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About The monitor. (Omaha, Neb.) 1915-1928 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 1920)
l=j the Monitor u==j A NATIONAL WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS. THE BBV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS. Editor $2.00 a Year. Copy OMAHA. NEBRASKA. FEBRUARY 12. 1920 Vol. V. No. 32 (Whole No. 241) Soldier Shoot Mobists Who Would Lynch Prisoner Lexington Deals Dras- % tically With Mob Authorities Warn Mob Attacking Jail to Lynch Liggett, Colored, on Trial for Murder. Not to Advance. Order Disregarded—Soldiers Fire, Killing Five and Wounding Fifteen. PRISONER FOUND GUILTY; WILL BE ELECTROCUTED Kentucky Authorities Strike Blow for Supremacy of Law—Give Swift Trial and Sentence to Accused—City Un der Martial Law. Lexington, ky„ Feb. 10—Dawn today found Lexington an armed camp. Squads of armed soldiers were patrolling the streets or guarding all approaches to the city to prevent a recurrence of yesterday’s mob violence that cost the lives of five persons and caused Injury to a score of others. William Lockett, slayer of 10-year old Geneva Hardman, a school girl, was confined in a steel cage in the Fayette countv courthouse here, await ing removal either to the state reform atory at Frankfort or the prison at Eddyville. It was an attempt to lynch Lockett yesterday that caused the rioting. Un der guard of several hundred state troops, he was brought from the state penitentiary to this city, marched to the courthouse, found guilty of murder and sentenced to the electric chat^ March 11. Shortly after the sentence had been passed a mob of 100 or more men charged the entrance to the court house, bent upon lynching the man. The troops fired rifles and machine guns into the crowd. The mob waver ed and then dispersed, leaving the toll of dead and wounded behind. Prevent Fresh Attack. Additional troops were rushed to the seene from Gamp Zachary Taylor dur ing the late afternoon and evening and martial law was declared by Brigadier General F. C. Marshall upon ihs ar rival. Reports last night that 1,500 moun taineers were en route to Lexington to lynch Lockett caused the command ing officer to throw cordons of troops across every road leading into the city and at every strategic point within the city. At 10 o’clock today the brigadier general announced that the situation was under control and that no further trouble was expected. Rioting bagan yesterday when a mob bent on lynching William Lockett, a negro, who confessed to the murder, last week of a 10-year-old girl, Geneva Hardman, was fired upon with rifles and machine guns by state mllUlamen as the mob was storming the Fayette county courthouse to get the prisoner during his trial. The attempt to lynch Locket was made Just, after he had confessed to the murder and as the jury found him guilty of murder In the first degree. He was sentenced to die In the electric chair March 11. Shooting Disperses Mob. T^i" shooting temporarily dispersed the mob and ftnve the authorities time in which to rush Lockett to a secret place of safety. Soldiers and police fired point blank into the crowd and a nearby machine gun rattled. From the windows of the court room above another hail of bul lets • spattered down on the asphalt street. Four men fell at the first volley. The mob which had surged half way up the steps pressed hack and broke. Quick action on the part of the author ities siiccessffilly got the prisoner out. of the building. Those killed in the clash were: B. F. Carrier and L. M. Kina, both of T*ex ineton. and .Tohn Thomas and William Effington, both of Versailles. Among those wounded were: J. W. Btansell, W. ,T. Rees. Otis Sharp. Em mett Dozier, Trwin Owynn, Emmett Danlzlger, Fred Rowdors. H. C. Weath ers. Mrs. E. T. Crlss and .Tames Mas sevgall. Lockett's arrest, indictment, trial and sentence sets a new record for rapidity in Kentucky. He was arrest ed last Tuesday nlftht, Indicted Friday and wns tried, found guilty and sen tenced in a few minutes today. Under his sentence he will die in the electric chair March 11. TTow dear to mv heart Ts the yearly subscriber; » The yearly subscriber, Wl.o pays in advance. \SSEMBLYMAN HAWKINS INTRODUCES NEW MEASURES % - w York, Feb. 11.—Assemblyman J. Clifford Hawkins has recently in troduced two new measures in the assembly, one to amend the real prop erty law in relation to certain agree ments for the occupation of real estate in the city of New York, an other making the 27th day of Octo ber, a holiday to be known as Roose velt’s birthday. Gans Proclaimed Kingjrf Them All Harry Foley Says Leonard Would Have Been Easy for Negro Boxer— The Former Champion Had No False Motions and Every Move H» Made Meant Something, According to Veteran Trainer. San, Francisco, Cal., Feb. 11.— Harry Foley, the famous trainer oi boxers, was asked who he thought was the greatest fighter in Americar ring history. "Joe Gans,” he re plied, without a moment’s hesitation "And I’ll tell you why. I trained al Shannon’s with him for many fights One of them was with Mike Twin Sul livan. You know how he flattened the Twin. Well, on the way home, blame me if Joe didn’t have a black eye. I kidded him about it. ‘Well, sah,” said Joe, ‘I have been boxing for fourteen years, and that is the first one of those babies I've ever had. And, Harry, that’s the last one. The old man is going to start all over again and learn how to box.’ “How many of your present day fighters would have done that? This chatter of Bennie Leonard being bet tter than Joe is silly. Why Gans would knock Leonard out just feinting him “Iyook at what Gans did to Wolcott. And don’t tell me that Wolcott wasn’t a tough laddie. Those body whangs of his were poison. I know—I stopped one of ’em and I W'as sore for weeks efterward. “Gans was the only boxer I ever saw who made no false motions. He didn’t hop around the ring with a lot of that ‘fancy footwork.’ Every move he made in the ring meant something or he wouldn't have made it. “He didn’t block punches or duck ’em. He actually caught them on the fly, reaching out and grabbing them in the air on his gloves, like a ball player catches a ball. Ever see the I,eonards doing that?” WOOD SAYS AMERICA IS NO PLACE FOR TRAITORS Springfield, 111., Feb. 11.—Major General Leonard Wood, speaking Sun day at a Lincoln memorial service held at the state arsenal, referred to the martyred president's stand for law and order and declared that there is no room in America for the unpa triotic. “We can best honor Lincoln by doing the things which are necessary to maintain this country, which Lin coln saved, by standing firm for law and order,” said General Wood. General Wood was the guest of Governor and Mrs. Frank O. Lowden at the executive mansion during his visit. The two candidates for the presidential nomination on the repub lican ticket met on the platform at the arsenal and were cheered as they exchanged greetings. FIRST WOMAN LAWYER WINS CRIMINAL CASE (By Associated Negro Press.) Macon, Ga., Feb. 11.—Mrs. W. E. Jackson, Macon’s first woman lawyer, has won her first criminal case in lo cal courts, having secured the ac quittal of Guilford Arrington, charged with robbery in connection with an assault on Dr. W. O. Stevens, sev eral months ago. ■ The solicitor con sented to the case being dropped after witnesses had been examined. ASSEMBLYWOMAN SELECTS COLORED SECRETARY New York, Feb. 11.—On Friday, January 30, 1920, Ruth M. Jones of 25 West 135th street, secretary of the Roosevelt Women’s Republican League, was appointed private secre tary to Miss Margaret L. Smith, as semblywoman of the 19th Assembly district. FREDERICK DOUGLASS Dorn February 14, 1817; Died February 20, 1895. “Frederick Douglass stands easily the foremost American of Negro descent, during the nineteenth century. His carrer is typi cal of the history of the race in the times in which he lived. Other men may have excelled him in • ome special activities, but he stands pre-eminent in the estimation of the American people and of the world.”—The Negro in American History by John W. Cromwell. FREDERICK DOUGLASS AND HIS REMARKABLE CAREER WHICH SHOULD PROVE AN INSPIRATION TO MEM BERS OF HIS RACE. (By Wm. H. Dawley, Jr., in The Kansas City Sun.) February 20, 1895, at Cedar Hill, Anacostia, D. C. Frederick Douglass died. The exact date of his birth is not known. It has been celebrated in connection with Lincoln on the 12th and also on St.»Valentine’s day the 14th. Since the date is unknown and must be selected there should be no intrenchment on the natal days of other famous men notwithstanding February furnishes the fewest num ber of days of any month. It appears that the 20th, the day of his death, would also answer for his birth. For both Shakespeare and Oliver Crom well died upon the anniversary of their birthday. Thus, let us say, he was bom Feb ruary 20, 1817. Maryland is his na tive state. His early childhood was spent with an inadequate wardrobe and insufficient food, wanting in va riety. Possibly the happiest circum stance of his childhood was when about the age of twelve, he was sent1 to Baltimore and his new mistress taught him with her son, his letters. j He outstripped his white companion which elicited such joy from his t teacher that she proudly told her husband. Mr. Auld became angry and ordered his wife to stop teaching I the “Nigger." She reluctantly obeyed. But the crafty young slave found 1 other means of furthering his learn-1 ing. The lion had tasted blood. From i the proceeds of blacking boots he j bought the Columbian Orator, that, he had heard white school boys talk ing about. Like Tom Sawyer In white-washing his aunt’s fence, he in veigled these school days into teach ing him words. Two selections in the CQlumbian Orator increased his discontent with slavery: “A dialogue between Master and Slave" resulting in the slave’s winning freedom, and Sheridan’s speceh on “Catholic Eman cipation." He learned to write by copying letters, that he saw on the sides of ships, by imitating the copies in Mrs. Auld's son’s copy book, which she had very carefully put away, and by tracing the italics in Webster's Spelling book. In 1833 the death of his master caused him to be hired out to Mr. Covey who was very cruel. The second time he attempted to whip Douglass, Douglass resisted with such effect that Covey made no more I attempts. From that moment Douglas; was free. However, in 1836 his at tempt to escape with five companion; for whom he had written passes was unsuccessful. But in 1838, with the financial as sistance of a free girl that he had been wooing, a sailor suit borrowce from a friend, passports in his pocket he boarded a moving train and in twenty-four hours reached New York City where he was joined by the above mentioned girl whom he ai once married and the couple proceed ed to New Bedford, Mass., to rendei capture and return to slavery less easy. In 1841 in Nantucket at the anti-slavery convention he met Wil liam Lloyd Garrison and made a speech that secured his services a; the agent of the Massachusetts Anti slavery society. He now lectured throughtout the Noith against slavery with phenom enal success. In Grafton, N. H., be cause he was refused a place of meet ing he borrowed a dinner bell from the hotel and ringing it went through the streets calling attention to his address on the Commons that even ing. He had a crowid and no furthet trouble about a meeting place in Graf ton. He was often Jim-Crowed. In attempting to make him take second class fare on a first class ticket, he carried away a part of a seat, being dragged by conductor and others. In 1844 he went to England and became associated with John Bright Peel, O’Connell, Disraeli and manj other famous statesmen. He address ed large audiences. A hundred anc fifty pounds sterling was raised and sent to Mr. Hugh Auld for Douglass freedom. He couldn’t enjoy his free dom in a foreign land and observe members of his race at home in slav ery. So against the wishes of hi; friends he recrossed the Atlantic ir 1846 and resumed active Work foi the freedom of his race. He movec to Rochester in the fall of 1847 un< began publishing the North Star This was uphill work. He was, how ever, aided by Charles Sumner, Ger ritt Smith, H. W. Seward and Chie Justice Chase. Fear of arrest as ! result of the John Brown raid a Harper’s Ferry, Va., which he-discour aged, caused his second visit to Eng land. (Continued on Page 8.) LANGFORD AND JEFF CLARK TO MEET Terre Haute, Ind., Feb. 11.—Sam j Langford has been signed by Match ! maker C. E. Johnson, the local boxing promoter, to meet Jeff Clark in the feature ten-round bout at the Virgo Boxing club February 16. Langford ! has been boxing a good deal through the middle west lately. Judge Rebukes Lawyer’s Stand on Lynch Law _ j County Attorney Shotwell Draws Re tort From Attorney Connell That I)_ I —• i V SHARP rebuke was administered by District Judge Troup Febru ary 3 to W. J. Connell, when the lat ter made a statement upholding lynch law “under some circumstances." It was during the drawing of a jury to try J. Harry Moore on the charge of conspiracy to commit arson in connection with the burning of the court house the night of September 28. County Attorney Shotwell asked one prospective juror: ‘Do you be lieve in lynch law?” “I object,” exclaimed Mr. Connell, one of the attorneys for Mr. Moore. “Everybody believes that lynch law, under certain circumstances, may be be justifiable.” Judge Troup’s fist smote the desk as his eyes turned in surprise upon the attorney. “I don’t think so. I don’t think so,” he exclaimed. “And no lawyer should come into a court room and utter such a statement before a jury.” Mr. Connell said nothing more. An extraordinary prejudice on the part of many men in the panel was revealed in examination of men for jury duty in the case, many declaring either that they thought the burning of the court house justified or else that their sympathies or opinions were already fixed. Joe F. Baida, Twenty-first and E streets, exclaimed during his exam ination for the jury, “If they would have turned over the nigger the mob would not have burned the court house.” Next came Ralph Tuttle, 3727 R street, who remarked, “If they was going to get the nigger by burning the cotru house, let ’em bum it; that’s my idea.” TO GIVE AUSTRIA LIST OF WAR CRIMINALS SOON Basle.—The list of persons charged with war crimes whom Austria must deliver to the allies will be handed to the Austrian government at an early date, according to a Vienna dispatch. It is ready, but will be examined by the representatives at Paris of Jugo slavia. The list is not long, but includes Archduke Joseph, Field Marshal Arz von Straussenburg, Field Marshal von Koevess, General Poticrek, gov ernor of Bosnia; Field Marshal von Brevic and Count von Berchtold, for mer Austrian foreign minister. The extradition will be complicated, it is said, because several of those r.:imed are at present in neutral coun tries and others are citizens of states which are friendly to the entente. PROTEST DISCRIMINATION IN TEACHERS’ SALARIES (By Associated Negro Press.) Atlanta, Ga., Feb. 11.—Protesting that to increase salaries of the white grammar school teachers $30 a month, while the Negro teachers are raised only $10 a month, is unjust discrim ination, a delegation of more than 100 Negro teachers appeared before the board of education in special session and demanded an equal increase with the white teachers. This is the kind of discrimination that makes our group move north. COLORED ALDERMAN FOR COATESVILLE, PA. Coatesville, Pa.—At a recent elec . tion here here three colored men were ’ elected to office, viz.: A colored real , estate assessor, an alderman and a ; constable. This, too, happened in a . city that some time ago was disgraced . by advancing. Much credit Is due to Dr. William A. Creditt for recent re sults. Standard Life Makes Phenomenal Record Annual Report at Stockholders’ Meet ing Most Satisfactory—Assets In creased Over $200,000, and Insur ance in Force Totals $14,000,000. BUSINESS ABILITY OF RACE DEMONSTRATED Secretary-Treasnrer Pace, to Whose Energy and Devotion Is Largely Attributed the Company’s Success, Retires to Become President of a Music Company. TLANTA, Ga., Feb. 11.—The an nual meeting of the stockholders of Standard Life Insurance company, old line legal reserve company, was held here January 1. Reports were made by President H. E. Perry and Secretary-Treasurer Harry H. Pace. The reports showed the company had increased its assets over $200,000, and closed the year with $14,000,000 insurance in force. There are 418 agents and 50 clerks employed. The company operates in twelve states. Among the outstanding features of the meeting was the report made by Secretary-treasurer Pace who has vol untarily severed his official connec tion with the company to become president of Pace & Mandy Music Company, Inc., of New York City. His repoit was a masterly effort. He told of the early struggles of the com pany and hi-w it had grown from the humble beginning six and a half years ago when he came to it. His language and manner of delivery were eloquent and so touching that strong men actually wept. When he finished speaking there was not a dry eye in the room. Alter his report a committee from the stockholders and one from the di rectors waited on him urging him to withdraw his resignation, but they were unsuccessful. A tempting offer of salary was made, but it is under stood that the Pace & Mandy Music Company’s offer was so. liberal that he could no4 decline it. 'TOoth bodies adopted resolutions of regret which were ordered spread on the minutes. The directors at their meeting pre sented him with a, handsome travel ing bag. A dividend of $3.00 per share was declared. Two of the former direc tors were not candidates for re-elec tion. No successor has yet been named for Mr. Pace, and the board will doubtless experience some diffi culty in filling the position. Mr. Pace will also assume active supervision of the organization of the new $200,000.00 insurance company, the Supreme Life and Casualty, now being successfully and energetically promoted. BURIAL PLACE OF JOHN BROWN SOLD The Farm Upon Which Rest the Re mains of the Great Martyr for Freedom Passes Into Other Hands. New York, Feb. 11.—Included in the sale of 1,200 acres of land in Essex county, near I,ake Placid N. Y., recently, is a bit of property con taining the grave of John Brown. The grave is located at North Elba, in the Adirondacks. The entire tract of land sold for $60,000 and is heav ily timbered. The farm at North Elba was pur chased by John Brown as a refuge for fugitive slaves, and when the noted man was executed in 1859 his body was taken to this farm for burial. Seberal years ago, through the efforts of the late Colonel Cannon, a monument was placed over the grave. Thousands of tourists visit annually the resting place of John ' Brown. SCOTT BOND PAYS $145,000 FOR FARM Forest City, Ark., Feb. 11.—Scott Bond of Madison, one of the wealthi est farmers of the race, purchased from Judge E. A. Rolfe and Dr. O. N. Warren the Captain John Young estate, containing 900 acres, for $145, 000. The place was formerly owned by J. W. Gordon (white). Subscribe for The Monitor.
