with
nothing coming back.