(Jewish Daily Bulletin)
Judge Fred M. Raymond today denied a motion by Stewart Hanley, Ford counsel, asking that the million-dollar Ford-Sapiro libel suit being tried here be declared a mistrial. Mr. Hanley’s motion was based on his contention that the amended Sapiro declaration, which was presented to the court Friday by William H. Gallagher, Sapiro’s chief counsel, had confused the issues of the trial and made it difficult for the Ford counsel to change their defense to meet the new declaration.
Sapiro scored another victory this afternoon when Judge Raymond allowed the admittance into the court record of a letter written by Walton Peteet, General Secretary of the American Farm Bureau Federation, to Henry Ford and marked “Personal” in which Peteet protested that the attacks on Sapiro were “false and unfair.” Gallagher attempted to offer the letter as evidence on Friday, but Senator James A. Reed, chief of Ford counsel, objected so vigorously that Judge Raymond reserved his decision until today.
The letter reads in part: “I tell you that many of the statements in the ‘Dearborn Independent’ are untrue and the philosophy and aim of the movement (Sapiro’s plan of cooperative marketing) have been grotesquely misrepresented. It is strange indeed that your employees should, in your name, seek to destroy a movement which seeks to do for agriculture what you are trying to do for industry.”
Judge Raymond, in overruling Senator Reed’s objection to the admittance of the letter into the record, declared: “The letter is admitted for the purpose of showing to such an extent as it does tend to show that the defendant Ford had knowledge of the articles that he published.” Ford counsel then contended that the letter never reached Henry Ford and was read only by E. G. Liebold, Ford’s secretary. Judge Raymond refused to change his ruling, in spite of this.
Fred L. Black, business manager of the “Dearborn Independent”, took the stand again today. Gallagher questioned Black as to the distribution of the “Independent”. He brought out the fact that many copies of the magazine are distributed through Ford dealers and that large numbers of the magazine are sent to certain areas which are affected by articles appearing in certain issues.
A stir was created in the court room, when Black said, over the objections of Senator Reed, that “The ‘Dearborn Independent’ is not and never was a paying proposition.” Gallagher declared, in replying to Senator Reed’s objections to this answer, that “The corporation (The Dearborn Publishing Corporation) exists only because of a monthly contribution from Henry Ford and that except for Henry Ford’s monthly contribution it would not have existed past the first month. Since the publication could not exist except for Henry Ford’s contribution, we contend he is responsible for what it does publish.”
Gallagher scored another point when he secured an admission from Black that Henry Foru was the “big boss” of the “Dearborn Independent.”
“You have said that Cameron was the editor, that you were the Business Manager and that E. G. Leibold was over both of you as a sort of General Manager; was there anybody over all three of you?” Gallagher asked.
“Yes, the President of the company,” Black replied.
“Who is that?”
“Henry Ford.”
This fact was elicited from Black over the frequent and stormy objections of Senator Reed and Mr. Hanley.
It is expected that a number of United States Secret Service Agents will be detailed to guard Henry Ford when he appears in the Federal Building to take the stand sometime this week. The Government is endeavoring to guard Ford from fanatics and cranks.
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