The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-04-05
W|CKERSHAM NOW ! ON OTHER SIDE IN | FAMOUS LITIGATION Defends Man In Suit Which
 He Was Instrumental
 In Bringing NEW HAVEN CASES
 TO BE SENSATIONAL William D. Sloane Estate Is Found to Be Much Less Than Had Been Thought Probably Not Over $5,0OO,O00
By HOLLAND

l New York, April 4.-(Special. )-Counsel who has been retained by MT. Lewis Cass Ledyard, who is one of the defendants in the prosecution of a considerable num- Der of the former directors of the New Haven Railroad company for alleged con- | spiracy in violation of the Sherman law, asked the federal courts a day or two ago for at least three months time, say ing that as much as that was necessary for the preparation of his defense. The counsel in Justification of this plea stated | that the government had more than two years to prepare its side of the case. To this the assistant United States district attorney, Frank M. Swacker. replied that it was true that the government started the investigation more than two years ago. but that the Attorney General at that time. George w. Wickersham, sud- denly caused the investigation to be | stopped.
 The Attorney General to whom Mir Swacker thus alluded was the counsel who represented MT. Ledyard in this case George w. Wickersham. He did not deign to pay any heed to the remark which MT. Swacker made.
 MT. Wickersham's appearance as coun- sel for MT. Ledyard in these criminal proceedings was the first intimat ton the public had that he had been retained in this case. There was, of course, when this became known. general comment that an investigation which began when Mir. Wickersham was Attorney General, and which was resumed by his successor in that office, justfying, as the govern ment in Washington thinks, criminal prosecution of the New Haven directors, Is now followed by MT. Wickersham's ap- pearance as counsel for one of the de- fendants.
 Since Mir. Wickersham's return to the practice of law he has said some things and has done others which lead his friends to suspect that as Attorney Gen eral he felt that the law compelled him to act in some cases although his per sonal views were that the Sherman law could be stretched to too fine line. There was no surprise in railway circles that MT. Wickersham should have been called upon to defend his lifelong friend and professional brother Lewis Cass Led yard. When Attorney General. he was satisfied that the investigation into the New Haven railroad management did not furnish evidence which justified criminal
 
 say that it is no violation of professional ethics for him now to defend one of the New Haven railway directors. The ap- pearance of MT. Wickersham as counsel for the defense and that of ex-Senator John c. Spooner. who is also numbered among the defendants counsel, infuses great interest in these prosecutions. Sem ator Spooner, even before he retired from tho United States Senate was strongly persuaded that administrations at Wash ngton prior to the present one were dis posed to construe the sherman antitrust law altogether too rigidy. Mir. Spooner and MT. Wickersham are both brilliant advocates and the occasion of their ap- pearance in a criminal prosecution Is cer- tain to excite public interest in the pro- ceedings.
 MT. Wickersham must have had some rather strange experiences since he re- tired from the department of justice. He has been brought into association with men of prominence whom he caused to be prosecuted. He is one of the vice pres idents of an association which numbers among it's other vice presidents Charles F. Brooker and Herbert L. Satterlee. There two men were of unimpeached bus hess and personal regulations when the department of justice saw fit, under MT. Wickersham, to cause criminal prosecu- tions against them and SO others of like character to be instituted. They were all indicted and fined 5000 apiece, although they had voluntarily dissolved the pool for. organizing which they were prose- cuted two years earlier, doing that be- cause they had been advised by compe- l tent counsel that the arrangement might | be a violation of the Sherman law. l Neither of these men feels very pleasant | ly about these prosecutions. An indict- ment for criminal offense stands against the mems record in their view, | although they were conscious of no guilt when the action which the govern ment objected to was taken.
 An Imposing Spectacle
 The trial of the New Haven company directors will be, in the best sense of tho term. even more sensational than that of the directors of the American Sugar Refining company. because the New | Haven directorate as whole was com