New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-09-28
.MARCONE co. SUES
TO ENJOIN CENSORS
Wireless Concern to Tect
Presidents Power to
Close Stations.
SECRETARY DANIELS
SERVED ON TRAIN
Head of the Navy Department
Holds President Can En-
force Neutrality.

Charging that the Navy Department
has acted illegally in taking charge Of
its stations, and that the government,
through the Secretary Of the Navy, is
seeking to make its officers and agents
break the law, the Marconi Wireless
Company Of America has brought suit
in the United States District Court in
Brooklyn for an injunction restraining
Secretary Daniels and the officers he
has detailed for censorship purposes
from in any way interfering with the
conduct Of the companys wireless sta
tions.
Secretary Daniels was served with
the summons and complaint in the suit
while en- route from Troy to New York
on Saturday night by a process server
from the Offices Of Griggs, Baldwin &
Baldwin, the senior member Of which
Is John W. Griggs, once Attorney Cen
erRl Of the United States and now pres
ident of the Marconi company. The
writ Is returnAble on October Z.
Pending the determination of the
issue a temporary injunction is asked
against Mr.. Daniels and David |. He'd
rick, Penn L. Carroll, Josiah Ogden
Hoffman, jr., and John NJ. Sylvester,
naval officers, detailed by him to see
that the company maintained a strics
neutrality and permitted the sending
Of no code messages.
a haven't any doubt of the Presi-
dents right in this matter" said Mr..
Daniels to a reporter for The Tribune.
"There Is no gainssying the fact that
the President is bound to preserve the
stIictest neutrality. If we permit the
Marconi company TO send and receive
unneutral messages there would be no
neutrality.
1.-THE Marconi company has consist
emily maintained that the President
has not the power to regulate it, The
Attorney General has told the Presi-
dent that he has the power. There is
no doubt in my mind or that Of the
President as to the duty of this gov
ernmeEit, nor is there any doubt that
the courts will sustain the govern
ment's position.
an the extraordinary conditions now
existing there cannot he a shadow Of
doubt that the President, in order to
enforce the strictest obedience of his
proclamation of neutality, can, If neces-
sary, seize these or any other plants.
The government is ICutral, will stay
neutral, and neither the Marconi COM
pany nor any other company or group
Of individuals will be allowed to make
il otherwise"
The complaint with which the Secre-
tary was served, after reciting the his
tory of the organization, sets up that
the law provides for it's regulation by
the Secretary of Commerce, and that it
has lived up to the regulations made
under that law and to the conventions
of Berlin and London, which, 1t main
tains, compel it to forward all mes
sages received or rendered it to their
destination.
II says further that the law binds it
not 10 reveal the contents of messages
TO any person other than those TO which
they are addressed, except by order or
a court. and that in ordering it TO sub
nit 10 censorship the government has
ordered its officers and agents to bev
come criminals.
The case hinges upon the message OF
the commander Of the British cruiser
Suffolk to an uptown dealer in ship
supplies TO send a quantity OF meat
and -four TO a point beyond the three
mile limit, there to be picked up by
him. II is not denied by the company
that such a message was received and
delivered. Subsequently, ii says, the
Secretary made demands for explana-
tions and finally threatened to seize
various stations unless the necessary
explanations were forthcoming, this
contention being backed up by copies
of various letters and wire messages
hitherto published Because of these
threats and interference the company
SAYS it has lost 1T least $4,000 and
stands to lose much more.
The papers in the case will be sub
rnitted to the Department Of Justice. IL
Washington, to-day. The nature Of the
government answer is indicated by the
opinion of Attorney General Gregory,
quoted in the letters from the Navy
Department to the company, in which
il is held that the President has the
power to take such steps in the prem
ises as may be necessary to preserve
the neutrality of the United States and
make his declaration Of neutrality ef-
fective."