Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 8 September 1922 — Page 1

.*

'•*- ■

THE ONLY DEMOCRATIC NEWSPAPER IN DELAWARE COUNTY THE MUNCIE POST-DEMOCRAT

VOL. 2, NUMBER 33

MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1922

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $2.00 A YEAR IN ADVANCE

Boss Wizard Clarke, Wife Deserter and Degenerate, Faces Federal Liquor Charge

Little Boy Finds Wizard’s Handbag, Containing Quart Bottle of Whiskey, While Orator Prates of Home, Law and Order.

COMES BACK TO LIFE Paris.^—Eighteen hours after Marcel Conte had oeen declared dead lie revived and is now recovering.

Federal Officers After Hypocrite Who Abandoned Wife and Was Arrested in Atlanta in House of 111 Fame

ANOTHER SNUB FOR QUEEN Belgrade—Anotl. n % Serbian lady-in-waiting to Quee i Marie has refused to serve longer ^She is the'seventh to snub the -I’mer Roumanian princess.

PENNYWORTH OF TROUBLE Glasgow.—John Percy tendered a defaced penny for carfare. He was arrested but freed. Then he sued for damages.

GERMAN GHOULS Dantzig—While Fraulein Charlotte Esdohr lay dying in the street after a car had cut off her leg, two German thieves stole her purse.

❖ ❖

v *

“In his address he made an earnest appeal for a greater appreciation of the American home, and home life, and said the Man was standing as a great bulwark for the protection of home and womanhood against all influences that might arise or had arisen to weaken what he termed that greatest of all American institutions—the typical American home.” —Quotation in the Muncie Star from the speech made at McCulloch park by E. Y. Clarke, Imperial Wizard Pro Tern, Knights of the Ku Klux Kian of America.

<♦ | * * f •i' t f ♦ A

t

f •II * *

Strange and inscrutable is the hand of Providence. The hand of a little child has done more to wreck the vaulting ambitions of the leaders of the inighty Klan than all the powers

of pulpit, platform and pen.

Edward Young Clarke, of Atlanta, Georgia, the head of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of America, arrived in Muncie j * Wednesday night in imperial style. He left hurriedly the next day in an automobile, accompanied by Cahill and others of his royal

suite, a .fugitive from justice.

~ Alia the hand of an innocent littfe chiid was uie mighty instrument which tore the mask from the face of a pretender and exposed to the public the true character of/the man who has hoodwinked millions. , / All honoj to Manitoh Smith, the ten year old boy, whose superb honesty disclosed the grinning death mask back of the suave exterior of the supreme head of the “invisible empire” of

America.

Thousands turned out at McCulloch park Wednesday night to hear Imperial Wizard Clarke tell about the Godlike klan. While j; acclaiming thousands were applauding the maudlin, meaningless j ❖ phrases of the mighty wizard, the little boy, wandering aimlessly J % through the labyrinth of automobiles, found a handbag, lying $ open on the ground, with its contents scattered. Among other things he found a package of twenty dollar bills, enclosed in the original bank wrapper, five hundred dollars in all. There was also a quart bottle of whisky, partially consumed and an automatic revolver.

* i

§

f *

t

* .j. §■ * ❖ ❖ * * * ❖ *

■i

* * * ❖ * * ❖ ❖ ❖ * <* ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ *>

, ❖ i ❖

Prisoners at County Jail Say Sheriff Hoff-

Brutally Beats and Kicks

Helpless ’ Prisoners

man

M same night on an intoxication charge was i ked him in the face when he was down, acnnlt. Thev said Snodgrass was drunk and

Like the honest lad that he is, little Manitoh placed the contents in the hag and hurried to the police station where he turned it over to Acting Detective Berg, who in turn delivered it to Night Captain John Moles. The handbag was the property of Edward Young Clarke, the Supreme

leader of the one hundred percent American organization which stands for law and order. Later Bill Cahill, the local Kluck leader called at the police station and wrote a report, now in possession of the police, to which he signed his .name, stating that Claiice’s hand-

Political Machine Rule in Delaware County Costs the Taxpayers Thousands of Dollars in Road Repair Work

RYMAN “RESIGNS”

❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ t i ❖ * 1 ❖ ❖ * ❖ ❖ ❖ ❖ ♦ ❖ I

We have it this week that Wilbur Ryman has “resigned” from his position as third assistant United District Attorney, and that he will soon return from Indianapolis to resume the practice of law in Muncie. There are those who are of the opinion that the resignation of Mr. Ryman was by request. Mr. Ryman is a member of the Muncie Ku Klux and the Post-Democrat has it on unimpeachable authority that Judge Anderson several weeks ago, upon learning of the part Ryman took in ordering Mayor Quick, as a klansman, to dismiss certain police officers unsatisfactory to the klan, informed United States District Attorney Elliott that he must rid his office of Ku Klux. Shortly after that District Attorney Elliott, with the full knowledge that Mr. Ryman belonged to the Muncie klan, designated him as the one to prosecute Bill Cahill, clan leader here, charged with impersonating a federal officer. The trial was a farce, as Elliott expected it to be, and Cahill was released, naturally, with a prosecutor who belonged to the klan headed by the defendant. • \ The statement was made shortly afterward that both Ryman, and Elliott were to lose their jobs because of their precious performance in the Cahill case, but it now looks as if Ryman was chosen as the goat, and that Elliott, the real offender, is to retain his office through his pull with Harry New and other stand pat moguls in Washington. The Post-Democrat has no ill feeling toward Mr. Ryman. We believe that he merely did what he was instructed to do, and that he had the assurance that the republican machipe, which has identified itself with the Ku Klux klan, would stand behind him. Personally the Post-Demcorat could no say an ill word against Mr. Ryman, who has been friendly both to the PostDemocrat and its editor, but we do have a deep seated animosity toward the political machine with which he aligried himself, and which, we believe, has finally betrayed him as it does all who take chances on such a vicious and selfish organization.

If the stories told by prisoners released from the county jail are to be relied upon, there should be an investigation at once ordered by Judge Thompson. According to statements made to the Post-Democrat th : s week by a prisoner lately released, Sheriff Hoffman treats jail inmates with extraordir ary brutality, conditions at the jail rivalling that blot upon the state of Indiana, the Pulmamville penal farm. Readers of the Post-Democrat will reca'l reading in the local daily newspapers an account of the finding of saws in the cell ( f Roy Sharon, a young man charged with a felony, but, according to our informant, the story was not half told. He states that Sheriff Hoffman entered the jail about noon on Friday, Sept. 1, and conducted all the prisoners upstairs, where he locked them up. The sheriff then searched the cells and found the saws in the one oceiii,ied by Sharon. The statement then continues that the sheriff then went upstairs and unlocked the door, calling on Sharon to come out. It w:.s related that Sharon started down the stairway and that as he passed Hoffman, the latter drew a blackjack and struck Sharon on the back of the head, knocking him down stars. It was stated that Hoffman followed his victim down stairs and beat and kicked Urn. The fifteen prisoners locked in upstairs

saw this assault, it was said.

A man named Snodgrass, locked up*t knocked down by the sheriff, who brutally 1 cording tb PD^oner^who sawT t.h« alleged ‘ helpless wheh the sheriff made the attack.

Joe Durbin, another prisoner, who is seriously ill, and who was unable to eat the meager prison fare, had delicacies taken away from him that had been sent in by friends, it is said, and a cot with springs and a feather pillow which he used at first was taker away from him and stored in the barn and the sick prisoner was forced to sleep on the

regulation prison cot. .

Leslie Harrod, a tubercular, whose case was mentioned before by the Post-Demo-crat, was refused milk, which was recommended by Miss Murr, of the tuberculosis prevention bureau. He was also required to work daily in a gravel pit in the hot sun, notwithstanding his enfeebled condition and over the protest of Miss Murr. We were informed that Hoffman was about to make “trusty” of young Harrod, but became angry when the Post-Democrat published the story and compelled him to work in the gravel pit until the expiration of his sentence. Harrod was arrested on a liquor charge, and it was the license plate on Harrod’s confiscated Ford car that Sheriff Hoffman attached to the rear of his own car, when he was adversely criticised for driving an

automobile with only one license plate exposed.

Another case was that of Jack Baily, a Marion youth charged with forgery. The

young man’s mother came to visit him at the jail and, according to prisoners, the sheriff roughly refused to allow the mother to see or talk -to her son, because she did not come on the “visiting day” arbitrarily fixed by the sheriff. Mrs. Bailey had to go back to

Marion without seeing her son because of the action of the sheriff. Trent May, a Seventeen-year old boy, was beaten and kicked, according to fellow

prisoners, because he had mischeviously stuck matches in the lock of a cell door. It is said

that the boy was kicked in the groin and that he sustained a rupture. The sumptuous bill of fare at the jail, according to prisoners, is as follows, with prac-

tically no variation. *

Breakfast: Small slice of pure fat bacon, 2 slices of bread, black coffee without

sugar. No milk.

Dinner: Small portion of meat, one potato, two slices of bread. No coffee, tea or milk. Supper: Small dish of rice, two slices of bread, one tomato, black coffee without $ sugar. No milk served at any fneal. % In the light of the numerous complaints of alleged cruelty and mistreatment on the part of the sheriff, who is seeking re-election on his record, an investigation should J be made and if the sheriff is not guilty of the numerous charges made against him he X should be the first one to ask for it.

Government by political parties may be a necessary evil, as many contend, but government by political machines is something different yet, as Morris Perlnmtter would remark. Delaware county has for some time •been ruled by a very smoothly oiled political machine, which controls the three essentials necessary for the extraction of the financial oil needed by all well regulated political machines, the appropriating, the disbursing and the appointive powers. The county council, whose chairman, Charles Van Matre is also president of the children’s board of guardians, and is thereby enabled to put his wife on the county payroll at one hundred and twenty five dollars a month, is the appropriating body and when the machine says appropriate, Charley and his band of faithfuls obey oi’ders without a injurmur. The county commissioners, the appointive and disbursing agents, of the county we were about to say, but to be more exact, will say of the Billy Williams machine, are always ready to obey when the boss gives his orders. V Last January the boss ordered the commissioners to remove Borter Ross, the road superintendent. There was no complaint made as to the^efficiency of Mr. Ross, but he did not belong to the machine. His entire attention was giver, tc the work of keeping the public highways in a decent state of repair. Ke did not have the time nor the inclination to use his office as an adjunct to a political machine. When Borter Ross hired men to work on the roads he did not inquire as to their political or factional affiliations. ffe wanted men to work, not to play politics. This, naturally, failed to suit Billy and his machine. So, on the order of Billy, the commissioners ffred Ross and hired Martin Yoakem, a man who had some slight experience in road work and h complete education in ward politics, under the able tutelage of Billy Williams and other boss machinists. Mr. Yoakem has been road superintendent for eight months and his work as a political machine road superintendent has been all that could have asked of him. He has surrounded himself with a bunch of assistants who play the game for the machine, so his services to those who really employed him, ;the invisible machine, are entirely satisfactory. As to the ability of the men under him, and as to their fitness for the jobs they hold, there may be some question, but knowing that their jobs, like that of their boss, depend upon their ability to get out the vote, or

get themseleves elected precinct committemen in order to keep the boss in power, they feel perfectly safe, no matter how much kicking is done by mere taxpayers, who want good roads and don’t give a cuss what becomes of Billy Williams. By the way, Yoakem, the machine controlled road supemtendent, has been A rather costly luxury for the county to keep, unless figures in the county auditor’s office lie, which is something that figures hardly ever do. During the nine months Mr. Yoakem has performed for the machine, the expenditures for road repair in Delaware county have amounted to $8J,284.02. During the same period last year, with a non-political road superintendent in charge, it cost the county $53,249.00 to keep the roads in repair and those who profess to Know declare that the roads were then kept in better repair than they are now. So. the difference between economical and business management of load repair and political machine government has- cost the taxpayers $30 035.02 in nine months. The complete harmony existing between Billy Williams, the machine boss, and the appropriative, appointive and disbursing powers have thus resulted in a net -c .cess in cost to the taxpayers of many thousand dollars, withrlit Hie slightest increase in the quality of the service rendered. The people who pay the bills have it in their power to bust this combination higher than Gilroy’s kite. It is merely a question now whether they are going to continue to stand for it, or get busy. If they are gluttons for punishment they will remain asleep. v

FOX AND HOUNDS CREATE PANIC AMONG WOMEN

Grimsby, Eng. .Pursued by th< hounds of the Earl of Yarborough, : fox dashed madly into the G-un-sb; Almshouse with the pack in full chase The women inmates were panic stricken as the chase continued thn the corridors, up and down stairs am many fainted. The fox finally es caped through an open laundry win dow.

HIS LAST BREAKFAST

Chicago—Wiljjiam Walsh died o acute indigestion shortly after eat ingi a breakfast of roast pork, a mut ton chop, fried potatoes and peas two plates of bread and butter an six cups of coffee.

bag had been Stolen at McCulloch park, from Clarke’s automobile, and that he, Cahill, would pay a reward of three hundred dollars for its return, and would ‘‘ask no questions.” It is presumed that Clarke and his traveling companions, full of booze, arriving late from Indianapolis, hurriedly left the automobile and knocked the handbag out in their haste to get to the park bandstand, where ,Rev. Gibson and others were impatiently awaiting the arrival of their sainted leader. The bottle containing the “scat” was labeled “Old Irish Whisky, Made ❖ in Dublin.” a rather incongruous I name and place of origin for red % liquor that was destined to find its ❖' way into the tummy of the leader of % an organization which wages parti- ♦> cular war against the Irish. * Mayor Quick and Detectives Rees and Berg drove to Indianapolis with the handbag and its incriminating contents and a warrant was once issued from the court of Federal Judge Baker, charging Clarke with a violation of the national liquor law and federal officers were at once put on the trail of Clarke, who left Muncie hurriedly Thursday morning in his automobile, accompanied by Cahill, the local Klan boss. A conviction will carry with it a fine and possible imprisonment and the certain confiscation of the automobile in which Clarke carried the liquor. Through the cooperation of Park

Superintendent Atwood, the Clarke meeting at McCulloch park, was engineered in regal style. Although oripfinally advertised for Campbell’s auditorium, an eleventh hour “switch” was made to the park and the superintendent . not only permitted it but had all the park benches carried to the band stand in order to find seats for thp audience. Superintendent Atwood also had the electric lights turned on for the occasion thus giving ample light for those- who turned out to listen to the words of a filthy, hypocritical, lecherous, booze fighting, lying, law breaking scoundrel who prated of Americanism, law and order, pure womanhood and the home, without practicing a single principle of the things he preached. Two masked street parades were given by a band brought from Atlanta Georgia by the wizard. Eugene Williams, a former Star reporter, who is now a deputy sheriff under Klansman Sheriff Hoffman, and who carries a big forty-five gun while in citizen’s clothes, led the band parade, attired in the regulation night shirt, mask and peaked cap. It is presumed that he had the foiltyfive hidden under his nightgown. Chief of Police Benbow made no effort to stop the march of the masked bandits who blazoned the way for the coming of the arch criminal for whose benefit McCulloch park was lighted up at night for the first time this year. Edward Young Clarke is probably

the. biggest fraud and the biggest hypocrite in America, today. As the head of an organization which claims exclusive rie’ht to extol the home and womanhood, it might be mentioned that Clarke five years ago abandoned his wife and only child, ahd took up with a woman named Elizabeth Tyler, the keeper of a house of ill fame at 183 Pryor street, At-

lanta, Georgia.

In October, 1919 Edward Young Clarke, the man who gave utterance to the sentiment published in the Star, which appears in black face type ‘at the head of this article, was yanked out of bed in a house of ill fame, together with the female Tyler, who is now a Kluckerino assistant to Clarke, and the two werp locked up in cells charged with adultery. They were tried, convicted and fined. This filthy, noxious hyprocite who at McCulloch" prated of home and womanhood through lips,, lungs and larynx that reeked of the vile liquor that he brought with him, lied when he told his audience he had never been in jail. He and the prostitute Tyler spent one night in jail in Atlanta, in October, 1919, and both were convicted of adultery. We herewith publish an article which appeared in the Dayton News Tuesday, Sept. 20, 1921, the same being one installment of the great expose of the klan made by the News and the New York World last fall. Read every word of the following remark(Continued on Page 2)

| Normalcy vs. Figures The Post-Democrat has taken from the records in the ? court house some interesting figures which speak louder % than any of the front porch speeches of the advance agent % of normalcy, Warren Gamaliel the First. f Harding and normalcy have been in command for ap- ❖ proximately a year and a half. The records show that the % amount of money expended for poor relief in Center town- J ship for the year and a half extending from January 1,1921 f X to Aug. 1, 1922, was $29,686.99. % The year and a half previous, from Aug. 1,1919 to Jan. % 1, 1921, under the administration of Wilson, the outcast, * the autocrat, the dreamer, the schoolmaster, etc., etc. was % different. During that period the amount disbursed for t the relief of the needy in Center township was $5,763.48, t less than one fifth of the amount required for poor relief f during .the eighteen months of normalcy, plenty and con- X tentment under Harding. J The amount distributed for poor relief during the six T months beginning Januaiw 1, 1922 and ending Aug. 1, 1922, f was eighteen thousand dollars, more than the entire amount % required for the two years previous. t The promise was made in the campaign of 1920 that J normalcy would be restored with the election of Harding, t yet, one year after the front porch artist had been installed % as one of the White House fixtures, thousands of men in § Muncie were out of employment and it was necessary for X the Township trustee to contribute to the relief of the needy % a sum in six months which was over three times greatei* % than the amount needed for the last eighteen tnonths of the J Wilson regime. X* Of course the amount distributed by the township % trustee during the plenteous days of Harding normalcy t was but a small part of the total actually used. The winter X relief committee and other agencies raised an immense sum X , which was needed to keep life in the bodies of deceived work- 1 ^ ingmen and their families who had been led to believe that J * Harding’s election meant plenty of work at high wages in- X J stead of no work and starvation. %

+!*