The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1919-05-17
.FORD'S ATTORNEY
AIRS RELATIONS
OF CHI-TRIBUNE
SAYS EVIDENCE WILL SHOW THAT
HARVESTER co. AND OIL
HAD AN INFLUENCE

Mount Clemments, Mich, May l6.--
Attorney Alfred j. Murphy occupied
the entire forenoon today in outlining
the contentious Of Henry Ford in his
million dollar libel suit againF the
Chicago Daily Tribune.
Mr.. Murphy read several editorials
from issues of the Tribune publish.
ed in 1916. and sought to show that the
Tribune's advocacy of American in
terVention In Mexico was due to selfish
reasons.
lie said the witness and evidence
for the plaintiff would show the influ.
ence of the standard Oil and the liner.
national Harvester Companies in shap.
ing the Tribune's policy regarding Mex
leo. .
In his statement, Mr. Murphy asked
the Jury to remember that ut the time
of publication of the alleged libel. June
%, 1916. the United States had not
entered the European war, and did not
enter until April 1917.
Mr.. Murphy read the editorial head.
ed Ford is the anarchist The article
said that Ford would not hold open the
places of his men who responded to the
call OF their country nor would he pay
their salaries while absent, nor care
70 rtheir families. Ford in the editorial
was referred to as an Ignorant IDEAL
ist' and one incapable of thought"
Concluding the reading, Mr. Murphy
continues;
"Gentlemen We shall prove beyond
the shadow of a doubt that thees state
ments are a tissue of falsehood libel
/ At
! following five lies:
Lie No THAT guardsmen employ
ed by Ford would lose their place.
Lie No. THAT no provision would
be made for their dependents.
Lie No. 3-That their families could
get along as best they might.
Lie No. THAT when they returned
they would not have to apply for their
old jobs as strangers.
Lie No. 5-That this rule allied to
the Ford plants everywhere"
He referred to Mr.. Ford as the great
est humanitarian in the world"
The lawyer then took up the accusa-
tion that guardsmen employed by Ford
would lose their places.
'On the contrary he said, 1--WE shall
show that these men We're assured that
their positions would be held for them
and each one who joined the guard
was given Il numbered disk to identify
him when he came back"
Referring TO lies numbers and 3"
Mr.. Murphy said they would be refuted
by members of families of guardsmen
who had been given relief by the Ford
Motor Company.
A Relative Affair
He said the influence could be traced
to u relationship between the Mc-Cor-
mick family of the Tribune and the
Mccormick family of the International
Harvester Company.
Mr.. Murphy said that Harold Me-
Cormick, president of the International
Harvester Company. is a cousin of the
father of r. h. Mccormick, who is
president of the Tribune company ana
that Harold Mccormick is the husband
Of Edith Rockefeller Mccormick. a
daughter of John ID. Rockefeller, of the
Standard Oil Company. He pointed OUT
that the Standard Oil Company gets
onefifth of its crude oil from Mexico.
He asserted that for that reason the
Tribune was interested in bringing
about conditions in Mexico favorable
to the Standard Oil Company. He stat.
ed also that the international Harvester
Company was similar Interested be-
cause of the immense amounts Of ssal
which it imports from Yucatan. which
importations had been greatly hamper
ed by chaotic conditions in Mexico.
Mr.. Murphy, continuing in this line
of argument, said the plaintiff would
produce evidence TO show that Mrs
Eleanor Patterson. who with her sis
ter, Mrs. katherine Mccormick, con
trolls the stock of the Tribune COM
pany maintains a residence in Wash
ington and that in 1916 when the alleged
libelous editorial was published, Mrs.
Patterson was on friendly social terms
with Ambassador Won Bernstorff and
that she was not on such terms with
Ambassador Spring Rice representing
Great Britain, nor with the ambassa.
doris of countries allied with Great
Britain in the war.
He pictured Mr. Ford who with his
son, Edsel, was present, as one who,
while he hoped for the abolition of
war. gave all the resources of his great
plants without profits to the govern.
ment and the lawyer said, this did much
to aid in the winning of the war.
Mr.. Murphy stated that the Solomon
News Company was named u co-defend.
ant solely for technical reasons and
that the plaintiff did not seek damages
for the Solomons
u