Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-10-09
WOMAN ACCUSER
TOFACELA
Employe of Laundry De-
clares Eddystone Suspect
Bitterly Denounced War
USED ASSUMED NAME

| Mitchell Lagoda, Russian radical and
| former employe in the Eddystone Ammuni-
| tion Corporation plant, now facing an ac-
| cusation of murder in connection with the
| explosion in the plant which killed 1873
| persons worked for month under an as
| sumed name in the Market Street Laundry
| 1910 Fibert street according TO employees
| in that establishment. There his bitter
| denunciatlon Of things American and his
| radical antiwar utterances, together with
| his inquisitiveness regarding the Frankford
| Arsenal, the electric plant at Tacony and
| other plants aroused the susplcions of his
fellow workers they declared today. Mrs
Rose Adams, an employe Of the laundry.
| almost engaged in a physical encounter
| with Lagoda, she said today, when she
exhibited picture of her son, who is in the
military service, and the Russian cast a
| sneer at the American soldiers
The foregoing information was given to
| the EVENING LEDGER today by Mrs. Adams
and other employees Of the laundry, who
declared they had seen the picture of La
| CODA in the EVENING LEDGER and had
| recognized IL as picture of the IN. Loyde"
who had been one of the fellow workers.
WOMAN TO BE sUBPoENAED
The information was Immediately COM
| municated to Sheriff Hepburn. of Delaware
| County, at Media. The Sheriff said he prob
| ably would subpoena Mrs. Adams and
others for Lagodas preliminary hearing on
n
| Peace F. F. Williamson at Media Thursday
morning.
The Sheriff said he would in all probable
| ity use the witnesses from the laundry to
| combat Lagoda's defense that he has been
| wholly in sympathy with the Kerensky Rus
| sian Government and with the Allied cause
| ever since the fall Of the Czar and there
| fore could have no reason for wanting to
| destroy the Eddysione plant.
Lagoda and Nicholas Klekner, who were
| arrested at Media a week ago and accused
Of plotting and accomplishing the Eddy
stone explosion, have contended, through
their counsel that they are we'll known in
| Russia to be in sympathy with the elements
| that overthrew the autocratic Romanoff
| Government and established the Russian
| Republic, and that If they were in Russia
| today they would occupy positions of re-
| sponsibility in the new Liberal Govern
| ment.
Therefore" said one of their counsel,
| Ernest L. Green, of Media, to a representa-
tive of the EVENING LEDGER, '1t is apparent
! that they could have no reason for wanting
| to destroy the Eddystone plant. They are
| Socialists, it is true, but the Russian Gov
ernment now is Socialist. They are in
sympathy with the present Russian Gov
| ernment because It is progressive and lib
| eral and democratic.
These men are known as Socialists and
| call themselves Socialists but the meaning
of that word is virtually the same as the
meaning Of the word Democrat. These
men, so far from wanting to hamper the
| new Russian Government, want TO do all
| they to aid it, and since the United
| States and all the other Allies are fighting
| for democracy--the same democracy that
| has been set up by the new Russian Gov
| ernment-it is absurd to say that these
men plotted the Eddystone explosion"
| WOMAN ACCUSERS STORY
Here is the story of Mrs. Adams, which
| may be used to combat the defense Mrs.
| Adams, who lives at 616 Woodland avenue.
| Cheltenham Montgomery County, works In
| the ironing department of the Market street
| laundry. Fer son, Charles J. Adams, served
| on the Mexican border with the Second
| Pennsylvania Field Artillery and is now at
Camp Hancock, Ga, with the 10Sth United
| States Field Artillery.
| That man came here to work about the
| 18th of June" said Mrs. Adams. "I was
suspicious of him almost from the first, and
! I told several people that we had a spy
| working here. He went by the name OF
| M Loyde' here, but he showed a paper to
| one of the men here and his name on that
| was Michael Lagoda He was always ask
| ing questions. He wanted to know how
| to get to the Tacony electric plant and he
| wanted TO know how he could get to &c
| through the Frankford Arsenal.
| He wanted to go through the Torresdale
water plant, too. He used to go to New