Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 4 April 1924 — Page 1

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

VOLUME 4—NUMBER 10.

MUNCIE, INDIANA, FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 1924.

TEN CENTS A COPY—$3.00 A YEAR

LIQUOR CASE DiSMSSAL COMPLETE VINDICATION

Swatting the Klan a Popular Indoor Sport at Ft Wayne

Schannen, Klucker Lawyer, Has Nerve To Contest Nomination With Judge Sol Wood.

FORT WAYNE NICKEL PLATERS. (These Are All Koo-Koos) McConnell, James L., 1309 Sinclaire, Fireman. Pierce, William 0., 1301 W. Main, Conductor. O’Neal, James D., 1384 High St., Brakeman. Rider, Shurel, 1435 Boone St., Fireman. Rodgers, Arthur G., 1103 Custer, Switchman. Rollins, Oscar F., 631 Knitters Avg., Civil Engr. Sturbe, Wade J., 1736 Richardsori; Switchman. Schroeder, Herman J., 3215 Dimmen, Fireman. Smith, Jesse, 1308 W. Main, Car Repair. Schoonever, Louis, 821 Huffman, Conductor. Strahley, Fred, 715 Clay St., Laborer. Stetter, Reinhart J., 318 W. Lewis St. Accountant. Snyder, Milo R., 1321 St. Mary Ave., Loc. Engr. Seymour, G. F., 1912 High St., Engineer. Shroyer, John R., 1301 Third St., Brakeman. Swick, Alfred E., 1638 St. Clair, Brakeman. Shondell, Burt, 1121 Sinclair, Conductor. Smith, Merrill J., 1611 High St., Chief Clerk. Taylor, Ralph C., 136 W. Jefferson St., Brakeman. Stephens, Van, 1634 Franklin, Switchman. Ulsey, Thurl E., 1332 Boone St., Brakeman. Van Meter, Alfred, 830 St. Mary, Conductor. Welsh, John J., N. A. Bd., Conductor. Winklebeck, Harley P., 1314 Burgess, Eng. Ins. Wagoner, Lewis D., 1502 Boone St., Frf. Brakeman. Westfall, Harry J., N. A. Bbl., Brakeman. Wampler, Ernest, 1314 Roanoke, Operator. Kleinschmidt, Edw. 201 Archer Ave., Brakeman. Long, Jacob, 723 W. Superior St., Conductor. Lott, Edward, 1712 Howell, Switchman. LaPearl, Harold, 1213 Boone St., Brakeman. Marks, Ernest Earl, 1029 Pape Ave., Fireman. Marks, George R., 1612 High St., Engineer. Moyer, Lon, 737 Knitters Ave., Hoist Engr. McConnell, Clyde, 1312 High St., Fireman. McKinney, Charles, 1326 W. Main St., Brakeman. McDonald, David B., 130 W. Superior, Brakeman. Marks, Walter J., 1718 Andrew, Fireman. Miller, John W. 2021 Webster St., Conductor. Miser, Clifford L., 1414 Grant St., Car Rep. Miser, Oren V., 1414 Grant St., Car Inspec. Miller, Oliver M., 912 Cottage, Brakeman. McCorfnell, Earl, 1309 Sinclair, Fireman. McClaran, Harry S., 1015 Degraff, Fireman. McPheeters, J. A., 1619 Sinclair, Fireman. Waggoner, Harry L., 136 W. Jefferson, Brakeman. Young, Louis, 2840 Hanna St., Watchman.

I

G Fort Wayne, Ind., April 4.—fThe fact that several klansmen have come out for public office here shojvs the gall of that organization. Judge Sol C. Wood, who is now serving with distinction as judge of the Allen circuit court will be opposed in the republican primary by William H. Schannen, a man whose candidacy is not taken seriously, except by the klan, of which he is a distinguished member. It i s not likely that Schannen will get very far, since the good people of Allen county do not favor the idea of elevating a man to the bench who approves of and belongis to a party which has no respect for the laws of the state or nation. Efforts to defeat Sheriff Bobilya tor renomination should be promptly discouraged. The klan of Allen county and a few peanut politicians are trying *o make the Catholics, Jews and Negro voters believe that Harry McNamara was a Bobilya deputy. This is as false as can be. McNamara was employed and paid by the government and worked with the prohibition squad. Sheriff Bobilya made repeated visits to Indianapolis to have McNamara discharged as prohibition officer of Allen county. The sheriff did this because he couldn’t tolerate a kluxer around his office. The propaganda being used against Sheriff Bobilya was started by McNamara. Ed Siebold, klansman, is candidate for the republican nomination for prosecuting attorney. As this is written he has no opposition. Surely the xoyal republicans of Allen county will not stand for this. Siebold is the official defender of Klansmen who

get in trouble in Ft. Wayne. Glen Smiley, a democratic kookoo, has announced his candidacy for congress but it looks like rain for Glen. Harley Somers, secretary of the Farmers Trust bank, is the sole and only banker in Fort Wayne, that has fallen for the lure of the shimmy and mother goose cap. He is declared to be a confirmed bigot and his origin may have had something to do with his-klan leanings. He was pulled from the hay around Ossian some years ago and is not yet city broke. The husbands of the ladies of the Kamelia should feel elated when they know the protection that may be received . of these three great hundred percenters, Aaron Reichelderfer, Noah Anstutz and Ed Barber. These are the three Kookoos who hold counsel in the klan billiard hall below klan headquarters. The K. K. K .billiard hall we refer to is the Colonial, 120-122 East Berry street. The proprietor is Howard Tracht, a klansman. Tracht is the guy who collects the rent for the klan hall. It is in this klan billiard room that many meetings are held and plans laid by Kluckers Noah Anstutz, Aaron Reichelderfer, Ed Barber and Charles Lathouse, the plumber. Some folks who are opposed to the klan might inform their boys that playing pool in the little klan headquarters is one reason that these hooded hoodlums are -so arrogant of late. Besides Homer Fosnaught our investigator has located three more kluck policemen in Fort Wayne— (Continued to Page Two) .

SWAT THE MACHINE

The anti-Williams Republicans of Delaware county have put a full slate of candidates in the fieid for every office to be voted upon in the May primary. Having had two years of uninterrupted klux-republican rule in Delaware county the rank and file of the republican party wisely conclude that they have had enough of it. There are many klansmen in Delaware county who will aid in the housecleaning. The political enthusiasm which prevailed in the klan organization here two years ago has subsided considerably. At that time a bunch of political highbinders joined the klan in order to be elected to office. They succeeded and what they have done to the taxpayers of the county is a sin and a shame. Two years ago the klan graft was new here. The rank and file, who had financed the graft, while the political gentlemen got in free, had some sort of a crazy idea that after taking the klan oath a man became automatically purified. > They even thought that such hard boiled customers as Clarence Dearth, Billy Williams, Sheriff Hoffman and Prosecutor Van Ogle would become whiter than snow after the goblin had sprinkled them with the holy water of the Skallyhootch (with the accent on the hootch) river. They really believed that the wizard was on the square and that they had enlisted in a movement for good government, law and order and the preservation of the morals of the community. They have been undeceived. They have discovered that klansmen have no copyright on honesty, morality or patriotism. They have discovered that they filled many public offices with men who have shamefully robbed the taxpayers, including themselves, and have used their political positions to create useless jobs for relatives and friends at the expense of the people of Delaware county. The history of Delaware county officialdom for the past two years of undisputed kfux rule fairly reeks with graft, corruption, thievery and hypocritical pretense of law enforcement when everybody knows that law breakers favorable to the republicanklux machine are protected by the Ku Klux sheriff, prosecutor * and police department. At this very moment the rotten gambling and booze den of Bob Graves, a colored man who supports the ku klux crowd in order that his notorious dive on South Walnut street may have continuous protection, is one of the principal “coaling stations” of the Billy Williams gang, who are battling to retain control of the county and all the easy money that goes with it. Another central station for the gang is the Banner cigar store, owned by Ralph Lyons, a kluxer, and the cigar and pool room conducted by Ora Gallimore, another hundred percenter. These two places are located on the south side of the public square, facing, the court house. Each is equipped with a dozen or more gambling tables which are crowded from morning until after midnight, mostly klansmen, who show their respect for law and order by losing their money at gambling games to their brother klansmen. The law is broken a thousand times a day in each of these protected klux joints and it is in such places that voters are being recruited to keep the thieving republican machine in power. It matters little to Ralph Lyons, Ora Gallimore or Bob Graves whether or not the road repair department squander $81,000 of the peoples’ money, whether the orphans’ home and the county infirmary are being operated by selfish and grasping politicians, whether Judge Dearth’s salary is raised to six thousand dollars or sixty thousand or whether a thousand enemies of the Ku Klux Klan are unjustly prosecuted and convicted. All they care for is the free and untramelled right to violate the law and they know the way to get that right is to vote and work for the republican machine in the coming primary and election. The democratic party in Delaware county is badly disorganized, owing to the fact that the loyal element of the party has quiescently permitted the control of the organization to remain in the hands of Obed Kilgore, a klansman, who has practically disrupted the party here. Great difficulty has been experienced in trying to induce men of standing in the community to file for the various offices, and as this is written the places are practically all vacant. Under Kilgore’s ministrations the party has in the past few years suffered astounding reverses and the feeling is general that unless he is completely eliminated the chances of success next fall will be anything but bright. Kilgore and his close advisors have merely constituted themselves as a sub-station for the Billy Williams machine. They have no honest desire for real democratic victory. They find it more profitable to dicker with the enemy. It is for this reason that real democrats are hopeful that the Williams machine will be overthrown in the primary, although hopes are expressed that in the final hours, before the last day for filing candidacies, the democrats will find the right kind of men to serve as standard bearers.

Prosecutor Van Ogle in Throwing Out Indictment Against Editor of Post-Democrat for Lack of Evidence Is Strong Proof of Assertions Which Led To Citation for Contempt.

Ordinarily a newspaper editor avoids reference to himself in his own newspaper as much as possible, but the experiences of the publisher of the Muncie Post-Democrat are so indelibly merged with the history of the Ku Klux Klan in Indiana that it becomes necessary at times to offer a few explanations. In February, 1923, the editor of the Post-Democrat was indicted on a fake liquor charge. One of the grand jurors, Harry Mott, is the man who recently confessed ! in an open hearing before the county commissioners that while serving as assistant county road superintendent he had systematically falsified his sworn monthly expense accounts. On his own confession he is a swindler, perjurer and all around rascal who should be sent to the penitentiary for felonies which he admitted under oath. The records in the sheriff’s office and the auditor’s office also disclose the fact that during some of the days he served on the grand jury which returned two pretended indictments against the editor of this newspaper, he also drew pay for working on the roads, thus drawing double pay from the county. The claims for which he drew these fraudulent warrants were sworn to by himself. Another member was Durward Sharp, a former bartender and another member was Jay Adams, a South Walnut street grocer against whom complaints have frequently been registered with the county weights and measures inspector for defrauding his customers by the alleged giving of short weights. o

CASS COUNTY WMTER GROWS SARCASTIC IN DISCUSSING KLUXERS

Tells of Effort of Klux Government On Banks of

Deer Creek.

Sees Trouble For The KKK Factions

Predicts Conflict Between Muncie Rebels and Sim-

mons’ Delusionists.

Logansport, Ind., April 4.—.This article is made supplemental to one appearing in a recent issue of the Post-Democrat, concerning an election held in a little town on the banks of old Deer Creek, Cass County, Ind., by the Progressive Klux Town Trustees, who proceeded, to administer the towns affairs with a : pure, thorough-bred type of Ku Kluxing similar to the Oklahoma brand. As the first important and systematic move of govermental skill, on the Klux programme by these knight-gowned punch and judys, was to move the council chamber from the regular place of meeting to a klux dog-house (so a kluxer could i grab the rent) which move was so rotten in its conception, that is was pretty sure to breed disease and j start some sort of klux epidemic. I Sure enouglh, after the lapse of j nine days kluxitis broke out in its i most virulent form and spread so j fast that the whole job lot of nightgown skunks wanted to be health officers. So with a complication of measles and kluxitis raging with no signs of abatement, they all began to tack up red cards. The noise of tacking up cards could be heard all over town, like woodpeckers putting beech-nuts under the bark of a tree. The town was so litterally covered with red cards, that there was a red ! hazy ting© appearing in the atmos- | phere which resembled Injun summer, and almost led one to think that the sun was shining all night. The klux printing office was kept j running day and night in order to I supply the demand for red cards, j and the purpose of it all (peeping j from under the dunce cap and nighti gown) was to forever impeach, upj set, depose and kluxly throw out the | Present health officer who is not a ! kluxer, but was legally appointed last June for the lawful term of four

(Continued to Page Four.)

Another member was Owen Helvie, of Daleville, an abject tool of the corrupt Billy Williams political machine, who was recently rewarded i for his fidelity to the machine by be1 ing appointed county road snnerin-

tendent.

Frank Kimbrough, the week minded scion of old Charley Kimbrough, whose bridge trust was once indicted in Ohio for corrupting public officials and swindling the general public from the Atlantic to the Pacific, was also a member. Prior to the indictment the PostDemocrat had called attention to these bridge trust activities and had published a number of criticisms directed at the then board of safety, whose president was Lloyd Kimbrough, the present head of the bridge trust and a brother of Frank. When the liquor indictment was returned the Post-Democrat declared that it was the result of a rotten conspiracy to discredit this newspaper, which is the only publication in Muncie which does not fear to hit the big ones in the eye. Every member of the grand jury which returned these indictments 1 was, and is now, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, which has time and again, through its local officers, declared that it would “get” the publisher of this newspaper. Less than a month before the indictments were returned a friend walked twenty blocks on a wintry night to inform us that his son, a klansman, had told him that night that plans had been matured to ruin the editor and his newspaper. As a direct result of the publication of an editorial charging a conspiracy and frame up and criticizing the Ku Klux jury commissioners and the manner in which they were selected as well as the methods used in drawing jurymen and jurywomen, we were cited by Klansman Judge Dearth for contempt of court and fined one thousand dollars and sentenced to jail for six months. The criminal libel case, wherein we were charged with calling George Roeger, an admitted klansman and the local agent of the “Fiery Cross” a 100 percent draft dodger, was tried by a Ku Klux jury, whose members all swore they did not belong and we received a five hundred dollar fine and a five months jail sentence, in spite of the fact that Roeger’s own evidence not only showed that he had evaded military service while America was at war with Germany, but that he was at the time of the trial the proprietor of a gambling house and that he had been a persistent law violator and unlawful dealer in liquor for years past. That the Post-Democrat told the truth about the liquor indictment was made plain to all when Prosecutor Van Ogle, himself a vindictive klans(Continued T« Page Three.)