Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 15 December 1922 — Page 1
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THE ONLY DEMOCRATIC NEVv.CPAPER IN DELAWARE COUNTY
THE MUNCIE
VOL. 2, No. 44
ST-DEMOCRAT
MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRIIUY, DECEMBER 15, 1922
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $2.00 A YEAR IN ADVANCE
Ku Klox' Failure Until “Imperial Wizard” Surrounds Himself With Coterie of Experts On Finances
STEALS TO I YY THEFT FINE Chicago—FincsL; for a petty theft and paroled to 'aise money to pay, William Jenks W; s arrested as he was stealing a bicycjL to sell to pay the fine. "W ’ BRIDE ENTS HER LIFE Santa Fe, N v IV ex.—Because friends criticized her forJnarrying a man of 43, Mrs. HcnrjT Durstine, aged 63, hanged herself.!
HOUSE AMPUTATED London—During the extension of the .lampstead subway half the house of Thomas Tower; was cut off and his family now lives in the part remaining.
WOMAN WITH GRIT Elgin, 111.—After being pinned beneath her overturned motor car Mrs. Fstella Pomeroy crawled out, helped right the machine and drove away.
(Dayton News, Sept. 2c, 1921) The Ku KTux corporation of Atlanta, Ga., is an enterp.rjse which is taking in, expending and investing sums of money running to many millions annually. Under its charter, control of its business affairs is given to. its president. William Joseph Simmons, but iSirmnons, also under the provisions of the charter, has delegated much if not all of the active management to two appointees —Edward Young Clarke and Clarke’s long-time business and personal associate. Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler. These are the “Big Three” who control the Ku Klux Klan. What sort of persons are they? What is their personal .history and their standing in their home community? To ask and attempt to answer truthfnlly these questions seems to The News a legitimate and necessary part of the process of letting light in on the business done under the Ku Klux trade mark. Concerning “C:l ” William J. Simmons, who claims and seems to be fully entitled to creel’f. for starting the movement, the following report was made recently by a staff correspondent who visited the Imperial Wizard in Atlanta last July: “In spite of (his powerful body and rosy-tinted face he is very much cf a dreamer. It is said of him that in his younger days he did circus stunts, one of which was to out-pull a score or more of men at the end of a rope. Later he preached. He is as full of sentiment as a plum is of juice. StSer him to his hobby and he wAl. give forth an outburst of eloquence the like ot which you never heard. As a Methodist exhorter he was enthusiastic and demonstrative/ The story of the old Ku Klux Klan appealed to him and excited his fervor. He felt it would be a good thing to give it new life, and he was full of joy as his busy mind hatched Ku Klux ideas. “He cared little about whipping negroes or tarring and feathering wicked whites. But the thought of standing six feet or more, clad in_ a mysterious garb, or riding ■•a big horse at the head of a parade thru Atlanta, possessed and fascinated him. His face took on a smile that !■' , , Jvas never faded away since. nega v a n'ctuF mV'R lit i 1 to the financial success of his scheme He was living with his ghostly heroes of sixty years ago. When tlW correspondent first visited him the i ‘imperial palace’ joccup.'id the bop 1 floor of a second-rate office building, and the condition of it war. chaotic and slipshod. The ‘colonel’ was out of Atlanta, preaching Ku Klux Klanism. and a New York promoter had charge of the home r 'hop. “But. today Simm s is surrounded by expert finar Ars, propagan-j dists. publicity zge A and organizers. He has nothing 3 do but preach and stump the com 1 7. arousing the people in behalf o: Yis pet scheme. Under delegated magement, the organization is making lots of money. “In the early period, when Simmons tried to manafL its affairs, much of its income is said to have been wasted by careless propagation. But the present system runs like a well regulated bank. The money collected' goes for running expenses or is placed on. deposit or invested. To safeguard these investments, Ku Klux insiders retain a personal n-1 nancial interest in most of the Klan s business enterprises or real estate The Gate City Manufacturing company, supplier of all Klan regalia and other equipment and supplies, is thought in Atlanta to be largely
j E. Y. Clarke. The Searchlight is j Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler. The Clarke Realty company, which swung the ‘imperial palace’ deal, is Clarke and Mrs. Tyler. The new owners of Lanier University are as yet unknown.” The other two members of the “Big Three,” Edward Young Clarke, selected by Simmons for appointment as Imperial Klcagle and general manager of Ku Klux business affairs and Mrs. Elizabeth Tyler, also an official figure in the order by appointment of Simmons, are both well known in Atlanta, where they have been both business and person-
al associates for years.
An incident in their personal association, of which the circumstances were fully narrated in The News a week ago today, led to their arrest together, and their trial and conviction for disorderly conduct in the Recorders court in Atlanta on October 31, 1919. The arrest resulted from a police raid on a resort at No. 185 South Pryor street, Atlanta, commonly known in the city as “Lizzie Tyler’s” or “Bess Slaton’s,” and both prisoners were found there at midnight in their nightclothes. They were taken into custody in the presence of Clarke’s abandoned wife, who just previously had filed the first legal papers in a suit for absolute - divorce. The pair, at the police station following their arrest had themselves booked under the assumed names of “Jim-Slaton” and “Mrs. Carroll,” but they were tried and convicted, and the convictions were entered on the criminal court records of the city of Atlanta, un-
der their true names.
The business relations of Clarke and Mrs. Tyler began, so far as is known, when Clarke several years ago organized the “Southern Publicity -association” of Atlanta, and with the active assistance of Mrs. Tyler used it to conduct several drives to obtain funds for such organizations as the Salvation Army, the Near East Relief fund, the Roosevelt Memorial fund and the
Anti-SaAon Shaguci.
As hired manager of these drives, Clarke, always in association with Mrs. Tyler, made a record for. success as a professional promoter, organizer and publicity man, But in
___ ■ ’ |
ment of the funds handled by him as business manager of these drives put his name again, on the court records of his home city and county. In, April, 1920, again in May, 1920 and ‘ on various occasions since, charges, accompanied by documentary evidence, that Clarke embezzled 81108.59 of funds collected in the name of the Roosevelt Memorial association have been laid before Solicitor General Boykin of Fulton county, Ga., for presentment to the grand jury. Th he charges were brought by Charles Wylie McClure, president for Georgia for, the Roosevelt Memorial association, and Walter S. Dillon, its Atlanta attorney. Mr. McClure is a prominent local merchant and former Progressive national committeeman from Georgia. Both Mr. McClure and Attorney Dillon state that the solicitor general—who, according to documents m the possession of The New Yorx World, is a member of the Ku Klux Klan—has never taken their filed charges to his grand jury, making the unvarying excuse that his office has been “too busy.” Finally the Roosevelt Memorial association, tiring.of its fruitless effort to have Clarke indicted for embezzlenient of its funds, brought civil suit against Clarke in the city
The Kopiops Now Love Him Court Asher, more or less known, resides on a small farm several miles southwest of the city. Court raises chickens, also a little hell occasionally. In addition to his agrarian pursuits there have been some unkind enough to charge him with making faces at the eighteenth amendment. Be that as it may, chicken raising seems to be a profitable business, for Court has been able in the last six months to buy several automobiles. Last week he bought a brand new super-six Nash that can easily make seventy, and is said by competent authority to park ninety gallons, easily It also comes in handy when Court comes to town to sell his eggs and attend farmers’ institute. Court was manhandled some time ago by the Delaware circuit court when Cahill, boss of the Ku Klux was allowed to sit on a jury that convicted Court of a violation of the liquor law. Court had been talking mean about the Ku Klux and in retaliation the jury was packed and Court w^as stuck, but later Judge Thompson threw out the verdict because of the fraud practiced in making up the jury. For some time now the Kluckers have not bothered their old time enemy and there are some who are even mean enough to say these Kindred per cent Americans bought his latest new car for i -m. -Be that as it may, it is undisputed that thirsty Kluckerdom in Muncie has not seen a dry day since their old time enemy got his new battleship on wheels. It has been currently reported that Court has joined the Ku Klux, with the title of Imperial Bootlegger to the Grand Dragon, but this is not confirmed. If, as some affirm, Court really does scatter a little sunshine and moonshine here and there, to lighten the wearj^ - hour of the casual pilgrim in this old vale of tears, it can be safely said that-the Kluxers are not bothering him now, so you could notice it, at least.
WHY NOT A REAL REPUBLIC
The congressional investigation of the ^barges against Attorney General Harry Daugherty has turned out to be a fake, as everybody supposed it would. Congressman Volstead, chairman of the investigating committee has announced, in advance, that there seems to be nothing tot:,he charges. Volstead is the critter who daddied tie Volstead act, which has afforded grafting prohibition enforcement officers the opportunity to make millions on the side. He is also a member of the reactionary group in cor gress—the type that will stand for any sort of crookedness, if the crooks belong to h/s gang. He was defeated for reelection in November, but will run true to form until he limps out with the other lame ducks on the foil# h of March. This suggests the thought that America has many things to learn in the matter of
government.
Last month, by an overwhelming vote, the present congress was repudiated by an angry electorate, and a new congress was elet ted to take the places of the men who had been abusing the privileges granted them %y the votes of a deluded public. From now until the fourth of March these reactionaries, defeated at the polls and driven from public life because of their litter lack of sympathy and contempt for the rights of the men and women who elected them, will be permitted, by our lame constitu-
tion, to make lav/s vital to the interests of fpe.people.
Recognizing that it is now or never, Piesident Harding is jamming through his rotton ship subsidy steal and the whitewashKg of Daugherty is being rushed before a congress gets in that is responsive to the pres ent temper of a majority of the citizens of the
United States.
Senator Harry New, repudiated and daheated for renomination, even by his own state, will be a powerful administration voice until the March exodus. Porter J. McCumber, author of that particular act of larcenous infamy known as the administration tariff bill, was defeated i;or reelection by his own constituency, largely because of their obiections to the new tariff steal, yet it is made a law by these lame ducks. What the people need is quick action. When they show by their votes that they want a change they should have it immediately. The consitution should provide that when a congressman or senator is defeated, he shall 1 quit his job at once and make way for the
man selected in his place. -Juf/'
Having thrown these men out of office by a hearty and almost unanimous action, the
people must now sit, gagged and hog tied, ’ *
And in the meantime, these lame ducks cency, and backed by a president who has 15 is “the people be damned,” will make la And thus America’s vaunted boast of
of paper.”
The P^t-Democrat is strong for Bob LjiFollette’s platform of direct taking of office KkK th0 s ™ e - ' co ' ,r ^ The supreme court whitewhashed the convicted criminal Senator Newberry, and he held his seat in the senate, in spite of the evi dence that he had bought his seat, yet the votes of the people in- November swept the court rule aside and Newberry quite before the new senate could get a whack at him. The people should impress upon the men they place in office, from supreme judges down, that this a real republic, not an oligarchy, ruled by imperial masters.
Law Breaking Pets of the City and County Administrations are Having it Pretty Soft These Days
ed, &abi cksj| ( s bjftr iw* f . of m
bmitting to the rule of the defeated,
contemptuous disregard for common demised up in a school of politics whose creed
t are not wanted by the people.
ule of majority is less than a “mere scrap
Affording polico protection to favored bootleggers and colored gam-I-IIsrs who voted “right” in the last two elections will in the long run make plenty of trouble for officials who are responsible for the lawless
activities of these people.
When Chief of Police Van Benbow first toox office, less than a year ago, and at a time when he really thought, himself, that he had been plucked from his job as night watchman at the Kitselman factory for the purpose of purging Muncie of its lawlessness, two colored resorts were opened South of the rail-
road.
One of these places was opened by “Bob” Graves, in the room on South Walnut 'stiLiet formerly occupied by the renowned Whity Evans, and the other by Jim Bay’liss on the second floor of a two story build ing on Second street, a half
cast of Walnut.
Both Bayiiss and Graves have had frequent clashes with the law in times past, and the rooms occupied by both had for years been the centers of gambling and bootlegging opl orations South of the railroad. 1 William Guthrie. colored, who holds the job of court house janitor by the grace of the Billy Williams machine, and who is regarded as a I permanent cog in the machine, is said to be a silent partner in both j places, and rumor has it that the S partnership extends further, to the I extent, in fact, that the order has , been sent out, in official circles, that these places are not to be molested. At first Chief Benbow was inclined to investigate rumors of lawj Jessness at these two places, hut his enthusiasm soon waned. -The powerful republican-klucker machine w-as I in control and it w r as up to the chief to obey orders. He soon learned the lesson that the Muncie Ku Klux klan hates the negro, in the abstract, but is willing to fraternize with him if he will vote the republican ticket. | The “white supremacy” and the “Anglo-Saxon purity” of which ho i boasts has little meaning to the klucker-republican machinist when it i comes to seeking votes. The colored
become
gamblers and bootleggers who threw
J - 1 -- Ku Klux in the recant
m with the election, thus
court of Atlanta to recover $4975.04, | which sum it claims-he either failed! to account for or spent in breach of his contract with them. Included as J a separate sum in this total is the $1108.59 which forms the basis of the criminal complaint of embezzlement j which Solicitor General Boykin has j never found time to investigate. ' This sum is described in the formal petition as “the difference between the amount co’Ji'ectcd and the amount reported in the audit of the records
kept by the defendant.”
Clarke’s business career hap been variegated; the Atlanta city directory shows him to have been in many enterprises. In 1915 he is listed as secretary Brooks County Industrial club, residence 886 West Peachtree street; 1816, secretary-treasurer Georgia Chamber of commerce, same residence; 1917, no directory published 1918, secretary Southeastern Exhibit association, same residence; 1919, lisher with offices 806 Flatiron building. residence Ansley hotel; 1920, president Southern Publicity association, residence Smyrna, Ga. 15 miles from Atlanta on a suburban car line; 1921, listed in heavy-faced type as
Murder of Bill Schaefer and Wife Brings Up Reminder of Queer Didoes of Prosecutor
president Southern Publicity association, residence 886 West Peachtree
street.
Clarke’s closest business associate since the formation of the !
The slaying of William Schaeffer and wife, former Muncie residents, may bring forth some interesting sidelights before the investigation of the mysterious crime is completed. At one time, not so very long ago Mrs. Schaeffer was proprietress of an immoral resort known far and wide as “Sixth and Kinney.” This disreputable house of ill fame was formerly owned by Lou Shumaker. In 1916 the Shumaker woman was convicted in the circuit court
prison, but she and has never
and sentenced ,to jumped her bond
been back.
Clarence Benadum, now prosecuting attorney, was the attorney for the Shumaker woman, and after her departure, as her attorney, he is said to have negotiated the sale of the , property to Mrs. Schaeffer for
Southern Publicity association, j §3^00.
which, after finishing the last of its 'About the first of January, 1920, drives, that for the Near East Re- ! the governor appointed Benadum lief fund, has used its machinery prosecutor to fill out the unexpired
this transaction is not known, but the statement has been made that an automobile ov/ned by the Schaffers shortly afterward became the
property of Mr. Benadum.
The property was sold on title bond. The price was $10,000, to be raid $400 down and the balance at
me rate of $200 a month.
The French woman had but little money, and 1 he price and terms were exorbitant, but business was fiouri ishing, protection was guaranteed and Clarence Benadum was prcsecu-
betraying their own
*r i rrrfre Jp1 republican politicians than the whito men and women who voted against
the Ku Klux ticket.
In three of the Colored resorts south of the railroad, the Ku Klux candidates held nightly carousal; the week before the ■ ^election. 'Sheriff Hoffman, high in kluckerdom and a candidate for reelection, attended a drunken orgy in one of these joints. A band played, white mule flowed like water and the chairman of both the republican city and county com-
mittees made speeches.
Mr Barrett, the democratic member of the police board, heard of these lawless his-h jinks and it made him uneasy. He had heard some place that officials who condone such things are held responsible. Besides that Mr. Barrett is a rather conscientious official, who seems to have been kept in the dark concerning the operations
of the “system.”
Mr. Barrett went to Chief benbow and told him what he had heard. He states that the chief later made a renort to him “that he had sent wo officers to search the places under suspicion and that they found noGii n£r ” And that apparently eni^U things as far as the chief is concerned. . _ Several months ago when a pol.ee officer, since fired because of his op- | position to the Ku Klux Klan, m- ’ formed Benbow th.it comp^ints ! against the Graves place were be- | coming so numerous that something ! ought to be done, the chief looked wise and made the astounding statc-
so rotten there that the peo-
ple of the r.eighboii mod will just j rise up and drive it out of existence.” j So, the police department has just j let it run but somehow or other, it . is ‘still doing busiiLss at the old 1 stand, and if there are any law vicI lations there, no report of them are I made by the brace of Ku Klux policemen who stalk through the place
every day.
In this connection a 'colored man
who generally knows what he is talking about, told the Post-Demo-crat that he was in this place one night this week when a big craps game was in progress. - He says two police entered the place, “stalled” around for awhile and went out. He says the gambling never ceased and that the two cops didn’t look in
| the direction of the crap tables.
LL Y- I This colored man says seven men bloc v are em pi 0 y e( i a i; the protected Graves i establishment. He says the two policemen went from the Graves, place to the Bayiiss place where they “patter down” all the colored visitors in
a supposed search for liquor. The visit of the two policemen to
these places netted the same result as the visit following the complaint made by Mr. Barrett. They found
nothing.”
“Finding nothing” when lawbrcaking pets of the republican city and county administration are under fire, is the rule. The police have little difficulty in fastening cases on James Mabrey, a colored man who does not train with the gang politically, or on John Cox, a white man who turned up the gang to federal authori-
ties.
Two weeks ago Cox’s restaurant wan raided and finding no liquor, the police confiscated ya .gallon c(i dishwater. This was after Mr. Cox talked to federal officials concerning the acts of lawlessness officials. Last Saturday night his place was raided again shortly after the PostDemocrat appeared on the street giving an account of the former raid, and its reason. This time no^liauor
was found and the dinhwa
molested
The members of the bcarct cf safety declare that they have no strings
y§pnM cf safe-
for Ku Klux Klan promotion and propagation, has been M - j . Fiizv beth Tyler, who for years has been well known to many persons in Atlanta, and whom Clarke, he has repeatedly told his friends, regards as
term of Horace Murphy. Shortly afterward the grand jury indicted Mrs. Schaeffer on a liquor charge and a charge of operating a
house of ill fame.
The cases were never brought to
possessing a genius for promotion | trial by Prosecutor Beriadum, and and publicity second only to his own j f] ag t March, two years after the
gifts.
Only recently Mrs. Tyler purchased ! a beautiful country heme in a fashion- | able district on the outskirts of At- j lanta, and a large tract of adjacent I land on which she is now building an Italian villa to have a sunken gar- 1 den, a swimming pool and other elab- | orate and costly equipment. The !
grand jury had returned the indict-K is possible that the prosecutor can
ter. 1 ment: _ The Baruet woman conducted the ! ' The way to get rid of the ,l JK place until last March. She had plnce is jus. to let it run until (1 1 ^
been making money hand over fist K
and had paid about 82,400 on the pur- |
chase price. f | | :
She was then raided a number of times by the police, and questioning the brand of protection which did not protect, she abandoned the business and went to Fairmount to live, taking with her, it is said, a large sum of money made in the year or so that she was permitted to operate during Benadum’s second year in the
prosecutor’s office.
These chronological facts and allegations the Post-Democrat is presenting to its readers for digestion.
clean up Muncie. If this declaration is on the square why don’t they begin on the police force. The clean - ing up should begin there, first by the appointment of a chief who can
“find something.”
GREECE HIT BY MAILED FIST
The government at A thins lias shot five statesmen and a generr* for getting Greece into the war in which Turkey beat her recently. The act shocked Europe. Eng-) land even broke diplomatic relations, saying civilized governments did net kill public men on account cf policies which had failed. , Some critics say the incident will have a good effect anyway, as it will make statesmen more careful in future about getting their countries into war. However, the suspicion lingers that it wasn’t for engaging in war, but for getting beaten that the six were shot. The victims included three ex-pre-miers. a minister of war and cne of foreign affairs and the commander cf the defeated army. King George objected strongly to the executions, but was locked up in his palace. , , Later, Prince Andrew, cx-King Constantine’s brother, was tried, and, tho he escaped shooting was banished for life.
merits, the cases were dismissed on motion of the prosecutor, who af-
firmed that the witnesses has dis^"rsed and that it would be impossible to secure the evidence necessary
for conviction.
This was done in spite of the fact that “Sixth ar^^Kinney” had been
amount of payment she receives in j continuously known, for twenty her official capacity as Imperial Wiz- ' years, even by school children, as an ard Simmons’ appointee to head the | immoral resort.. . . feminine branch of the Ku Klux Klan i The Schaeffer’s operated the joint has not been announced. the first year that Benadum served
as prosecutor. They were not mo-
lested and their profits were tremend-
In the case of Clarke’s comnensation as Imperial Kleagle, he himself stated last July to a corr o spon- , cus.
dent of the New York World that he ! Their undisturbed tranquility durreceived no salary but that the su- ing the period of one year following nreme committee of the order, on the the appointment of Benadum as basis of a “sort f gentlemen’s a^ree- , prosecutor, added to the protection ment.” once a year voted him a lump afforded them before that, accourn sum for his services. wholly for the hatfull of diamonds In Atlanta, howeffer, since the the police aic now seaching for and riublication of this series of articles the eightv a me . farm in Delaware began, a staff correspondent was in- county recorded in their name, formed from a source v/hich de- 'then they Cold <the T-Ace to a manded respect, that Edward Young French woman named Baruet. WhethContinued on Page 2 cr Prosecutor Benadum appeared m
explain, satisfactorily, his apparent connection with the fortunes of these people of the underworld, but the fact remains' that he dismissed the indictments against the Schaeffer woman and that both the Schaeffers and the Baruet woman made thousands cf lawless dollars while the attorney who handled the sale of the
property was prosecutor.
2,275 SHAKE DICE FOR FLATS AND 2,209 LOSE
Rome — Notice that applications would be received for 75 fiats about to become vacant caused a wild scramble at the owner’s office for two days. With 2,275 applications already in, it was decided to close the rolls. The applicants then had .to shake dice for the flats. This operation took five d?.ys, but 75 were ! made happy by the result. The: 2,200 losers are still looking for j homes. 1
CAPITALIZING HATE It appears Jhat Campbell’s auditorium has been rented
indefinitely by a “one hundred per cent American” who wants to make a profit on his ten dollar investment in a
Ku Klux membership.
This fellow is said to be responsible, through the backing of the klan, for the series of weird “lectures” and performances given by “Rev”. DeLong, the Wolcottville Wonder, and other dubious characters imported for the purpose of attacking the religious observances of the Catholic church. It is said that all the mountebanks in the country are seeking dates at the Campbell auditorium, where suckers just seem to congregate in schools. The lectures and performances are free to all, except for a trifling charge at the door of a quarter, two.bits, a fourth of a dollar. The crude, illiterate babel of tongues at the auditorium has at last disgusted even some of the most hard boiled klansmen and klansladies in Muncie and the attendance at these hatefests is falling off notably. Appearances indicate, in fact, that the suckers caught by the seductive Kotop bait, have begun to get their eyes open. It is the “morning after” with the majority of them, and they are sheepishly, but goodnaturedly admitting that they were played for suckers by a bunch of imported graft-
ers.
The real men of standing in the community who joined the klan, have practically all dropped out, leaving only the illiterate, the superstitious and the “axe grinders” to answer at rollcall.