The Hawaiian gazette., 1911-08-22
STRIKERS SHOT
IN SMALL RIOT
Sugar Warehoustmen Wounded
by Non-Unlon Recruit at
Crockett.

-
A. result Of riot between sths.
ing warehuusemcn OF the California.
Hawaiian Sugar Refining Company, at
Crockett, and group Of non.unionhls
who arrived last night on the eight
twenty-five train from Oakland 30 ala
In breaking the strike, two men are
seriously injured aud one. Edwin Deck.
or, Il held ne che Contra Costa county
iail at Martinez on charge Of shouting
with deadly intent. says the San Fran
cisco Bulletin Of August z
The injured ares
John Cronin, striker, shot through
tho stomach, probably fatally wounded.
Eugene Crypt, Waterman IN The en-
lPoy Of the sugar company, wounded
in the body.
+. Prytz, a striker; Eugene La Sale,
non'union man, and Ed Decker, who
began the shooting, all more or less
seriously wounded by bullets or bricks,
Met Newcomers a. Depot. u
The shooting arose from the custom
of the union ex-employes during the
past week of gathering in a body at
the depot to meet the informing trains
and warn anyslaborers who might ar
! rive of the srOubled condition, Of af-
fairs. The strike has been on since
June o, when the sugar company final
ly refused to grant shorter hours and
higher wages to the unionized ware
house employees. 1t has been necessary
since that date to protect the imported
non-union men by guard of detec-
tiyes at the Crockett Hotel
! A consignment of strikebreakers
from an Oakland employment agency
arrived at Crockett on the eight-twen-
ty-fve train. AS the passengers started
to step from the train several Of the
union men advanced to talk to them.
Owing it is thought, to the rumors
of expected violence that had gotten
abroad, Edwin Decker of the non
unionists drew a revolver and fred
blindly
cronin dropped, shot through the
body. In an instant the crowd at the
depot was in a frenzy. There were
no revolvers used excepting Decker Is,
but bricks and stones few right aud
left. and several were struck by the
whirling missiles.
oflcers Rush in.
The shouts and firing were heard by
Constable James Fox and the force Of
detectives at the Crockett Hotel, also
by Frank Crypt, sugar company
Waterman. They arrived on the run,
and Decker 3 last bullet struck Crypt,
as did also a brick. He fell, and the
other officers rushed in.
Charging between the combatants
and firing their revolvers into the air,
aided by the active use of their clubs,
the detectives and constables succeed.
ed in putting a stop to the riot. Con-
stable Fox placed Decker instantly un-
der arrest, as the only man who had
done any shooting.
The rest of the newly arrived lab
orers, under the impression that they
had been attacked with firearms, re-
treated at full speed down the Southern
Pacific tracks to Vallejo Junction, a
mile below. They left their baggage
behind them in their haste.
The wounded men were taken to the
Crockett Hotel and medical aid was
summoned. Cronin was later removed
to his own home. Sheriff Veale was
summoned from Martinez, and arrived
with posse in an automobile before
midnight. BY 1890 Decker. safe from
the threats of lynching which for a
time were heard around the little Crock
EFT ealaboose, was locked up in the
county Jail.
Feeling Grows Bitter.
The shooting is the elimination of an
aggravated situation which has been
growing steadily worse for two months.
The union strikers are employees of long
4 standing, most of whom have their
homes established at Crockett, and have
gone daily for several years to their
work at the California Hawaiian sugar
warehouse. 1t is said that when their
demands were refused and the walk-out
! occurred last June, they decided to stay
by the spot and win out in the end,
if possible, by persuading the non.union
imported men over to theiE own way of
thinking.
No aggressions Of force have been
reported hitherto, but it is said that
feeling in the little town was running
higher and higher. The guard Of de.
teetives that was placed at the hotel
was paid by the sugar company, who
otherwise could not have gotten theiI
work accomplished.
Last Saturday night about twenty
five non.union boarders at the hotel, in
spite of the guard are said to have left
the town because of the increasing hos
tility of the townspeople.
The officials of the company thil
morning had no statement to make 9th
er than that the situation, SO far al
they were concerned, would remain un
changed.
EhI pc. TAKE TnII nE