The weekly tribune and the Cape County herald. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1914-1918, 1915-05-28
TED ROOSEVELT
Wins BIG SUIT;
APPEALPLANNED
Boss Barnes Forced to Pay
Costs of His $4,000
Action.
TELLS JURY
HE is DELIGHTED
Thinks it Was Typical American
Verdict" Barnes is
Flabbergasted.

ctAUUSI SoStCus
New York, May 22-Wm. NJ Twins,
of counsel for William Barnes, an
nounced this afternoon that an appeal
would be taken from the verdict of the
jury at Syracuse, which found in ia
vor of Theodore Roosevelt in the trial
of the libel suit brought by Mr.. Bar
nes against the former President.
Syracuse, n. Y, May 22-The jury
in the trial of William Barnes suit for
libel against Theodore Roosevelt to-
day returned a verdict in favor of the
defendant, after considering for more
than IL hours the question of placing
all the costs of the action upon the
plaintiff 1t is the belief of the jury
everything Col. Roosevelt charged is
true, and therefore the plaintiff, not
having been libeled, 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 polled. Ten jurors an
swered.
The Colonel left the building in a
crowd, through which were scattered
several of the jurymen. Before he
separated from the jury the Colonel
said to its members:
Gentlemen, this is certainly typ
ical American verdict. l want to
thank you again"
A crowd gathered at the doors of
the Court House and cheered Juror
Burns as he left the building. Colonel
Roosevelt declined to make any COM
ment further than that which he made
in the jury room. He said, however,
that his attorney, John NJ. Bowers,
had prepared a statement which met
with his approval. The following is
the statement: =
The victory that Mr.. Roosevelt has
won is a victory for good Government.
The issue put to the jury was whether
machine government or government by
the people should prevail, and the lat
ter has prevailed. The article in the
suit was held by the court to be libel
Gus il two aspects.
Fist-Because it charged a corrupt
political alliance between William
Barnes, the Republican leader of the
State, and Charles F. Murphy, the
Democratic leader of the State, in re-
lation to the State government. (Ih1s,
the Judge held, was the meaning and
purport of the article taken as a
whole.
Second-Because the article charged
that the plaintiff had worked through
corrupt alliance between crooked
business and crooked politics: The Jur-
ors were further instructed that they
mus render a verdict in favor of the
plaintiff, unless they found that the
defendant established to their salts
faction, by a fair prepOnderance OF
evidence, that both charges were true.
This burden was successfully borne by
Mr.. Roosevelt.
1t Is impossible to determine at this
time the far-reaching extent of this
verdict for good government. 1t GER
tainly assures US that the Anglo-SaX-
on system of determining questions
between litigants is rightly lodged In
the hands of jury of II men.
moreover, it determines that juror
holding political views opposed to
those held by party will not be sway
ed thereby in determining the ques-
tions submitted to them.
Nv associates and l have fully ap-
preciated the responsibility We assum-
ed in advising the course to be taken
in defending the action, and it is a
source of great satisfaction that the
result achieved has justified our ,ad-
vice.