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ILLINOIS CENTRAL IS ACCUSED . OF HIRING
EX-CONVICTS AS SPIES
Working in Chicago factories and
railroad shops today arejiundreds of
land at one time had 280 men known4
as inside and cover-up, men. Each
had
spies and spottef s hired to join unions of them carried a card, of member-
and carry cards of membership, ac
cording to A. O. Wharton, president
ofthe American Federation of Labor!
railway department. Her testified tje-f
fore the federal industrial relations
commission and put into the commis
sion's record photographs of ex-con
victs employed a& spies in labor
unions. f
A "Here is a picture from the rogues'
gallery of the St 'Louis .police depart
ment, of A. E, Strang, -who joined
the machinists' union in Pittsburgh'
said Wharton. J'He was a member
five years, until during the Illinois
Central strike we caught him making
reports to be sent to a postoffice box
for use by a detective agency.
"There's a iot of yelling about vio
lence by labor unions. Look at the
record pf some of the men used
against jmions. ThiS'fellow,,Strahg,
has a ten-year recorYbas criminal.
Qne of his crimes was' throwing a
bottle of muriatic acid into the face
of a woman, fte operated as a con
fidence man, generally with a woman
as his pal. When arrested recently
by the St. Louis police he was living
with a shoplifter, a woman not his J
wife, one or tne many ne nas had
stealing -with him or" for him.
I 'If the life records of the Pinker
ton agency, the-Thiel agency, private
detectives and labor union spies could
be learned you would find 'among
their gunmen and sluggers a' high
percentage of murderers; thieves
and thugs.
"In the shopmen's strike we had
toT fight these creatures," Twothat
were active against us-hadbeen-ap-pointed
special agents-of the Missouri
Pacific. Both of them, Bernard
Kelly and Leonard Crews, were re
cently sentenced to 10 years in Leav- i
enwDrth. for robbery of freight cars.
ship, in a labor union. Sonre
cards m'several unions. , J
''When trouble is, suspected one of
these card men is sent to (he gcene.
Many of the riots you read about are
started by these men, , . -
, "Think it over for yourself. Sup
pose you are an employer. You want
a labor union to get' in bad with the
public. Why wouldn't you have some
of these ex-convicts and. I cover-up
men ge? into .the' union find start
blodd running and destroy" property?"
"It is not only a double cross game.
Sometimes there is a triple cross
game. Agencies must have trouble
in order to make money. Therp,afe
no strikes "unless somebody starts, a
strike. So they have thehv cover-up
men go to shons where there is un
rest and , make.it, , worse so. the em
ployer will-need 'to hire an, agency
- O Oi ,
TELEGRAPH BRJEFS
Quakertown, Pa. Alfred - Got
schall, 70, Bhot and 'fatally 'wounded
by unknown assailant. '
Washington. Sec'y Bryan In
structed Minister Gonzales at Havana
not to issue passport to. Jack John
son, as he is fugitive from1 Justice. '
oaraooo, vviss. fire aesrroyea
Frank Herfort canning "factory? loss,
$75,QQ0. j ;
New York- Mania for robbing
maii boxes caused arrest df Joseph
Goldsmiths 52 'Heidelberg graduate.
vSinceJ.896Tie served eight Sentences
aggregating -20 years for samefQt
fense. ' J .
St Paui, Minn. Fire sorting in
pjant of Katz'v& Hertz, packers, did
?25;000 damage. - s
Washington. MemberTof Wash
ington's police "vice squad" sued for
$10,000 for breaking into rooming
nouse ana uarrasslne"
oecit-
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