The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-20
STRIKERS VIOLENCE
MADE CLEAR TO THE COMMISSION
BY NoN-UNIoN MEN.
luminosity NOT CONFINED
TO WORKERS, BUT EXTENDED TO
THEIR RELATIVES.

Boycotts, Intimidations, DynamitIng
and Violence in Various Forms
Testified to-Thirty witnesses Ap-
peared Against the Striking Min
ers-They Told Stories of OPP
preston and Persecution - Men
Who wouldn't Strike Were Elk
PEELED FROM Organizations.
Scranton, Pa. Dec. 1s-Non-union
men, some of their relatives and 9TH
ers to the number of thirty, appeared
before the Anthracite Coal Strike Com
mission to-day and told their stories
of alleged boycotts, intimidations dy-
namiting and violence in various
forms, during the late strike.
Each witness called was a sufferer
in one form or another at the hands,
they alleged, of union men. Four wit
nesses said attempts were made to
blow up their houses; many of the
witnesses were threatened with bodily
harm. several were beaten, one was
shot in the leg, and everyone stoned,
boycotted or hung in effigy.
One school teacher testified to hav-
ing lost his position because his father
did not strike. One may was asked
to resign from a Catholic temperance
society and another witness was ex-
PEELED from a local lodge of the An
Gent Order of Hibernians because they
were classed as unfair workmen.
Expelled From the Society.
Joseph H. Dugan, the man who was
requested to give up his membership
in the temperance society, remained at
work, doing repair work and acting
as a Waterman. He wept on the wit
ness stand as he told how they Or
dered him to leave after many years
of pleasant association with its men,
bers. He said he had been stoned and
otherwise badly treated, and added
that a good clubbing would not have
hurt half as much as the action of the
society in throwing him out of the or
ganization.
Chairman Gray asked the witness if
he remained at work so that the pumps
could be kept in good repair, and thus
keep the mines from being destroyed,
and he said he did. Mr.. Darrow asked
him how long he worked, and exam
ined him in such a way on the SUBJ
ject that brought the statement from
Chairman Gray that men will work
fifteen hours or more to help save a
neighbours burning house.
James Mitchell was the man who was
expelled from the Hibernian society.
He said he worked during the strike as
repair man, and did not consider it
unfair, because he did not mine any
coal. He had been a member of the
society twenty-siX or twenty-eight
years, and at meeting one night dur
ing the strike the question of his I'M
fairness came up, and every member
present voted to expel him.
Tried to Blow Him Up.
A Polander, named Max Lasar, who
did not quit work when the strike
was inaugurated, told how a man
threw a quart bottle of giant powder,
to which a fuse was attached, light
ed, into the parlor of his home. He
extinguished the fuse. The powder
was shown to the commission.
Thomas Kennedy aged Is years, said
he worked in a drugstore in Carbon
dale. His father was an engineer in
the employ of the Delaware and Hud-
son company and did not quit work
when the strike started. The man
ager of the drugstore, he said, was
requested by a committee from the
union to discharge him, and rather
than to have the store boycotted the
druggist told the boy to quit. The
father corroborated the story, and
added that he had to keep his children
from the public schools, as they were
being abused.
An Italian named Frank Fidati, who
was a striker, but who was hired by
a coal operator to watch she home OF
a non-union man, was shot in the leg
by other strikers, because he would
not stop protecting the mans house.
The non-union man, who lived in the
house and subsequently quit work was
next called and produced a letter writ
ten by President T. D. Nichols of Dis
trict No. l, in which he stated that the
witness had quit work and was a good
union man and that all union men
should treat him in a friendly manner,
80 long as he behaved himself ac-
cordingly."
Extended to school Teachers.
John Conlin mine boss, and pres
ident of the school board of Plains,
near Wilkesbarre testified that a COM
mittee of a local union called on him
and asked that schoolteachers, whose
relatives were working in the mines,
be not reappointed as teachers.
Other witnesses testified to having
bean hung in effigy one or more times;
mat grocers, butchers, milk men and
ice men refused to serve them because
they were afraid their business would
be boycotted, and that they were Sc
verely beaten and socially ostracised.
The commission will meet at a M
tomorrow, and will adjourn at Has
o'clock for the holidays.