The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-26
Taft To Investigate
 Lawrence Strike
STORY OF STRIKE. In Which Visit of U. s. Senator to Lawrence Is Described.
CContinued from Page One) (Snecial from Tinted Press

i tigating conditions at Lawrence.
 | CBy GiIson "Gardner)
 Lawrence, Feb. 26-United States ! Senator Miles Poindexter arrived in
 Lawrence, yesterday morning, and i without disclosing his identity. made 1 thorough personal investigation in i to recent happenings and conditions | Tt is like a chapter in the story ! of Russia's treatment of the Jews, !" : to take the train for home. 'I never l expected to see or hear of such things | in the United States
 | It Is understood. today, that Sena- | tor Poindexter was induced to make 1 this trip to Lawrence by the repre- 1 sentations of certain prominent peo- ! pie who have kept i1 close touch with ! the textile strike and who have come | to feel that the situa ton is one which ] contains the germ of a national pest i 'The illegal things done under the forms of law are a species of anarchy 1 which our country cannot risk" said ! the Washington Senator. we are up against the simple question whether 1 the constitutional guarantees are real 1 ly such to the average man-whether | there is such a thing as immunity 1 from assault, false arrest imprison- 1 ment and similar abuses when it is ] the case of a poor employe of a great
 mill company against the money and | influence of the employers"
 It is further understood that Sena- | tor Poindexter will bring the matter 1 officially before the United States | Senate. which can assume jurisdic- tion to protect the rights of citizens 1 of one state to go into another state, | or inquire into the treatment of aliens l or go into the matter as one of child | and woman labor-a subject which has already engaged the attention of the bureau of labor. It is believed, also, that the Senate has the power to in quire broadly whether in any state
 the legal authorities for any reason are failing to provide its citizens with the liberty and freedom from appres> sion which are guaranteed all citizens ! by the Federal constitution.
 Senator Poindexter has done a re-
 markable thing. He has availed him. self of his right as an American cit izen to investigate for himself re- ports of serious abuses before bring ing the matter officially before the
 Senate. The Senator spent Sunday getting hard, first-hand facts. He went to the soup kitchen where $500
 striking workmen are being fed daily. He went to the jail and learned from
 the deputy sheriff that seven women
 were detained there with no charge
 again them. He saw and talked with
 half a dozen women who were seized
 and hauled and beaten by the police
 when peacefully standing on a sta
 ton platform waiting for a train. He
 talked with 10 year old girl. whose
 eye was black and blue and who bore
 other evidences of the rough handling
 by the police. He went to a tenement
 where seventeen people live in three rooms and where he saw hungry wonI-
 en and thin, peaked babies with no
 food and no money to buy it. He went
 to relief headquarters and examined
 the card catalogue of mill employees
 who are dependent upon charity-hun- dreds of them. He saws the wage rec ord-seVen dollars a week, the aver age wage, on which to raise a family. He gathered evidence, took elaborate notes. asked questions. examined wit nesses-and Senator Poindexter was fin he knows WI
 the facts of the affair which happen
 ed at the North Lawrence Railway station.
 Briefly these are the facts he found:
 about 50 children were gathered at
 the station with their parents to take a train for Philadelphia, where tenn porary homes had been secured for the children until the strike should be over. The homes had been investigat- ed and the parents had all given their
 consent in writing that the children could go. A committee had come from Philadelphia to get the chill dren-
 But the mill owners did not want the children to be taken away and fed and orders were given Marshal Sul- livan to prevent them leaving. So
 the police and the militiamen were sent to the station with patrol wagons. The police surrounded and rushed the women and children. The latter were snatched from their parents and while the mothers were being taken to the station, the children were taken to the so-called poor farm. The mothers were brought before a local justice of the peace who refused to hear evi> dence in defense and imposed fines for assault, disorderly conduct and ''vio- lating a city ordinance" Seven were sent to jail on the latter charge, l though Senator Poindexter could not find at the jail what city ordinance l it was supposed to have been violat- ! ed. Nobody seriously pretends that aIai of any wrong doing. They had a right l to be where they were and the parents | had right to send their children ] away. the jail without legal warrant Sena- tor Poindexter found. had nursing ba- bies with them- The Senator asked to see the commitment papers but | oners and was refused He was told that this is in accord with the treat ! ment of Ettor, the strike leader, who | also is held without anything but the case the court has refused a writ of habeas corpus as well bail. Indeed, | Senator Poindetxer said he found that practically all the constitutional guar 1 anteeS and immunities have been sus- pended. The people have no right of free speech, no right of assemblage, | no right to habeas corpus or the ad- i vice of counsel.
 "The state of Massachusetts, at Lawrence, is Russia" he said. AnI this the Senator regards as a conser- vative representation of the case It was admitted by the deputy sheriff in charge of the jail that one of the arrested women fainted when she reached the jail. Another woman, biz with child. was clubbed and mauled by the police and so injured that she is now in the city hospital where ac- cess to her is refused her friends or rela tives. on the ground that she is still in the custody of the police. Her condition is said to be critical.
 Senator Poindexter is believed to in- formation in regard to wages and 1iv- ing conditions in this strike region, as both have a close relation to the tar if. These are William Woods woolen 1 mills. They are protected by what Senator Aldrich called the ''citadel of rotection, ,''-Schedule K. Wood is the man who has been fighting to prevent 1 a revision of the wool schedule. The l argument is made that it is neces- sary to protect the American work | i,,c- md r. int ,iv, ,r,