The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 28, 1919, Page 4

(B M R Y SRt 2 | | ‘ 2081 YAy R A et Townley’s Trial and Those Behind It Handpicked Talesmen Permitted to Hear Only One Side of Case—Defendant | Denied Right to Plead Own Case to Jury BY W. W. LIGGETT 1T SEEMS very probable that | the trial was brought in Jack- son county with a deliberate purpose. Thanks to the illegal activities of Prosecating At- torney Nicholas and Sheriff Lee, no Nonpartisan league lec- turer ever had spoken in the county. Practically all the newspapers in the county savagely and constantly attacked the League as a pro-German organiza- tion. The public mind had been poisoned by the previous trial against Gilbert, and the mobbing af- fair at Lakefield made people believe—and with some reason—that it was dangerous in that vicin- ity to express any opinions favorable to the organ- ization. backwood’s community. There is only one rail- road running through the county and access with the outside world is difficult and slow. Few city papers and magazines circulate there and the great majority of its people are not in touch with the liberalizing opinions that prevail in more progres- sive communities. It was in this unfriendly at- mosphere that the trial was brought and Judge E. C. Dean refused a change of venue and denied an affidavit of prejudice filed against himself. In this connection it is quite pertinent to remark that not only did Judge Dean, who was appointed to the bench by Governor Burnquist, display bias _and prejudice throughout the trial, but after the trial started it was discovered that he had previ- ously given out newspaper interviews attacking the League and had declared in private conversa- tions that it was financed by German money. LEAGUE MEN KEPT FROM JURY: VENIRE So it was, that eight months after the armistice was signed, the trial finally began under the diree- tion of a vindictive prosecuting attorney, aided by the assistant attorney general of Burnquist’s ad- ministration; before a narrow and biased judge,. and with a prejudiced jury in the box. In. fact, nothing shows the utter unfairness of the trial more than.the circumstances attending the selec- tion of the jury. It was these circumstances, in keeping with the whole conduct of the case, that caused visiting newspaper men to smile and re- mark that “justice in Jackson county is lopsided.” The jury venire of 144 names was selected by the board of county commissioners, all of whom-" were foes of the League; and they did their work so well that not a single member of the Nonparti- san league was on the list, although the leading FOR THE STATE J. E. MARKHAM Moreover, Jackson county is virtually a ° | " THE TRIAL JUDGE | E. C. DEAN League candidate came within 31 votes of carry- ing the county. In other words, nearly one-half the voters in the county favored the Nonpartisan league when they had an opportunity to express themselves in safety at the polls, yet not a single League sympathizer was among the men selected from which the jury was chosen. One of the prospective jurymen remarked—and admitted his remark on the stand—that he “did not see how they would ever be able to get a jury, as all the jurymen would have to admit they were opposed to the Nonpartisan league.” Under these circumstances it was impossible to get a fair jury and, to make matters worse, Judge Dean refused to segregate the jurors, but allowed them to wander about Jackson at will, where they could hardly help absorb more prejudice from the disparaging remarks made about the League -by townsmen. Two days before the trial closed, two of the jurors were seen with a brother of one of the state’s witnesses—a local politician, of course —in a poolroom where the atmosphere was very bitter against the League. The jurors also had the leisure and opportunity to read the neighborhood and Twin Cities papers, both of which contained editorial attacks against the League during the trial, and during the closing stages of the proceedings the Jackson Republic, whose editor is a friend of Prosecuting Attorney Nicholas, came out in flaring headlines which de- clered that “For the past few weeks Jackson has been wvisited by Nonpartisan leaguers, red-card Socialists and pro-Germans.” But the most glaring injustice of the trial was not the selection of jurors—although that smelled to heaven—but the manner in which Judge Dean discriminated against the defendants in his rul- ings. The court allowed the prosecution to go en- tirely outside the limits of the indictment in the introduction of testimony, but sharply limited the defendants to replying to the accusations brought against them. STATE GIVEN FREE HAND IN OFFERING EVIDENCE For instance, the state introduced testimony about five of the 200 speeches made by Mr. Town-, ley and one of these speeches was made after the indictment was returned. The judge said he ad- mitted this testimony because it “showed the de- fendant’s state of mind,” but he refused to allow one word of testimony about the scores of speeches in which Mr. Townley boosted Liberty bonds, urged the farmers to plant more wheat and ad- vocated enthusiastic support of the government’s war program. The judge also allowed the state’s witnesses to tell of the effect that they claimed Townley’s speeches had upon them, so that the jury had to listen while several professional politicians and .two shifty-eyed editors declared Mr. Townley had made unpatriotic remarks, but when the defense placed more than a score of honest farmers on the stand, many of them members of the legisla- ture and officials of farm co-operative societies, ~ PAGE FOUR they were not permitted to tell the jury that they considered the Nonpartisan league president’s talks patriotic and had been influenced by his appeals to buy Liberty bonds and to make renewed efforts to win the war. One fine looking farmer’s wife came all the way from Cambridge to testify that she was lukewarm about the war until she heard Mr. Townley explain why it was necessary to crush German autocracy and that afterwards she made every sacrifice to help the government. She was not allowed to give this testimony before the jury, but a poli- tician who was defeated by the Nonpartisan league candidate and the son of another political ‘em- ploye were permitted to swear that they consid- ered Mr. Townley’s speeches disloyal. The prosecuting attorney and sheriff of Isanti county and an agent of the United States depart- ment of justice were at this same speech. These officials went there to find out whether Mr. Town- ley was making disloyal remarks and all three of them were ready to testify that the speech was thoroughly patriotic. The arbitrary rulings of Judge Dean excluded this valuable and disinter- ested testimony, but the jury was allowed to hear the obviously hostile conclusions of men who hated the League for political reasons. LOYALTY PROOF IS BARRED FROM RECORDS Townley and Gilbert were not allowed to show what they had said in support of the war. They were not allowed to show the patriotic activities of the Nonpartisan league. They were not. per- mitted to introduce evidence showing that the Non- partisan league publications had donated pages of free advertising for Liberty bonds, that thousands of dollars of Red Cross collections were taken up at League meetings, that a League representative aided Herbert Hoover in his food conservation campaign, that Secretary McAdoo thanked the League officials for their assistance in selling Lib- erty bonds, that President Townley gave out more than a dozen interviews urging all loyal Americans . to back the president and that in response to his appeals” thousands - of League farmers planted wheat when they could have made more money by planting corn, rye and barley. In view of these circumstances, a jury less prej- ‘ udiced than the one at Jackson must have found the defendants guilty, for the jury was allowed to hear only one side of the case. Everything derog- atory to the defendants was admitted as evidence; the facts that showed they had supported the war were not allowed to reach the jury. Furthermore, the court allowed. Prosecuting At- torney Nicholas and Assistant Attorney General Markham to make long “patriotic”. speeches at I FOR THE DEFENSE '