The Montgomery Advertiser
- Capitalists Given Hearty Welcome to Alabama Soil
- Both Teams in Good Shape for Contest; Fun Starts 2 P.M.
- Charles R. Davis Not Guilty, Says Jefferson Jury
The Montgomery Advertiser of November 13, 1926, reported a luncheon at the Montgomery Country Club where the Alabama Power Company entertained 35 eastern bankers and investment officials, and where Governor W. W. Brandon and Governor-elect Bibb Graves promised every investor fair treatment and protection. From Birmingham, an AP dispatch told how a jury, after less than an hour, acquitted Charles R. Davis, former warden of the Flat Top prison mine, of murder in the 1924 death of convict James Knox, a case the paper said had pushed the convict lease system into the Democratic primary. The page also previewed the national champion Crimson Tide's 2 p.m. game against Florida at Cramton Bowl, the capital's last big game of the season.
Translation
CAPITALISTS GIVEN HEARTY WELCOME TO ALABAMA SOIL
Welcoming the investment of capital in a continuation of the development of Alabama's natural resources and the promotion of the rapid further progress of the state, Governor W. W. Brandon and Governor-elect Bibb Graves, at a luncheon in honor of eastern bankers and investment firm officials, at the Montgomery Country club, Friday, gave assurance that all investors in Alabama will receive fair treatment and adequate protection of investments made. In addition to the 35 visiting officials from other states, the luncheon tendered them by the Alabama Power company, was attended also by many prominent officials, bankers and business and professional men of Montgomery, Birmingham and other sections of the state, who were also especially invited, most prominent among these being the governor and the governor-elect. Thomas W. Martin, president of the Alabama Power company, presided as toastmaster.
BOTH TEAMS IN GOOD SHAPE FOR CONTEST; FUN STARTS 2 P. M.
The Crimson Tide of Alabama, national football champions, will engage an inspired bunch of Alligators from the University of Florida in the final major grid classic of the season for Alabama's Capital City. Cramton Bowl will be the scene of hostilities, which are scheduled to begin promptly at 2 o'clock. In quest of a third conference title and a chance to be rated as one of the leading elevens in the country, the Tide will put forth every effort to keep their record unblemished by a decisive victory over the Gators, while the Floridians will be out to avenge the 34 to 0 defeat administered by the Tide last year, and to make amends for losses earlier in the season.
CHARLES R. DAVIS NOT GUILTY, SAYS JEFFERSON JURY
BIRMINGHAM, ALA., Nov. 12. - (AP) - Charles R. Davis, former warden of Flat Top prison mine, tonight was freed of murder charges in connection with the death of James Knox, native of West Virginia and a convict at the mine in 1924, after a jury had deliberated less than one hour. Davis was acquitted after 11 days of legal clashes between opposing counsel with convicts and ex-convicts playing the roles of leading witnesses for both sides. The state charged that Knox was beaten and then ducked in a laundry vat until dead, accusing Davis of issuing instructions that resulted in the death of the convict and of later ordering poison pumped into Knox's body to simulate suicide. Four other persons were indicted in connection with the death of Knox, the Jefferson county grand jury returning true bills after an investigation which startled the whole state and which injected the convict lease system into the democratic primary.
Context
Convict leasing behind the Flat Top murder trial
The Davis trial grew out of Alabama's convict-lease system, under which the state and counties earned revenue by supplying prisoners' labor, and by the 1880s nearly all leased prisoners worked in coal mines around Birmingham. After the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company announced in 1912 that it would employ only free workers, the state took over the prison mines itself and sold their coal directly, which fits the paper's description of Davis as the warden of a prison mine. Later historical accounts record that in 1924 the death of a prisoner tortured by being lowered into a vat of boiling water prompted an investigation. Those accounts do not name the prisoner, but the year and the vat match the Knox case on this page. The paper's version of the state's charge differs in detail: a beating, ducking in a laundry vat until death, and poison pumped into the body to fake suicide. The claim that the inquiry injected convict leasing into the Democratic primary is the paper's own. The jury freed Davis in under an hour, yet the system itself lasted only two more years: prison mining and convict leasing came to a halt in 1928, and Alabama was the last state in the nation to abolish convict leasing, about five years after Florida.
Why Alabama Power courted out-of-state bankers
Thomas W. Martin, the luncheon's toastmaster, had entered the business as a Montgomery attorney hired as general counsel by the Massachusetts engineer James Mitchell, and he assumed executive authority when Mitchell died unexpectedly in 1920. The company had been launched on foreign money: Mitchell set up a holding company in Canada to move British funds to Alabama banks, candidates in the 1914 Democratic primary attacked the company over that foreign backing, and the outbreak of World War I cut off capital from England. Under Martin the company turned increasingly to the United States. In 1920–1921 it created a New Industries Division and sent a representative through the North and Midwest to recruit industry, and in 1924 Martin folded the Canadian holding company into Southeastern Power & Light, a new American company incorporated in Maine. A luncheon for 35 out-of-state bankers and investment officials, with the governor and governor-elect pledging fair treatment, fits that strategy, although the article does not say which projects or securities the visitors were weighing. The attention of eastern finance had consequences two years later, when Southeastern's financial success attracted Wall Street financiers in 1928 and led to a hostile takeover. Graves, who offered assurances at this table, is also credited with the term "Big Mules" for the large corporations of the state's business center, a label sometimes applied to Alabama Power itself.
Lock 18, Mitchell Dam and the 1920s dam program
For Alabama Power, the "development of Alabama's natural resources" praised at the luncheon meant above all hydroelectric dams. In 1912 Mitchell acquired property on the Coosa River at Duncan's Riffle and at Lock 18, the sites of the later Mitchell and Jordan dams. In 1912 President Taft also vetoed a bill that would have allowed the company to dam the Lock 18 site, and the company could not build on its other sites until Congress passed the Federal Water Power Act in 1920. The new Federal Power Commission granted its first license to Alabama Power in 1921 for the dam at Duncan's Riffle; construction began in July 1921, and the first three generating units went into service in August 1923. When the eastern bankers came to Montgomery, Mitchell Dam was therefore in operation, Martin Dam on the Tallapoosa was completed in 1926, and Jordan Dam at Lock 18 followed in 1928. Financing a building program of this size is the likely background to the company's hospitality, and a subheading on the page reports that the party was leaving for Lock 18 and Mitchell Dam after a sightseeing trip.
Why the capital's big game was against Florida, not Auburn
The paper calls the Florida game the final major grid classic of the season in Montgomery, and the opponent was not Auburn because the state's two leading football schools had not played each other since 1907. A myth later grew that a huge fight among players and fans had severed relations, but the schools' officials simply could not agree on contractual details such as per diem pay rates for players, so no game was played in 1908. The break lasted four decades. A legislative resolution of August 15, 1947, merely requested that the schools resume the annual contest, and in 1948 the presidents, Ralph Draughon of Auburn and John Galalee of Alabama, agreed that the teams should play. In 1926, then, Alabama's prestige games in the capital came against opponents such as Florida, and the page's description of the Tide as national champions chasing a third conference title is the paper's own framing of that season.
Original
CAPITALISTS GIVEN HEARTY WELCOME TO ALABAMA SOIL
Welcoming the investment of capital in a continuation of the development of Alabama's natural resources and the promotion of the rapid further progress of the state, Governor W. W. Brandon and Governor-elect Bibb Graves, at a luncheon in honor of eastern bankers and investment firm officials, at the Montgomery Country club, Friday, gave assurance that all investors in Alabama will receive fair treatment and adequate protection of investments made. In addition to the 35 visiting officials from other states, the luncheon tendered them by the Alabama Power company, was attended also by many prominent officials, bankers and business and professional men of Montgomery, Birmingham and other sections of the state, who were also especially invited. most prominent among these being the governor and the governor-elect. Thomas W. Martin, president of the Alabama Power company, presided as toastmaster.
BOTH TEAMS IN GOOD SHAPE FOR CONTEST; FUN STARTS 2 P. M.
The Crimson Tide of Alabama, national football champions, will engage an inspired bunch of Alligators from the University of Florida in the final major grid classic of the season for Alabama's Capital City. Cramton Bowl will be the scene of hostilities, which are scheduled to begin promptly at 2 o'clock. In quest of a third conference title and a chance to be rated as one of the leading elevens in the country, the Tide will put forth every effort to keep their record unblemished by a decisive victory over the Gators, while the Floridians will be out to avenge the 34 to 0 defeat administered by the Tide last year, and to make amends for losses earlier in the season.
CHARLES R. DAVIS NOT GUILTY, SAYS JEFFERSON JURY
BIRMINGHAM. ALA., Nov. 12. - (AP) - Charles R. Davis, former warden of Flat Top prison mine, tonight was freed of murder charges in connection with the death of James Knox. native of West Virginia and a convict at the mine in 1924, after a jury had deliberated less than one hour. Davis was acquitted after 11 days of legal clashes between opposing counsel with convicts and ex-convicts playing the roles of leading witnesses for both sides. The state charged that Knox was beaten and then ducked in a laundry vat until dead, accusing Davis of issuing instructions that resulted in the death of the convict and of later ordering poison pumped into Knox's body to simulate suicide. Four other persons were indicted in connection with the death of Knox, the Jefferson county grand jury returning true bills after an investigation which startled the whole state and which injected the convict lease system into the democratic primary.
Source: Holding institution