Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1920)
PART THREE AUTOMOBILE AND WANT AD SECTION The Omaha Sunday Bee PART THREE , AUTOMOBILE AND WANT AD . , SECTION. ' VOL. XLIX NO. 29. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, ANUARY 4, 1920. " 1 C SINGLE COPY flVE CENTS Climax of Greatest Legal Battle For Human Life in Nebraska Nears With Approach Of Thrice Deferred Date of Electrocution . t - Boys Sentenced to Die f or Murder of Lulu Vogt Can Now Be Saved Only by Action of Clemency From the Governor Altfrm flnlp anrl Allen Crammer Clinrr to Faint Rav of Lifrht in Hope That Final Public Hearing of Their Case Before Governor McKelvie May Mean Life! Last Date Set for Nebraska's First Legal Electrocution Stands as January! v 16 Wife of Convicted Man and Daughter of Murdered Woman irm m ner T) 1 .' r T T .. .. T T 1 TnnAnn I ueiit'i vx. net nusuaiiuo miivcuc. BY GUY G. ALEXANDER. "The sentence of this court is that you, Allen V. Grammer, con victed of murder by a jury of 12 men, tried and true, shall be sen tenced to (lie by electrocution, in the state penitentiary at Lincoln, and for you Alson B.'Cole, the same judgment imit be returned." With the utterance uf these words, the condemnation to death of two young men scarcely out of their , teens, one of the most bitter and ""determined efforts ever made to save human life was started in this state and during the last 18 months this light, growing more bitter with each and every move has resulted in no less than four reprieves being grant ed the two lone occupants of death cells in the state penitentiary at Lin coln. t These men, Allen Graminer and Alson B. Cole, have heard the death penalty pronounced in a court of record, one, Grammar has heard the verdict 12 of his peers returned, rec ommending the infliction of the most severe of all pAialties exacted by the courts of justice for the com mission of a capital offense, that of taking a human life, and these same men have heard an affirmation of this verdict and judgment lrom the court of last resort, the state su preme count, but nflver once have they given up that fleeting hope, that last bright ray of light which has filtered through the iron grat ings of their 8x10 foot iron cell that maybe by some technicality, some new-found evidence they might yet escape that most awful of all punishments, death in the electric chair. Sitting in their dimly-lighted cells in the hospital building near the -center of the inclosure of the walls of the state penitentiary, these con victed and condemned men have Tfnfftii' im-r,t from the lips of their friends closing of every avenue of hope by which they might be able to escape the awful retribution which the courts of the state , have said must be exacted for their participation in the murder of Mrs. Lulu Vogt on lhenight of July 4 or the niornii.g of . Tuly 5. 1917. Butnever once I have they . given up that spark ot hopethat some way yet would be found to v escape the 4punishment Less than 10 days ago all hope of friends, attorneys and relatives had vanished, but still the convicted men. ever buoyed, had maintained an air cf optimism. v Fatal Day Decreed. January 9. 1920, had been decreed as the fatal day. This date had been definitely fixed by the judges of ths state supreme court when they dis posed of the last legal technicality by which the men might have es caped that fatal chair. So sure ha'J been the opinion of the state board of public welfare that the men would expiate their crime that an electric chair, the most modern contrivance of the executioners' weaponshad been purchased and installed ;n a room m the hospital ward adjoining the cells occupied by the men. But that hope held. I ' At last the hope, now nearly worn out, was revived by the announce ment made by Warden W. T. Fen ton to the two condemned men that John Hulhert. chief executioner ot the New York state prison, would be so busily engaged in carrying out the . decrees of New York court during the week of January 5 that he would be unable to arrive in Lin coln in time to act at the first legal electrocution ever held in this state. This break in the original plans made necessary a change in the plan of the warden of the prison to carry out the edict of -the district and state supreme court on Friday, January 9, and consequently Governor McKel vie granted a stay of execution for one week, fixing the date as Friday. January 16. Simultaneously with the announce ment of this final reprieve Governor McKelvie ordered that the state oub- lic welfare department should make a thorough and exhaustive inquiry into tiie case ot tne two men ana make its report on Monday, January .S. thf date set hv the governor fur a public hearing to guide him in mak ing a decision as to whether to ex tend executive cbmency to the con demned men. Once again that strange hand of Fate has stretched, out its slim fingers , and, literally stayed the hand of Electrocutioucr Hulbert as he was about to throw in the electric switch that would send that deadly spark coursing through the veins of the condemned nion, and speed them on their way to eternity. And now, these men, one a con fessed murderer and, the other a vic tim of a confession of his former farni hand, occupying adjoining cells in that death ward are slowly count ing the minutes,, the hours and the days until once and for all their es cape or doom in the electric chair shall be pronounced. Governor Remains Noncommittal. Governor McKelvie has given no intimation as to what course he will pursue in the matter of extending executive clemency to the con demned men. For weeks an applica tion for pardon carrying the names of the most responsible residents of Howard county and a separate recommendation of Warden W, T. Fenjon of the state penitentiary have been before the governor for his approval, but at no time has one w:ord on which to base a hope that he might commute the sentences of the two men been forthcoming. Men there are, among the 300 odd inmates of the state penitentiary, who have lost all vestige of happi ness and cheer, as the mighty iron doors of. that state prison have closed upon them, shutting them off from the outside world. Others there are who sec in the infliction of a penitentiary sentence the right of society to punish them for their misdeeds and the going astray of society's conventions, nut who nevertheless because ot tiiis punishment, repent, rapidly adjust themselves to their new-found life, a life of restriction, and are happy in their thoughts. Such men are Allen Vincent Grammer and Alson B. Cole, ac cording to Warden Fentou. Con fined in the prison since April 1, 1918, these two boys, and they are only boys, have been given every freedom and privilege, the last right of a community to its condemned. There has been .no broom or fur niture factory work for these boys. Instead they have roamed the cor- fl Unless Governor McKelvie intervenes, Allen V. Grammer and Alson B. Cole will die by electrocution January 16. Both men were convicted and sentenced to death irN the electric chair for the murder of Grammer's mother-in-law, Lulu Vogt, in 1918. Both were convicted on confession of Cole. Grammer's wife, the daughter of the murdered woman, continues to declare that her husband is innocent of any connection with the crime. The execution of these men will be the first instance of legal electrocu tion in Nebraska's history. Every known means to secure commutation of the sentence for them has failed, the supreme court upholding the district court's sentence. The date of the execution has thrice been deferred. Public hearing of the Grammer-Cole case will be held before Governor McKelvie tomorrow to determine the fitness of the prisoners for the gov ernor's clemency. ridor of the prison cell wards and have proyen themselves to be ideal prisoners, ever mindful of the re strictions and the penalties provided in rigid prison discipline. That time, for them, however, has passed. The last court of appeal has af firmed the findings of the jury in the Howard county district court, that the men must die. No longer is the freedom of the prison theirs. They are now confined to their cells in the hospital ward of the peniten tiary, under the ever-watchful eye of a guard of that institution, for the law says they must die and the warden, under the oafh administered when he assumed charge of the re formatory, must see that the edict of the courts is carried out and it is for him to see that they are put to death. Denied their freedom in the peni tentiary corridors, the men now only are buoyed in spirit, by the frequent visits of their attorneys. Grammer, however, has an ever faithful wife who .spends every wak ing moment at the side of the hus band, convicted and condemned to die for the murder of her mother. Never once has this frail little wife faltered in her determination to stand by her husband. Ostracized by her brothers, and without sis ters, she alone -bas carried his fight to the court of last resort. "My Al: is not, and cannot be guilty. He had no reason to kill my mother, for she had been so good to him. It was my mother who first gave him money on which we start ed farming immediately after our marriage, and now to think that he iGi "J While The Bee might not fully agfree with the artist's conception of the dream of these two condemned men, it is a cartoon that will ynake people think. If the death penalty is right in principle, its chief asset is its frightfulness not so much in the death of the criminal as in the "lesson" it should have on others who would commit crime. If it is wrong it should be abolis hed. Should these two men be electrocuted?. The Bee will be glad to hear what its readers think. would have killed her is unbeliev able. He is innocent, before God I kntfw he is innocent." The crime for which Grammer and Cole were tried and convicted was one of the most brutal and cold blooded mysteries in the annals of police history in Nebraska. The body of Mrs. Lulu VogV the agedl mother-in-law of Grammer wa found foully murdered, lying tiear the roadside near her home at Elba, Neb.,.on"the morning of July 5, 1917. .. A carefut investigation of her movements the night before her dead body, was found, and the dis appearance of Alson B. Cole from his accustomed place of employ ment, threw a light on the apparent ly iireoluble crime. Then started a search of the country for Cole. A reward was offered for his arrest and conviction and 'in a few short weeks he- was taken into custody in a small town in Wisconsin. He admitted his iden tity and was returned to Nebraska. He was kept in Omaha a few days. for feeling against him at Elba was at fever pitch. In Omaha, in a room , in the Paxton hotel in the company of several Omaha detec tives, after a day and night 'gruel ling examination and third-degree, he capitulated and dictated a confes sion of his connection with the mur der. It was in this confession that he implicated Grammer, the son-in-law of the murdered woman, and (Continued 01 rage Three, Thli Section.) Census Taking Brings )rymgs Stranger Who Seeks Knowledge ' Of Personal Affairs Should Be Given Prompt, Complete, Courteous Answers For He Is Fulfilling Edict of United States Constitution Fourteenth, Census to Be Started at Once Hope to' Break Time Record by Completing 192a Tally 'On March 15 Highly Important to Nation's Welfare. Thrill That Gomes But Orice in Ten Years cord it and then ask for particulars. If you are a weaver, the enumer ator wants to know in what kind of mill you work. If a lawyer, he asks about practice. If a seam stress, he wants to know whether you work out or do it at home. You then, have to tell him whether c II By ALEXANDER C. HERMAN. Armed with a paper badge, a book of instructions and an insatiable curiosity, a stranger soon will come knocking at your door. Standing ov the threslihold, he will demand ad mittance and there will be no deny ing him. Memories of the past wili be revived, Ten years back you had an ex perience with another man carrying I' a similar badge and instruction book. When he began prying into private family affairs you ordered him out of the house. But he came righ' hack with a federal officer and forced you-to answer his questions, despite all your protestations. . So you isjv the 1920 visitor in. He looks around for a long table, opens his portfolio, pulls out a large blank spreads it open and then looks ac ..:.., ii.. ' , At but the composure of the man vii'l not be the least affected. He is a census enumerator and comes to jou backed not only by an act of congress, but by the United States constitution itself. Leisurely turning over the pages of his little guide book, he completes the preliminary preparations. H pulls out his pen. runs his eyes '-ver the 29 columns of the- schedule be fore him, and theu begins his in ques , After recording your na,rnfc and address, he begs to be enlightened about your relationship to the head of the family. - You answer. He asks if you are sure. While yot counter he opens another point of attack and starts talking about your home. You begin to tell him about the profiteering landlord who raised the tent four times during the past year. But the enumerator stops, you. He is not interested. There Is no room on the census sheet to record vout observations. What he wants to know is whether you own your place or pay rent for it. If you are the owner, you have to tell about the mortgages. . That Is Not Enough. Then starts a -personal description 'Looking up from the instruction book, the enumerator asks about your sex . and color.. That is not enough. He wants to know youi age last birthday. You tell him vou are 30 years old. He looks up with suspicion and then looks down again quickly. Warning No. 123 in the in struction book tells him that most ages ending in an "0" or "5" are ap proximations given, by persons not knowing, or not wishing to gt'e. their exact age. He asks for your age again and then records it, shak ing his head dubiously. "Are you single, married, wid owed or divorced?" In those " instances where the enumerator is a woman, it may be well to keep an eye on the young men of the family. This is Leap Year, when it is quite the proper thing for the lady to pop the ques tion. - Although the census takers are not allowed to keep any copies of their reports, they may make mental notes of eligibles, and plan a subsequent "follow up" visit. You answer and wonder 'if more intimate relations are to be treated, the personal survey, however, is at an end and you feel relieved. Queries about citizenship and natur alization follow, and then comes a discussion about educational quali fications. I .Whether you have attended school since September, 1919, or not, the investigator asks about your ability to-read and write. It makes little difference what language you know. It may be Friulan, Basque or white Russian. As long as you can read and write it, youreducation is quite satisfactory. Satisfied with the answers to the foregoing, the enumerator then takes up the issues of your nativity and mother tongue. He makes in quiry about your parents. You give him the desired information. He then suddenly turns around and asks whether you speak English. You are exasperated. After spend ing all this, time it seems that the census enumerator ought to know whether you are able to talk the language of the land. Half apolo getically he next explains that the language question, which should have been placed near the .educa- tional group, is numbered 25 on his chart, and follows the queries on nativity. He is under orders to maintain the sequence and get an- swers to all these questions in their ordef. . About Your Occupation. A bit more sympathetic, you listen for the next query. It Is about occupations. If you have a profession or calling, he will re- : ' you 'are an employer, a wage earn er or an independent entrepreneur doing work on your own account. But if you tell the census taker that you are a housewife, a cynical smill will cross his face, for the American housewife, the Census bureau has decreed, is not "gain fully employed" and is therefore listed with those who have no work, profession or calling of any kind, hours a day are in the' same cate gory. "What is a housewife, anyway?' once asked Sam L. Rogers, director of the Mth census. "Do you call the women who never goes near the kitchen other than to admire its spotlessness and directs her household from an office, by the same (erm that you give to the women living in small apartments and doing all their own work? Can you classify the woman in rural districts who attends to the family vegetable garden, "takes a hand at the hoe, puts up quantities of pre serves, and does all her housewrok besides? The questions the census takers would have to ask for such a classification would probably be more personal than the women would want to answere. HowTnany would stand for the taker politely inquiring whether she did her own washing and ironing?" Asking one other question about a farm schedule, if you have a farm, the enumerator stops, blots his sheet, and then turns back to ques tion 1. You imagine that you are through, but he informs you that he must enumerate similar infor mation about each member of the family. This word "family" has a somewhat different application from that of popular usage, hoarders, servants, friends, all persons living in the same dwelling with you are part of your family. It makes no difference whether they are related by ties of kinship. If theyare parjt of your household they are consid ered as members of your family. AHS the occupants of a hotel or boarding house constitute a census "family;" officials and inmates of an institution all come together under" the same category. On the other hand, the' watchman who sleeps in the back of a store is-! returned as a whole family, while his wife and children who live on the next street are reported as a separate group. Strange are the classifications of the census! Completing the queries about the family, the census enumerator folds up his population sheet, and pulls out a supplemental schedule to record the records of the blind and deaf mutes. If no additional information $ forthcoming, the man will close his instruction book, replace the fountain pen in his- pocket, slip his sheets into his portfolio, and bid you a good afternoon. You will be through with the census enumerator for another 10 years. You may be peeved at him, for taking up so much of your time. You, may be angry for his seeming im pertinence. But you should not for get that he was engaged in a civic duty of the utmost importance to the entire nation. "The sole purpose of the census." said President Wi'son in his recent proclamation, "is to. secure general statistical information.regarding the nance:v There need be no fear tint any disclosure will be made regard ing any individual person or hrs af fairs. For the due protection of the rights and interests of the per sons furnishing information every population and resources of the country and replies are required frem individuals' only to permit th Compilation of such general statist tics. Mo person can be hawned in anyway, by furnishing the informa tion required The census has" noth ing to do with taxation, with mili tary or jury service, with the com pulsion of school attendance, with the regulation of immigration or with the enforcement of any na tional, state or local law or ordt r employe of the census bureau is pro hibited, under heavy penalty, from disclosing any information which may thus come to his knowledge. Answer Questions Promptly. "I therefore earnestly urge upon all persons to answer promptly, com pletely and accurately all inquires addressed to them by the enumera tors and other .employes of the cen sus bureau and thereby contribut their share toward. making this great and necessary public undertaking a success." The census taker who comej to you is the personal point . of contact which starts the operatioi of a vast machine. After you more or less be grudgingly supply him with the de sired information he forwards his records through a census supervisor to a central office in Washington. There in one of the big emergenc war buildings the data on the large schedule is transferred to small cards by means of a mechanical punch which makes holes oik the cards to indicate the particular facts to be re corded. Until thir census, this ma chine designed with a lever working in an arc, had been operated by hand. This year the holes will be indicated, the cards punched and the complete record made itf one op eration by means of a new electnea' device. ' Automatically assorted by another machine, the cards are then shot into tabulators. These remarkable elec trical contrivances are capable of handling 425 cards a minute. By an ingenious arrangement a pin box is brought down over each card Those needles which meet an un touched space are repressed. Those which pass through the holes form electric contacts and register on a - v . I - series of dials which record the de sired information. The data is then taken by the sta tistical experts of the government and prepared for publication with a speed that astounds the rest of th? world. Most of the, countries hav tried to emulate us,' but none hav-; been able to' approach the efficiency of our system. The constitution requires that a census enumeration be made every 10 years for the apportionment of the representatives in congress. In 1790 the First congress passed an act calling upon President Washing ton to secure the enumeration. Only six questions were asked, but the census takers had an even harder time of it than now when encounter ing indignant housewives or suspi cious farmers. The First Census. Not being experienced in the art of census taking, the investigators met with all kinds of rebuffs. Many of the inhabitants thought that the enmeration was some scheme to foist a new kind of taxation upon them. There was also opposition on religious grounds. The Old Testament records an unpleasant account of a venturesome king who brought down the wrath of Heaven by taking a census of the Children of Israel. Yet in face of all these hardships beside the physical dif ficulties of covering the country, the Qoo'bye for 10 yts. ) f'K- fcJ 1 first census was collected by 650 enumerators for a cost of,little"morc than 1 cent per capita population. There were no printed schedules. Even the headings on the pages were written by hand. Although there had been some ac counts taken by populations before 1790, the United States census of that year was the first instance in histnrv in wliirti Hm ,irl A ical enumerations 'at definitely fixed intervals was recognized and pro vided for. The results were so sat isfactory that England, Denmark Nnrujav rrnirnit tti.ir - - V J . ... lilt portance and started plans to take a census, of their peoples. But the did not get started until the begin ning of the 19th century! In 1810 queries about the manufac tures of the country were added tc the eight general questions. The scope of the inquiry became en larged in the following enumerations and in 1850 a census board wai ap pointed, and the "first modern" cen sus was compiled. But the decennia inquiry was so extended that me chanical assistanr had tr. K. (nnA in order to handle the returns with out too great delay. In 1870 the first effort was made at elertriral oounting. Marshals and then su pervisors, were added to the force. The number of enumerators exceed- eu w.uuu in iyuu and it was decided to make the census bureau a per manent office. Necessity had forced this development step by step, for it would have been impossible to handle the recent returns without such assistance and management. I'or the 1920 census new improve ments have been devised, and it is Pvnpctprl Vl.i. , V. - ... . m i population totals w-ill be completed two weeks earlier than heretofore. . . When plans were being made for this 14th census it scz-med that there would be some difficulty jit getting the requisite number of clerks and enumerators on, account of the decline in the market vahie of the dollar. Ex-service men carr.e into the breach, however, and t''e full ranks of 5 000 Washington clerks and 87,000 enumerators were soon filled. - All Classes Rtpresentated. For the first time in the history of the American census women have been appointed'to jobs as supervis ors. One of these has charge of all the special .census clerks living in Washington and of their general welfare and working conditions. " Negroes have been added to the force of enumerators to expedite ths gathering of the information among the colored people. School children have been enlistee- to explain th$ work of the census and convey to their homes the information that the . i . f .1 . . luring oi me cenyus is a gigantic task that can only be carried out if mi propie co-opeiate in giving the enumerators correct and complete v With such co-operation it is exi I.H.l. l . 1. 1. . - I 1'iv.icu uni mc WUIK.oegllll on fr uay win nrcaic an previous recor for snecdv compilation and mi;, Jion. The census this year is staj ing earner tuan any of the othe From 1790 to 1820 the census eni eratton ma not begin until the MOnoav in Auzust hmm through the 1900 census, this c, khii census was started Ap 1909. This vwf wo ti Year's rlav tallv fnr alt rm..l J t .v. .IVWIJ