Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1919-05-22
TRIAL Is
STAGED WITH INTEREST

Doubtless you have read some
thing about the million dollar dam
age suit Henry Ford is prosecuting
against the Chicago Tribune for al
/ legged damages because of editorial
utterances. The editor of the Peoria
| Transcript views the situation in the
following words:
THE Chicago Tribune is defend
ing at Mt. Clemens, Michigan, in the
circuit court, defamation suit
brought by Henry Ford, the Detroit
manufacturer, who alleges damages
to the extent of $1,00O,O00 caused
by publication in the Tribune of an
editorial headed, Ford is an Anar-
chist." The Tribune is standing
pat and will attempt to establish the
truth of its charge.
'In the body of the editorial in
question, printed June %, 1916, it is
alleged that the defendant assuming
to state the policy of the Ford Motor
company toward employees going to
the border, stated that they would
lose their positions; that If they
came back, they would not be rein
stated but forced to appear as
strangers asking for employment
and that no attention would be paid
to any of their dependents
1T is further alleged that the edi-
torial charged that Mr. Ford was an
anarchistic enemy of the nation, an
ignorant idealist, so deluded a hui
man being that he could not see the
| ignominy of his performance, and
that the place for a man of that
kind was land where no govern
ment exists except such as he fur
nishes; where no protection is af-
forded except such defense as he
puts there The editorial woundup by
saying that the place for Mr.. Ford's
| factory was in Mexico.
THE distinguishing feature of the
! Ford-Tribune suit is that 1t forces a
showdown between powerful
newspaper and a nationally known
multi-millonaire who has the dispo-
sition and means to see it through.
Mr.. Ford has already distributed
broadcast through Tribune territory
pamphlets containing excerpts from
| Tribune news and editorials by
which it is attempted to show that
/ the defendants war record has not
been free either from pro-German-
ism or disloyalty.
'It is not likely that either the
Tribune or Mr.. Ford will gain in
public esteem as the result of dis
closures made during the trial. The
ad danum is unimportant. Whether
the verdict is for $1,000,000 or six
cents (the amount collected by Col.
Roosevelt from Michigan editor)
Mr.. Ford will be indicated. He
| doesn't need the million. On the
other hand, the Tribune's prestige
would be damaged by a verdict of six
cents.
"Mr. Ford renders public service
of great value when he goes after a
newspaper which calls him an anar-
chist and then undertakes in its
| pleadings to prove it. A little pop
ular education on the subject of an
archy is much needed, and the Ford
Tribune suit doubtless will supply it
| The Sentury encyclopedia defines an
anarchist as I'D one who advocates
anarchy or the absence of govern
ment ideal; a believer in an anar-
chistic theory of society; (2) one
( who seeks to oyerturn by violence
all constituted forms and institu-
tions of society and government,
with no purpose of establishing any
1 other system or order. Reputa-
lions, however, are damaged not by
hook definitions. but by popular un-
derstandings of the meaning of
words.
1.-The press will follow the Mt.
Clemens suit with interest. At the
expense of both parties, it will learn
much of value concerning the use
and abuse of a word which has wide
vogue in the vocabulary of denun-
| citation I"