Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1913-05-19
MILL OWNERS
ON TRIAL TODAY
MULTI MILLIONAIRE FACES
COURT ON CONSPIRACY TO DIS
CREDIT STRIKERS PLAN BY
PLANTING DYNAMITE
ACT COMMITTED, IT is ALLEGED.
AT TIME OF LAWRENCE STRIKE
LAST YEAR. MAN WHO PLANTED
DYNAMITE. CHIEF WITNESS.

tHDstWt ~ ~ ItfUtu.J
Boston. Mass, May 19.-Charged with
conspiracy to plant dynamite in an at
tempt to discredit the Lawrence textile
strikers in 1872 William Nj. Wood, null
ti-millionaire president of the American
Wool company, sometimes called the
"WoOlen Trust" and alleged to have
been a powerful factor in the writing
of the Payne-Aldrich tariffs schedule
X, today was placed on trial i'll the Suf-
folk Superior Court.
Unlike previous trials in which there
has been labor on one side and capital
on the other. the trial Of Wood presents
the reversed aspect of capital the de-
fendant and labor the accuser. Facing
Justice Crosby with Wood, were Fred
erick f. AtteauX, Il Boston manufactures
of textile mill accessories, and Dennis
Collins. Cambridgs dog fancier. The
three men were indicted last August by
a special grand jury called to investigate
the matter shortly after John j. Breen.
an undertaken of Lawrence, Mass, and
school commissioner at the time was
found guilty of plinting the dynamite
and was fined 800 after he refused to
take the stand in his own behalf.
Breen, who was found guilty of plant
ing the dynamite OH May 10. was expect
ed to be chief witness for the prosecution.
He willingly testified before the grand
Jury which indicted Wood, AtteauX and
Collins Earnest W. Pitman. an East Mil
ton quarryman, and prominent in other
business enterprises was to have been
another government witness. He commit
ted suicide. however on August 9th,
before the grand jury. Pelletier is under
stood to have talked informally with Pit
man about twelve hours before the latter
killed himself and at that time is said
to have gotten enough information to
compel others to testify at the grand jury
investiatiOn.
1t was during the critical time in the
historic Lawrence strike that dynamite
was found" by the Lawrence police
shortly after Joseph Tttor's arrest late
in January. The cry was Immediately
raised that the textile strikers had
brought it in TO dynamite the mills and
the courthouse The dynamite was found
on tip from School Committeeman
Brcen in the cObblcr shop of TTrbanO Iii
PratO. in the home Of Joseph Assaf and
in some bushes near the Immaculate
Conception cemetery. 1t was only after
diagram had been drawn by Brecn
that the explosive was found AT the
cemetery, and it took two trips by de-
tectiveS to find more of it in the cob
bler'S shop. The "discOyery" of the dyna-
mite occurred on January 10. Breen was
arrested January 81.
William Nj. Wood. the most prominent
of the three defendants is one of the best
known textile mill men in the world
Wood married the daughter of Fred
erick Aver, who made millions in patent
medicines and from him got the real start
which afterwards placed him in charge
Of one of the great efforts and enterprise
of one of the great textile mills in Law
renee. 1t was almost whOlely through
Woods efforts and enterprise that the
American WOOlen Company was put on
its feet during time when thinks looked
black for that organization