Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1913-01-29
STRIKERS and
POLICE BATTLE
One Spectator Dead and
Others Seriously Injur-
in Fray.
OFFICERS ARE BLAMED
Wen Are Those Vino Quit Work ut
Steel TruSt Wire Plant at
Rankin, Pa.

Rankin. Pa, Jan. 2S.-In two bloody
with revolver, and rifles and strikers
from the Rankin plant of the Ameri-
can Steel and Wire Company. Il steel
trust subsidiary, armed with stones,
tonight, one man was killed, two ia
tally Wounded and ten seriously in
iured
A the wounded with the exception
of two deputy sheriffs, Wee t.Fecta-
tors. Not "a striker was injured so
far as is known. A six months old
child and several women are among
the injured
Hawkins Square, where the trouble
occurred, was bloody Battlefield for
over an hour and the fight ended only
when the deputy sheriffs led by
Sheriff Bruff, retreated within the
fence of the big wire mills.
According to witnesses of the trou-
BILE the deputy sheriffs were to blame
as there was little provocaton for the
firing on the crowd.
Chief of Police Walter Barnett, was
cut on the head by flying missiles
Strikers Held Meeting.
Shortly before 5 this evening 900
strikers emerged from a public hall
after holding a big mass meeting and
gathered in front of the hall to pose
for a newspaper picture.
At about the same time 80 deputy
sheriffs, lead by Sheriff Bruff, De-
putty Burgess Milligan and Chief OF
Police Barnett left the wire mill and
marched past the strikers.
The picture finished, the strikers
dispersed and were starting for their
homes when they were met by the
Zig file of deputies marching in mill
tary order A dead silence followed.
Suddenly some one picked up lump
strikers.
Deputies Driven Back.
In an instant the battle was on.
Coal, bricks and other missiles flew
through the air mingled with the whis-
tie of bullets and the rafting dis
charge of magazine guns and auto
matte revolvers. Screams and yells
of rage filled the air while men and
women fell to the ground. In some
places the pavement was torn up by
the strikers in their frantic efforts to
! secure bricks with which to protect
themselves. Apparently beaten the
deputies retreated down the hill to the
mill.
Deputies Reappeared.
Fifteen minutes later the deputies
appeared again. This time, it is said,
they were supplied with shells loaded
with buckshot.
Soon the battle was on again.
Nearly every window in Hawkins
Square was broken and several per-
sons in nearby houses were injured.
The crash of musketry, the rattle OF
heavy buckshot against the building,
and the cries of men and women con-
tinued for a quarter of an hour. Hav-
ing exhausted their ammunition the
deputies again retired to safety be-
hind the high walls of the mill.
The scene of the riot is 1000 feet
from the mill where several hundred
struck last Saturday morning and is
part of the main business and resi-
Dental sections of Rankin.
Dead Man Spectator.
George Cooley, who was killed, was
spectator and in no way identified
with the strikers. The proprietor OF
the nearby hotel said that he and his
wife escaped death only by lying flat
on the floor. The hotel was riddled
with shot 1t was directly in the line
of the deputies fire and not win
dow is whole.