The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1920-02-18
OUR DAY WITH
NEWBERRY TRIAL
] WITNESSES At G. R.
MOTLEY GROUP OF PEOPLE ARE
CALLED TO GIVE TESTIMONY.
IN ELECTION SCANDAL CASE


The writer put in his day with the
Newberry witnesses at Grand Rap
ids, Friday and sat in with the mot
ley group of men and women who
had been called from all over the
state and eastern part of the nation
to give their testimony in the New
berry senatorial election case, a mat
ter which, whether the more than 120
defendants are found guilty or not,
will go down in history as one of the
biggest schemes of its kind ever re-
corded.
Everybody smiles when they think
of, or hear the Newberry case men
toned 1t is treated as joke by nine
ty-nine people out of every one hun
dred-except the defendants. Even
the witnesses treat the case as joke
! until they reach the witness room and
start on the long wait to hear their
names called as the next one to take
the stand. After waiting for several
days the funny part leaves and it
takes on a more serious aspect when
it is realized that the witnesses may
be called on to wait several days,
week, or month longer.
The Office force here treated it as
a big joke and gave the writer the
merry ha-ha, when he walked into the
Office on Tuesday morning, OF last
week and made the acquaintance of
a deputy United States Marshal, who
had come up from Grand Rapids for
the purpose of serving a witness-for-
the government subpoena on US to get
out testimony in the case. The pa
pers stated that we were wanted at
the u. S. marshal's office, Friday. the
thirteenth of February at nine o'clock
in the morning and accordingly, we
were there shortly after the appoint
ed time.
We reached the marshal's Office at
about $3.50 and were at once taken to
the registration room, then given a
preliminary examination and then
taken to the witness room, where we
were told we would soon be called and
taken in the court room and placed
on the stand.
A great many others were there,
some from the very further most
parts of the state, both north and
south and some from Indiana, New
York and other states. Some of them
had been there all week and had not
been called as yet. They were a dis
grunted bunch, both men and the few
women who were there and what they
thought of anyone responsible for
getting them there and holding them
there, so long, was aplenty. While
they cussed and criticized quite open
ly, they eased up on the talk when-
ever any of the numerous officials in
the building came around.
There were, roughly speaking, three
different classes of people there who
were waiting to testify. The first
class was the largest and was made
up of newspaper men and women, the
second class was made up of doctors,
lawyers and other professional men.
The third class was composed of poll
ticians and their heelers-men who
were always looking for chance to
get in on any kind of a political
scheme, such as passing petition,
H9assing out cards, getting out the
voters, etc, for which work they re-
ceived as compensation any financial
crumb which the politicians, the men
higher up, were willing to pass out.
As a rule these fellows looked dissi-
pated and tough. They got by them
selves in corner and wondered when
they would be called Occasionally
one of them would solicit a chew of
tobacco from the rest of the party
and as a rule would get a cigar or
a pipe full of tobacco from some one
of the other two classes in the room.
One of these dissipated looking cusses
bewailed his fate more than the rest
He said he had received $500 for pas
sing out some NewberTy cards and
that in consequence he had been up
before the grand jury and on the pres
ent trip had been there all week. He
said it cost him about S400 per day
to live and that he got 81 80 per day
for his time while in Grand Rapids
He said he had already lost about $50
in wages as a result of taking the
little $500 for passing out the cards.
He declared by all that was great and
good that he would never engage in
anything political in the future
Another man, who looked perfectly
wretched, as if he were in constant
pain and as if he had never had a
pleasant thought in his entire exis-
tance sat there and cursed his fate
4 from its start right down to date.
y While he was talking deputy United
States marshal came into the room
and took him out in the hall and serv-
ed another paper on him. The man
came back in and told us of his added
trouble. He had planned on going
back home, after he was through as
witness in the Newberry case, but
his plans had been shattered as the
paper had been a summons for him to
appear in a Monroe court and tell
what he knew of a certain shipment
of 500 quarts of liquor being brought
from Toledo into Detroit. He explain
ed his connection with the case by
saying that he was in Toledo and that
as he was about to start for home a
man met him and asked him if he
cared to ride through with a truck
load of baled hay. He accepted the
offer and when they had crossed the
state line the officers started in pur-
suit of them. He jumped from the
truck, and sought refuge in behind
Continued from Page Four)
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