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ASSOCIATED
PRESS NEWS
OF THE WORLD
FORTY-SECOND YEAR—NO. ISO
BIG LEADERS NOW ARRIVING FOR CONVENTION
DETECTIVE BURNS DECLARES ELWELL
WAS MURDERED BY SPURNED WOMAN
No Great Mystery, Says
Noted Sleuth, In
Deductions
By JAMES HENLE.
N. E. A. Staff Correspondent.
NEW YORK, June 24. ■“There is
no great mystery about the murder ;
of Elwell,” William J. Burns, inter
nationally famous dectective said to
me today.
“It was commit
ted in all probab- [
ility by a woman. I
and by a woman i
who had spent the i
greater part of the I
night in Elwell’s !
home pleading with !
him not to cast her I
off.”
In making this
statement Burns
took sharp issue
with the authorities
investigating the
case, who insist the ■
actual shooting was
If
1 W.C BURNS
done by a man, though they admit
that a woman was connected with it. .
Burns himself has done no work on
the murder, but has read with ex-i
treme care newspaper accounts of it,
and has arrived at his conclusion by
eliminating possibility after possi-,
bility.
“The fact that the murder was
committed with a .45 calibre auto
matic does not remove the possibility
of a woman being responsible,” said
Burns. “The trigger of an automatic
pulls very easily; all that is neces
sary is* a slight pressure, and
it is a weapon that a desperate wo
man might well be to have
used. Fix the situation in your mind
and discard the unessential features.
Life With Women.
“Elwell has lived a free and easy
life with women. Then the report
circulates that he is about to re
marry. He even goes so far as to
engage a home for the Saratoga rac
ing season in the name of ‘Mr. and
Mrs. Elwell.’
“Word of this reaches one of the
women with whom he has been on
intimate terms and who possessses
the key to his city house. She comes
there the night preceding th murder. i
She waits for him until he gets home. |
“Wd know by the testimony of a
reliable witness that he arrived home
at 3:45 a. m. It makes no differ
ence where he spent his time since
leaving the Lewisohns nor who was
the man in the automobile to,
whom he waved goodbye. [
“He went upstairs and found there |
the woman who had come to plead
with him not to throw her over. She
was in the bedroom he had furnished
in feminine fashion and was probably
undressed.
She asked him if it were true
that he was to remarry. She de- ,
taanded to know what was to become
of her after the relations that had
existed between them. She reproach- s
ed him for his lack of constancy <
She declared she would never give
him up. * „ , ,
“Meanwhile Elwell undressed re- ■
moving his wig and false teeth, for
he was on terms of the utmost inti
macy with her.
“The Woman Scorned
“In all probability they quarreled
the rest of the night, the woman ;
constantly becoming more and more
infuriated. In our work we have met
many examples of “the woman scorn-j
ed ” and we know what they are cap-1
able of under those conditions. I have
known them willing to commit a nun-,
dred murders. |
“Elwell was nrobably glad of an ;
excuse t leave the room when the [
bell rang and he heard the postman’s ■
whistle. He went downstairs and gotl
the letters but, instead of returning '
to the woman, he went into the recep
tion room. His feminine visitor wait
ed for a few minutes and then fol-1
lowed him downstairs. S- e saw that
he was so little interested in her plea
that he had stooped to read his mail.
“That was the last straw.
“Upstairs she did not have her pis-|
tol within reach for she had brought
it to the house in a handbag. But
when she went downstairs she took
the pistol with her.
Could Tell More
“The sight of Elwell coldly read
ing his letters brought her fury to a
head. She may hav; asked him one
more question and it is likely he re
plied with a laugh or a curt ‘no’.
“Then she revealed her pistol, took
accurate aim at his head and fired.
After this she swiftly dressed and
left the house. It is even possible
that she returned later to remove
tell-tale bits of evidence. »
“I am certain that more question
ing of the Larsen woman, Elwell’s
former housekeeper, will reveal a
great deal about the so-called mys
trv. From the first, even before she
admitted hiding the woman’s kimono
and boudoir cap, I was convinced
that she knew more than she had
told.”
Miss L. E.s Richardson, who has
been spending several days here, a
guest at the Windsor, returned this
afternoon to her home in J Jackson
ville.
WOMAN COULD EASILY HANDLE .45 j
■“I I IHSHSBiiiiiiiiiJ
y a jg|| j
If
II! 1 * j« It
-I? »" ' h
Mill!
lllllft--
‘! H ||K 1 iilllffila
‘ill J ißMiffi ,)
Detective Burns disagrees with the police theory that a woman would
be unlikely to use a .45 caliber automatic. This photograph show’s a woman’s
hand grasping a .45 of the type which was used to kill Elwell. It is easily
gripped by a woman and trigger pressure required for firing is slight. In
the background is Joseph B. Elwell.
Democrats Outline Planks;
Seek Solution of Dry Issue
League Endorsed and Irish Given Pledge of Presen
tation of Cause To World
Tribunal
SAN FRANCISCO, June 24—,
Here is the democratic national plat
form in its scantling state. The ver-,
bal two-by-fours, it will be observed j
have still to be sheathed and painted,'
and some of the architects have not
even approved the design. But it rep
resents the structure in its present
stage of construction. It must come
into competition with the Virginia
platform which Carter Glass has just
brought.
The one feature on which the two
tentative drafts agree is the League
of Nations plank, which has been bor
rowed from the Virginia platform.
President Wilson having approved
this, it is the one plank of the whole
that is likely to go through unchang
ed.
• Actually the text which follows is
officially only a collection of sug
gestions. The Democrats have no ad
visory committee, like that which,
under the Chairmanship of Ogden
Mills, produced a similar draft for
the Republican Resolutions Commit
tee, but the volunteer architects of
the San Francisco gathering perform
the same office.
“It’s only something to fight over’ -
said one of the group. “There will
be a lot of other planks that have as
yet not even been reduced to writ
ing.”
It will be noted that there is no
prohibition plank in the collection.
The explanation of the omission is
another story, and one that is likely
to produce the most spectacular bat
tle of the occasion.
Busy on Dry Problem
A volunteer construction corps of
platform builders were busy yester
day and today whittling out planks
which they believe would meet the
needs of the convention in expressing
DEATH AND ILLNESS IN WILL ROGERS’
FAMILY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR
HIM TO WRITE AT SAN FRANCISCO
yyiTH one son dead from diphtheria, another near death and two ?
other children dangerously ill. Will Rogers wires that it will 2
be impossible for him to write for The Times-Recorder at the Dem- (
ocratic convention. He is spending all his time with his sick chil- 2
dren. 2
It is with the deepest regret and sincere hope for the rapid re- ’
covery of his famil that The Times-Recorder makes this an- 2
nouncement. We feel confident that Rogers will have, also, the 2
sympathy and good wishes of the hosts of reader friends who en- (
joyed his paragraphs on the Chicago convention.
eric
theTimesbretorder
PUBLISHED IN THE _ HE AR T OF ~DIXIE;
its views as to prohibition enforce
ment.
Informal discussion by delegates
shows several schools of thought
among the anti-bone dry advocates
as to how the question should be ap
proached. They vary from the States
Rights stand taken by Governor Ed
wards of New Jersey to proposals
that congress be urged to proceed
directly toward modifying the one
half of one per cent alcoholic content
restriction of the Volstead enforce
ment act so as to lift the ban from
beers and light wines.
The most pronounced movement at
the moment, however, and the one
which appeared to have taken the
most definite shape that originating
in Washington and designed to offer
a basis on which anti-bone dry forces
could concentrate. Personal liberty
will be the slogan of advocates of this
compromise plank. Mr. Cummings
was emphatic in defining the ques
tion to be solved as not a prohibition
issue but merely expression of the
party’s attitude as to the Volstead
enforcement act.
Here are the platform suggestions
beginning with the one outside of
prohibition that is calculated to pro
voke the discussion.
Ireland
“We express our profound sympa
thy for the rights and inspirations of
small nations, and of races, subject
to alien domination. The striving of
these for self-government appeals to
the sense of justice of the world.
“The centuries-old struggle of Ire
land for self-government is today
one of the unhappy problems disturb
ing mankind. To her the League of
Nations offers, for the first time in
history, an international tribunal
(Continued on last page)
AMERICUS, GA., THURSDAY AFTERNOON, JUNE 24, 1920
COALCARS HAUL
LUXURIES WITH
U.S.NEARFMNE'
60 Per Cent, of Equip
ment Diverted or
Tied Up
r I
!stries hit '
CAR CONGESTION. '
g coal faminine and <
form the high-spot
>n-wide car congestion, S
ustries are affected. 2
evators in the middle >
arge quantities of last <
not yet moved. There
0,000 bushels in Illi- 2 |
lowa elevators. The 2 |
; coming in soon, with s |
store it and few cars 2 |
t it. S'
try has abundant food- (i
E. D. McDougal, Chi-> j
of Trade, but prices <
> because railroads ar >
the food. 2
trades are slowed<
ly increasing the hous- S
n. 2
th crop loans are un-)
ners dan’t pay until <
op is moved. Fiaanc- 2
w harvest will be dis- s
W. S. McLucas, presi- 2
,s City Chamber of S
“Kansas City is get- 2
1 800 cars a week for >
tead we ought to be 2
)0 to 800 cars a day.” <
e, some soft coal op
profiteering on the 2
alamity and will have >
to tax consumers
)00 if relief is delay- >
WASHINGTON, June 24—(Spe
cial) —Government officials estimate
that the railroads have 975,000 cars
in good repair.
But about 585,000 of them are not
delivering the goods, for the supply
of cars to the mines is only 40 per
cent of normal.
That is the big cause of the pres
ent sky-rocketing prices of «oft coal, j
threatening famine this fall and an '
added tax of $3,000,000,000 on con-!
sumers’ pocketbooks.
The 60 per cent of cars that should
be hauling coal, but are not, are ei
ther in use transporting other things
like automobiles and building ma- j
terials, or are standing on side tracks j
full of coal or ore that cannot be un-i
loaded. Congress caused that.
MoA of the cars that are availa-1
b!.» are hauling coal for the railroads. I
This is a very t ecessary function but
it reacts doublv on the public right
now.
FIRST —It leaves very few cars to
meet the need for summer transpor
tation via the Great Lakes to the
northwest;
SECOND —It gives a few mines,
vhich the railroads permit to have
cars, a wide-open opportunity for
profiteering.
Monopolize Coal Cars
The Black Diamond coal journal,
says editorially: . x .
“The only mines able to obtain
cars with any degree of regularity
are those furnishing railroad fuel.
In many instances, in self-defense,
mines are compelled to accept rail-*
road fuel orders to get cars at all.
At a time when car supply averages
little more than 35 per cent this ere
ates a scarcity of coal for commercial
shipping. The railroads have a mo
nopoly on the coal supplv.”
Saward's Journal, another coal
publication, says:
“We are now running about 400,-
000 tons a day below 1918 figures.
The assigned car practice is enabling
the railroads to get their coal at
much below the market price, at the
expense of other classes of consum
ers.”
John Moore, president of the Ohio
miners, says:
“Tens of thousands of miners are
out of work because the railroads
refuse to supply cars to the mines
on an equitable basis. This is the time
of year when every miner should be
working. That is the only way to pre
' vent suffering next winter.
Interstate Commerce C immission
1 figures show that when the switch
, men’s strike began car congestion
| was 93,000 cars. By April 24 it had
risen to the highest P J!nt .non
can raib ading history, with 269,000
I cars tie! up at terminals, junction
| points and way sidings. By June I
it was reduced to 170,000 cars bm
since then conditions have been
steadily getting worse again.
Reports from all over the country
show that coal cars are be : ng used
to sl.'p automobiles, budding material
and machinery. Concerning this the
New York Times, June 8, said.
“About 30 per cent of the cars
’ received here are open flat-bottom
j cars. These can be loaded without
i extra expense. The other 70 per
■ cent are saw-tooth or drop-bottom
cars. These have to be floored
j with lumber (which costs $65 per
I 1000 quare feet) and there is an
ALL NOT POLITICS!
AT GOLDEN GATE!
FOR DEMOCRATS
Delegates Having Time
of Their Lives Sight- I
Seeing
BY MABEL ABBOTT
N. E. A. Staff Correspondent.
SAN FRANCISCO, June 24.—It’s I
hard to get a quorum on any kind of
pre - convention ’
committee just |
now. Everybody is
tied up with im
portant ( and un
bi eatable engage
ments.
The nature of
these engagement I
is usually not spec
ified; and it is not
convention eti
quette to inquire
into them too close
ly
I know what
they are, however
’;d I don’t mind tell
ing.
9
MAB£L ABBOTT
The* Democrats are out sightsee-!
ing. They are wandering up and
down the streets, that somehow don’t
look like the streets of any other
city. They are motoring through the
brown hill in the sun and wind. They
are riding on the bay and prowling
through Chinatown and climbing
Tamalpais and trying out all the,
restaurants and in general, having
the time of their lives.
I climbed into a rubber neck wag- !
on yesterday. It was loaded to the!
gunwales. They all are.
On one side of me was Mrs. E. B.i
Towl of Omaha, a Bryan worker.!
On the other was Miss Charles O.
Williams of Memphis, a delegate'
from Tennessee, and an associate
national committee woman.
The morning fog touched our
cheeks like a cool, soft hand; the'
breeze smelled of eucalyptus and salt
air and the flower stands on the cor-1
ners. We knew we wouldn’t get
back until 1 o’clock and we didn’t
care.
No other national convention, prob
ably, has had so beautiful a setting
as this one.
San Franciscians like to sigh over
the irrevocable ‘atmosnhere’ of the;
old city before the earthquake—
excuse me I mean before the fire i
But the new city has atmosphere
too.
The women beside me had travel
ed, and they talked of Mexico and
of Rome and of Alaska. But as the
bus waddled slowly through the love-1
ly canyons of the downtown section
and the megaphone bawled the in
formation that all this had been re
built since 1906, they fell silent.
Mrs. Towl spoke first. “It’s a good
thing the fire happened before the!
war and labor ■trouble,” said she. |
“It couldn’t have been done since.” j
Typical of that city is the civic
center, with its gray white stone
buildings around a square of trees
and grass and statues. The mega
phone waved at one of them.
“In this building,” announced the
lecturer, “the Democrats are soon to
select the next president-of the Unit
ed States.” The applause made it
perfectly clear that he had a con
vention crowd on board.
Across the fire line we trundled.
Through streets of old frame build
ings—all that remain of the San
Francisco of the sixties. Along the
winding roads of the golden gate till
the Pacific bpened before.
Conventions must be principally
! politics, of course, but the Democrats
ihave been wise enough to recognize
! that politics can be nlayed just as
well in a pleasant place and in a few
I days. When the struggle begins
there will be many a Democrat who
; will forget politics for an instant
to remember a vision of wet rocks
with seals writhing on them, and
gray gulls wheeling above a blue
ocean, and brown, windy hills and a
beautiful and joyous city.
extra charge of $25 per car for
flooring them. In addition to this
charge the cars have to be pro
tected by water-proof tarpaulins
■ for which a charge of SICO each is
I made to the consignee, and when
I returned in good condition a re
j bate of S9O is allowed. Tarpaulins
I average six trips before they are
I unfit for further use. Furthermore
the extra cost of loading is $25
per car over and above ill ex
penses.”
Mere than a month has passed
since the car congestion became
acute.
The Interstate Commerce Com
mission has issued various orders,
including the rushing of solid trains
of empty cars from congested points
I to districts needing them.
So far, however, there has been
practically no mass breaking of car
congestion. In the mattor of coal
and grain shipments, matters have
gotten worse and are steadily getting
I more-so.
FIRST WOMAN
ON COMMITEE
• SB
SB
£<-IZ*l3£r*
!£ T/AN
Women advanced another step po
litically when Mrs. Elizabeth Chris
tian was elected by the Washington
Democratic State convent'on at Spo
kane recently to be first national
Democratic committee-woman.
VOniRS - SESSION
FOR TENNESSEE
Governor to Comply
With Wire Request
of Wilson
NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 24
Suffrage hopes rallied today when it
was learned that Governor Roberts
planned to call a special session of
the legislature to act on the federal
suffrage amendment, following the
receipt of a telegram from President
Wilson urging such action in the in
terest of “real service to the party
and to the nation.”
WASHINGTON, June 24.—Assis
tant Attorney General Frierson has
advised Governor Roberts, of Ten
nessee, that the legislature of that,
state could ratify the suffrage amend
ment without submitting the issue to
the people.
WASHINGTON, J<ine 24—Pres
ident Wilson last night sent a tele
gram to Governor Roberts of Tennes
see urging that a special session of
the Tennessee legislature be cal'| d
| to act on the federal suffrage amend-
I ment.
The president in his telegram said:
“It would be a real service to the I
party and to the nation if it is pos- j
sible for you under the peculiar pro- j
visions of your state constitution, |
having in mind the recent decision of |
the supreme court in the Ohio case, I
to call a special session of the legis-1
lature of Tennessee to consider the ;
suffrage amendment. Allow me to |
urge this very earnestly.”
The state constitution of Tennes- i
see has a provision prohibiting ac-'
tion by the state legislature on a fed
eral constitutional amendment except
when the legislature taking the ac-1
tion has been chosen at an election
in which the proposed amendment
was an issue. Some legal authorities
have been quoted as holding that
such a provision was invalidated by
the supreme court’s decision in the
i Ohio referendum case.
(GEORGIA NEGRO f
G. O. P. CHOICE
FOR GOVERNOR j
PORREST CITY, Ark, June 24. (
* —(By Associated Press) —J. 2
H. Blount, who is the first negro >
to be nominated for governor of <
Arkansas, received his nomination >
at the hands of a faction of the <
Republican party in this state. >
Blount is about 60 years old and s
has made his home in this city for ?
the past 47 years. 5
The nominee was born in Jones <
county Georgia, and received his >
elementary training in the schools <
of Atlanta and higher education >
in Nashville and Chicago. He is at s
present principal of the negro 2
schools of Helena and has been 5
connected with schools in -evera! ;
Arkansas towns, including Hot >
Springs, Texarkana and Forrest (
City. 2
Blount is said to be in independ- S
ent financial circumstances, < wn- <
ing over 600 acres of farm land >
and to teach mere ly for the love <
of the work. He is active in many <
fraternal orders. (
FL -RttP!
PRICE FIVE CENTS.
CUMMINGS MAY
BE ALLOWED TO
PRESIDE TO END
Senator Glass and Boss
Murphy, of Tammany,
Reach Frisco
SAN FRANCISCO, June 24—Pre
liminaries to the Democratic conven
vention got into the inevitable period
of hurry and scramble today with the
appearance of one after another of
the men who will play leading parks
in the big drama.
Two newly arrived figures who at
tracted particular attention were
Senator Glass, fresh from Washing
ton and generally supposed to have
brought President Wilson’s own draft
of the platform, and Charles N. Mur
phy, Tammany leader, direct from
the widely-heralded conference of old
line strategists at French Lick, Ind.,
Both were in conferences, but
both were silent respecting policies.
Final preparations at the conven
tion hall were completed today with
the perfection of the electric mega
phone system.
The suggestion that National
Chairman Cummings, who will be
temporary chairman, be continued as
permanent presiding officer was put
forward today as a means of short
ening the convention proceedings by
dispensing with the formalities of
a second convention organization.
WILSON NOT TO ADDRESS
CONVENTION BY PHONE.
WASHINGTON, June 24.—Re
ports from San Francisco that Pres
ident Wilson would address the Dem
ocratic convention over long dis
tance telephone were denied toda/ at
White House.
COX NOT NEARLY
SO WET AS PAINTED.
DAYTON, 0., June 24.—1 t can be
stated on high authority that if Gov.
Ccx of Ohio and his managers have
their way there will be no mention
of prohibition in the Democratic
platform. They hold that if mention
of the liberalization of the Volstead
act were left out the governor would
still be able to swing the bulk of the
wet vote on his Ohio reputation and
at the same time draw to him num
erous non-militant prohibitionists to
whom an appeal could be made on the
basis of his law and enforcement
record.
The governor personally takes the
stand that it would be his duty to
enforce the law however he may find
it, and that if the people as a whole
really desire liberalization of the pro
hibition law they would so express
themselves in the election of a wet
congress, thus carrying their mandate
to the executive.
Inquiry into Cox’s record would
indicate that he is not nearly as wet
as he is made out to be by the Anti-
Saloon League and the Republicans.
When he came into office he found
a Sunday closing law which, with the
help of a new license measure, he en
forced. Even his enemies concede
this. His whole idea, as he has ex
' pressed himself recentlv has been to
give the people what they want.
Greeks Start Drive on
Turk Bolshevik Army
SMYRNA June 23 (Wednesday)
The Greek army has begun an offen
sive against the forces of Mustapha
Kemal Pasha, the Turkish national
ist leader, according to an officia’
statement by Greek army headquar
ters.
Railway Wage Board
To Expedite Award
WASHINGTON, June 24—Presi
, dent Wilson has received a reply from
I the railroad labor board in Chicago
promising to expedite the award in
the railroad wage controversy. The
message was in repl” to one sent by
President Wilson.
U. S. Recognizes New
Guatemaula Regime
WASHINGTON, June 24—The
Herrera government in Guatemala,
which succeeded that of Estrada Ca
brera, has been recognized bv thf
United States, the State Department
today announced.
; League Council to Hold
Next Meeting in Spain
! MADRID, June 24.—The next
; I meeting of the council of the league
' of nations will be held at San Sebas
tian on July 27, it was announced
! here yesterday.
> Forecast for Georgia —Partly
[ I cloudy tonight and Friday. Probably
local showers.