The Greenwood Commonwealth from Greenwood, Mississippi • Page 1

GREENWOOD COMMONWEALTH VOLUME 20 NUMBER 187. GREENWOOD, LEFLORE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI, TUESDAY AFTERNOON, APRIL 7, 1936. FIVE CENTS Jl FM1M as! PEL iimiimiiijimiiniiiiiiiiuiiifiniiM Diiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiia DimiutuuHUUuuattiuiDiuiioiB tliiiiuiiliiiiiiiNiiimiiiiiiiiniip imiiiiiwiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Transport Plane Crashes Killing Ten Passengers Two Pilots CCC COMPANIES REMOVE DEBRIS SOUTH COUNTS STORM DAMAGE Rehabilitation of Follows Burial GAINESVILLE RECOVERS DEAD IN STORM WAKE Georgia City Searches Ruins of Business Section for Tornado Victims GAINESVILLE, April 7 (A') Tornado-stricken Gainesville set about under overcast skies today to the task of rehabilitation and recovering the last of its dead from rain-drenched debris, fearful that the toll would reach 200. Deatri had claimed 183 at 2 p. in.

today. Of approximately 100 injured rushed to Atlanta by special Pullman trains for hospitalization, two Hied en route, two others succumbed soon after arrival and physicians said the condition of a dozen more was critical. GAINESVILLE, A nr. 7 (P) City officials predicted today that it would take stricken Gainesville ten years to recover from tornadic winds which yesterday killed at least 150 persons and injured upwards of a thousand. The death list was expected rise today perhaps to the 200 mark as rescue workers continued searching wrecked buildings.

Municipal authorities said prop- erty damage would total in one of the south's wost tornadoes. Thous ands were homeless and the Salvation Army alone fed more than 1,000 vic'iims in two hours last night with half a doz-l en other relief units doing simi- lar ftats of mercy. Tne tornado wtucn strut'K wuni 'little warning here about 8:30 followed! I I i Wreckage From Tornado Is Being Cleaned Up At Tupelo WASHINGTON, April 7 (IP) A warning of grave flood danger was served on sections of the storm-torn south today as the American Red Cross counted 500 persons dead from tornadoes in that region and redoubled efforts to raise relief funds. The weather bureau reported rivers in South Carolina were above flood stage, and probably would reach the highest fevels since their disastrous rampage of 11)08. Floods in some sections of North Carolina also were predicted.

Officials said from three to four inches of rain had fallen within the last 24 hours over a narrow strip from Atlanta, to Raleigh, N. C. The Red Cross, estimating that 500, or more, had killed in southern tornadoes this week and last, said 429 todies already had been recovered. Id reported also that 1,727 had been badly injured in the series of storms in six southern states, thousands in jured less severely and homes destroyed or badly damaged. Striving to care for the victim? of this disaster and preparing to aid in the flood-threatened area, organization appealed to its chapters throughout the country to continue soliciting relief funds.

Approximately $5,250,000 has been raised since the recent pastern floods began but officials said this would be insufficient to meet the new demands. At the war department today, word was received from Major General George von Horn Mose-ley, commandant of the fourth corps area at Atlanta, that all regular army supplies were available for use when necessary in the tornado-stricken communities, ties. He reported three CCC compa- TEN ARE KILLED IN PLANE CRASH Transport Plane Crashes Against Mountainside In Pennsyl- vania UNIONTOWN, April 7 P) Ten nevsons were killed today in the crash ot a giant continental and Western transport plane against a mountainside near this coal mining in southwest Pennsylvania. The plane carried 10 passengers, two pilots and a hostess Every available ambulance was rushed from this coal mining town, Mtuated a'oout 40 miles southwest of Pittsburg. I The plane was en route from New York to Pittsburgh.

Searching planes had taken off from the Pittsburgh airport after it was Teported four hours overdue State police said a WPA work-4 er found the giant ship crumpled iy on the ground. A. B. Saylor of the staff of Uniontown hospital said ambu lances were enroute from scene of the crash, bringing the dead and injured. The area in which the crash occurred is typical western Pennsylvania hill country, dotted by soft coal mines and coke ovens.

SENATOR BORAH SEEKS BALLOTS IN WISCONSIN Wisconsin Republicans Vote To clay in rresidential I Primary. MILWAUKEE, April 7 (Pi-Senator William K. Borah's strength as a republican presidential contender underwent its first western test today. Wisconsin' voters chrme between a slate of 21 national convention delegates pledged to Borah and an uninstiructed group backed by the state G. O.

P. organization. At the same time, Milwaukee's socialist administration hung in the balance in a mayorality contest that pitted Mayor Daniel W. Hoan, socialist who held t.he office 20 years, against Sheriff Jo seph Shinners, a nnn -avtkiin I supported Dy many nusiness inter- ests. The election ended one of me unteresi campaigns in tne city mstory and led to prcdic- tions of a record vote.

On the democratic side of Mie presidential primary a slate of! I I i I Storm Escapes TUPELO, April 7 Hundreds of miraculous escapes in Tupelo's tornado were reported today. Carl E. Smith, auto dealer, and his family, saying their bedtime prayers, remained kneeling. The storm snatched tihe roof off their and drove an oak tree though the front porch into a bedroom. No one was hurt.

A Red Cross nurse found a parrot chattering away in a de- molishcd home on Franklin street. Mr. and Mrs. Lyle Bowen grabbed their 13-year-old son and ran out in their yard when the tornado struck. They clung to a clothes-line while the wind wrecked their home.

"The storm whipped us around like rags," said Mr. Bowen. H. D. McCarter crawled in bed with his wife and three children and covered them all with a feather mattress.

The house was carried ten feet. Timbers were driven through the wall above the bed. The roof of the house went way. No one was injured. The house of Dr.

Charles Nash, dentist, boarded, was the last house in the southern edge of the storm's path. He found himself in a wardrobe after the storm, uninjured, but unable to explain how he got there. Jim Davenport, farmer, living three miles east of Tupelo, saved his family of four by throwing them to the ground and falling over them while the tornado tore 'down his house. nies were assisting in leaning up at Tupelo, oris CCC company already had teen assigned to Gainesville, and tftsrli the use of another company htd been authorized if needed and tV. the governors of Alabama an--Georgia had been given permission to use National Guard property when necessary.

A Friend 1.00 R. C. Kent 2.0b Cash 1.25 E. J. Pepper 100 Cash 2.00 T.

W. Wilson 5.00 Bennet Gro. Co Mr. and Mrs. tobt.

5.00 2.00 Gwin Miss Effie Varnado 2.00 John Neill 2.00 C. A. Maxwell 5.00 Mrs. C. J.

Coleman 5.00 E. C. Sutton 1-00 Laurence Sutton 1-OC Mrs. H. V.

Thornt'ia 2.50 Meth. Business Girls I Circle 10.00 N. W. Lee 5.00 E. W.

Hunter 5.00 Colvard's Bakery SCO J. Kantor 5.00 Cash 4.00 Cash 100 Cash 1.00 George Englor 1 00 W. H. Mathews S.OO B. F.

Graves 5.00 Tulliah Carter I SO Lucy Stewart 2.00 W. T. Fountain, Inc 20.10 Double Dip Ice Cream Co. 5.00 T. N.

Weaver 5.00 R. T. Jones 5.00 Hotel Irving 25 00 A. M. Holley 2X0 Allen D.

SaffolJ 2.50 J. D. Prince 1.00 O. L. Kimbrough 10.00 Greenwood Lode IOOF Lawrence Printing Co Jack G.

Forshner 5.C0 C. J. Swayze 1.00 Dr. H. H.

Collins 5.00 T. R. Wells 5.00 W. W. Scruggs 5.00 Mr.

and Mrs: J. L. Powell 1.1.0 B. B. Lancaster 2.50 Mrs.

Lee'Turpin 2.50 N. A. Garrison 1.00 Cash 10.00 J. J. Herrington 3.00 R.

E. Smith 1.00 R. H. Norris 1.00 H. E.

McGee 1.00 James Cobbs 1.00 W. F. Patty 1.P0 Mrs. Sue Wilson 1.00 Nell Tyson 5.00 City of Dead VETERAN DEAD IN WIND STORM Scout With Forrest Was Crushed In Sunday's Tornado TUPELO, April 7 Joe Smith they called him "Uncle Joe" was Lee county's" oldest Confederate veteran. He was crushed to death in Sunday night's tornado.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Rife, wit-h whom he lived, escaped death. "Uncle Joe" was a scout for General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Confederate cavalry leader. He died near the scene of a Mississippi battle.

"Uncle Joe" weighed about 300 pounds, and was six feet, 6 inches tall. morning, sound a caii to classes. School books and supplies were flung over a two block area. No plans had been formulated for resumption of classes. That will come much later.

Rehabilitation plans were in the hands of a large group headed by Governor Whit and including municipal authorities and reper-sentatives of the Red Cross, T. V. A W. P. C.

C. C. and other organizations. They started their work with a survey of their resources. Contributions in the form of money and supplies came in a steady flow and were immediately placed at the disposal of the committee.

The rehabilitation work quickened as it became known that the injured had been cared for. By noon those hurt whose condition permitted had been moved from the emergency hospitals established in the court house, hall, vacant store buildings and private homes, to hospitals in Memphis, Meridian and surrounding towns. Huge crews of workmen worked feverishly to re-establish communication and power lines, repair water and gas mains. The city water tank, a 100,000 gallon container, toppled under the storm's fury. It had been overhauled a few weeks ago.

The water supply, however, was restored yesterday, by means of a pumping system. On hand today were Dr. H. C. Ricks, director of communicable disease control for Mississippi, and H.

A. Kroeze, of the state board of health, to prevent any possible epidemic outbreak. Dr. Ricks issued the following statement: "Mr. Kroeze, chief sanitary engineer analyzed the city's water supply yesterday and found that the water is safe.

There is no need for alarm in drinking water furnished through Tupelo's emergency facilities." The clang of ambulance alarms in the glass and debris covered streets sounded less frequently today but the huge staff of whiter robed physicians and nurses remained on duty. They still had plenty to do but their work was easier. There were no more emergency operations without the use of anesthetics. No more surgical work by candlelight. The terrifying cries of the injured 5nd dying had died out.

The cit.y of nearly 10,000, made famous as the "City Beautiful" by the late Private John Allen, will be long recovering from the mighty blow, but its sturdy citizenry has bent itself to the task with courageous extermination. THE WEATHER TEMPERATURE Maximum 78 degrees; minimum 37 degrees; rainfall 0.00; river gauge 22.41, rise 0.72. FOR MISSISSIPPI Fair, continued cool, frost nearly to the coast tonight; Wednesday, partly cloudy, warmer. Tupelo Relief Fund death-dealing storms which cut a fearel many would die. The in-haphazard path across the mid- ju'ed were taken out of the Sunday night, doing great- en areas in trains and ambulances est damage at Tupelo, to hospitals of larger cities, where nearly 200 died.

Fire and the danger of pestilence After inflicting heavy property intensified horror in the wind-lev-loss at Acworth and Lavonia in I elled communities, where the dead its journey across Georgia the were placed row on row in make-wind descended on Gainesville and shift morgues. National guards-then struck at Anderson, men with bayonets fixed kept on S. jut across the Georgia-! the alert for looters and the Red Carolina line where 30 were in- Cross and American Legion organ-jurcd although none was reported jzeti relief for the homeless. Heavy killed. rains added to the misery of the Lasting but three minutes here! survivors.

the twister spread its pall Besides' Mississippi and Georgia throughout the business district Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas onrl lt nut a cirnrltt ctrnp til I'P 1 Five Southern States Take 427 Bodies From Wind Wrecked Homes. I lhe south tornado aeatn von in brief: Mississippi Total 219. Tupelo 203. Coffeeville 12. Booneville 4.

Georgia Total 183. Gainesville 183. Tennessee Total 12 Columbia Area 5. Clifton Area 5. McNairy 1.

Lincoln 1. Alabama Total 11. Red Bay 7. Elkwood 4. Arkansas Total 1.

La Crosse 1. South Carlina Total 1. Anderson 1. Total All States 427. By The Associated Press Tornado death lists in the mid-south, increasing steadily as survivors went ahead with the grim work of searching debris, approah-ed a total of 400 today and estimates of material damage were almost $25,000,000.

And while they checked the losses of the latest tornado disaster, new flood threats arose along the 980-mile course of the Ohio river, putting hundreds of families to flight and interrupting the task of rebuilding after last month's overflow. Two cities alone had dragged 337 bodies from the ruins of the wind storm Tupelo, 187, and Gainesville, 150. The known toll over five Southern States was 0f at least 2,000 injured it was were anected. A -live iUUllUIl Total Storm Damasre Estimated property loss in Sun- aA killed nearly 400 persons in five southern states, indicated the toll would run close to $25,000,000 and send Mie south's wind bill for the last week nearly to City officials at Gainesville, set the damage there roughly Hugh White of Missisisppi, said Tueplo's loss would be at least $8,000,000. It was expected the destruction toll in a dozen other less seriously affected communities would push the total well toward This appalling blow came less than a week after storms which centered in Cordele, and Greensboro, N.

doing damage at the former town and at least as much at the latter. Few cities in Georgia have a more beautiful setting than Gainesville. It nestles at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. it -no. i "C'V a nationally known institution.

i u- except for losing part of the roof and numerous windows. None of the women students was killed. Riverside Military Academy alsoj is located on the outskirts of the city but it too. escaped all damage. The cadets aided local police in handling traffic until the arrival of National Guardsmen and police from other localities.

Just outside the tornado zone, (Continued on Page 8) TUPELO READY BURY ITS DEAD Funerals And Aid To Injured Accompany Plans To Rebuild Wreckage TUPELO, April 7 (IP) Tupelo buried its tornado dead today and mapped relief plans. Hearses, ambulances, trucks and wagons carried plain pine boxes containing the city's 184 dead to the local cemetery and to community "burying grounds." Mourners followed on foot and in every type of vehicle. Friends of the dead planned to spend the day acting as pall bearers. In every cemetery khaki clad C. C.

C. workers dug graves. A grave 35 feet wide was dug for the 13 members of the Jim Burroughs family which was wiped out. Ministers from nearby towns came in to help the 12 local pastors conduct funerals: While the city buried its dead it also planned for rehabilitation continued to care for its hundreds of injured, and loot for more of the dead After a survey today, Adjutant General John A. O'Keefe said Tupelo "looked like one of France's worst war torn towns." Finding that outsiders were evading an order to "stay out of Tupelo," by parking their cars at the city limits and walking through fields into the town, General O'Keefe sent: riding patrols to force the sightseers into their cars and away.

The general said that plans to dynamite wrecked buildings with dangerous leaning walls have been abandoned. "Engineers tell us that such explosions would endanger other hnilriinp'ts wfcirh wpvo wotttronMl by the storm," he explained. 1 A relief kitchen planned to' feed 2,000 people today. They gave food to almost that many people H. E.

Howie, Presbyterian pastor in charge of the kitchen, said he had a plentiful supply of ma- terial for soup, and that he had bread, beef and milk. He believed that tomorrow would be peak day for the kitchen. It is manned by volunteer workers. The pastor said officials had allowed him to order all whole- sale and retail stores in town to turn their supplies over to him. Out-of-town American Legion Posts are sending in food.

Funds for food are being sent in by the state W. P. Mr. Howie said. TUPELO, Miss April 7 (IP) This plucky little city of Tupelo fought -today to bury its dead, succor its injured and rebuild from the wreckage left by the fury of Sunday night's tornado.

Its stunned populace went about the torn city in a daze and worked as automatons in search of more bodies and treasures buried under the 1,000 flattened homes occupied two days ago by happy families, now bowed in grref. Few of these families escaped the touch of death tlit took a toll of near 200 souls. Those that escaped the visit of death fe't the pangs of sorrow over the bruised and battered bodies of the some 1,000 men, women and children, sent through the tortures of enforced makeshift hospitalization and crude surgery. It will take years to dim the memory of the whining and whistling wind funnel that bore down upon this thriving, defenseless city to be followed by the crackling of falling timbers, the shrieks of the injured and the moans of the dying. More will die and the estimated figure of 200 dead in the Tupelo area may be passed.

The four mile long and one mile wide storm area may be compared to the trampling of an iron shod mythical giant, who pressed to the earth things and humans in its path. It spared neither class nor color. The rich man's man- sion was laid just as low as the workman's cottage or the negro's shanty. It was appalling destruction. The black visitor from the sky dipped to earth three times before it made ita major stroke at Tupelo.

It hit La Crosse, and took one life, then Cofice- Revised List of Casualties Tupelo on page four. at ville, for twelve and Booneville for four. After sweeping past Tupelo, it swooped down on Red Bay, fcr six lives, Elk-wood for four, snatched 12 out of Tennessee, 158 out of Georgia and having satiated its gluttony for destruction and horror blew outi into the ether with a parting shriek. The weather experts say tornadoes travel in families and at intervals send down a spear of hell to shake and destroy what is on the earth. The blow of Sunday and Monday, they say was not one tornado but a family of them.

But Tupelo drew the brunt of the storm from a human loss standpoint. It drove a line of horror through the homes of peaceful people, slaying them as they huddled in "terror or ran for their lives. The human dam age cannot be estimated as scores and scores will be cripples for life and the -value -of the-dead to society is incalculable. The property damage has been fixed by Governor Hugh L. White, after a survey, att between $6,000,000 and $8,000,000.

Order has been kept in the stricken city by companies of state militia tinder the direction of Adjutant General H. A. O'Keefe. Disorders have been few but as in all such cases there has been some looting but it has been held to a minimum by soldiers being ready to stick bayonets through these human hyenas. Slowly the dead were being claimed by their relatives.

Im provised morgues where the victims were brought Sunday night and yesterday were packed with grief stricken persons making burial arrangements. No mass funeral will be held. The bodies all have been embalmed by a huge corps of morticians who have worked continuously to prevent disease. There will be no church services. Not a single house of worship escaped tJie storm and no effort was being made to fit therr.

for funerals. Axe crews cut "their way through tangled masses of twisted timbers, making possible a more thorough search of rRe leveled homes. Pitiful scenes were enacted in the Willis and Hrrisburg Heights subdivisions the sections hardest hit. Men, women and children climbed in and under the remains of their homes seeking to retrieve whatever of value was left. Their efforts bore little fruit.

Others stood diligently, grimly, for long minutes peering into their smashed dwellings. So completely demolished were many of the homes they did noti invite even a rumaging by their former occupants. Beds-, automobiles, ice boxes, furniture of every description were jumbled in grotesque array. One home where only the foundation and flooring: remained, had a smashed automobile planted squarely in what formerly was the living room. Bath tubs were scattered here and there and tattered wearing apparel and bed clothes fluttered fantastically from bent telephone poles, snapped tree limbs and twisted wires.

The city was schoolless as well as. churchless. The high school, a fine brick structure, was almost completely gutted. Its walls formed a mere shell of what had been one of north Mississippi's educational show places. Ironically, the automatic time clock in the huge structure rung as usual at 8:15 o'clock this delegate candidates endorsed by! Rain and fire added to the mis-the state conference and pledged of the situatinn.

Time and 4' Keesler-Hamrick-Gillespie Post American Legion 25.00 W. S. Vardaman 20.00 Earle Equen 20.00 Sumter Gillespie 25.00 Bank of Greenwood 50.00 Henderson Baird 25.00 A. Weiler Co 25.00 H. Talbot Odom 15.00 Delta Steam Laundry 10.00 Dr.

e. j. cawii 10.00 I Cla Bottling Wks 20.00 Union Compress Co 20.00 F. Goodman D. G.

Co 20.00 Greenwood Teachers 20.00 A. Liollio 10.00 C. A. Foreman 10.00 Delta Lumber Co 10.00 Fred Koops 10.00 Bank of Commerce 50.00 A. M.

Boroughs 10.00 American Legion Aux 15.00 A. J. Brewerton 10.00 Jr. Chamber of Commerce 15.00 Chamber of Commerce 20.00 Greenwood Cotton Exchange 50.00 Ben T. Terry 10.00 L.

D. Pepper, Jr 10.00 McRae Bros. Bakery 10.00 G. L. Ray 10.00 H.

L. Gary 10.00 Wildwood Planting Co 15.00 Whittington D. G. quilts and blankets worth 75.00 Dr. R.

B. Yates 1.00 C. V. Bruce 1.00 Arch Peteet 1.00 Mrs. A.

Weiler 10.00 Sam Lehr 1.00 A. M. Hobbs 10.00 Paramount Theatre 15.00 Cash 5.00 C. W. Telfair 10.00 F.

A. Wright 20.00 M. B. McElroy 1.00 T. Anderson 2.50 Sam Harris 5.00 Chas.

Tomlinson 5.00 Police Department 14.00 Moore McDavid 10.00 S. F. Harwood 2.00 Dr. J. M.

Bradley 10.00 Roy Nelson 5.00 Pamplin Smith 10.00 W. A. Moore 10.0 Cash 5.25 i that escaped its fury in 14 solid 1)1(lcks of nrick Beautiful homes were a mass u. Uon was eveie(1 in nlany places. Not even the foundations were eft to fhow where buildings had un again firemen had to change hoses to take care of a new out break of flames.

Throughout, tjie day and night Civilian Conservation Corns work ers Guardsmen toiled to clear away brick and huge timbers to reach bodies of persons caught in the wreckage. Fear that today's search would send the death list close to 200 was expressed by G. J. Anderson, superintendent of the Cooper Manufacturing Company, whose trousers factory was one of the chief places of horror. Fire followed the wind's destruction of the three-story plant and some 45 bodies, mostly those of women, were removed from the smouldering ruins yesterday.

Anderson said, however, that of 125 workers who checked in yesterday morning only tJiree had been accounted for. Anderson said three boys escaped unhurt by squeezing out of the back of the second floor. The rest of the employes, he said, apparently were trapped when they attempted escape by the front stairway as the storm hit. City authorities said several structures levelled in the main business section probably would yield up other bodies as soon as it was possible to get to them. All that could be done for many hours after the tornado had passed was to keep fires from spreading and seek out the places where most bodies could be found.

to Roosevelt faced only scattered opposition. Borah, defeated in New York last week, was optimistic over his chances in Wisconsin. In an election eve bid for support here last night, he declared it was not in the interest of democracy to permit delegates go uninstructed to the national convention, where votes "are traded and bartered." He added: "The will and desire of people at home has very little influence on an uninstructed delegation after the convention has- assembled." Borah said he was anxious to get the selection of the presidency as close as possible to the people since the presidency is the most powerful elective office in the nation. He said: "If you have no voice in the selection of delegates" you have no control over the most powerful officer of government." MAKINGS OF A HERO NEW YORK Walter Herch, 12, ran on the pavements of New York after that long fly ball yesterday and as he reached out and gathered it in, tumbled into a lift opening into a basement. His leg was fractured, but as- rescuers lifted him onto the sidewalk to await an ambulance he cried, if i still eoc me uun.

i nnn HIS teammates with a putout. credited him I IT i ii I 11.