New-York tribune., 1920-03-06
Two Reports
Will Be Filed
In Custer Trial
Majority Of Committee
Said to Favor Reseating
of at Least Two Men
of Socialist DELEGATION
Sweets Friends at Work
Assembly Is r orte d
Ready to Expel Five;
Defense Argument Ends
From Q star co,respondcnt

From star Correspondent
ALBANY, March 5.--Seymour Sted.
man, of counsel for the Eve ousted So.
cialist Assemblymen, concluded the
summing up for the defense to-day in
six-hour speech before the Judiciary
Committee. :.
The trial was then adjourned to
Tuesday, when cx-Senator< Elon R.
Brown will complete the summary. OF
the prosecutors case. Then the COM
mittee will prepare its reports-there
will be more than cne--to submit to
the Assembly. If it were not for the
persuasive tractics Of the friends of
Speaker Thaddeus C. Sweet there would
be but one report, and. that declaring
for the reseating OF all FIVE men, in the
opinion of many here
Every form of pressure has been
brought to bear on the Assemblymen to
support the Speaker, and his friends
here declare that, regardless of what
the committee reports, a majority of
the Assembly Is pledged to oust all
Ave.
NOmmltte0 Reported split
From one close to the minds Of the
members Of the committee the Trfb
une correspondent learned tonight
that the Speaker has not been 80 sue
cessful with the members Of the COM
mittee. and that it is possible a ma
jority report will favor the reseating
tion--Assemblymen Samuel De Witt
and Samuel Orr.
Against neither Of these men has a
single shred Of evidence Of personal
guilt been adduced. But Sweets
friends, arguing as did Martin Conboy
in summing up for the prosecution.
hold that the mere fact that they are
members OF the Socialist party proves
them traitors.
Mr.. Stedman in his summing up de-
clared that the prosecution had at
tempted to make out case against
the five largely by statements made a
decade or more ago by irtemperate
speakers.
"But one mans mouth cannot prove
another mans guilt" he added
''The Socialist party is a continuing
act Of treason, according to Mr.. Con-
boy. The more members we get I sup
pose ne thinks the more treason we
will have. This country has had about
1000 private and public persons in q
department Of the United States, the
Secret Service.
"All during this war people have
say on the street corner. They eifted
all the mail, looked at it and passed it
over. Later on they put q stamp on
it 80 that you would rot know it had
been opened. But they we're watching
everything. Each man wanted to prove
he was an angel by trying to spot some
one, But with all that there was no
Socialist indicted for treason or
charged with treason, but MIR. Ccnboy
finds ample evidence Of it.
"-he Attorney Generals office Of
the United STATES overlooked a great
find, q man who can find conspiracy
as easily as Mr.. Conboy, when the
governments special sle0ths nave for
two years been unable to find any"
Stedman declared that the prosecu-
tion at the very inception conceded
that 1t had no precedent TO guide its
actions.
"And it is true" he continued, "that
mono EXISTS. In no European body,
no parliamentary government, Anglo-
Saxon, Oriental or Slavic, have we any
record like that presented here and
upon which it is claimed there is 8
right 10 exclude men from participate
ing in Legislative assem- bly.
IL might say that the nearest TO It
IS an incident growing out Of the Duma.
When there was g general strike .n
Russia, IN which the lawyers and tho
laborers participated, demanding the
rriight, to meet and assemble in a ma,
tional council, the Czar yielded and
threw what Mr.. Conboy referred to
os sop TO the people; he permitted
the organization CO the puma
During It's existence four OF five
men who we're members Of that body
we're charged with conspiracy. They
were prosecuted and convicted and
then expelled from the Duma. So
at last we have reached the point were
an American assembly can borrow
from the greatest parent Of. modern
times haif-baked precedent for the
course it is attempting to pursue.
EARLY in this proceeding 1t was Oh
vious that there was no lazy for the
proceedings which had been taken Mr..
StanchHe ID commenced to establish &
law, and he established Il under a
very wide basis.
"Mr. Stanchfield made the law that
this Assembly has the undisputed and
inalienable power to suspend or expcl
member To-. anything that measures
up to what you assume to be or 4ssert
to be an adequate cause. 1t does not
even need to be cause based on
reason anything which yoe will as-
sumo, you do not even have 10 assume
it--anything which you assert. Yo,.
only have to say it. and that is suni-
cient''
Stedman ended his summary bv ap-
peallng to the committee not TO Be-
swayed by belief that temporary
political expediency demands ths un-