Newspaper Page Text
Atlanta eri-Wc ddn Journal
VOL. XXV. NO. 189
■ WOMEN’S CHU
BODIES FOUND IN
■' SHACK NEAR ATHENS
ATHENS, Ga., Dec. 17.—An arrest
will - be made today in connection
With tile deaths of Mrs. Mag Sim-
* nions and her fifteen-year-old daugh
ter, Rosalie, whose bodies were
found in tne burning ruins of an
abandoned farm shack about eight
miles from here yesterday, Sheriff
Collier, of Jackson county, said this
morning.
He had under surveillance, he
said, a man acquaintance of Mrs.
Simons whom his investigation
points to as having enticed the wom
an and her daughter to Athens
through a message purporting to be
from Mrs. Simons’ daughter, Mrs.
John Doster.
With all indications pointing to
the couple having been slain, placed
in the abandoned shack and the
* building fired, the sheriff said his
trail of the slayer led definitely from
Athens. The woman and her daugh
ter left their home in Jefferson, near
here, Saturday night, he said, the
husband and father having brought
them to the station and put them
aboard a train after a note had been
received supposedly from Mrs. Si
mons’ daughter asking her to come
to Athens. The conductor of the train
at first told the sheriff that the
couple had not boarded it, but later
j informed the official that he was
mistaken and that he remembered
having brought them, to Athens.
At Athens, the sheriff’s investiga
tion discloses, they were met by a
man who took them about four miles
out in the country, where they were
slain and their bodies placed in the
shack, to be burned almost beyond
recognition.
The sheriff said he believed rob
bery figureci in the motive, as the
woman drew about S3B from the
bank before leaving Jefferson. No
money was found in the ashes of
the burned house.
WOMEN ENTICED FROM
HOME ON SATURDAY
» JEFFERSON, Ga., Dec. 17.—Sher
iff Collier and his deputies today con
tinued their investigation into the
finding of two bodies, believed to be
those of Mrs. Maggie Simmons and
her fifteen-year-old daughter, in the
ashes of an abandoned farmhouse
near Clarksboro, yesterday morning.
The authorities have established
that the woman and her daughter
left their home here Saturday night
to go to Athens in response to a
purported invitation from relatives.
The invitation did not come from the
elatives, Sheriff Collier said he had
•ained, and with all indications
anting to the women having been
uiced from their home, robbed and
ain, his investigation centered
.•out the slayer.
Tne husband of Mrs. 1 Simmons has
ntif.cd tne body as that of his
a ife. He told Sheriff Collier that
>e 100 < his wife and daughter to
ie station Saturday night to board
. train for Athens.
Takes Money From Bank
Officers learned that Mr. and Mrs.
nimons had a quarrel Saturday
lorning, and it was said that Mrs.
immons went to the bank for the
purpose of withdrawing money
presumably to take on the trip to
Athens.
Farmers in the neighborhood of
* Attica saw the fire Saturday night
but knowing that the house had not
been occupied for months, they did
not go out in the rain to investi
gate. Sunday morning about 8
j’clock, Fred Hardy went out and
sxamined the ruins, finding the
bones of the women, a pair of ear
rings and the half of a comb and
t a, hairpin. He immediately sum
moned the sheriff who took a phy
sician to the scene, about eight
miles from here. The doctor said
She bones were those of white worn
•n, and when the party got back to
lefferson. Mr. Simmons told him that
his wife and daughter had gone to
* Athens the day before, but had not
irrived. The countryside was comb
’d for clews to the slayer, but with
jut result.
The women came to their death
“from causes unknown in a fire of
jnestablished origin,” according to
!he verdict of a jury empanelled by
Joroner Wood Sunday afternoon.
The bodies were buried a short
time later in a graveyard on the
Bennet farm, not far from the scene
- jf their cremation. Quite a crowd
witnessed the simple rites, despite
:he pouring rain.
ludge, Terror of Speeders,
Killed by Reckless Driver
CHICAGO, Dec. 17.—Justice Fred
■ Biesswanger, for years a terror to
B . speeders at Morton Grove. Hl., lay
I ’ lead today, the victim of a speeding
automobile. He was struck from
B behind and killed by a car that then
i ped away.
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Published, Every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
World News
Told In
Brief
WARSAW. Cabinet headed by
Premier Witos resigns.
CHICAGO. —J. W. Cloverdale is re
instated as secretary of American
farm bureau federation.
VERA CRUZ. —Mexican insur
gents clasn to have captured Guau
tla, in the state of Morelos.
NORFOLK. Twenty-two lives
are reported lost in the foundering
of the Norwegian steamer Runa.
WASHINGTON.—Senator Borah,
of Idaho, states that he Is “not a
candidate for the presidential nomi
nation of any party.”
EL PASO.—President Obregon is
reported on firing line personally di
recting troops marching on Guadela
jara.
LONDON. —British admiralty de
nies report that Singapore naval base
has been abandoned as result of Brit
ish elections.
PARIS.- -Clemenceau’s face is cut
by glass from broken windshield in
an automobile accident on the
Na n tes• Paris road.
• WASHlNGTON.—Subscriptions to
issues of treasury certificates of in
debtedness for December aggregated
more than two and one-half times
amount asked, it is announced.
SANTA MONICA, Calif.—Lieu
tenant William D. Fowler and Ser
geant Harvey Lightfoot, of the air
reserve, are killed in plane crash
during a practice flight.
COLUMBUS, O.—Executive com
mittee of Federal Council of Churches
urges that United States enter
League of Nations or propose some
more effective substitute.
CHICAGO. Mrs. Montgomery
Ward gives $3,000,000 to Northwest
era university for large medical cen
ter to be known as Montgomery
Ward Memorial.
LOS ANGELES. Mrs. Adelaide
Hughes, wife of Rupert Hughes, nov
elist, is found dead at remote place
in Ido-China and private message to
her husband here says she committed
suicide.
PHILADELPHIA - — Charles W.
Nevin 11, member of socially prom
inent Philadelphia family, plunges to
death from hotel window and two
companions are held after drinking
party.
WASHINGTON. Census bureau
figures show that the fight against
tuberculosis in the United States
gradually is being won and that
number of deaths per 100,000 popula
tion declined from 150 in 1918 to 97.4
last year.
CAMBRIDGE. —Peabody Museum
of Harvard university announces
that 613, B. C., is the earliest record
ed date in New World history, the
first day in the record of time kept
by the Mayas in the Yucatan.
WASH I N G T ON. Secretary
Mellon reduces his tax reduction pro
posals to definite form. Analysis of
h., edraft shows that the proposed
actual reduction for wage earners
receiving $4,000 or less is about 44
per cent.
PARIS —France.accepts with cer
tain limitattons Germany’s appeal
for Ruhr parley but Poincare re
serves the right of conferring with
the allies before replying to any
question from the reich.
NEW YORK.—Announcement is
made of the formation of a new or
ganization designed to crush the
“principle of censorship,” to be
known as the “National Council to
Protect the Freedom of Art, Litera
ture and the Press.”
BERLlN.—Chancellor Marx, ad
dressing German press union, says
domestic conditions of Germany
“make one’s heart quake,” and that
his government is trying to drag
country out of slough of despond.
NEW YORK. —The Russian soviet
government is ready “to do all in its
power as far as the dignity and in
terests of the country permit to
bring about friendship with the
United States,” George Tchitchein,
soviet commssioner for foreign af
fairs, declares in an official note to
President Coolidge.
NEW YORK.—Rev. Dr. Leighton
Parks, rector of St. Batholomew’s
church, upholds denial of the virgin
birth of Christ and challenges Bishop
M nning to bring him to trial for
heresy for saying the same things
that Rev. Lee W. Heaton, of Fort
Worth, Tex., has said. Modern
churchmen’s union will defend Rev.
Heaton, rector of' Trinity Episcopal
church. Fort "Worth, who is facing
trial for heresy, it is announced.
SEIfflE OE WK I
REMAINS UNBROKEN.
HOUSE ORGANIZES
I
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17.—The Re
publican insurgent bloc whose re
volt against the Republican party
leaders has delayed for two weeks
complete organization of the sixty
eighth congress, stood their ground
today in the senate and consolidated
the gains already made in the house.
A four-day truce in the deadlock
over election of a chairman of the
senate interstate commerce commit
tee ended with the insurgent group
still holding out against the re-elec
tion of Chairman Cummins, the reg
ular Republican choice, and threat
ening to throw their entire strength
to Senator Smith, of South Carolina,
a Democrat, in the belief that it
would elect him.
In the house formal approval was
given at last to the amended Repub
lican committee slate on which the
leader of the house insurgents, Rep
resentative Nelson, of Wisconsin,
had been given a place at the last
minute under pressure of a threat
ened coalition between the Demo- '
crats and insurgents at that end of
the capitol. Mr. Nelson will serve
as a member of the rules committee,
which shapes the legislative pro
gram.
House Committees
By its action today the house
technically made itself ready to pro
ceed with the legislative business of
the session. Actually, however, the
leaders expect to accomplish little
except committee work until after
the holidays. The ways and means
committee is to meet tomorrow to
begin consideration of Secretary Mel
lon’s tax revision proposal, and while
other committees are wrestling with
appropriation measures, the house it
self probably will stand in recess
most of the time for the next month.
The machinery of the senate is
but partially blocked by the com
merce committee deadlock, but there
is no present prospect that the more
serious legislative issues of the ses
sion will come up for- action before
the new year. Another short session
today was devoted largely to routine.
When the question of giving for
mal approval to the Republican com
mittee selections came up in the
house, Representative Garrett, Dem
ocratic leader, made an ineffectual
attempt to debate the question. Rep
resentative Longworth, Republican
leader, moved to proceed at once to
a vote, and his motion prevailed 308
to 178.
AH but one of the Republican in
surgents, Schafer, of Wisconsin,
voted with the Republicans.
Turkey Prices Down
In Atlanta Markets;
Great Decline Seen
Turkeys are plentiful for Christ
mas and the holidays, and in conse
quence the price, which has soared
higher and higher for the last five
years, promises a. big decline. The
outlook is that the retail price for
select birds will be within the reach
of many who have heretofore been
denied the pleasure of turkey din
ners.
The first positive development of a
decline in the price of turkeys came
Monday morning with the announce
ment by McCullough Bros., whole
sale produce merchants, of turkeys
at wholesale at from 30 to 35 cents
a pound. It is believed that the re
tail price will range from 35 to 40
cents a pound.
Special Legislature’s
Session Cost State
$87,500, Report Says
The extra session of the Georgia
general assembly, which adjourned)
last Friday, cost approximately $87,-
500. according to estimates of the
state treasury department. This is
about $2,500 less than the esti
mated cost of the session.
The per diem of senators and rep
resentatives, at $7 each, for thirty
eight days, aggregated $68,362. The
mileage of senators and representa
tives was about $7,936. The secre
tary' of the senate and clerk of the
house received, in the aggregate,
$4,490, out of which they paid their
clerical assistants. The messengers,
doorkeepers, pages and porters in
the two houses received $6,76’4.
It is the belief expressed by legis
lators and others that a single en
actment of the assembly—the Ennis
revenue bill —will more than reim
burse the state for the cost of the
legislature.
Yeggs Visit Macon
Firm Second Time;
Get $3,000 in Cash
MACON, Ga., Dec. 17.—For the
second time this year, yeggmen ei
ther Saturday or Sunday night blew
the safe of the W. T. Grant com
pany here and got between $3,000
and $4,000, according to the manage
ment. Entrance to the store was
gained through a skylight. The safe
door was torn to pieces by the high
explosives used. On a previous oc
casion five or six months ago,
cracksmen robbed the safe of abcut
$2,000. Nothing but money was j
taken in both instances.
Police say professionals did the
work. |
Man Under Sentence
Found Dead in Barn 1
GREENVILLE, Ga., Dec. 17.—R.
T. Partridge, sentenced by Federal
Judge Sibley, in Columbus, last week
to serve thirty days in the local jail
for moonshining, was found dead in
a barn on Homer Thompson's farm
Sunday.
Partridge obtained permission of I
the court to go home and cut some j
wood for his mother, before serving
the sentence. A coroner’s jury held
that acute alcoholism caused death.
Dress Goods 66c a Yard
Remarkable offer on 5-yard rem
nants of serges, tricotines and. suit
ings being made by Textile Mills
Co., Dept. 649, Kansas City, Mo.
Write them today for free informa
tion.— (Advertisement.)
ALIENIST'S OPINION
AS TO FOX’S SANITY
15 PUT UNDER FIBE
The expert value of Dr. R. C.
Swint’s testimony in the Fox mur
der trial was attacked sharply Mon
day morning by the prosecution,
Solicitor General John A. Boykin
cross-examining in intimate and per
sistent detail the superintendent of
the Georgia state sanitarium for
the insane, at Milledgeville, who Sat
urday declared from the witness
stand that Philip E. Fox, Ku Klux
editor, is a paranoiac and subject to
hallucinations of a highly danger
ous type
The solicitor drew from the wit
ness the admission that, eliminating I
the statement of Fox and the as- I
sumed facts in a twenty-minute by I
pothetical question propounded Sac •
urday by former Governor Hugh i
Dorsey, during direct examination by i
the defense, he “would have no opin j
ion” as to the sanity or insanity of
the slayer of Captain W. S. Coburn, i
attorney for th e Simmons faction j
of the klan.
“From your test, then,” the so- I
licitor asked, “you could not say
whether Fox was sane or insane?” i
“I would have no opinion,” the
witness replied.
Admits Fee to Testify
The solicitor also drew from the
witness the admission that he was
paid SIOO for examining Fox on De
cember 2 in the Fulton county tower
and that an agreement with defense
attorneys stipulated he should re
ceive expenses and SIOO for the first
day as a witness, and SSO for each
succeeding day.
The cross-examination of Dr.
Swint was the most severe of the
trial thus far. Due to the slow pace
at which the trial is proceeding and
the approach of the Christmas holi
days, it was stated Monday that
night sessions, to begin ’ Tuesday,
will be held. The defense has been
presenting evidence in support of '
the instanity plea for Fox since the
prosecution rested last Thursday, j
after taking less than a day for
direct testimony.
An interested spectator of the pro.
ceedings at the Monday morning ses
sion was Dr. Caleb Ridley, former
imperial kludd of the Ku Klux Klan.
Dr. Swint went down off the stand
at noon Monday, after being in the
witness chair for three hours.
V. K. Ringsdorff, a cellmate of i
Fox, was the Onlj' other witness
called at the morning session, which
was recessed at 12:30 o'clock. The
afternoon session was begun at 1:30.
Ringsdorff denied, when question
ed by prosecution counsel, that Fox
read books on psychology and men
tal diseases during his incarceration
nt the Tower. He declared Fox has
awakened his cellmates at night,
complaining that he heard voices in
the corridors, but that no one else
could hear these voices.
“What is your opinion of him? Do
you believe that he is a. man of
sound mind” Ringsdorf was asked,
“He is crazy. His very acts in
dicate that,” the witness replied.
Dr. Swint was recalled to the
stand immediately after court was
reconvened Monday, and was put
through a searching cross-fire of
questions by Solicitor Boykin, in an
effort to shake his testimony of Sat
urday. to the effect that Fox, in Dr.
Swint’s opinion, was a paranoic and
dangerously insane when he shot
and killed Captain Coburn.
A spirited legal tilt, during which
Judge Howard ordered the jury to
retire, occurred after a few ques
tions.
Questioned in Experience
After asking Dr, Swint how long
heh ad been connected witlv the
Georgia State Sanitarium for the In
sane, at Milledgeville, of which the
witness is now superintendent, and
receiving the answer that the wit
ness had been connected with that
institution since December, 1901.-
Solicitor Boykin asked Dr. Swint
how many persons he had examined
for purposes of testifying where
homicides had occurred.
“I don’t recalf,” the witness an
swered.
“Can you give me the name of
one?” Solicitor Boykin asked.
Attorney R. W. Allen, of Dallas,
Tex., of Fox's counsel, objected to
this question -on the grounds that
it was immaterial, and Judge How
ard ruled it out. Solicitor Boykin
changed his question: “In what
cases have you testified where a
homicide has occurred?”
Attorney Allen promptly renewed
his objection, charging that Solicitor
Boykin was attempting “to avoid
the ruling of the court,” and con
tending th.qt “every case should
stand on its own merits.”
Judge Howard ordered the jury to
retire, and Solicitor Boykin made a
vigorous defense of his position, de
claring the purpose of the question
was to test the witness’ accuracj 7
and experience in examining mental
disorders.
Attorney Allen continued his ob
jection, declaring that it would be
highly prejudicial to Fox if the wit
ness should have testified in sensa
tional cases of the past, “over which
the public mind might have been in
flamed.”
Editor N. C. Nap ler,
Attorney General’s
Brother, Is Dead
LAFAYETTE, Ga., Dec. 17.—Mr.
N. C. Napier, Vidalia editor, former
ly of this place, died at Vidalia at
midnight last night.
Mr. Napier is survived by his wife
and two children, three brothers and
two sisters. Attorney General George
M. Napier, of Atlanta, is a brother.
Funeral arrangements have not
yet been announced. Mr. Napier was
about 45 years old.
ATTORNEY GENERAL GOES
TO ATTEND FUNERAL
Attorney General George M. Na
pier left Monday for Vidalia, Ga.,
to attend the funeral of his brother,
Mr. Lee Napier, who died Monday
morning. The funeral will be held
Tuesday.
Mi - . Napier was the editor and
publisher of the Vidalia Advance, a
weekly newspaper, and wsa well
known throughout middle Georgia.
Prior to his purchase of the Vida
lia Advance, Mr. Napier was pub
lisher of the Walker County Messen
ger, and at one time was a member
of The Atlanta Journal editorial
staff. ’i
GOATS IS GOATS
GVooes beat all') .b /\<c:
HOW HE'D uaTher
eatihatjuhk z-x AJS- yr-v'
THAN This Good ( \ j// v
HEALTH GIVING - I A\w x V
FOOD r J r V
< AA?
GLASS CAGE WITH ELECTRIC
VOICE TRANSMISSION DEVICE
PLANNED FOR LEPER’S TRIAL
Louisiana State Health Offi
cer Plans Unique Protec
tion Against Infection for
Court in New Orleans
new Orleans’, La., Dec. 15.
Surgeon General Hugh Cumming, of
the United States public health
service, in a letter today to Dr.
Oscar Dowling, state health officer,
offered to provide a glass cage in
W’hich to incarcerate George Beaure
paire, negro inmate of the national
leprosarium, at Carville, La., while
he is being tried in criminal court
here for murder.
An electrical device for communi
cating with the negro, while under
going examination, was discussed by
officials today.
A magnavox or a complete radio
outfit for transmitting the voice of
REVOLTING TROOPS
OF MEXICO
TOWIIBO 80B0EB
EL PASO, Texas, Dec. .16.—Feder
al troops at Casas Grandes, Chihua
hua, approximately 200 miles below
Juarez, revolted Saturday and pre
paring to march toward the border,
according to a rumor reaching El
Paso.
The garrison at Casas Grandes is
comprised of approximately 400 men.
according to federal officials in Jua
rez, who, hoyrever, denied the rumor,
bilized at their barracks at noon to-
Federal troops in Juarez are mo
day and were kept there all during
the afternoon. De La Huerta head
quarters in El Paso assigned the pre
cautionary movement of the federal
officers to the rumor of a revolt at
Casas Grandes. The message re
ports on the revolutionary movement
all of them received byway of bor
der points, contain little relating to
actual military conflict, but continue
to tell, according to their sources,
government or revolutionary, of gar
risons and states maintaining their
allegiance to the government, or of
generals and bodies of troops joining
forces with General Sanche, the rev
olutionary leader.
Sonora and Sinaloa are declared in
an official message received in San
Antonio from Mexico City to be still
in the hands of federal troops, with
General Angel Flores announcing his
loyalty to President Obregon. The
same dispatch says that Tampico
also is guarded by loyal troops.
An official statement by the Mex
ican government, issued at Del Rio,
Texas, reports that because of the
advance of federal troops, the insur
rectionists under General Enriquez
Estrada, are abandoning him.
Extensive desertions from the reb
els are also claimed. Reports readi
ng San Antonio from Mexico City say
that the laboring element through
Mexico is almost to a unit rallying
to the Obregon standard.
According to the official advisers,
the entire west coast, with the excep
tion of the port of Manzanillo, is un
der government control.
Rebels After Sympathy
The embassy declared the rebel
headquarters at Vera Cruz is send
ing out false reports to the United
States in efforts to gain the adher
ence of the Mexican consular sys
tem in foreign countries.
Advices received through points
on the American border wnich con
tinue to be the chief channels of in
formation from the interior tell of a
success for the Obregon forces under
General J. S. Escobar at Zaztecas.
capital of the state of the same name.
Atlanta, Ga., Tuesday, December 18, 1923.
attorneys to the prisoner and his to
the court and jurors is mentioned
as a possibility.
The negro is said to have con
fessed to choking his wife to death
in New Orleans 18 months ago, after
he escaped from the leprosarium.
He warned her if she told any one
he was here he would kill het - . Ig
noring his threats, she reported his
presence to health authorities.
Apprehended following the mur
der, he was returned to the insti
tution. The presence of the prisoner
at Carville was exercising a bad ef
fect upon other inmates of the hos
pital, the surgeon general reported,
asking the state board of health to
arrange to bring him to trial.
In the event the district attorney
does not consider it safe to hold the
itrial in New Orleans, Or. Cummins
suggested it be held at Algiers im
migration station, or at Carville,
where the glass cage precaution
would be provided.
GEOBBIAN IS SHOT
IS OUARREL WITH
RIPPINGINSPECTOR
VALDOSTA. Ga., Dec. 17.—Tom
Powell, a well-known citizen of the
Ousley i district, is in a critical con
dition from a pistol wound inflicted
by Range Rider Wiley Lewis, as a
result of a quarrel over cattle dip
ping.
Lewis claims that Powell refused
to dip his cattle or to allow the fed
eral officers to dip them, though
they told him there would be no
charges for it. Lewis says he went
to Powell’s to discuss the matter
and Powell came out of his house
with his rifle raised. He ordered him
to drop the gun and Powell lowered
it, but raised it again. Lewis fired
at him and Powell ran in the house.
Lewis claims that he did not know
that he hit him, but later reports to
Judge Thomas stated that Powell
was in a very serious condition.
Sheriff Gornto has gone to the
Ousley district with warrant,for the
arrest of Lewis.
The Weather
FORECAST FOR TUESDAY
VIRGINIA. —Fair in north and
cloudy and colder in south portion.
NORTH CAROLINA Cloudy,
probably rain and colder.
SOUTH CAROLINA AND GEOR-
GlA—Unsettled, probablj r rain; not
much change in temperature.
FLORIDA—CIoudy; probably local
rains in north and central portions.
EXTR EM E NORTHWEST
FLORIDA AND ALABAMA—Un
settled; probably rain; not much
change in temperature.
MISSISSIPPI—CIoudy; probably
rain in south and central portions;
not much change in temperature.
TENNESSEE Cloudy; possibly
rain in east portion; not much
change in temperature.
KENTUCKY Fair; not much
change in temperature.
LOUISIANA —Probably fair, little
change in temperature.
ARKANSAS —Fair, slightly warm
er.
EAST TEXAS—Mostly fair, little
change in temperature.
General Alfred Garcia, the rebel lead
er who held the city, is said to be
fleeing southward toward Jalisco.
RE-ENFORCEMENTS SENT
TO GONZALES ARMY
VERA CRUZ, Dec. 15.—General
Guadalupe Sanchez, commanding
rebel forces in the east, has sent
troops to reinforce the army of Gen
eral Gonzales at Santa Lucrecia,
where an important battle is be
lieved is pending.
LARGE CULUMBUS
CONCERNS BURNED
111 5200,D00 FIBE
COLUMBUS, Ga., Dec. 17. Fire
of undetermined origin which for
several hours threatened the heart
of the retail business district of Co
lumbus, causing a damage estimated
at $200,009, was brought under con
trol by the local fire department at
8 45 o’clock this morning.
Humes Music company, occupying
the basement and three floors of the
Humes building, was the greatest
loser in the conflagration, which gut
ted the rear of the structure. Charlie
Mizell’s haberdashery, which occu
pied <1 section of the ground floor,
also suffered a big loss from water
and smoke. Foley and Cargill’s shoe
store in an adjoining building lost
considerable through smoke damage
to their stock.
Reports coming into the Ledger
later in the morning indicated that
the damage may be much larger.
Kirven’s department store, the larg
est establishment of its kind in the
city, occupying a three-story build
ing on the north side of the Humes
Structure, and Hefflin and Green
tree, clothiers on the south side also
suffered damage to their stocks by
water.
For more than two hours, the blaze
m the Humes store raged. Every
apparatus in the city was brought
into use and the firemen warned the
hundreds of people gathered to watch
the blaze that the front of the build
ing might fall at any time. It was
the worst conflagration in Columbus
during the present year, and the only
one of any consequence in the heart
of the business district.
J E. Humes, head, of the Humes
Music company, which claims to be
the largest music house south of the
Mason-Dixon line, stated this morn
ing just after the fire that it was his
betief the blaze started in the base
ment and was due to a defective elec
tric wire. He asserted that he un
derstood that two fuses were burned
out on the Mizell side of the building
recently, which led him to assume
that defective wiring was the cause
of the present fire. He estimated the
damage to his business and the build
ing at 75 per cent of its value.
Georgia Youth Shot
Dead in Quarrel
In Coffee County
DOUGLAS, Ga., Dec. 17.—Jesse
Tanner, 25-year-old son of Dan Tan
ner, who lives in the southeastern
part of Coffee county about ten
miles from Douglas, was shot dead
near his home about 1:30 o’clock
this morning. T. L. Edenfield. 25
years old. who is said to have fired
two loads of buckshot into Tanner’s
body at close range, escaped. Sheriff
W. M. Tanner and Deputy D. W.
Whitehurst were called to the scene,
and adjoining counties are being
combed for trace of the alleged
slayer.
The two men are said to have
had previous trouble. Edenfield, re
turning from Douglas Sunday night,
came upon Tanner in the road
where he had had some trouble
with his automobile. A few min
utes later, it was discovered that
one of Tanner’s tires had been cut.
Tanner accused Edenfield and a fist
fight resulted. Edenfield went to
his home and encountered Tanner
again in a lane near his home. The
difficulty was renewed and Tanner
was killed by buckshot fired from
both barrels of Edenfield’s gun. A
revolver was found near the dead
man’s body. A young man by the
name of Thigpen is said to have
witnessed the shooting.
Central President
Undergoes Operation
SAVANNAH, Ga., Dec. 17.—W. A.
Wimburn, president of the Central of
Georgia railway, is ill in a local hos
pital, having been operated on Sat
urday. His condition is said to be
satisfactory, although he is reported
io have been seriously ill.
ft CENTS A COPT,
$1 A TEAR.
LAWRENCE NOTES
LACK OF POSITIVE
LAWMAKING PLAN
Sees Spectacle of Congress
Floundering in Sea of In
surgency, Unable to Carry
Out Voters’ Wishes
BY DAVID LAWRENCE
(Special Wire Service .to The Journal.)
(Copyright, 1923.)
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15. —Two
weeks have gone by, but congress
is not yet organized.
Not only has no important busi
ness been transacted, but it begins to
look as if it will be after the holiday
recess before a start will be made.
For several months there have
been predictions that • the present
congress would flounder around in
a sea of insurgency. Those predic
tions are being verified. The spec
tacle of a national legislature un
able to carry out the supposed man
date of the people at the last elec
tions is such that it may furnish
the leading issue at the polls next
November when a new congress is
elected.
Neither party is able at the mo
ment to keep harmony in its ranks,
though the Democrats arc in better
condition in that respect than their
Republican opponents.
Affirmative Flans Lacking
Hie spirit of the electorate in the
last congressional campaign was to
vote “against things.” The men in
office in both parties suffered. The
verdict was generally negative —a
continuance of the negative cam
paigns that have prevailed ever since
F-vi )f ar ’ t l? ere was an affirma
tive desire at the 1922 election, noth
ing has developed thus far in the
statements of senators and represen
tatives to indicate that they are
conscious of what it was. if vou
ask members of congress What the
country meant when it cut down the
Republican majority to a mere hand-
J > in both houses, you will get from
the Democrats the answer that the
wdh 0 TA Va r f ho Y in Z its impatience
\ di- lc ack Performance of a
Kepub ican congress, and from the
Republican members you will get the
excuse that agricultural discontent
and adverse business conditions at
he time of the elections had much
to do with the cutting down of the
Republican strength.
Tmt the new congress is here—
thirteen months after the election
and about the only things that most
dit6?n er i S W,U Sree I,pon is th,lt con
of f thZir la !F C i hanged since the tim ®
of their election. The Democrats
say the country is even more Demo-
Taxes, Bonus, Railways
About the only things that have
come to the front since the last elec
tion and which are bound to tran
scend in importance everything else
in the session are, first, tax revi
sion downward; second, the soldier
bonus, and third, a fight o n the
railroads to force lower freight rates
fop farm products.
All three issues will be interwoven
and party lines are bound to be
broken when the parliamentary ma
neuvers begin whereby bills are
framed and reported by committees.
_ To sum up the present situation,
it is no exaggeration to say that
congress is almost unanimous in
favor of some kind of a tax reduc
tion measure. Congress, moreover,
remains unconvinced that a soldier
bonus if enacted would bring about
the serious consequences to the na
tion’s economic condition which the
treasury department experts say
would be the result. The advocates
of the bonus admit there will be
some strain, but insist the country
is in splendid condition to bear it
without danger.
Railroads Face Defeat
As for the contest to get lower
freight rates, the indications at the
moment are that the railroads will
lose their fight. Sentiment to re
peal the so-called earning clause is
so powerful that it will take a com
bination of Democrats and Republi
cans to break it down and keep the
transportation law intact. If the
railroads were able to make volun
tary decreases in freight rates, they
would be able to ward off much of
the opposition to them in congress.
The earning clause is being used es
a means of striking at the railroads
for refusal to reduce rates. There
is no question but that the railroads
will be able to influence a large
number of members of both houses
to accept the economic arguments
they have made, but the western,
radicals are not as sympathetic with
railroad finance as they are with
farmer economics.
There are rumors that president
Coolidge, while opposed to any
change in the earning clause of tha
transportation act, will not make an
issue of it with congress. In som»
respects the railroad question will
furnish more ammunition for polit
ical battle than any other problem
before congress.
SI.OO
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