New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1915-05-26

send a notice to the Springfield Church
calling attention to the taxes and urging
their payment to prevent the attaching
of penalties. The testimony showed
that the latter part of December Julius
Wendt called on Treasurer Berg in
reference to this matter and was told
that the whole matter was fixed up
When the Co. Commissioners were in
session in January the matter was
brought to their attention by the
attorney of the church and he was then
informed that the taxes had been
stricken from the tax books. No action
however, was taken by the Co. Com
missioners until their April meeting ad
they recommended to the state tax
commission the cancellation of the taxes
in question. 1t appeared also from the
testimony that E. J. Buehrer received
his information upon which he based
his article from Rev. Westerkamp of the
lions Lutheran Church of Springfield
and that he took no further steps to
satisfy himself as to the correctness of
the information he had received.
The main contention in the trial was
over the meaning of the word ''erheben'.
According to the testimony of Prof.
Ackermann of the DR.. Martin Luther
College he would translate this word
into the English language to mean
"levy" and Prof. E. R. Bliefernicht of the
same college gave it as his opinion that
the word could and should be translated
to mean collect. 1t was contended
by the defendant that from the context
of the article no other construction than
g collect" could be placed upon the word
in question.
The case went to the jury at 5 o'clock
Thursday afternoon and Friday morning
at 9 o'clock they reported to the court
that they had agreed upon a verdict.
They had been out all night. The
verdict was handed to Judge Olsen by
Foreman Hans H. Ulen and in it they
found in favor of the plaintiff and against
the defendants assessing his damages in
the sum of $500. A stay of pro-
ceedings for 80 days was taken. 1t is
hardly believed tho that either party
will take an appeal from the verdict of
the jury. Unprejudiced parties con-
slider this just verdict, because they feel
that the article in question should not
have been published in the first place
and the amount of the verdict was so
small that the jury practically notifies
the plaintiff that it would have been just
as we'll or possibly better if he had not
started the libel suit in question.
There was no other business to require
the immediate attention of the court
and recess was taken until o'clock
Friday afternoon. At that time the
court passed on the demurrers inter-
posed to the indictments found against
Louis Spoo for forging wheat ticket on
the Springfield Milling Co. The court
sustained the demurrer and in a verbal
memorandum stated that under the
circumstances of the case as he under
stood them it was practically impossible
to draw an Indictment that would stand
the test.
OF the petit jurors three were excused
from serving. They were Carl F. Blick
of Bashaw and Arnold Hillesheim of
Stark who were excused on account of
sickness and Hans Sigurdsen of Albin
who was excused on the ground of being
over 60 years of age.
Wednesday morning Herman Preus,
of Essig, A. C. Erickson of Bashaw,
Gustaf Carlson of Bashaw, Erland Lien
of Hanska, Estien L. Lien of Hanska
and Lars Norsby of Lake Hanska were
examined as to their qualifications for
citizenship and an order entered adj
hitting them to citizenship. This is
one of the shortest terms Of the. Dis
trict Court ever held in Brown County.