Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-07-16
SILK WORKERS IN
PANIC AS POISON
PLOT IS LAID BARE
Police Find Potash in Potatoes
Eaten by Strikebreakers
Who Are iii.
BELIEVE |. w. w. SPY GOT
INTO FACTORY AS HAND
Detectives BaffIed by PIotters'
cunning-Strike Leader in
Fight-One Arrested.
Especial to the Newark star.l

Especial to the Newark star.l
PATERSON N. j., July 16.-Panic
seized the strike-breakers employed
in silk mills and dye houses of the
city today when it became known
the detective bureau was working
quietly on a deep-laid poison plot.
Thirteen dyers' helpers in the Dex-
ter & Lambert plant on Straight
street have already fallen victims.
1t was their illness that first gave
the police a clue to the plot.
At first it was thought that they
were suffering from attacks of pto-
prepared by their own cook under the
watchful eye of private detective.
Potash In Potatoes.
BY a process of elimination, De-
tective Robert Close discovered that
the one thing each and all of the men
had eaten was the potatoes. What
remained of the potatoes was ana
lyzed by a chemist, who found potash
sufficient to endanger life, if not ac-
tually enough to kill
That the thirteen men were saved
was due only to the quick action of
two physicians who attended them
and as it was the condition of sew
eral remained critical for a day or
two.
When the mysterious feature of
the case became fully known to the
police and an investigation started,
the discovery is said to have been
made that the incident at the Dex-
ter & Lambert factory was only the
beginning of a fully developed plot
to terrorize the strike breakers and
drive them from the city.
Detectives BaHied.
The secrecy with which the poison
ers worked has SO far baffled the de-
tectives. The potash, from the way
it is dists ahghout the. pota-
toes, mi <4-~ placed in the
Since the cook rs done in the
factory itself, VIII o one is allowed
to enter unless an !. redited workman
or a detective, it is thought that pos
siby a spy posing as strike
breaker was responsible.
That is the supposltion that has
aroused so much fear on the part of
the strike breakers. They do not
know whom to trust. 1t is thought
that the strikers secret service sys-
tenn is as complete as that of the
other side. The manufacturers spy
system was revealed at one of the
strike trials, when a man who was a
member of the secret strike counsel
admitted he was a private detective.
Ewald Koettgen, one of the l. w.
w leaders, was arrested again today.
He was charged with assault and
battery by Charles Renker, of 142
Water street. another strike leader.
According to Renker's story before
Recorder Carroll, he was attacked by
Koettgen during quarrel they had
at headquarters, yesterday. Renker
had asked Koettgen what he meant
by hiring a boy to do office work
when there were so many silk workers
who would be glad to earn a little
money.
Renker said:
you I. w. w. leaders are a bunch
of grafters."
you'd better be careful how you
use that kind of talk" warned Koett-
gen.
Renker then said something more
emphatic and in the fight that fol-
lowed he is alleged to have been
thrown off the back piazza.
Koettgen was arraigned before Re-
corder Carroll and held in $500 bail for
the grand jury. He was sent to the
county jail pending arrangements for
a bondsman.