Detroit, Mich., Mar. 15.–Counsel for Aaron Sapiro refused to consider the claim of Ford’s counsel that the case is exclusively one on its part to prove that Sapiro, apart from his Jewish birth, was and is an impediment to American farming and has been guilty of unethical practices as outlined in the “Dearborn Independent’s” series of articles dealing with Sapiro’s association with agriculture. William Henry Gallagher insisted he would demand that the defense prove the existence of a “Jewish conspiracy to control American agriculture,” as was stated in the “Independent’s articles and also to prove that Sapiro was a conspirator.
A 571 page “Plea of Justification” was offered in court by the Ford counsel yesterday. Mr. Gallagher, chief of counsel for Sapiro, objected to the pleas almost paragraph by paragraph, claiming that it was “lost in obscurity” and full of “sham pleadings.”
“At no place,” he said, “do defendants show the existence of a ‘band of Jews’ as charged in the ‘Independent’s’ series of articles and until they do they fail to meet the declaration. It is inferred that our client was a member of a conspiracy. A conspiracy we may describe as two or more persons united for an evil purpose.
“Nowhere in this plea do we find any such charge. Nowhere do we find mention of the existence of a band of Jews seeking to exploit the American public, yet the articles which appeared ## Ford’s magazine on Mr. Sapiro were filled to the last line of type with such expressions as ‘the invisible government,’ the ‘Jewish movement.’ ‘Jewish control,’ ‘oriental financiers.’ ‘Jewish grip.’ ‘organized Jewry.’
“Such terms, the publication of the term ‘Jew’ and its derivatives became in the minds of the people a term of contempt, reproach, ridicule and contumely and great hatred was inflamed in the minds and hearts of the American people against persons to whom said term applied in said articles.”
Judge Raymond, after Gallagher’s brilliant attack on the insufficiency of the Ford plea of justification said he would reserve decision on the plea.
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