Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-08-28
IMPORTED men
WALK OUT At
Nl'KE:ES ROCKS
STRIKE BREAKERS CLAIM WORK.
ING CONDITIONS AT PRESSED
STEEL CAR PLANT ARE uN-
nEARAaLE; PEoNAeE CLAIMED.

Pittsburu, Aug. 27.--imported
men numbering 200 quilt work to-
day at the Pressed Steel Car Co.
body marched to the banks of tho
Ohio river, whore they say they
will camp until the company pays
them for their work, after which
they will return to their homes.
Poor food, uneonaeniaI working
conditions and cruel treatment
they say aotuated the Wholesale
deeertions. The man claim there
are only 500 woriemen left In the
plant and that all will leave the
Mill by tomorrow. News OF the de-
sertEons spread quickly and with
In few minutes both the strik-
era and the Imported men were on
the best Of terms. Thrse Of the
men were III and weak and faint
cd when they reached the river
bank. One man Is said to have
lost thirty pounds In the fourteen
DAYS he worked In the mill and
was taken to the hospital of the
company.
Pittsburg, Aug. 27.-Testtmony
which, If eubstantiated by further evil
dence, will bring into the courts
system of human bondage, fell like
bomb among the federal officials prob
Ing the Schoenville peonage charges
at the government building yesterday
afternoon.
Alexander Friedman, a machinist
employed for eight days as a strike
breaker by the Pressed Steel Car COM
pany, painted vivid word picture OF
alleged horrible abuses
James Goodfriad added to the SEN
sational testimony by stating that his
life had been threatened by Samuel
Cohn, leader of the strike-breakers.
Allegations thet the Witnesses in the
peonage Investigation were afraid to
fell the truth brought about a shift Of
fee of the company at Schoenville to
the federal building In Pittsburg.
Life Threatened, He Says.
Goodfriad testified That he worked
for six days in the car plant and that
last Tuesday he notified his boss that
he wanted to quit. Little attention
was paid to him, he said, but when he
refused to do any more work he said
Samuel Cohn, who had brought him
here, aimed a revolver and said:
''Yop go to work or l will shoot
your head off,
He finally was allowed to leave the
plant and told to return for his money
the next day. He said when he re-
turned for his pay a man known as
Captain" said: "There goes the -
who started this trouble" After
he got his money a guard kicked him
out, he said.
Alexander Friedman, machinista,
VINO quit the plant yesterday testified
that he had not received full pay and
that he had been forced to work over
time moving barrels of potatoes in
the kitchen.
Dragged Before Constabulary.
when refused on the ground that
I was hired es machinist and not to
do extra work in the kitchen, was
grabbed by the neck by two strike
breakers acting as guards and hauled
before Captain Smith of the constab-
ulary. The captain told Cohn that lie
couldn't force me to work." witness
said.
Cohn later threatened to throw him
out to be killed by the strikers, he de-
clared. He charged that two of the
imported workmen had been forced to
go two days without food because
they refused to work when they were
prevented from leaving the plant.
At the conclusion of FriedmaR's tes-
timony, Attorney Dodds, counsel for
the company, asked that the witness
he held for further inquiry, saying:
"If his statements are true, it is a
Eerious blow 70 the company; il they
are false, then he must suffer-"
sLAYs MAN WHO STOLE WIFE.