The Irish standard., 1915-11-27

A banquet was given Attorney Jas.
B. Ormand of Morris on Thursday eve
ming of last week at the Merchants
hotel on his return from Benson,
Swift county, Mimi, where he had
been called to assist in the prosecu-
ton of Jordan and Johnson, anti Cath
olic lecturers who have been plying
their nefarious trade of making a liv-
ing by attempting to arouse anti
Catholic bitterness in Benson since
early last September. The case was
tried before Judge Qualey at Benson.
Jordan was the first to be tried and
he was found guilty of distributing OBJ
scene literature. Jordan was tried
twice before on different charges
The first trial resulted in a disagree
ment of the jury and the second trial
resulted in an acquittal In neither of
the former cases were the same
charges made against him as was
made in the case in which he was
tried and convicted recently.
The intense interest that has been
aroused, the bitterness that has been
injected into the trial, the activity of
the sheriff of Swift county, who was
disqualified from drawing the jury, and
the fact that Archbishop Ireland had
been subpoened as witness all
tended to give the affair an important
and added interest not usually at
tached to the rantings of such persons
as Jordan.
Jordan has sister who is men,
Der of the Catholic Church. The read
ers will understand to what extent he
is lost to shame by reading the fol-
lowing extract from an address deliv-
cred by Jordan in Benson early this
fall. Among other things he said:
Mot only your little town is run by
the Roman Catholics, but it is the
whole state. All run by less than 200
members of the Roman Catholic
church. You hear people say that they
belong to the Roman Catholic church,
yes, they belong, but they are not
members. Now my sister belongs to
the Roman Catholic church. Yes, she
does. She says her Hail Marys, and
prays her beads just like all the rest
Of the fools. She only lives about
twelve miles from here. She pays her
little Peters Pence, just the same as
all the rest. But she thinks ! am
awful and am on the straight road to
HE'LL"
Many things were brought to light
in connection with Jordan's activity in
Benson. The partner of the county
attorney defended Johnson, while the
county attorney attempted to prose-
cute. During the trial, Sept. 21st, Jor-
dan passed the lie to the state attor-
ney number of times. 1t seems all to
have been taken in good part. To
protect himself from a packed jury it
was necessary for Attorney Ormand
of Morris to explain the activity of the
sheriff of Swift county and the keen
interest he took in the outcome of the
trial. The instructions which he gave
to the jurymen in his efforts to favor
the defendant was the subject in the
affidavit filed by Attorney Ormand.
The sheriff was disqualified.
So sure was Jordan that he would be
acquitted that he subpoened Archbish.
op Ireland as witness, thinking that
when acquitted, he would realize the
benefit of the advertising and that the
presence of the Archbishop would give
the affair an interest and importance
which could not be obtained in any
other way. .....
Assisting the prosecution was As.
sistant Acknowledgement Weeks. Jor-
dan, in his attempted defense tried to