682 Slide – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

650 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

tributed to every philanthropic enterprise, and always stood
for the highest and best things in public and private life.
Shall we tear him down for 4 man who admits and boasts
that he has committed every crime on the statute books ex-
cept the crime of murder—a man who brags that he provided
for a woman when he was fiften years of age—who brags that
he drank two quarts of liquor a day until Georgia went bone-
dry—a man who brags that he waa tried for assault and tells
about the time a husband eaught him invading his homet
Shall we tear down Asa Candler to further the scheme of a
man who does not stop with his blood-eurdling record, but
drags thia woman into a blackmail attempt?

The record of Mr. Candler has been a splendid one. His
career in Atlanta has been constructive and not destructive.
He has helped to make Atlanta what she is today, and to
think that a creature like this Cook should have the effrontery
to try to tear down the record of a man like Asa G. Candler!
Asa Candler is not a difficult man to approach. He is just
everyday folks, like you and me, despite all his money.
He is open to this kind of sneaking attack, by reason of his
very type of plain, everyday man. Mayor Candler is an old-
fashioned man and transacts business in an old-fashioned
way. Anybody can go to his office and se€ him. Mrs. Hirsch
took advantage of this habit which he has always followed,
and laid her plans which Cook had formulated. She is
Cook’s victim and doesn’t know it, Since this blackmail case
came up, J am afraid to let a woman come into my office, and
Tam 4 poor man compared with Mr. Candler, and only a
moderately good man as compared to him, There is no tell-
ing how many men in Atlanta are paying blackmail and
keeping their mouths silent. But Mayor Candler had the
nerve to fight, even though he knew they would smirch him
from head to foot. No one is eafe from the blackmailer of
thia type, but I am thankful to say that I believe after this
ease, because of Mr. Candler’s bravery, that blackmailers
will roost a little Jower in Atlanta. We don’t know how
many good men have paid up and kept quiet in the past. No