The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1915-05-27
Explains That 1t Is New to
Him and He Wants to Get
1t Straight-Will Last for
Several Days.

Fargo, May 1S.-The second day oil
the hearing of the case Of the state
of North Dakota against the Equity
Cooperative Exchange, started at
$3.50 o'clock this morning, the princi
pal feature Of the hearing being rul'
ing by District Judge C. A. Pollock
by which all evidence will be admitted
from either side.
After there had been several objec.
tons to the admission of evidence,
Judge Pollock stated to the counsel on
the floor that he would be compelled
to invoke what is known as the New
man law, which is rule for the guild
ance of the court and counsel in equity
cases.
"You gentlemen have been working
on this case for years." said the court,
"but this is my first information on
the subject l haven't even gotten to
the addition part yet and after that is
subtraction, addition, multiplication,
division and then logarithems and cal
culus. You can appreciate that can
not rule on anything now with any
degree of intelligence. One of you gen
tlemen will say such thing is and
the other will say it isn't and it is
just its and 'tisn't' and that is all
the information l get unless l dig
down in the mass of documents and
get it out for myself.
Il have been on the floor myself and
/ have a great deal of charity for coun-
sci. l know that in the heat of argu-
ment, when one gets interested in their
case, they are liable to state things
that are not always borne out by fact
not to mislead the court, however,
but as result of their enthusiasm.
For this reason l am going to in
woke the rule that all evidence be ad-
mitted and when the arguments come
it will then be time to show what evil
dence is hearsay, incompetent and ir-
relevant"
Practically the entire morning was
taken up by Judge Engerud for the
state in presenting numerous affidavits
purpOrting to show that the Equity
Cooperative Exchange had been sell
ing grain to other commission mer-
chants and then resold by them and
that such sales by the Equity were
usually one or more cents below the
market price on the day of sale. At
fidavits also purporting to show other
irregularities on the part Of the Equity
officers were presented.
Generally each affidavit, accom-
panied by exhibits including photo
graphs of papers showing transactions
was for single car of grain. The
number of the car and all transac-
lions were shown.
AS there was vast amount of these
afidavits and exhibits to present to
the court, little progress was made
this morning beyond this point.
The courtroom was not quite so
crowded this morning and there were
fewer of the red badges in evidence,
that yesterday occupied conspicuous
place in the courtroom.
It is impossible to estimate how
long the hearing will continue but the
indication is that it will be several
days. Considering the mass of docu-
ments to be presented and the rate
at which the work progresses it will
be the last of the week at least.
At the time of going to press yes
terday Atty. James Manahan for the
defendant corporation was still argu-
ing for a dismissal Of the case on the
ground that there was no evidence in
troduced by the state in the docu.
ments filed that showed there was
cause for an action.
After finishing his arguments along
this line Mr. Manahan moved for dis.