Evening Star
- Deaths of 10,000 Reported in ‘Red’ Siege of Wuchang
- President’s Move in Butler-Walsh Contest Watched
- Woman and 2 Men Lynched by Mob
The Evening Star of Friday, October 8, 1926, led with Associated Press reports from Peking and Hankow on the Cantonese siege of Wuchang. Unconfirmed Chinese estimates put the dead at 10,000, most of them starved, and at least 50 women were trampled in the rush for refugee boats. Only about 40,000 of more than 250,000 residents had been carried across the Yangtse before an expected bombardment. From Boston, G. Gould Lincoln described the Butler–Walsh Senate race as a test of President Coolidge’s popularity and of prohibition, with both parties waiting to see whether Coolidge would step in. An AP dispatch from Aiken, South Carolina, reported that a mob took Clarence, Demmond and Bertha Lowman from jail during their retrial and shot them in a pine thicket. A short item reported that Guam’s Congress protested a Philippine proposal to annex the island.
Translation
DEATHS OF 10,000 REPORTED IN ‘RED’ SIEGE OF WUCHANG
cloudy; not much change in temperature. Temperature—Highest, 62, at 1:15 p.m. yesterday; lowest, 43, at 6 a.m. today. Full report on page 9. Closing N.Y. Stocks and Bonds, Page 30. No. 30,110. Entered as second class matter post office, Washington, D.C.
DEATHS OF 10,000 REPORTED IN ‘RED’ SIEGE OF WUCHANG
Many Perish Daily of Hunger. 50 Women Lose Lives in Rush to Boats.
BOMBARDMENT TO PUT 210,000 IN GRAVE PERIL
Only 40,000 of 250,000 Population Evacuated—U.S. Trying to Save Missionaries.
By the Associated Press.
PEKING, October 8.—Foreign dispatches from Hankow say that at least 50 women were among those trampled to death in the rush of the crowds through the gate of the city of Wuchang in an attempt to reach the boats taking refugees to Hankow, across the Yangtse River.
Chinese estimates, unconfirmed, say that 10,000 persons have died in Wuchang since the siege of that city by the Red Cantonese army began some weeks ago. Most of these are said to have died of starvation.
Hankow dispatches state that 500 coffins have been shipped to Wuchang to bury refugees trampled or drowned in the rush for boats.
210,000 IN GRAVE PERIL.
Bombardment Due to Begin Before Many Can Escape.
HANKOW, China, October 8 (AP).—The classical city of Wuchang—established more than 1,000 years before the birth of Christ—is being emptied of its civilian population, or that portion of it which it is humanly possible to transport across the two miles of placid Yangtse River to Hankow in the time allowed.
There have been only a few days in which the rescuers could work, a few boats available for the purpose, and yet this theater of death is the abode of more than 250,000 people. Red Cross agencies of mercy as yet have been able to bring across the river only approximately 40,000 refugees.
Siege Lasts Five Weeks.
For five weeks the ancient city across the river, which, under one name or another, has held a place in
PRESIDENT’S MOVE IN BUTLER-WALSH CONTEST WATCHED
e Evenin WITH SUNDAY MORNING EDITION NGTON, D.C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8
PRESIDENT’S MOVE IN BUTLER-WALSH CONTEST WATCHED
Massachusetts Doubtful if Chief Executive Will Take Hand in Race.
PROHIBITION IN FRONT AS DEMOCRATIC ISSUE
Republicans Rally Around Party Leader, Prosperity and Protective Tariff.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.
Staff Correspondent of The Star.
BOSTON, Mass., October 8.—A trial of political strength which may have far-reaching national significance is under way in Massachusetts. The principal actors in this contest, which is to be decided at the polls November 2, are Senator William M. Butler and former Senator David I. Walsh. One or the other will be elected United States Senator to fill out the unexpired term of the late Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. But the issues underlying are of greater interest nationally than the personal success of either of the contestants.
The outcome of the senatorial contest here will be used as a yardstick to measure the popularity of President Calvin Coolidge—although he is not personally involved in the race. It will also be regarded as a measure of the strength or weakness of America’s great experiment, prohibition.
The campaign for the election of a Senator from Massachusetts has been under way for months in this State. The groundwork has been laid on both sides. There remains only the final drive which is to land Butler or Walsh a winner. I have talked with both and both are confident of success.
Issues Are Defined.
The issues as the Republicans see them in this race are Coolidge, Republican prosperity and the protective tariff. The issues as the Democrats see them, on the other hand, are prohibition, and progressivism vs. conservatism.
Although the prestige of President Coolidge and his regime are involved in the campaign and its result, the Democrats frankly are not anxious for that test. And while Senator Walsh in some of his earlier speeches has assailed the Republican tariff law, the Democratic platform on which he now stands has straddled the tariff issue, declaring the party in favor of protection for industries of Massachusetts, but with due regard to the “consumers.” The Democrats are not concerned, it appears, with the protection of industries, agricultural or commercial, outside of Massachusetts.
President Coolidge’s prestige is bound up with this contest here, not only because a Senator of his own party is involved in his own State, but also because Senator Butler was the manager of the President’s 1924 campaign and because he has been regarded more than any other single Senator as the spokesman of the administration in the Senate for the last two years.
Day’s Burning Question.
A burning question here today is: What is the President going to do about the senatorial race? Is he going to Massachusetts to make a speech urging the election of the Republican ticket, including Senator Butler? Is he going to write a message at the psychological moment advising the voters to support the Republican ticket here?
Republican leaders insist they do not know what the President will do, or whether he will do anything. Some of them say that there is no need for the President to take an active part in the campaign; that the situation is such that Senator Butler will win without the President himself entering the campaign. Others frankly speak of the great interest which the President necessarily has in Massachusetts politics, and say they believe that in his own time he will make an appeal to the voters for Senator Butler and the rest of the ticket.
The Democrats are no less interested than the Republicans in what the course of the President will be. Some of them profess to believe that the direct entry of the President into the campaign will not only not help Senator Butler, but will have a contrary effect. But none of them is shouting loudly for the President to come here and speak or to send a message to the voters.
President’s Strength Bulwark.
The truth of the matter is that President Coolidge’s great personal popularity and strength in the Bay State was a deciding factor in the senatorial election in 1924, when Senator Walsh was defeated by a scant 18,588 votes. The President himself rolled up a vote 271,420 greater than the combined vote cast for John W. Davis, Democrat, and Robert M. La Follette, Progressive.
The President’s strength in his own State today is one of the greatest assets of his party ticket, including Senator Butler. Should Senator Walsh win, his victory will be interpreted generally as a blow to President Coolidge and an evidence of waning strength. This will be true whether the President actually participates in the campaign or not. It seems superfluous to tell the voters that the President wants Butler elected.
Massachusetts is said to be normally Republican by 100,000 votes. But “normal” conditions frequently do not prevail here. For example, normal conditions did not prevail when President Coolidge was a candidate for the presidency. Nor did normal conditions prevail when the late Senator Lodge was elected over Col. William A. Gaston, the present Democratic nominee for governor, by only 8,000 votes. There were factional troubles in the Republican party, and a very
WOMAN AND 2 MEN LYNCHED BY MOB
ing Sheriff.
By the Associated Press.
AIKEN, S.C., October 8.—A mob early today stormed the Aiken jail, seized three negroes, one of them a woman, and shot them to death in a pine thicket just beyond the city limits.
The negroes lynched were Clarence and Demmond Lowman and the latter’s sister, Bertha Lowman. They were on trial a second time for murder in connection with the death of Sheriff H. H. Howard of Aiken County, who was shot to death April 25, 1925, when, accompanied by several deputies, he went to raid the home of Sam Lowman, father of Demmond and Bertha Lowman, and uncle of Clarence Lowman.
On their first trial the negroes were convicted, but a new trial was granted by the State Supreme Court. This trial began early this week.
Jailer Is Overpowered.
Yesterday Special Judge S. T. Lanham, presiding, directed a verdict of “not guilty” for Demmond Lowman, on the charge of conspiracy to murder.
The mob broke into the jail about 3 o’clock this morning, overpowered Rupert Taylor, jailer, and Sheriff Nollie Robinson, and took the negroes away in an automobile. Their bodies were found several hours later in the thicket, about a quarter of a mile from town. Each had been shot several times.
The jailer said all electric light wires to the jail were cut and he was called to the door by the men. A demand was made for the prisoners. He refused to accede and had Sheriff Robinson called by telephone. The sheriff arrived while the mob surrounded the jail, and was overpowered, the officer said. Meantime some members of the mob entered the jail through a window in a part of the building used as the jailer’s residence, and succeeded in obtaining the prisoners.
Sheriff Is Outdistanced.
Sheriff Robinson said he followed the mob, but was outdistanced because he was driving a small automobile while the lynchers were in faster cars. He turned back near the city limits.
Although Demmond Lowman was acquitted on the conspiracy charge, he was rearrested yesterday on a warrant charging assault with intent to kill. The two men were sentenced to death at their first trial and the woman was given a life sentence.
Sheriff Robinson accompanied Sheriff Howard on the raid on the Lowman home. Annie Lowman, the mother of Demmon and Bertha, was killed by one of the raiders. Bertha was shot during the raid.
Assistant Chief of Police J. H. Woodward said the mob evidently had ordered the negroes to run and then opened fire. The bodies indicated that each negro had headed in a different direction.
When the mob left the jail the sheriff and jailer were released and the sheriff opened fire on the mob in the darkness.
GUAM APPEALS TO U.S.
Congress Indignant at Philippine Annexation Proposal.
GUAM, October 8 (AP).—Having received word that a resolution has been introduced in the Philippine Legislature providing for the annexation of Guam to the Philippines, the chairman of the Guam Congress called a special session.
Members of congress are indignant at the proposal and unitedly opposed to the idea. A committee is preparing a memorial to Secretary Wilbur and President Coolidge, voicing its objection.
Context
Wuchang press reports and the State Department’s response
The Star’s Wuchang figures passed through several hands before reaching print. An AP story from Peking relayed “foreign dispatches from Hankow,” and those dispatches cited “Chinese estimates, unconfirmed” of 10,000 deaths, mostly from starvation. Reports of this kind reached Washington within a day. On October 9, 1926, Secretary of State Kellogg telegraphed the chargé in China, Mayer, that press reports described dreadful suffering among Wuchang’s civilian population, and instructed him to correspond with Lockhart to find out whether the United States could help. Kellogg suggested that if conditions justified it, the consular body in Hankow should try to arrange an armistice during which some means of relief could be devised. He added that the Red Cross would be willing to assist if necessary. The telegram gives no casualty figures of its own, so it shows that press accounts like this one prompted diplomatic action. It cannot confirm the 10,000 estimate. The paper’s figure of 40,000 evacuees and its report of efforts to save missionaries likewise come only from the Associated Press’s Hankow reporting.
How the Butler–Walsh race ended, and where prohibition stood
Lincoln’s “trial of political strength” ended in Walsh’s favor. Butler had never won the seat at the polls. After Lodge died, Governor Channing Cox appointed Butler, then chair of the Republican National Committee, to fill the vacancy. In the special election Walsh defeated him, and the Democrats held the seat for the first time since 1851. Walsh’s biography puts his 1924 loss at “just 20,000 votes” in “the year of the Coolidge landslide,” close to the 18,588-vote margin Lincoln cited. It also records that Herbert Hoover and Charles Evans Hughes campaigned for Butler. These sources do not say whether Coolidge himself intervened, which was the question the article raised. Prohibition appeared on the ballot as well: Washington Cook ran under the label “Modification of Volstead Act.” Walsh’s own position remained mixed. A 1929 Time profile noted that he voted for the Jones Act, which raised Prohibition penalties, yet said that he “votes Wet, drinks Wet.” The forecast that a Walsh victory would be read as a blow to Coolidge was the Star’s own prediction. These sources confirm the result but not how the country interpreted it.
What lay behind the charges against the Lowmans
The death of Sheriff H. H. Howard, which the Star cites as the origin of the case, came during a Prohibition raid. Howard and his deputies raided the Lowman household near Monetta in search of illegal liquor, and both Howard and Annie Lowman were killed. According to the South Carolina Encyclopedia, no whiskey was found and no one witnessed Howard’s death. The defendants were young: Bertha was twenty-seven, Demon twenty-one and Clarence fourteen. The Star spells the second name Demmond, and other accounts use Demon or Demmon. The retrial the paper mentions came about because N. J. Frederick of Columbia, one of a few practicing Black attorneys in South Carolina at the time, appealed the sentences to the state Supreme Court. Judge Samuel T. Lanham’s directed verdict for Demon Lowman on October 7 changed the outlook, since it was widely suspected that Bertha and Clarence might be acquitted the next day. The mob broke into the jail at about 3 a.m. on October 8.
How investigators and officials answered the Aiken lynching
The Star’s account rested on the word of the jailer and Sheriff Robinson, who said a mob had cut the lights and overpowered them. Later evidence pointed to the officers themselves. Prisoners held in the jail that night swore that the Lowmans were forcibly taken from their cells by Sheriff Robinson and others, and eyewitnesses said Robinson fired the shot that killed Bertha. Walter White, assistant secretary of the NAACP, went to Aiken posing as a New York newspaper reporter. He gathered information implicating the officers as Klansmen and the lynching as an act of Ku Klux Klan retribution. White persuaded Herbert Bayard Swope of the New York World to send his own investigative journalist, and from November 5, 1926, Oliver H. P. Garrett filed a long series of front-page stories. The NAACP gave the governor the names of 22 alleged mob members, including the sheriff. Governor Thomas G. McLeod and his successor, John G. Richards, still declined to remove Robinson, and the county grand jury concluded that the Lowmans died “at the hands of parties unknown.”
Original
DEATHS OF 10,000 REPORTED IN ‘RED’ SIEGE OF WUCHANG
cloudy; not much change in temperature. Temperature-Highest, 62, at 1: 15 p. m. yesterday; lowest, 43, at 6 a. m. today. Full report on page 9. Closing N. Y. Stocks and Bonds, Page 30 No. 30, 110. Entered as second class matter post office, Washington, D. C. DEATHS OF 10, 000 REPORTED IN ' RED ' SIEGE OF WUCHANG Many Perish Daily of Hunger. 50 Women Lose Lives in Rush to Boats. BOMBARDMENT TO PUT 210, 000 IN GRAVE PERIL Only 40, 000 of 250, 000 Population Evacuated-U. S. Trying to Save Missionaries. By the Associated Press. PEKING, October 8. - Foreign dispatches from Hankow say that at least 50 women were among those trampled to death in the rush of the crowds through the gate of the city of Wuchang in an attempt to reach the boats taking refugees to Hankow, across the Yangtse River. Chinese estimates, unconfirmed, say that 10, 000 persons have died in Wuchang since the siege of that city by the Red Cantonese army began some weeks ago. Most of these are said to have died of starvation. Hankow dispatches state that 500 coffins have been shipped to Wuchang to bury refugees trampled or drowned in the rush for boats. 210, 000 IN GRAVE PERIL. Bombardment Due to Begin Before Many Can Escape. HANKOW, China, October 8 (AP). - The classical city of Wuchang-established more than 1, 000 years before the birth of Christ-is being emptied of its civilian population, or that portion of it which it is humanly possible to transport across the two miles of placid Yangtse River to Hankow in the time allowed. There have been only a few days in which the rescuers could work, a few boats available for the purpose, and yet this theater of death is the abode of more than 250, 000 people. Red Cross agencies of mercy as yet have been able to bring across the river only approximately 40, 000 refugees. Siege Lasts Five Weeks. For five weeks the ancient city across the river, which, under one name or another, has held a place in
PRESIDENT’S MOVE IN BUTLER-WALSH CONTEST WATCHED
e Evenin WITH SUNDAY MORNING EDITION NGTON, D. C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8 PRESIDENT'S MOVE IN BUTLER-WALSH CONTEST WATCHED Massachusetts Doubtful if Chief Executive Will Take Hand in Race. PROHIBITION IN FRONT AS DEMOCRATIC ISSUE Republicans Rally Around Party Leader, Prosperity and Protective Tariff. BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. Staff Correspondent of The Star. BOSTON, Mass., October 8. - A trial of political strength which may have far-reaching national significance is underway in Massachusetts. The principal actors in this contest, which is to be decided at the polls November 2, are Senator William M. Butler and former Senator David I. Walsh. One or the other will be elected United States Senator to fill out the unexpired term of the late Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. But the issues underlying are of greater interest nationally than the personal success of either of the contestants. The outcome of the senatorial contest here will be used as a yard stick to measure the popularity of President Calvin Coolidge-although he is not personally involved in the race. It will also be regarded as a measure of the strength or weakness of America's great experiment, prohibition. The campaign for the election of a Senator from Massachusetts has been underway for months in this State. The ground work has been laid on both sides. There remains only the final drive which is to land Butler or Walsh a winner. I have talked with both and both are confident of success. Issues are Defined. The issues as the Republicans see them in this race are Coolidge, Republican prosperity and the protective tariff. The issues as the Democrats see them, on the other hand, are prohibition, and progressivism vs. conservatism. Although the prestige of President Coolidge and his regime are involved in the campaign and its result, the Democrats frankly are not anxious for that test. And while Senator Walsh in some of his earlier speeches has assailed the Republican tariff law, the Democratic platform on which he now stands has straddled the tariff issue, declaring the party in favor of protection for industries of Massachusetts, but with due regard to the " consumers. " The Democrats are not concerned, it appears, with the protection of industries, agricultural or commercial, outside of Massachusetts. President Coolidge's prestige is bound up with this contest here, not only because a Senator of his own party is involved in his own State, but also because Senator Butler was the manager of the President's 1924 campaign and because he has been regarded more than any other single Senator as the spokesman of the administration in the Senate for the last two years. Day's Burning Question. A burning question here today is: What is the President going to do about the senatorial race? Is he going to Massachusetts to make a speech urging the election of the Republican ticket, including Senator Butler? Is he going to write a message at the psychological moment advising the voters to support the Republican ticket here? Republican leaders insist they do not know what the President will do, or whether he will do anything. Some of them say that there is no need for the President to take an active part in the campaign; that the situation is such that Senator Butler will win without the President himself entering the campaign. Others frankly speak of the great interest which the President necessarily has in Massachusetts politics, and say they believe that in his own time he will make an appeal to the voters for Senator Butler and the rest of the ticket. The Democrats are no less interested than the Republicans in what the course of the President will be. Some of them profess to believe that the direct entry of the President into the campaign will not only not help Senator Butler, but will have a contrary effect. But none of them is shouting loudly for the President to come here and speak or to send a message to the voters. President's Strength Bulwark. The truth of the matter is that President Coolidge's great personal popularity and strength in the Bay State was a deciding factor in the senatorial election in 1924, when Senator Walsh was defeated by a scant 18, 588 votes. The President himself rolled up a vote 271, 420 greater than the combined vote cast for John W. Davis, Democrat, and Robert M. La Follette, Progressive. The President's strength in his own State today is one of the greatest assets of his party ticket, including Senator Butler. Should Senator Walsh win, his victory will be interpreted generally as a blow to President Coolidge and an evidence of waning strength. This will be true whether the President actually participates in the campaign or not. It seems superfluous to tell the voters that the President wants Butler elected. Massachusetts is said to be normally Republican by 100, 000 votes. But " normal " conditions frequently do not prevail here. For example, normal conditions did not prevail when President Coolidge was a candidate for the presidency. Nor did normal conditions prevail when the late Senator Lodge was elected over Col. William A. Gaston, the present Democratic nominee for governor, by only 8, 000 votes. There were factional troubles in the Republican party, and a very
WOMAN AND 2 MEN LYNCHED BY MOB
ing Sheriff. By the Associated Press. AIKEN, S. C., October 8. - A mob early today stormed the Aiken jail, seized three negroes, one of them a woman, and shot them to death in a pine thicket just beyond the city limits. The negroes lynched were Clarence and Demmond Lowman and the latter's sister, Bertha Lowman. They were on trial a second time for murder in connection with the death of Sheriff H. H. Howard of Aiken County, who was shot to death April 25, 1925, when, accompanied by several deputies, he went to raid the home of Sam Lowman, father of Demmond and Bertha Lowman, and uncle of Clarence Lowman. On their first trial the negroes were convicted, but a new trial was granted by the State Supreme Court. This trial began early this week. Jailor Is Overpowered. Yesterday Special Judge S. T. Lanham, presiding, directed a verdict of " not guilty " for Demmond Lowman, on the charge of conspiracy to murder. The mob broke into the jail about 3 o'clock this morning, overpowered Rupert Taylor, jailer, and Sheriff Nollie Robinson, and took the negroes away in an automobile. Their bodies were found several hours later in the thicket, about a quarter of a mile from town. Each had been shot several times. The jailer said all electric light wires to the jail were cut and he was called to the door by the men. A demand was made for the prisoners. He refused to accede and had Sheriff Robinson called by telephone. The sheriff arrived while the mob surrounded the jail, and was overpowered, the officer said. Meantime some members of the mob entered the jail through a window in a part of the building used as the jailer's residence, and succeeded in obtaining the prisoners. Sheriff Is Outdistanced. Sheriff Robinson said he followed the mob, but was outdistanced because he was driving a small automobile while the lynchers were in faster cars. He turned back near the city limits. Although Demmond Lowman was acquitted on the conspiracy charge, he was rearrested yesterday on a warrant charging assault with intent to kill. The two men were sentenced to death at their first trial and the woman was given a life sentence. Sheriff Robinson accompanied Sheriff Howard on the raid on the Lowman home. Annie Lowman, the mother of Demmon and Bertha, was killed by one of the raiders. Bertha was shot during the raid. Assistant Chief of Police J. H. Woodward said the mob evidently had ordered the negroes to run and then opened fire. The bodies indicated that each negro had headed in a different direction. When the mob left the jail the sheriff and jailer were released and the sheriff opened fire on the mob in the darkness. GUAM APPEALS TO U. S. Congress Indignant at Philippine Annexation Proposal. GUAM, October 8 (AP). - Having received word that a resolution has been introduced in the Philippine Legislature providing for the annexation of Guam to the Philippines, the chairman of the Guam Congress called a special session. Members of congress are indignant at the proposal and unitedly opposed to the idea. A committe is preparing a memorial to Secretary Wilbur and President Coolidge, voicing its objection.
Source: Holding institution