Evening Star
- 3 QUAKES TERRIFY SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER COAST CITIES
- WATSON, FROM BED IN HOSPITAL, DENIES KLAN PACT CHARGE
- CUBAN HURRICANE DEATHS PASS 650 AS DAMAGE GROWS
The Evening Star's front page for Friday, October 22, 1926, led with three Associated Press reports. From San Francisco came word of three early-morning earthquakes, an hour apart, that sent people on the central California coast into streets and parks, broke windows and stopped clocks but caused no reported injuries; Santa Cruz seemed hardest hit. From Indianapolis, Senator James E. Watson, testifying from a hospital bed to Senator James A. Reed's campaign funds committee, flatly denied any deal with Ku Klux Klan leaders over seating Texas Senator Mayfield. From Havana, belated reports put the hurricane's dead above 650, with ten towns wiped out, 6,500 people homeless, sugar mills and cigar factories wrecked and damage nearing $100 million, alongside early word that the Bahamas were safe.
Translation
3 QUAKES TERRIFY SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER COAST CITIES
(U.S. Weather Bureau Forecast.) Showers and warmer tonight; tomorrow partly cloudy and colder. Temperature—Highest, 57, at noon today; lowest, 35, at 7 a.m. today. Full report on page 9. Closing N.Y. Stocks and Bonds, Page 30. No. 30,124. Entered as second class matter post office, Washington, D.C.
Residents Flee Into Streets as Large Buildings Sway From Severe Shocks.
WINDOWS ARE SHATTERED BUT DAMAGE IS SLIGHT
Temblors Felt 250 Miles South of Metropolis—Oakland, San Jose and Stockton Hit.
By the Associated Press.
SAN FRANCISCO, October 22.—Three violent earthquakes rocked the central coast counties of California this morning just an hour apart. The first shock was at 4 [?] 36 a.m. and lasted about 20 seconds. The second was at 5:35 a.m. and was much sharper, but lasted only about 15 seconds. The third, a lighter one, came at 6:42. No injuries and no serious damage had been reported.
The center of the shocks appeared to be between San Francisco and Monterey Bay. The tremors were felt as far south as San Luis Obispo, approximately 250 miles from San Francisco, and as far north as Napa, 50 miles from here. They were also felt at Stockton, 90 miles east and south.
In San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, the largest cities affected, large buildings swayed like trees, driving people into the streets and parks for safety. Hotel guests were shaken from their slumbers and those who did not rush to the streets gathered scantily clad in the lobbies.
Other Cities Hit.
Other cities reporting the tremors are: Salinas, severe shock, no injuries or serious damage. Santa Cruz, shocks swayed buildings and broke windows. San Jose, rocked buildings and broke windows. Oakland, both shocks violently shook buildings. Stockton, shock not severe. Palo Alto, shocks violent but no injuries and no serious damage reported. Sacramento, shocks not felt at newspaper offices and if occurred not serious.
The quake appeared to move in a north-south direction, along the old fault which caused the trouble in the quake of 1906.
Big Buildings Damaged.
At the Palace Hotel, one of the largest hostelries in the city, plate glass windows were broken, plaster fell from ceilings and small cracks appeared in the lobby floor. At the new Bulletin Building, where the Associated Press offices are located, clocks were stopped, molten type metal was shaken from the pots in the stereotyping room and furniture jiggled around.
The clock of the big Union Ferry Building was jarred back nearly five minutes as one freak of the disturbance, but it kept right on going, and transbay commuters, looking up at its big round face, were amazed to find themselves getting to work supposedly five minutes earlier. Many of them had not felt the shakes.
Santa Cruz, 80 miles to the south, reported slight damage to the Casa Del Rey Hotel, a big resort structure, and a few cracked walls and stopped clocks.
Santa Cruz Hardest Hit.
First reports were that the damage would reach $25,000 there, but this was believed to be exaggerated. It appeared to be the most severely shaken of the towns in the earthquake zone.
A feature of the disturbance was that many Western Union clocks stopped at 4:36 a.m., the time of the first shock, and some were started again by later shocks.
Lower Market street, which is on made land, appeared to suffer the most here. The Lincoln Hotel, near the towering Southern Pacific Co. office building, appeared to be a few inches out of plumb. Plaster fell in the Seaboard National Bank, and on Madison street near the water front were seen a few cracked walls. In the main business district a long crack appeared in one of the columns of the Crocker First National Bank.
Chinese Rush to Streets.
In Chinatown, Portsmouth Square filled quickly with excited Chinese, many mothers holding babies in arms, garish silk kimonos mixing with the more severe Occidental boudoir attire.
Some frightened householders scampered into Golden Gate Park, one of the largest in the country, while in the various squares, particularly in the downtown district, there were gathered assorted collections of early morning visitors.
Santa Barbara, which suffered in the 1925 quake, apparently did not feel today's temblors.
Many wild rumors were in circulation over the State about today's shocks. One of them was that the 16-story Pacific Gas and Electric Building here had been turned around. So far as could be ascertained no damage was done to that building, which is of modern quake and fire proof construction.
Golden Gate Park, one of the largest in the country, was the refuge of hundreds within a few minutes after the first shock.
Felt Far From City.
The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co. reported that the quakes were felt in virtually every town up and down the coast in California and for 100 or more miles inland. Gas, light and water services were not interrupted anywhere available reports showed.
Police and fire stations and newspaper offices were besieged by telephone inquiries from frightened residents, who were told to go to parks if the buildings they were in were not substantial.
The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co.'s building, tallest structure in the city and rising 400 feet into the air, was virtually unaffected. A preliminary examination by the building superintendent revealed that one pane of glass had been cracked. It is 27 stories and in the downtown district.
Weather Bureau officials said they (Continued on Page 2, Column 5.)
WATSON, FROM BED IN HOSPITAL, DENIES KLAN PACT CHARGE
Evening WITH SUNDAY MORNING EDITION GTON, D.C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1926
Never Promised Support by Order for Any Action, Says Indiana Senator.
GIVES HIS TESTIMONY TO CHAIRMAN J. A. REED
Probe Conducted Into Alleged Political Domination of State by Secret Body.
By the Associated Press.
INDIANAPOLIS, October 22.—Emphatic denial that he had ever had any understanding with the local or national officers of the Ku Klux Klan was made today by Senator Watson, Republican, Indiana, before the Senate campaign funds committee.
Senator Watson was questioned in his room at the Methodist Hospital, where he is slowly recovering from injuries received in an automobile accident about two weeks ago.
"I never had any understanding with local or national officers of the Ku Klux Klan that I was to be supported by them because of any vote or any action of mine," Senator Watson told Senator James A. Reed, Democrat, Missouri, the committee chairman, who has been digging into charges of Klan political domination in Indiana.
Denies Emmons' Charge.
The Indiana Senator denied specifically the testimony of Hugh F. Emmons, a former Klan official, that he had "got to" Senator Moses in the election contest case of Senator Mayfield, Democrat, Texas, and they had arranged to seat the Texas Senator. He stated that Senator Moses was not now, and never had been, a member of the Senate privileges and elections committee which considered the Mayfield case. Therefore, any statement that he had sought Senator Moses' support was without any foundation.
Senator Watson further told Senator Reed that he had looked up the records in the Mayfield contest and had found that the subcommittee, of which the late Senator Spencer, Republican, Missouri, was chairman, had agreed unanimously on the recommendation that Senator Mayfield retain his seat, and that the Senate had adopted the report without a record vote and without opposition.
Talked With Zumbrunn.
Adverting to Emmons' testimony that he had talked with William F. Zumbrunn, counsel for the Klan, about the Mayfield case, Senator Watson said he had, as he recalled, two conferences with Zumbrunn.
"My recollection is that he came to see me twice," Senator Watson said. "One was about a recess of the committee, to which he was strenuously objecting, saying that it ought not to be. I took the matter up with the subcommittee, and counsel for Mayfield's opponents said they would have other witnesses to be heard, and they overruled the proposition that the case be closed at that particular time."
Zumbrunn was chief counsel for Senator Mayfield in the election contest and his motion that the hearing be closed was made publicly before the subcommittee in that capacity.
Second Visit Recalled.
Senator Watson went on to say that the second time Zumbrunn visited him, he was seeking to prevent having the privileges and elections subcommittee, of which Senator Watson was a member, hear certain other witnesses in the Mayfield case.
"I cannot recall the details," the Indiana Senator added, "but I think he saw all members of the subcommittee at that time. These were the only times I had any private conferences with Zumbrunn about that case.
"It was charged before your committee, Senator, at Chicago, that Dr. Evans and Mr. Zumbrunn made a deal with me by which I was to receive Klan support in Indiana if Senator Mayfield were seated. That is absolutely and unqualifiedly false. I never had any understanding to that effect nor any kind of understanding about the Mayfield case. I never had any conference with Dr. Evans (imperial wizard of the Klan) about the Mayfield case as I now recall.
Has Met Dr. Evans.
"I met Evans several times. I assume that practically all Senators met him as he was actively moving about in Washington. But I do not recall that he spoke to me about the Mayfield case, and Zumbrunn did so only privately on the two occasions I mentioned."
Senator Watson recalled that at the Republican national convention at Cleveland in 1924, when he was a candidate for the vice presidential nomination, it was stated publicly that he was a Ku Klux Klan candidate "because of the Mayfield case."
"I hastened to denounce that as speedily as I could," he added. "Afterward, I remember, Dr. Evans came out in a statement of his own in which he said it was a fabrication."
Reed Takes Testimony.
Only Senator Reed, Senator Watson and the official stenographer were present. Senator Watson yesterday appealed to Senator Reed to hold hearings in Indianapolis because of the Indiana Senator's inability to go to Chicago.
Senator Reed arrived here this morning and immediately went to the hospital. Arrangements had been made to hear Senator Watson's testimony in the sunroom, but after the Missourian had called on Senator Watson he decided that the latter could not be moved, and it was arranged to take Watson's testimony in his room.
When he called Senator Watson, Senator Reed was informed that the senior Indiana Senator's condition was such that it would not be safe to move him. Senator Watson's pulse was over 100, and when Senator Reed reached the hospital he found two doctors and a nurse in attendance upon his chief witness.
Several other witnesses are under subpoena, but Senator Reed is [?] that he can conclude the inquiry tonight so he can return to Kansas City, where he has a speaking engagement tomorrow.
CUBAN HURRICANE DEATHS PASS 650 AS DAMAGE GROWS
From Press to Home Within the Hour. The Star's carrier system covers every city block and the regular edition is delivered to Washington homes as fast as the papers are printed. Yesterday's Circulation, 100,445 [?] Associated Press. TWO CENTS.
Belated Reports Indicate Loss to Property Will Run Up to $100,000,000.
TEN TOWNS IN RUINS; INJURED UNESTIMATED
Extent of Loss in Provinces Distant From Havana Unknown. 6,500 Homeless.
By the Associated Press.
HAVANA, October 22.—Belated advices reaching Havana today indicated that more than 650 persons perished at various places in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Santa Clara and Pinar del Rio in the hurricane which struck the island Wednesday morning. Ten municipalities were wiped out and 6,500 persons were rendered homeless. It is thought the material damage will reach nearly $100,000,000. No definite figures on the total number hurt on the island were available.
In Havana alone it is estimated that 200 persons were killed and 1,600 injured and that houses of 3,200 families were destroyed.
Coast Villages Destroyed.
The two villages comprising the municipality of Batabano, on the south coast of the island, reported more than 200 dead and both towns destroyed. They were the first upon which the hurricane fell when it came out of the Caribbean Sea and across the Isle of Pines.
Bejucal, lying midway between Havana and Batabano, had 20 fatalities. At Gabriel there were 11; central Fajaro, 5; Guira del Melena, 9; Camp Columbia, 8; Guanabacoa, 3; Matanzas City, 6, and Guines, 3.
Few reports had been received today from the provinces of Matanzas, Santa Clara and Pinar del Rio, over which the storm passed. They were cut off from communication because of wrecked telephone and telegraph lines and blocked railroads and roads.
The survivors in various districts, many of them seriously injured, were without food, medicine or water and frantic appeals were made for aid.
Two relief committees have been formed. Nearly $100,000 already has been subscribed. Government and private trucks and automobiles have been pressed into service in efforts to reach interior villages. In Havana all the homeless have been given food and shelter.
Fifteen bodies have been taken out of Havana Harbor, bringing the total number of known drowned here to 19. Officials believe that 50 or more persons possibly met death in the harbor when the heavy seas and the wind destroyed numerous craft. A preliminary estimate of the monetary damage done to shipping is $5,000,000.
The city is dark and deserted at night. No street cars are running, and the electric lights are out.
Bringing word of the death toll at Batabano, three citizens made their way to Havana over wrecked roads, piled with trees and other debris. They said all the survivors in Batabano and its sister town, Surgidero de Batabano, and the town of San Antonio de Los Banos were without medicine or the necessities of life.
Jail Inmates Return.
Three citizens of the town of Guines also have reached Havana. They say they knew of only three persons killed there. Buildings partially razed in Guines included the jail. All the prisoners fled, but shortly afterward 30 returned and surrendered, saying they preferred the jail to the terror of the storm.
Trains running at a speed not exceeding greatly that of a walk have managed to creep into the city from the eastern section of the republic. Passengers on them reported floods as far east as Santa Clara Province.
P. A. Bonet, Cuban consul general to the Dominican Republic, who was a passenger on one of the trains, said every village along the railway line, from Manaca in Santa Clara province westward, was seriously damaged. The entire countryside, as far as he was able to see on both sides of the track, was a wreck.
Havana has a plentiful supply of food and medicine, and thus far has been able without difficulty to take care of refugees.
Sugar Factories Wrecked.
Three large sugar factories in the outlying districts were hard hit by the storm. Central Occidente, a 150-year-old cane-grinding plant, was wrecked. Central Fajaro was destroyed, with a loss of eight lives, and Central Toledo was badly damaged.
At La Saludad 1,000 tobacco curing sheds were demolished.
Among the big industries here which suffered from the storm was the Partagas Cigar factory, which was destroyed. It employed 300 cigar makers. The [?] Cigar factory also was destroyed. The National Manufacturing Co. was damaged to the extent of $75,000, a paper factory, $50,000, and the Tropical Brewery, $40,000.
BAHAMA ISLANDS SAFE.
Messages Indicate No Loss of Life or Damage.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., October 22 (AP).—The Bahama Islands, unheard from since the West Indian hurricane disrupted wireless communication Wednesday midnight, were in communication with Miami by radio this morning. Fragmentary messages made no mention of loss of life or damage.
Indications that the tropical storm visited the islands, however, were contained in wireless messages picked up today by the Palm Beach Radio Corporation from the steamship Munamar of the Munson Line. The Munamar reported it was in Nassau Harbor when the hurricane veered from the lower east Florida coast. The steamship immediately put out to sea to ride out the gale.
Americans Apparently Safe.
No Americans had been reported killed in the Cuban hurricane up to today, the American Red Cross was informed by the Cuban Red Cross.
Context
The Mayfield contest behind the Klan charge
The charge Watson denied grew out of the Senate's review of Texas's 1922 Senate election. George E. B. Peddy, who challenged the Democrat Earle Mayfield, petitioned against Mayfield's seating and alleged, among other things, the flagrant participation of the Ku Klux Klan on his behalf. The Committee on Privileges and Elections announced its findings on February 2, 1925, after a year-long investigation. It noted that no evidence connected Mayfield with the Klan's actions and recommended dismissing the contest, and the Senate agreed unanimously without debate. That record matches Watson's account in this article that the report passed without a record vote or opposition, and this was the core of his argument that no deal was needed to seat Mayfield. Whether a private understanding lay behind the outcome, as the former Klan official Hugh F. Emmons testified, is a matter of conflicting testimony reported by the paper, and the Senate record does not settle it. Mayfield's Klan connection followed him: in 1928 Tom Connally attacked him over it and defeated him for renomination.
Watson's fortunes after the hospital testimony
Watson gave this testimony eleven days before he faced the voters. In the Indiana Senate election of November 2, 1926, he was re-elected to a second full term over the Democratic attorney Albert Stump, so the Klan charge aired in this article did not prevent his return to the Senate. The question of his Klan ties did not end there. In 1929 he was sued by William M. Rogers, an avowed Klansman, who alleged that Watson had forced him to sign an affidavit recanting testimony before a Senate committee that Watson was also a Klan member. Watson nonetheless rose to become the Senate's second official majority leader, and he lost his seat in a landslide only when the Democrats swept Congress and the presidency in 1932.
How the Havana hurricane is recorded today
The storm the Star described struck Cuba as a major hurricane: later records list two separate landfalls on October 20, 1926, the Wednesday the article mentions, both at Category 4 strength. The death figures in the paper were early estimates gathered while whole provinces were cut off. For Havana the paper cited an estimate of 200 killed, while the modern Wikipedia account records at least 58 deaths in the city, many from collapsing walls and flying debris. The relief figures also diverge. That account describes two relief committees and private and government trucks sent to isolated inland communities, closely echoing this AP dispatch, but it says the committees collected nearly $100 million, where the Star printed nearly $100,000 at the time. The thousandfold gap points to an error in one of the two accounts.
The storm's path past the Bahamas and Bermuda
The Star's reassuring item from West Palm Beach rested on fragmentary radio messages. Later records show that after crossing Cuba the hurricane passed through the Bahamas before entering the open Atlantic, and that it wrecked all seawalls and wharves on the Abaco Islands. On October 22, the very day this edition appeared, the storm passed directly over Bermuda, where the Royal Navy sloop HMS Valerian, unable to reach safety before the storm hit, foundered with the loss of 85 crew. The 'Bahama Islands Safe' headline therefore shows how little was known on the morning of October 22, not the storm's eventual toll in the islands.
Original
3 QUAKES TERRIFY SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER COAST CITIES
(U. S. Weather Bureau Forecast.) Showers and warmer tonight; to-morrow partly cloudy and colder. Temperature-Highest, 57, at noon today; lowest, 35, at 7 a. m. today. Full report on page 9. Closing N. Y. Stocks and Bonds, Page 30 No. 30, 124. Entered as second class matter post office, Washington, D. C. 3 QUAKES TERRIFY SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER COAST CITIES Residents Flee Into Streets as Large Buildings Sway From Severe Shocks. WINDOWS ARE SHATTERED BUT DAMAGE IS SLIGHT Temblors Felt 250 Miles South of Metropolis-Oakland, San Jose and Stockton Hit. By the Associated Press. SAN FRANCISCO, October 22. - Three violent earthquakes rocked the central coast counties of California this morning just an hour apart. The first shock was at 4 [?] 36 a. m. and lasted about 20 seconds. The second was at 5: 35 a. m. and was much sharper, but lasted only about 15 seconds. The third, a lighter one, came at 6: 42. No injuries and no serious damage had been reported. The center of the shocks appeared to be between San Francisco and Monterey Bay. The tremors were felt as far south as San Luis Obispo, approximately 250 miles from San Francisco, and as far north as Napa, 50 miles from here. They were also felt at Stockton, 90 miles east and south. In San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, the largest cities affected, large buildings swayed like trees, driving people into the streets and parks for safety. Hotel guests were shaken from their slumbers and those who did not rush to the streets gathered scantily clad in the lobbies. Other Cities Hit. Other cities reporting the tremors are: Salinas, severe shock, no injuries or serious damage. Santa Cruz, shocks swayed buildings and broke windows. San Jose, rocked buildings and broke windows. Oakland, both shocks violently shook buildings. Stockton, shock not severe. Palo Alto, shocks violent but no injuries and no serious damage reported. Sacramento, shocks not felt at newspaper offices and if occurred not serious. The quake appeared to move in a north-south direction, along the old fault which caused the trouble in the quake of 1906. Big Buildings Damaged. At the Palace Hotel, one of the largest hostelries in the city, plate glass windows were broken, plaster fell from ceilings and small cracks appeared in the lobby floor. At the new Bulletin Building, where the Associated Press offices are located, clocks were stopped, molten type metal was shaken from the pots in the stereotyping room and furniture jiggled around. The clock of the big Union Ferry Building was jarred back nearly five minutes as one freak of the disturbance, but it kept right on going, and transbay commuters, looking up at its big round face, were amazed to find themselves getting to work supposedly five minutes earlier. Many of them had not felt the shakes. Santa Cruz, 80 miles to the south, reported slight damage to the Casa Del Rey Hotel, a big resort structure, and a few cracked walls and stopped clocks. Santa Cruz Hardest Hit. First reports were that the damage would reach $ 25, 000 there, but this was believed to be exaggerated. It appeared to be the most severely shaken of the towns in the earthquake zone. A feature of the disturbance was that many Western Union clocks stopped at 4: 36 a. m., the time of the first shock, and some were started again by later shocks. Lower Market street, which is on made land, appeared to suffer the most here. The Lincoln Hotel, near the towering Southern Pacific Co. office building, appeared to be a few inches out of plumb. Plaster fell in the Seaboard National Bank, and on Madison street near the water front were seen a few cracked walls. In the main business district a long crack appeared in one of the columns of the Crocker First National Bank. Chinese Rush to Streets. In Chinatown, Portsmouth Square filled quickly with excited Chinese, many mothers holding babies in arms, garish silk kimonos mixing with the more severe Occidental boudoir attire. Some frightened householders scampered into Golden Gate Park, one of the largest in the country, while in the various squares, particularly in the downtown district, there were gathered assorted collections of early morning visitors. Santa Barbara, which suffered in the 1925 quake, apparently did not feel today's temblors. Many wild rumors were in circulation over the State about today's shocks. One of them was that the 16-story Pacific Gas and Electric Building here had been turned around. So far as could be ascertained no damage was done to that building, which is of modern quake and fire proof construction. Golden Gate Park, one of the largest in the country, was the refuge of hundreds within a few minutes after the first shock. Felt Far From City. The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co. reported that the quakes were felt in virtually every town up and down the coast in California and for 100 or more miles inland. Gas, light and water services were not interrupted anywhere available reports showed. Police and fire stations and newspaper offices were besieged by telephone inquiries from frightened residents, who were told to go to parks if the buildings they were in were not substantial. The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Co. ' s building, tallest structure in the city and rising 400 feet into the air, was virtually unaffected. A preliminary examination by the building superintendent revealed that one pane of glass had been cracked. It is 27 stories and in the downtown district. Weather Bureau officials said they (Continued on Page 2, Column 5.)
WATSON, FROM BED IN HOSPITAL, DENIES KLAN PACT CHARGE
Evening WITH SUNDAY MORNING EDITION GTON, D. C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1926 WATSON, FROM BED IN HOSPITAL, DENIES KLAN PACT CHARGE Never Promised Support by Order for Any Action, Says Indiana Senator. GIVES HIS TESTIMONY TO CHAIRMAN J. A. REED Probe Conducted Into Alleged Political Domination of State by Secret Body. By the Associated Press. INDIANAPOLIS, October 22. - Emphatic denial that he had ever had any understanding with the local or national officers of the Ku Klux Klan was made today by Senator Watson, Republican, Indiana, before the Senate campaign funds committee. Senator Watson was questioned in his room at the Methodist Hospital, where he is slowly recovering from injuries received in an automobile accident about two weeks ago. " I never had any understanding with local or national officers of the Ku Klux Klan that I was to be supported by them because of any vote or any action of mine, " Senator Watson told Senator James A. Reed, Democrat, Missouri, the committee chairman, who has been digging into charges of Klan political domination in Indiana. Denies Emmons ' Charge. The Indiana Senator denied specifically the testimony of Hugh F. Emmons, a former Klan official, that he had " got to " Senator Moses in the election contest case of Senator Mayfield, Democrat, Texas, and they had arranged to seat the Texas Senator. He stated that Senator Moses was not now, and never had been, a member of the Senate privileges and elections committee which considered the Mayfield case. Therefore, any statement that he had sought Senator Moses ' support was without any foundation. Senator Watson further told Senator Reed that he had looked up the records in the Mayfield contest and had found that the subcommittee, of which the late Senator Spencer, Republican, Missouri, was chairman, had agreed unanimously on the recommendation that Senator Mayfield retain his seat, and that the Senate had adopted the report without a record vote and without opposition. Talked With Zumbrunn. Adverting to Emmons ' testimony that he had talked with William F. Zumbrunn, counsel for the Klan, about the Mayfield case, Senator Watson said he had, as he recalled, two conferences with Zumbrunn. " My recollection is that he came to see me twice, " Senator Watson said. " One was about a recess of the committee, to which he was strenuously objecting, saying that it ought not to be. I took the matter up with the subcommittee, and counsel for Mayfield's opponents said they would have other witnesses to be heard, and they overruled the proposition that the case be closed at that particular time. " Zumbrunn was chief counsel for Senator Mayfield in the election contest and his motion that the hearing be closed was made publicly before the subcommittee in that capacity. Second Visit Recalled. Senator Watson went on to say that the second time Zumbrunn visited him, he was seeking to prevent having the privileges and elections subcommittee, of which Senator Watson was a member, hear certain other witnesses in the Mayfield case. " I cannot recall the details, " the Indiana Senator added, " but I think he saw all members of the subcommittee at that time. These were the only times I had any private conferences with Zumbrunn about that case. " It was charged before your committee, Senator, at Chicago, that Dr. Evans and Mr. Zumbrunn made a deal with me by which I was to receive Klan support in Indiana if Senator Mayfield were seated. That is absolutely and unqualifiedly false. I never had any understanding to that effect nor any kind of understanding about the Mayfield case. I never had any conference with Dr. Evans (imperial wizard of the Klan) about the Mayfield case as I now recall. Has Met Dr. Evans. " I met Evans several times. I assume that practically all Senators met him as he was actively moving about in Washington. But I do not recall that he spoke to me about the Mayfield case, and Zumbrunn did so only privately on the two occasions I mentioned. " Senator Watson recalled that at the Republican national convention at Cleveland in 1924, when he was a candidate for the vice presidential nomination, it was stated publicly that he was a Ku Klux Klan candidate " because of the Mayfield case. " " I hastened to denounce that as speedily as I could, " he added. " Afterward, I remember, Dr. Evans came out in a statement of his own in which he said it was a fabrication. " Reed Takes Testimony. Only Senator Reed, Senator Watson and the official stenographer were present. Senator Watson yesterday appealed to Senator Reed to hold hearings in Indianapolis because of the Indiana Senator's inability to go to Chicago. Senator Reed arrived here this morning and immediately went to the hospital. Arrangements had been made to hear Senator Watson's testimony in the sunroom, but after the Missourian had called on Senator Watson he decided that the latter could not be moved, and it was arranged to take Watson's testimony in his room. When he called Senator Watson, Senator Reed was informed that the senior Indiana Senator's condition was such that it would not be safe to move him. Senator Watson's pulse was over 100, and when Senator Reed reached the hospital he found two doctors and a nurse in attendance upon his chief witness. Several other witnesses are under subpoena, but Senator Reed is [?] that he can conclude the inquiry tonight so he can return to Kansas City, where he has a speaking engagement tomorrow.
CUBAN HURRICANE DEATHS PASS 650 AS DAMAGE GROWS
From Press to Home Within the Hour The Star's carrier system covers every city block and the regular edition is delivered to Washington homes as fast as the papers are printed. Yesterday's Circulation, 100, 445 [?] Associated Press. TWO CENTS. CUBAN HURRICANE DEATHS PASS 650 AS DAMAGE GROWS Belated Reports Indicate Loss to Property Will Run Up to $ 100, 000, 000. TEN TOWNS IN RUINS; INJURED UNESTIMATED Extent of Loss in Provinces Distant From Havana Unknown. 6, 500 Homeless. By the Associated Press. HAVANA, October 22. - Belated advices reaching Havana today indicated that more than 650 persons perished at various places in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Santa Clara and Pinar del Rio in the hurricane which struck the island Wednesday morning. Ten municipalities were wiped out and 6, 500 persons were rendered homeless. It is thought the material damage will reach nearly $ 100, 000, 000. No definite figures on the total number hurt on the island were available. In Havana alone it is estimated that 200 persons were killed and 1, 600 injured and that houses of 3, 200 families were destroyed. Coast Villages Destroyed. The two villages comprising the municipality of Batabano, on the south coast of the island, reported more than 200 dead and both towns destroyed. They were the first upon which the hurricane fell when it came out of the Caribbean Sea and across the Isle of Pines. Bejucal, lying midway between Havana and Batabano, had 20 fatalities. At Gabriel there were 11; central Fajaro, 5; Guira del Melena, 9; Camp Columbia, 8; Guanabacoa, 3; Matanzas City, 6, and Guines, 3. Few reports had been received today from the provinces of Matanzas, Santa Clara and Pinar del Rio, over which the storm passed. They were cut off from communication because of wrecked telephone and telegraph lines and blocked railroads and roads. The survivors in various districts, many of them seriously injured, were without food, medicine or water and frantic appeals were made for aid. Two relief committees have been formed. Nearly $ 100, 000 already has been subscribed. Government and private trucks and automobiles have been pressed into service in efforts to reach interior villages. In Havana all the homeless have been given food and shelter. Fifteen bodies have been taken out of Havana Harbor, bringing the total number of known drowned here to 19. Officials believe that 50 or more persons possibly met death in the harbor when the heavy seas and the wind destroyed numerous craft. A preliminary estimate of the monetary damage done to shipping is $ 5, 000, 000. The city is dark and deserted at night. No street cars are running, and the electric lights are out. Bringing word of the death toll at Batabano, three citizens made their way to Havana over wrecked roads, piled with trees and other debris. They said all the survivors in Batabano and its sister town, Surgidero de Batabano, and the town of San Antonio de Los Banos were without medicine or the necessities of life. Jail Inmates Return. Three citizens of the town of Guines also have reached Havana. They say they knew of only three persons killed there. Buildings partially razed in Guines included the jail. All the prisoners fled, but shortly afterward 30 returned and surrendered, saying they preferred the jail to the terror of the storm. Trains running at a speed not exceeding greatly that of a walk have managed to creep into the city from the eastern section of the republic. Passengers on them reported floods as far east as Santa Clara Province. P. A. Bonet, Cuban consul general to the Dominican Republic, who was a passenger on one of the trains, said every village along the railway line, from Manaca in Santa Clara province westward, was seriously damaged. The entire countryside, as far as he was able to see on both sides of the track, was a wreck. Havana has a plentiful supply of food and medicine, and thus far has been able without difficulty to take care of refugees. Sugar Factories Wrecked. Three large sugar factories in the outlying districts were hard hit by the storm. Central Occidente, a 150-year-old cane-grinding plant, was wrecked. Central Fajaro was destroyed, with a loss of eight lives, and Central Toledo was badly damaged. At La Saludad 1, 000 tobacco curing sheds were demolished. Among the big industries here which suffered from the storm was the Partagas Cigar factory, which was destroyed. It employed 300 cigar makers. The [?] Cigar factory also was destroyed. The National Manufacturing Co. was damaged to the extent of $ 75, 000, a paper factory, $ 50, 000, and the Tropical Brewery, $ 40, 000. BAHAMA ISLANDS SAFE. Messages Indicate No Loss of Life or Damage. WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., October 22 (AP). - The Bahama Islands, unheard from since the West Indian hurricane disrupted wireless communication Wednesday midnight, were in communication with Miami by radio this morning. Fragmentary messages made no mention of loss of life or damage. Indications that the tropical storm visited the islands, however, were contained in wireless messages picked up today by the Palm Beach Radio Corporation from the steamship Munamar of the Munson Line. The Munamar reported it was in Nassau Harbor when the hurricane veered from the lower east Florida coast. The steamship immediately put out to sea to ride out the gale. Americans Apparently Safe. No Americans had been reported killed in the Cuban hurricane up to today, the American Red Cross was informed by the Cuban Red Cross.
Source: Holding institution