The Sentinel=record., 1915-05-07
PENNSYLVANIA LABOR LEADER SAYS UNlONlSTS SHOULD
 LEARN MILITARY TACTICS.
CONSTABULARY CRITICIZED
Claims That Defenseless Men and
 Women of the Unions Are Shot Down by the Officers and That They Should Prepare For Defense.

Washington. May G-C Charges that l the Penusy vauia state constabularN Is used to break strikes and 10 create reisus of terror in times of industrial disputes were made to the United States Commission on Industrial Re. lations today by James II. Maurer. president of the Pennsylvania State Federation of Labor a member of the state legisIaUre
 After detailing specific instances
 of cases in which he said the state police acted against union strikers. Mr. Maurer asserted that he would advise the union men Of Pennsylvania
 to learn military tactics and how to
 shoot in order to protect themselves. 'I have on previous occasion urged that trade union men learn how to 1 shoot and to protect thomselves.' he told the commission. and next week at the convention of the State Fed oration of Labor am going to adyo. cate that union men learn the mui- I tary art in order to protect them | selves against these agents of the commonwealth who are used against l them. We are tired of having our
 defenseless people shot down and 1 beaten by these officers of the state
 and if it is going to continue it is
 necessary that labor men be prepared
 to protect themselves"
 Maurer submitted 10 the comm.s.
 sion a pamphlet he had prepared on
 the Pennsylvania state police which he entitled The American Cossack. l The police were recruited, he de-
 clared. from United States soldiers and degenerates of the middle class who were not worth anything at
 home.
 The witness stated that during the l Westmore'and coal strike in Pennsyl- yana the state police precipitated trouble between pickets and strike i breakers and arrested only strikers. i Tn no instance" he said were | strike-breakers arrested, and several appeals to these police 10 protect strikers or men who wished a guard when they desired to go home were unanswered. The state police prO- l tect tae employers and never the strikers. They are strictly partial
 in their conduct"
 Official charges Maurer said, were submitted to former Governor Tener of Pennsylvania At the Hazelton
 trolley strike, he declared the state | police were sent in without uniform
 to rail at strike-breakers in order to encourage violence An iuyest.ga.
 ton was ordered by Governor Tener.
 he added and report mode but no
 action was taken except to discharse one trooper who had been proven guilty of drunkenness.
 At the recent Bethlehem stee strike" said Maurer, there was ab. solutely no need for the constabul-
 lary. The governor and President | Wilson had been appealed to but tn government could do nothing But when Schwab called for the constabu- 'ary the government had power to help break the strike. There hal been absolutely no trouble until the state police reached Bethlehem Then within an hour after their ar rival there was boodshed'
 Further inquiry into the constabn- lary will he made by the commission
 later Officials of the police force already nave been summoned to testify.
 Inquiry into Pennsylvania railroad labor conditions continued today, among the witnesses being Samuel GH. Hover, former mayor of Altoona, Pa, who told of the strike in the Pennsylvania snops there in 1911.
 The striking shopmen were peace ful. Hover said, but c. w.. Creighton, general superintendent of the Pennsylvania railroad at
 Altoona. constantly urged him to
 arrest strikers and labor organizers
 when he ha9 no right to do so and refused to db so.
 "supernt4 4ndent Creighton wanted
 me to ord& the arrest of strikers and org-x{Iers on general principle"
 sala Witness. just so someone
 OAIN ne finally told superin- asz ihfep if he did not take