New Britain herald., 1915-05-22
JURY RETURNS LEGAL
 VERDICT FOR COLONEL
Decides Barnes Was Not Lb;Ned and NQt Enli led 10 Damages.
DECISION WILL BE APPEALED
Jurors Reach Agreement After Forty
 Ballots-Former President Thanks Them for Judgment and is Photo
 graphed With Them. sa.s a+


 Syracuse, N Y May 22.-The jury in the trial of William Barnes suit for libel against Theodore Roosevelt today returned verdict in favor of the defendant after considering for more than eleven hours the question of placing all the costs of the action upon the plaintiff. 1t is the belief of the jury that everything Col. Roos- evelt charged is true and therefore the plaintiff, not having been libened, is entitled to no damages.
 The foreman of the jury, Warren w. Summers, announced that the yer dict was for the defendant and then the jury was boiled. Ten jurors an- swered for the defendant" then the clerk hesitated, called the name of Edward Burns and waited. Burns stood up and in a deep voice said flor the defendant Juror No. 12 gave the same answer. al
 Forty Ballots Taken.
 The foreman of the jury said forty ballots were taken before the verdict was finally agreed upon The nrst ballot was to 3 in favor of the de- I tained for about five hours.
 Before the jury came in the spec tators in the crowded court room were warned that any demonstration would be met with severe punishment. Ex- cept for the voice of the clerk and jurors, the room was absolutely quiet until the name of Burns was called. When he announced that he, too, fa- yored a verdict for the former presi- dent, the court room buzzed like dynamo with voices. Several persons ! in the court room stood up and waved their hands but there was no outburst | of applause.
 Shakes Hands With Jurors. After the announcement of the ver- dict attorneys for MT. Barnes ob- l iected to it's receipt. The objection was overruied. the jury was thanked l by Justice Andrews for it's services, l and it then filed out into the jury 1 room Col. Roosevelt broke off shak- 1 ing hands with his counsel and news | paper men and hurried to the jury room. There he thanked the jury l and shook hands with each member, and said: 'In my whole life I shall work in the interest of the public and none of you gentlemen shall ever have the chance to say that I have done otherwise
 Photographed With Jury. The colonel was then photographed ! with the jury. f After a picture had been taken the colonel turned to the jury and con- tinued: T am more moved by this verdict than it is possible for me to ex- I Nnlf ever have cause to regret your ac- ton, am especially gratified that such a verdict came from jury com posed by men of every political faith" Typical American Verdict. Before Colonel Roosevelt separated from the jury he turned to it's mem bers and said:
 "Gentlement, this is certainly typical American verdict. want to thank you again." Crowd Cheers Burns. A crowd at the door of the court house cheered Juror Burns as he left the building.
 John M. Bowers, chief of the Roose- welt counsel, issued the. following statement, by authority of Colonel Roosevelt: 'The verdict of a unanimous jury is that Theodore Roosevelt had jus tified the entire article in suit. Victory for Good Government. "The victory that Mir. Roosevelt has won is victory for good government. The issue put to the jury was whether machine government or government by the people should prevail. and the latter has prevailed. The article in suit was held by the court to be libelous in two aspects: '
 ''First-Because it charged a cor rupt political alliance between Will liam Barnes, the republican leader of the state, and Charles Murphy, the democratic leader of the state, in relations to the state government.
 (This the judge held was the mean ing and purport of the article taken as whole.) ...tt
 Second - Because the article charged that the plaintiff had worked through 0 corrupt alliance between crooked business and crooked poli- tics The jury were further instructed that they must render a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, unless they found that the defendant established to their satisfaction, by a fair pre- ponderance of evidence, that both | charges were true. This burden was | successfully borne by Mir. Roosevelt. 1 "It is impossible to determine at | this time the far-reaching extent of | this verdict for good eovernment
 .'The verdict certainly assures us
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