Friday, 25th June 1915: Correspondents Hurt South By Sending Out Fake Boycott Stories, The Atlanta Constitution

(From The Philadelphia Public Ledger.)

Atlanta, Ga., June 24.---(Special.) Leading Citizens of Atlanta were amazed today when informed by your Correspondent that dispatches had been sent to Eastern Newspapers indicating there was a movement in the South to Boycott Jews on account of the Frank Case.

There not only is no such movement in the South as a whole, but there is not the slightest thing seriously resembling such a movement in Georgia or in Atlanta.

The Jewish stores are open and doing as much Business as they ever did. They are enjoying every privilege afforded by anybody. No Jew in Atlanta has complained of a Boycott, or any manifestation of prejudice against him since the Governor commuted the Frank Sentence.

On the day that Frank was commuted, the Jewish Residents of Atlanta went about their Business as usual. They were out that night as usual. As far as known, not a Jew was forced in a fight with anyone in the crowds, and the Police did not have to make a single Case for insults to any Jew.

Protest by Dorsey.

In Marietta, a little Town about twenty miles from Atlanta, the home of Mary Phagan, feeling has always run high. Following the Commutation, it is reported that a few anonymous people told one or two Jewish people in Marietta they had better move out of Town by Saturday. The Report reached Solicitor General Hugh Dorsey, of Atlanta, who prosecuted Frank, and he promptly sent a vigorous protest against any such action.

As far as Atlanta and the rest of the State are concerned, there has not been any serious suggestion of any such movement.

It is, unfortunately, true that there are a number of Special Correspondents in Atlanta who serve Northern Newspapers, and who, being paid on space, feel no hesitancy in exaggerating every untoward incident in the South. If a crowd of fifty people holds a mass meeting to protest against anything, these Correspondents have no pangs of conscience at calling the crowd a mob and the meeting a riot.

Similarly, if there really is any disturbance, the disturbance is nearly always magnified ten-fold.

Mr. Howell's Statement.

Clark Howell, Editor of The Constitution, and Senior Member of the National Democratic Committee, on being asked for a Statement by the Representative of The Public Ledger, said: "The Report that there is any movement to Boycott or ostracize the Jews in Atlanta or elsewhere in this Section is preposterous. There is no such movement, nor has there been any such suggestion. The controversy arising out of the Frank Case no more involves the Jewish Race than would such a controversy involve the Gentile if Frank had been one. Such unfounded Reports are not only unjust to the City and the State, but they are cruelly so, to the Jews of our Community, forming, as they do, a highly esteemed Element of our Citizenship."

Following the Commutation of Frank, there was considerable excitement in Atlanta. The Case has been bitterly fought for two years. The Crime was an atrocious one. Those people who believed Frank guilty, and could not be made to believe otherwise, were resentful at Governor Slaton for granting Commutation, after the Prison Board had failed so to recommend. They held a number of meetings. There were no fights. There was no violence. At night, a crowd, which the Associated Press estimated at 700, and which was composed largely of boys, marched on foot to the Governor's. The crowd carried no arms. When the Militia arrived to disperse them, after they had jeered at the Governor for perhaps half an hour, the crowd dispersed without the slightest evidence of a battle, except that one soldier was hit in the stomach with a brick, and another in the hand with a bottle.

And yet, Atlanta two days thereafter found in one of the biggest Newspapers in New York, and one of the most Conservative, a dispatch from this Newspaper's Atlanta Correspondent to the effect that 10,000 men marched on the Governor's home.

A great many of these Eastern Newspapers, by their Orders on Queries from this Section, have signified that riot stories, lynchings, race prejudice stories are what they want, and some of the Correspondents are not too scrupulous in furnishing them what they want. If the Editors of the Newspapers, who have thus been made the victims of their Correspondents will wire to the Mayor, or to prominent Citizens of Atlanta, they will find that there is no Foundation for the Reports of a Boycott on the Jews, and that no Boycott has been seriously attempted or suggested.