Ofye ISejWrsonian
Vol. 13, No. 18
A BRIEF .news item appeared in the At
lanta Constitution last week announcing
the settlement, outside of court, of the suit
for damages, which Mary Phagan’s mother
had brought against the National Pencil
Factory, of which Leo Frank was superin
tendent, and in which the little work-girl was
assaulted and killed.
Settled out of court!
I presume you know the legal meaning of
the words.
The suit was not dismissed, it was not tried,
it was privately settled, and the costs thrown
the defendant company, l>y law.
Now, if you will reflect upon the matter,
and recollect the history of the famous case,
you will realize that the Hebrews who owned
the factory, and who were the employers of
Leo Frank, have done that which is equiva
lent to a confession of Leo Frank’s awful
guilt.
Remember the criminal prosecution of this
man; remember that he had the best lawyers
money could secure; remember that his case
was not called for trial until he had had
ample time for preparation; remember that
the trial itself lasted nearly a month; and
remember that there were Jews on the Grand
Jury which accused Leo Frank of the mur
der of Mary Phagan.
Remember, too, the tremendous pressure
that was brought upon poor Judge Roan to
induce him to grant a new trial; remember
how the Supreme Court decided against
Frank, saying that the evidence of his guilt
.was sufficient.
Some Things to Remember in Connection With the Mexican Situation
piFTY years ago, the Fenian bandits got
* themselves together in the United States,
and made a raid across the border into Canada.
These Fenian bandits meant to excite a re
bellion in Canada which Would overthrow the
government.
These .Fenian bandits were encountered by
the Canadian troops, and the “Battle of
Ridgeway” was fought.
It wasn’t much more of a battle than that
of Parral, Mexico; and the loyal Canadian
troops easily routed the Fenian bandits.
When these marauders had been whipped,
k what did they do?
Fled back across the border, and took
refuge in these United States.
That was in 1866.
Who were those Fenian bandits that used
pur country as a military base for the raid
Into Mexico?
They were Irish Catholics.
Who was one of their principal leaders,
their Villa?
O'Donavan Fossa, the Irish Catholic jail-
T>ird.
Did Great Britain demand redress from our
Government, and threaten us with a punitive
expedition I
L Ho!
The Final Confession of Leo Frank’s Guilt.
Thomson, Ga., Thursday, April 27, 1916
Remember how Burns and Lehon and
Burke were then brought into the case, and
the Haas Finance Committee acted as cashier
for the most systematically infamous cam
paign that ever was inaugurated for the crim
inal purpose of manufacturing testimony in
favor of the condemned man, and destroying
the evidence on which he was convicted.
It all failed: Solicitor Dorsey watched
Burns with lynx-eyed vigilance, and coun
tered on him at every move in the game.
To save Frank and defeat the Law, nothing
was left except one recourse, provided for in
advance, and held in reserve for the very last.
Leo Frank’s own lawyer set aside all the
courts, annulling the legal sentence, and sub
stituting another which was hailed by the
backers of Frank as a prelude to his libera
tion “in a short while.”
When the lawyer who had done this thing,
fled the State, and the Vigilantes had executed
upon the condemned man a capital sentence
which had never been lawfully set aside,
floods of scurrility poured upon the State,
and upon the whole South.
The undertone of the whole press-agent
propaganda in behalf of Leo Frank had
been —
“Give him another trial! He can clear
himself if you will only let him have another
chance.*'
Frank himself was engaged at the State
Farm in writing letters to the same effect.
His vindication was certain to come soon:
so said Luther Rosser, as well as Leo Frank.
Why not? Because the British statesmen
had sense enough to know that our Govern
ment had no connection with the Fenian raid,
and could not be justly held responsible for it.
The Fenian bandits acted without the
knowledge of our Government, and contrary
to its policy, when they dashed across the
frontier, and carried havoc and bloodshed
into Canada.
At that time, Uncle Sam was in the same
position that General Carranza is, now;
neither one could have foreseen or prevented
the raid.
Neither Uncle Sam’s Government nor Gen
eral Carranza's was responsible for the raids.
Why, then, do we now apply to Mexico a
harsh, illegal rule that Great Britain did not
even speak of applying to us?
Not only was there not a scintilla of evi
dence against the Mexican government, but
we had abundant testimony that it was ex
erting everv resource to capture and execute
Villa.
Moreover, it is a general belief that Villa
was the hired tool of re-actionary interests-*-
financial and Romanist—to make an attack
across our border which could be seized upon
as a pretext for invading Mexico, overthrow*
After the execution of Frank, the news
paper war commenced again.
You remember how it raged, and you re
member at whom it was chiefly aimed.
During all that time, the civil docket con
tained the official entry of the damage suit
brought by Mrs. Coleman—Mary Phagan’s
mother —against Frank’s pencil factory.
Thei ‘c was the case which would re-open
the whole matter, and afford the champions
of Frank and Slaton the amplest opportunity
to vindicate both Slaton and Frank.
The mother of the murdered girl could
not possibly win her case, unless she proved
to the satisfaction of another jury that Leo
Frank was the guilty man.
True, she did not have to make out his
guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, as Dorsey
had had to do in the criminal case, but in
order to -win her suit she would have had to
prove Frank’s guilt, hy a preponderance of
the evidence.
In any event, the civil action for damages,
offered to the family of Frank—the father,
the brother, the wife, the mother, and the
uncles—a magnificent opportunity to rehabili
tate his character and vindicate his memory.
Incidentally, it afforded the Atlanta Jour
nal a chance to show why Frank should have
had a new trial, and why his execution under
the decision of our Supreme Court would
have, been “judicial murder.”
The civil case also opened the way for the
Burns Agency to prove innocence of attempts
(continued on page nine.)
ing Carranza, and re-establishing the iron
rule of the Spanish land-king and slave
owner, the Spanish high-priest, and the
American exploiter.
The plotters plotted well, and President
Wilson walked into it, with eyes open, know
ing that an Army of the size he sent into
Mexico, with Negroes and Apaches in front,
was sure to arouse the natives into a frenzy.
How he could fail to see that 12,000 foreign
troops on Mexican soil, would naturally create
profound distrust of American motives, I am
not able to comprehend.
And when the Negro cavalry of this in
vading force began to shoot down unarmed
civilians, white men! in their own villages,
in the sight of their wives and children, is it
any wonder that we now face a war with
Mexico, at the very time wo have told Ger
many that she has kicked ns, and spat upon
vs, long enough ?
In the Augusta, Georgia, Herald of April
17, 1916, appears the picture of two of the
negro cavaliers who have been shooting white
men in Mexico.
These two black Knights Errvant have the
look that we Southern whites know so weII—
u(CONTINUED ON PAGE FIVE.}
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