Evening Star
- WET AND DRY ISSUE SHOVING PARTISAN POLITICS TO REAR
- KLAN PROBE FACTS ASTOUND SENATORS
- YANKEES CAPTURE OPENING GAME OF WORLD SERIES, 2-1
The Sunday Evening Star of October 3, 1926, set national politics, an Indiana scandal and baseball side by side. G. Gould Lincoln argued that prohibition had pushed ordinary party differences aside in the fall campaigns: wet-and-dry questions were on referendum ballots in nine states, from California to New York, and in five of them voters would decide whether to repeal state dry-enforcement laws. An Associated Press dispatch from Indianapolis reported that six state senators were 'astounded' by evidence a Republican editors' committee had gathered on alleged bribery and job-selling under the imprisoned former Klan leader D. C. Stephenson. Sports editor Denman Thompson described the Yankees' 2-1 World Series opening win over the Cardinals behind Herb Pennock as expert but strangely dull for its crowd of about 62,000.
Translation
WET AND DRY ISSUE SHOVING PARTISAN POLITICS TO REAR
Both Senate and House From November Races. BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. Partisan politics have been forgotten by voters in some of the States this Fall because of their interest in the wet and dry issue. In other States the two old major parties have themselves seized upon the prohibition issue, naming wet candidates and inserting wet planks in their platforms, or naming dry candidates and declaring for prohibition in their platforms. The issue has leaped into far greater prominence than the drys had expected or the wets had hoped. In part, this is because there are no great issues today dividing the Republicans and the Democrats, their differences are largely in degree rather than in principle. Differences in degree are difficult for the people to grasp. But the wet and dry issue every one believes he understands. Certainly every voter has decided opinions about it. The wet and dry fight this Fall is confined to no single section of the country, although there is one section in which the issue has not been raised—the South, if the senatorial race in Louisiana is excepted. The question has been raised by referenda in nine States. It has been raised in senatorial and congressional elections in many more States. And it has been written into party platforms in a few of the States.
States Having Referenda.
The States in which the referenda will be held are California, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New York, Oregon and Wisconsin. The petition for a referendum in Oregon has just been filed by the "Oregon Prohibition Referendum Corporation." In five of these States the referenda submit to the voters the question whether the State dry enforcement codes shall be repealed. These States are California, Colorado, Missouri [?], [?]
KLAN PROBE FACTS ASTOUND SENATORS
ture Members Want an Exhaustive Inquiry. By the Associated Press. INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., October 2.—First steps toward an exhaustive investigation of the political control alleged to have been exercised over the Republican party in Indiana by D. C. Stephenson, former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, were taken here late today when evidence, gathered by a probe committee of the Indiana Republican Editorial Association was submitted to a group of State Senators. Six Senators, three Republicans and three Democrats, heard Thomas H. Adams, Vincennes, Ind., publisher and chairman of the probe committee, recount the evidence his committee has gathered. The Senators drafted a statement in which they declared they were "astounded at the revelations of Chairman Adams," and declared "the evidence should receive exhaustive investigation."
Statement By Senators.
The statement drafted by the Senators follows: "The meeting of Senators invited to hear the evidence submitted by the probe committee of the Indiana Republican Editorial Association was astounded at the revelations of Chairman Adams. The actions of D. C. Stephenson and his intimate associates, including alleged fraud, corruption and bribery, were laid before the committee on affidavits and documentary evidence. It involves many officials. Inasmuch as it affects so many officials directly and indirectly, it was the opinion of the Senators who were invited only informally that the evidence should receive exhaustive investigation." No formal step was taken today toward pressing the legislative investigation but the Senators indicated their willingness to meet again at the call of Mr. Adams.
Alleged Sale of Positions.
Evidence presented to the Senators included alleged contracts for appointment of State officials and exchange of money for political advantage. Senator Joseph Cravens of Madison, minority leader in the upper house at the last session of the Legislature, expressed astonishment at the evidence collected by Mr. Adams. "It is simply inconceivable," Senator Cravens said. "There is no question but that constitutional government in Indiana weighs in the balance." Stephenson now is in the State prison at Michigan City serving a life sentence for the murder of Miss Madge Obenholtzer of Indianapolis. The activities of the Ku Klux Klan figured in Mr. Adams' explanation of Stephenson's political power.
Letter by Stephenson.
Among the papers submitted was a letter by Stephenson to Court Asher, a former grand kleagle in the Klan and Stephenson's chief aid during his reign as grand dragon. Stephenson's
YANKEES CAPTURE OPENING GAME OF WORLD SERIES, 2-1
Passes, Brings in First; Single, Scoring Ruth, the Other. BY DENMAN THOMPSON. Sports Editor of The Star. NEW YORK, October 2.—Skill and science scored over beef and brawn today when New York's Yankees earned a clean-cut 2-to-1 verdict over the St. Louis Cardinals in the opening game of the 1926 series for the base ball championship of the world. Flashing faultless support to supplement superlative pitching by Herb Pennock, the American Leaguers' machine-like play proved more than their rivals could cope with, and the initial joust of the annual tussle for diamond superiority found Rogers Hornsby and his gallant array thwarted before an assemblage that taxed the capacity of the largest plant devoted to the national pastime. Considering the size of the throng, numbering some 62,000, this tilt produced less in the way of real enthusiasm than any similar contest staged in recent years. It was not through lack of appreciation for the determined, but futile, efforts of Bill Sherdel, diminutive port-sider of the Mound City aggregation, to match the slabbing of his southpaw rival or that Gothamites are deficient in civic pride that such notable apathy was displayed. It was due to the almost total absence of the spectacular.
No Sensational Plays.
There were no home runs, no sensational catches and no base running to set the pulses throbbing. It was just a hard fought pitchers' duel almost totally devoid of thrills—just a ball game, in other words. The stage was there, with a setting perfect for drama of the tensest type, but the actors performed with such precision and so little verve that yawns were induced where cheers or jeers usually prevail. With such a slugging aggregation as that led by the mighty Babe Ruth and their little less doughty National League rivals on view, this throng was gathered to pay homage at the throne of punch and power, but there was little in evidence. All told, but nine hits were recorded in the course of the pastime, the Cardinals contriving to get but three off Pennock, while Sherdel limited the Yankees to a meager half dozen. There weren't even any misplays to occasion vocal exercise by the fans, the lone error committed by Lester Bell being followed quickly by a side-retiring play that rendered the bobble impotent as a factor in the sparse scoring. Under the circumstances no
Context
Who was D. C. Stephenson, and why did his grip on Indiana Republicans matter?
The AP story treats Stephenson's alleged 'political control' over Indiana's Republican Party as the core of the scandal, and his career explains why. Stephenson was appointed Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan in 1923 and, having switched from the Democrats to the Republicans, used the Klan's huge membership as a statewide electoral machine. In 1924 Edward L. Jackson cut a deal for Stephenson's help in his run for governor, and candidates Stephenson endorsed, Jackson among them, won by significant margins. The alleged contracts for appointing state officials that Adams laid out therefore concerned a machine that had helped put the sitting governor in office—the backdrop to Senator Cravens's warning that constitutional government 'weighs in the balance.' When this article appeared, Stephenson was already in prison: a jury convicted him of second-degree murder on November 14, 1925, and he received a life sentence. His victim's name is generally spelled Oberholtzer, not 'Obenholtzer' as printed here.
How did the editors' probe relate to the later exposure of Stephenson's network?
The article credits a committee of the Indiana Republican Editorial Association, chaired by the Vincennes publisher Thomas H. Adams, with bringing affidavits and documents before six state senators, although no formal legislative step followed that day. Standard accounts of how the scandal finally broke give the central role to others. After Governor Jackson refused him a pardon, Stephenson began talking to Indianapolis Times reporters in 1927 and released lists of officials who had been in the pay of the Klan. The Times won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for that investigation, and the state went on to indict leading politicians, including Governor Jackson; Indianapolis mayor John Duvall was convicted. Read against that sequence, this October 1926 dispatch records an earlier push by Republican newspapermen to bring the same network before the legislature—one that, on this day at least, ended with the senators merely agreeing to meet again at Adams's call.
How did the wet-dry split play out in New York, one of Lincoln's nine referendum states?
Lincoln argued that prohibition cut across party lines, with parties sometimes nominating wets and sometimes drys. New York's 1926 Senate race illustrates this. The incumbent Republican, James W. Wadsworth Jr., was a wet. Hard-line prohibitionists backed State Senator Franklin W. Cristman against him at the Republican convention, and Cristman then ran as an independent Republican in opposition to Wadsworth's anti-Prohibition stance. In November, Wadsworth lost to the Democrat Robert F. Wagner, who had thrown out the first pitch at the World Series opener described elsewhere on this page. More broadly, wet campaigners of the period appealed to personal liberty, the tax revenue legal liquor would bring and the rise of organized crime. The question Lincoln saw reshaping 1926 politics was settled nationally in 1933, when the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth.
How did Pennock's opener fit into a series remembered for power?
Thompson's complaint that the crowd came 'to pay homage at the throne of punch and power' and got a quiet pitchers' duel is borne out by the official record. Herb Pennock pitched a complete game, allowed only three hits, and won 2–1. The listed attendance was 61,658, close to the paper's estimate of 62,000. The subheadline fragment about a run from passes and a single that scored Ruth matches the record: Lou Gehrig drove in both Yankee runs. The slugging the crowd had wanted arrived in Game 4, when Ruth hit three home runs. Even so, the Cardinals won the series four games to three, so the opener that bored Thompson turned out to be only a brief advantage for New York.
Original
WET AND DRY ISSUE SHOVING PARTISAN POLITICS TO REAR
Both Senate and House From November Races. BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. Partisan politics have been forgotten by voters in some of the States this Fall because of their interest in the wet and dry issue. In other States the two old major parties have themselves seized upon the prohibition issue, naming wet candidates and inserting wet planks in their platforms, or naming dry candidates and declaring for prohibition in their platforms. The issue has leaped into far greater prominence than the drys had expected or the wets had hoped. In part, this is because there are no great issues today dividing the Republicans and the Democrats, their differences are largely in degree rather than in principle. Differences in degree are difficult for the people to grasp. But the wet and dry issue every one believes he understands. Certainly every voter has decided opinions about it. The wet and dry fight this Fall is confined to no single section of the country, although there is one section in which the issue has not been raised-the South, if the senatorial race in Louisiana is excepted. The question has been raised by referenda in nine States. It has been raised in senatorial and congressional elections in many more States. And it has been written into party platforms in a few of the States. States Having Referenda. The States in which the referenda will be held are California, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New York, Oregon and Wisconsin. The petition for a referendum in Oregon has just been filed by the " Oregon Prohibition Referendum Corporation. " In five of these States the referenda submit to the voters the question whether the State dry enforcement codes shall be repealed. These States are California, Colorado, Missouri [?], [?]
KLAN PROBE FACTS ASTOUND SENATORS
ture Members Want an Exhaustive Inquiry. By the Associated Press. INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., October 2. - First steps toward an exhaustive investigation of the political control alleged to have been exercised over the Republican party in Indiana by D. C. Stephenson, former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, were taken here late today when evidence, gathered by a probe committee of the Indiana Republican Editorial Association was submitted to a group of State Senators. Six Senators, three Republicans and three Democrats, heard Thomas H. Adams, Vincennes, Ind., publisher and chairman of the probe committee, recount the evidence his committee has gathered. The Senators drafted a statement in which they declared they were " astounded at the revelations of Chairman Adams, " and declared " the evidence should receive exhaustive investigation. " Statement By Senators. The statement drafted by the Senators follows: " The meeting of Senators invited to hear the evidence submitted by the probe committee of the Indiana Republican Editorial Association was astounded at the revelations of Chairman Adams. The actions of D. C. Stephenson and his intimate associates, including alleged - fraud, corruption and bribery, were laid before the committee on affidavits and documentary evidence. It involves many officials. Inasmuch as it affects so many officials directly and indirectly, it was the opinion of the Senators who were invited only informally that the evidence should receive exhaustive investigation. " No formal step was taken today toward pressing the legislative investigation but the Senators indicated their willingness to meet again at the call of Mr. Adams. Alleged Sale of Positions. Evidence presented to the Senators included alleged contracts for appointment of State officials and exchange of money for political advantage. Senator Joseph Cravens of Madison, minority leader in the upper house at the last session of the Legislature, expressed astonishment at the evidence collected by Mr. Adams. " It is simply inconceivable, " Senator Cravens said. " There is no question but that constitutional government in Indiana weighs in the balance. " Stephenson now is in the State prison at Michigan City serving a life sentence for the murder of Miss Madge Obenholtzer of Indianapolis. The activities of the Ku Klux Klan figured in Mr. Adams ' explanation of Stephenson's political power. Letter by Stephenson. Among the papers submitted was a letter by Stephenson to Court Asher, a former grand kleagle in the Klan and Stephenson's chief aid during his reign as grand dragon. Stephenson's
YANKEES CAPTURE OPENING GAME OF WORLD SERIES, 2-1
Passes, Brings in First; Single, Scoring Ruth, the Other. BY DENMAN THOMPSON. Sports Editor of The Star. NEW YORK, October 2. - Skill and science scored over beef and brawn today when New York's Yankees earned a clean-cut 2-to-1 verdict over the St. Louis Cardinals in the opening game of the 1926 series for the base ball championship of the world. Flashing faultless support to supplement superlative pitching by Herb Pennock, the American Leaguers ' machine like play proved more than their rivals could cope with, and the initial joust of the annual tussle for diamond superiority found Rogers Hornsby and his gallant array thwarted before an assemblage that taxed the capacity of the largest plant devoted to the national pastime. Considering the size of the throng, numbering some 62, 000, this tilt produced less in the way of real enthusiasm than any similar contest staged in recent years. It was not through lack of appreciation for the determined, but futile, efforts of Bill Sherdel, diminutive port-sider of the Mound City aggregation, to match the slabbing of his southpaw rival or that Gothamites are deficient in civic pride that such notable apathy was displayed. It was due to the almost total absence of the spectacular. No Sensational Plays. There were no home runs, no sensational catches and no base running to set the pulses throbbing. It was just a hard fought pitchers ' duel almost totally devoid of thrills-just a ball game, in other words. The stage was there, with a setting perfect for drama of the tensest type, but the actors performed with such precision and so little verve that yawns were induced where cheers or jeers usually prevail. With such a slugging aggregation as that led by the mighty Babe Ruth and their little less doughty National League rivals on view, this throng was gathered to pay homage at the throne of punch and power, but there was little in evidence. All told, but nine hits were recorded in the course of the pastime, the Cardinals contriving to get but three off Pennock, while Sherdel limited the Yankees to a meager half dozen. There weren't even any misplays to occasion vocal exercise by the fans, the lone error committed by Lester Bell being followed quickly by a sideretiring play that rendered the bobble impotent as a factor in the sparse scoring. Under the circumstances no
Source: Holding institution