00:00Felder is the mouthpiece of the Vice gang, declares Chief of Police Jazz L. Beavers,
00:04Atlanta Journal. Sunday, May 25, 1913. This is the first gun in a fight to oust me from office,
00:11says the Chief in an interview given out Saturday afternoon. This issue is between the decent people
00:17and the allies of Vice who have controlled the city politically for years. Mayor Woodward says
00:22he's against Beavers, but not in any conspiracy to remove him from office, says he differs with
00:27the Chief on policy, not personally. The Mayor says recent dictograph episode has destroyed his
00:33belief in the efficacy of that ingenious instrument. Charles C. Jones denies any part in fight to remove
00:39Chief, as one of the many outgrowths of the alleged dictographed conversations of Colonel Thomas B.
00:45Felder, Mayor Woodward, Charlie C. Jones, and E.O. Miles, in which they are quoted as seeking evidence
00:51to impeach Police Chief James L. Beavers and Detective Chief N.A. Lanford Chief Beavers late
00:56Saturday afternoon, gave out a red-hot statement in which he charged that the Vice gangsters were
01:01conspiring to oust him from office because of his activity in closing up Atlanta's restricted
01:05district. The Chief declared that Colonel Felder was the mouthpiece and agent of the gang which
01:10seeks his scalp. He said this gang was endeavoring to get him in a corner and that the fight now
01:15on
01:16and that it would be a fight to the finish. According to Chief Beavers, he has been informed that
01:21checks aggregating $1,500 have been deposited to be given over to any woman who could get him into a
01:27room with her. The houses have been closed eight months and they will remain closed as long as I
01:32am Chief, he says. Those fighting me will resort to any political trick to bring my undoing. I am fully
01:37advised as to what they are doing and all I ask is that the decent people of this city continue
01:42to
01:42give me their support. Chief Beavers' statement. Following is the statement issued by Chief Beavers.
01:48It's a fight to the finish. The battle is on. I am going to force the Vice gangsters into the
01:54open.
01:54This is the first gun in an attempt to get me out of office. I have shot into their hole
01:59so hot that
02:00they've got to come out. Felder was hit first and it was so warm for the others that they had
02:04to show
02:05their hand. The issue is now between the decent people of the city and the allies of Vice who have
02:10controlled the city politically for years. I know that the majority of the people of Atlanta are with
02:15me in the fight and all I want is their continued support. This has outgrown a personal issue and any
02:21issue which may have developed in connection with the Fagan case and has assumed the proportions of
02:26the hottest fight in the political history of Atlanta. I will fight them to a finish if I die in
02:31my tracks. They are trying to back me in a corner and I fight when they try that. Even a
02:36rat will to
02:37back me in a corner and I fight when they try that. I do not propose to wait until I
02:41am forced too far
02:42back into a corner before defending myself. Mouthpiece of the gangsters. Felder is the
02:48mouthpiece of the gang and an agent to get me out of office. The Vice gangsters are losing money
02:53because of the closing of the restricted district and, while I do not believe they will do anyone
02:58bodily harm, I am satisfied they will not hesitate at political trickery. I have heard it rumored that
03:03three dollar five hundred cheeks have been deposited by three different men interested in houses in the
03:09former restricted district for any woman who could get me into a room with her. The Atlanta Constitution
03:14has never been in sympathy with me in my efforts to eliminate Vice. It has done much to hinder and
03:19hamper my work. This paper seems to have made a personal fight on me, never losing an opportunity
03:24to embarrass my efforts. Shortly after the houses were closed, I had a talk with Mr. Clark Howell,
03:30editor of the Constitution, in his office. During the conversation, the question of suppressing
03:36Vice came up, and Mr. Howell remarked that there was no doubt that the houses were then closed,
03:41but asked whether I would be able to keep them closed. I replied that they will remain closed
03:46as long as I am in office. Mr. Howell never commended nor condemned my reply, but ever since
03:52that time the Constitution has indirectly used its influence against me. Woodward hoots at the idea of
03:57plot to oust beavers. Mayor Woodward last night was interviewed by a journal reporter in regard to
04:02Chief Beaver's statement. Among other things, the mayor said, I haven't read the chief's statement,
04:08but if he charges or intimates that I am connected with or in sympathy with any conspiracy to throw
04:13him out of his job, then he is simply mistaken. I have not been a supporter of Chief Beaver's since
04:19I became mayor, but everybody's known that. There's been no secret about it so far as I was concerned.
04:24I've got nothing personal against him. I simply differ with his policy in reference to the vice
04:29question, and I must say that neither he nor Chief Lanford have elevated the standard of the
04:34police department in the way they have handled the situation. Now, understand me, I don't want to get
04:39into any controversy with Chief Beaver's. As I said, I've got nothing against him personally at all,
04:45and I have not hampered him or interfered with him in his management of the police department,
04:49and don't intend to. As for the conspiracy which you say he speaks of, there is no such thing so
04:55far
04:55as I know. I think about all the conspiracy that exists is what Lanford and his detectives have
05:00tried to create. It looks like the detectives fixed up what they thought was a nice little trap
05:04and then went to work to catch everybody they had it in for myself included. Of course, if I had
05:09it to
05:10do over again, I probably wouldn't go to the Williams house. I shouldn't have gone when I did,
05:14I reckon, but should have made them see me in my office if they had anything in the way of
05:18graft
05:18evidence. But I went, and there was absolutely nothing said by me that I am ashamed of or want to
05:24conceal from the public. Dictographs no good. This much I will say, though, and that is if the
05:30dictograph record purporting to show what was said is a fair sample of the dictograph, then it is one
05:35of the biggest fakes that ever came down the pike. I used to think it was a fine thing in
05:39detecting
05:40criminals and such like, but I think now that it must be used by very honest, high-toned men,
05:45or else it becomes an instrument of crookedness and black-a-mill. Ed Miles simply came to me and said
05:51he thought he had found some evidence of graft in the police department and asked me if I would
05:55mind going with him over to the Williams house. I couldn't go right then, but went over later.
06:00My motive was simply this, and no more. If there was evidence of graft in the police department real
06:06evidence, I wanted it. Certainly I did. A man would be a poor mayor if he wouldn't want to unearth
06:11graft if such existed. I told them if they had anything that would be of value, that is something
06:16that could convince. I thought they needn't be uneasy about February losing his job or about being
06:21paid for their trouble, and by that I didn't mean they'd be paid in a way that was improper.
06:26That was all there was to it. They promised to deliver the goods, but I never heard from them
06:31anymore. I'm in no conspiracy to overthrow Chief, says Jones, further than to deny that he is involved
06:36in a fifth against Chief of Police Beavers or harbors any enmity against that official. Charlie C.
06:42Jones, proprietor of the wrecks near Beer Saloon, and a participant in one of the alleged conversations
06:47overheard by the police with the dictograph, refused to make any statement Saturday night.
06:52I have no statement to make, he said. The only thing I want to say, he added, is that I
06:57am not
06:57in any conspiracy to overthrow Chief Beavers. I went to the room in the Williams house number two as
07:02Calumet. I was invited there by miles, but I wasn't in the place more than five minutes.
07:07Jones also asserts that the record of the dictograph is faulty. He declares that
07:12certain parts of his conversation which would explain most of the apparently embarrassing
07:16remarks accredited to him have been left out.
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