Evening star., 1928-11-20
TRIAL Of STEWART
NEARS END TODAY
Case May Be In Hands of
Jury Before This
Evening.
Hy the Associated Press,

BY the Associated Press.
The perjury trial Of Robert w.
Stewart, chairman of ahe board of the
Standard Oil Of Indiana, moved into
its final phases today with counsel for
the Government and the defense sum-
ming up their cases before the jury in
District Of Columbia Supreme Court.
Under the arrangement fixed by
Justice Jennings Bailey giving two
hours to each side II was problematieal
at the outset whether the case would
get to the Jury today.
Opening the argument, for the Gov
ernment United States Attorney Leo
A. Rover declared that Stewart, who Is
charged with having perjured himself
before o Senate Teapot Dome COM
mittee In testimony concerning the
Continental Trading Co. OF Canada, had
made up his mind that the committee
would obtain no information from him
with respect to the Liberty bond prof1ts
Of that company.
Charged on Three Counts.a
Stewart is charged on three counts
committee which was seeking to de.
termine the disposition Of the Con.
tinental bonds, portion Of which had
been traced from Harry r, Sinclair, oil
magnate to Albert B. Fan, former
Secretary of the interior.
Rover declared that 1t was for the
jury to determine whether Stewart
testified as Is alleged when he was be.
fore the committee: whether he was be-
swers he gave to the committees Ques.
tions were deliberately false, and
whether the committee meeting was
lawful.
He asserted that the official minutes
" the committee showed quorum of
eight to have been present, and he
maintained that the official printed
record, corrected to confarm with
shorthand notes Of the committee re-
porters, furnished the best record of
what Stewart told the committee, and
added that Stewards later testimony
shows he had made up his mind to
evade, refuse to answer and to make
false answers.
U. 8. Case Declared "Flimsy."
Terming the Governments case
"finsy and palpably weak" Frank j.
Hogan, chief of counsel for Stewart,
declared that the charges against the
oil man were inspired by politicians
and sensational yellow Journalists" He
described 1t as persecution"
contention that q quorum was present
when Stewart appeared before the com.
t1ittee. He asserted that the Govern
ments claim had not been established
by testimony, and had, In fact, been
dsproved.
The testimony had shown, Hogan
argued, that Sonle OF the eight COM
mittee members whom the minutes
report as present were not physically
In attendance, but were set down as
present after phone calls to the COM
mittee clerks.
Taking up the testimony introduced
by the Government to show that
Stewart had sworn falsely he said that
much of the Governments case rested
with the memory of its witnesses. He
compared testimony given by Senator
Thomas j. Walsh of Montana In the
present case with what Walsh said
when appearing as witness In Stewards
trial for contempt of the Senate, al.
leging discrepancies which. he said, re.
vealed q faulty memory.
Entire Case Presented.
Counsel for the oil magnate presented
! Its entire case yesterday. The defense
attacked the official record of Stewards
testimony when he appeared before the
Senate committee to answer questions
| about the Continental Trading Co. The
| question Of whether there was a quorum
| present when the oil man was quizzec
was also stressed, and the more than G
| dozen character witnesses who appeared
| for the defendant ranged from benl
| president and retired railroad vice presi.
dent to Stewards chauffeur and Q
nlasun'S helper.
Stewart took sharp issue with tn,
record on one question which formed
the basis for one of the three counts
| In the perjury indictment. This ques.
tion, referring to the Liberty bone
| profits of the Continental company
was: Have you had any conversation
or knowledge leading you TO believe an!
|