Sapiro-ford Trial May Take New Turn in Third Week

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

The $1,000,000 Ford-Sapiro libel suit, after dragging along for two weeks in a hopeless entanglement of legal technicalities, finally extricated itself Friday and gives promise of smoother and more rapid progress when court opens again on Monday.

The principal reason for the slowness in getting under way may be laid to the unsuccessful but vigorous attempts of William Henry Gallagher, Sapiro’s chief counsel, to bring Henry Ford and his Jewish views into the trial through the medium of William J. Cameron, editor of the “Dearborn Independent,” and the first witness to be called. In spite of Cameron’s insistent denials that he had any extensive conversation with Henry Ford relating to the editorial policy of the “Dearborn Independent,” Gallagher tried time after time to prove, through Cameron, that Ford really guided the policies of the magazine. Naturally, every question directed along this line was immediately objected to by Stewart Hanley, Ford attorney, and such objections were sustained by Judge Fred M. Raymond, before whom the case is being tried. It is significant in this connection that about 75 per cent of the questions Gallagher asked Cameron in the six days he was on the witness stand were successfully objected to by the counsel for Ford.

From Gallagher’s unsuccessful attempts to bring Henry Ford’s Jewish views into the trial, it was concluded here that the trial would be little more than an economic discussion of the country’s agricultural problems. But on Friday with the aid of one witness, Gallagher dispelled the foregoing conclusion by bringing Henry Ford and his Jewish views very prominently to the foreground. This witness was James Martin Miller, 67 years old, a newspaperman and author of the book entitled, “The Amazing Success of Henry Ford.” After the publication of this book, Miller secured several interviews with Ford for a newspaper syndicate. During the course of one of these interviews in 1923, Henry Ford, according to Miller’s testimony, said: “Why don’t you write an article about the Jews in the Reserve Bank and Eugene Meyer, Jr.?” Then, later, he said, “Do you know Aaron Sapiro? He is organizing the farmers with that bunch of Jews. They are trying to milk them. We’re going to expose them in the ‘Dearborn Independent.’ We have a good circulation among the farmers and I think we’ll be able to upset Sapiro’s apple cart.”

Here, within two minutes after Miller took the witness stand, Gallagher brought into the court record the kind of statement he had been trying to get from Cameron for six solid days. Here was a concrete example of Henry Ford’s attitude towards the Jews. Gallagher was much pleased with the testimony of Miller and indicated that he had other witnesses whose testimony was as important as his.

As a further indication that the trial from now on will have smooth sailing. Gallagher had particularly good success with Fred L. Black, business manager of the “Independent,” who followed Miller on the witness stand. Black was questioned mainly as to the manner in which the “Independent” was distributed. The significant fact in his testimony is that Gallagher was allowed almost a free hand in questioning him, the frequent objections of Senator James A. Reed, Ford’s chief counsel, being overruled by Judge Raymond in every case but one.

Beginning today the trial is expected to develop more general interest than hitherto. There will be a noticeable lack of the disagreeable legal battles that have made the trial seem almost ridiculous–a trial apparently without a beginning or end.