The Montgomery Advertiser
- LEHMAN TO FACE MILITARY TRIAL, RICHARDS ASSERTS
- Heflin Will Fight Seating of Smith And Vare in United States Senate
- WITNESS REFUTES CHARGE OF STATE IN DAVIS TRIAL
The Montgomery Advertiser of November 6, 1926, reported that Major H. H. C. Richards, commander of Maxwell Field, would send Lieutenant A. J. Lehman before a court-martial. Lehman was being held over the October 19 death of Frank G. Browder, Sr., who was killed by a swooping aeroplane, and Richards made the announcement after a Montgomery grand jury returned no indictment. In a piece by Atticus Mullin, Senator J. Thomas Heflin vowed to fight the seating of Senators-elect Vare of Pennsylvania and Smith of Illinois. He said their spending turned Senate seats into goods sold at auction, and that next to them Newberry had been a mere piker. A short item from the Davis trial reported a weekend recess, and the judge's order that bailiffs closely guard the jurors while they attended Saturday's football game.
Translation
LEHMAN TO FACE MILITARY TRIAL, RICHARDS ASSERTS
Lieutenant A. J. Lehman, held by military authorities at Maxwell Field in connection with the killing of Frank G. Browder, Sr., by a swooping aeroplane, October 19, will face military courtmartial, Major H. H. C. Richards, commander of the field, announced when informed that the grand jury of Montgomery had failed to return indictment in the case Friday. The
Heflin Will Fight Seating of Smith And Vare in United States Senate
"The security of our government is at stake whenever a seat in the United States senate can be auctioned off to the highest bidder," said J. Thomas Heflin Friday night when told that Senator Norris of Nebraska, would oppose the seating of Senators-elect Vare of Pennsylvania and Smith [?] of Illinois. "I opposed the seating of Newberry of Michigan," said Senator Heflin. "But it appears that Newberry [?] a mere piker compared with Vare of Pennsylvania and Smith of Illinois. Where Newberry spent his thousands, Smith and Vare spent their hundreds of thousands, evidently regarding a seat in the United States senate as a purchasable commodity.
WITNESS REFUTES CHARGE OF STATE IN DAVIS TRIAL
Court recessed at 5 p.m. and will not reconvene until 9:30 Monday morning. Judge McCoy ordered the bailiffs in charge of the jury to exert the utmost diligence during the brief respite, especially during the football game Saturday afternoon, which the jurors are to attend.
Context
What Maxwell Field was when Lehman was held there
According to the Advertiser, military authorities at Maxwell Field were holding Lieutenant A. J. Lehman after a swooping aeroplane killed Frank G. Browder, Sr., on October 19. The paper also reported that the field's commander, Major H. H. C. Richards, promised a court-martial after a Montgomery grand jury declined to indict. The post was still young as a named Army installation. The War Department renamed the Montgomery depot Maxwell Field on November 8, 1922, in honor of Second Lieutenant William C. Maxwell. In 1923 it was one of three Army Air Service aviation depots, and it repaired aircraft engines for flying training. The accident happened in the same year as the Air Corps Act of 1926, which renamed the Army Air Service the U.S. Army Air Corps. The page gives no reason for the grand jury's decision. On November 6 the military trial was still only Richards's announcement, as the paper reported it.
Why Vare and Smith were under suspicion before taking their seats
Heflin spoke on the Friday night after the November general election, but the Senate had been looking into both men since spring. On May 19, 1926, Senator Byron P. Harrison raised newspaper reports about the Pennsylvania primary, citing claims that $2 to $5 million had been poured into the campaign. The Senate's resolution created a special committee that investigated both the Pennsylvania election and Frank L. Smith's Illinois primary campaign. In Illinois, the charges included a claim that the utilities owner Samuel Insull gave $125,000 to Smith's primary fund while Smith still chaired the commerce commission that regulated utilities. Both men won anyway. Vare easily won the November election for the Senate term beginning March 4, 1927, and Smith won his by more than 60,000 votes. The committee's later interim report found that Vare and his gubernatorial running mate Edward E. Beidleman together spent some $785,000. That figure matches the scale of the "hundreds of thousands" Heflin cited.
How the Newberry case framed Heflin's comparison
Heflin measured Vare and Smith against Truman H. Newberry, a Michigan Republican who sat in the Senate from March 4, 1919, until he resigned on November 18, 1922. The paper reports Heflin's claim that he had opposed seating Newberry. The record of the case itself is well established. In 1921 Newberry was tried and convicted under the Federal Corrupt Practices Act, and the Supreme Court reversed the conviction in Newberry v. United States. The Senate then declared him entitled to his seat but disapproved of the sum spent in his race against Henry Ford, and Newberry resigned when a new movement arose to unseat him. The case also shaped the law that applied in 1926. Senate historians note that the Supreme Court had ruled the Corrupt Practices Act could not constitutionally apply to primary elections, so the large primary spending in Pennsylvania and Illinois fell outside federal statute. Harrison had already reminded senators that Newberry's far smaller spending had been labeled excessive. Heflin's "thousands" against "hundreds of thousands" repeated that comparison and moved the argument from criminal law to the Senate's own judgment.
How the Senate finally decided the Smith and Vare cases
The paper reports that Senator George Norris of Nebraska would oppose seating both men, and his opposition to Vare was already open. Senate history records that Norris was so alarmed by Vare's primary spending that he campaigned against his fellow Republican in the 1926 Pennsylvania general election. Smith's case came first. The Illinois governor appointed him on December 16, 1926, to finish the late Senator McKinley's term. After long delays, the Senate voted 61 to 23 on January 19, 1928, that Smith was not entitled to his seat. Vare's case took longer, in part because of disputed ballots and his illness. After a floor debate on the reports of two committees, the Senate voted on December 6, 1929, and seated neither Vare nor his Democratic challenger, William B. Wilson. Both outcomes matched the position Heflin took in this November 1926 interview, although the final votes came more than a year after it.
Original
LEHMAN TO FACE MILITARY TRIAL, RICHARDS ASSERTS
Lieutenant A. J. Lehman, held by military authorities at Maxwell Field in connection with the killing of Frank G. Browder, Sr., by a swooping aeroplane, October 19, will face military courtmartial, Major H. H. C. Richards, commander of the field, announced when informed that the grand jury of Montgomery had failed to return indictment in the case Friday. The
Heflin Will Fight Seating of Smith And Vare in United States Senate
" The security of our government is at stake whenever a seat in the United States senate can be auctioned off to the highest bidder, " said J. Thomas Heflin Friday night when told that Senator Norris of Nebraska, would oppose the seating of Senators-elect Vare of Pennsylvania and Smith [?] of Illinois. " I opposed the seating of Newberry of Michigan, " said Senator Heflin. " But it appears that Newberry [?] a mere piker compared with Vare of Pennsylvania and Smith of Illinois. Where Newberry spent his thousands, Smith and Vare spent their hundreds of thousands, evidently regarding a seat in the United States senate as a purchasable commodity.
WITNESS REFUTES CHARGE OF STATE IN DAVIS TRIAL
Court recessed at 5 p. m. and will not reconvene until 9: 30 Monday morning. Judge McCoy ordered the bailiffs in charge of the jury to exert the utmost diligence during the brief respite, especially during the football game Saturday afternoon, which the jurors are to attend.
Source: Holding institution