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Show NEGROEG PLOTTED AGAINST WHITES CONFESSIONS OBTAINED BY AN INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE SHOW MURDER PLANS. Startling Statement is Made by Ar-kansan Ar-kansan Said to Have Been Picked As First Victim of Blacks Led by Negro Farmer. Helena. Ark. A statement has been made on the recent riots by K. M. Allen, of the committee of seven, .authorized .au-thorized by local officers and governor gover-nor P.rough to investigate (lie trouble, charging that the affair was an organized or-ganized negro uprising, fostered by a negro who preyed on "the ignorance and superstition of a race of children for monetary gains." .Mr. Allen, who was one of twenty-one twenty-one leading men marked for death, after af-ter hearing confessions, examining circulars cir-culars and other evidence procured by stale and military officers in connection connec-tion with tlte work of the committee, issued a statement lo explain what the committee had found to be the situation sit-uation loading to the killing of five, while men and upwards of a score of negroes. The present trouble with the negroes ne-groes in Phillips county is not a race riot, according to Mr. Allen. It is a deliberately planned insurrection of the negroes against the whiles, directed direct-ed by an organization known as (he 'Progressive Farmers and Household 1'nioti of America," established for the purpose of banding negroes together for the killing. of wliite people. This union was started by liobert I.. Hill, a negro twenty-six years old of Winchester, Ark-., who saw in it: an opportunity' of making easy money. He had been a farmer all his life, but lately had been posing as a "private detective doing work in this and all foreign countries." He started his first union work in April of this year. He organized the "Ratio Lodge" in May of this year. He told the darkies that he was an agent of the government and because the senators and representatives in Washington Wash-ington were white men and in sympathy sym-pathy with the white men of the south, it was impossible for the negroes ne-groes to get the rights that have been promised them for service in the array and so the government had called into existence this organization which would be supported by the government in' defense of the negroes against the white people. He told them it was necessary for all members of the union to arm themselves in preparation for the day - when they should be called upon t'o-'attack their while oppressors. Men av ere charged $1.50 for entrance fees and women 50 cents. The slogan of the organization is "We battle for iiur rights." The password of all the negroes was "We have just begun." Every negro who joined these lodges was given to understand that ultimately ultimate-ly he would be called upon to kill white people. Unquestionably, the time for attack had been set, but plans bad not been entirely perfected, and the shooting of the officers at Helena Drought on the insurrection ahead of schedule. |