The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-11-18
Experts Excite Derision.

4 tell you they were cfuclHeu
Experts Excite Derision.
Charging mine experts with ignorance
of the way to save the mems lives, and
| saying their deaths were due to care
| lessness and plumbers, Witherell asked
| his hearers:
! What does a man from a college
know about a mine? These men who
/ own this hole know nothing about it
except the figures they get from the
| men under them. What can a man
know Of mine from figures and
| books ?"
"And what are these experts doing?''
asked a young man in WitherelPs audi
ence.
They're eating and sleeping in the
cars" replied another.
Yes, they're eating while they
smother these men to death and refuse
these poor women food" said another.
Witherell's talk evidently was excit-
ing his hearers. and the crowd sur
rounding him was growing larger, when
Sheriff Skoglund induced Witherell to
leave.
Witherell was not employed in the
st. Paul, but works at Ladd. He came
from England when a boy. and has
worked in mines in England, Wales and
west virginia.
Human VuItures at Work.
Investigations made today by Attor-
ney George w. Gordon and Charles
Cheney Hyde, representing the Italian
consul, disclosed alleged questionable
activities of several lawyers seeking to
represent death claims on contingent
fees. The consul, Guido Sabetto, and
his aides uncovered several cases among
Italian women who, bereft of the bread
winners of their families, were APP
preached by lawyers who had sought to
impose on their ignorance.
"One Italian woman who lost her hus-
band and three sons in the mine was
asked by a lawyer to give him her case
on basis Of so per cent" said Mr.
Hyde.
1--WE uncovered similar cases with
startling frequency and have been kept
busy all day warning women to seek
advice of union officials, their priest or
the consul, to avoid being imposed upon
by men who have not hesitated to de-
scend into what is today the most sor-
rowful and desolate place in the world"
Work of Red Cross.
In the little knights of Pythias hall,
where E. p. Bicknell, Red Cross repre-
and dull eyes of women petitioning for
aid were in contrast to the busting ac-
tivity OF the relief agents.
In the morning the headquarters were
crowded so that work was impossible
Mr.. Bicknell told the women and chill
dren to remain home until the official
visitors" reached them. Il know how
sorely you have been tried, that you are
in need, but please understand that you
shall have food and fuel" said the Red
Cross leader.
The crowd then dispersed.
Mr. Bicknell said that requests for
supplies almost invariably included one
for fuel, despite the fact that the town
exists because of its coal mines. Like
everything else here, the explanation
lies in the blazing charnel house under
ground. The men who daily brought
home the needed supply in baskets,
bags and wheelbarrows, are dead.
A typical order was filled for Julia
Dovan. bride of six weeks, whose hus-
band, father and brother were lost. She
came to ask relief for herself, her
mother, her sister-in-law and eleven
children of the last two.
This stricken home was promptly fur
nished with food.
DesoIate and Alone.
Consul Sabetto, returning from his
visit to his countrywomen, said:
81 have seen young women, children,
babies with no one in the world to lean
on. One of the dead men had a wife
and nine children in Italy. There We're
many such working for new homes in
the United States.
MY government has offered to care
for those who wish to return to Italy.
I have seen them today, mothers, wives,
children, and 1 have told them they
might go home. Not one accepted.
These women have made their start in
the new country and are determined to
educate their children to American citi-
zenship and its opportunities.
Everywhere ] was asked: When
will they open the mine?' That is the
one thought.
"One woman I saw was Petronilla