Indianapolis Times, Volume 39, Number 269, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 March 1928 — Page 9

Second Section

KLAN SECRETS ARE BARED BY EX-OFFICIALS Former KlaUff of Kluxers in Delaware County Tells Story. FOUR OTHERS TESTIFY Graft and Fraud Revealed in Depositions Made to Gilliom. Five depositions baring Ku-Klux Klan governmental machinations during the reign of D. C. Stephenson and his successor grand dragons in Indiana today are in possession of Attorney General Arthur L. GilJiom. Gilliom will use the depositions in his suit to cancel the Indiana Klan charter. The first, that of Hugh (Pat) Emmons, former South Bend Cyclops, taken two weeks ago. revealed how the Klan conducted espionage, recommended violence and made puppets of political parties. Tuesday, four witnesses gave testimony to corroborate these points. Sam Bemenderfer, former Klailiff or vice president of the Delaware Klan, told how the members in his own Klavern were “mulcted of more than $137,000, of which they in return received S3OO to be distributed in charity in the form of Christmas baskets." Tells of “Fleecing" With eyes inscrutable behind dark glasses, Bemenderfer painted a picture of -deluded men “fleeced of money for one purpose or another.” “We were charged klecktokens, or initiation fees, overcharged for robes, paid for the very chairs we sat in, and then asked to join clubs for which we paid additional initiation fees. Then came the demand to contribute to buy D. C. Stephenson a car. This was to be Statewide. “The Muncie organization contributed $3,000. Other Klaverns also paid thousands of dollars. The car given Stephenson was a Packard,” he testified. Then when the Klansmen of Muncie, in revolt against the extortion, found their Kleagle, W. E. Cahill, had been found short in his accounts, Bemenderfer charged, and complained to Imperial Wizard Hiram Wesley Evans, through representatives sent to Atlanta, they were told to mind their “own business,” and Cahill was given an important Klan post in Ohio. He described how an inspection of other States revealed “only corruption” and “swindle on a gigantic scale.” The Muncie Klan seceded and founded the Independent Klan of America, which later became the existant order of Knights of American Protestanism. War Veteran Testifies Orion Norcross, captain in the World War, Kleagle of Richmond, Kligrapp of Muncie, and now secretary of the new organization, corroborated all Bemenderfer’s statements, and described how Stephenson, “The Old Man,” sent him telegrams to block the appointment of a successor to LawTence Lyons, chairman of the Republican State committee, and ordered the Klaverns in the State to force Lyons rt. ignation and “block the appointment of Clyde Walb.” Documentary evidence m the form of “Imperial and Realm Mandates,” telegrams, letters and notes were introduced during the questioning of Norcross, to prove the claims of Stephenson that he had "perfected a machine which will challenge the admiration of our most overbearing and intolerant enemies.” . . _ Norcross described how Evans turned a deaf ear to the Klansmen s pleas that the "extortion of his aids E A. Stilson of Anderson, regalia maker, told of the contract made with Stephenson whereby he furnished robes at $3.70 apiece for the first 10,000 robes and $3.38 for each additional one, which the “Old Man” sold for $6.50 to Klansmen. How E. S. Shumaker, Indiana Anti-Saloon League superintendent, lent legal aid to the Horse Thief Detectives’ Association in its suits against alleged law violators, through the legal aids in his office, was described by Thomas W. Swift, Kligrapp of the Kokomo Klavern from 1923 to 1926, and president of the Howard County Horse Thief Detective organization. “We had our own search warrants printed and then took them to a friendly justice of the peace, who would sign them without examining the affidavits. “Fixed” in Court “The arrested suspect then was brought before the same justice and sentenced. Ted Hays, deputy prosecutor, would take charge of the case for us. “If, as in three cases out of the 100, it was taken to Circuit Court, Ethan A. Miles, Anti-Saloon League attorney, would prosecute the case. “At one time I came to see Miles in Indianapolis at the Anti-Saloon League headquarters and he was out, but we met Mr. Shumaker, who said: ‘You are doing fine work, keep it up,’ and turned us over to J, E. Martin, another Anti-Saloon League counsel.” Swift told how he was called to Indianapolis before the 1924 election and was given several hundred thousand copies of a supposedly Knights of Columbus four degree oath by W. Lee Smith, Grand Dragon, to be distributed in northern Indiana the night before the election. “Smith told me that they would be distributed in Marion County by the local organization. The ‘boys’ would put them in clothes pins and throw them on the porches of all citizens, while the southern part of the State would be handled by the organization down there.”

Entered as Second-class Mv* ter at Postoffice. Indianapolis

Marbles and Skates Herald Coming of Spring

—-■ . 0 | MkA-' jUNk First robins, the equinox and other signs suggest the approach of bd*&m. W/Em fr 'l||HV spring, but Indianapolis youngsters have their own way of showing that “T, >VB 1 t . flu In the upper picture is an exciting game of marbles in which John J* f|§ I M*l ABU JjHp& 'BaMMErj||| Shetts, 431 S. Pine St., has challenged William Melloch, 1218 Spann *;p '| |< |f y 'll; JJ'-" f ' ri '’ who is holding Jack, the neighborhood pet, are spectators. *:<■ *gg? ■§■ "'** $1 <4fei? Skates, bicycles and tricycles all regain their popularity with young i ~ jm? JHj At > JHBL Indianapolis as soon as the first mild air is felt In the upper right Jg9p<r jmmmijm *, Ralph Coffin. 2829 Ruckle St. is pushing Loyal H. Britton Jr. who. ; though young, is staunch in his support of the pleasures of tricycling ** t*, - ' .*. A A; 4 .x v 1 Lower left is Miss Betty Lincoln. 526 Fall Creek Bhd. snapped as .<*> . .^v^^jafflAA A fify she enjoyed her first real "skate" after winter weather. Lower right. ' COAL AREA CONDITION ARE M: A • ky .JSgj OUTRAGE, GOODING SAYS, IN r ' REVIEW OF SENATORS’ QUIZ 1 - 1 \ *wi> mm i mmm wuouKiM 11 me gag *

STATE BANKER CALLEDFORGER Warrant Given to Sheriff for James Lang. By Times Special SULLIVAN, Ind., March 7.—First action under criminal law in the case of James M. Lang, 73, missing president of the closed Citizens Trust Company Bank here, has been taken. A warrant is in the hands of the Sullivan County sheriff today, based on a forgery charge filed in Sullivan Circuit Court Tuesday. Amount of Lang’s shortage at the bank has not yet been determined. A check of records continue, but to date State bank examiners have disclosed that many forged notes have been discovered and that Lang failed to account for $60,000 in Liberty bonds. Denial that a reward of SIO,OOO has been posted for arrest of Lang, missing since Feb. 2, is made by Ben C. Crowder, temporary receiver of the bank, and by Mayor Richard Bailey, vice president. TAX FRAUD FOUND Alterations in Barrett Law Records Revealed. An alteration in the Barrett law records involving $35 was revealed Tuesday by County Treasurer Clyde Robinson. Search of records was ordered after Center Township Tax Assessor Frank B. Brattain bared several falsifications found in his records, by which the county might have lost thousands of dollars. Grand jury investigation of the assessor’s book changes is under way. Several owners of downtown real estate are to be called before the jury, it has been learned. Brattain already has appeared. It is virtually impossible to “beat” the Barrett law department, because of the recheck system, Deputy Joseph Hillman, who caught the alteration, said. Cleared of Murder Charge By Times Special WASHINGTON, Ind., March 7. Fred McConn stands acquitted today of a first degree murder charge in the death of George Coleman, aged recluse, last December. A verdict of not guilty was returned Tuesday night by a Daviess Circuit Court jury which took only two ballots.

DOC DURANT SEES WRONG- THRU HIS FLEA LADDERS, SAYS BUD FISHER

This is another of the series of answers to V/ill Durant’s statement. "Man Is incapable of real love after 30.’’ BY BUD FISHER Mr. John N. Wheeler, Dear John: • You sent me a quotation from a so-called, is, may be or what have, a Dr. Will C. Durant, “A man past 30 is incapable! of love . . Personally I never have had the displeasure of meeting the Doc and the displeasure is no doubt mutual, but with one peek at the Doc’s pan, I easily can understand that the Doctor looks like more or less of a sedate, quiet sort of gent and easily could be

The Indianapolis Times

i. I— jb-j.—-j First robins, the equinox and other signs suggest the approach of spring, but Indianapolis youngsters have their own way of showing that winter is past. In the upper picture Is an exciting game of marbles in which John Shetts, 431 S. Pine St., has challenged William Melloch, 1218 Spann Ave. Bernard Glaze, 919 Drier PL, and Paul Toney, 820 Harrison St., who is holding Jack, the neighborhood pet, are spectators. Skates, bicycles and tricycles all regain their popularity with young Indianapolis as soon as the first mild air is felt. In the upper right Ralph Coffin, 2829 Ruckle St., is pushing Loyal H. Britton Jr., who, though young, is staunch in his support of the pleasures of tricycling over those of roller skating. Lower left is Miss Betty Lincoln, 526 Fall Creek Blvd., snapped as she enjoyed her first real "skate” after winter weather. Lower right, Billy Delbrook, 2814 Park Ave., tantalizes "Rin” with an “all-day sucker,” the most popular spring tonic.

COAL AREA CONDITION ARE OUTRAGE, GOODING SAYS, IN REVIEW OF SENATORS’ QUIZ Situation Branded a Menace; Mine Police Assailed; Violence and Squalor Everywhere, Idahoan Declares. This is the first of three articles by Senator Frank R Ooodlng of Idaho telling about conditions in the coal strike region of Pennsylvania. A senate Committee, headed by Gooding, recently made a tour of this section. BY SENATOR FRANK R. GOODING WASHINGTON, March 7.—The conditions prevailing in the bituminous coal fields of Pennsylvania, where thousands of miners are on strike, are shocking. They are cruel and often outrageous. They ere dangerous. They demonstrate a great eccnomic waste. They must be cleaned up, for the benefit of the owners of the mines, the workers in the mines and the people who pay the coal bills. The subcommittee of the Senate’s Interstate Commerce Committee went into the bituminous regions with an open mind and returned to Washington convinced of all these things. I can not believe that the coal operators have been aware of the abuses and cruelties to which miners have been subjected, in the physical sense, by the coal and iron police employed by these operators and as affects their rights as American citizens by courts themselves.

I can not believe that they are even aware of the .loathesome and unsanitary conditions amid which even the company strikebreakers are being lodged. Everything from near murder and assaults on women to violation of constitutional rights has been perperated upon defenseless workers and their families. I have no doubt that, although the miners’ union itself has made every effort to maintain peace and order, individual strikers have rebelled and broken the laws. But the situation facing them has become a breeder of radicalism and bolshevism which might well spread and become a national menace. We found Americans living in squalor, suffering misery and distress, conditions bound to lead to sickness and crime. Ve found no actual starvation because the union has tried to take care of its own and human beings can exist on very little when forced to do so. But the union’s temporary shacks are crowded and unsanitary. They will be worse in hot weather. We found workers crowded into little bunkhouses under most unsanitary conditions. In one house occupied by strikebreakers they had even removed the stove. Most of the strikebreakrs are colored men. They aren’t of the best class. The employers take in anyone who says he is a coal miner and then treat their men like dogs. Thus they have a great many inexperienced men, and that is a dangerous situation in a coal mine. We had women before us who had been beaten or criminally assaulted by coal and iron police. Many of the atrocities on miners and their families have taken place on public highways. The people seem to be helpless and unable to get relief. The committee gave the operators every chance to excuse themselves, but they made virtually no attempt to do so.

credited with assuming the aforesaid attitude. I naturally assume that the Doc passed the 30th year of his life and might be even now on the home stretch. The older they are, the harder they fall for the bunk —that there is any age limit on love. In these days the Doc can’t be "ruleo off for trying.” It wouldn’t be necessary to stop at a filling station to see that the Doc is running on a flat tire. In fact, it easily w’ould be noticed (by a quick squint at the picture of his philosophical bean that the Doctor nurses a neatly clipped flock of flea ladders on the only motive portion of the human skull, In

INDIANAPOLIS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7,1928

HICKMAN ACCEPTS CATHOLIC RELIGION

By United Press LOS ANGELES, March 7.—William Edward Hickman, under sentence of death for the murder of Marion Parker, has accepted the tenets of the Roman Catholic HELD FOR GRAND JURY Two Men Face Charges of Robbery at Speedway. Forest Moist, 26, of 1229 Villa Ave., and Raymond Fullen, 35, of 808 Fletcher Ave., were held to the grand jury Tuesday on charges of the robbery of John B. Wickard, of 2306 Ashland Ave. They are said to have forced Wickard into an automobile at the Speedway and taking a diamond ring and money from him. Aura Condiff, 25, of 1958 Olney St., and Floyd Fettinger, 24, of the same address, were held on charge of robbery of a filling station. ACTS ’ AFTER TRAGEDY Owner to Move Building at Centerton Crossing, Where Six Died. By Times Special MARTINSVILLE. Ind., March 7. —The store building owned by Lewis Parker at Centerton, which obstructs view of a Terre Haute, Indianapolis & Eastern traction line crossing, where six persons were killed a few weeks ago when an interurban car struck an automobile, is to be moved. p "r’-.er has advised Prosecutor William G. Bray of Morgan County that he will follow a suggestion of the public service commission that the building be moved.

dentistry known as the parking space of the lower molars, in other words, known as the jaw, or, to be more to the point, what is known in the social set of Madison Square Garden as the “button.” tt n a TF the Doc can prescribe human -*■ activity in a couple of lines, then I can diagnose his own statement by a slant at his map. One also can notice, even two could notice, that the Doc filters the fresh air to his bellows via the hedge route under his beak, designed by nature for the sense of smelling, not blockading one of tb.e five senses—if any.

TAX BOARD ASKS FOR SCHOOL PLANS

Chairman Jolm J. Browm of the State tax board today sent a letter to Albert F. Walsman, business director of the Indianapolis public schools, asking detailed information including plans and specifications, for the new buildings and additions to graded schools for which a $600,000 bond issue has been asked. The bond issue is now pending on appeal before the tax board. Brown referred to heaings that have been held and denied charges of school board members that the tax board was trying to halt needed building expenditures, “for no reason at all.”

Church, it was learned here today. Richard Cantillon, Hickman's youthful defense attorney, was authority for the announcement. Cantillon said Hickman was baptized last week in the county Jail here, and now looks forward to the reception of. the next two sacraments—holy communion and confirmation. Cantillon said the next two sacraments probably would be given waile Hickman awaits the outcome of his present joint trial with Welby Hunt for the murder of Ivy Toms, Los Angeles druggist. Hickman's great admiration for the Rev. Father E. H. Brady, pastor of St. Cecelia’s Catholic Church, led the convicted slayer to consider conversion, Cantillon said. Hickman may take the witness stand today to aid in his own insanity defense. In this event, attorneys said, alienists will follow the procedure of the Parker trial ir giving Hickman mental tests. CLOSE U. S. HIGHWAY 52 Road l\om West Harrison to Dearborn to Be Paved. Director John D. Williams of the State highway commission today announced that United States Rd. 52, vlll be closed Monday from the In-ciiana-Ohio line at West Harrison to Dearborn in Franklin County. The road will remain closed untij paving is completed. There are no detours and traffic between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, Ohio, should go through Hamilton, Ohio, and Richmond, Ind., Williams said.

All of which makes it necessary for a chaste salute, generally known as a kiss, to be passed to the kissee’s facial gap by means of a pea-shooter—especially if the kisser’s skin is a bit sensitive if she or it had not gone through a course of intensive training, using a coil of barbed wire as a sparring partner. Perhaps this self-inflicted idea of manly beauty, covering a chin with a set of bristles, may have caused many a fair damsel or damsels to “break slow at the barriers." I long have considered the possibility of interviewing bewhiskered professors throughout the

“We wish that you would furnish detailed information of the amount to be expended for each building proposed." the Brown letter read in part. “We would like to know the exact character of the improvements to be male. “This board desires to cooperate, but obviously we cannot proceed without accurate knowledge.” He asked that all plans and specifications be turned over the tax board at once. William H. Book o? the civic affairs committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Willis C. Nusbaum, attorney for the Indiana Taxpayers’ Association, conferred with Brown and other board members today, regarding the school bond issue. The issue appeal was taken by the Taxpayers Association of which Harry Miese is secretary. PATROLMAN APPOINTED Arthur Jines Fills Vacancy On Force Caused by Death. Arthur Jines, 27, Democrat, 2607 Vi W. Michigan St., was appointed patrolman Tuesday by the board of safety. Jines was named to fill a va_ cancy caused by death last week. Jines, an interior decorator, had the recommendations of Mayor L. Ert Slack, Councilman Millard W. Ferguson and Ernest Frick, works board secretary, all Democrats. TAX" RECORDS PROBED Prominent Property Owners to Be Called by Grand Jury in Quiz. Several prominent Center Township property owners are expected to appear before the Marion County grand jury in its probe of falsifications recently revealed in records of Township Assessor Frank B. Brattain, it was learned today. Brattain was before the grand jury Monday, telling how he discovered the original figures scratched out, and the insertions of others, lowering valuation of the property in question. Deputy Prosecutor William H. Sheaffer declined to reveal names of witnesses who will be summoned. Anthem Author’s Kin Dies By Times Special FT. WAYNE, Ind., March 7. Clayton Key, 81, who claimed he was a nephew of Francis Scott Key, author of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” is dead at the Allen County infirmary here.

country on this point and revealing the results of my inquiry to an eager nation. This handicap possibly might make the Doc sour on the weaker sex, or in this case of synthetic love diagnosis, stronger. The good Doc’s own actions belie his own words as they have been quoted to me, “That a man past 30 is incapable of love.” The unnecessary packing of chin germ catchers might show that dignified Doctors are in love. Yes—in love with themselves. Understand me now, I am not making this personal. Otherwise, generally speaking, why the stray moss on these chin

Second Section

Full Leased Wire Service ol the United Press Association.

FIRST EYE WITNESS STORY OF GERMANY’S EXECUTION OF BRITISH WAR NURSE IS TOLD Dr. Gottfried Benn, German Army Doctor, Breaks Long Silence Regarding Death of Edith Cavell at Hands of Firing Squad. BRAVE WOMAN MARTYR EULOGIZED Relates Death Trek to Brussels Shooting Range, Where Nurse and Belgian Soldier Unflinchingly Gave Lives for Allies. The following article by Frederick Kuh, United Press Staff Correspondent, contains the first complete eye-witness account of the heroic death before % German firing squad of Nurse Edith Cavell, who gave her life for her country during the World War. Dr. Gottfried Benn. German Army medical officer, detailed to witness the execution, describes In detail the manner of her execution, and corrects th* many conflicting versions that have gone before. BY FREDERICK KUH United Press Staff Correspondent BERLIN, March 7. —The death before a German firing sqnad of Edith Cavell, British World War nurse, was described for the first time in all its dramatic detail today by the German doctor who witnessed her execution for helping Avar prisoner* to escape. “A brave daughter of a groat nation,” the army physician —Dr. Gottfried Benn—called Miss Cavell in telling the story; in the newspaper Acht-Uhr-Abendblalt. He told how she walked unflinchingly to the execution place, said she was glad to die for England, and received twelve bullets in her heart and lungs. Dr. Benn broke a ten-year silence to help clear up the controversy that followed the banning, by the British government, of a motion picture film purporting to describe Miss Cavell’a execution.

WHISKY PLOT CASES DROPPED

Remaining Jack Daniel Aids to Be Dismissed. Authority to dismiss indictments against remaining defendants in the Jack Daniel Distillery theft case, tried here in 1925, has been gre.ited by the United States attorney general’s office, Albert Ward, United States district attorney, announced today. Twenty defendants, mostly of St. Louis and Cincinnati, were sentenced in December, 1925. The case involved theft of 890 barrels of bonded whisky from the Jack Daniel Distillery at St. Louis, owned at the time by George Remus, “Bootleg Czar," recently found insane, following his trial for the murder of his wife, Imogene, at Cincinnati. Among the cases to be dismissed by Ward are those of Lem Matlow, Thomas A. Heffernan and Henry L. Dahlman of Nashville, Tenn.; Fred Essen, St. Louis; Leonard Stone, George Hallis and a man named Houlihan, all fugitives: Frank Hoffman, Chicago, released at a removal hearing; Michael Kinney, granted anew trial in District Court, and John Connors, George L. Landin, William Lucking, Cincinnati: Anthony Foley, St. Louis; Robert E. Walker and Edwin J. O’Hare, whose conviction was reversed by the Circuit Court of Appeals. ESSAY TEST CLOSES 'Best Girf Winner to Be Named Thursday. All answers to the “My Best Girl Contest" were in by midnight Tuesday and judges already started their task of sorting and classifying the replies. In addition to a representative from the Loew’s Palace Theater, there are two other judges. Miss Mary Rose Hemler, of Bobbs-Merrlll Company, and George O. Hutsell, Marion County clerk. These three will determine the winners. The Indianapolis Times reserves the right to be the final judge in all matters of dispute. This clause will eliminate all error in the selection of prize winners. There are two lists of prizes. One for men and one for women. The prizes are first, $25; second, $10; third, fourth and fifth, $5, and ten prizes of one pair of Tree tickets to the Palace for the ten next best essays. Winners will be announced Thursday. Smallpox at Peru PERU, Ind., March 7.—With forty cases of smallpox here, health authorities have ordered vaccination of all school teachers and pupils not already immunized against the disease.

joints that are wobbling around on all the best lecture platforms these days? Is it ego, vanity, conceit, or just plain bunk? Ask me another! But why dignify mental perspiration? When the skull is dead, the brush frequently still grows—ask any undertaker! If you don’t want to any undertaker, take my word for it. This might be circumstantial evidence in the case at hand. How do I know? Don’t feed the trained seals as you pass out on your left. Jim, bring in the mop. Yours, as usual, BUD FISHER. (Copyright, 1928, Bell Syudieate, Inc.)

The view was taken that the portrayal would revive bad feeling between Britons and Germans. Dr. Benn was medical officer at the German headquarters in Brussels during the war. He attended, jin an official capacity, both the trial and execution of the British nurse. After she had fallen before the bullets of the firing squad, it was his duty to examine her body and certify her death. Movements Kept Secret This is his story: “I received orders to go by motor car to an unknown destination known only to the chauffeur. At dawn we arrived at the shooting range at Brussels, where a company of infantry lined a path leading to the wall where two platoons of twelve men each—the firing parties—were waiting. “We waited for some time and then another car arrrived in which was a Belgian engineer named Broque, who had been sentenced to die for complicity in the Cavell case. “Broque nonchalantly went to a place indicated to him, and, standing between two white poles, doffecU his cap to the firing squad drawn* up before him. He bade them ‘good morning’ and then said: Fears Belgian’s Speech “ ’ln the face of death we arc comrades.’ “The officer in charge of the firing party, fearing that the man was going to make a provocative speech, interrupted. Broque then stood silent and erect. “Another car arrived in which were Nurse Cavell and a priest. She was dressed in a blue tailor-mads costume with a small hat. Her face was like a mask. Her gait was staggering, owing to muscular impediment. but she nevertheless walked without hesitation toward the place between the two pole* where the Belgian stood. “She stopped for a moment to tell the priest. Glad to Die for England " ‘I am glad to be dying for England. Other women are sacrificing more—husbands, brothers, sons. I have only my own life to give.’ “She asked the priest to send a last message from her to her mother and to her brothers who were serving with the British army in France. “The final scenes were eve* quickly. The firing squad presented arms and the military judge read the verdict of the court which had found the accused guilty. Both the Englishwoman and the Belgian were blindfolded and each was tied to a pole. "At a single word of command, both platoons fired from a distance of a couple of yards. Broque’* body sagged, but, for a few momenta the Englishwoman remained upright,. Like the Belgian, however, she had been killed instantaneously, receiving twelve bullets which had pierced her heart and lungs. “It is untrue that, she received the Coup De Grace (a finishing shot from an officer’s pistol fired when there is doubt regarding death). < Burial Spot Unknown “I immediately went to the pole to which her body was tied and felt for her pulse. When I found th"" she was dead I closed her e v “I assisted in placing In a small yellow coffin. She was immediately interred at a place which had been kept secret. "I am not attempting to correct the legend which has grown up around Nurse Cavell. I want only to tell what I remember: and I remember her as an active woman, who paid for her patriotic deeds with her life. At Miss Cavell’s trial, Dr. Been said that he heard Miss Cavell admit that the organization she had formed to help “the enemy”—the Allies—had smuggled 300 soldiers and Belgian civilians across the Dutch frontier,