The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-10-03
ARKANSAS WOOD
SCENE OF BATTLE
Heavy Firing E Elaine.
Soldiers az Jroes
Renew lgIe.
MORE TIA, ) ARRESTED
Total Nur If Victims of
DisturbaA IA Negroes
and B White Men.

A. r. Dupree, negro proprietor of O
/ cleaning establishment, and J. w.
Jennings, negro druggist, were ar
rested today CHARGED with distribut-
ing pernicious propaganda. Jennings
also Is the head of a negro baseball
| club.
| More than 200 negroes have been
/ taken into custody by the military
and are held under guard at Elaine.
| About sixty arrests have been made
! by the civil authorities.
The known negro dead today was
| fourteen, with other bodies reported
in the cane brakes and underbrush
| about Elaine, where most of the fight
ing took place.
A large amount of literature tend
| ing to show that the outbreak was
| due to propaganda circulated among
negro tenant farmers. making ro-
seate promises If the negroes would
organize and arm themselves, has
been seized by military and civil au-
thorities. The agitators, the literature
indicates, represented themselves as
agents Of the federal government and
gave promise of so cents a pound to
be paid for cotton direct to the
small farmer to replace the method of
settlement now in force between the
land owners and tenants.
While the number of known dead
in the riots total fifteen, authorities
say the death list will be greatly in
creased when a thorough search Is
made of the canebrake section, where
several negroes are reported killed.
Several clashes between soldiers
and negro rioters in the canebrakes
T. I, t1A ~ 1
were reported late yesterday. A
number of negroes are said to have
been killed in the fights, but details
of the battles are lacking today.
Government agents who have been
at work in the riot-sWept section of
the county for several days are said
to have uncovered evidence of we'll
organized negro uprising.
Bratton in Denial.
o. S. Bratton, white man, ar
rested yesterday charged with mur-
der of the special officer killed in the
battle with the negroes Tuesday
night, was closely questioned regard
ing the negro uprising, but according
to the federal agents he denied
knowledge of the plot.
Seventy-tive negroes arrested on
Wednesday and Thursday are held
in the Phillips county jail today.
Several of these prisoners told the
authorities of the activities of white
man who for the past two months
has been "organizing the negroes to
oppose their white employers"
The negro prisoners declare that
when the better element among them
refused to join an organization of
negroes started by a white man to
force equal rights for the negro"
threats against their lives and homes
were made.
The negroes say they were told
that the government intended buying
all the cotton, and were advised to
demand their price, and to refuse to
pick cotton unless their demands for
wage increases were granted.
Gov. Charles f. Brough, who was
fired at by negro rioters late yes
terday, has ordered a thorough in
vestigation Of the negro farmers or
ganization suspected of being back
of the plot for the uprising.
Origin of Trouble.
The race trouble, late reports indi-
Gated, was fomented by agitators who
had aroused the negroes to partici-
pate in an organized uprising, and
the authorities were determined to
prevent further trouble by obtaining
possession of all firearms in the
hands of negroes in the district.
To accomplish their purpose they
sent parties of men through the ne
gro quarter searching houses and
outbuildings where gun caches were
suspected.
An announcement made at military
headquarters in Elaine said that
about $50 rifles had been taken from
negroes who had been arrested, or
at the homes of negroes searched by
troops.
Wholesale arrests of negroes have
been made, according to officials,
who announced t)day 2S5 prisoners
had been taken to date. OF that
225 were under guard by
federal troops at Elaine and sixty
had been brought here.