Omaha daily bee., 1919-11-18

| Attorney SnotWell CnanSed III
course OF the examination.
General Run of News.
| Mr.. kennerly testified that during
his presence in the office he directed
affairs in a general way, and in hi
absence News Editor Thomas ol
City Editor Phelps had charge, ane
l'admitted that Reporter Moore hae
written some stories and parts o
stories appearing in the paper, bu
could not identify any particular
part. owing to the mass of copy
turned in, the fact that more thar
one man worked on the stories, anc
:he additional fact that the genera
run of the stuff, from a newspaper
viewpoint, was not of sufficient i'm
portance to attract especial atten,
ton such as would fix one particular
reporters work indclibly in mind.
Moore Turned In Affidavits.
He testified that Reporter Moore
had turned in the affidavits of the
prisoners, Thorp and Morris in
which they told of the alleged
"frame-up" on the part of Police
Captain Haze. and said he was
strongly of the impression that he
had requested Moore to make a
typewriter copy of them, for use
on the linotype machines while the
originals were being photographed
in the art room. He stated, however,
that he might have asked one of the
other reporters to make the type
written copy i'll question.
Reporter Black testified to remem-
bering having written part of one
story, but was unable to pick out his
particular writing in the mass of
the story as it had come from the
copy table to be printed in the
paper.
Night Editor Demond testified
that he could not identify the writer
of any of the stories from the copy
laid upon his desk, the stories in
question having been prepared be-
fore his arrival in the office.
City Editor Phelps went into de-
tail concerning the operation of the
staff under his direction, and ex-
planned that no newspaper keeps a
record of the stories that reporter
writes. He found nothing in any of
those submitted to him by the coun-
ty attorney that contained matter of
sufficient importance from newspa-
per point of view, to attract atten-
ton to the extent of enabling him to
recall which particular reporter
wrote any particular part of any of
the stories.
Two of the copy readers testified
to the same state of facts.
Result of Hearing.
At the conclusion of the hearing
Attorney Connell summed up the re-
suit of the day tersely, saying:
"The whole day has been fishing
excursion for evidence, and has re-
suited only in disclosing the fact
that The Bee doesn't suppress the
news"
At the morning hearing a post
ponement was secured from 10 to 2.
The postponement was made to
give County Attorney Shotwell time
to give the court proof that Victor
Rosewater, as editor of The Bee.
and John H. Moore, a reporter for
the paper, and that both, in their
capacities were RESPONSE
BILE for the publication of the ar
ticle.
Court Quick and Decisive.
The postponement came follow
ing an hours hearing of the case,
in which the court displayed judicial
and decisiveness in giving
decisions on the various points ad-
vanced for the defendants by At
torney Connell. the defendants being
represented by w. J. Connell and the
law firm of Rosewater, Cotner and
Peasinger. A motion to quash, the
filing of demurrer and an answer
pleading justification. and the truth
of the charges in the article were
overruled in turn by the court, ac-
companied in instances by an ex-
planation from the court for its
reason in making the decision.
In two instances the court stated
that various angles of the case,
claimed by Attorney Connell not to
in the records. or in the in
formation filed, and which therefore
justified quashing the information,
he claimed, had been considered by
the court before the information
had been filed. The motions of At
torney Connell were overruled,
therefore, said Judge Redick, be-
cause of the reasons which had die.
tated the courts action in the fling
of the information still held good,
and the court had since found moth