Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1914-07-23


/: Look at the advertisement
4: sent by a qunman agency to cor :;
!: porations throughout the coun- Il
!: try, and then look right under ::
(: it at the story Of one OF that
agency's men.
$4,000.
full Of gunner, was in a position to
know, and he was, of course, an able
gunman himself One morning an Of
-ficer of the militia knocked at the door
and asked for Gleason. Gleason was
in Calumet.
Tell him to get all the men and see
they have their clubs and revolVers
there Batter quotes the officer as say
ing, because they are going to run In
the whole damn parade this morning
Gleason arrived and Batter gave him
the orders, land they alp Batter stat
ed under oath ON the witness stand,
"we marched there with our clubs and
tried to get the men to start a riot or
something, but the men kept on march
ing and continued until they got to
mining office or near there"
At this astounding revelation the COM
mittee fired questions at the gunman.
what do you mean when you say
YOU tried to get the men to do some
thing? Do YOU mean the committee
to understand that you tried to incite
them to do anything?"
'It was all from the very day we
got there" replied the gunman; I'VE
would walk through the parade back
and FORTH
+ "What were you doing?"
| eCVHTbxy no cCinu diffornnf rQm9TKG tn
the women and the men, and SO on
What for?"
eWhy, that is-there were no partic-
ular orders issued to that effect, but
that was an understanding"
"What did you do to incite them to
violence?" came the query, but the at
torney for the copper people objected
too late, however, for the: fact that
the gunner were incitng to riot was
already in the rocerd.
what had they done?" asked the in
terrogator, referring e the peacefully
parading strikers.
'Why, nothing" said Batter. Eve
ijust followed them. We just told them
they were under arrest, and they plac-
led them in this shed and the men
were all searched and while the wo-
men were there with the men some of
1.-THE Ascher men and some Of the mill
tia men went in among them and
passed insulting remarks to Them and
some of the men-some Of the militia
and Ascher men-toh the-Wonle6 that
they would be better off in a house OF
prostitution than to be marching the
istreets every morning"
Later on, referring to particularly
brutal bit of gunmanlike activity, Bat
tier told how his comrades would come
into the headquarters with some OF
the strikers, lock" the door and beat
them up while waiting for the dep
luty sheriffs to come and take them to
lprison as to just what charges they
would make" Referring to one gun
man, Aiken, Batter testified:
t'He would come in and beat up one
or two7o f these fellows at time, beat
them oyer the face and tell them it was
about time they got onto themselves
land go back to work"
'sDo you say that you stayed there
with a body of men and witnessed
some of your confederates come into
la room and beat up these prisoners X
Inquired congressman~Who apparent
lily did not know the, way things. really
fare.
eyes, said BatterA
"Why didn't you goA and tell the p6.
lice officers or sheriff what these Wen
had done in the way Of violating the
1aw?'
IT might as we'll ask for my pAy.'~~
Batter is an experienced man. He
ihas worked for the Pinkerton agency,
1.-THE Burns agency, the Waddell-Mahon
Eagency, the aBerghoff agency and the
FAscher agency. He was working for
the latter gang in the Buffalo street
Tear strike in the spring of 1913" De
veloping the theory on which gunner
loperate, Batter became confidential.
iHe said:
"The understanding with the strike
breaking agency is this: If there is
enough excitement and riot going on,
1--we don't need to be coating it. If
ther is not any We ought to create
some. I havesnever known of a
man to be discharged for creating VIC
Ilence."
did you, but it was Just an understand
ing among yourselves and your COM
panion gunmen-that is the way you
understand it?"
"Oh, yes" exclaimed the witness,
F"we did get orders at times"
"Where?"
"The Philadelphia street car strike.
for example,"
Referring to the creation of disorder
at Calumet, Batter narrated what
Captain White said to him on their
way to Michigan from New York. HE
said to me while we were sitting there
in the smoking compartment, he said
he hoped the boys would all make good
and know the ropes right, so that they
hoped they could ship hundred more
men UP there"
"You understand that to mean that
you were to provoke strikers to acts
| of. violence?" queried congressman.
eyes, sir; and to create excitement,
that the mining company would need
more guards. That is the idea bout
that
The difference between privately,
employed gunner and police officers
employed by the government is Just
t1,;c.E tho no1icn hpinp raSnOnSihlA tn