The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-06
Unfair Competitive Methods Probed to Bottom by the
 Government
CORRUPT POLITICS
 FIGURES IN TRIAL
Little Dinner to Railroad Committee of Connecticut Legislature Was Gel ebration of Victory Over Oppo-
 nents of the New Haven Road

New York November 5-"A little din-
 ner'' given by John M. Hail, former presi-
 dent of the New York, New Haven and
 Hartford railroad, to the railroad commit
 tee of the lower house of the Connecti-
 cut legislature, figures in the testimony
 introduced today at the trial of the il
 former directors of the New Haven road.
 charged with violating the sherman law.
 The dinner was given, according to let
 ter written by Hall, as the continuation of political activities which resulted in
 the failure of Connecticut trolley com
 pany to obtain a charter to build line
 paralleling the New Haven. It was the
 Montville line from Groton to Norwich,
 Conn.
 'T went over to the eapitol. Hall wrote
 on June 9, 1897, to E. c. Robinson, a New Haven director, land found the railroad committee had resurrected the Montville charter and got in into the senate As
 was all alone had to fly around among the senators and get them to rebuy 1t. At the little dinner we gave the commit tee afterward at the Harford club they seemed well satisfied. In view of the fact that some of them will be back again two years hence I thought 1t was well to show them this little attention One letter written by Half on May 20, 1Ss7 to Samuel Fessenden, then member of the republican national committee from Connecticut, read:
 Tried to Postpone Measure
 tTA IL. z .xF the Montville electric road charter \
 Today in the senate Kendall tried to in- definitely postpone the bill, but was un- able to do so. Now we want to reach Lounsbury, who voted against indefinite postponement. What I want is to get
 Lounsbury to support the unanimous re-
 port of the railroad commission. If he
 proposes to run for governor he will have
 the very best republicans in Norwich,
 men on whom he would to rely to carry Norwich and who are unanimously against thss proposition, agaiust lhim, besides other interests xhat could and would do him more harm than any friends he can make by voting for this parallel scheme. ss*
 Bob Colt, in the house. president of the New London Northern, committed himself to vote for this road when he was nominated but at heart he, of course, does not wish it but very fool ishly committed himself for the sake of getting into the legislature. I think I should have preferred to stay at home than to take such a humiliating position.
 Kindly give this attention as quick ly as possible so that we may know how we can count Lounsbury" Sensational Letter Another letter written by Hall May IS 1S97 to D. D. Robbins one of the defendants, read:
 "The Montville charter was passed in the senate today over an adverse re- port of the committee. Lee spoke in favor of 1t and no one against it, and 1t passed on to 1 vote. The sena tors had evidently not been seen at all by anyone unless they had been plowed with by the other side , We arranged for reconsideration and had it laid on the table. I fear if it gets into the house Colt will have to favor it and there will be danger that the bill will go through think if you had been. on deck you might possibly have fixed 1t this morn ing"
 Before adjournment today counsel for the defense filed with Judge Hunt memoranda in support of their ob- jection to the admission of evidence, tending to show that the so-called CO., -conspirators contemplated at any time the use of or actually employed any means or methods in furtherance of the supposed conspiracy other than those set forth in the eight subdiv1- sions of the paragraph which under takes to describe such means and methods" The defense maintains that political activities were not mentioned Tn the indictment