The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-27
DEFENSE FUND FOR INDICTED SOLDIERS
 NOW BEING RAISED
Rainbow Chapter Sends Money. Former Gov. Conner For wards Check and Views
 on the Situation

Financial assistance for the nine members of Company M, Alabama national guard, now under indictment in connection with the lynching of Will Baird, a miner, at Jasper, January 13, is being received from a num- Der of sources. Among the contributors yesterday was B.. B. Conner, former governor, and the Mortimer Jordan chapter, Rainbow Division.
 Mr Conner, in 1etter to c. B. yer ner of Tuscaloosa. chairman of the cit- izens' committee now raising defense fund for the accused guafdsmen, says "It is evident .here was strong pro vocation and an element of self de- fense in the conduct of these young men"
 Mortimer Jordan chapter took the position that it's donation was not to be accepted as an act of partisanship or an attempt to turn the decision either in favor of or against the ac- cused, but rather as an expression of the chapter that they should be given a fair chance and have adequate means for establishing their innocence, if they are innocent
 We want to give the boys fair chance and ask questions iater," member of the chapter stated.
 The letter of MT. Conner was as fol- lcws:
 "Denr MT. Werner; NI notice in the press that you
 are chairman of the committee re-
 ceiving subscriptions. voluntary
 funds to aid in the defense of the
 boys of Company of the national
 guard, now under indictment for
 murder. Enclosed please find
 check, $50, which under no circum-
 stances is to be used ms slush
 fund but. as l am sure you will, as
 a defense fund.
 "As very we'll stated by the Tus-
 caloosa committee. the home of the
 guardsmen indicted, while there can be no sympathy for the Iawless
 net itself. yet if proven guilty 1t is
 still evident there was strong pro-
 vocation and m element of self de-
 fenss in the conduct of these young
 men.
 Ut is to be regretted thnt there
 should he my foundation for
 claimed irrelevancy in the conduct of the courts in expediting the trial
 of these boys and the conduct of
 the courts in the trial of other
 cases, possibly more lawless. more vindictive, more premedftated and intendedly more far reaching in
 defiance of the law thnn this. "I never could appreciate how under our jurisprudence number of men under any name or charter whatsOever, particularly under cnrpet-bag md scalawnE leader ship, named collective barga or what not. could lawfully super induce and indefinitely continue | conditions which carry turmoil, Iawlcssness. murder, radically i'm terferfng with property and indi- vfdual rights, enforcing the state to keep the rational guard troops on guard duty at great cost to the taxpayers of the state and at great loss and inconvenience to the national guard of the state, sepa- rating them. as it does, from their homes and from their business and proven, in constant danger of their lives.
 @Under every circumstance of the case, every member of the national guard m erits the full sym pathy and protection of the state,
 and with these young men it would i'll become the state that there should be even m appearance of vengeful persecution. NYOurs very truly. (Signed) "B. H. CONFER"