New-York tribune., 1918-05-28
Law or Anarchy
Is Prayer Issue,
Prosecutor Says
States Attorney Outline.
Evidence Against Eleven
Lynching Defendants
(SpeciM Dispntch to The T,1bune)

Especial Dispatch to The Tr1bune)
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.,, May 27.-Law
on trial against anarchy, involving the
most momentous decision a court has
been called upon to make. is the key
note of the Prayer lynching case,
States Attorney Streuber said to-day
in his opening speech to the jury,
which will weigh evidence against the
eleven accused of murder
In paving the way to break down
the probable defence that Prayer as g
disioyal enemr should have been
hanged, Streuber accepted the chal-
lenge of patriotic issues involved.
III hope there isn't a man on this
jury with drop of pro-German blood
in his veins" he said. II have tried
to pick honest, four square American
citizens to sit in this box. l want
them to take this case and judge it on
the simple question between law and
lawlessness. Whatever Prayer did or
did not do, he was in the hands of the
authorities OF the State of Illinois at
the time of his death, and the men who
executed him were acting as enemies
of the state, even as they were Prayers
enemies"
The full jury was selected at 4:30
o'clock this afternoon, after eleven
days of wrangling between attorneys.
Acceptance of the final panel of four
men came as a surprise. Judge Bern
reuter- few minutes before had ac-
cused Madison County citizens of per-
juring themselves to escape an un-
pleasant duty, and stated that, in his
opinion, the deadlock on the choice of
talesmen might last for many more
days.
In his opening speech the States
Attorney outlined the events of the
night Of Prager's lynching. Continu-
ing, he said:
ain our evidence we will show that
while the Mayor of Collinsville was
pleading with the crowd for Prayers
life, Joseph Riegel, one of these de-
fendants yelled Come on, let's get
him. We will show that Wesley
Beaver, another of these young men,
found Prayer hiding i'm an eighteen
inch sewer pipe in the basement of
the Jail, and pulled him out. We will
show that Frank Flannery, third de,
fendant, struck Prayer on the head
after the mob had him, and knocked
him down.
Before any one suggested hanging.
some one said Let's get a bucket of
feathers Wen prove that Rieger
said NO tar and himself got Il rope
from a nearby automobile. and later
climbed tree and affixed it in place.
Charles Cramner, also in tins. court
room, furnished the pencil and paper
! with which the doomed man wrote his
last message.
States Position Defined
"The state is not defending Prayer.
We are merely holding up the common.
wealth of Illinois in the ceaseless fight
for law and order. We have nothing
really to do with what Prayer might
have done or said before he was killed.
But the state will insist that, once he
was in the keeping of duly appointed
officers, the mob that took him out of
that charge and killed him is guilty of
| murder"
In brief speech for the defence
Attorney j. M. Bandy suggested that he
will make an attempt to justify the
mob that hanged Prayer. "I'm not ad-
mitting. that any of these defendants
had hand in the mans DEATH" he
said. 81 don't know who was RESPONSE
Bile for the hanging. But do know
that Prayer was one of the worst enc
mics that ever stepped into the United
| States. He called President Wilson a
dog, and said that when Germany wins
| the war ne, fragef, would De the mean
/ est man in the state. There seems to
me to have been some cause for these
| good citizens to have done what they
! did"
The complete jury comprises Frank
/ Weeks, Edwardsville, a clerk; A. X.
Challacombe, Alton. plumber: Frank
] Oben, Alton. mule dealer; F. w. Horn,
Alton, tailor; Marvin Baumgartner, Ed
] wardsyille, clothes presser; w. C. Dip
/ pold, Edwardsville, feed dealer; D. w.
! Fiegenbaum, manager. Edwardsville; /;
John Groshans. ProaG, farmer; Walter
! Saltermann. Worden. farmer; Keith