The Montgomery Advertiser
- CHEERING THOUSANDS WELCOME QUEEN MARIE ALONG ROUTE FROM LEVIATHAN TO RUMANIAN LEGATION AT CAPITAL
- CHARGE FERGUSON OFFERED SERVICE TO ROAD BUILDERS
- COMMITTEE TO FIX PLAN OF OPERATION FOR COTTON POOL
The Montgomery Advertiser's front page for October 19, 1926, led with an Associated Press account of Queen Marie of Rumania's first day in America: her arrival by special train in Washington, the Marines, army bands and cavalry escort at Union Station, her delight at the lighted Capitol dome, and the surprise that President Coolidge put off receiving her until the next day 'for personal reasons.' From Austin, the paper reported a Texas legislative committee hearing in which a road contractor testified that former Governor James E. Ferguson had asked him for $7,500, about ten per cent of a contract, in small bills, a charge Ferguson called a 'cheap political falsehood.' Closer to home, it announced a Montgomery meeting of bankers and farm leaders to organize a cotton pool under the southwide plan from the Memphis cotton conference, with the governor expected to proclaim an acreage reduction week.
Translation
CHEERING THOUSANDS WELCOME QUEEN MARIE ALONG ROUTE FROM LEVIATHAN TO RUMANIAN LEGATION AT CAPITAL
Exciting and Touching Scenes Fill First Day in America For Royal Visitors
Denies Report of Appearance in Movies; Delighted With Receptions Accorded
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18.—(AP)—Marie, queen of Rumania, at the close of her first day in America, returned to rest on Rumanian soil. After a day crowded with incidents of cordial welcome and new sights described by the queen as "exciting" and "touching," she was housed tonight in the Rumanian legation, become by her presence, the royal palace of a distant Balkan kingdom.
The queen's first glimpse of the capitol of the new world she entered upon today came as she stood, on the arm of Secretary of State Kellogg, under the arcades of union station. The lighted dome of the capitol drew an exclamation of surprise and delight from her, rising as it did over an arc lighted city, against a dark sky.
Marines lined her way from her special train which arrived from New York at 6 o'clock to the entrance of the station. Army bands trumpeted the Rumanian and then the national anthem of the United States, and a squadron, war strength, of the Third cavalry from Fort Myer formed her guard of honor.
The white house, which had been forecast as her next sight o[?] [?]ington, was denied her unt[?] [?]orrow, for contrary to past cu[?], the president did not receive the queen tonight. For personal reasons, it was said at the white house, the official call of the queen at the executive mansion, and of the president and Mrs. Coolidge at the legation, was set for (Continued on Page Eight)
CHARGE FERGUSON OFFERED SERVICE TO ROAD BUILDERS
Legislative Investigating Committee Digs Up Testimony Former Governor Wanted Fee to Secure Contracts
CLAIM $7,500 WAS AMOUNT ASKED ON MAINTENANCE JOB
Highway Contractors Understood Ten Per Cent Would Be Requited Witness Says
AUSTIN, TEXAS, Oct. 18.—(AP)—A legislative investigating committee, here today dug deep into alleged irregularities in Governor Miriam A. Ferguson's highway commission and brought forth accusations against the governor's husband, former Governor James E. Ferguson.
Alleged offers on the part of Ferguson to obtain road contracts from the commission for a money consideration were among the charges made by witnesses, who began to piece together the story back of the highway situation which for many months has agitated the state and which led to the nomination of Attorney General Dan Moody for governor over Mrs. Ferguson.
Chief testimony linking Ferguson with alleged irregularities was given by J. D. Winder, road contractor of Belleville, Texas, who said the governor's husband had offered to obtain for him road maintenance contracts in five counties if Winder would pay him $7,500, which was about 10 per cent of the contract price. Winder testified Ferguson stipulated that the money should be in five and ten dollar bills.
In a statement tonight, Ferguson said he did not even know Winder. "This is an infamous, cheap political falsehood," the former governor declared in denying the charges.
W. G. Hill, Austin accountant, who had audited the automobile registra…
COMMITTEE TO FIX PLAN OF OPERATION FOR COTTON POOL
Meeting of Bankers and Farm Organization Heads Called For Thursday At Exchange Hotel
GOVERNOR WILL PROCLAIM ACREAGE REDUCTION WEEK
Action of Body Expected to Place Financing Method on Sound Basis
A committee meeting to plan action in handling the cotton situation in Alabama has been called by Samuel C. King, of Ensley, president of the Alabama Bankers association, for 10 o'clock Thursday morning at the Exchange hotel in Montgomery, Edward A. O'Neal, president of the Alabama Farm Bureau, advised Monday.
This meeting is in accordance with the southwide plan outlined at the Memphis cotton conference.
It is understood that the committee to meet will include the president of the Alabama bankers' association, the chairman of the agricultural committee of the bankers' association, the president of Auburn, director of extension service, commissioner of agriculture, the president of the [?]
Context
Why Queen Marie came to America in 1926
The AP dispatch covers the first day of a tour that began when Queen Marie, her son Prince Nicolas and her daughter Princess Ileana landed in New York on October 18, 1926, from the steamer Leviathan. Marie was already a celebrity in the United States because of her humanitarian and diplomatic work for Romania during World War I and at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. HistoryLink records that she came at the request of the businessman Samuel Hill, who had invited her to dedicate his Maryhill Museum in Washington state. Her larger purpose was debated at the time: Gene Smith, writing in American Heritage, called the reason for her coming a mystery, and in her farewell radio talk Marie insisted she had come neither on business nor for politics.
How Coolidge received the queen
The Advertiser noted that, contrary to past custom, the president did not receive Marie on her arrival night, and that the White House gave 'personal reasons' for setting the official calls for the next day. American Heritage describes the same arrival, with Marie passing through a double file of Marines at Union Station before a cavalry escort took her to the legation, which matches the paper's account. The magazine adds that Coolidge awaited her with dread. When the meeting finally came, he gave her thirteen minutes at the White House and then stood up to end it, and his return call at the legation was a second meeting of four minutes. The White House's 'personal reasons' and the magazine's picture of a reluctant president are separate records; neither source establishes exactly why the call was postponed.
The Texas highway scandal and its outcome
The Austin hearing reported here was one chapter in a scandal that had built up during Miriam Ferguson's governorship. The Texas State Library and Archives explains that her husband James Ferguson began awarding highway contracts not on merit or value to the state but on the basis of who placed expensive advertisements in his paper. Attorney General Dan Moody's investigation found contractors being paid public money for work never performed, and the resulting scandal forced all three highway commissioners to resign. The National Governors Association biography likewise records a grand jury investigation of the commission over large contracts awarded to favored firms. Mrs. Ferguson lost the 1926 Democratic primary, and Moody won on a reform program carried by public outrage; the Winder testimony and Ferguson's flat denial came after that defeat. The Fergusons' political career did not end there: Miriam Ferguson regained the governorship in 1932.
The 1926 cotton glut and the South's holding plans
The Montgomery meeting answered a price collapse. TIME reported in its October 25, 1926, issue that the crop promised 16,627,000 bales and that cotton had fallen below 14 cents a pound, leaving growers in nervous anxiety. Across the South, bankers and growers' groups proposed to take cotton off the market by warehousing it and to cut the next year's acreage: the Tennessee Cotton Conference called for withdrawing 4,000,000 bales and reducing acreage 25%, and Bernard Baruch urged that all cotton so held go to a single co-operative organization to sell. The Alabama cotton pool and acreage reduction week announced in the Advertiser were planned to apply this combination of holding and curtailment at the state level. TIME also printed a letter from Agriculture Secretary Jardine to Edward A. O'Neal of the Alabama Farm Bureau Federation, the man quoted in this article, assuring him that storage facilities and ample credit existed to hold the crop for months or years.
Original
CHEERING THOUSANDS WELCOME QUEEN MARIE ALONG ROUTE FROM LEVIATHAN TO RUMANIAN LEGATION AT CAPITAL
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CHARGE FERGUSON OFFERED SERVICE TO ROAD BUILDERS
Adver MORNING, OCTOBER 19, 1926 CHARGE FERGUSON OFFERED SERVICE TO ROAD BUILDERS Legislative Investigating Committee Digs Up Testimony Former Governor Wanted Fee to Secure Contracts CLAIM $ 7, 500 WAS AMOUNT ASKED ON MAINTENANCE JOB Highway Contractors Understood Ten Per Cent Would Be Requited Witness Says AUSTIN, TEXAS, Oct. 18. - (AP) - A legislative investigating committee, here today dug deep into alleged irregularities in Governor Miriam A. Ferguson's highway commission and brought forth accusations against the governor's husband, former Governor James E. Ferguson. Alleged offers on the part of Ferguson to obtain road contracts from the commission for a money consideration were among the charges made by witnesses, who began to piece together the story back of the highway situation which for many months has agitated the state and which led to the nomination of Attorney General Dan Moody for governor over Mrs. Ferguson. Chief testimony linking Ferguson with alleged irregularities was given by J. D. Winder, road contractor of Belleville, Texas, who said the governor's husband had offered to obtain for him road maintenance contracts in five counties if Winder would pay him $ 7, 500, which was about 10 per cent of the contract price. Winder testified Ferguson stipulated that the money should be in five and ten dollar bills. In a statement tonight, Ferguson said he did not even know Winder. " This is an infamous, cheap political falsehood, " the former governor declared in denying the charges. W. G. Hill, Austin accountant, who had audited the automobile registraTrop Grou Says WAS The t northw bean s to hur latitud sels in and th been r reau t The today 28. 74 storm, sued " Adv disturb about movin ery p northw Chann sure inches HIGH GATH TO Motorc Expec Tue ATLA motorca boosters from ot tonight opening sions of way ass vention. In the tonight Adolph York Ti mer amb Intereste
COMMITTEE TO FIX PLAN OF OPERATION FOR COTTON POOL
Fearless Independent 14 PAGES Price 5 Cents cane sity port AP) - moving Caribensity center, d vesibbean have er buported read of the ght is -: ropical tensity e 82, d. Evvessels Yuctan pres28. 74 TERS ANTA OADS arolina City ond (AP) - A highway ent men ute here for the ess sesCOMMITTEE TO FIX PLAN OF OPERATION FOR COTTON POOL Meeting of Bankers and Farm Organization Heads Called For Thursday At Exchange Hotel GOVERNOR WILL PROCLAIM ACREAGE REDUCTION WEEK Action of Body Expected to Place Financing Method on Sound Basis A committee meeting to plan action in handling the cotton situation in Alabama has been called by Samuel C. King, of Ensley, president of the Alabama Bankers association, for 10 o'clock Thursday morning at the Exchange hotel in Montgomery, Edward A. O'Neal, president of the Alabama Farm Bureau, advised Monday. This meeting is in accordance with the southwide plan outlined at the Memphis cotton conference. It is understood that the committee to meet will include the president of the Alabama bankers ' association, the chairman of the agricultural committee of the bankers ' association, the president of Auburn, director of extension service, commissioner of agriculture, the president of the [?]
Source: Holding institution