The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-25

tudt ptdCe pfoFt -FitA l. l with the officers oA -ast sorEpsn to5 United states cficials sea oAt -'tcr them with warrants, a.losvits hatlr- been made by the last lsrt% af
 eigners to reach the city
 For several days past Al stieSus and foreigners Of the common 'shcYgi,s class have been arriving in. hSta from Lockhart and relating IS lnof suffering and hardships. starving the beatings that had been undergon
 the lumber camps, but so weird sntly , these stories that for some tin no credence were placed in them. The most coherent of these stories was told by Henry Rodenbeck. an American, who In an interview said that he had seen the bosses in the woods hold the for@ eiRners across a log and with buggy tuck beat them unmercifuIiy. This would be done because they had either attempted to run away or else did not do their work satisfactorily. Roden- beck's story Is as follows.
 T was in New York about four months ago when I met a labor agent and Superintendent Gallagher of the Jackson Lumber Company. of Lock- hart, Ala. They wantejf me to come South and work. and said that could make from $I.5o' to e2.50 per day, and as was out of work and trip South at this time. looked good. accepted. There were twenty-four others when we left New York for Lockhart, and all had been told the same thing. W all. we arrived at our destination and when we were ready to start at our work we were told that we would be paid only sl per day. We also found that the work expected of us was a different class than represented, but ws had to take 1t. None of us had a cent. and we were in debt to the company for transportation. so we had to nake the best of it. Tn the camp the food was very poor, and the men were com pelled to sleep In railroad caGg which were thickly populated witf. lice.
 "But we Americans were treated as angels compared with the poor for eigners. There were perhaps ninety ar 100 of them who had been brought down from New York about month ahead of us. I don't know what they were told they were going to receive. but do know one thing, that if they had been dogs thev could not have been treated more inhumanly. The peer fellows did not understand Eng lish, and therefore ere slow to do as standing and doing the wrong thing, and then they would get flashing.
 They were compelled to eat at the second table, or rather to take what we left Our food was poor enough, and what we left was unit for any person to eat, but the poor fellows were glad to get it I have seen the bosses in the dining room catch one of the poor devils by the neck and jerk him away from the table because, the half-starved man was eating ravencus- ly or attempting to reach across the table for something. have seen the bosses in the woods take one of the foreigners and strip him, and while two of them held him across a log q thir1 would ply a heavy leather strap across hls back. I have also seen them shoot at a negro because he was run ring away. from the camp. The negro ran becauSA he knew that he was go- ing to get beating for riding on one of she company's train without per mission.
 No one dared enter a complaint or say anything of the food or treatment. One plight directly after supper about two weeks ago one of the men who did not like the supper we had bee. served, walked out grumbiing and talking about 1t He was overheard by one of the bosses. who knocked him down. and then fired a couple of shots over his head. He then. with revolver in hand. made the man get on his knees In front of the entire camp and beg his pardon and retract every word he said.
 Every boss goes well armed. caf- rying revolvers with them constantly, and they are of such a character that they do not hesitate to shoot Law. why there is none They do as they please. They take the law in their own hands. It is slavery of the worst kind. and something should be done to re- lease those LOOT foreign immigrants who are there.
 ''As for myself I was treated fairly we'll had sense enough to keep quiet. but the first opportunity had after saving up enough money from