Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1909 — FIGHT EVIDENCE ON SUGAR STEALS [ARTICLE]

FIGHT EVIDENCE ON SUGAR STEALS

Tnist Made Government Pay Rent Foi Weighers’ Quarters. WHO 60T MONEY, QUESTIONED Comparison of Records Introduced at Tria 1 of Saccharine Monopoly Shows That In One Instance City Weighers’ Return Wee 28,000 Pounds Greater That That of- Government Weigher Employed by Havemeyer. New York, Dec. 3. —Not the least interesting development of the sugar trust trial in the United States court was the fight made by the defense to keep out evidence or testimony which the government sought to get in. The controversy arose when Thomas D. Hyatt, a government weigher in charge of the weighers on the Havemeyer and Elder piers, was asked by Prosecutor Denison as to a conversation he had with the defendant Spitzer ten years ago In- reference to quarters which the company had built at the piers for the accommodation of the weighers and for which the company charged the government $125 a month. The government desired to bring out the point whether or not Spitzer had told the witness that the $125 belonged to the weighers, with whatever Implication may attach to such a statement. Fight Admission of “Pink Books.” The defense contended that while Spitzer never made such a statement, it had nothing to do with the questions at issue cn this trial. The dispute was also directed against the admission of the so-called “pink books.” According to Parr the records of the city weighers for the time involved in the indictments of the defendants now on trial have been destroyed, and only the books of the checkers—the “pink books” remain as original records, but the government has been able to obtain from merchants figures of the city weighers and from them, with the notes in the “pink books,” has made up the comparative records. The weight checked by John J. Ix>uchran was compared with the government weigher’s weight, as checked by the defendant, Kehoe, and the city weigher’s return was shown to be 28,000 pounds greater than that of the government weighers. A shipment in which the defendant, Coyle, was checker on the government weighers showed a difference of 19,000 pounds in favor of the city weigher’s records. Says Spitzer Withheld Records. John R. Mac Neill, an auditor, testified that he had called on Spitzer on Dec. 13, 1907, in behalf of the district attorney of Kings county, armed with a letter from H. O. Havemeyer which gave him permission to examine the books and that Spitzer at first refused to permit him to see them on the ground that be, Spitzer, was under Investigation and that he did not care to permit anything that might injure himself. Later, he said, Spitzer capitulated. W. G. Foster, auditor for the sugar company, identified the signature of the defendent, Bendernagel, on a certificate of city weigher’s returns, the marks bsing “correst, .T. B.” or “O. K. J B." The company paid the merchants on these returns so certified, or if they were certified by some one else in authority at the docks. • Most of the time Bendernagel certified the returns Some of these records so certified were offered but were only admitted in evidence after .Judge Martin had overruled the objections of the defense.