Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1919-08-21
MOTOR MAGNATE
WINS DAMAGE SUIT
Henry Ford is Given Scent YER
dict at Mt. Clemens.
JURY DEBATES FOR 10 HOURS
Famous Libel Trial Ends After IA
Weeks-Tribune Attorney Says
His Side Is Satisfied il the
Other Fellows Are.

Mount Clemens, Mich. Aug. To-
Henry Ford won verdict In his libel
suit against the Chicago Tribune.
AT S:15 O'Clock at night the jury.
which for three months has been
hearing testimony and arguments in
the suit, returned a decision in favor
of the auto manufactprer, who sought
vindication in the courts of the charge
made by the Tribune that Ford is an
anarchist"
Trial of the suit, which. it is esti-
mated, cost a million, was featured
by the testimony of Mr.. Ford his son.
Edsel, owners and editors of the
Tribune and notable educators and
clergymen.
The jury awarded Mr.. Ford dam
ages of 6 cents, thus following the
precedent of the famous Roosevelt
damage suit jury of some years ago
In awarding a moral victory.
Jury Out All Day,
The jury had been celebrating since
$3.50 O'Clock in the morning.
Judge Tucker, instructing the jury
that the right of fair comment is
expected in the case of Mr.. Ford, be-
cause his position as a great employ
er of labor and entry as propa-
gandist into the discussion of the pre-
paredness question made him pub
lie character
The judge held that a newspaper
has no greater privilege in making
comment than has an individual
The jury was instructed further to
dismiss the case against the Solomon
News company, which on purely
technical charge that 1t distributed
in Michigan POS copies of the Trib-
une issue of June %, 1916, containing
the alleged libelous editorial headed
Ford Is an Anarchist" was made
co-defendant
The judge instructed that plaintiffs
charges of pro-Germanism against the
Tribune and of selfish interest in
advocating Intervention in Mexico had
not been proved and the jury need not
consider It,
Judge Tucker gave the several
definitions of the words anarchist"
and anarchy" but instructed that it
was the duty of the jury itself to de
termine in what sense the newspaper
used the words and what 1t would
mean to it's readers.
ignorant ldealist, Defense.
There were two defenses, he con-
tnued If the jury finds that charges
in the editorial were true. that Mr..
Ford was in fact an anarchist" and
ignorant idealist," it was complete
defense, he said The fright of fair
comment" he instructed, was a sec
ond defense, TO be considered only In
event that the first defense was in
adequate.
In the course of his charge the
court said:
THE editorial, as it appeared In the
paper and which is By itself without
explanations, is libelous, or in legal
terms, libelous per Sc tof itself.
"The defendant Chicago Tribune adj
mits the publication, and insists that
1t was true, and therefore justified;
and that even If not true. it was fair
comment upon matter Of public in
terest, either of which defenses are
sufficient If proven"
Speaking of the term anarchist"
Judge Tucker said in part:
AS to the meaning of the term
anarchist as used in this editorial,
that is a matter for you to consider,
and is one of the questions you must
determine.
Ordinarily speaking the term an
archist' would be expected to convey
10 the mind of the ordinary reader
that meaning which naturally comes
to the minds of people when they hear
the term spoken Of by itself. Per-
haps the most commonly accepted
meaning Of the term that Of muir
derous, dangerous person; possibly
bomb-thrower"