Muncie Post-Democrat, Muncie, Delaware County, 13 January 1927 — Page 1
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Wi
THE POST-DEMOCRAT
VOLUME 0—NUMBER 50
MUNCIE, INDIANA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1027.
Price 5 Cents a Copy—$2.00 a Year
I have been a citizen of Muncie i Mr. Dale through his admirable .lor over twenty years. paper is making it mighty hot for I have also been a dyed-in-the- the sinner in our municipal governwool Republican all my life. jment. He is merely pulling aside 1 have known George Dale in- the curtains, so to speak, in order timately for 18 years. jthat we, the public, may see what I attended the Dale hearing at the! our servants (the office holders)
MUNCIE IAPERS FAIR IN TRIAL AGAINST DALE
Impartial Report of Debate In Court Indicates Change In Public Sentiment.
court house on Tuesday, Jan. 11th,
and heard the hearing on Davis’ confession of error” I was one of the spectators
are doing. And if your house is in
The Post-Democrat wishes to
•Joe oruer, ivu;. umce noiuer, you win publicly acknowledge the fair and
sportsmanlike attitude of the Star
that IlOL 111 orner - you wm nowi louuer. and the (Press in publishing a full, sat and listened to the ribald and; 1,1 - good friend, Mr. Ryman, accurate and unbiased account of impassionate speech of an attorney'^' 1 * when made his impassion-: t be memorable debate in the court whom I was informed was nonej a ^ e ape&ch wherein he talked 30 ;voom Tuesday afternoon in which other than our own Major Wilbur much and said so little. i the question of fair and impartial Ryman. What a sang-froid, soothing em-|t r j a i s before unprejudiced juries I have listened to a great many brocation was Mr. Shaw’s presen- was t be subject of discussion, lawyers plead before the bar qf!. tation of ^e case ^ at issue, follow- ] There was a time, not so very justice, but to my mind that was * 11R tirade oi Mr. Ry- long ago, that some of our “best the most illogical, bombastic, rhap- man s - a refreshing, _ soft,! m ight have found fault sodical effusion that 1 have ever J ,a ^ m y breeze following a violent; these newspapers for their atheard. - an< l terrific storm, came the sane| titudei but happily that time is gone Not one thing did he say that badj an< * logical way in which Mr. Shawiby in Muncie and Delaware county,
any bearing upon the issue before. presented the case,
the court. It was plainly evident, 1! lHe Pleaded merely for justice, believe, to every one present that! which Iie contended ought to be ex-
he did not intend nor even try to! tended to every citizen regardless ( ^ eni which smells to heaven, enlighten the court through whose)°1 h's character. No animosity, no; The editor of this newspaper has courtesy he was invited to speak. ) malice, no prejudice, no- abusive been tried three times by jury in Mr. Ryman merely took the ad- bmguage came from bis lips. An j (he circuit court here on fanciful
Confession of Error in Post-Democrat Libel Case By Prosecutor Joe Davis
The following is the full text of the remarkable confession of error by Prosecuto-’ Davis in the Post-Democrat libel case, in which the new prosecutor brands the trial as unfair and asserts that the jury was improperly impanaled:
State of Indiana, Comity of Delaware, ss.: In the Delaware Circuit Court, January Term, 1927. The State of Indiana,
—vs.—
George R. Dale. No. 8040. Confession of Error by Prose-
cuting Attorney.
Comes the defendant,
For four years the iPost-Demo- TT ^ „
crat has been a voice in the Wilder- H. Davis, I rosecutmg
ness crying out against a jury sys-
vantage of the privilege given him)atltirney of large caliber does u°t|and far fetched charges and in to speak to unload the pent up bilep iave 1° resort to the methods ofj ever y instance the juries were from his over distended gall-bladder; Bolshevists, ilis brain is made; packed 'by hangers on of a political by giving the defendant, George a fi ner fiber than that. (machine which has every reason in Dale, a genuine tongue lashing. | * have known George Dale for t be world to possess
It is not the mark of a good, 3 evera!_years and he has written sportsman to take an undue advan-! nie ll fi 111 b' s P^Per a couple times tige of his opponent. It is hcitisea-iEvery vrvfdiy rtmnitnoer. ftut ting to those who have to look on eacl V_ time 1 was and needed
and are not permitted to take a hand in the proceedings. Mr. Ryman laid aside for the moment, his religious cloak, and revealed the ghastly, naked, grinning, sardonic skeleton that he has been harbor-
ing in bis soul.
He could not find words satanical enough to express tbe animosity be held against tbe defendant—George Dale, Not satisfied in throwing bis brick bats at brother George, he commenced throwing in every direction. Td.r he sgid tfuji George Dale was.a.lpw down (Ijrty skunk, and that, .any one that Dale’s dirty, sheet,' is in the sany), class—a sku.n.k. ,, . j Well, I read Dale’s paper, Mr. Ryman reads Dale’s paper, the judge, no doubt, read’s Dale’s paper, Francis Shaw said he reads it and so you see we wex*e all classed as low down dirty skunks. I’ll confess that’s the first skunk meeting that I ever attended, but then I ought to be forgiven for I never knew until Mr. Ryman informed
me, that 1 was a skunk.
I wonder if Mr. Ryman has ever read that verse in the Good Book where it says; “Better is the poor who walketh in his integrity than he who is perverse in his lips and is a fool.” The trouble with George Dale’s paper is, it tells the Truth and it is the Truth that hurts. “Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.” Free from what? Free from graft, free from liars, free from crooked officials, free from wolves in sheep’s clothing, free from voting for crooked
politicians, etc., etc.
Mr. Ryman lamented the fact that George Dale was poor and that if ho sued him for libel he would not get anything but a rotten egg. Why didn’t he so instruct his client? Why so anxious that others should do that which he refused to do because of a mercenary fear? What menial, lopsided Gamboosky would you call that kind of a mental equation? George Dale could be sitting pretty and own a nice bank account, if he would only choose to subsidize his paper. But the poor “skunk” has a mania for ferreting out and showing up crookedness in both high and low places. 1 honestly believe the poor “cuss” would rather starve than lay down on his job. No honest citizen, no honest official, has any need to fear George
Dale.
His mission is to hold up to public gaze those who are crooked or shady in their transactions. And then not the man but his deed. If you are a public official and your conduct in that office will not bear public inspection, then you have no right to hold that office and should be impeached at the next election if, indeed, not before.
a little curbing. I argee with Mr. Ryman when he says that vy^ do
not need a scandal sheet tn 'Muncie. But. 1 disagree.with him when he says George Dale’s paper is a
scandal sheet/towl b:> •. •
feelings toward the defendant.
an offense shall have a fair and Impartial trial before an unbiased and
unprejudiced jury.
We feel that Judge Dearth made a great mistake in refusing to grant a new trial in the case mentioned. The defendant, in his motion for a
I call it the,..^ruth Bearer nnd; n e w trial .charged that talesmen
that’s what every city in the United States needs toddy. A scandal is, according to Webster, “a defamatory speech,” like the one that Mr. Ryman made against George Dale.) ,A scandal sheet is a paper that creates aii'C prints a defamatory Speech. Mr. Dale doesn’t do that. ‘He' prints the truth about those who are in public office or
seeking; public office.
If ah official pulls off a crooked deal and your newspaper informs you aboht it that information is not scandal, because others do things that are scandalous and your newspaper tells of their scandalous acts, that does not make the newspaper a scandal sheet. The newspaper is merely the means of conveying to you the truth about the scandal. The public ought to know all about every crooked deed or act that is done by any public office holder in order that it may protect itself. ‘‘Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever ye sow that shall ye also reap.” We believe that) George Dale has been sowing some very good seed in a field that was pretty well filled up with tares. His efforts are beginning to hear fruit, —for proof of which we need only to refer you to the results of the
last election.
Of course, one idea reformers, angular bigots and morons might decide, after listening to an impassionate speech, to kill George Dale. They might do it through a mistaken motive due to the impression made on their moron minds by listening to an impassionate speech made by a supposed representative citizen. But if such a thing should happen ,as it almost has in the recent past, it would not stop the work that George has so well be-
gun.
Dike John Brown’s body—his spirit, the Truth, would go marching on. They crucified Christ but
He is more alive today than before. As I sat in that
called for jury service were handpicked, and specific cases were
mentioned.
The prosecuting attorney, making a confession of error, which is now a part of the record of the proceedings, makes the same charge.
case. The facts not disclosed by the records are matters of such common knowledge that the Judge of (his court should consider the same in'considering the questions raised under these specifications of the motion for a new r trial. The record discloses that one of the jurors who was challenged for cause, after the defendant had exhausted his peremptory challenges, one Grover Eppard, had had a controversy with the defendant in which the juror Eppard had handed to the defendant a red card, which had printed thereon in substance, “Keep your damned nose out of other people’s business.” There can hp no question bat what this juror was expressing his sentiment of and concerning the defendant when, lie handed il ya this card notwithstanding the face that he testified that it was a joke. The court refused to require this juror to disclose the authorship of this card showing the animus back of its presentation.
In considering the questions it is a matter of common knowlraised by these specifications in edge that the defendant had writthe motion for new trial, we are ten numerous articles of and conof the opinion that the court should corning the family and near relanot only take into consideration lives of the juror, Lulu Sample, the facts disclosed by the record, who was a jiffibr in this cause. The but also facts which are of com-(record also discloses that she had mou knowledge to the court and beei a juror in other causes in to the; community in passing upon j which the defendant was tried and the questions raised. !convicted. She was challenged for
by Joseph Attorney,
and presents the following to the
court,
The plaintiff in this action was charged by affidavit with having printed and published in his paper “The Post-Democrat,” a false and malicious libel against one Ray-
mond Warner.
The motion for new trial by
nn 1 i 3 P eci ficatioiis thereof numbered 24
jro 43 inclusive, assign separately
rr ,, ... .. i iand severally as error the over- • . l <-h«fengB for cause in
selection of prospective jurors and as to ruling upon questions touching the qualifications of such jurors to sit as jurors in said cause.
It is a matter of common knowledge that, this defendant had pub-
good name of the prosecuting officer who prosecuted said cause, had published articles derogatory to the good name of the sheriff, had published articles attacking from time to time some of the jurors who were permitted to sit
and the near rela-
numerous articles.
favor a con- in said cause,
lives of some of the prospective |her examination, the defendant’s this peremptory challenges and rec jurors and of some of the jurors peremptory challenge had been ex-'ommemls to the court that said who were permitted to sit in said hausted, hut this juror was ex-1defendant be granted a new trial, cause, some of which .facts , are cused on challenge for cause. ! JOE H
disclosed by the record in this;This is only mentioned by way of
He declared that the defendant did i{ s bed articles derogatory to the
not have a fari and impartial trial and says the court itself should be possessed of the knowledge, outside of the record that the former prosecutor and those who selected the jurors were antagonistic to the defendant, and that their natural
impulse would be to
viction.
These things constitute a serious indictment against the methods used in selecting jurors. When the defendant and the prosecuting attorney both make the same charge it should not be lightly ignored. Judge Dearth overruled the motion for a new trial without even commenting on the, prosecutor’s confession of error. A ruling from the bench ordering a new trial would have placed the judge in a better light, we believe, considering the many accusations that have been made concerning the methods used in selecting jurors. r- o 26 Missionaries Leave Kinkiang; Others Besieged
cause after the defendant had exhausted his peremptory challenges. There can be but little question but what this juror was an incom-
petent juror.
It was also disclosed that one Nellie i Granor, was also called as prospective juror, that she was the
wife of one Clifton Cranor, about;for cause as hereinbefore set out whom the defendant had published as to said jurors so challenged af-
At the time of)ter the defendant had exhausted
illustration as to the kind and character of jurors called for service in this cause. WJiat we have said as to publications relating to the sheriff and prosecuting officer, who prosecuted said action, is not intended in any way to cast any reflection upon such officers, but such publication would naturally create in the minds of such officers a feeling against the defendant and would tend to prevent fair and impartial conduct in the matter of selecting a jury to try the defendant. The defendant in this cause was entitled to be tried by twelve impartial jurors. If any one of these jurors was disqualified by reason of prejudice, or for any other reason, the defendant would be entitled to a new trial. The Constitution of Indiana, Article 1, Section 13, being Section G5, Burns’ R. S. 1926, provides, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall haVe the right to a public trial by an impartial jury in the county in which the offence shall have been committed. * * *” The recond in this case suficiently discloses that the defendant did not have a fair and impartial trial before an impartial jury. In the case of Woods vs. The State, 134 Ind. 35, the court at length discusses qualifications of jurors and holds, in substance, that where the defendant has enhausted his peremptory challenges and a juror is challenged for cause and yet served, and which juror is incompetent,, the same is reversible error. These propositions being as selfevident. and as apparent on the face of the record, we do not deem it necessary to cite further author-
ities.
The plaintiff, by the undersigned Prosecuting Attorney, therefore confesses error in the refusal of the court to sustain the challenge
Verdict of Joe Davis’ In Dale libel Case
New Prosecutor Confesses Error and Declares in Statement Presented to Court that Defendant Did Not Have a Fair and Impartial Trial—Ryman as “Friend of the Court’ Shows His Sore Toe—Special Deputy Prosecutor Francis Shaw Makes Able Argument In Support of Confession of Error.
In spite of the showing made by Prosecutor Joe H. Davis and his special assistant, Francis Shaw, after their confession of error in the Dale libel case in which one Raymond Warner was named as the aggrieved party, Judge Dearth Tuesday afternoon overruled a motion for a new trial and the editor of the Post-Democrat will have to seek relief in the state supreme court. The “confession of error,” signed by the new prosecutor/Joe H. Davis, is probably the most remarkable document ever presented to any judge in the state of Indiana. It appears elsewhere in this issue in its entirety and is worthy of the careful perusal of every citizen of Delaware county who believes in the purity of the courts and the protection of litigants from the danger of packed juries.
Prejudiced Jurors.
The motion for a new trial was argued Tuesday afternoon. Thomas V. Miller, attorney for the defendant, opened with a discussion of the motion, which set up the averment
hand him such a card. Judge Dearth said, in substance, that the incident was unimportant and that if such matters were to be gone into It would take up too much time of the court, and Eppard was allowed to
that certain persons called in for; sit and help convict.
ever
DAVIS,
Prosecuting Attorney.
HOLDS CATHOLICS LEADING REVOLT
Mexico Declares Only 1,000
Are In Field—Coolidge Message is Scored.
Star Threw a Chill
The Star, Thursday morning, ed the administration, in a rather
threw a chill into the city adminis- half hearted w-ay, should now show
Hation by running a first page its teeth so plainly.
which! Those who profess to be on the 1 * inside say that after the defeat of
jury service, were prejudiced, after peremptory challenges had been exhausted, and that challenges for cause against these persons were overruled by the court. Among those who sat as jurors were Sheridan Barlow, of Albany, a brother of Pete Barlow, a local gambler charged by the Post-Demo-crat with operating here under the protection of the sheriff, chief of police and former prosecutor, Van
Ogle.
Mrs. Lulu Sample, wife of one of the Samples holding a city job, and a sister-in-law of Nina Sample, whose husband, Frank Sample, holds the job of street commissioner under Mayor John Hampton.
A plan to place a framed copy of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address in every school room in America originated at a meeting of the Indiana branch of the National Federation of Patriotic Societies held Sunday evening at the Hotel Severin, Indianapolis.
court room that memorable afternoon, and listened to those vindictive vituperations of Mr. Ryman’s I could not keep from thinking of the words found in the eighteenth verse and the seventy eighth chapter of Psalms, which reads: ‘‘And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat (Geo. Dale) for their lust.”—And skunk meat at that, according to Mr. Ryman’s own state-
ment.
—'From a Constant Reader of My Fellow Skunk’s Scandal i Sheet.
Switzerland and France have been especially hit by influenza which is affecting most of Europe. Spain is in the throes also of an influenza epidemic. In four cities alone there are reported 200,000 cases, and mortality has increased 15 per cent.
Shanghai, Jan. 10.—Refugees arriving here from Hankow report that an American woman was stoned by Chinese rioters during the foreign evacuation of the city, Jan. 3 and 4. hut escaped with minor injuries. The victim’s name was not learned. At the time it was stated that four or five days prior to evacuation shots were fired at people on
somber!the golf course, one narrowly miss-
ing the wife of Admiral Hough, commander of the American patrol
the Yangtse river.
Shanghai, Jan. 10.—Sixty American women and children arrived here yesterday from Hankow, where a threatening situation has existed for the last week, fording the evacuation of many foreign residents. Twenty-six missionaries from Kiu-kiang, where serious disturbances have been going on, also have reached Shanghai. The missionaries assert that about a hundred othes are shut up in Ruling and others marooned at Nanchang. More than three hundred British
citizens also left Hankow.
o
Clarence J. Morley, who retired as Governor of Colorado, Tuesday, has filed suit in District court against Denver Post for $35,000 for
alleged malicious libel.
City of Mexico, Jan. 13.—After smouldering for six months, the [fires of controversy between the Mexican government and the Catholic church are flaming in various parts of the republic concurrently with the troubled relations between Mexico and the United States over the petroleum and alien land laws and the Nicara-
guan question.
Long existing economic find business depression and a certain amount of general political unrest add potential fuel, to the blaze, Catholics in numerous states are, the Mexican government declares in an official statement, in armed revolt and are fighting under the battle cry of “Long live Christ the King.” Other groups, described as bandits, are burning bridges, attempting to wreck railroad trains holding up residents and tourists alike and looting small, villages. The department of war persists in its declaration that the Federal soldiers are suppressing the dis-
turbances.
The newspaper, Excelsior, editorially criticises President Coolidge’s recent message to Congress on Nicaragua. It speaks of “the hypocritical mask of puritanical rectitude with which Mr. Cocdidge attempts to disguise his policy,” and says even if Mexico has sent arms to Nicaragua (which the editorial does not admit) why should it be wrong for Mexico to do so, but all right for the United States
to d6 so?
story, under a banner head, forecasted a mess of trouble
the Hampton crowl.
The story went that the city council had broken away from the administration and that at the February meeting of the council the ordinance appropriating $1,000 to pay the salary of the mayor’s secretary for the year 1927, would be defeated by an overwhelming vote. Mayor Hampton has taken a job as a traveling salesman for a fwv niture establishment which keeps him out of , \e city continually, which impel councilmen, according to the Sta , to suggest the idea that Hampton should pay the salary of his secretary out of his own
pocket.
The Star also states that there is considerable talk of a council investigation of the board of works, mentioning as a specific reason therefor the celebrated truck deal, which was exposed by the PostDemocrat. Of course everbody knows that the council should not pass the or dinance providing for the salary of a secretary for Muncie’s absentee mayor, and that the board of works needs plenty . of investigating, but the big question mark is why the Star which has heretofore support-
the republican county commissioners in November, Hampton agreed to remove Harry Hoffman from the board of works and that the organ ization promised to oust Hoffman
Francis Shaw Speaks Francis Shaw, special prosecutor, speaking for the state in defense of the confession of error filed by Prosecutof Joe H. Davis, asserted that the Eppard incident alone showed the gravity of the situation and was sufficient in itself to impel the prosecutor to confess error and recommend a new trial on the ground that the defendant had not had a fair trial before an impartial
jury.
Wilbur Ryman, the special prosecutor who officiated for the state in the trial which took place December 2 and 3, was allowed a voice in the argument Tuesday through an invitation by Judge Dearth to ap-
W. W. Helvie, father of Gwen pear as a “friend of the court” to
Helvie, county road superintendent, whose department has been drastically criticized by the PostDemocrat for its part in furthering the rotten gravel dipping conspiracy which enriched Harry Hoffman and a few others at the expense of
the taxpayers of the county. It was shown that a desperate
effort was made to retain on the jury Mrs. Nellie Cranor, wife of Clifton Cranor, democratic member of the Hampton board of works, and a sister of Ed Quirk, plain clothes policeman, who is charged
as chairman of the republican baving made the statement, in the county central committee. ! presence of brother policemen, that Something desperate had to he;^be editor of the Post-Democrat done to fix up the old machine a nd| was be “given a ride,” just besince Hoffman seemed to be the f ore tbe first shot was fired through most obnoxious undesirable in the the window of the editor's home.
outfit, it was decided to dump him and thus put out the dope that the
machine had been purified.
The story goes that Hoffman refused to stand for the boots. He had too much on his fellow conspirators to permit himself to be
featured as the goat.
Failure to kick Hoffman out, taken in connection with the truck deal, the contractors’ trust, the McCreery gravel deal, the SampleDalby thousand dollar grab, the Dalby $1,500 mystery, police protection of gamblers, bootleggers and gunmen, the mayor’s outside job and his gall in demanding pay for a secretary, has disgusted everybody and the mayor’s friends, to whom promises made and broken, have now turned their guns on the administration.
The Eppard Case.
defend against the charge that the jury had been improperly impaneled and the editor of the Post-Demo-crat did not have a fair trial. Ryman devoted most of his time in saying things under the protection of the court which he would not dream of saying to the defendant in any other forum. Instead of confining himself to the issues involved in the motion for a new trial and the prosecutor’s confession of error, Ryman devoted the major portion of the forty five minutes alloted to him to talk in assailing Prosecutor Davis and the
Post-Democrat.
Joe Davis’s Retort. Pointing his finger at Mr. Davis he yelled out: “Why didn’t you consult me, before you filed your confession of error?” To this Mr.
Another juror allowed to sit, over Davis shot back: “How could I,
The first administration measure will make its appearance In the Senate today when Senator Perry Johnson of Atlanta, Indiana, will introduce a bill calling for a reassessment of real estate in Indiana this year, a move intended to reduce farm land valuations now on
the tax books.
Trial of seventy-nine concerns
manufacturing bedroom and dining
room furniture in twelve states and
sixty-six individuals affiliated was started in Federal court at Chicago this week, with government and defense counsel examining prospec-
tive jurors with special attention to trade or union affiliations.
the vigorous and continued challenge of the defense, was one Grover Eppard, a hanger on of the Billy Williams machine, although, the record shows that Eppard, in his examination as to his qualifications as a juror admitted that at a council meeting three weeks before, he had handed to the defendant a card, on winch was printed, “Keep Your Damn Nose Out of Other Peoples’
Business.”
Eppard testified that the card was handed to him by another. When asked about this incident, Eppard declared that he was an utter
own !stranger to the defendant; that were the card was given to him by an-
other to hand to the defendant and that the whole thing was a joke. He refused to answer when Mr. Miller asked him who gave him the card with instructions to hand it to Dale and Judge Dearth upheld him and said it did not matter who gave him the card. Mr. Miller objected and declared that it was important to know in order to ascertain the frame of mind of a man who had declared that he was a stranger to the defendant yet would impudently
when you have taken up most of my time since I became prosecutor trying to get me to dismiss the Hola-
day cases.
This was too much for Judge Dearth, who said Holaday was not being tried. The judge then went out on his own hook and told Davis that if the judge, the former prosecutor, the former special prosecutor and the special judge who dismissed fourteen of the Holaday cases had sold out, and were crooked, the thing for Davis to do was to get the matter before the grand jury and return indictments. Just what impelled Dearth to make this gratuitous statement, we are not prepared to say, but it is possible that the remark may have been predicated upon repeated statements made in the Post-Dem-ocrat that a crooked conspiracy exists to protect Holaday. It will be recalled that last summer, when another grand jury, not controlled by the republioan machine, started to investigate the Holaday conspiracy, and started out right by firing Special Prosecutor (Continued to Page three)