The Nashville globe. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1906-193?, 1912-12-06
BY Wm.A. Simonds, in The Sunday
Times, Seattle, Wash, Nov. II,

BY Wm.A. Simonds, in The Sunday
Times, Seattle, Wash, Nov. II,
1912.
A stinging rebuke to VIM. j. Burns,
newspaper detective" and his meth
ods was delivered last night in the
United States District Court, when,
following an argument faying the
Burns style of sleuthing by Attorney
Will H. Morris, counsel for Edwin F.
Meyer. on trial charged with conspira-
cy to defraud the government, the
jury returned a verdict of mot gull
ty' after ninety minutes deliberation
and taking but three ballots.
The verdict came at. the culm1na-
tion of three weeks of constant trial
in the local federal court before
Judge Clinton w. Howard. The jury,
after returning its verdict, announced
through it's foreman, Horace ]. Far
rar, its willingness to sign unani-
nous petition asking the reinstate-
ment of Meyer as principal clerk in
the general storekeeper's Office Puget
Sound Navy Yard. Other indict-
ments against the defendant, num-
bering almost dozen, probably will
be dropped by the government.
instructions by Judge Howard to
the jury, so fair and impartial that
neither prosecution nor defense was
to reserve an exception, were inter
preted by the jury as favoring the
case of the defendant. This, coupled
with the brilliant argument made by
Attorney Morris, in which the Burns
detective methods were scathingly
scored; the exhaustive review of tes-
timony by S. NJ. Shipley, associate
counsel for the defense, and the eX-
cellent impression made by the de-
fendant on the witness stand, were
admitted by members of the jury as
influencing their verdict
Jury Reaches Verdict.
The jury retired to consider the
case shortly before six p m. last eve-
ming. An hour was taken for dinner,
and at $3.50 o'clock Attorneys Andrew
R. Black, Morris and Shipley, of the
defense, and Assistant United States
Attorney Charles F.. Riddell, repre-
senting United States Attorney B. W.
OOllGI, were lOJlu6u IudJ dill d6l
ment had been reached.
Judge Howard, who had not left his
chambers, was summoned to the
court room and Foreman Farrar Of
this city handed in the verdict. Mem
bers of the jury announced that but
three ballots had been taken, the first
standing eight to four for acquittal.
The argument made by Attorney
Morris was pronounced by those who
heard it one of the most brilliant
pleas ever presented in the federal
court room. Suffering from a severe
cold, he was able to speak for scarcely
more than an hour, but durinng that
time he delivered an excorlation Of
William ]. Burns and his methods as
applied to the present trial in Ian
guage so merciless and unsparinng as
to attract the closest attention from
the crowded court room.
Detectives Killed Senator
The states of Washington and Cali.
fornia owe a debt of gratitude to the
late Senator Mitchell, of Oregon, he
declared, which could never be repaid
until a monument had been erected
over his grave, to an honest man who
had been 'jobbed to his death"
Senator Mitchell, said Attorney
Morris, had died of broken heart be-
cause he had been jobbed by the al,
legged detectives to such an extent
that upon the senator's conviction on
perjured testimony before pact and
instructed jury in Portland he had
not lived to hear sentence pronounced
upon him.
Reference to Burns and his meth
Ods was made by Morris by way of
introduction to an argument on be-
half of his client, wherein the state
ment was made that ]. A. Kettlewell,
confessed conspirator in connection
with the navy yard frauds and wit
ness for the government thad been
a party to similar methods in an
effort to convict Meyer.
"There is not a shred of evidence" "
he asserted 'to show that this de-
fendant has been guilty of any crimi-
nal intent You knew Senator Nit
chell, gentlemen o. the jury; you
knew F. w. Mays; you knew Willard
N. Jones; you knew Horace G. Nc
Kinney and the others.
''You knew them, I repeat. Turn
now to the work of the detectives.
Turn to Attorney General Wicker
sham to whom the government ator-
ney here owes his appointment At
torney General Wicbersham recon-
mended to President Taft a pardon
for Jones, the only victim, who had
neither died nor completed his term
of sentence in connection with the
alleged land frauds; for Jones. a
man against whom not a breath of
suspicion was ever raised until the
detectives got after him.