Arizona republican., 1913-10-26
STE|NFELD |S
 INVESTIGATED
Tucson Mercantile Firm and It's President Indict- ed by Federal Grand Jury for Exporting Munitions of War

For alleged violating O: the neu trality laws of the United States, conspiring to or actually selling arms and munitions of war 10 agents of one or more of the factions in Mex ico, the Albert Steinfeld company of Tucson and Albert Steinfeld, it's president were indicted by the grand jury of the federal court in one of it's last sessions yesterday
 The greatest mercantile establish ment in the old Pueblo and one of TucsOns most wealthy merchants are the objects of the inquiry that result ed in the return of the true Dill yes terday. The charge is practically the same as has already been found against the Shelton Papyne Arms company of Fl Paso, the Phelps ,, Dodge Mercantile company of Bisbee and the Douglas Hardware company. As in these other cases, the manager or president as the case may be, shared the same fate as the corpora tion.
 The true bills were returned at about three o'clock Marshal Charles A. Overlook announced that MT. Steinfeld had just phoned from Tue ! 1 being informed of the action of the grand jury had promised to be in 1 Phoenix Monday morning with his at ! torneys to answer at his arrafgn- ment.
 i It is in an attempt to stop the ship ping of arms that the munitions of ] war cases are being investigated by i the federal grand jury There is a 1 tremendous traffic in arms over the 1 bOrder-a trade which keeps the zone l across southern Arizona in such con- l tinual uproar that District Attorney | J. E. Morrison has named it his trou- l ble zone Big cOnsignments of rifles and cars upon cars of cartridges from 1 the basis of long intricate investiga- l tions by government secret service 1 officers. The attempt is being made 1 to cut down the amount of war sup | plies shipped into the southern re- | public from Arizona, and in this the 1 authorities are succeeding only as well as may be expected under the 1 circumstances of mercantile indiffer- 1 ence-or worse. Still, Arizona is ahead 1 of other border states in this matter | The outcome of the charges against l the several companies and their heads l will depend on the courts interpreta- 1 tiOn of the regulation recently passed l in neutrality matters. If it is shown ! that selling large quantities of arms not necessarily with the knowledge | that the supplies are to be used in i MeXicO-is a criminal offense, and it
 is proven that the companies actu-
 ally did sell the arms, the attorneys 1 for the government will have some
 thing on which to base serious ac- | tion. On the other hand, if the sen i ate joint resolution covering arms l shipping is not clear on this point it may be hard to get convictions. Much | speculation is heard concerning the l possibilities of the governments ac- | tiOns against the wealthy mercantile ! firms involved. Other and still more startling disclosures are looked for daily. When it was announced in a | report of Foreman R. A. Kirk that the grand jury had much more work l to do, it was thought by some in the court room that further sensat tfons would be forthcoming
 The grand jury adjourned to meet
 again at nine Monday morning II Very little remains of the docket
 to be worked up by the grand jury
 Most of the Indian liquor cases are
 now out of the way, either by sen
 tenceS or arraignments, and a number
 of the other matters have been passed
 The work of the jury from now on
 will consist largely of probing the
 more interesting and important cases
 against ViOlators of the arms and white slave laws.