The Montgomery Advertiser
- KLAN DRAGON FAILS TO EXPOSE PLOT IN COURT TESTIMONY
- SOUTHWIDE MEET FAVORS RETIRING PART OF OUTPUT
- NEW HIGH SCHOOL TO ADD $150,000 IN MONTGOMERY EXPENSE BUDGET
This Montgomery Advertiser front page carried three AP and local stories. From Indianapolis, it reported that the imprisoned former Klan Grand Dragon D. C. Stephenson, brought in under heavy guard, revealed nothing in a civil suit or before a grand jury, while publisher Thomas H. Adams pressed on regardless, quoting attorney Floyd Christian's claim to have seen a $5,000 check payable to Governor Ed Jackson in Stephenson's cell. From Memphis, it described a southwide cotton conference that, after a narrow 181-175 floor fight over legislative aid, adopted a plan to withdraw surplus cotton through cooperative pools and seek acreage cuts for 1927. At home, Atticus Mullin calculated that a new high school financed by $1,000,000 in 5 per cent bonds would cost the city about $150,000 a year, perhaps less if old Lanier absorbed other pupils.
Translation
KLAN DRAGON FAILS TO EXPOSE PLOT IN COURT TESTIMONY
Fearless Independent VOLUME XCVIII—NO. 287 POOL R
KLAN DRAGON FAILS TO EXPOSE PLOT IN COURT TESTIMONY
Indiana Publisher Undaunted by Failure of Stephenson to Reveal Political Corruption; Carries On
CLAIMS LAWYER HAD SEEN CHECK IN GOVERNOR'S CELL
Convict Witness Appears in Civil Suit and Before Special Grand Jury
INDIANAPOLIS, IND., Oct. 13.—(AP)—Undaunted by the apparent failure of D. C. Stephenson to reveal in court today evidence in support of corruption charges that have been made, Thomas H. Adams, publisher of the Vincennes Commercial, again took up the cudgel of publicity with Governor Ed Jackson as his target.
Adams issued a statement in which he quoted Floyd Christian, an attorney who was of defense counsel in Stephenson's trial for the murder of Madge Oberholtzer, as saying that he had seen in Stephenson's cell a check which was "payable to Ed Jackson for $5,000." The check was issued by Stephenson, he said.
Adams has recently declared that from Stephenson would come evidence in support of the corruption charges. However, when Stephenson was brought here today from the state prison, where he is serving a life sentence on the [?] charges he made no revelations when he appeared as a witness in a civil suit and he was before a grand jury for one hour during which it was indicated the prosecutors did most of the talking.
He had been ordered brought before the grand jury which is investigating the charges that Adams had maintained could be supported by Stephenson's evidence.
Stephenson was brought into the city at 8:35 o'clock this morning and was on his way back to the prison at 3:35 p.m. During his seven-hour stay, eight watchful prison guards and a score of city police guarded every movement. The presence in the city of the former Ku Klux Klan grand dragon attracted hundreds to the county jail and court house.
[?] Christian himself verified the quotation attributed to him regarding [?] check to Governor Jackson. He added that Stephenson had [?] he had spent something over [?] in Jackson's campaign for governor in 1924.
Governor Jackson was out of the city and could not be reached for comment on Christian's quotation.
In addition to the $5,000 check, Christian said there also was another check payable to Jackson, the amount of which he did not remember.
[?] YLIGHT SAVING LAWS HELD VALID
U. S. Supreme Court Rules Section Not in Conflict With Federal Rights
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13.—(AP)—Day-
SOUTHWIDE MEET FAVORS RETIRING PART OF OUTPUT
Fearless Independent 2 PAGES Price 5 Cents CRISIS
SOUTHWIDE MEET FAVORS RETIRING PART OF OUTPUT
Acreage Reduction Measure Referred to Governors After Spirited Fight Urging Legislative Force
ADVOCATES WITHDRAWAL THROUGH ASSOCIATION
Initial Fund to Finance Retirement Plan Subscribed; Meeting Adjourns
MEMPHIS, TENN., Oct. 14.—(AP)—Adopting a program designed to relieve the existing emergency in the cotton market depression by retiring part of this year's crop and seeking reduction in acreage for 1927, the southwide cotton conference was adjourned here early today after sessions since yesterday morning.
The conference after a spirited fight avoided the issue of acreage reduction by legislative enactment and referred this proposal to the governors of the cotton growing states for determination.
In resolutions prepared by a committee which deliberated nearly 12 hours, the conference of bankers, merchants and farmers declared that the situation was so grave as to justify dumping cotton on the market in indiscriminate fashion.
The action of the conference set up machinery designed to handle the surplus cotton by withdrawing it from the market by pools which should be regulated by the cooperative marketing associations.
The conference from the floor subscribed to a fund of $8,000 which should be employed to finance the preliminary steps in the retirement plan and the organization of the crop reduction movement.
A vigorous fight over means of relieving the existing market depression was precipitated here late today in the south-wide cotton conference by the submission of a proposal endorsing legislative aid for the farmer.
The proposal, embodied in a resolution presented by Walter Sillers, Jr., Rosedale, Miss., would advise the resolutions committee, at that time in session, that the convention wanted a resolution calling for remedial action by state legislatures.
Mr. Sillers defended his proposal in a spirited address after it had been as vigorously attacked by L. J. Folse, general manager of the Mississippi state board of development. The resolution was adopted and sent to the committee by a vote of 181 to 175.
L. D. Tyson and K. D. McKellar, United States senators from Tennessee, had just addressed the convention in advocacy of national legislation in behalf of the cotton farmer.
Mr. Folse charged that the country was flooded already by an over-supply of legislation. He declared the farmer did not need nor want a congressional "wet nurse." He believed the agricultural producer was able to solve his problems without legislative aid.
Mr. Sillers echoed the declaration by Senator Tyson that all other industrial groups had been "legislated to prosperity" by congressional action.
C. G. Smith, president of the Mississippi county, Ark., chamber of com-
NEW HIGH SCHOOL TO ADD $150,000 IN MONTGOMERY EXPENSE BUDGET
Strapped in Cockpit Men Plunge To Death in Wrecked Plane
FORT JEFFERSON, N. Y., Oct. 13.—(AP)—Two pilots in the army air corps lost their lives here late today when their plane fell 150 feet into Long Island Sound. The victims were Henry R. Perra, of Taunton, Mass., and William H. Preston, of Belmont, Mass. Both were second lieutenants. The crew of a tugboat reported that they heard an explosion and saw the plane take a nose dive into the water. Both pilots were strapped into the cockpit.
Scharrenberg, as a representative of the international seamen's union, the LaFollette seamen's act held no burdensome or unnecessary provisions "as charged by Mr. Rohlfs." "Congress appears to be with us on that point," he said. Rohlfs replied that but a small percentage of the members of the seamen's union are American citizens and characterized as "nefarious propaganda" certain activities supposedly having the betterment of the seamen in view.
pipe were brought of the mutinous pri one in the head and legs and thighs, with were seriously woun An hour after the all the prisoners had into their cells, but damaged so badly b inmates that few o could be locked. To guards, armed with s the corridors stood broken doors. The outbreak, auth lowed a night of wild itated by the swelt at other prisoners young negro w brought to the jail fr farm for incorrigibl plaints of overcrowdi tion in their food ra been made by the pri The ring leaders in authorities said, were erty Men," who occup door of which was r men, all short term awaiting trial, had aid the guards and The jail has only s the 196 prisoners. T the subject of unfav Delaware county gra pictured the prison and inadequate."
NEW HIGH SCHOOL TO ADD $150,000 IN MONTGOMERY EXPENSE BUDGET
Bonds Will Bear 5 Per Cent Interest When Sold; Consolidation of Lawrence Street and Lanier Schools May Reduce Extra Expenditure One-Third
By ATTICUS MULLIN.
The city treasury of Montgomery must be prepared to stand an expenditure of approximately $150,000 annually when the $1,000,000 of high school bonds authorized Monday are sold and when the new high school is actually in operation. It developed on investigation made at the city hall Wednesday that the high school bonds when sold will bear interest at 5 per cent.
According to the best information obtainable from experienced school men and from experience in the maintenance and operation of high schools of the character to be constructed out of the $1,000,000 issue and with the approximate number of pupils, it will cost approximately $100,000 per year to maintain the new school.
It is pointed out that when the $1,000,000 school bonds are sold and the school has been constructed, interest on the bonds will be $50,000 annually. This $50,000 will necessarily have to come out of the general fund of the city treasury.
The $100,000 per annum maintenance of the school when built and the $50,000 annual expenditure for interest on bonds will make a total expenditure of $150,000 per year additional from the city treasury in the event the Sidney Lanier high school is continued in operation as a junior high school.
Investigation develops the fact that if the Sidney Lanier structure can be used not only for a junior high school but to take care of the pupils of the Lawrence street school and possibly several grades from other schools, there will have to be deducted from the $100,000 which the city treasury will have to stand to operate the new high school, a considerable sum which might probably reduce the net expenditure from the city treasury for maintenance of the two schools, $50,000.
In this event, it is pointed out, there would only have to be an additional $100,000 from the city treasury to take care of the interest on the new high school bonds and provide for maintenance.
According to what can be learned, the exact cost of such a structure as is proposed to be erected for a new high school, will not be known until the bids are all in. In the event the cost should run over $1,000,000 it is pointed out that there still remain approximately $350,000 of bonds from an old authorization for school purposes which have never been sold but which the city can sell if the general fund of the city should be found to be in position to pay the interest.
Just when the city proposes to advertise and sell the recently authorized high school bonds is not known. No member of the city commission has as yet made a statement regarding this angle of the situation.
It is known however, that an audit of the city's affairs has been under way for sometime and will be completed in the next forty days. It is possible that action towards selling the school bonds may await this audit though no member of the city commission has said so and no member of the city board of education has said so.
PREPARE FOR T TEXAS BAPTI
No Indication Given Sough
FORT WORTH, T (AP)—State's attorn prosecute Rev. Frank fundamentalist leader murder charges fo Chipps last July, wi 25 on what penalty t and conclude arrang trial beginning Nove Attorney Robert Ha Hanger would not able measure of pen Yesterday he flatly mous rumors that the courage any delay o Another murder tr prior to the Norris tracked today, Hange no delay in calling th If the special ve named on secret rec house is exhausted b be secured for the N sheriffs will go "into by-ways" to pick up men. Hanger asserted e
Gang at Cramton Bowl Sa
Context
D. C. Stephenson, Klan Grand Dragon turned convict
The prisoner at the center of the Indianapolis story had been the most powerful Klan figure in the state. In 1923 he was appointed Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan and put in charge of Klan recruiting for seven other states. He threw that organization behind Ed Jackson: in the 1924 Republican primary Stephenson sent out 225,000 letters urging Hoosiers to vote for Jackson, which is the background to Floyd Christian's statement in the article that Stephenson said he had spent money on Jackson's 1924 campaign. The life sentence the AP mentions came from the Madge Oberholtzer case; a jury convicted Stephenson of second-degree murder on November 14, 1925, on its first ballot. By October 1926, then, the man Adams expected to expose the governor was a convict escorted by eight prison guards and a score of police, appearing before a grand jury under order rather than as a free political boss.
How the bribery case against Governor Jackson ended
Stephenson's silence before the grand jury did not last. After Governor Jackson refused to pardon him, Stephenson began talking to reporters from the Indianapolis Times and supplied names of people the Klan had paid; the Jackson biography places this in 1927, while the Indiana Klan account dates the start to 1926, so the turn came within roughly a year of this front page. The state then indicted Jackson together with George V. Coffin, chairman of the Marion County Republican Party, and attorney Robert I. Marsh. Their charge concerned an earlier episode: in 1923 Jackson had offered Governor Warren McCray a $10,000 bribe on Stephenson's behalf if McCray would fill several public offices with Klan members. As these accounts describe it, the case that reached court rested on the McCray offer, and they do not mention the $5,000 check Christian described in this article. Jackson's trial ended in a hung jury, and the statute of limitations precluded any conviction. The Indianapolis Times won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the reporting that drove the exposure.
The 1926 cotton glut behind the Memphis conference
The Memphis conference met in the middle of a glut. Writing on October 25, 1926, TIME reported that the crop promised a total of 16,627,000 bales and that the price had fallen below 14 cents a pound, leaving growers in a knot of nervous anxiety. Washington was moving along lines similar to the Memphis program. President Coolidge had appointed a commission to make an immediate survey, and TIME listed restricting the 1927 cotton acreage among the relief aims while reporting that a federal board, which it called the Farm-Labor Board, would give $30,000,000 credit to cooperative market associations, the same kind of bodies the conference expected to regulate its withdrawal pools. TIME also credited a Tennessee Cotton Conference with plans to force the withdrawal of 4,000,000 bales by warehousing and to cut acreage 25%. Those figures do not appear in the Advertiser's account, though the Memphis gathering is a plausible match. The sources consulted stop in late October 1926 and do not show how much cotton was actually withheld or whether the 1927 acreage cuts took hold.
The 'Million Dollar School' that opened in 1929
The million-dollar project Mullin was costing out corresponds closely to the new Sidney Lanier High School building. That late Gothic Revival building was constructed in 1928–1929 to consolidate the original Lanier with Montgomery County High School. At the time the original Lanier occupied a building later known as Baldwin Junior High School and now Baldwin Magnet School, which echoes the article's scenario of keeping the old Lanier structure in use for junior high pupils. Frederick Ausfeld was the architect and Algernon Blair the contractor. The name of the consolidated school was decided by a football game between the two schools in the fall of 1928, which Lanier won. The building opened for classes in September 1929 and was dubbed 'The Million Dollar School' for its approximate cost, a figure in line with the $1,000,000 bond authorization discussed here. The school history consulted does not record when the bonds were sold, at what interest, or how the city budget absorbed the operating costs Mullin estimated.
Original
KLAN DRAGON FAILS TO EXPOSE PLOT IN COURT TESTIMONY
Fearless Independent VOLUME XCVIII-NO. 287 POOL R KLAN DRAGON FAILS TO EXPOSE PLOT IN COURT TESTIMONY Indiana Publisher Undaunted by Failure of Stephenson to Reveal Political Corruption; Carries On CLAIMS LAWYER HAD SEEN CHECK IN GOVERNOR'S CELL Convict Witness Appears in Civil Suit and Before Special Grand Jury INDIANAPOLIS, IND., Oct. 13. - (AP) - Undaunted by the apparent failure of D. C. Stephensn to reveal in court today evidence in support of cotruption charges ' that have been made, Thomas H. Adams, publisher of the Vincennes Commercial, again took up the cudgel of publicity with Governor Ed Jackson as his target. Adams issued a statement in which he quoted Floyd Christian, an attorney who was of defense counsel in Stephenson's trial for the murder of Madge Oberholtzer, as saying that he had seen in Stephenson's cell a check which was " payable to Ed Jackson for $ 5, 000. " The check was issued by Stephenson, he said. Adams has recently declared that from Stephenson would come evidence in support of the corruption charges. However, when Stephenson was brought here today from the state prison, where he is serving a life sentence on the [?] charges he made no revelations when he appeared as a witness in a civil suit and he was before a grand jury for one hour during which it was indicated the prosecutors did most of the talking. He had been ordered brought before the grand jury which is investigating the charges that Adams had maintained could be supported by Stephenson's evidence. Stephenson was brought into the city at 8: 35 o'clock this morning and was on his way back to the prison at 3: 35 p. m. During his seven-hour stay, eight watchful prison guards and a score of city police guarded every movement. The presence in the city of the former ku klux klan grand dragon attracted hundreds to the county jail and court house. [?] Christian himself verified the quotation attributed to him regarding [?] check to Governor Jackson. He added that Stephenson had [?] he had spent something over [?] in Jackson's campaign for governor in 1924. Governor Jackson was out of the city and could not be reached for comment on Christian's quotation. In addition to the $ 5, 000 check, Christian said there also was another check payable to Jackson, the amount of which he did not remember. [?] YLIGHT SAVING LAWS HELD VALID U. S. Supreme Court Rules Section Not in Conflict With Federal Rights WASHINGTON, Oct. 13. - (AP) - Day -
SOUTHWIDE MEET FAVORS RETIRING PART OF OUTPUT
Fearless Independent 2 PAGES Price 5 Cents CRISIS SOUTHWIDE MEET FAVORS RETIRING PART OF OUTPUT Acreage Reduction Measure Referred to Governors After Spirited Fight Urging Legislative Force ADVOCATES WITHDRAWAL THROUGH ASSOCIATION Initial Fund to Finance Retirement Plan Subscribed; Meeting Adjourns MEMPHIS, TENN., Oct. 14. - (AP) - Adopting a program designed to relieve the existing emergency in the cotton market depression by retiring part of this year's crop and seeking reduction in acreage for 1927, the southwide cotton conference was adjourned here early today after sessions since yesterday morning. The conference after a spirited fight avoided the issue of acreage reduction by legislative enactment and referred this proposal to the governors of the cotton growing states for determination. In resolutions prepared by a committee which deliberated nearly 12 hours, the conference of bankers, merchants and farmres declared that the situtaion was so grave as to justify dumping cotton on the market in indiscriminate fashion. The action of the conferense set up machinery designed to handle the surplus cotton by withdrawing it from the market by pools which should be regulated by the cooperative marketing associtaions. The conference from the floor subscribed to a fund of $ 8, 000 which should be employed to finance the preliminary steps in the retirement plan and the organization of the crop reductoin movement. A vigorous fight over means of relieving the existing market depression was precipitated here late today in the south-wide cotton conference by the submission of a proposal endorsing legislative aid for the farmer. The proposal, embodied in a resolution presented by Walter Sillers, Jr., Rosedale, Miss., would advise the resolutions committee, at that time in session, that the convention wanted a resolution calling for remedial action by state legislatures. Mr. Sillers defended his proposal in a spirited address after it had been as vigorously attacked by L. J. Folse, general manager of the Mississippi state board of development. The resolution was adopted and sent to the committee by a vote of 181 to 175. L. D. Tyson and K. D. McKellar, United States senators from Tennessee, had just addressed the convention in advocacy of national legislation in behalf of the cotton farmer. Mr. Folse charged that the country was flooded already by an over-supply of legislation. He declared the farmer did not need nor want a congressional " wet nurse. " He believed the agricultural producer was able to solve his problems without legislative aid. Mr. Sillers echoed the declaration by Senator Tyson that all other industrial groups had been " legislated to prosperity " by congressional action. C. G. Smith, president of the Mississippi county, Ark., chamber of com -
NEW HIGH SCHOOL TO ADD $150,000 IN MONTGOMERY EXPENSE BUDGET
Strapped in Cockpit Men Plunge To Death in Wrecked Plane FORT JEFFERSON, N. Y., Oct. 13. - (AP) - Two pilots in the army air corps lost their lives here late today when their plane fell 150 feet into Long Island Sound. The victims were Henry R. Perra, of Taunton, Mass., and William H. Preston, of Belmont, Mass. Both were second lieutenants. The crew of a tugboat reported that they heard an explosion and saw the plane take a nose dive into the water. Both pilots were strapped into the cockpit. Scharrenberg, as a representative of the international seamen's union, the LaFollette seamen's act held no burdensome or unnecessary provisions " as charged by Mr. Rohlfs. " " Congress appears to be with us on that point, " he said. Rohlfs replied that but a small percentage of the members of the seamen's union are American citizens and characterized as " nefarious propaganda " certain activities supposedly having the betterment of the seamen in view. pipe were brought of the mutinous pri one in the head and legs and thighs, with were seriously woun An hour after the all the prisoners had into their cells, but damaged so badly b inmates that few o could be locked. To guards, armed with s the corridors stood broken doors. The outbreak, auth lowed a night of wild itated by the swelt at other prisoners young negro w brought to the jail fr farm for incorrigibl plaints of overcrowdi tion in their food ra been made by the pri The ring leaders in authorities said, were erty Men, " who occup door of which was r men, all short term awaiting trial, had aid the guards and The jail has only s the 196 prisoners. T the subject of unfav Delaware county gra pictured the prison and inadequate. " NEW HIGH SCHOOL TO ADD $ 150, 000 IN MONTGOMERY EXPENSE BUDGET Bonds Will Bear 5 Per Cent Interest When Sold; Consolidation of Lawrence Street and Lanier Schools May Reduce Extra Expenditure One-Third By ATTICUS MULLIN. The city treasury of Montgomery must be prepared to stand an expenditure of approximately $ 150, 000 annually when the $ 1, 000, 000 of high school bonds authorized Monday are sold and when the new high school is actually in operation. It developed on investigation made at the city hall Wednesday that the high school bonds when sold will bear interest at 5 per cent. According to the best information obtainable from experienced school men and from experience in the maintenance and operation of high schools of the character to the constructed out of the $ 1, 000, 000 issue and with the approximate number of pupils, it will cost approximately $ 100, 000 per year to maintain the new school. It is pointed out that when the $ 1, - 000, 000 school bonds are sold and the school has been constructed, interest on the bonds will be $ 50, 000 annually. This $ 50, 000 will necessarily have to come out of the general fund of the city treasury. The $ 100, 000 per annum maintenance of the school when built and the $ 50, 000 annual expenditure for interest on bonds will make a total expenditure of $ 150, 000 per year additional from the city treasury in the event the Sidney Lanier high school is continued in operation as a junior high school. Investigation develops the fact that if the Sidney Lanier structure can be used not only for a junior high school but to take care of the pupils of the Lawrence street school and possibly several grades from other schools, there will have to be deducted from the $ 100, 000 which the city treasury will have to stand to operate the new high school, a considerable sum which might probably reduce the net expenditure from the city treasury for maintenance of the two schools, $ 50, - 000. In this event, it is pointed out, there would only have to be an additional $ 100, 000 from the city treasury to take care of the interest on the new high school bonds and provide for maintenance. According to what can be learned, the exact cost of such a structure as is proposed to be erected for a new high school, will not be known until the bids are all in. In the event the cost should run over $ 1, 000, 000 it is pointed out that there still remain approximately $ 350, 000 of bonds from an old authorization for school purposes which have never been sold but which the city can sell if the general fund of the city should be found to be in position to pay the interest. Just when the city proposes to advertise and sell the recently authorized high school bonds is not known. No member of the city commission has as yet made a statement regarding this angle of the situation. It is known however, that an audit of the city's affairs has been under way for sometime and will be completed in the next forty days. It is possible that action towards selling the school bonds may await this audit though no member of the city commission has said so and no member of the city board of education has said so. PREPARE FOR T TEXAS BAPTI No Indication Given Sough FORT WORTH, T (AP) - State's attorn prosecute Rev. Frank fundamentalist leader murder charges fo Chipps last July, wi 25 on what penalty t and conclude arrang trial beginning Nove Attorney Robert Ha Hanger would not able measure of pen Yesterday he flatly mous rumors that the courage any delay o Another murder tr prior to the Norris tracked today, Hange no delay in calling th If the special ve named on secret rec house is exhausted b be secured for the N sheriffs will go " into by-ways " to pick up men. Hanger asserted e Gang at Cramton Bowl Sa
Source: Holding institution