The sun., 1919-05-24
FORD'S INTERVIEWS
QUOTED AT TRIAL
Lawyer Asserts He Applied
"Murderer'' to Prussian,
Not L. S. Soldiers.
Special Despatch TO The Sex.

MOUNT CLEMENS. Mich, May "a
Judge James G. Tucker made his first
suggestion to-day, at the end of the
Ford Chicago Tribune million dollar libel
suit to try to speed the argument. which
has delayed the taking of testimony.
The argument is on the Ford coun-
sells brief to shorten the testimony by
excluding all evidence of conditions on
the Mexican border and elsewhere which
the Tri6une's attorneys seek to use as
justification for the editorial of June %,
1916. calling Mr.. Ford an anarchist.
Alfred ]. Murphy continued his argu-
ment against admitting the outside tes-
timony. He read at length from the
much discussed Edward Marshall inter-
view with Mr.. Ford, in which occurred
the expression, the word murderer
should be embroidered on the breast OF
every soldier" which was much quoted
in the Newberry- Ford Senatorial cam
paign last autumn. He did this to
bring in the, context Of the article and
also the deposition made by Edward
Marshall in New York. in which II was
stated that Mr.. Ford had not meant the
patriotic American soldier. but that the
remark applied to the Prussian military
system
Mr. Murphy quoted Mr.. Ford's reply
to Mr.. Marshalrs question on how he
would handle the Mexican situation:
Certainly not by going down there
armed to kill the MeNicans and provoke
them to kill US We need to help them
not to harm them. The Mexican situa-
ton is one of the hardest problems which
ever has confronted the people of this
country. We cannot shoot the difficulty
out of 1t we've got to work 1t out OF it.
IF the Mexican situation cannot be
handled in a peaceful way 1t cannot be
handled at all There would be no
more talk OF a revolution. Villa would
become foreman IL he has brains: Car
| rama might be trained to be good
timekeeper."
Marshall interview and Mr.. Ford's pa
cihst advertisement, humanity and
sanity" and declared 1t was unjust for
the defence to take parts of these arti-
cles from their setting for the purpose
of proving Mr.. Ford an anarchist. He
declared that much of what Mr. Ford
advocated at that time had either been
the opinion of a large body Of high
minded citizens before the war or had
been accepted since.
Later Mr.. Murphy took up the charge
OF Mr.. Stevenson that the prisons are
full OF men sent there for saying just
such things as Mr.. Ford said in 1916.
He said that Mr. Ford had only shared
the opinions permitted to great many
persons. He continued:
And two months before we went
into war Mr.. Ford. like a true Ameri-
can he is. offered all his personal. finan-
cial and industrial resources to the
Presidents cause without any profit,
while the Tribune continued to advocate
military complications in Mexico which
would have tied the GOVERNMENT
hands"
William Lucking quoted from deposit
tons of Tribune editorial writer's TO
prove that the editorial had no other
basis than Ford's attitude toward pay
Ing the wages of men who went to the
border. and had no reference to his
general attitude toward military pre-
paredness or his advertisements and in
terviews touching on pacifsm.
Thomas Long, for the defendant,
quoted decisions to show that the truth
was sufficient justification OF an article.
Court adjourned until Monday morn
ing when taking of testimony will be-
gin. Judge Tucker will give his de-
cision on what testimony will be ad-
mitted early next week.