During the cross-examination of Sapiro Tuesday, Senator Reed launched an attack on Bernard M. Baruch. The court session was held in a calm atmosphere following Monday’s clash between Judge Raymond and Sapiro’s counsel.
When the cross-examination touched the question of tobacco, Sapiro told of helping to organize the Burley Tobacco Growers’ Cooperative Association in 1921 at Lexington, Ky., after visiting former Judge Robert W. Bingham, publisher of “The Louisville Courier-Journal.” whom he had first met in the office of Bernard M. Baruch in New York. Judge Bingham wanting to see tim about the tobacco problem.
Mr. Baruch was mentioned in the series of twenty articles in “The Dearborn Independent.”
When Mr. Reed suggested that Mr Baruch was not a tobacco grower the witness answered:
“Mr. Baruch is a financiar, an economist and an adviser on economic problems.”
“When did Barney Baruch become an economist?” asked the Senator. Mr. Gallagher objected that the question was improper and it was ruled out.
“Now, as a matter of fact,” said the Senator, “Mr. Baruch is a speculator on the Board of Trade, isn’t he? Where did he become an economist?”
“When he became head of the War Industries Board,” said Mr. Sapiro, “and learned all about economic problems.”
“Is that the only training he has had as an economist?” asked the Senator.
“It is magnificent training,” said Mr. Sapiro. On motion of the Ford lawyer this answer was stricken out.
Senator Reed tried to have the meeting in Mr. Baruch’s office appear as a conference on raising money to finance tobacco growers’ cooperatives, but the witness denied it. The next step in the formation of the Burley Growers’ Association, said the witness, was a meeting in the Seelbach Hotel in Louisville. The meeting was arranged by Judge Bingham, who invited those who attended. Mr. Sapiro said that there were present about sixty men, bankers, business men and editors, representing, as Judge Bingham put it, every stratum of Kentucky life. Mr. Sapiro said he gave a complete outline of his cooperative marketing plan at the meeting.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
