The Montgomery Advertiser
- FEDERAL JURY GETS DAUGHERTY-MILLER CASE LATE FRIDAY
- THOUSANDS PERISH IN HORROR CITY AS TROOPS HOLD GATES
- OFFICIALS PLEDGE MEANS FOR MEETING COTTON SITUATION
The Montgomery Advertiser's front page for Saturday, October 9, 1926, led with the Daugherty-Miller conspiracy trial in New York, which went to the jury late Friday. Judge Julian Mack explained to the jury that the former attorney general and the former alien property custodian were charged with conspiracy, not bribery, over the 1921 release of $7,000,000 in American Metal Company assets. An AP dispatch from Hankow described the besieged city of Wuchang, where Chinese officials counted 10,000 dead, most of them from starvation, and where surrender was rumored for October 10. A Washington report followed the record estimate of a 16,627,000-bale cotton crop. It described White House assurances that storage and credit were ample, and Secretary Jardine's letter to the Alabama farm leader Edward A. O'Neal.
Translation
FEDERAL JURY GETS DAUGHERTY-MILLER CASE LATE FRIDAY
Judge Julian Mack Concludes Charge at 9:43; Five and Half Hours Used in Buckner Argument
DECISION IS EXPECTED IN TIME TO SEE GAME
Defendants Charged With Conspiracy to Defraud Government in Big Deal
NEW YORK, Oct. 8.—(AP)—The Daugherty-Miller conspiracy trial went to the jury at 9:43 tonight. Judge Julian W. Mack, before whom the case started September 7, finished his charge at that time and the jury was locked up for deliberations. At 11 o'clock Judge Mack adjourned court until 10:30 tomorrow morning.
Judge Mack completed his actual charge by 9 o'clock, two hours after he started, but the remaining time before the jury filed out was taken up by suggestions of counsel, some of which the judge added to his charge and some of which he refused.
The charge in main was straightforward statement of the difference between bribery as a crime by itself, with which the defendants were not charged, and conspiracy with bribery as an inducement, which was the charge against them.
The judge said after the jury had been shut behind the doors of the jury room that he would stay in court until 11 o'clock or a little later on the chance that a verdict might be found by that time. If no indication had been shown by that time, he said, that a verdict was imminent, he would order the jury locked up for the night.
During the judge's charge the defendants sat calmly on opposite sides of the counsel table, Miller chewing gum methodically, and Daugherty lying back in his chair, a handkerchief covering one eye, inflamed by a cold and with the other eye closed. He seemed asleep to the casual observer, but that he was paying close attention was evidenced by the fact that he opened his uncovered eye each time his name was mentioned.
Before turning the case over to the jury, Judge Mack told the jurors that they could bring in three kinds of a verdict: both guilty, both innocent, or one guilty and the other innocent.
Neither Daugherty nor Miller could be brought to trial on the bribery al-[?] because [?] [?] the statute of limitations.
Judge Mack told the Associated Press that if a conviction were brought in, he would not impose sentence tonight. "Tomorrow," he was asked and answered only with a shrug.
The papers requested by the jury included the claim paper asking release of $7,000,000 impounded assets of the American Metal company in 1921. It is with conspiring to defraud the government of their best services in permitting the release of those assets that Harry M. Daugherty, former attorney general, and Thomas W. Miller, former alien property custodian, are charged.
That these papers were requested was taken as an indication by close
THOUSANDS PERISH IN HORROR CITY AS TROOPS HOLD GATES
No White Men Could Penetrate Buildings Where Hordes Succumbed in Misery Since Siege Started
ATTACKIN[?] [?]RMY USING STAR[?]ON AS WEAPON
Mission S[?]ures Deserted; Hundreds [?]mpled to Death Seek [?] o Leave
HANKOW, [?] 8.—(AP.)—Ten thousand pers[?] [?]ve died, most of them of starva[?] [?]n the horror city of Wuchang s[?] the Cantonese Red Army began its siege at the end of August. The figures are those of Chinese officials. No white men could penetrate the barred buildings, within which thousands succumbed in secret misery.
Five hundred coffins have been shipped to Wuchang to bury those trampled to death or drowned in the frantic effort to board boats to take them across the Yangtze to Hankow and safety.
An Associated Press correspondent who walked today through the streets of Wuchang, found them deserted except for neglected dead lying in the roadways. The city, which, with Hankow and Hanyang, formed the commercial center of middle China, was desolate. Many of its fine buildings had been destroyed by flame or shell fire. The numerous mission structures were deserted. Barred shops and dwellings hid from view the tragedy of death in the city of a half million population wrought by besieging Cantonese outside its walls.
Failing in their efforts to carry Wuchang by direct attack, defeated in hand to hand fighting in the city's streets with its northern army defenders, the Cantonese at a safe distance maintain a war of attrition—starvation their weapon.
It is rumored that the Cantonese will grant the proposal of the defenders to yield the city if permitted to serve in the army that has shelled and starved them. The date for surrender is said to be October 10, a national holiday celebrating the founding of the Chaotic Chinese republic. This date, however is also that set by Cantonese ultimatum for the beginning of a general bombardment of the emaciated beings who crawl about the foodless city.
Refugees ceased today their desperate struggles to board rescue boats for Hankow, two miles distant across the Yangtze. This is believed to reflect their belief that Wuchang is to be delivered to the southern forces and that they will be allowed to remain undisturbed in their homes.
The humble Chinese civilians have no part in the struggle of military chieftains for wealth or aggrandizement, the prize being the central provinces which the Cantonese seek to wrest from the control of Marshal Wu Pei Fu.
Fifty thousand Wuchang refugees are receiving the ministrations of the Red Cross of Hankow and organizations cooperating in the work of relief and charity.
OFFICIALS PLEDGE MEANS FOR MEETING COTTON SITUATION
Local Financial Credit Associations Suggested as Plan For Securing Additional Funds if Needed
BANKERS OF SOUTH STAND READY TO ASSIST FARMERS
Secretary Jardine Points Out Benefits of Carry-Over as Price Stabilizer
By RUSSELL KENT
Special Correspondent for The Montgomery Advertiser
WASHINGTON, Oct. 8.—Events moved rapidly today on the heels of the government crop report indicating prospects for a record yield of 16,627,000 bales of cotton this season. It was made known at the White House that President Coolidge had discussed the cotton situation with members of the cabinet, Senator Robinson of Arkansas, democratic floor leader, visited the president on the subject, Secretary of Agriculture Jardine made public a letter he had written to an Alabama farm leader, and Representative Eugene Black of Texas issued a statement criticizing the estimate.
It was said at the White House that President Coolidge had discussed with Secretary Jardine and Secretary Mellon the cotton situation and had been assured that there is ample warehouse space for storage of cotton and that there are ample credit facilities to take care of warehoused staples. The chief executive was informed that in the last difficulty over cotton, in 1921, the greatest cause of concern was lack of credits, but that facilities since then have brought about a different condition. The effort will be, it was said, to coordinate buying and selling of cotton and the extension of credits for storage.
Secretary Jardine made public a letter written by him today to Edward A. O'Neal, president of the Alabama Farm Bureau federation, at Montgomery, the second letter he has written Mr. O'Neal within the last week. In this latest letter the secretary says that he is convinced "that this situation is very largely due to panic con-
Context
Why Daugherty and Miller stood trial over American Metal Company assets
Harry M. Daugherty had served as Attorney General under Harding and Coolidge; after twice being the subject of federal corruption investigations, he was forced by Coolidge to resign in 1924. The money at the center of his trial came from wartime seizures of enemy-owned property. TIME explained that the $7,000,000 represented the German-owned 49 percent of the American Metal Company's stock, which had been seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 and held by the Alien Property Custodian, the office the Advertiser identifies with Thomas W. Miller. When the paper reports that the jury asked for the 1921 claim papers seeking release of those assets, the jurors were going back to the moment the government let the money go, the act the indictment said the two men had conspired to bring about.
Why the charge was conspiracy rather than bribery
Judge Mack's charge turned on the legal distinction the Advertiser spelled out: the defendants were not on trial for bribery, which the statute of limitations had put out of reach, but for conspiracy with bribery as an inducement. At the start of the trial TIME framed the offense in terms close to the paper's: defrauding the government of the officials' "unbiased and unprejudiced services" by sharing in a $441,000 payment it called a "lubricant" for the $7,000,000 transfer. The prosecution's case had also narrowed during the trial. TIME reported that Mack ruled, on Supreme Court authority, that neutral corporations whose property had been seized in the war were entitled to have it returned, and that this ruling virtually eliminated the government's second issue, whether the stock had changed hands before the United States entered the war. The jury was therefore left to decide whether the two men had joined an agreement to profit from the release, not whether the release was lawful in itself.
How Washington responded to reports of suffering in Wuchang
The AP dispatch based its toll of 10,000 dead on figures from Chinese officials and conceded that no white observer could enter the barred buildings, so the number was an estimate rather than a count. Even so, the suffering it described registered in Washington. On October 9, 1926, the day this page appeared, Secretary of State Kellogg cabled the chargé in China that press reports told of dreadful suffering among Wuchang's civilian population, and told him to correspond with Lockhart to find out whether the United States could help. Kellogg suggested that, if conditions justified it, the consular body at Hankow try to arrange an armistice during which some means of relief could be devised. The telegram added that the Red Cross would be disposed to assist, which fits the paper's report that the Red Cross of Hankow was already caring for 50,000 Wuchang refugees.
How the record cotton estimate led to a federal credit plan
The Advertiser's Washington story was written on the heels of a government forecast of a record 16,627,000-bale cotton crop. TIME's issue dated October 18, 1926, reported that cotton had dropped 40 to 50 points after the Department of Agriculture published its estimate of a superabundant crop. According to TIME, after Senator Joseph T. Robinson went to the White House in alarm, Coolidge announced that a federal board, which TIME calls the Farm Labor Board, would extend $30,000,000 in credit to cooperative marketing associations hit by the slump. The next day, TIME says, the President named Secretaries Mellon, Hoover and Jardine and Eugene Meyer Jr., managing director of the War Finance Corporation, to a commission to devise orderly methods of selling the large cotton stock on hand. These steps followed the approach this article reported from the White House, centered on storage and credit, and matched Jardine's argument that carrying cotton over could stabilize prices.
Original
FEDERAL JURY GETS DAUGHERTY-MILLER CASE LATE FRIDAY
Constructive Fearless Independent VOLUME XCVIII-NO. 282 FEDERAL JURY GETS DAUGHERTY-MILLER CASE LATE FRIDAY Judge Julian Mack Concludes Charge at 9: 43; Five and Half Hours Used in Buckner Argument DECISION IS EXPECTED IN TIME TO SEE GAME Defendants Charged With Conspiracy to Defraud Government in Big Deal NEW YORK, Oct. 8. - (AP) - The Daugherty-Miller conspiracy trial went to the jury at 9: 43 tonight. Judge Julian W. Mack, before whom the case started September 7, finished his charge at that time and the jury was locked up for deliberations. At 11 o'clock Judge Mack adjourned court until 10: 30 tomorrow morning. Judge Mack completed his actual charge by 9 o'clock, two hours after he started, but the remaining time before the jury filed out was taken up by suggestions of counsel, some of which the judge added to his charge and some of which he refused. The charge in main was straight forward statement of the difference between bribery as a crime by itself, with which the defendants were not charged, and conspiracy with bribery as an inducement, which was the charge against them. The judge said after the jury had been shut behind the doors of the jury room that he would stay in court until 11 o'clock or a little later on the chance that a verdict might be found by that time. If no indication had been shown by that time, he said, that a verdict was imminent, he would order the jury locked up for the night. During the judge's charge the defendants sat calmly on opposite sides of the counsel table, Miller chewing gum methodically, and Daugherty lying back in his chair, a handkerchief covering one eye, inflamed by a cold and with the other eye closed. He seemed asleep to the casual observer, but that he was paying close attention was evidenced by the fact that he opened his uncovered eye each time his name was mentioned. Before turning the case over to the jury, Judge Mack told the jurors that they could bring in three kinds of a verdict: both guilty, both innocent, or one guilty and the other innocent. Neither Daugherty nor Miller could be brought to trial on the bribery al - [?] because [?] [?] the statute of limitations. Judge Mack told the Associated Press that if a conviction were brought in, he would not impose sentence tonight. " Tomorrow, " he was asked and answered only with a shrug. The papers requested by the jury included the claim paper asking release of $ 7, 000, 000 impounded assets of the American Metal company in 1921. It is with conspiring to defraud the government of their best services in permitting the release of those assets that Harry M. Daugherty, former attorney general, and Thomas W. Miller, former alien property custodian, are charged. That these papers were requested was taken as an indication by close
THOUSANDS PERISH IN HORROR CITY AS TROOPS HOLD GATES
THOUSANDS PERISH IN HORROR CITY AS TROOPS HOLD GATES No White Men Could Penetrate Buildings Where Hordes Succumbed in Misery Since Siege Started ATTACKIN [?] [?] RMY USING STAR [?] ON AS WEAPON Mission S [?] ures Deserted; Hundreds [?] mpled to Death Seek [?] o Leave HANKOW, [?] 8. - (AP.) - Ten thousand pers [?] [?] ve died, most of them of starva [?] [?] n the horror city of Wuchang s [?] the Cantonese Red Army began its siege at the end of August. The figures are those of Chinese officials. No white men could penetrate the barred buildings, within which thousands succumbed in secret misery. Five hundred coffins have been shipped to Wuchang to bury those trampled to death or drowned in the frantic effort to board boats to take them across the Yangtze to Hankow and safety. An Associated Press correspondent who walked today through the streets of Wuchang, found them deserted except for neglected dead lying in the roadways. The city, which, with Hankow and Hanyang, formed the commercial center of middle China, was desolate. Many of its fine buildings had been destroyed by flame or shell fire. The numerous mission structures were deserted. Barred shops and dwellings hid from view the tragedy of death in the city of a half million population wrought by besieging Cantonese outside its walls. Failing in their efforts to carry Wuchang by direct attack, defeated in hand to hand fighting in the city's streets with its northern army defenders, the Cantonese at a safe distance maintain a war of attritionstarvation their weapon. It is rumored that the Cantonese will grant the proposal of the defenders to yield the city if permitted to serve in the army that has shelled and starved them. The date for surrender is said to be October 10, a national holiday celebrating the founding of the Chaotic Chinese republic. This date, however is also that set by Cantonese ultimatum for the beginning of a general bombardment of the emaciated beings who crawl about the foodless city. Refugees ceased today their desperate struggles to board rescue boats for Hankow, two miles distant across the Yangtze. This is believed to reflect their belief that Wuchang is to be delivered to the southern forces and that they will be allowed to remain undisturbed in their homes. The humble Chinese civilians have no part in the struggle of military chieftains for wealth or aggrandizement, the prize being the central provinces which the Cantonese seek to wrest from the control of Marshal Wu Pei Fu. Fifty thousand Wuchang refugees are receiving the ministrations of the Red Cross of Hankow and organizations cooperating in the work of relief and charity. COUPLE ARE HELD TO FEDERAL COURT
OFFICIALS PLEDGE MEANS FOR MEETING COTTON SITUATION
Constructive Fearless Independent 12 PAGES Price 5 Cents OFFICIALS PLEDGE MEANS FOR MEETING COTTON SITUATION Local Financial Credit Associations Suggested as Plan For Securing Additional Funds if Needed BANKERS OF SOUTH STAND READY TO ASSIST FARMERS Secretary Jardine Points Out Benefits of Carry-Over as Price Stabilizer By RUSSELL KENT Special Correspondent for The Montgomery Advertiser WASHINGTON, Oct. 8. - Events moved rapidly today on the heels of the government crop report indicating prospects for a record yield of 16, 627, 000 bales of cotton this season. It was made known at the White House that President Coolidge had discussed the cotton situation with members of the cabinet, Senator Robinson of Arkansas, democratic floor leader, visited the president on the subject, Secretary of Agriculture Jardine made public a letter he had written to an Alabama farm leader, and Representative Eugene Black of Texas issued a statement criticizing the estimate. It was said at the white house that President Coolidge had discussed with Secretary Jardine and Secretary Mellon the cotton situation and had been assured that there is ample warehouse space for storage of cotton and that there are ample credit facilities to take care of warehoused staples. The chief executive was informed that in the last difficulty over cotton, in 1921, the greatest cause of concern was lack of credits, but that facilities since then have brought about a different condition. The effort will be, it was said, to coordinate buying and selling of cotton and the extension of credits for storage. Secretary Jardine made public a letter written by him today to Edward A. O'Neal, president of the Alabama Farm Bureau federation, at Montgomery, the second letter he has written Mr. O'Neal within the last week. In this latest letter the secretary says that he is convinced " that this situation is very largely due to panic con -
Source: Holding institution