Norwich bulletin., 1920-01-23
TENSE MOMENTS AT TRIAL
 OF SOCIALIST ASSEMBLYMEN

Albay, N. T., Jan. 22.-There were tense moments today at the trial of the five suspended socialist assembly, men charged with disloyalty when it seemed that defendants and counsel would quit the hearing before the as- sembly judiciary committee. The first came when committee counsel proposed to call on witnesses to produce books, documents and papers to mark them for identification and to leave them with the committee for examination with the idea that they later might be introduced in ev- idence.
 An objection by Morris Hillquitt- chief counsel, w1 overruled by Louis M. Martin, committee chairman. Then i Mir. Hillquitt, turning to the witness on the stand, Mrs. Anna Stern, exec 1 utive secretary of the socialist Bronx local, said:
 You are not bound to part with possession of your book unless it is offered in evidenee.''
 | To the committee he said:
 This committee has no power to compel person to part with his doc | uments merely because a certain doc ument is enumerated by the other side, 1 without test of it's admissibility. ] The statement of prosecution coun- 1 sel, so often made, that the commit i tee is law unto itself; that the as | semblymen under charges are here by courtesy or fayor-with that state ment as a proposition of force 1 am not finding fault. But I want to have i it understood that we do not wish to 1 appear here on sufferance or courtesy or by favor. We are either here with i all the rights of counsel in any court of justice or we do not propose to be here"
 The threatened 'Fwalkout' was averted when Judge Arthur E. Sufh erland, speaking for the committee's counsel, yielded to the suggestion of Mr. EillQuitt that the documents be marked for identification but returned i to their owners.
 : Another crisis came when Ezra L Kauffmann, special policeman, oi Rochester, was called and produced a book i2 Hebrew which he said ht had obtained from a Samuel Miller of that city. Defense counsel objected when John B. Stanchfield, committed counsel attempted to question tho witness co1cerning a conversation h,
 had with Miller.
 "It isn't competent or direct evi- dence," snapped Seymour Stedman O
 Chicago for the defense. We don
 know this man 'Miller.' Who is goins
 to dispute what he said ?''
 After Mir. HillQuitt had recalled
 that the committee had promised
 fair trial, Assembly Bloch said he ob
 jected to that continual reminder
 and that he believed the statement il
 made only to create an impression
 with the press that you are not get
 ting a fair trial"
 If this testimony and testimony o T1os4 1l not fair trial, said Mir. Hif1quitt t, MT. Bloch. I've have a traVesty ol justice. l should be very reluctant t, ! make my self a party to a farce 0
 this kind. AS far as I am concerned
 and I think I speak for my associ
 ates, wherever testimony of this kint
 as called, we shall take absolutely il,
 part in the proceeding. It is as if VI
 were absent.
 The chair overruled the objection
 the socialist counsel did not withdraw
 that Miller in selling him the bool
 had said he was literary agent for tn
 Jewish branch of the Old Socialis
 Party.
 The day on which the first evidenc
 was presented ended abruptly wher
 despite objection by the socialis forces, committee counsel obtained ad joufnment until next Tuesday to re
 view their evidence. Seven witnesse
 were called, including on agent of tn department of justic working for tn joint legislative committee investigat
 ing radical activities in this state, an
 committee counsel succeeded in in
 troducing, partly as evidence, parti
 for identification:
 Constitution and by laws of the
 national, state and New York Coun ty socialist organizations; a copy o the Hebrew book, written by @Ha. Rogoff and published by the lewis / Socialist Federation of New Yerk; pamphlet entitled "BoIshevism. writ
 ten by '.Dr. B. Hoffman" and publish ; ed by the Russian Association Feder at1on; report of speech in Ne7 York by Assemblyn1an Claessens, a di fendant, and court records in tant case of Scott Nearing and the Amer ican Socialist Sociey.