Evening Star
- AUTO PLUNGE KILLS COL. A. S. WILLIAMS, ACCUSED BY BUTLER
- FLORIDA GOVERNOR HAMPERING RELIEF, CHARGE OF PAYNE
- PILSUDSKI IS MADE POLAND’S PREMIER
The Evening Star's front page for October 1, 1926 carried an Associated Press report from San Francisco that Col. Alexander S. Williams, the Marine recruiting chief tried at San Diego in the spring "cocktail" court-martial brought by Gen. Smedley Butler, had drowned when his car went into the bay after a night out that he had told his wife would begin with dinner at the Bohemian Club. The page also printed Red Cross chairman John Barton Payne's charge that Florida officials and real-estate operators, anxious to protect the coming winter tourist season, were playing down the September 18 hurricane and hampering relief, including a reported attempt to have Red Cross reports censored in Miami. A Warsaw dispatch reported that Marshal Pilsudski, the leader of the May coup who had stayed in the background, had taken the premiership after the Bartel cabinet resigned. This reading covers those three excerpts, not the continuations of the articles.
Translation
AUTO PLUNGE KILLS COL. A. S. WILLIAMS, ACCUSED BY BUTLER
Spring for Drunkenness at Party for General.
By The Associated Press.
SAN FRANCISCO, October 1. — Col. Alexander S. Williams, in charge of recruiting for the Marine Corps in the Western district, who figured as the defendant in the famous “cocktail” court-martial at San Diego last April, was drowned here early this morning when a closed car he was driving plunged into San Francisco Bay.
Col. Williams' body was taken to the morgue, where it was identified by Mrs. Williams. It had been previously tentatively identified by officers, newspaper men and friends from photographs, a signet ring and papers in his wallet.
Mrs. Williams said that on leaving home about 5 p.m. yesterday her husband told her he was going to the Bohemian Club with some friends for dinner. She said he telephoned her at 9 o'clock last night that he was having a wonderful time and that he would not be home until an early hour in the morning.
Car Suddenly Swerved.
She said that when her husband was out late he usually drove home by way of the Embarcadero, as it was well lighted and he was not well acquainted with the city's streets. She believes he must have lost control of the car or that his vision was obstructed by something, causing the car to plunge into the bay. [?]
FLORIDA GOVERNOR HAMPERING RELIEF, CHARGE OF PAYNE
[?] The officials of Florida, “from the governor down,” and the real estate operators, anxious to minimize the damage wrought by the recent hurricane for fear that the tourist business will be ruined with the busy Winter season at hand, have seriously handicapped the American National Red Cross in its efforts to provide relief for those who suffered most in the hurricane of September 18, Judge John Barton Payne, chairman of the governing board of the Red Cross, charged today in a message to C. C. Pinckney, chairman of the Richmond, Va., chapter.
“The poor people who suffered are regarded as of less consequence than the hotel and tourist business of Florida,” Judge Payne declared. “The Red Cross is bound to go forward and do the job just the same, and every one should help. Our officials on the ground report the greatest need since the San Francisco disaster, with 5,000 homes totally destroyed and 18,000 families impoverished. Red Cross assistance is given only on the basis of actual need, not losses.”
Circulars Prompt Inquiry.
This message was prompted by an inquiry Judge Payne received by wire from Mr. Pinckney in which the latter declared that circulars had been distributed in the Virginia city charging that a very exaggerated idea of Miami's storm condition had been created and that only “some cheaply constructed houses had been blown down and some houseboats lost.”
At the same time it was disclosed that a request had been made by influential persons at Miami that the Red Cross officials there should submit all information and all reports forwarded to the national headquarters in Washington, and which might be given out to the press, to a censor in the Florida city.
Mr. Pinckney's message added that Miami would be open to visitors as usual this Winter. [?]
PILSUDSKI IS MADE POLAND’S PREMIER
[?] WARSAW, Poland, October 1. — Marshal Joseph Pilsudski today accepted the premiership of Poland, vacated last night by the resignation of Charles Bartel.
Although Marshal Pilsudski has long played a prominent part in Polish affairs and was the leader of the coup d'etat which overthrew the Witos government last May, he had been rather in the background of Polish politics for the last few months, which have been marked by controversy between the Bartel cabinet and the Diet.
When the Witos government was overthrown and President Ciechowski had been exiled in May, Marshal Pilsudski became general dictator in Poland, but he soon indicated that he had no desire to hold the chief executive post in the state. He declined a suggestion for a dictatorship and then refused to accept the presidency, to which he was elected by the Diet.
Although not holding the nominal executive post, Marshal Pilsudski still held a practically supreme direction of affairs and selected M. Bartel, whose cabinet resigned yesterday, to be premier. The marshal took the post of war minister in the cabinet and took over supreme command of the army. [?]
Context
The “cocktail” court-martial and its outcome
The paper introduces Williams mainly as the defendant in the “cocktail” court-martial, and a contemporary account fills in what that meant. TIME reported on May 31, 1926, that Williams had been sentenced the previous week after being found guilty of having had too many cocktails one evening in San Diego when he entertained his commanding officer, Brig. Gen. Smedley D. Butler. The sentence was light. On the recommendation of the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. John A. Lejeune, who asked for leniency because it was a first offense, Williams was moved down four places on the list of colonels waiting for promotion to brigadier general, from No. 18 to No. 22. TIME estimated that this would make him wait about six months to a year longer for promotion, and added that he was then transferred from San Diego to San Francisco and put in charge of the western recruiting service. That is the post the Star gives him in this report. So when he drowned, Williams was still serving in the Corps. The court-martial had delayed his promotion rather than ended his career, and the Star's headline shows that months later he was still publicly identified with Butler's accusation.
Why Butler brought a drinking charge under Prohibition
The headline names Butler as the accuser, and his record explains why a charge like this was associated with him. From January 1924 to December 1925, while on leave from the Marine Corps, Butler served as Philadelphia's director of public safety and enforced Prohibition hard. Within 48 hours of taking office he organized raids on more than 900 speakeasies. He also went after places favored by the social elite, such as the Ritz-Carlton and the Union League, not only working-class saloons. His later commands included the Marine Corps Base at San Diego, where Williams hosted the party. Butler had already shown he would enforce the liquor law against prominent people. Charging a fellow senior officer for drinking at a private party fits that pattern, and it helps explain why the case became a national story and why the press still attached Butler's name to Williams months later.
How severe the 1926 Miami hurricane was, and why boosters played it down
Payne's charge is best judged against what is now known about the storm. The Great Miami Hurricane came ashore near Perrine, about 15 miles south of downtown Miami, on September 18, 1926. According to the American Red Cross it killed 372 people, 114 of them in the city of Miami, although the first estimates had suggested more than 1,000 deaths in Miami alone. About 43,000 people were left homeless, mostly in the Miami area. These figures do not back the Virginia circulars' claim that only a few cheaply built houses and houseboats were lost; they are much closer to Payne's report of 5,000 homes destroyed and 18,000 families impoverished. The economic stakes were also real. South Florida was riding the land boom of the 1920s, and the hurricane is regarded as the final blow that ended the boom there. The Star does not name the “influential persons” in Miami who wanted Red Cross reports to pass through a local censor, but their request fits the fear Payne described: that news of the damage would drive away the buyers and winter visitors on whom the hotel and tourist business depended.
Pilsudski's power after the May coup
The Warsaw dispatch describes an unusual arrangement: after May 1926, Pilsudski held real power without taking the top offices of state. The May Coup of May 12–14 ended when President Stanisław Wojciechowski and Prime Minister Wincenty Witos gave up and resigned their offices; the Star's “Ciechowski” is a garbled form of Wojciechowski's name. A new government was then formed under Kazimierz Bartel, whom the paper calls “Charles,” with Pilsudski as minister of military affairs. On May 31 the National Assembly nominated Pilsudski for president, but he declined, and Ignacy Mościcki eventually took the post while Pilsudski wielded real power from the coup onward. Before the coup Pilsudski had regarded the constant shifts of power in the Sejm, the Polish parliament, as chaotic and damaging. That helps explain why the Bartel cabinet's running dispute with the Diet mattered: by accepting the premiership himself, Pilsudski stepped out from behind the cabinet he had chosen and took formal charge of a government at odds with parliament. This October 1926 appointment began the first of two governments he headed, in 1926–1928 and in 1930. He formally remained defense minister in every government until his death in 1935.
Original
AUTO PLUNGE KILLS COL. A. S. WILLIAMS, ACCUSED BY BUTLER
Spring for Drunkenness at Party for General. By The Associated Press. SAN FRANCISCO, October 1. - Col. Alexander S. Williams, in charge of recruiting for the Marine Corps in the Western district, who figured as the defendant in the famous " cocktail " court-martial at San Diego last April, was drowned here early this morning when a closed car he was driving plunged into San Francisco Bay. Col. Williams ' body was taken to the morgue, where it was identified by Mrs. Williams. It had been previously tentatively identified by officers, newspaper men and friends from photographs, a signet ring and papers in his wallet. Mrs. Williams said that on leaving home about 5 p. m. yesterday her husband told her he was going to the Bohemian Club with some friends for dinner. She said he telephoned her at 9 o'clock last night that he was having a wonderful time and that he would not be home until an early hour in the morning. Car Suddenly Swerved. She said that when her husband was out late he usually drove home by way of the Embarcadero, as it was well lighted and he was not well acquainted with the city's streets. She believes he must have lost control of the car or that his vision was obstructed by something, causing the car to plunge into the bay. [?]
FLORIDA GOVERNOR HAMPERING RELIEF, CHARGE OF PAYNE
[?] The officials of Florida, " from the governor down, " and the real estate operators, anxious to minimize the damage wrought by the recent hurricane for fear that the tourist business will be ruined with the busy Winter season at hand, have seriously handicapped the American National Red Cross in its efforts to provide relief for those who suffered most in the hurricane of September 18, Judge John Barton Payne, chairman of the governing board of the Red Cross, charged today in a message to C. C. Pinckney, chairman of the Richmond, Va., chapter. " The poor people who suffered are regarded as of less consequence than the hotel and tourist business of Florida, " Judge Payne declared. " The Red Cross is bound to go forward and do the job just the same, and every one should help. Our officials on the ground report the greatest need since the San Francisco disaster, with 5, 000 homes totally destroyed and 18, 000 families impoverished. Red Cross assistance is given only on the basis of actual need, not losses. " Circulars Prompt Inquiry. This message was prompted by an inquiry Judge Payne received by wire from Mr. Pinckney in which the latter declared that circulars had been distributed in the Virginia city charging that a very exaggerated idea of Miami's storm condition had been created and that only " some cheaply constructed houses had been blown down and some houseboats lost. " At the same time it was disclosed that a request had been made by influential persons at Miami that the Red Cross officials there should submit all information and all reports forwarded to the national headquarters in Washington, and which might be given out to the press, to a censor in the Florida city. Mr. Pinckney's message added that Miami would be open to visitors as usual this Winter. [?]
PILSUDSKI IS MADE POLAND’S PREMIER
[?] WARSAW, Poland, October 1. - Marshal Joseph Pilsudski today accepted the premiership of Poland, vacated last night by the resignation of Charles Bartel. Although Marshal Pilsudski has long played a prominent part in Polish affairs and was the leader of the coup d'etat which overthrew the Witos government last May, he had been rather in the background of Polish politics for the last few months, which have been marked by controversy between the Bartel cabinet and the Diet. When the Witos government was overthrown and President Ciechowski had been exiled in May, Marshal Pilsudski became general dictator in Poland, but he soon indicated that he had no desire to hold the chief executive post in the state. He declined a suggestion for a dictatorship and then refused to accept the presidency, to which he was elected by the Diet. Although not holding the nominal executive post, Marshal Pilsudski still held a practically supreme direction of affairs and selected M. Bartel, whose cabinet resigned yesterday, to be premier. The marshal took the post of war minister in the cabinet and took over supreme command of the army. [?]
Source: Holding institution