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The Atlanta Georgian,

Monday, 1st September 1913,

PAGE 1, COLUMN 7.

A woman's screams reawakened memories of the Phagan case in the minds of pedestrians on Alabama street shortly after noon Monday and a crowd besieged the caf run by J. E. Poulas and the adjacent building seeking to solve the mystery.

They hunted high and low through the building at No. 21 West Alabama scouring the place from basement to roof.

A crowd of three hundred persons assembled interfering with trade and jamming the street.

It was finally discovered by some unmasked Sherlock Holmes that the screams came from a woman to a negro dentist's office across the street.

No policeman was in evidence all during the jam and the search.

PAGE 1, COLUMN 8

OPEN CITY'

CHARTER ELECTION ISSUES

Result of Fifteen Councilmanic Elections Will Determine Police Policy if Reform Wins.

The wiping out of Atlanta's Police Commission and a threatened war to oust Police Chief James L. Beavers have become the paramount issues in the elections to be held on a new charter and on fifteen members of the General Council.

Amid all the complexities of the fight over the new charter submitted to the people by the General Assembly and the personifications in the various wards over seats in the Council the contest of the several factions for control of the police department stands out as the one issue which has aroused the clans, and will arouse them more.

Developments Monday revealed the fact that the various leaders are planning their campaigns on this issue.

It will be the first opportunity the voters have had to say whom they want to frame Atlanta's police policy.

Issue Never Before People.

With the Council changing half of its personnel every year, the Mayor with but little authority in the matter and the members of the Police Commission elected for different terms, it has been impossible to get the issue directly before the peoples.

But with the new charter election and the selection of fifteen new Councilmen coming within a week of each other, Atlanta's police policy"whether there shall be a tight town, as now, or more liberal rule"becomes the vital question.

The new charter, if adopted, provides that the Police Commissions shall be abolished on January 1.

The formal wording of this document, submitted to a vote of the people on September 24, obscures its meaning on this point.

It is none the less true, according to no less an authority than City Attorney James L. Mayson.

Powers United in One Board.

In the place of the Police Commission a Board of Public Safety is created.

It is to have charge of both the police and fire departments, and its members are to be elected by the new Council the first of the year.

The charter further provides that all officials, whether elected by Council or a board, shall serve out their terms.

Fire Chief W. B. Cummings, therefore, will serve out his term.

But Chief Beavers is not elected for any term.

He serves at the will of the Police Commission, except that he cannot be removed unless for cause; and the same civil service rules hold in the new charter with a board of public safety over him.

Should the charter be adopted the fight would be only one-third over, for the councilmanic election the next week, September 30, would be just as important.

And the final test would come still later when the new Council went to elect a board of public safety.

All Want New Charter.

It is an odd situation that practically all of the greatest Council and Police Commission, who are in personal harmony, if not in agreement, on the city's police policy, are for the new charter.

It is their child, adopted by Council and sent to the Legislature to offset the movement for more drastic reforms.

Despite the fact that the Beavers issue has become far more significant than was at first anticipated, the fathers of the charter, the Chambers faction have been holding conferences to aid its passage.

Carlos H. Mason, chairman of the Continued on PAGE 2, COLUMN 7.

PAGE 2, COLUMN 7

CHIEF IS AN ISSUE IF CHARTER IS ADOPTED Continued from Page 1.

Police Commission and the controlling spirit in the body, is for it, though it hazards a continuation of his undisputed sway.

Mayor James G. Woodward has been bitterly opposed to it, but the fact that its passage would give him and his supporters an opportunity to get control of the police department, a department in which they have been an insignificant minority, is said to be working a reversal of attitude.

Aids Chance for Passage.

These two conditions, the fact that Council wants the charter to pass to stave off radical charter reforms and the fact that the Woodward element may support it in an effort to get control of the police department, greatly strengthen the chances of the charter to pass.

A vigorous opposition to it by the Men and Religion Forward Movement is expected.

The present Board of Health, the Park Board, the Smoke Board and the Cemetery Commission are abolished by the charter and their authority transferred to new commissions.

But little significance is attached to these changes.

In the councilmanic races the old crowd will endeavor to get men favorable to them elected.

If the new charter passes, practically all of the present membership of the Police Commission will ask for re-election.

It's a fight, more or less, of the outs against the ins.

Real Test in Elections.

After all, the real test will come in the election of the five aldermen and ten councilmen, for should the charter pass the new Council will decide who shall compose the Board of Public Safety.

The requirements for election to this board will be the attitude of the Chief of Police.

The list of candidates so far is:

C. B. Alverton, for First Ward councilman;

C. D. Knight, Second Ward councilman;

C. H. Kelley, Second Ward alderman;

James E. Warren and J. C. Harrison, Third Ward alderman; Orville Hall, Third Ward councilman;

R. E. George and A. W. Farlinger, Fourth Ward councilman, Albert Thomson, Fourth Ward alderman; Jesse B. Lee and Dr. W. M. Ethridge, Fifth Ward councilman; Jesse M. Wood, Sixth Ward councilman; Dan Walraven and Jesse Armistead.

Seventh Ward alderman; Frank Reynolds, Eighth Ward councilman; John S. Owens and W. A. Hancock, Eighth Ward alderman; Charles W. Smith, Ninth Ward councilman, and Claude C. Mason, Tenth Ward councilman.

OPEN CITY'

CHARTER ELECTION ISSUE PAGE 2, COLUMN 8

SUMMERS ARE ARRAIGNED BY HAWTHORNE

Declaring that the men behind the Federal prison bars are so imperfectly trained as animal curiosities as to positively shrink when gazed upon as monstrosities, Julian Hawthorne, prison poet and philosopher, in Good Words, the official prison organ, satirically criticizes the so-called slummers who invade the secret cloisters of the unfortunate convicts.

No doubt the science of penology advances by leaps and bounds as a result of such methods, the noted prisoner declares sarcastically, and the resemblance to the zoo is notable, but, he adds, there is one difference between the two, in that some of the criminals have retained some of their unregenerate human sensibilities and can't stand public stares.

The world, he says, having in its wisdom and profound understanding of the needs of human nature created these populous hermitages where crime and vice may be miraculously extracted from the body corporate of the community"the world, having accomplished this signal act of sagacity and benevolence, is presently beset by the curiosity to see how the charm works.

How Visiting Parties Act.

Even as slumming parties, he declares further, are organized in the cities to observe the peculiarities of crime in its making and effervescence, so does the solicitous citizen, with family and friends, betake himself cheerfully to the penitentiary to mark its aspect and conduct when under constraint.

The men don their comely afternoon attire, the ladies enhance their native attractions with the chromatic charms of fashionable toilets, and in groups of from two to twenty they storm our battlements, invade our secret cloisters, cells, hospitals and studios, peer curiously into our factories and workrooms, where the happy operatives warble at their tasks; stream through the portals at the dining salon while the animals file in to their provender, keeping time to the stately strains of the band, and finally stray out in the grounds surrounding the mansion, where they inspect the tuberculosis camp and watch those of us who are agriculturally inclined disporting themselves among the melon patches or the henneries.

Prisoners Want Solitude.

Instead of rejoicing, in short, as the zoo animals doubtless do, he says in closing, the men behind the bars actually incline to shrink out of sight and wish that, while they are objects of ignominy, they might be left to deal with it under no other supervision than that of their masters and one of another.

PAGE 4, COLUMN 1

FRANK LOOKS TO HEALTH FIRST IN ROUTINE;

TAKES GYM'

EXERCISE DAILY

Remarkable as was the crime of which he stands convicted remarkable as has been the fortitude with which he has borne his sentence to the gallows, remarkable as has been the tireless interest in the case, they are none more striking than the daily routine that Leo M. Frank goes through in his Tower cell.

It is hard to conjure interest in these narrow confines of steel and stone.

Life there would seem as dully monotonous as a lonesome existence on a desert isle.

But Frank's personality makes this routine as vividly interesting as though it were enacted in the throbbing heart of the city instead of the quiet monastery of the prison.

For as a prisoner under sentence of death, even as he was a prisoner under charge of crime or the manager of a business concern, Frank remains a business man.

Looks to His Health.

The same rules of life he followed when he was factory superintendent are followed by him each day as he awaits the decision of the question whether he is to be tried again or is to hang by the neck.

As a business man Frank knows that his health must be good, his mind must be vigorous, for him to win the battle ahead of him.

Accordingly, his health is his first interest.

A cell has never been considered a health resort, but Frank is trying in that cell to keep himself in the best physical and mental shape possible.

He insists on nine hours' sleep"and he gets it.

If his mind is perturbed by dreadful dreams through the night, the jailers have not found it.

They say he sleeps as soundly as a day laborer who has well earned his rest.

Keeps Up With News.

Promptly at 7 o'clock each morning he leaps from bed and his daily routine begins.

First, he takes deep breathing exercise at the grated window of his little room.

Then for 20 to 30 minutes he works with the dumbbells.

His watches say that he does this work with spirit and interest.

A shower bath adjoins his cell.

Under the water he goes, and then comes out for a brisk rub-down.

This done, he does his bath robe, and sitting on the side of the cot, reads the morning papers carefully, absorbing not only all the news in reference to his case, but everything of general interest.

Completing his toilet, he walks about the cell until 8:50 o'clock, when his father-in-law, Emile Selig, is his first visitor of the day.

Mr. Selig brings his breakfast from the Selig home.

It is always a light repat of cantaloupe or other fruit, coffee and rolls.

As he eats this with evident relish, Frank converses with his father-in-law, their conversation being largely of affairs of the Selig household, in which Frank resided before his imprisonment.

Gives Business Advice.

Other intimate friends follow.

Sig Montag, head of the National Pencil Company, and Herbert Schiff, the assistant superintendent, never miss an hour or so each day in the Tower.

When they come, the affairs of the pencil factory are the subject of the conversation.

Frank's advice on all matters is eagerly sought and he keeps in almost as active touch with the concern as he did when he was a free man.

Frank, in reality, is still superintendent of the National Pencil Company in fact as well as in name.

Other friends follow until 12:30, when Frank is left to himself.

Then he takes up the work on his case, making notes of suggestions to his counsel, studying the testimony for weak places, reading the argument of counsel or the State to suggest points of attack.

His dinner arrives at 1:30 o'clock and after he has eaten, the prisoner usually lies on his cot, resting and thinking until the arrival of his wife at 4 o'clock.

Wife Remains Several Hours.

Mrs. Frank sits outside the cell and they converse through the barred door.

A s a rule, they are never disturbed during this period.

At 6:30 o'clock Frank's supper arrives and his wife remains until he concludes this meal.

Then, with a farewell kiss, she leaves him to himself and his thoughts.

When she departs, he goes over the afternoon papers and magazines, which his friends send him.

From 8 until 9:30 o'clock he receives visits from friends and then is again left to his studies.

He invariably works on his case until a few minutes before 11 o'clock, when he retires.

This routine hardly varies five minutes from day to day.

It is as regular as that of a solider.

It is as carefully planned as the daily life of a boarding school miss.

It is simply in keeping with the remarkable nature of this remarkable prisoner.

PAGE 4, COLUMN 1

Dorsey Moves to Indict Conley as an Accessory Solicitor

Dorsey ordered a blank bill of indictment drawn against Jim Conley Monday, charging the negro with being an accessory after the fact in the killing of Mary Phagan April 26 in the National Pencil Factory on South Forsyth Street.

The new Grand Jury will hold its first session Tuesday morning, and it is probable the indictment of Conley will be one of the first matters brought to its attention.

The negro is a self-confessed accessory after the fact, and it is thought for this reason that an indictment will be decided upon quickly.

The Solicitor is going ahead as though he anticipated no change in the status of Leo Frank, who was convicted August 25 and the next day was sentenced to be hanged October 10.

A motion has been made for a new trial, and this will be argued October 4 before Judge L. S. Roan.

In the event the motion is denied, an appeal will be made to the Supreme Court by Frank's attorneys and a long legal battle undoubtedly will result.

If Frank finally is acquitted and Conley in the meantime is convicted of being accessory after the fact, the negro will be in the unique position of being an accessory in a crime for which the courts have decided there is no principal.

Solicitor Dorsey, however, is confident that there is no chance for Frank to escape the noose.

He believes it is extremely doubtful if a new trial will be granted.

Should the case be reopened, he feels that the outcome would be exactly the same as at the first trial when a verdict of guilty was found with no recommendation.

Monday, 1st September 1913: Scent Phagan Case In Woman's Cries Building Ransacked, The Atlanta Georgian
atlanta-georgian-september-01-1913-scent-phagan-case-in-womans-cries-building-ransacked

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