The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1912-03-06

Mrs. Taft wife OF the president. ar
rived early in the session. accompanied
by her niece, Miss Anderson The two
forced their way through the motley
crowd standing in the big committee
room until they reached the dals. For
a moment they stood watching lynch
on the stand, until the wife of Rep
resentative Rainey of Illinois, arose
and gave Mrs. Taft chair.
Mrs Taft sat next to Victor Berger,
the Socialist from Wisconsin, who is
making the fight for the strikers.
AS tho hearing progressed. the
presidents wife and the Socialist con-
versed earnestly, discussing the testi-
mony. Both leaned forward eagerly
as Sullivan, who was in charge of the
police at the railroad station when
women and children were arrested,
after the children had been prevented
from leaving Lawrence, described the
scene. sullivan fatty contradlcted the
testimony of the Philadelphia com
mittee and the strike leaders.
mo one was dubbed or beaten or
abused" he said. There was no vio-
lence. l was there to see that those
women and children were treated
properly. l was never ten feet away
from them and none Of them was in
jured in any way"
He said that he arrested the women
and children because the adults in
the crowd refused to tell him whether
or not they were the parents of the
children and whether they were will
ing that they should leave Lawrence.
"The children were not thrown into
an automobile truck" he declared.
They were picked up by strong men
and placed in the truck. The women
made no resistance. They were will
ing to go. They wanted to be mar
tyrs."
you ami your men made no effort
ito prevent their making martyrs o:
themselves, didl your" asked Repre-
sentative stanley
mo, we were there for another
purpose" responded Sullivan.
Mrs. Taft and the other fashionable
women in the crowd listened to Sui
livan's account as to how he policcd
the city of Lawrence with $4,000 mill
workers on strike with evident inter
est. They watched him eagerly as he
told of women out to picket the mill
district at 4 o'clock in the morning
i'm little groups OF three ana four, who
were anxious to be arrested, who
wanted ito offer themselves as martyrs.
The women and children who were
crowded into cells in Lawrence police
stations, according to yesterdays teS-
timony, were these pickets, and not
the women arrested at the depot, Sui
1ivan claimed.
THE husbands and friends of the
tailed pickets brought their little chill
dren to the police station to be cared
for and when the women were sent
to Jail, the children were taken from
them to be sent to the poor farm.
This, he said, was the reason for the
scene at the station, when weeping
children and screaming women were
parted. ..T aH .s.l.
"Qne day the strikers pulled street
car trolleys from the wires. They
threw chunks of ice through the dar
windows and dragged the passengers
out and beat them. ! was struck by
pieces of ice at this point, and ] ar
rested a man for throwing ice. The
crowd continued to throw at me, and
an officer who was nearby came to my
assistance. AS l was taking my pris.
cner out of the crowd an Armenian
struck me a pretty hard blow with a
chunk of ice. l reached out and
struck him with my club, Just as hard
as | could fetch 1t. lie was the only
man 1 used club on that day"
Sullivan described the mass meet
ing of the strikers and said that while
there was no disorder in the MEETINGS
the crowds would fill the streets aft
erward and yell at the police.