Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, October 29, 1912, HOME, Image 3

Atlanta Georgian., October 29, 1912, HOME, Image 3

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Newspaper Page Textthe weather forecast: Fair tonight and Wed ne sday. Temperatures: 8 a. m., 53; a . m., 62; 12 m„ 66: 2 p. m„ 70. VOL. XL NO. 74. (■SEES HI OK BEE IfiEWE msi Mrs. Costner Declares Railroad Trumped Up Charges to Avoid Her Suit. DECLARES ENGINEER BEFRIENDED ACCUSED Brought Him to Their Home and Found Work in the Atlanta Yards. ■•Mr. Renfroe loved Mr. Costner as he would his own brother. He had no motiv' whitever to prompt him to take the life of my husband. He is inno cent." Mrs Minnie Costner today made this defense of Edward Renfroe, who had Inn? boarded with the Costners in their West End home, 403 Gordon street, and wh,. is in prison accused by Southern railway detectives of having, a few we.ks ago, caused the wreck of a S-nii'-rn train, in which Engineer Ja cob M. Costner. Mrs. Costner's husband, lost his life. Mrs. Costner added that "the whole thing is just a scheme on the part of the railroad to make it apta that Mr. Costner was foully doin’ to death." Mrs. Costner Is Planning Suit. "That’s tlie only way 1 can see it," she said. Mrs. Costner confirmed the report that she is planning to sue the South ern railway for damages for the death of her husband. She has consulted law yers, she said, but has not decided on the sum for which she will ask. Mrs. Costner is indignant over the new turn given the tragedy, and as serts that Renfroe is being done an in justice by reason of the sensational charge against him. , Mrs. Costner laid stress on a denial nf the statement given out that she purchased an automobile just a few days following the death of her hus band. “As to this ‘blue roadster’ that is causing some talk, I want to say this.” •aid Mrs. Costner. “That car. a Mar mon roadster, was ordered by Mr. Cost ner himself six weeks before his death. According to agreement, it was to have been delivered a week prior to the tTnie of the accident, but was delayed in shipment and didn't arrive until the week following the wreck. That's how I came in possession of it. We have owned autos for years, and I could see that no harm would be done by taking this particular car out of the depot when it arrived. “Mr Renfroe and Mr. Costner,” she continued, "had known one another for 8 long while and had been the best of fiend-. They boarded at the same Place in Greenville, S. C., long before Mr. Costner and I were married. Mrs. S. Logan, mother of W. M. Logan, *tiy fust husband, conducted a board l:~ house in Greenville for railroad then, and Mr. Renfroe boarded with her fur quite a while. All during this time ’rcnville, Mr. Costner and Mr. Ren-. • re fast friends. Husband Brought Renfroe to Home. "Mr. Costner and I were married in ember. 1910, and went away on a ''■''tiding trip, returning to Atlanta in January. 1911. We were unable to get I I of our home here at once, khd lived in Western avenue until Feb ruary. when we moved to this house. Ils just after dur marriage that my band brought Mr. Renfroe to At- n ':i’ urging him to come here, as he always get plenty of work, anti 'limn him ‘there was nothing in Green 'il'" for him. '"i plea brought Mr. Renfroe here, came to our home. He had with us ever since. Before we ' I from Western avenue. Mr. Cost cave him work to do. sending him here to Gordon street to tear n old barn and build a garage. ' 'ing this, he built a servants’ and then did other work about I' ice. Completing Mr. Costners Hi Renfroe afterward did carpen "rk about the city. Six months - took a job as switchman in the 'f the Southern railway. Renfroe had always impressed an honest, good - hearted. ■ -forward man. There was but T tilt I could find with him—he ' drink a great deal. He has had "is of jobs on the railroad, but h' m because of sprees. to trouble of any kind between ''"band and Mr. Renfroe that is It’s absurd. In all of the time Renfroe has been in our home, he The Atlanta Georgian ■ IHS 0911111; liffl 111 FKB TEI* I I Wife and Physicians Against His Return to Mayor’s Chair. Urge Ocean Trip. JUDGE CANDLER READY 1 TO SERVE UNTIL JAN. 1 I Acting Executive Will Follow Stricken Official’s Ideas on Disposal Plant. Mayor Courtland S. Winn has suf ' sered a physical breakdown while on a ’ visit to New York, and if he follows the advice of his wife and physicians will not return to Atlanta before the • end of his term as mayor, which, is 1 January 1. Mayor Winn was to return to At- 1 lanta today, but Acting Mayor John S’. Candler has received a letter from Mrs. Winn stating that he Is confined to his: 1 bed in the home of her brother, Eugene ■ D. Thomas, at Plainfield. N. J. She said his physicians bad advised that it would be suicide for him to re i turn to work in his present condition, and they uige a trip to Europe or some new climate and complete rest for sev eral months. Wife Against His Return to Duty. ' “I am going to do all I can to get hi. i to take their advice,” she v. rote. Acting Mayor Candler immediately wired his sympathy, and told Mrs. Winn he would be glad to serve in Mr. Winn’s place until he was able to re turn. Today he received the following telegram from Mayor Winn: ■ "Am improving slowly. Hope soon s o be a going concern. “COURTLAND S. WINN." Mayor Winn has not been in good health for some time, and in her letter his wife said he went to New York for . a change, on the advice of his Atlanta physician. While in w hotel there he grew worse and was obliged to go to bed. Condition Serious, Declare Doctors. He was removed to the home of his brother-in-law, Eugene Thomas, who holds a very important position with the United States Steel Cornoration. Mrs. Winn said he was threatened with nervous prostration. She said that Mr. Winn insisted that he would come back to his duties in Atlanta before very long, but that she was insisting that he go to Florida and take the rest urged by his physicians. She said the physicians considered his condition serious. Officials in the city hall were shocked today by tile report of Mayor Winn’s illness. It was well known that he had not been in good health for some time and his friends have urged him for some time to go away and forget the irksome duties ot mayor. Candler to Act On Winn’s Ideas. The only matter of unusual impor tance is the beginning of the work on I the new garbage disposal plant. Acting Mayor Candler said while he voted against the plan as an aiderman, lie would rush the work as much as he was able on account of the wishes of Mayor Winn. As regards the looker club situation, the other matter of unusual impor tance befori the mayor and council, Mayor Winn's ideas are said to be in substantial accord with those of Acting Mayor Candler. and Mr. Costner never had a cross word, much less a quarrel. Th -y got along just like brothers. As for quar reling with me. Mr. Costner never once spoke crossly to me <>r to my children by my first husband.” Regarding the movements of Ren froe just prior to the wreck, Mrs. Cost ner said: "Mr. Renfroe left the house Tuesday before the wreck on Friday morning. !He was on a spree at the time. When ever he was drinking he would always stay away from the house, as he knew I didn’t like it and would get after him. He returned some time I riday. sober— I don't remember just what time. He was here while Mr. Costner lay a corpse, and, standing by the bier, cried like a baby, saying he had lost the best friend he had in the world. I didn't see this myself, but was inform ed of it by others. "When I received the news of my husband's death, 1 started upstairs, fainted, and didn't get out of bed until 10.30 o’clock the next morning. But 1 am told that Mr. Renfroe showed the deepest emotion and grief." Read For Profit—GEORGIAN WANT ADS—Use For Results. Inman Park Chrysanthemum Show Gay With Blooms RIVALRY OF GROWERS IS KEEN Among the chrysanthemums at Mrs. Henry / * WL Porter’s hyme. Left to right the children are / \ Lula Groves Campbell, 36 Elizabeth St.; Mar- ! I \ garet and Hugh McClelland, 57 Elizabeth St. ' r wi O= I-I ' 3k v* 1 Bl I' /iMm! t! / 4] ...J| * A SUB / Every Inch in Henry Porter’s Handsome Home Covered With Fali Flowers. Inman Park chrysanthemum fanciers gathered today at the home of Mrs. Henry Porter, in Elizabeth street, for the annual exhibit and contest, and ev ery inch of space in the handsome home was filled with the autumn beauties. Tin re was warm rivalry among the growers, too, and the three florists who arc to award the prizes have no easy decision ahead. . The chrysanthemum crop was par ticularly fine this season, the long In dian summer having given ideal weath er. Several brand-new varieties are on view and a long list of prizes, con tributed by friends of the Inman Park Chrysanthemum club, is to be award ed by three florists chosen as judges— Wachendorff, Hollinsworth and Law rence. Among the exhibitors at this year’s show are Mrs. A. L. Waldo, Mrs. War ren Candler, Mrs. Guy Holcombe, Mrs. William P. Walthall. Mrs. W. F. Pa tillo, Mrs. Adam Jones, Mrs. James L. Campbell, Mrs. S. C. Dobbs, Mrs. E. \V. Brogden, Mrs. A. J. Stitt and others. The club is composed of Inman Park folk, the officers beirjg: Mrs. Henry Porter, president, and Mrs. W. A. Niall, vice president. The show will be open to th< public until 10 o’clock tonight. Following were the winners in the chrysanthemum show, as announced today: Mrs. Arthur Stitt first prize on 15 blooms. $7 and a silver vase given by J. H. Porter, which must be won three time for possession. Mrs J. Henry Porter, best 12 blooms, not less than three colors, cedar chest. Mrs. A. L. Waldo, best 9 Appletons, $5; best 7 Perrins. $5; best single blooms, $3. Mrs. George Andrews, best 7 yellows not Appletons, $5; best 7 whites not Mrs. J. H. Porters, $5. Mrs. Guy Holcomb, best 7 Luther Rossers, $lO. Mrs. W. L. Kemp, best 10 Mrs. J. H. Porters. $10: also best 9 vari-colored blooms, $5. BRIDGE BURNED BY TRAIN BANDITS TO HALT PURSUIT OKLAHOMA CITY. Oct. 2!'.—-A southbound train on the Missouri, Kan sas and Texas railroad was held up today by three robbers, who rifled the express safe. The robbery occurred a short distance south of Eufaula. The robbers compelled the engineer to cut the mail and express cars from the rest of the train and run them some distance down the track before dynamiting the express safe. The robbers are reported to have ob tained $3,000 from American Express Company pack; ges. They detached the locomotive from the train, ran it over a wooden bridge at.d then fired the btidge in order to block the pursuit. ATLANTA. GA„ TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29. 1912 BROWN DEMANDS END OF STATE LABOR W ARS Governor Joseph M. Brown, in an interview given out today, puts the en tire state on notice that the- executive will maintain the peace of the state and the rights of property in Georgia at all hazards in the future, and regardless of private and personal differences be tween capital and labor. The governor takes the late Georgia railroad strike as his text, and com ments vigorously upon the great wrong that situation inflicted upon thousands of innocent Georgians served by the line and the employees of the same, and says that the parties to such con troversies shall be held strictly ac countable to the state itself for such wrongs hereafter. He urges legisla tive enactment of a law making arbi tration of labor troubles compulsory The executive insists that the state of Georgia is paramount to all inter ests—that in such situations as the one referred to it is the state that is wrong ed primarily and most outrageously. Governor Doesn’t Mince His Words. The interview is almost sensational in its frankness in parts, and follows closely a line of thought laid down by the governor at a dinner recently ten dered him by his personal and admins istrative military staff at the Piedmont Driving club. In part, the governor says: “The power of the state of Georgia is supreme in her own confines. And yet, with all her power, the forbear ance of the state within the recent pas; has afforded an object lesson which was the repetition of one upward of three years ago. but which it is safe to say she will never permit to be re peated. “I refer to the strike of some of the trainmen on the Georgia railroad. "It is well known that the manage ment of the Georgia railroad dismissed from its service one of its conductors and one of its flagmen. Following this, all the conductors and all the flagmen, save possibly those >n the Washington branch, 'struck.' or refused to work. The nanagcTncnt hired other men and ittempted to operate some of the trains. Th -se men were beset by mobs at the terminal stations and at some local points and violently beaten or other wise driven from service. Except on the Washington branch, therefore, on which it was protected by the authori ties, the road was thus unable to per form the functions as a common car rier for about two weeks, during which upward of four hundred thousand of the people of Georgia, who are de pendent wholly or 'n part upon this road for the conduct of their com- merce and, in many cases, for th< ir sup plies of the necessaries of • life, found their power to travel prostrated and their commerce paralyzed. Public Suffered But Was Innocent. "No part had they in this difference, no blame could be Imputed to them by either side of it. Yet upon them fell the inconvenience, the danger, the loss, "But almost contemporaneously with the notice of the strike was published the statement that Messrs. Neill and Knapp would come down from Wash ington to endeavor to effect a settle ment by arbitration. Under these con ditions, the authorities of the state withheld any exercise of the state’s power for the time. "Days of delay and increasing; pri vation to the people and of added ex pense in securing the mails and need ful supplies dragged along. "At length a new complication arose, which brought, the throat that an order wbuld be issued for a sympathetic strike by the trainmen on the Nash ville, Chattanooga and St. rail way, the Louisville and Nashville rail road, the Atlanta and West Point rail road, and the Atlanta. Birmingham and Atlantic railroad. In other words, the residents of counties from the Tennes see line to the Atlantic ocean and from Atlanta to Alabama state line were to have their transportation facilities par alyzed because two fnen had been dis charged from the service of the Geor gia railroad. "It was stated in the afternoon pa pers that an ultimatum would issued to the foregoing named railroads which, if not yielded to, would bring on the general strike Time for State To Take a Hand. "It became manifest, therefore, that it was time for the state to take a hand in the matter. It had been made clear that there was a ‘third party to the strike,’ viz: the public. It was now becoming undlsputably In evidence there was yet another party to the •strike, and that was the state of Geor gia. More than 400.000 of her people were already crippled. Fully half a million more were threatened with sim ilar unmerited losses. Under her laws, if any two individuals or any two in terests become involved in differences which they can not settle, they are re quired to take their matter into court. She exceps no one, no class. ’ "Yet here she had the example of two men and their associates, who publicly made known tlie fact that they would Continued on Page 2. HOW SMOKE WASTES Coal used in Atlanta per annum — tons —525,000. Cost, at $3 per ton, $1,575,000. Loss up the chimneys. $236,250. Indirect loss to citizens, $5 each for 175,000 Inhabitants, $875,000. Increased laundry bills. Collars, shirts, white dreses, suits cleaned. Increased clothing bills; garments worn out by frequent cleaning. Loss on residences, other build ings and furniture through frequent painting, scraping and cleaning. Loss to merchants—valuable stocks ruined by smoke and soiled fingers. Worst of all, the terrible loss of health which can not be estimated. Physicians blame smoke for a large percentage of 111-health in Atlanta. CREMATE PUN IS NO WENDED Woodward Hasn’t Said He’ll Repudiate Warrants—Ark wright Denies a Rumor. James G. Woodward, mayoralty nom inee, denied today that he would refuse to sign the checks for payments on the new garbage disposal plant when he became mayor. “I said that the contract was illegal because it appropriates the city’s fu ture revenue and that the bond was worthless because it was based on an illegal contract," he said. "But I have never mentioned what I would do with the checks to pay for the crematory. That is not a matter for my present consideration.” President Nutting, of the Destructor Ccmpany of New York, which company has the contract for the new crema tory, and the engineer who is to have charge of the work, reached Atlanta to day. They are preparing to proceed with the building of the plant, and Act ing Mayor Candler arid the majority of the members of council are backing up the contract. City Attorney James 1,. Mayson has ruled that the contract Is legal. The advocates of the Ivy street im provement are somewhat fearful of Mr. Woodward's attitude on that porject, for it pledges the city’s moral obliga tion for $30,000 of the cost price. According to statement of Chief of Construction Clayton and members of the county commission, the work on Ivy street will begin about Decem ber 1. It is not to be begun until Peachtree street is finished. Aldine Chambers and other advo cates of the new crematory plan have charged that the opposition to it is due to the fact that a SIOO,OOO electric pow er plant is to be built in connection with it. The crematory proper is to cost $276,000. Martin Amorous, the man who first charged that the new crematory plant was a waste of money and would create a nuisance, and Preston Arkwright president of the Georgia Railway and Power Company, both said todav that the charges were absurd. GEORGE THOMPSON, ATLANTAN’S BROTHER, MET TRAGIC DEATH News was received by relatives In Atlanta today that George Thompson, brother of J. S. B. Thompson, presi dent of the Atlantic Compress Com pany, was shot and instantly killed in Greensboro, N. C. Details of the trag edy were not furnished in the brief I message J S. B. Thompson is ill In a hospital in Richmond, Va, I HOHL EDITION 2 CENTS EVERYWHERE P^ R N E ° Gin LOSES 5236,25 fl I YEAR IM SMOKE Inspector McMichael Declares Atlantans Pay $5 Each An nually for Breathing Dirt. DAM AGE TO PROPERTY BY NUISANCE RUNS HIGH Central Heating Plant Is Sug gested as an Aid for the Domestic Consumers. Expert estimates made today show that Atlanta coal consumers pay $236,- 250 a year for the privilege of filling the atmosphere with smoke which should be consumed in their furnaces and made to produce steam. Atlanta citizens pay $875,000 a year, or $5 each, for breathing this smoke, their loss being an indirect one. through damage to homes, clothing and other property. Inspector Paul McMichael pointed out the remedy—properly constructed furnaces and correct methods of fir ing. Mr. McMichael, first smoke inspector under the recent ordinance creating the office, has made a careful study of conditions and has studied remedies used in other cities with marked suc cess. He made a rough estimate to day for The Georgian of the amount ot coal used in Atlanta, Ms average cost, and the possible saving through proper combustion. Here are his figures: Each Person Uses Three Tons. Tonnage of coal used. Including man ufacturing and domestic, 525,000, or three tons per capita of 175,000 popula tion. Cost of coal at average price of $3 a ton. $1,575,000. Saving possible by correct methods of combustion, 15 per cent, $236,250. The last named sum represents what coal consumers could save in actual dollars and cents, by burning less coal and producing the same number oi heat units as are produced now with that 15 per cent flying out of the smoke stack. But there is an indirect charge against the whole city through the overplus of smoke in Atlanta’s atmos phere. This is the terrible loss through damage to property of various kinds. In Chicago, where statisticians have ma<le a close study of smoke con ditions for a term of years, this loss is fixed at sls for each man, woman and child in the city. Inspector McMichael believes 1t is lower in Atlanta. But, fixing the per capita loss at only $5, to be conservative, Atlanta’s 175,000 pop ulation loses $875,000 a year through ruin by smoke. One down-town manu facturer told Inspector McMichael that the firm’s loss was SIOO a week, through materials and finished garments ruined by soft coal smoke settling on them. How Smoke Piles Up the Losses. These losses are itemized, in part, as follows: Increased laundry bills through quickly soiled garments. Consequent short life of garments through fre quent washing. Loss to retail stores, merchandise soiled and sold at reduction. Loss to wholesale stores, same. Loss to manufacturers and business houses by extra cost of light. With smoke in tlie air it is necessary to turn on the lights an hour earlier than oth erwise. Some houses burn them all day. This means decreased efficiency, also, for skilled work by artificial light i is never so good as by sunlight. These might be detailed Indefinitely. But there is another loss Impossible to estimate. Its results may be found in the tubercular hospitals and the ceme teries. It is the tremendous loss to hu man health through breathing smoke surcharged air. "Don’t think that smoke-reducing methods can be used only by the bix