The Montgomery Advertiser
- BRANDON REQUESTS SOUTH'S GOVERNORS TO MEET IN CAPITAL
- HOPE IS ABANDONED FOR TWENTY-THREE ENTOMBED MINERS
- INDIANA EDITOR SEEKS TO PROVE POLITICAL CORRUPTION CHARGES
The Montgomery Advertiser of 5 October 1926 led with Alabama Governor Brandon's telegram inviting the cotton-state governors to Montgomery to meet alongside the U.S. Chamber of Commerce agricultural conference on 11–12 October, as spot cotton sold locally at 11.75 cents, about nine cents below estimated cost. Agriculture Secretary Jardine, in a letter to the state farm bureau, proposed credit corporations that would borrow from the Intermediate Credit Banks instead of a Texas bankers' pool. An AP report from Rockwood, Tennessee, said 23 miners were believed entombed after an explosion in the Roane Iron Company mine, with four bodies found and four men rescued. From Indianapolis came publisher Thomas H. Adams's appeal to Governor Jackson to question the imprisoned former Klan leader D. C. Stephenson about political corruption. The same columns carried short items on a cruiser missing off Miami and a mother who sent her daughter to school in knickers.
Translation
BRANDON REQUESTS SOUTH'S GOVERNORS TO MEET IN CAPITAL
Constructive Fearless Independent VOLUME XCVIII-NO. 278
BRANDON REQUESTS SOUTH'S GOVERNORS TO MEET IN CAPITAL
Proposes Chief Executives of Cotton Growing States Meet Concurrently With Chamber of Commerce
JARDINE ADVANCES PLAN TO GET FEDERAL RELIEF
Suggests Organization of Credit Corporations For Intermediate Bank Loans
Alabama officially extended invitation to the governors of cotton growing states to meet in conjunction with the United States Chamber of Commerce regional agricultural conference here October 11-12, Monday in a telegram from Governor Brandon to Governor H. L. Whitfield, of Mississippi, to outline a relief plan for cotton growers.
The telegram was in reply to a proposal of Governor Whitfield that a conference of chief executives in the South be held, and asking opinion on the subject.
Governor Brandon offered the recommendation following similar suggestions by Edward A. O'Neal, president of the Alabama Farm Bureau federation, and W. F. Black, secretary of the Montgomery chamber of commerce and L. N. Duncan, director of the extension service at Auburn.
With spot middling selling at 11.75 on the local market Monday a price estimated by farm bureau officials to be about nine cents under production costs, 200 bales were placed on the market.
Others Back Plan.
Suggestions for relief were contained in a letter received Monday by Mr. O'Neal from W. M. Jardine, secretary of agriculture. Mr. Jardine has been invited to attend the proposed conference, but his decision has not been received.
In the letter Mr. Jardine discusses the plan advanced in Texas that Texas bankers put up $50 a bale for one million bales to keep it off the market until it might be more advantageously sold.
"Why not put one-half of this amount into agricultural credit corporations," he asks, "and borrow ten times the capital stock of each corporation from the Intermediate Credit Banks? If $25,000,000 were devoted to this purpose cotton farmers would have $250,000,000 available for immediate use.
"I am informed that the 12 Intermediate Credit Banks have $660,000,000 available but only $80,000,000 is out -
HOPE IS ABANDONED FOR TWENTY-THREE ENTOMBED MINERS
Constructive Fearless Independent 14 PAGES Price 5 Cents
HOPE IS ABANDONED FOR TWENTY-THREE ENTOMBED MINERS
Four Bodies Recovered Following Explosion in Tennessee Mine Early Monday Afternoon
BLAST OCCURS NEAR SPOT WHERE 10 PERISHED IN 1925
Rescuers Press Forward Despite Handicap of Gas and Heat; Four Escape Alive
ROCKWOOD, TENN., Oct. 4. - Twenty-three men were believed to be still entombed late tonight in the Rodgers entry of the Roane Iron company's mine near here, scene of an explosion early today. Virtually all hope of finding any of the men alive was abandoned when the first members of the second rescue party to enter the mine emerged shortly before midnight.
Four bodies have been found and identified and four men, all of them nearly a mile from the scene of the explosion, were brought out alive. The explosion came with such suddenness that none of the injured was able to describe it. One of the two nearest the explosion, Ebbie Davis, recovered consciousness but was unable to remember anything after the terrific explosion.
Another helmet rescue crew entered the mine at midnight but with little hope of accomplishing anything during the night with the possible exception of expediting clearance of the mine for tomorrow's operations.
Members of the second rescue crew, who emerged from the mine shaft shortly before midnight after spending six hours in groping through the dark recesses and clearing a passage to the scene of the explosion said the mine was infested with gas and they were able to get no nearer than a half mile from where the men were trapped.
Cave-ins were heard late tonight, which gave indications of making progress more difficult. Miners said it was possible the falls would cover the bodies of the men and make their recovery next to impossible.
No attempt was made to remove the four bodies found tonight. Officials at the mine indicated that no bodies would be removed until nearly all were found. The four bodies found are believed to be those of George Riddell, W. C. Elliott, Gaither Smith and Harry Lingo. One of them was decapitated, making positive identification difficult.
Two hundred or more men were reported to have been in the Rodgers entry, but all save thirty-one were beyond the explosion area. Davis, the first man found alive, was a mile from where the explosion occurred. He did not regain consciousness for several hours. E. G. Boles, found three-fourths of a mile from the scene of the explosion, was taken to his home in a critical condition. The other two who escaped alive, Will and Arthur Teague, bratticed themselves and were uninjured. They sought to save Boles, who was near them, but failed when the deadly "after damp" swept through the shaft.
The cause of the explosion has not been determined, A. J. Holden, deputy state mine inspector, said it probably was owing to accumulation of gas and dust.
Men, women and children, relatives of the imprisoned men, huddled about the mouth of the mine far into the night, hoping for word that some of the men were alive. But they received little encouragement from the rescue workers who emerged after hours of groping through the dark, gas-filled region.
BIRMINGHAM SENDS AID
BIRMINGHAM, ALA., Oct. 4. - (AP) - Six Birmingham experts left here (Continued on Page Two)
CONDITION OF COMEDIAN TAKES TURN FOR WORSE
Friends of [?] [?]
INDIANA EDITOR SEEKS TO PROVE POLITICAL CORRUPTION CHARGES
Coast Guards Continue Search for Small Cruiser Near Miami
MIAMI, FLA., Oct. 4 - (AP) - A coast guard picket boat tonight continued to search the waters about Cape Florida, 8 miles south of Miami, for the 35 foot cruiser, Cyndia, reported missing with six unidentified persons aboard. The coast guard was advised at noon by J. D. Beggers, of Miami, that the party left early Sunday morning for a brief fishing trip, planning to return late yesterday afternoon. Beggers said he did not know members of the party.
... erate means, Mrs. Allen said she started Virginia to school in knickers because they were economical and practical and until she could make dresses for the girl.
"As far as the morality and modesty of the question is concerned, I think my child in knickers is much more properly attired than children who play on the swings and other playground devices with their little short dresses," Mrs. Allen declared.
Friends of Mrs. Allen have advised her to seek an injunction permitting Virginia to attend her classes in knickers.
INDIANA EDITOR SEEKS TO PROVE POLITICAL CORRUPTION CHARGES
Thomas H. Adams Asks Governor's Permission to Confer Confidentially or Publicly With Former Grand Dragon; Warden Refuses to Permit Reporters to Visit Prisoner
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., Oct. 4. - (AP) - Thomas H. Adams, veteran publisher of the Vincennes, Ind., Commercial, who has recently made strong declarations concerning corruption in Indiana politics, today appealed to Governor Jackson for permission to seek corroboration of his charges from D. C. Stephenson, former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
Stephenson is serving a life sentence at the state prison. He was convicted several months ago of murdering Miss Madge Oberholtzer.
Since Mr. Adams' first announcement last week that an investigating committee of the Indiana republican editorial association had uncovered details of Stephenson's alleged political machinations, newspapermen have made various futile attempts to interview the former klan leader.
Mr. Adams, who met last Saturday with six state senators and outlined to them the political conditions he said the committee had uncovered, addressed a telegram to Governor Jackson appealing for "the privilege of a confidential or public conference," with Stephenson. He expressed a desire that the state senators and the investigating committee be allowed to attend the conference.
Governor Jackson, in LaFayette, Ind., for the day, had no comment to make on Mr. Adams' appeal and Walter H. Daily, warden of the state prison reiterated that newspapermen would not be admitted to Stephenson's cell. He also said the state senators would not be given an audience unless the governor gave permission.
Mr. Adams also made public a statement declaring that "the most desperate, underhand methods are being resorted to" in an effort to thwart the investigating committee's work. He also gave out a letter purported to have been sent by Stephenson to Court Asher, one of the grand dragon's former lieutenants. In the letter Stephenson declared he was convicted on the murder charge "because certain individuals feared me and others want me out of the way because of financial obligations."
There came today some indications that although Mr. Adams holds the post of chairman of the executive committee of the Indiana republican editorial association and has been assisted in the political investigation by Will Feudner of Rushville, secretary, other members of the association are not wholly in sympathy with the investigation.
J. Frank McDermott of Attica, president of the republican editors' association, said personally "he didn't care to have anything to do with this whole thing." He declined to say whether the editorial association was back of the investigation.
Mr. Adams planned to leave Vincennes tonight for a trip to Chicago where he said he would meet with "responsible persons" with a view to obtaining an investigation by the United States senate of Indiana political conditions. He declined to give the names of these persons.
Context
What became of the credit-corporation route to cotton relief
Jardine's letter, as the Advertiser reports it, steered the South away from a Texas-style bankers' pool and toward agricultural credit corporations that could borrow from the federal Intermediate Credit Banks. The crisis behind it was an enormous crop: a witness at a later House hearing on agricultural relief recalled that in the fall of 1926 the price fell from 18 cents a pound to 12 cents and then lower. The Coolidge administration answered by appointing a cabinet cotton committee of Secretaries Mellon, Hoover and Jardine, which decided to set up in each cotton state a finance corporation able to borrow from the intermediate credit banks or from commercial banks. That was, in effect, the idea in Jardine's letter extended across the South. The same witness testified that these finance corporations handled practically no cotton, and he explained that individual growers would not take the risk of holding cotton off the market to steady the price for everyone. His is a later judgment from an interested witness, a director of a cotton cooperative association, but it indicates that the credit machinery promised to the Advertiser's readers in October did little to lift the 11.75-cent market reported on this page.
What caused the Rockwood explosion and how many died
The Advertiser's own figures already pointed to the final toll: 31 men were in the explosion zone, four came out alive, four bodies had been found and 23 were presumed entombed, which makes 27 dead. The Rockwood Times confirmed that arithmetic on 7 October, reporting 12 bodies brought to the surface, four men rescued alive and 15 more bodies still being sought. On the day of the disaster the local paper wrote that the explosion was thought to have been caused by a gas blast igniting the coal dust in the entry, which it described as exceedingly dry and dusty. That matches the explanation deputy state mine inspector A. J. Holden gave in this AP dispatch, that gas and dust had accumulated. Both were early judgments, made while rescuers were still clearing the Rodgers entry and before most bodies had been recovered.
The earlier Rodgers entry disaster and the Birmingham experts
The deck's reference to a spot "where 10 perished in 1925" points to the explosion of July 1925 in the same part of the mine. The Rockwood Times, writing on 4 October 1926, put that earlier toll at 12 lives, so the papers disagreed about the size of the precedent. The "Birmingham sends aid" item cut off at the foot of this column refers to a party of mine rescue experts that, according to the Rockwood Times, reached Rockwood at about 2:30 on Tuesday morning. That party included Dr. F. E. Merryweather, described as a recognized authority on coal dust and dust explosions, and, like others in the group, a man of the U.S. Bureau of Mines. Their presence shows that federal specialists in dust explosions were brought in from Alabama within a day.
Why Adams needed Governor Jackson to reach Stephenson
Adams's appeal ran through a governor with close ties to the prisoner. D. C. Stephenson was appointed Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan in 1923 and turned the order into a statewide political machine. When Ed Jackson ran for governor in 1924, he cut a deal in exchange for Stephenson's assistance. Stephenson's fall came when a jury convicted him of second-degree murder on 14 November 1925, the conviction the Advertiser describes as "several months ago". By October 1926, therefore, the man Adams wanted to question was a life prisoner whose testimony could implicate the very officials who controlled access to him. The paper's report of the governor's silence and the warden's refusal shows that position, while the letter Adams released, in which Stephenson blamed people who "feared" him, gives a first sign that the prisoner was ready to turn on his former allies.
What Stephenson's disclosures did to Indiana politics
The full disclosures that Adams was chasing in October 1926 arrived the following year through a different channel. Denied a pardon by Governor Jackson, Stephenson in 1927 began talking with reporters for the Indianapolis Times and released lists of officials said to have been in the Klan's pay. This led to a wave of indictments in Indiana and to more national scandals. Among the results, the mayor of Indianapolis, John Duvall, was convicted and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Adams's charges and his attempt to secure a Senate inquiry, as reported here, thus belong to the early stage of a scandal that ended the Klan's hold on Indiana politics; the Advertiser itself, however, reports only his claims and the resistance he met, not their proof.
Original
BRANDON REQUESTS SOUTH'S GOVERNORS TO MEET IN CAPITAL
Constructive Fearless Independent VOLUME XCVIII-NO. 278 BRANDON REQUESTS SOUTH'S GOVERNORS TO MEET IN CAPITAL Proposes Chief Executives of Cotton Growing States Meet Concurrently With Chamber of Commerce JARDINE ADVANCES PLAN TO GET FEDERAL RELIEF Suggests Organization of Credit Corporations For Intermediate Bank Loans Alabama officially extended invitation to the governors of cotton growing states to meet in conjunction with the United States Chamber of Commerce regional agricultural conference here October 11-12, Monday in a telegram from Governor Brandon to Governor H. L. Whitfield, of Mississippi, to outline a relief plan for cotton growers. The telegram was in reply to a proposal of Governor Whitfield that a conference of chief executives in the South be held, and asking opinion on the subject. Governor Brandon offered the recommendation following similar suggestions by Edward A. O'Neal, president of the Alabama Farm Bureau federation, and W. F. Black, secretary of the Montgomery chamber of commerce and L. N. Duncan, director of the extension service at Auburn. With spot middling selling at 11. 75 on the local market Monday a price estimated by farm bureau officials to be about nine cents under production costs, 200 bales were placed on the market. Others Back Plan. Suggestions for relief were contained in a letter received Monday by Mr. O'Neal from W. M. Jardine, secretary of agriculture. Mr. Jardine has been invited to attend the proposed conference, but his decision has not been received. In the letter Mrs. Jardine discusses the plan advanced in Texas that Texas bankers put up $ 50 a bale for one million bales to keep it off the market until it might be more advantageously sold. " Why not put one-half of this amount into agricultural credit corporations, " he asks, " and borrow ten times the capital stock of each corporation from the Intermediate Credit Banks? If $ 25, 000, 000 were devoted to this purpose cotton farmers would have $ 250, 000, 000 available for immediate use. " I am informed that the 12 Intermediate Credit Banks have $ 660, 000, 000 available but only $ 80, 000, 000 is out -
HOPE IS ABANDONED FOR TWENTY-THREE ENTOMBED MINERS
Constructive Fearless Independent 14 PAGES Price 5 Cents HOPE IS ABANDONED FOR TWENTY-THREE ENTOMBED MINERS Four Bodies Recovered Following Explosion in Tennessee Mine Early Monday Afternoon BLAST OCCURS NEAR SPOT WHERE 10 PERISHED IN 1925 Rescuers Press Forward Despite Handicap of Gas and Heat; Four Escape Alive ROCKWOOD, TENN., Oct. 4. - Twenty-three men were believed to be still entombed late tonight in the Rodgers entry of the Roane Iron company's mine near here, scene of an explosion early today. Virtually all hope of finding any of the men alive was abandoned when the first members of the second rescue party to enter the mine emerged shortly before midnight. Four bodies have been found and identified and four men, all of them nearly a mile from the scene of the explosion, were brought out alive. The explosion came with such suddenness that none of the injured was able to describe it. One of the two nearest the explosion, Ebbie Davis, recovered consciousness but was unable to remember anything after the terrific explosion. Another helmet rescue crew entered the mine at midnight but with little hope of accomplishing anything during the night with the possible exception of expediting clearance of the mine for tomorrow's operations. Members of the second rescue crew, who emerged from the mine shaft shortly before midnight after spending six hours in groping through the dark recesses and, clearing a passage to the scene of the explosion said the mine was infested with gas and they were able to get no nearer than a half mile from where the men were trapped. Cave-ins were heard late tonight, which gave indications of making progress more difficult. Miners said it was possible the falls would cover the bodies of the men and make their recovery next to impossible. No attempt was made to remove tne four bodies found tonight. Officials at the mine indicated that no bodies would be removed until nearly all were found. The four bodies found are believed to be those of George Riddell, W. C. Elliott, Gaither Smith and Harry Lingo. One of them was decapitated, making positive identification difficult. Two hundred or more men were reported to have been in the Rodgers entry, but all save thirty-one were beyond the explosion area. Davis, the first man found alive, was a mile from where the explosion occurred. He did not regain consciousness for several hours. E. G. Boles, found three-fourths of a mile from the scene of the explosion, was taken to his home in a critical condition. The other two who escaped alive, Will and Arthur Teague, bratticed themselves and were uninjured. They sought to save Boles, who was near them, but failed when the deadly " after damp " swept through the shaft. The cause of the explosion has not been determined, A. J. Holden, deputy state mine inspector, said it probably was owing to accumulation of gas and dust. Men, women and children, relatives of the imprisoned men, huddled about the mouth of the mine far into the night, hoping for word that some of the men were alive. But they received little encouragement from the rescue workers who emerged after hours of groping through the dark, gas-filled region. BIRMINGHAM SENDS AID BIRMINGHAM, ALA., Oct. 4. - (AP) - Six Birmingham experts left here (Continued on Page Two) CONDITION OF COMEDIAN TAKES TURN FOR WORSE Friends of [?] [?]
INDIANA EDITOR SEEKS TO PROVE POLITICAL CORRUPTION CHARGES
Coast Guards Continue Search for Small Cruiser Near Miami MIAMI, FLA., Oct. 4 - (AP) - A coast guard picket boat tonight continued to search the waters about Cape Florida, 8 miles south of Miami, for the 35 foot cruiser, Cyndia, reported missing with six unidentified persons aboard. The coast guard was advised at noon by J. D. Beggers, of Miami, that the party left early Sunday morning for a brief fishing trip, planning to return late yesterday afternoon. Beggers said he did not know members of the party. erate means, Mrs. Allen said she started Virginia to school in knickers because they were economical and practical and until she could make dresses for the girl. " As far as the morality and modesty of the question is concerned, I think my child in knickers is much more properly attired than children who play on the swings and other playground devices with their little short dresses, " Mrs. Allen declared. Friends of Mrs. Allen have advised her to seek an injunction permitting Virginia to attend her classes in knickers. INDIANA EDITOR SEEKS TO PROVE POLITICAL CORRUPTION CHARGES Thomas H. Adams Asks Governor's Permission to Confer Confidentially or Publicly With Former Grand Dragon; Warden Refuses to Permit Reporters to Visit Prisoner INDIANAPOLIS, IND., Oct. 4. - (AP) - Thomas H. Adams, veteran publisher of the Vincennes, Ind., Commercial, who has recently made strong declarations concerning corruption in Indiana politics, today appealed to Governor Jackson for permission to seek corroboration of his charges from D. C. Stephenson, former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Stephenson is serving a life sentence at the state prison. He was convicted several months ago of murdering Miss Madge Oberholtzer. Since Mr. Adams ' first announcement last week that an investigating committee of the Indiana republican editorial association had uncovered details of Stephenson's alleged political machinations, newspapermen have made various futile attempts to interview the former klan leader. Mr. Adams, who met last Saturday with six state senators and outlined to them the political conditions he said the committee had uncovered, addressed a telegram to Governor Jackson appealing for " the privilege of a confidential or public conference, " with Stephenson. He expressed a desire that the state senators and the investigating committee be allowed to attend the conference. Governor Jackson, in LaFayette, Ind., for the day, had no comment to make on Mr. Adams ' appeal and Walter H. Daily, warden of the state prison reiterated that newspapermen would not be admitted to Stephenson's cell. He also said the state senators would not be given an audience unless the governor gave permission. Mr. Adams also made public a statement declaring that " the most desperate, underhand methods are being resorted to " in an effort to thwart the investigating committee's work. He also gave out a letter purported to have been sent by Stephenson to Court Asher, one of the grand dragon's former lieutenants. In the letter Stephenson declared he was convicted on the murder charge " because certain individuals feared me and others want me out of the way because of financial obligations. " There came today some indications that although Mr. Adams holds the post of chairman of the executive committee of the Indiana republican editorial association and has been assisted in the political investigation by Will Feudner of Rushville, secretary, other members of the association are not wholly in sympathy with the investigation. J. Frank McDermott of Attica, president of the republican editors ' association, said personally " he didn't care to have anything to do with this whole thing. " He declined to say whether the editorial association was back of the investigation. Mr. Adams planned to leave Vincennes tonight for a trip to Chicago where he said he would meet with " responsible persons " with a view to obtaining an investigation by the United States senate of Indiana political conditions. He declined to give the names of these persons.
Source: Holding institution