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0 . .1 Abbeville Press and Banner j Established 1844. $2^00 the Year. Tri-Weekly. Abbeville, S. C., Friday, Feb. 11,1921 Single Copies, Five Cent*. 77th Year. | LABOR BOAR REQUEST ( < TO ANNUL AGREEMENTS?THE DECISION WAS A COMPLETE SURPRISE ,TO BOTH SIDES.?B M. JEWELL, REPRESENTING THE EMPLOYEES, HOWEVER, GAVE HIS TESTIMONY Chicago, Feb. 10?The Federal Rail road Labor board today denied the request of the American association of railway executives for immediate abrogation of the national wage agree ments with the brotherhoods and es tablishment of a new basic rate for unskilled labor predicated on' local conditions. The decision came before B. M. Jewell, president of the Railway Em ployes department of the American Federation of Labor had started his reply to the statement made for the railway executives last week by W W Atterbury, of th'e Pennsylvania Rail roads. It was totally unexpected but Mr. Jewell made his statement never the less. Conspiracy on the part of Ameri can railroad executives and financiers to destroy the organizations of rail road workers and re-establish auto tic financial control of the trans portation industry was charged here today by B. M. Jewell, president of the ^railway employees department of the American Federation of La bor, who appeared before the United tates Railroad Labor Board. He asked the board to postpone further consideration of the pending appeal of the railroads to abrogate the agreement on working conditions and proceed at once to hear evidence the unions are prepared to submit in support of these charges. Mr. Jewell, chief spokesman for the railroad workers' unions, also charg ed the railroad executives with "framing up of evidence," and de clared a fair consideration of the pending cases impossible until mo tives inpsiring request to abrogate the national agreement are fully re vealed both to the board and the pub lic. ne asserted tnat last weeK s state ment to the board by W. W. Atter bury of the Pennsylvania railroad chairman of the labor committee of the American Association of Railway Executives, was designed to "stam pede the board into a position which mature consideration would prove to be indefensible." He added that Mr. Atterbury also attempted to "falsely convince the public that higher rates due to financial irregularities and inefficiencies of railroad management are attributable to the unions of rail road workers," and "to obtain a wooAa? fa avoflf ?? t upvil W 11,11 TT 1IIV11 bV CAaUV ilV/111 government full payment of the ex orbitant claims which the railroads are making," and to coerce and threaten the railroad workers by the spectre of unemployment and reduc ed wages." Mr. Jewell charged that Mr. Atter bury is the spokesman of a powerful financial combination seeking to re establish "this autocratic control from which the war has freed us, and which was especially exemplified by condi tions on the Pennsylvania railroad." The board held that it had no juris diction over questions involving ex pense of operation and suggested that neither the roads nor the union inter rupt the hearine on standard rules and working conditions with "furth er unwarranted demands." Mr. Jew ell's statement charged that the re quest for immediate abrogation of the national working agreements was part of a conspiracy to disrupt union ism. In announcing the decision of the board, Chairman R. M. Barton, reviewed the powers of the board under the transportation act of Feb ruary 28, 1920. He said the act im posed upon the board the duty of de ciding disputes between carriers and employes of what shall constitute just and reasonable wages, salaries and standards of working conditions. The present hearing separated by agreement rules and working condi tions from wages. The decision on D REFUSES )F RAILWAYS o? AUGUSTA BRICK WORKS RESUME AFTER A 4 WEEKS' SHUT DOWN Augusta, Ga., Feb. 10.?With two of Augusta's twelve brick manufac turing plants having resumed opera tions this week after a shut down of four months, officials of several of the other companies today an nounced preparations to start dur ing March. The plants give employ ment to several hundred men. aikvv i * ? iv w Greenville, Feb. 10.?More than one thousand laymen from the Pres byterian churches of Georgia, Flori da, North Carolina and South Caro I lina are expected here March 8th and 9th to attend the convention of the Laymen's Missionary Movement of the Presbyterian church in the United Statps, according to announce ment made today by the general com mittee on arrangements. Instead of selecting one central city, on account of the high cost of travel this year, the movement has decided upon five regional convention cities in order that the cost to the delegates may be reduced to a minimum and at the same time enable the convention to touch the entire church. The Seventh General convention will be held in the cities of Meridian, Miss., Febru ary 17-18; Nashville, Tenn., Febru ary 21^-22; Staunton, Va., February 24-25 and will close at Greenville March 8-9. Fiv? Presbyterian churches here with a combined membership of 1, 700 will unite in the entertainment of , this convention, and as the sessions are to be open to all denominations, arrangements have been made to hold _ the meetings in the magnificent Tex tile Hall, which will seat 4,000. The Woman's Auxiliary of the movement will convene simultaneously with the \ laymen. The Laymen's movement is com posed almost entirely of business men 1 and the convention here will be de voted to the relation of the church to industrial, commercial and interna- j tional problems. "There never was ' a time when a convention is more urgently needed," says a statement issued relative to the meeting. "Men are saying on every side, 'What is the matter with business?" There are leaders in the world who frankly ad mit today that the sore distress is because Christ and His principles are not permitted to govern and di rect business as they should." The list of speakers includes some of the most important men and wo men in the United States. DEATH OF MRS. J. H. PARKS Mrs. J. H. Parks died at her home in Anderson this week following an operation which she underwent about a week ago. Mr. and Mrs. Parks lived in Abbeville a few years ago, making their home on Green ville street in the Lyon house. Mr. Parks was manager at the Oil Mill. Mrs. Parks is survived by her hus band and five children. wages was rendered last July Judge Barton said and the rules hearing convened on January-10. "The board assumed as the basis for this decision the continuance in j full force and effect of the rules, working conditions and agreements enforced under the authority of the United States railroad administra tion," Judge Barton, said he made an exception of any mutual agreement between carriers and employes and declared it was the board's desire to render a decision at the earliest pos sible date. The ruling this morning held that all questions involving expense of operation were outside the jurisdic tion of the labor board. I Washington, Feb. 10.?Alarmed by the increasing number of cases of typhus among immigrants ar riving in the port of New York, fed eral health authorities tonight were engaged in a study of methods to prevent introduction of the dread j disease in the United States. The situation at New York, where' more than 30 immigrants are, aboard ships suffering from typhus, was brought to the attention of j President Wilson today in a tele-j gram from Dr. Royal S. Copeland, ' New York health commissioner. Dr. Copeland called the president's at i aw + a r\ -P 4-V?r? mi nwnn cciitiuu ias ujl i/iic 4uaiau- . tine act of 1893 granting the pres-| ident authority in the interest of the public health to prohibit in whole or in part the admission to the United States of persons and property from i such countries or points as he mayj designate and for such a time as he j may deem ^necessary. The telegram from the New York health commissioner on receipt at the White House was forwarded to the treasury department which has jurisdiction over the public health service and matters of public health. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury LaPorte, in charge of .the public health service, said tonight the pro visions of the quarantine act refer red to by Dr. Copeland had been! the subject of study for several j days, but as the withholding of gen eral permission to enter the country | would be a drastic step, officials hesitated to put it into effect. Most of the typhus cases have been found among immigrants arriving from southern Europe, especially from Italian ports. gp Assistant Surgeon General R. H. Creel, Secretary LaPorte said, has been sent to New York to make a thorough study of the situation and to cooperate with health authorities there in handing the typhus prob lem. REPRESENTING W1NTHROP Miss Margaret Wilson, who is a senior this year at Wnthrop, has been honored by the student body in being selected as one of the repre sentativs of Winthrop at the Young Woman's Christian*Association con ference which is to be held at And erson this month. Miss Wilson is the daughter of Mrs. J. D. Wilson of Abbeville and is a young student of whom our people are proud. Mrs. D. A. Rogers is spending to- j day in Atlanta shopping. BIGHAM IS C) WITH FI Florence, Feb. 10.?Warrants sworn out by Coroner W. Marvin Smith charging Edmund Bigham with the murder of five persons, all! members of his own family except} the two McCracken children, who had been adopted by his dead sister, were read this afternoon to Bigham. There were five separate warrants, covering the murders of^Irs M M Bigham, Mrs Margie Black, Leo McCracken, John McCracken and L Smilie Big ham, and they were taken out by the coroner in accordance with the ver dict the jury of inquest rendered on the night of January 26 after an entire day had been passed at Pam plico in the taking of testimony. Deputy Sheriff and Jailer Jacob S. Cook read the warrants to Mr. Big 4-Ua nnnticorl ro ri y\ cf AA 1 liailij Willie IUC awtuo^u mnu www - quietly in his cell in the Florence county jail. "Who swore out the warrants?" asked Mr. Bigham at the conclusion of their reading. "Coroner Smith," answered the deputy. This was all that passed between the two men. It is stated that the pallor of Mr. Bigham's face increased FARMERS FAVOR MARKETING PLAN Roanoke, Feb. 10.?Coopera tive marketing of farm products by marketing association of growers, was indorsed here today at the clos ing session of the group conference of farm extension workers from Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and North and South Carolina. Fallowing addresses by W. A. Wheeler of the United States bu reau of markts and Dr. A. C. True, r\-f oil civfon oi rvrii -ornrlr 1T< flip United States, the conferees adopt ed a marketing policy d:*awn up in the form of a statem'ent by a special committee. The statement, which attacked, the present methods of dis tribution of many farm products as being "in some respects wasteful | and. causing enormous loss to the j grower, as well as the consumer," I outlined how the proposed market j ing associations should operate. ' The statement in part follows: "Such marketing association j should be organized along purely cooperative lines, preferably on the commodity basis, having a member | ship composed solely of growers i and landlords, receiving part of the crops as rent. We indorse <the bind | ing crop contract plan a.s an impor tant feature of cooperative market ing. "Such marketing association should embody the principle of pool ing of commodities by grade or quality. "Experts should be employed un der the supervision of duly elected directors to manage the operations of the marketing for the associa tions. The directorate should in clude representatives of the public. "Extension workers iihould ac quaint themselves with the princi ples of cooperative marketing and should encourage movements look ing toward the organization of growers' cooperative marketing as sociations where conditions seem to warrant. ^Pvfoncinw tirArlrore eVi rtiil/J err\ rvn record that cooperative ? marketing will not and should not enable grow ers to realize arbitrary prices for products, but at best will tend to permit the law of supply and de mand to operate without specula tive hindrance and will eliminate certain wastes in the handling of farm products." Mrs. G. E. Martin and little Dor othy, leave Saturday for Atlanta where they will spend several days with relatives. HARGED VV MlTRnFRS V M *?? UA ?ki/ as the reading of the warrants pro gressed. He was quite pale when the deputy turned to leave. Until the coroner's warrants were served on Mr. Bigham this afternoon he had been held in custody under a warrant 'taken by John McCracken, the father of the two dead children. It was at first decided to stay serv ice of the coroner's warrants until the accused man should make appli A.n4.:Mn -cu?:i j 4.1 :M i;aiauu jlui Mail aiiu tiien, 111 wiie event | that he should secure his freedom, again arrest him under the several charges of th^' coroner's jury. The effect of this would be to largely in crease the amount of bond which Mr. Bigham would have to furnish. To day, howover, .the officials concluded to serve the warrants and they were read by Mr. Cook. It was stated authoritatively today that Mr. Bigham so far had not ar ranged to secure legal representa tion and, therefore, made no applica-j i! . r*i non ior Dan. When the case will be called is of course, undetermined as yet. The next term of the criminal court will be held in Florence beginning March 21. TOLL OF LIFE BY GEORG1 0 IMMIGRATION COMMITTEE | DISAPPROVES HOUSE ONE YEAR MEASURE Washington, Feb. 10.?The house j immigration bill which would have j virtually stopped immigration for j one year was disapproved today byj the senate immigration committee by a vote of 5 to 4. The committee agreed to adopt a sub-measure to morrow restricting immigration on a percentage basis. TRAVEL BY LAND St. Augustine, Fla., Feb. 10.? Abandoning his houseboat cruise to 1 begin a final period of consultation on the personnel and policies of the coming administration. President elect Harding returned by automo bile tonight to St. Augustine,' where he will spend most of the time until Inauguration day. The president-elect left his house boat Victoria late in the afternoon at Dayton a, 75 miles to the south, after several changes In plans based on the uncertain progress of the vessel up the Indian river. Although she was dislodged early in the day from the mud bank which had held her captive in Mosquito lagoon, her day's tun was not promising and Mr. Harding decided he could not prolong his vacation further. With his return here Mr. Harding is to take up not only the final selec tion of a cabinet, but many other questions that must' be settled be-1 fore he takes tHe oath of office on' March 4. Although he has a more or less definite idea on most of these' subjects, It is known that the crucial' -To.' ucvioiiMis aic ^ct tu uc inaur. uu iai as the cabinet is concerned, .he is J holding his mind open on virtually every one of the ten places. During his houseboat trip to Miami which began on January 22, he has declared official business taboo and only them ost. importa st an shsh only the most pressing telegrams have been forwarded to him. When he reached his headquarters he found that more than 100 tele graphic messages on a single subject were waiting for his perusal, and in addition there was a great mass of correspondence by wire and mail re lating to about everything that may hold the interest of a president elect. In preparation for this task, Mr. Harding believes he has had a thor ough vacation. He returned to St. Augustine wearing a thick coat of tan and looking thoroughy refresh ed and confident. He is making his home at a hotel here. THE COTTON MAKKET The market has been stationery for the past few days, except for small changes. Yesterday's close was about 20 points down on futures with spots off in New York about the same amount. Today there was little change, the close being at about 2 to 10 up. Little cotton is offered locally. The hest offers today were from 14 1-2 to 15 cents for the best grades offered. RAILROADS ARE PAID OVER AAA AAA O V TOT A CTTDV ^J,UUU,UUU U I 1 AL./1JUIM I < Washington, Feb. 10.?Paymjent of $5,280,223 to railroads under va l'ious provisions of the transportation : act was announced today by the i treasury. ( The payments consisted of loans I from the revolving fund, including ' $1,000,000 to the Virginia Railway i Company $237,900 to the Central of Georgia Railway Company; advances 1 under the guaranty provision of the " ict $611,700 to the Norfolk and Sou- ; .hern Railroad Company. i : CLAIMED [A TORNADO TWO WHITE PERSONS AND THIRTY NEGROES KILLED? TERRITORY^"IVE MILES LpNG AND ONE-HALF MILE WIDE-' , LEFT BARE?GREAT DAMAGE TO PROPERTY Oconee, Ga., Feb. 10.?A tornado that struck the Gardner settlement one mile from here shortly after the noon hour today, brought death to two white persons and nearly 30 iicgiuca, miu acnuus mjury 10 nve white persons and more than a score of negroes. A stretch of land extending from Oconee almost to Toomsboro in, Washington county, nearly five miles long and about one-half mile^ide is as barren as a prairie tonight, not a building nor a tree being left stand ing. Among the dead is Benjamin Franklin Orr, 14 year old youth who was decapitated. His head had not been found at a late hour tonight. The only other white person who met death in the' tornado is the three year old daughter of E. L. Minor, manager of Shepherd's commissary at the plant of the (Jleveland-Uconee Lumber company. Eighty-two children and three teachers were in a school building on the edge of the Gardner settlement when the tornado struck. The build ing was literally twisted to pieces and the fragments scattered for miles, around. Children were picked up by the wind and carried for some distance, but it is officially announc ed tonight that only one child, was seriously bruised^ Approximately .40 houses were blown down in the Gardner settle ment. Tha Shepherd's brothers com missary at the big lumber plant was reduced to kindling wood, Orr and four negroes meeting death there. Ten feet away from the commissary was the general office of the Cleve land-Oconee Lumber company which was untouched by the storm. Freight Train Helpa Ten minutes after the. tornado wiped out the Gardner settlement a Central of Georgia local freight train, running from Savannah to Ma con, arrived on the scene. W. 0. King of Wadley, conductor, in harge viewed the bodies scattered ibout the ground. The conductor or lered his locomotive detached from le train and with his erew hasten >d to Tennille, 11 miles away, for aid. CoachA were commandeered from the Wrightsville and Tennille ailroad, four doctors and 46 persons were obtained in the relief party. The ;rain returned to Oconee as speedily as possible. Find Bodies in Trees. The bodies of several small negroes were i'ou-id in trees, out of the pati of the tornado, being suspended on the Jimbs by their clothing. The bodies of grown negroes were thrown into the field in a semi circle, and in the center of the group was a goat, who stood like a statue, too frightened to move for hours after the storm passed. One carload of dead bodies was ient to Tennille tonight, while on the a ra'me train were a number of injured who will be taken to hospitals at Tennille and Sandersville. The Red Cross is sending supplies from Atlanta to Oconee to relieve the suffering. DEATH OF MRS. BOTTS Mrs. Ed. Botts died at her home n Long Cane township yesterday ind was buried today at Gilgal / ?# <nrVii/>Vi cVio ti/qo a mpmher. % VIrs. Botts was a Miss Richardson jefore her marriage, and was born ind reared in the county. The deceased is survived by her lusband and two sons, Mason and -lack Wright, the sons of a former narriage, and by many kindred who eside in the county.