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Newspaper Page Text
KpjjjgrF Berwick back at old stand After williams retracts One month ago the Rev. Elmer L. Williams, that "fighting parson" on the North Side, whose "fighting" has been conducted chiefly against wo men, complained to Mayor Harrison that Police Sergeant Nick Berwick was guilty of immoral conduct Berwick then was in command of Deputy Superintendent of Police Schuettler's famous crime squad, which did more real work during the winter than any other body of po lice in the city. It worked only on the big cases. ' Mayor Harrison, possibly because of certain conditions in his own ward on the North Side, chose to fall for Williams' accusation of Berwick. Berwick was called on the carpet, bitterly scored, put back "in harness" and sent to the woods of the Town Hall station. This affair created a great deal of talk. State's Attorney Maclay Hoyne had but recently sprung his "crime trust allied with high police officers" stuff. The newspapers were full of nasty insinuations about Berwick and the reason for his reduction in rank and transfer to the Town Hall Sta tion. But Berwick's troubles did not end with his going into harness and transfer to the woods. Someone, it is not definitely known who, was good enough to telephone to Mrs. Berwick and tell her that her hus band had been reduced in rank and transferred because of his immoral conduct with loose women. No news paper had printed this, the actual charge against Berwick. The result of that telephone mes sage was that a home was almost broken up. Berwick set out to find out who had been traducing him. He soon struck the trail of the Rev. Williams. He went to Williams- and demanded a full investigation of the charges Williams had made against him. Williams, with a pretense of being very fair, told Berwick that he would make a personal investigation of the charges. Within two weeks, "the fighting parson" very sheepishly came to Berwick, admitted that the charge he had preferred against Ber wick was false, that the police offi cer's record was clean, and that he, Williams, had been entirely in the wrong. Berwick demanded that Williams retract his charges before the mayor. Williams wrote to Harrison with drawing the charges. Today Berwick resumes his old place as head of the crime squad. That is all. Except that a great injustice was done Berwick, and that pig-headed persons who believe what they read in the newspapers never will believe he was not guilty of the charges against him; and that the Rev. Williams got a little free adver tising and very likely some extra contributions from his patrons who want to see him "clean Chicago." o o INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS GET A LITTLE SETBACK Several cf the independent con tractors who refused to obey the lockout order of the inner circle of the bosses' association, today got their first taste of the screws. A number of building material firms, which are in league with the inner circle of the -building trades bosses, are refusing to supply ma terials to the independent contrac tors. This extended the lockout today, but not so seriously as to cause any undue alarm. One of the places affected by the extension of the lockout was North western University, where two new dormitories and five fraternity build ings are being built. President Harris of the university asked C. E. Carson, head of the C. E. Carson Contracting Company of Chicago to resume work, but found Carson as helpless as himself.