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I
TTTE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS.
CAN JURY OBEY IF TOLD
TO FORGET BASE CHARGE?
scene in courtroom as conley I Crowd Set in
WAS UNDER FIRE OFTHE DEFENSE i. f\ • •
Its Upimons
By JAMES B. NEVIN.
get—do you think it CAN forget?
Maybe you do—I don’t!
And as to Conley and his story in
its entirety—the spectators in that
Reuben Arnold
assisting in
the grilling
of the negro.
“Gentlemen of the jury, having
heard from James Conley, the black
est, most damning story ever told tn
Atlanta by one human being against
another, having sat there and listened
as he smudged with unspeakable
scandal the defendant in this case,
Leo Frank, although it is irrelevant,
Immaterial, and has nothing to do
with this case, you will kindly forget
it, being on your oaths as jurymen to
consider the evidence declared com
petent!”
And the jury, being like most other
juries, in one way and another, and
having heard all the things as afore
said, will promptly proceed to do as
instructed about forgetting it—NOT!
I have heard juries told too many
times to "forget” things—such, for
instance, as that there is no such
thing as "unwritten law” in this
land of the free and home of the brave
—and I have seen too many times
those very same juries proceed to
“forget”—NOT!
Juries are. after all, composed of
mere human beings, and things such
as Conley said to the Frank jury can
NOT be forgotten, and will NOT be j
disregarded by the average jury.
Merely Question of Btelief.
It is merely a queston of whether j
the jury BELIEVES the negro!
There was something infinitely pa
thetic In the situation Tuesday, when
court met in the afternoon.
For one thing, ft brought to the
cheeks of the defendant’s wife, al
ways and ever at h’~ side, the firs:
tears I yet have seen fall from her
eyes.
She has borne herself with amaz-*
lng fortitude thu9 far—the wonder is
that she has not long asro collapsed.
When Reuben Arnold, moving to
strike from the record the vile story
of Jim Conley, paused a second before
reading the exact words he desired
expunged, 'ooked a moment in the
direction of the defendant’s wife, and
said, with no show of the spectacular
whatever, “Your honor, I would pre
fer not to read this In the presence
of these two ladies, and I therefore
pass it to your honor that you may
read it in silence!” The moment was
tense and tragic!
Weeps For First Time.
I do not know whether it was grati
tude to Arnold for the kindness and
consideration thus shown, whether it
was realization of the weighty pur
pose of the motion, whether it was the
first chilling breath of apprehension,
or whether it was just a physical giv- |
ing way that moved Mrs. Frank. What- '
ever it was, as Arnold passed the pa- j
per along to Ju.ge Roan, the firs!
tear I ever saw from the eyes of
Lucile Frank trickled down her cheek
and she dropped her head in her J
hands for a moment # or two and | -
sobbed! v ‘ courtroom have been looking for C’on-
Apparently there was nothing in the i ey to “break down.” to fall on his
By 0 B. KEELER.
The impression persists that court-
room crowds are mad# up in the
main of two classes, as follows:
(1) People who take it for grant
ed that any person being tried on any
charge In any court is guilty, and then
some.
(2) People who are constitutionally
[
AIM RESPITE BIG ODDS
By L. F. WOODRUFF.
Practically the entire case on which
the State of Georgia bases Us claim
on the life of Leo Frank to pay for
Jim Conley
as he appeared
on the witness
stand during
cross-
examination.
incident, either upon the part of Ar-
knees and confess it ail a lie, and all
nold or the woman, designed to be the ,
least bit theatrical. The jury had ; that sort of thin 5-
been removed, the stage settings were i There never was any chance that
wanting. Conley would do that. It should be
It merely was a natural and minor | borne in mind that to "break down
incident that tugged, somehow, at the j Conley’s story does not necessarily
heartstrings and caught at the throat, mean to break down Conley—to col-
In all the packed courtroom ther« lapse him.
were two women only—beyond that, j The point is: Can the defense has
there was a morbidly hungry crowd of j or •will the defense—so l NDERMINE
men. ready to grasp greedily at any- ; Conley’s story that, through the in-
thing sensational. troduction of other evidence, it e\en-
Arnold denied the crowd for the i tually will fall to tne ground as a
sake of—the women.
And now the jury has-been asked
to forget the damning thing that has
been said to it, that has been said
mass of lies?
Slowly, but persistently, with dead
ly intent evNi if with tediousness of
! method, Luther Z. Rosser for more
in the presence of the wife and the ; than two days has attacked the amaz-
mother—and that was too vile to say
a second time in the presence of the ;
latter!
Do you think the jury WILL for- j
lng and terrible story upon which the
State hopes to convict Leo Frank of
the murder of Mary Phagan.
Rosser has been almost maddening
Soda crackers are more nu
tritive than any other flour
food. Uneeda Biscuit are
the perfect soda crackers.
Though the cost is but five
cents, Uneeda Biscuit are
too good, too nourishing, too
crisp, to be bought merely
as an economy.
Buy them because of their fresh
ness—because of their crispness—
because of their goodness—because
of their nourishment.
Always 5 cents. Always fresh,
crisp and clean.
NATIONAL BISCUIT COMPANY
in his patience with the negro. He
has gone over the same ground, time
af^ter time, in his efforts to get Con
ley's various stories adjusted to ttu
purpose of the defense.
Conley, rapid-fire enough in direct
examination, rattling off his grewsome
and frightful story as if it were a
recital of an altogether common
thing, became quite another Conley
under cross-examination.
Where but a few moments ago he
had remembered most amazing and
inconsequential details—such a.s the
fact that a woman who called to see
Frank on Thanksgiving Lay wore a
blue and white polka dotted dress, a
green hat and white shoes and stock
ings—under cross-examination • he
could remember nothing at all save
after the most persistent prodding.
. Time and again Mr. Rosser had to
go over the entire ground of an entire
situation to draw from Conley one
further comment upon it. Questioned
on his story under both cross and
direct examination, tne negro was pat
enough in reply—on other points he
was as vague as he possibly could
be.
Twenty-one times Tuesday he ad
mitted to Mr. Rosser that he had
"lied.” Seven times in addition to
that he adnwtted that he had been
“mistaken.”
As the cross-examination pro
gressed, too, it became eviden'
enough that the defense is to hold the
entire charge against Frank to be
largely a “frame-up," with Conley a.s
the bright and particular star about
whom it revolves.
The negro said he at first refused to
speak of the crime at all, and when
he did speak deliberately lied because
he "wished to protect Mr. Frank.”
"He was my young superintendent
—I would have done anything to save
him," said the negro—whether with
sinister cunning or genuine sinceri
ty, the jury must say.
Showed How Negro Lied.
And yet. with Conley’s own lips
Rosser showed how, time aijd again,
he deliberately lied about his move
ments on the fatal Saturday that
was Mary Phagan's last on earth—
after he had said that he had looked
in vain for help from Frank, and was
then determined to tell "the whole
truth!”
After Conley’s excuse of protect
ing Frank had been shattered by the
negro's own "confession,” he had to
make three subsequent and different
"confession®' before he got things
shaped to his liking—and every time
he readjusted his story it was changed
to meet the ever bobbing up objections
to the story of the day or two be
fore.
Continuously Mr. Rosser referred to
the fact, always admitted by the ne
gro, that his various affidavits were
(changed "at police headquarters.” in
the presence of officers, "after being
released from jail and carried to
headquarters.”
There are dozens of puzzling in
consistencies to be bridged over in
Conley’s story—scores of things yet
to be explained and straightened out.
And yet—
In the average mind I doubt wheth
er Conley’s story has been seriously
discredited in the main.
Tho’re are people who admit, read
ily enough—hundreds of them—that
Conley *s a liar, a thousand times
over, a loafer, and an utterly unde
sirable citizen.
Doubt Slowly Crystallizing.
They will say thus and so to his
disparagement, but
Fateful, suggestive, profoundly
melancholy "but” for Leo Frank!
It bespeaks a widespread and crys
tallizing doubt that is dangerously
incompatible with Frank’s hopes for
life and liberty and the restoration
of his good name.
With all the undermining and In
congruities of Conley’s story that the
most subtle ingenuity of the defense
can conjure to its aid. the jury has
been given a story which, if so much
as 5 per cent of it sticks, likely will
serve to convict.
The primary circumstances—these
might be swept aside like chaff be
fore the wind, if only Conley’s story
might be crushed to earth and made
absurd.
But there Is the story In all Its
abundance of sinister detail—th*
comings and goings of questionable
men and women, the negro, time
again, on watch downstairs, respond
ing to signals, the connivance of the
negro with the white man in unna
tural and perverted practices, the
coming of innocent little Mary Pha
gan. the pattering of anxious feet
above, the suppressed scream, the call
to Conley fqr further assistance in
consummating unlawful deeds with
women—this time murder—the re
moval of the body, and the promise to
pav on some subsequent day!
Will the* story thus given to the
jury, unless completely and alto-
Luther Z.
Rosser
in a
characteristic
attitude as he
fired volleys of
questions at
Conley.
gether broken down, ever be re
moved from its mind entirely? And
unless it is removed entirely, can
Frank hope for acquittal?
If it is. in its essentials, the truth,
what will the jury care about the
exact time at which Conley bought
some whisky on Peters street; or
whether he went straight from Pe
ters street to the laundry; or whether
he remembers the mythical “woman
in green who went up the factory
steps,” no matter how vitally impor
tant these things may be to the sus
tained truth of Conley's story.
Conley may lie in a dozen details
of his story, he may have readjusted
it continuously under the direction
of Tom, Dick, or Harry, he may be
everything he ought not to be—and
yet, if one BIG detail in his awful
story sticks in the minds of that jury,
Leo Frank is undone hopelessly.
If the story Conley tells IS a lie,
then it is the most inhumanly devil
ish. t he most cunningly clever, and
the most amazingly sustained iie ever
told in Georgia!
Every little detail, as finally ad
justed and not then until Conley
went upon the stand Monday—fits
the necessities of those bent upon
Frank’s conviction. If it is, as the
defense contends, a "frame-up,” it is
a diabolically smart "frame-up" —one
can not escape that conclusion!
Girl’s Visit Dovetails In.
Even the coming an d going of
Monteen Stover, the five minutes of
time in which the primary circum
stances might be made to dovetail
into the Conley story, is <fited by the
witness Conley a.s the very period of
time wherein Conley, sitting in the
dark hall below, heard pattering foot
steps above, the faint scream, and im
mediately after Miss Stover went out,
the tiptoeing of Frank to the front,
and then the story of the death up
stairs.
Monteen Stover could not have
chosen a more exact and useful mo
ment to wander in- and yet, she
heard no scream, although she did
not see Frank in his office during the
few minutes she remained upstairs.
If the Conley story is a lie. if it has
been TOO CLEY'ERLY "framed up”
if and a thousand other "ifs”—
what matters that?
It matters this: If It bp> a lie, it
MUST break down, somewhere,
sometime; if be the truth, it will
stand against ALL the assaults made
upon it!
It has come to the point where one,
seeking the truth and justice and
the right to all men at all times and
in all circumstances, can only say he
will leave it to the jury and that the
JURY will speak the TRUTH!
incapable of believing anybody i9
guilty of anything whatever.
That is one powerful Impression
gained at the Frank trial. It Is an
impression sticking out pointedly in
the wake of the Thaw trial, and the
Nan Patterson trial, and the Beatty
trial, and the Hyde trial.
All three of the Hyde trials, in fact.
Never an Opinion Altered.
At the risk of being convicted of
exaggeration in the first degree, the
writer, who was rather intimately
associated with the celebrated poison
case, would estimate that 18,397 per
sons expressed in his hearing what
they insisted were unalterable opin
ions as to the guilt or innocence of
the accused physician before the jury
in the first trial had been impaneled.
And of the 18,397 (estimated) not
one single instance is recalled of one
single opinion being altered.
The fact that the physician was
convicted on his first trial made not
the least difference to those who be
lieved him innocent.
Court Rufing Mattered Not.
The fact that the Supreme Court
reversed and remanded the case for
further trial made not the least dif
ference to those wno voted guilty.
The second and third trials, one
of which resulted In an escaped juror,
fleeing madly by way of a rain spout
from the dread lair of the hypothet
ical question, and the other in a hung
jury, had no perceptible effect on the
factions.
Except to solidify them in their
original beliefs.
One side desired to take steps at
once.
The other side named men-chil
dren for the object of a persecution
unparalleled since the days of Nero.
Arguments Never Will End.
And if Bennett Clark Hyde’s an
nual trials proceed a.s per schedule
until the year 1950, there will be
hoary-headed wrangling over the
same old points, by the same ancient
and original wranglers, lined up the
same way as when the greatest mys-
/ tery of tht* West came to the fall of
the gavel In the opening trial.
Take the Beatty Case.
There were men and women you
know some of them who raised
frantic hands to heaven, that a poor
boy should thus be railroaded to his
doom.
They were about set to buy mileage
and travel to throw themselves and
their petitions at the feet of a cruel
and callous Governor.
And then Beatty confessed.
Did that still the trouble lachrymal
waters?
Not precisely.
They said the poor boy’s mind hq^d
been weakened by his persecution.
And if you are in a hypercritical
mood or are otherwise disposed to
stick pins in toy balloons, Just ask
your memory to inform
many times you have heard
pronouncements since th«
Leo M. Frank began:
First: “Well. I’ve been absolutely
certain from the very first that Frank
did it."
Second: “Well, I never have be
lieved that Frank was guilty of that
crime."
Aral now do you feel hypercritical?
And now do you fancy that 18,397
is <in inflated estimate?
Of course, there must be a Third
Estate—a well-balanced,’ thoughtful,
cautious body. Particularly cautious,
and slow of speech -mayhap in some
sporadic instances slow of thought.
They are the judicial ones They
hold the balance open at both ends,
to receive and weigh the testimony
and th** facts.
At least, they Fay they do.
That would be the jury, perhaps.
And some others—perhaps.
that life taken from Mary Phagan is
before the jury.
Most of the remaining evidence of
importance which the Solicitor Gen
eral may introduce merely will be re-
butUil to testimony presented by
Frank’s counsel.
Whether the evidence presented is
strong enough to convict Is a question
for the jury to decide. Whether the
testimony introduced by the defense
will be convincing enough to cause
the reasonable doubt which the law
says shall make Frank a free man or
whether the defense’s attack on the
State’s case has been of sufficient
strength to create a question in the
minds of the jurors, time alone will
tell.
But this fact remains unchallenged:
Every single thing that Solicitor Gen
eral Hugh Dorsey declared In advance
ftiat he would get before the jury is
there now. It may not be enough to
convict, but the case w'hich the State
said fastened the crime on Leo Frank
has been put in evidence.
Dorsey Had Huge Task.
One by one the prosecutor has
forged the links in the chain that he
maintains fixes the guilt of the Pha
gan murder on Leo Frank and Leo
Frank alone.
It has been long, tedious work.
Dorsey has had to fight against con
siderable odds, but his work has been
well done.
When the defense has its innings,
how
these
trial of
OLSON & SMITH, Mgrs.
Southeastern Department
ATLANTA GENERAL AGENTS
Frank H. Reynolds & Co.
and
Edgar Dunlap Ins. Agency
SEMI-ANNUAL STATEMENT
For the six months ending June 30, 1913, of the condition of the
United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.
OF BALTIMORE, MD.,
Organized under the laws of the State of Maryland, made to the Gov
ernor of the State of Georgia, In pursance of the laws of said State.
Principal Office—U. S. F. and G. Building, Baltimore, Md.
I. CAPITAL STOCK.
Whole amount of capital stock $2,500,000.00
Amount paid up in cash 2,000,000.00
II. ASSETS.
Total assets of the company, actual cash market value ... $7,606,574.98
III. LIABILITIES.
Total liabilities $7,606,574.98
IV. INCOME DURING THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF THE YEAR 1913.
Total Income actually received during the first six months
in rash $3.312,759.4,8
V. EXPENDITURES DURING THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF THE
YEAR 1913.
Total expenditures during the first six months of the year
in cash $2,860,901.84
A copy of the act of incorporation, duly certified, is of file in the
office of the Insurance Commissioner.
STATE OF MARYLAND—City of Baltimore.
Personally appeared before the undersigned Albert H. Buck, who,
being duly sworn, deposes and says that he is the assistant secretary’ of
the United Spates Fidelity and Guaranty Company, and that the fore
going statement is correct and true.
ALBERT H BUCK. Assistant Secretary.
Sworn to and subscribed before mo this 31st day of July, 1913.
A. D. PATRICK, Notary Public.
Name of State Agents—OLSON & SMITH.
| Name of Agents at Atlanta—-F n a k k h. REYNOLDS & CO., ED
GAR DUNLAP INSURANCE AGENCY.
*
the chain may be tom asunder as
though struck by lightning, but that
will be the work of the skilled attor
neys who are fighting to save the life
of the pencil factory superlntendenL
Here was Dorsey’s work: He had
to adduce enough circumstantial evi
dence to corroborate the testimony
of Jim Conley before his case could
even be seriously considered. The un
supported word of the negro sweeper
would have been about as valuable as
a punctured drum. The Solicitor
knew this.
First, he had to prove the venue.
He had to locate Frank In the Na
tional Pencil Company factory at the
time Mary Phagan was slain. He
did this by the unattacked testimony
of many witnesses. He did it go
thoroughly that the defense has tac
itly admitted that Frank was at the
factory about the time he deed was
supposed to have been done.
Question of Time Settled.
Then he had to prove the time.
According to the State’s theory the
murder was committed about 12:16
on Memorial Day. Frank himself has
said and his employees and his as
sociates have testified he was there
at that time. This point also is prac
tically unchallenged.
At last came the hardest task. Ha
had to prove that Leo Frank was the
only human being In the pencil fac
tory at that time who could have
taken Mary Phagan’s life.
By every witness Introduced on this
point it was shown that as far as
human knowledge goes Leo Frank a-nd
Jim Conley were the only men in that
part of the factory at that time.
Either could . have committed the
crime. It was Dorsey’s work ..to place
the blame on Frank alone.
Newt Lee’s testimony was intro
duced to show that Frank sent him
away that afternoon. Dr. Harris*
testimony tended to show that the
playing must have been done imme-
diatelv after Frank had given the*
child ner week’s wage and had given
it to her while they were alone. Mrs.
White’s testimony tended to show
that Jim Conley was sitting down
stairs making no attempt at flight
after the time the crime is supposed
to have been committed.
Then came Conley s direct evidence
and the chain was practically com
plete.
As has been said before, this chain
may not stand the acid test of the
defense’s attack. It may not be'
strong enough even unattacked to
convince the Jury that Frank is re*
sponsible for Mary Phagan's death.
But it is what Dorsey went oat. to
get before the Jury. He has done it.
And he has done It practically un
aided. The valuable assistance he
had reason to believe he would re
ceive from the police department has
been more or less missing. In fact,
the greatest blows to the State’s case
have been delivered by detectives,
supposdly expert witnesses who have
been unable to withstand the cross
fire of Luther Rosser.
The case has meant a lot to Dorsey,
and right now, with the thrilling bat
tle approaching Its final stages, Dor
sey stands out as big and command
ing a figure as the brilliant lawyers
against whom he Is arrayed.
He may lose his case, but if he
does he will come out with reputa
tion enhanced.