Evening star., 1936-11-23

it might 60 another but"
1T usually does" Justice O'Donog-
hue interjected with smile.
Lichtenberg continued:
But you have seen some players
more consistently put the golf ball
in a restricted area than other?"
Il don't think this witness opinion
of what human beings can do or can
not do in playing games can heln
this court much" said the judge.
Returning to consideration of the
Credit" pin ball machine, gaudy
blue and orange affair. which rested
alongside the witness stand, and DR..
Crooks contention that there were
certain known variables, Lichtenberg
inquired:
These 720 variables of which you
speak are entirely at the control OF
the player. aren't they?"
yes" DR.. Crook responded.
And can they be controlled by a
machine?"
They could, possibly, if you worked
long enough"
At that point. Justice o'Donoghue
stepped in again.
do you mean to say that human
being could control those 100 variables
and eliminate them in shooting that
machine there?" he demanded.
"Yes-I would say yes" the wit
ness replied.
Lichtenberg represented the Pio-
neer Novelty Distributing Corp, which
is attempting to enjoin United States
Attorney Leslie c. Garnett and Supt.
of Police Ernest w. Brown from seiz-
ing its machines as "evil chattels." "
The principal argument has centered
around the question whether the ma
chimes are games Of chance or skill.
Bailey Takes Stand.
When Assistant United States At
torney John j. Wilson put Bailey on
the stand, Lichtenberg tried vainly to
discredit his tests because the machine
examined used a composition ball
rather than a steel ball bearing, such
as now Is used. He only succeeded,
however, in provoking Justice ODon-
oghue into calling attention to evil
dence that the composition balls were
withdrawn by the Pioneer Novelty Dis
tributing Corp. after results Of the Bu-
reau of Standards tests became known.
Overruling Lichtenberg's objection
to admission of part of Bailey's testi-
mony, Justice ODonoghue sternly ad-
monished:
"It would seem to me it i'll becomes
the plaintiffs in this case to ask the
court to hold this testimony not ad-
missible. because now they tell the
court that We have had machines
here in the District of Columbia and
we have invited the public to use them
and to play them and to spend their
money on them, and now we admit
that they were not games OF skill and
that the balls were not uniform or
homogeneous in makeup, and that,
in other words, they are not fair ma.
chimes offered to the public to play
upon and spend their money on! I
don't think that Is any ground the
court should listen to. because that
would be like coming into court of
equity without clean hands and ad.
mitting 1t and then wanting to ex-
clude some of the defense testimony"
Lichtenberg protested that the police
were threatening to seize all ma
chimes, not merely those with COM
position balls, adding:
isn't it rather futile to have this
testimony before the court, because
we admit that a machine cannot
be operated skillfully with that type
Of ball?"
This admission on your part comes
after you learned-and this is what
the president of the company said
after you learned the results Of the
experiments by the Bureau Of Stand
ards" Justice O'Donoghue pointed
out.
Denies Objections.
"The Pioneer Novelty Co. did not
object to this test" Lichtenberg re-
piled, "and that should clearly indi-
cate. If your honor please, that In
their own mind they did not believe
that the ball was not homogeneous.
After the test, the company was ad-
vised by counsel to stop operating ma
chimes with composition balls. the at
torney asserted.
The wrangle ended with the admis-