EDITOR'S RIDE COUPON GETS HIM IN CONTEMPT

The New York Times
November 26, 1922

Number of Bus Owners Also Ordered to Explain Violation of Restraining Ruling.

Justice Van Siclen, in the Supreme Court, in Brooklyn, yesterday adjudged Charles Bright, publisher of The Brownsville Special, and a number of owners of buses operating on the Eastern Parkway-Pitkin Avenue line, guilty of contempt of court for violation of the order of the Supreme Court restraining the operating the buses. The defendants were directed to appear before Justice Van Siclen on Tuesday.

In the action against Bright it was charged he leased the buses from the owners and published coupons in his paper entitling the holders to ride on the buses. Bright contended the coupons were published as a means to help circulation, and that he had no intention of violating the injunction. Justice Van Siclen, in his opinion, branded this defense as "puerile," and said it was simply an evasion of the injunction. He declared the news value of the Bright publication was "nil."

"That they (the defendants) had any real hope of hoodwinking the court is inconceivable, and the only logical explanation of their conduct is that they embarked on the venture either willing to take a chance or secured by the assurance of the protection and assistance of much greater resources than they ordinarily had at their command," concluded Justice Van Siclen.