Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1915 — DEFENDS CONVICTED MEN. [ARTICLE]

DEFENDS CONVICTED MEN.

Lee Duncan Says Cozart and Eawards Were Unjustly Dealt With: Lafayette, April 12. — When news reached Lafayette yesterday that M. W. Cozart and E. G. Edwards, of the Tishimingo Tie and Stone Co., had been convicted in the United States federal court in Mississippi of using the United States mails to defraud, there was considerable excitement among the holders of the Tishimingo company in Tippecanoe and other counties. Cozart and Edwards, who had been actively engaged in disposing of the Tishimingo stock, had ben telling purchasers that they would be promptly acquitted of the charges in Mississippi, and that the cases were onl> the outgrowth of persecution. Lee Duncan, of this city, former county treasurer, who has been acting with Cozart and Edwards in selling stock in Lafayette and vicinity, says the men have been unjustly dealt with and that they are not guilty of fraudulent use of the mails. He says they sold stock before obtaining a state charter, but had been told the charter woulo surely be Issued. He says a factional fight in the Mississippi state government led to the charges being filed against them. Duncan asserts that Cozart and Edwards are really guilty of no wrong doing. He says the Tishimingo company will go ahead with its factory project, . both at Merom, Ind., and in Lafayette. The Merom plant, he says, rapidly nearing completion and the company intends putting up a similar factory building in this city; It is said that about $200,000 worth of stock has been floated in Tippecanoe and surrounding counties.