Evening star., 1936-03-14
HEARST WIRE SUIT
NEARER TO TRIAL
Attorneys File Notion for
Preliminary Injunction to
:. Block Lobby Quiz.
BY WILLIAM S. TARvER.


The court challenge by William
Randolph Hearst of the authority OF
the Senate Lobby Committee to inquire
into his affairs moved nearer to trial
today when his attorneys filed a
motion for preliminary injunction.
The motion concerned only his first
suit, which asked that Western Union
be restrained from delivering to the
committee telegram containing edi-
torial instructions to James T. Will
liams, jr, editorial writer here, last
April.
Yesterday Hearst entered another
legal attack on the committee, asking
for a sweeping injunction which
would prevent any further inquiry
into his far-fiung publishing business
by forcing the committee to return
all copies of his kilograms they have
received, and to take no more.
The motion filed today must be
answered within five days by attor-
neys for Western Union, and the case
then may be called for trial in two
days.
Protesting that the freedom of the
press was being violated by the COM
mittee's wholesale examination OF
kilograms, the publisher asked the
District Supreme Court late yester-
day to enjoin the committee and the
Federal Communications Commission
from keeping or making use Of any OF
his messages which have been copied
from the files of the telegraph COM
panies by Communications Commis-
sion agents.
This was the first instance in which
litigation to curb the committees in
vestigation has been directed against
the committee itself.
Wire Company Named.
Alleged seizure of some five million
kilograms by the senatorial group
brought two previous injunction suits,
but both named the Western Union
Telegraph Co. as defendant.
In the first, filed by the Chicago
law firm of Silas H. Strawn, Chief
Justice Alfred A. Wheat of the Dis
trict court, signed preliminary in
junction, holding that blanket sub
poena issued by the committee vio-
lated Strawn's constitutional rights.
The second was brought Thursday
by Hearst, who asked that Western
Union be restrained from delivering
to the committee a single telegram
containing editorial instructions which
he v,,,H1ic6or IN Williams Ia CT
April Chief Justice Wheat refused
to issue a temporary restraining order
pending a hearing, stating that the
subpoena called for a particular mes
sage and, on its face, seemed proper.
Ready to Ask Hearing
Attorneys for Hearst were expected
to go into court this morning with a
motion for a preliminary injunction
in his first suit. BY this procedure
they hope to obtain a hearing next
week, since Western Union would
have only days to answer, instead
Of the usual 20 days.
The latest Hearst petition would
have the committee and the Com
munications Commission restrained
from making any further demand on
the telegraph companies for his mes
sages or copies of them.
Hearst's attorneys contended that
Congress has no constitutional au-
thority to inquire into the conduct
Of the business of press"
AHda-;1. DroS.rtaH
Supporting the petition were afd-
davits by Jerome D. Barnum, presi-
dent of the American Newspaper
Publishers Association; Thomas j.
White, general manager of the Hearst
enterprises, and Elisha Hanson,
Hearsts attorney.
All explained the necessity for
privileged communications between
q publisher and his employees and re-
flected an attitude expressed by White
as follows:
Never before, to my knowledge,
has any governmental agency claimed
that it had the right to seize news
paper messages, or to review, copy or
make any use of them whatever, ex-
cept during such period as the United
States was engaged in the World
War"