The Montgomery Advertiser
- COTTON ACREAGE REDUCTION WEEK IS SET BY BRANDON
- LIST OF KILLED IN CUBAN STORM GOES ABOVE SIX HUNDRED
- BROWDER KILLING WILL BE THRESHED IN CIRCUIT COURT
The Montgomery Advertiser's front page for October 22, 1926 led with Governor W. W. Brandon's proclamation, issued at the request of an Alabama committee of bankers, farmers and agricultural leaders, setting aside the week beginning October 25 for cotton relief: growers were urged to pool the current crop for orderly marketing and to cut the next planting drastically, in a movement headed by Edward A. O'Neal. An Associated Press dispatch from Havana described the hurricane that had struck Cuba on Wednesday: a death list the headline put above six hundred, 6,500 homeless, ten or more towns destroyed, damage near $100 million, a hundred ships sunk or badly damaged and about fifty seamen missing. Locally, Sheriff Robert C. Phelps charged a pilot with manslaughter in the Browder homicide and insisted on moving the case from military to civil authorities, while a chemist reported probable human hair and no blood stains.
Translation
COTTON ACREAGE REDUCTION WEEK IS SET BY BRANDON
… Committee
BANK AND FARM INTERESTS FORMULATE PROGRAM
Edward A. O'Neal Heads Movement For Substantial Decrease in Staple
Acting immediately on a request of the Alabama committee of bankers, farmers and agricultural leaders on the cotton situation, Governor W. W. Brandon issued Thursday a proclamation proclaiming the week beginning October 25 as a time to devote to the relief of cotton growers by pooling the present crop for orderly marketing and taking steps for drastic reduction of the cotton [?]
LIST OF KILLED IN CUBAN STORM GOES ABOVE SIX HUNDRED
…jured; Damage Estimated at Hundred Million
HAVANA, Oct. 22 — (AP) — Reports of more than 65[?] persons killed in Wednesday's hurricane, an unknown number of injured and 6,500 homeless were mingled with frantic appeals of aid early this morning. Ten or more towns and villages are said to have been completely destroyed. The damage is expected to reach nearly $100,000,000. One hundred ships of various classes were sunk or badly damaged. It is feared that many seamen have been drowned. A check up today revealed that approximately fifty were missing from their rosters. Some of these unquestionably perished. The center of the hurricane was east of Havana, passing directly over the City of Guines. It reached its height at 10:30 in the morning. So…
BROWDER KILLING WILL BE THRESHED IN CIRCUIT COURT
…man's Plane' Probably Human Hair, Chemist Reports; No Blood Stains Found
MANSLAUGHTER CHARGED TO PILOT BY SHERIFF
Will Insist on Civil Prosecution; Haygood Promises Full Cooperation
The Browder homicide will be finally threshed out in the Montgomery county circuit court. This was indicated Thursday night when Sheriff Robert C. Phelps made it plain that he would insist on a transfer of the case from the military to civil authorities, and [?]
Context
Which Edward O'Neal led the 1926 cotton campaign
The paper names the leader of the cotton-reduction movement as "Edward A. O'Neal," the same name borne by the Confederate officer who served as Alabama's Democratic governor from 1882 to 1886. The farm leader active in 1926 was very likely his grandson, Edward O'Neal III, who became the second president of the Alabama Farmers Bureau in 1923. He was also the nephew of another governor, Emmet O'Neal. The bureau itself had been organized at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute in January 1921, after extension director Luther Duncan called on state and local businessmen, bankers and farmers to form it. That origin fits the deck headline's "bank and farm interests" drawing up the program together. The encyclopedia account does not describe the 1926 committee itself, so the identification rests on the name, the date and O'Neal's office at the time.
From a voluntary reduction week to paid acreage cuts
Brandon's proclamation relied on persuasion: growers were asked to pool their crop for orderly marketing and to cut acreage on their own. O'Neal's later career shows where the idea of restricting cotton supply went next. Under his leadership the Farmers Bureau became so successful that he was named president of the American Farm Bureau Federation in 1931, and in the New Deal years he helped craft the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which paid farmers to plant fewer crops such as corn and cotton to keep prices high. The federal program also showed who bore the cost of restricting supply: the payments went to landowners, not to sharecroppers and tenant farmers, who lost their work and were displaced. The U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the law. The 1926 campaign on this page belongs to the voluntary period before federal payments existed.
How the Havana hurricane's death toll compares with later figures
The AP dispatch reflects the first chaotic counts: the body speaks of "more than 65[?]" dead (the last digit is illegible), while the headline already puts the list above six hundred and the damage near $100 million. Later compilations put the toll of the October 20, 1926 hurricane in Cuba at about 600, so the headline figure was close to the number that came to be accepted for the island. The overall total of at least 709 deaths includes losses outside Cuba, such as the Royal Navy sloop HMS Valerian, which foundered off Bermuda with 85 crew on October 22, the very day this page was printed. Local counts show how the deaths were spread: at least 58 in Havana, many struck by collapsing walls or flying debris, and at least 38 on Isla de la Juventud, where more than 200 were injured. The later account also gives damage to Cuban towns as exceeding $100 million, in line with the paper's early estimate.
Why ships and the Havana waterfront suffered so badly
The dispatch stresses losses at sea: a hundred ships sunk or badly damaged and about fifty seamen missing from their rosters. Later accounts confirm that strong waves offshore damaged or sank a large number of ships, including 40 fishing vessels. The hurricane made two separate landfalls on Cuba as a Category 4 storm on October 20, and in Havana a tidal wave overtopped the Malecón, the seawall Leonard Wood had built in 1900, causing much of the damage. The paper's report that the center passed east of the capital, directly over Güines, was a first-day account; later barometer records placed Güira de Melena and Cojímar inside the hurricane's eyewall, where pressure fell to 939 millibars.
The Havana storm in a deadly hurricane season
The Cuban disaster came only weeks after the Miami hurricane, which was active in mid-September and was the strongest and most damaging storm of the 1926 season. That storm killed at least 497 people, caused $125 million in damage and was a factor in ending the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The October storm passed close to the Florida Keys after leaving Cuba but caused generally minor damage in South Florida. For readers in Alabama, the Havana news therefore arrived in a season in which hurricanes had already struck very close to home.
Original
COTTON ACREAGE REDUCTION WEEK IS SET BY BRANDON
Committee BANK AND FARM INTERESTS FORMULATE PROGRAM Edward A. O'Neal Heads Movement For Substantial Decrease in Staple Acting immediately on a request of the Alabama committee of bankers, farmers and agricultural leaders on the cotton situation, Governor W. W. Brandon issued Thursday a proclamation proclaiming the week beginning October 25 as a time to devote to the relief of cotton, growers by pooling the present crop for orderly marketing and taking steps for drastic reduction of the cotton [?]
LIST OF KILLED IN CUBAN STORM GOES ABOVE SIX HUNDRED
jured; Damage Estimated at Hundred Million HAVANA, Oct. 22 - (AP) - Reports of more than 65 # persons killed in Wednesday's hurricane, an unknown number of injured and 6, 500 homeless were mingled with frantic appeals of aid early this morning. Ten or more towns and villages are said to have been completely destroyed. The damage is expected to reach nearly $ 100, 000, 000. One hundred ships of various classes were sunk or badly damaged. It is feared that many seamen have b [?] n drowned. A check up today revealed that approximately fifty were missing from their rosters. Some of these unquestionably perished. The center of the hurricane was east of Havana, passing directly over the City of Guines. It reached its height at 10: 30 in the morning. So
BROWDER KILLING WILL BE THRESHED IN CIRCUIT COURT
man's Plane ' Probably Human Hair, Chemist Reports; No Blood Stains Found MANSLAUGHTER CHARGED TO PILOT BY SHERIFF Will Insist on Civil Prosecution; Haygood Promises Full Cooperation The Browder hamicide will be finally threshed out in the Montgomery county circuit court. This was indicated Thursday night when Sheriff Robert C. Phelps made it plain that he would insist on a transfer of the case from the military to civil authorities, and [?]
Source: Holding institution