Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-06-17
CITY OFFICIALS
/. To TELL THEIR
II SIDE OF STRIKE
Prosecutor and Police Heads
Called Before Industrial Re-
Iations Committee.
Especial to the Evening star.l


PATTERSON, June 17.--Silk workers
and their friends had their innings
at yesterdays meeting of the United
States Commission on Industrial Re-
lations, in session in the City Hall
here. The commission is probing the
cause of last years silk strike.
Many of the witnesses yesterday
blame the city officials severely for
their conduct during the strike.
The officials will have their turn
today, when County Prosecutor
Michael Dunn, Police Captain An
drew Mcbride and others will be
called to testify.
Arrests were made for the sole
purpose of breaking UP the strike"
said Henry Marelli, who was counsel
for the strikers, in answer to ques-
iion put to him by Commissioner
John B. Lennon. Justice James F.
Minturn, of the Supreme Court, was
the one bright spot on the side of the
constituted authorities during the
strike"
$50 Arrests During Strike.
Mr.. Marelli said that during the
strike there were 1850 arrested in a
single day. In all there were about
800 convictions, he said, which stood
The test of the higher court, and most
of these were for disorderly conduct.
The newspapers were arrayed against
the strikers, Mr.. Marelli asserted,
and the grand jury panel was COM
posed of manufacturers and business
men, none of whom had any sympathy
with the textile workers.
Although he himself heard three
witnesses identify a private detective
as the murderer of Modestino Valen-
tino a striker, Mr. Marelli said, three
grand juries refused to find an indict-
ment.
Editor Reads His Diary.
Alexander Scott, formerly editor of
a socialist weekly in Passaic, read
from his diary of the events of the
strike. He was three times arrested
himself, and still has an indictment
against him. He was especially
strong in condemning the police. Men
were arrested merely for having cop
les of his paper in their possession,
he said. He gave the commission
specific instances of alleged brutality
and overzealousness on the part OF
the police.
THE wife of a well-known artist
who happened to be in town was ar
IeSIEtss D6tduoE SllS lC6iShSANo NAA0S%
q name not her own" he said. "A
New York tailor, who had not the
slightest connection with the strikers,
was arrested as he stood in a crowd,
and sentenced to thirty days. Girls
from fifteen to twenty years OF age
We're thrown into prison. The SILK
industry and the city government
were identical.
1.-THE town was Swamped with gun
men in the guise of private detectives:
They insulted women and abused
men. There was no redress for insults
or abuses. Two strikers were muir
dered outright by these thugs, and
they walk the streets free today. L
have a photograph here of woman
who was beaten about the head and
breast by a policeman. Another was
seriously injured by private detec-
tive who kicked her.
Jail Inssnitary.
THE jail was most insanitary.
Sickness prevailed in at least one dye
house used by the manufacturers to
shelter strike breakers. About the
last of June the opinion gained
strength that the manufacturers
were prolonging the strike to freeze
out the small operators. Several did
GO to the wall
Rudolph Katz. organizer of the De-
troit branch of the 1. w. w, said that
his was the only organization which
stood by the original platform of the
]. W. w, to seize all the tools OF
production by means of the ballot. He
was opposed to violence and to the
Chicago branch of the |. w. w,
which was so active during the last
Paterson strike, as we'll as to the
American Federation of Labor. he
admitted that the Doherty mills paid
an average wage of SIS a week, al
though asserting that as whole
the average wage of the weaver in
Paterson was IS a week.