The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-09-08

Anarchist" That statement or char ! acterizatiOn IS, as ] have heretofore said, Hbelous per SC standing alone. The editorial is claimed to have | been based upon information secured of MT. Fords activiti,S. through a Mir Williams Of Detroit, who has been upon the witness stand.-EViI- ] Hams being the correspondent of the , Tribune Company and having been wired to ascertain FOrd's position as 10 the treatment and care of the men in his employ who were members of the National Guard, or likely to be come such. They claim he inter 1 viewed MT Klingeusmith. the Vice President of the Ford Motor Com pany, and secured from him a s-a-e-
 ment to the effect that the mems sal aries would not be paid while they
 Wero gone. the dependents would not
 be taken care of while they were ab- sent, and their places would not be reserved for them upon their return, and they would be treated as now applicants for positions win the company.
 This information, the defendant claims, was wired to them by Mir
 Williams, and as havs said before. formed the basis of this editorial
 The plaintiff claims that no such in formation was ever given to Mir Will Hams or anybody else. That the attitude towards the men employed by Mir. Ford or the Ford Motor Company was the same then as had
 been heretofore. Ina. the com pauy. since 1914. had a fixed policy for the care of dependents of the Ford Motor Company employees in the absence of workmen who were absent for reasons beyond their control. They also claim that they instituted at once, upon the Guard being called
 out in 1916. on the 18th of June. I think, system of tags or disks which entitled the man to his job in
 case he came back; but admit that they never provided or intended to provide for the men by payment of their salaries while they were gone.
 You have heard the testimony. gentlemen, upon these various uues-
 tions as to the Ford method Of ca-- ing for it's employees, and the issu- ance of the disks in question and so on.
 As a matter of fact Of course neither MT. Ford nor any other ern- ployer was in duty bound under the law to pay the salaries of the men while serving in the National Guard. take caro of their dependents while they were gone, or to give them their jobs back when they did come back.
 The plaintiff claims that the req son or excuse for the editorial set up by the defendant, was manufactured
 entirely either by the defendaurs themselves, or by them in conjunc- | tjo1 with employees or agents. Op course, if this is true, 1t would irnDor- actual express malice, but if it is not true, and if, in fact, the Tribune Company obtained in good faith what
 they believed to be a fair and square statement from a responsible person
 in authority in the Ford Motor Com pany, a statement of their intentions.
 they would be justified in acting m on it, whether it was actually true or
 not although not to the extent of
 characterizing Ford as an anarchist
 unless that were true or can be cqlT-
 ed fair comment That is one of
 the matters for your consideration.
 taking into account all the testimony as to Mir, KlinEensmith's state
 nent upon the subjects which are in evidence in tho case, viz: What are the real facts about that claimed in
 formation which came to the Tribu,a Company
 In other words, if the Tribune Com
 Pany took reasonable precautions +o
 get the truth as to the matter. from 1 the Ford Motor Company. and rbafr
 information came from an authority 1 of the Ford Company. they were moi
 10 be blamed because the information they got was not true. On the other l hand if they misquoted it would in dicate fairly malice towards Ford in the publication of the article. As to the meaning of the term '.an- 1 archist" as used in this editorial, that | is a matter for you to consider and is one of the questions you must de | termine.
 Meaning of Anarchist" Ordinarily speaking, the term "an- anchist' would be expected to con- | vey to the mind of the ordinary read | CT that meaning which naturally ] comes to the minds of people when | they hear the term spoken of by it. | self. Perhaps the most commonly ! accepted meaning of the terrn-that | of murderOus. dangerous person; possibly a bomb-thrower.
 [ However, you will bear in mind | that the term "Anarchist' has several definitions. The Century Dictionary, which is one of the leading authori- | ties, defines anarchy as:
 1 Absence or insufficiency of gov ! crnment; a state of society in which | there is no capable supreme power. and in which the several functions of | the state are performed badly or not | at all: social and political confusion. ?. A social theory which regards l the union of order with the absence of all direct government of man by-
 man as the political ideal; absolute | and individual liberty.
 | 8. Confusion in general.
 | "Anarchist": 1. Properly, one who i advocates anarchy or the absence of | government as political ideal; a | believer in an anarchic theory of so- | ciety; especially. an adherent of the | social theory of Proudhon.
 2. In popular use, one who seeks | to overturn by violence all constftut ed forms and institutions of society