Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-08-08
THOS. B. FIELDER
STABBED IN FIGHT
Folders Friends Assert 1t Grew
Out of His Opposition to
Savannah Recall Bill


G.. X. Vason i'm the Kimball house Thurs
dat night. has brought forth two dis
tinct statements as to the cause of the
cutting and has led to the passage of a
resolution in the state senate unani-
mously repudiateing the report that the
Savannah recall bill was at the bottom
of the affair.
Vason. held without bond at police sta
y ton. has refused TO give out state
ment.
/ Fielder, in a critical condition at st.
Josephs infrmary, is not allowed TO
talk: but his friends quote him as de-
J claring that an alteration over the re-
call bill caused the stabbing.
Charles s. Arrow, an eyewitness TO
the fray, says he heard no words passed
about the recall bill, but did hear Nason
call Fielder a liar for making remarks
}, about Speaker Burwell.
Il w Woods White, chairman of the law
enforcement committee of the Anti-Sa-
loon league. for which Fielder is attor-
ney, describes the stabbing as a DELHI
I crate attack on Fielder to destroy him
for his activities in lighting the recall
bill and working for the forces of prohi-
bition.
COULDN'T CUT HIMSELF.
DR.. Willis Westmoreland, who has
been attending Mr.. Fielder ever since
u the cutting, stated to The Journal at
2 o'clock Friday afternoon that his con-
dition is critical and will be for several
day.
81 do not think there is any Ques-
d ton but that the knife entered the
II lung cavity" he said. Il am positive
of ii, although 1 cannot tell how deep
Il the blade went. In case there are no
unforeseen complications, however, he
will recover. II is impossible that Mr..
Fielder could have cut himself. Expert
examination shows this, for II is simply
a question of mechanics. He could not
have inflicted such a wound himself.
Even had he been able to reach the
place in his side with a knife, his arm
would not have contained enough force
to sever a rib"
NJ. Arrow gave the following state
ment to The Journal Friday morning.:
"I was in one of the rooms of Gov
ernor Harris's campaign headquarters
with A. ]. Lilies, representative from
Camden county. I heard loud talking in
the hall but at first did not pay any
attention to il. Then l heard Speaker
Burwelrs name mentioned l walked
into the hall and saw Vason and Fielder
standing there
"Vason was abusing Fielder in ram
bling muttering undertone His words
were not clear. but / heard him accuse
Fielder of telling a lie on Bill 'BurwelI
He called Fielder a - - liar. Then
the two men rushed into a clinch. There
was a dim light in the hallway, and
could not tell which was the aggressor.
Nothing whatever was said about the
Savannah recall bill, so far as l could
hear"
Speaker Burwell said he had no idea
what lies" Vason was referring to, as
he has heard no mention of any state
ments Mr.. Fielder may have made about
him. Vason and the other doorkeepers
and pages of the house were appointed
by the speaker.
MR.. WHITES STATEMENT.
| w. Woods White reiterated Friday his
belief that the stabbing Of Fielder was
an attempt at assassination.
Il have not seen Mr.. Fielder" he said,
but several of his friends have and
they tell me he says the trouble was
over the recall bill. have no direct
/ evidence that such Is the case. but ii is
Il my firm conviction mai the stabbing was
the result of a pfotSto destroy Mr.. Eel
der. That's all IL looks like and that's
all il is. They have been trying to get
him for a long time. They couldn't get
him any other way, so they decided to
kill him. That poor devil Vason didn't
take il into his head to suddenly protect
all the liquor interests of the state. De-
liberate purpose was behind him. Mr.
Fielder has been threatened time and
again and 1 am sure there was a well
defined program to take his life.
It's the same old story. The liquor
interests worked the same game in Ten
nessee and Minneapolis and Omaha"
Mr. White would not say what steps
il any, the law enforcement committees
Will take toward investigation or pros
cution. That's the states business
he said, but 1 can tell you this, it's no.
going to slip by without notice
Mr.. Fielder was reported resting easily
: Monday morning at St Joseph's infirm-
: airy. where he was taken Immediately
P after he was stabbed in the left side.
DANGER OF INFECTION.
, DR.. Samuel Green states that the chief
danger is from infection and the posi-
| patients lung. The knife was thrust
through one rib and cutting upward
severed another. The wound is tvs
inches deep 1t is an inch and hall
from the heart.
Vason. who is held at the police sta
tion without bond, refused Friday to give
out a statement. saying he had been ad
vised not to talk. He is quoted as say
ing Thursday night that Fielder was the
aggressor in the fight, drew his owr
knife and cut himself with it in the
struggle. Vason had been drinking, say
the officers who arrested him.
Accounts of the fight between Fielder
and Vason agree in the main. Fielder
had been attending a meeting of the
Savannah anti-recall interests in the
room of Rev. c. NJ Ledbetter, a Guyton
Ga, minister, on the first floor of the
L Kimbal house, room 106.
About $3.50 o'clock he left the room
to go to the campaign headquarters OF
/ Povernor Nat E. Harris, which are or
: the same floor of the Kimball house
on the other side in rooms 119-21-23.
As he was walking along the hallway
, alone, he met Vason and another mar
near the governors headquarters. The
other man has not been identified. He Is
{ described by several people who saw
I him as a young man, tall, slender and Of
dark complexion. Vason refuses TO give
z his name.
The account of what happened then,
] as given by Mr.. Fielder TO his friends
: Immediately after the stabbing, is that
; Vason stopped Fielder and said, You're
the damned - that defeated the Sa-
! vannah recall bill today" or that he
said to the man with him, "Tlas is Tom
Fielder the damned - that killed our
. lrecall bill"
According to Mr.. Arrow, however, it
was VasOn's assertion that Fielder was
a liar that brought on the fight.
Fielder and Vason fought for moment
in the hallway, then through the door