Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 5 January 1923 — Page 1

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

VOL. 2, No. 51

MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRIDAY, JANUARY 5,1923

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $2.00 A YEAR IN ADVANCE

Murderous Klansmen of Mer Rouge Stood While Masked Killers Slaughtered Two Victims and Mulitated Their Bodies

Diving for Daniel and Richards, Mer Rouge, La., Victims

Every reader of the Post-Democrat should read the ii’eries of articles now running' daily in the Chicago Tribune. These articles cover the ku klux situation in Louisiana, L special writer having been sent to Mer Rouge to “cover'’ the klan murder case. Following is a portion of one of these articles, which the Post-Demo-crat has taken the liberty of reproducing: Goy. Parker has been remarkable for carrying his fight into the open. He has been careful to exhibit his loathing of masks and nighttime prowling by uttering his sentiments always in the widest sense. On one occasion, when he was invited to speak at the opening of the state fair at Shreveport, he was met by the usual solemn and surpassingly diplomatic reception committee. Fights in the Open “Governor,” said the chairman, “we know that you will be received with the greatest interest and we are glad to welcome yon here. But may we ask you, as tactfully as we know, to refrain from touehi.ig upon the Klu Klux Klan?” In his own words the governor told the committee that they might ask him anything they wanted to, but that would be as far as they could get. When he found himself facing 15,000 people in the fair ground he let go approximately as follows: “When I came here I was asked by a committee of gentlemen to refrain from talking about the Ku Klux Klan. I wish to say here and now that if I e' ould fail to tell you that I am unalterably opposed to any organization that works in the dark behind masks, that "has for its purpose the subversion of American citizenship and the establishment of an invisible empire to control through hidden membership the power and authority of the state in this country I should be ashamed to be governor.” It is known that after th.^t speech, in which he drew an indelible picture of the klan in Louisiana, more than fifty men resigned their membershins. There have been other resignations since. The Peril of Secret Societies The governor is chiefly concerned rural distrkrter It is his belief that the cities can take care of themselves. The^ inhabitant of a city can call a policeman. But what chance has an isolated dTantcr or farmer? If he is solicited to join and does not he will be coerced. If he goes to town or to the field his family will be set upon. Capt. Skipworth, the exalted cycldps of the Morehouse parish klan, is known to have led a party of masked raiders against a farmer. There is definite evidence of several men who were forced into the Man against their will. The mask is the evil. It can commit any crime with a gobd chance of escaping detect’ n. The extent to wMch klan propaganda has been carried in Louisiana is amazing as to numbers. The membership lists are in the hands of the

authorities. Some officials in Louisi- Hos who have lived in the Morehouse ana deny their memberships. One P^rish^ since was ^settled ih^ 1817,

of these is J. F. Carpenter, sheriff

of Morehouse parish. It was to Carpenter that E. C. W r hipple, a Mer Rouge automobile dealer, applied in behalf of Mrs. Richards, widow of the murdered companion of Watt Daniels. Sheriff a Gangster “You mind your own business and I’ll take care of mine. I’m the sheriff of this parish.” said Carpenter. The next day Whipple received official notice from the klan to get out of the country. He is still here. John Jones, a sombreroed character of the back country, helps him keep guard. But in the official list of officers of the Moreffiouse klan there appears

this:

“Klabee, J. F. Carpenter.” The Klabee is one of the lodge officials. He functions in the robed ceremonies held at night in the depths of some wooden swamp when the hooded brethren gather around the fiery cross. The gubernatorial investigation finds that the propaganda of the klan is adroit to the last nuance of personal feeling. Lame duck ministers --this is a phrase borrowed from the Rev. John Roach Stratton—lend the stoutest hand to the klux organizers. They are first approached with donations out of a generous hand and then asked to pray for the success of such godly enterprise. A few conspicuous business and professional men are then gathered in. Among “the Elect.” The rest is easy. When the ministers are greasing the ways with Divine urguents and the leaders in the community are members, why not the rank and file of those who always are looking for an easy way to stand in with Providence and achieve the notice of the financially elect? It is significant to note here that among the many letters of approbation received by Gov. Parker there are scattered a few that do not. approve. Strangely enough, or not at all strangely, as the facts may strike one, these are from ministers whose gentle souls are twitching in anguish that the governor should waste the public funds in the hunt for masked and atrocious mu'rc'Brers by night Tn the woods-.of IVIdreTiouse parish.. And it may not be out of linq to mention here-that the governor has little or no appropriation to “carry out the present investigation; but that he is using freely of his own money, of whjbh he is said to possess a gratifying sum. So on that score the ministers may ease back, to normal again. Governor Was Last Resort As an indication of how thoroughly the machinery of justice was clogged in the Mer Rouge murders, it is shown that Gov. Parker was the last official to whom appeal was made. It was on Aug. 24, a date that almost bulks in the sky round Mei‘ Rouge, that Watt Daniels and his father, William Andrews, and _ Tod Davenport, all descendants of fami.-

and Thomas Richards, a mechanic, were boldly taken from their automobiles in the presence of more than

fifty of their townspeople.

It was on the night cf that clay, after a long journey tdvrough the gloomy forests of the parish, that the elder Daniels and Andrews, both fogged, and young Davenport, were set free, and young Daniels and Richards beaten to death and their dead bodies treated to inconceivable knife

attacks.

(Continued on Page Two) GARAGE GAS KILLS THREE Middletown, Eng.—Going to the garage to call her three children, Mrs. Edward Blaikie found them suffocated by gas from the automobile engine.

IT1HE diver shown here is looking Cor the bodies—subsequently rccovJ_ ered—of F Watt Daniel and Thomas F. Richards, at the bottom ol Lake La Fourche. Morehouse Parish, La. The two were supposed to have been murdered and the search for their bodies was made under th« r'-'ifpction of state miliria.

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Democratic Councilmen All Right The Post-Democrat takes great pleasure in reviewing the record of the four democratic councilmen, Fell, Plymale, Hohn and Hines. These men in every instance have stood solidly in opposition to the vagaries of the majority which have caused the republican council to be a byword and a hissing in Mim-

cie.

Monday night, acting as a unit, these four men, uniting with Councilmen Fromuth, Friedly and Barclay, formed a non-partisan coalition and defeated the stand pat, reactionary group which has dominated the council for the past year. Fred Fromuth, representing progress in city affairs was elected president of the council, defeating Ed Elliott, former president, and spokesman of the reactionary group, and this fortunate change in the council organization was brought about by the unselfish act of the four democratic councilmen, who neglected an opportunity to play politics, in order that they might perform a real service for their constituents. , . •; The defeat of the reactionaries wa§ complete and overwhelming. Elliott, Botkin and Biidd, it will be recalled, are the three councilmen who attempted -to set up an “invisible empire” of their own right here in Muncie* They served notice on the mayor tjiat they, as a “committee of three” represented -the majority of the council and gave him orders, which .he obeyed, giving him twenty four hours to act and threatening to impeach him if he failed .to submit to their qj-bitrary d’emands, one of which was the dismissal of former Police Captain John Moles. These three councilmen.were the life of the reactionary group that controlled up until Monday night, when the new line up was formed and the old order of things wiped out. The city of Muncie owes much to the four democratic councilmen who broke the power of the most autocratic body of men who were ever called to administer the affairs of the

city of Muncie. 7

If they had so desired they could have traded their strategic position for patronage of all kinds. When the reactionaries saw their house falling down they tried threats, persuasion and promises on the four democratic members,

but they stood firm, and all is well.

From a political standpoint the democratic party might have nrofited by a continuation of the same old councilmanic policies, but the democratic members patriotically smashed the backward lookers and there is yet a chance for the republican administration to redeem itself, thanks. to the democratic leavening in the council, acting in conjunction with the small group of republicans who believe like they do. *1* .♦« **. .J. -J. ♦$* <■< <£♦ <£• *£■• »•}> *J* <£♦ *!• *£■• 4* '■** •J* ^ ‘■I 4 *** ’♦* ^ *♦'* *♦* ^ ***'

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The Black Hoods of Death The evidence procured by government agents who are investigating the Mer Rouge klan murdres, goes to show that the fifty seven masked klansmen of the invisible empire who kidnapped and murdered Watt Daniels and Thomas Richards, wore black hoods on that occasion, instead of the regulation white hoods which are worn on ordinary ceremonial occasions. This may not mean anything to Chief f?f Police Van Benbow and his Ku Klux police force, but to the editor of the Post-Democi at it is frought with deep and sinister meaning. The Mer Rouge murders took place August 24. On the night of March 24, last, two automobile loads of black hooded outlaws, whom we are certain were klansmen, waylaid the editor of the Post-Democrat and his son at ten o’clock at night on a principal street of Muncie, within two blocks of the court house. At the point of threatening revolvers th e hooded assassins attempted to force the newspaperman to enter their automobile, which, as the chief and the mayor know, was later identified as the Buick car owned by Deputy Sheriff Bill Cahill, the local klan boss. There was some shooting, immediately, in v/hich the Post-Democrat man took a part, and the cowardly gang were compt lied to beat a hasty retreat. In their haste to make away with their disguise, two of the black hoods were lost by the gang in an alley near a local wholesale house, and the police obtained possession of these masks on the night fallowing the attempted kidnapping and murder. Shortly after this outrage, in which one of the bandits was shot and the son of the editor \yas brutally beaten over the head with the butt of a revolver, a crowd of black hooded men kidnapped the negro Bledsoe f -mm the public square, drove him to the country near Yorktown, flogged him and turned him loose after giving him orders to leave ^MtrncTS These two cases, and the Louisiana case, go to show that white masks are used when harmless gestures are to be made, while black hoods are donned by these noble men v/hen they start out en masse, under cover of darkness, to assault or assassinate some citizen who had been secretly .condemned to torture or .death by this highly* specialized organization of hundred per cent Americans who have devoted their lives to the preservation of law and order. The terrified negro telephoned from Yorktown to Muncie police headquarters for immediate police protection. The call was answered by Sergeant Bill Laflin, a Ku Klux and a brother-in-law of Police Captain Ira Coons and City Judge Lance Coons. Did he get the protection he asked? Well not that one could notice. When the sheriff of Morehouse parish was appealed to by friends of Richards and Daniels to aid in the apprehension of their, murderers, they were told to.mind their own business by the Ku Klux sheriff and were ordered to leave town by the Mer Rouge klan. When the frightened negro asked Klansman Bill Laflin to send officers to Yorktown to protect him and to capture his assailants if possible, Sergeant Bill gave the foliage on his upper lip another twist and told the negro that the police had no warrant for him, therefore he, the sergeant, could see no reason why a detail of police should be sent to Yorktown! Grasp the irony of this situation. A man had just been kidnapped by outlaws wearing black hoods, similar to the hoods worn by the assassins who assaulted the newspaperman, and when the negro frantically phoned for police help he was made the butt of a funny joke. The police had no warrant for the arrest of the man who had just been kidnapped, by black hooded kluckers, and taken to a lonely spot in the country, tied to a tree and beaten, therefore the police ignored the anguished cry for help and did not make the slightest pretense of an investigation. Sergeant Laflin left a written report of the incident, which was duly scrutinized the next morning by Chief Benbow, MANY HOURS AFTER THE CRIME HAD BEEN COMMITTED, and the chief agreed that the sergeant had acted properly. The negro, finding that the police would, afford him no protection, did not return to Muncie. Naturally he had no further desire to risk his life in a community where police officers take such a peculiar view of the rights and privileges of those who suffer through the lawless acts of others. Refusing to go to the aid of a man who had been kidnapped and whipped merely because no warrant was at hand for the arrest of the man who had suffered from the outrage is certainly a queer method of handling such, a situation. If an official of the Merchants National bank should telephone for officers to arrest a gang of holdup men who had just shot up the bank and made away with a hundred thousand dollars, it would be just as reasonable for the officers to refuse to act, on the ground that they had no warrant for the arrest of Hardin Roads. Everything goes to show right - here in Muncie that the police not only belong to the klan, but are in sympathy, and most likely in active collusion with those of the klan who commit these lawless acts. It is well known fact in Muncie’s underworld that the bootlegger or gambler who joins tho klan is immune from arrest, while even law abiding citizens who openly oppose the klan are harassed by framed up charges. The Post-Democrat knows of two notorious law violators, one of whom was sent to prison a year ago by Judge Anderson, who belongs to the klan, and they openly boast that they regard their klan membership as a license to do as they please. These men solicited another law breaker recently to join the klan, assuring him that since the judges sheriff, prosecutor and police all belonged to the outfit, the only sure way to get protection was to become one hundred percent Americans and then break the law without being punished for it. It is hard to understand why such men as Will White, Lloyd Kimbrough and E. W. Barrett, of the board of safety, will keep in the city’s employ a police force that belongs almost in its entirety, to an organization which sanctions any crime from bootlegging to midnight assassination. It is immaterial, insofar as the final result is concerned, whether these men act or not, for sooner or later the day of reckoning will come, but it does seem to those who know and respect these men, that they ought to have the cleaning done from within instead of from without. Law and order is bound to prevail in Muncie. It) is true that the klan is strong here and boasts that practically all of the important offices in the city and county are held by klansmen, and that makes the gang cocky.The klan made the same boasts in Morehouse parish, but the long arm of the state and government is now filling jails in various parts of the country with the klan overlords who thought they were above the law\

Post-Demoerat Correspondent Visits Marion, Gets Low Down Dope That Daniels, Dugan and Klan are 0. K.

Marion, Ind., January 3—Obedient to instructions your correspondent visited Marion Sunday and interviewed various people, in order that the readers of thd Post-Democrat, here and elsewhere may have some idea of the things that are going on in Bill Dugan’s town. I find that Marion is an awfully good town, in gpite of the many serious ihandicaps imposed upon the people here by the niftiest little bunch of political highbinders to be found in many a day’s travel. It has been the custom here, I am informed, for republican county and township officers to swipe the public funds just before going out of office. A county treasurer was removed a few months ago for going out of office. A county treasurer was I removed a few months ago for going south with the county bank roll. The people became so angry over this occurence that for a time it was , feared that somebody was going to I slip up to his house some night and 1 rattle on the window. But better i counsel prevailed and the feelings of Die ousted treasurer were spared. | Instead of chiding him for doing what others had done before him, his friends rallied to the rescue and put up thirty or forty thousand dollars, thus making his shortage good. • Then the township trustee of the township in which Marion is located , went wrong. This was too much. A county treasurer may steal everything but,tho cookstove in Grant county and get away with it, but when an ordinary township trustee attempts to get in on the money something has to be done. Therefore an example was made of Jim Clifton and he is now doing time in prison. With the old republican machine it wasn’t so much that they onjected to the filching of funds by a public official, but it was bad form for a mere township trustee to pluck grapes from the vineyard of finance. Only the elect in Grant county can get away with it and still hold their job in the amen corner. Grant county generally goes republican by a few thousand, but in the last election the people revolted. Robbed blind by crooked republican ofWtc holders'. Lieu vvljite by the electric light corporation which is popularly believed to be the owner of th° two daily newspapers here, and which has controlled Grant county politics foi years, the . people went quietly to the polls and elected the dqmocrat- ? c ^ket Judge Cook, for congress, led his republican opponent by nearly tour thousand and other democratic candidates, including sheriff and both commissioners, v 4 ere elected by large maiorities. This revolt against republican rule was the culmination of years of undisturbed official pillage, political banditry and corporation piracy. The straw that broke the camel's back was a report made by Vic Palmer and Clyde Strait, of the state board of accounts, disclosing amazing irregularities in the transactions of the county commissioners and the county road repair department. The good people of Grant county lost their temper. They w'ere mad clean through. The election came along and whenever they saw a republican head they hit it. Like the

boy who ate the whole coon, they knew when they had enough. And now that the people here have registered, at the polls, their exact views on official dishonesty, stealing public funds will not be the popular indoor and outdoor sport that it once was. Dr. George Daniels, the mayor of Marion, is a republican, having been elected a little over a year ago by the very narrow margin of sixty seven votes over his democratic opponent, Mr. Wallace. The mayor, I was informed at the traction station by an enthusiastic young admirer, is a very popular Christian gentleman, who suspends sentences, and who was greatly misrepresented by a certain newspaper which quoted the mayor as saying that he would order the fire department to turn the hose on the first Ku Klux parade that was attempted in Muncie. “That was a lie,” declared the young man. “The mayor never said such a thing. This town is wild over the ku klux and the mayor is not against them.” Turning to a tall, and rather elderly policeman, wdio wote on his chest Badge No. 2, the young man asked for, and obtained corroboration of tho above statement. “I should say Doc Daniels didn’t say that,” encored Officer Number Two. “The klan had its state meeting here the other night and paraded the streets. Instead of turning on the hose, the mayor ordered out the entire police force to take care of traffic. I shbul’d say he ain’t against the ku klux.” In the beginning of this story I mentioned the name of Bill Dugan. No history of Marion would be complete vfithout a few words concerning this remarkable personage. Bill is a former saloon man. Politics is his principal business. He likes power and he gets it by joining hands with unscrupulous public service corporations in order to keep the republican party in power in Marion. Bill is a ready producer and it is declared that he had much to do with financing the campaign of Mavor Daniels. When the returns came in the night ol the last city~eTeeiion, showing tiTc election of Dr. Daniels, Bill Dugan is said to have called up a friend and jubilantly boasted: “I will be the mayor for the next four years.” Those who have watched the trend of events in Marion declare that Dugan was not far off when he made his bold statement. It is said that he has much to do with the appointment of city employes, and especially I policemen. I He is now under indictment in the ! federal court on a moonshining charge, but the case has never been tried, owing to the mysterious abI sence of an essential witness, Jim Lee, an old man who was some time ago acquitted of the charge of holding up and robbing the Big Four night ticket agent at Muncie. Officer Number Two was in a rather communicative mood. Asked if it were true that the Marion kluxers had threatened to run Dugan out of town, the officer deelai’ed that that too, was a lie. (Continued on Page Two)

*{• *1* *1* *■> *;♦ * ♦;* * «?♦ 4J4 »♦, .j, ,*4 >♦, .j, »♦. Criticism, Constructive and Otherwise * The gentleman who wrote the mayor’s “message” de- % plored the “destructive criticism” heaped upon the city ad- f * ministration by local newspapers, and rather opined that * j* “constructive criticism” would be welcomed by one and all % of the patriots who step up to the city feed box once a * % month for their little old yellow pay check. t * He also pleads tearfully for journalistic praise for every | ♦j* act of commendable legislation on the part of the administra- £ * tion. Of course it would be pleasant and affable on the part | * of the newspapers to say: | J 4 “Mayor QuickC first year in office recommends him to | the public as a strong executive, who allows no man or set *| % of men to bully him into doing things which he does not want % :| to do.” $ * “Our city council has worked faithfully and harmonious- * * ly to serve the people who elected them to office. % “The police department, acting as a harmonious whole | ± under the able supervision of an efficient and fair minded % chief, has cleared Muncie of lawlessness. J “Visitors in our cify all compliment Muncie for her ♦: clean streets and alleys.” * | But instead of this truth impels us to present the mayor | as he is: Weak, vacillating, one moment peevishly throwing j bricks at subordinates and the next moment patting them ♦: on the head. A man who takes orders; a man who is not, Ij nor never can become a true leader. j As for the city council, its so called semi-monthly ses- < sions have just been one dog fight after another. ♦! And the newspaper that would have the hardihood to attempt to pin any medals on, or throw any bouquets at, j the Ku Klux police department, would be deservedly laughed * out of town. Concerning streets and alleys, comment is unnecessary. Those who have eyes to see can observe for themselves, and < the blind can smell ’em. The Quick city administration has been in power for $ exactly one year and it is the laughing stock of the state. j Who could say a good word for an administration which < permits the Ku Klux Klan to control its police department ij and its city court. Mayor Quick should either resign or get his house in ♦; order before Judge Anderson gets him.