Corporal H. M. McCann Suspended, Major Warner Reports to Governor Smith

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

The Massena’ case was closed yesterday, so far as the state is concerned, with the announcement by Governor Smith that Corporal H. M. McCann, of Troop B of the state police, has been severely reprimanded and indefinitely suspended for “gross lack of discretion in the exercise of his duties and for conduct most unbecoming an officer.”

The action was reported to the Governor by Major John A. Warner, superintendent of the state police, who conducted the formal hearing.

Governor Smith made public the letter of Major Warner as his announcement of the disposition of the case. The latter read:

“An exhaustive hearing was conducted by me this day with reference to the charges preferred that Corporal H. M. McCann, a state trooper, had revived the ancient slander that human sacrifice was at one time a part of the Jewish ritual. This took place in connection with the disappearance of a child in the village of Massena on September 22, which was then under investigation by the state troopers. The child was found in the woods twenty-four hours after her disappearance.

“Present at the hearing was Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. president of the American Jewish Congress, who brought this matter to my official attention in a communication under date of September 29. Associated with Dr. Wise were two members of the congress administrative committee, Bernard G. Richards and Louis Lande, the Hon. George Gordon Battle, of New York, acting as counsel to the delegation.

“There were also present as voluntary witnesses the Mayor of Massena, Honorable Gilbert W. Hawes, and Mr. Andrew Hanmer. attorney for Massena; Rabbi Berel Brennglass and Mr. Jacob Shulkin, president of the Jewish Congregation of Massena, and Licutenant E. F. Heim. of Troop B, Division of State Police, to which Troop Corporal McCann is attached.

“As a result of this hearing I have severely reprimanded Corporal McCann and indefinitely suspended him for gross lack of discretion in the exercise of his duties and for conduct most unbecoming an officer.”

Rabbi S. Brennglass and J. Shulkin, president of the Jewish congregation of the town of Massena, have written a joint letter to Louis Marshall, informing him of their entire satisfaction with the apology of Mayor Hawes.

“We wish to assure you,” their letter said, “that we desire to live at peace with our Christian neighbors in Massena, and we are entirely satisfied of the sincerity of Mayor Hawes’s expression of regret, and we beg to call your attention to the inclosed letter of regret and apology to us by Corporal McCann.

“In closing we wish to say that it is the unanimous sentiment of the Jews of Massena that, deplorable as the incident was, this is the best public dispositon of the matter, and the incident should be regarded as closed.”

Because Armour & Co., Chicazo meat packers. In an advertisement in a Yonkers newspaper Jan. 27. listed among his shop dealers in that city who carried their hams. A. Novich, who declares he runs a purely kosher meat shop he has brought a $25,000 action against the company for libel, it was revealed in Supreme Court in White Plains.

The meat packing company, admitting the advertisement and error, pleaded for dismissal of the action on the ground there was no malice. Novich replied that his repatation as a dispenser of Kosher foodstuffs has been irreparably damaged with his Jewish patrons.

In addition to the Novich action, Kalman Feldman of Yonkers, a former inspector of kosher shops for the Congregation Chab Zedek, is suing Armour’s for $25,000, alleging that the advertisements of the company, extolling their hams and bacon, listed shops in his district which he had given a certificate on kosher meats. As a result of the advertia## monts, he says he was discharged.

Justice Young reserved decision.

With Detroit within $5,000 of its $100,000 goal. the Cleveland Jewish Orphan Home Building Fund Campaign for $1,600,000 in the territory comprising Districts Nos. 2 and 6. Independent Order B’Nai Brith, is in full swing, President Fred Lasarus, Jr. announced. Campaigns are reported in progress in Louisville and the State of Kentucky, the entire state of Michigan, and in many communities of illi##.

The states of Ohio. Indiana, and Missonri complesed their campaigns during the past winter and spring. Early campaigns are seheduled for Nebraska, Wiconsin, Kansas, Colorado. Minnesota, Iowa, and the Dakotas. Subseriptions totalling $1,180,000 are recorded to date. the grotesque hypothesis that he was responible for the temporary disappearance of a child. The apologies are adequate and should put an end to a deplorable incident.”

The “Sun” stated: “Mayor W. Gilbert Hawes of Massena. St. Lawrence ##. has done the straightiorward and manly thing in apologizing pub## the Jews which so deeply stirred he leaders of that race. This incident hould impair in an important section ## New York State the force of an ancient falshood directed against an incient religion.”