Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-06-18
|. v. v. OFFICIAL
TELLS HOW MILLS
MAY Be WRECKED
Edward Zuerche, Paterson Sec
retary, Shows How Plants
May Be Disabled.
"IT HAS ALREADY BEEN
DONE," HE TELLS PROBERS
Use Emery Dust in Oil Cup.
Says Strike Was a "Peace-
full Affair"
Especial to the Evening star.l

a E0SONt JuHe IN he Ollteu
states Commission on Industrial Re
lations, vrobing the recent silk strike
here, heard today how workers might
wreck a silk mill, If necessary. The
remarkable story was related by Ed
ward Zuercher, secretary of the local
branch Of the Industrial Workers of
the World.
He calmly told the commission the
organization of which he was secre-
tary favored sabotage where there
was no other means by which their
end could be accomplished
ITS an easy thing to put a silk
plant on the bum for a day or a
week or a month";" said the witness.
There are many ways it can be
DONE and has already been done
here in Paterson. Two or three per-
sons can cause slight break in a
loom that will tie up that particular
loom for hours. OF course" the wit
ness continued, that is only done
where the persons are being paid by
the week. If they are working piece
work, or being paid by the amount
of work they do. that is not done.
Piece workers may partly wreck
their loom in a way that would make
it appear that the work was acci-
dental. OF course, by doing this the
firm is put to a tremendous amount
of expense, through loss to the out
put and for repairs.
"One way in which an entire plant
may be wrecked is by placing a guam
tity of emery dust in an oil cup on
the shafting. Eventually the emery
dust works through all the machinery
and the entire plant must be shut
down until all the machinery in the
place has been gone over"
When asked about the bomb out
RACES and Che attempt to dynamite
an Erie train, Zuercher declared the
|. w. W. was in no way responsible
for these. He laid the blame directly
at the doors of men in employ of q
Newark detective agency.
Calls 1t Peaceful strike.
The witness said the strike was
statements of Prosecutor Michae
Dunn and former Mayor Andrew f
Mcbride to the contrary.
"If ii had been strike of clergy
men instead of silk workers. it could
not have been more peaceful, the
witness declared.
Zuercher critisized the attitude of
the police toward the strikers and
referred to them as being arrogant.
AS to outside agitators, who were
brought to aPterson. the witness said,
they were paid So per day each and
that many of them had to wait for
branch of the l. w. w. still owes
Patrick Quinlan, one of the principal
agitatorS, $3.50.
The witness became rufflcd when
asked if there had been graft among
the outside agitators.
1.-THE question is a very impertinent
one" the witness replied. But I'll
answer it, nevertheless. There was
no graft so far as the l. w. ". or
ganization is concerned at no time
during the entire period in which the
strikers were out"
John L. Matthews, a local news
paper publisher testifying before the
commission yesterday, estimated the
strike to have cost approximately
$17. 500, 900. He said the loss to the
workers was about $5.O00.00O; the silk
manufacturers, about $500, 900, and
the loss to the city as a whole
$100. 900, 900.
Mr. Matthews justified the action OF
the newspapers in urging the city to
get rid of the l. w. W. by asserting
they We're professional. disturbers.
The commission yesterday heard
the "innocent by-stander's" view OF
the strike. 1t was from the lips OF
John w. Ferguson. a local contractor
and prominent member of the Tax
payers Associations He declared in
his opinion any community would be
justified in taking any steps. legal or
Illegal. in order to rid itself of foreign
trouble-makers. This statement was
met with Kisses and jeers by L. W. w
agitators in the audience and strike
sympathizers present,
Haywood Objectionable.
The police should not have
tolerated such men as Bill Hay
wood" Mr.. Ferguson said. They
should have met the train on which
he enteerd the town, taken him into
custody and 'shooed' him out of the
city on the next train"
The kissing in the audience con-
tinued for five minutes. while Chair
man Frank p. Walsh raped in vain
for order. The witnes never fiinched,
however, and stuck to his statement.
Don't you think" he asked, turn
ing to Commissioner Walsh, that it
is better TO strain a point of law in
taking preventive measures than to
let lHlISS 30 uiitii, iiloiiSs SOu ii@ Z
violence resulting in fifteen or twenty
deaths?"
"If you seek my personal opision, y
said Commissioner Walsh, 81 must
say that / see no distinction between
the man who advocates breaking the
law in respect to personal liberty
and the l. w. w. agitator who
advocates breaking the law in re-
spect to violence and the destruction
of property, such as the blowing up
Of mills"
silk Workers Reluctant.
The commission has had the great
est difficulty in getting any silk work
ers to testify. The men approached
declared that they feared the black
list If they appeared as witnesses and
told the truth. However, two weavers
testified
Edward Zuersher, secretary and
treasurer of the local branch of the
II. w. W., said that the more i'm
mediate causes, outside of the INSTALL
alton of the four-loom system, were
abuses by employers.
AT the time of the strike, he said,
one mill, which is still in operation,
employed girls under contract. The
girls agreed to leave half their salary
for a year with the firm in return for
learning the business. At the end of
q year If they were not discharged,
they would get the balance in lump
sum. Many of the girls, he said, were
discharged before the end of the year.
Louis Magnet, another weaver, who
belongs to no labor organization, said
that eutthrost business methods and