Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-09-25


the strike go on?"
"Yes, they are going on now in my
| opinion until they get justice"
AT that time. had the Presidents
industrial conference been called?"
mo. 1t had not"
WED be interested in having you
tell us why you couldn't postpone
, the strike until after that" continued
! Senator Kenyon.
| "The date had been Set" Fitz-
patrick said. ''If we had waited we
woud have been shot to pieces"
Tells of Woman's Death
What do you mean by that 2"
asked Senator Smith, Democrat,
| Georgia.
the businessmen" Fitzpatrick said.
, Through the bosses. Men given
the choice of tearing up their union
cards or quitting their jobs. SHOT
like Fannie Selins, one of our or
ganizers at Breckenridge, Pa"
Pressed for an explanation, Fitz-
| patrick introduced a photograph of
a dead woman.
"She spoke at one of our meet
ings," he said. When the gunmen
shot an old man, she tried to pro-
tect some children with her skirts;
then the order was given: XIII this
one, too and they shot her."
A news dispatch from Pittsburgh
on August 26 reported the killing of
Miss Sellins but said she was an or
ganizer for the United Mine Workers
and was killed in labor riot near
the plant of the Allegheny Coal and
Coke Company, near Breckenridge,
Pa. 1t did not appear that she was
concerned in organization for the
steel strike.
Gunmen Appear
Pointing his finger at various
| members of the committee and wav-
| ing a photograph. Fitzpatrick said
a picket - man sixty years OF age
- was shot down in cold blood
Several children. he said, were at
tracted by the firing.
This woman" he continued
"came around the corner of the alley
and saw the children. Then the gun
men appeared. She was afraid the
children woud be shot. She reached
down and pulled up her skirts and
pulled them around the children in
a corner. Immediately, the gunmen
fred and killed her"
who were these gunmen?" asked
| Chairman Kenyon.
They were employees of the COM
| pany hired to terrorize the COM
munities," Fitzpatrick answered.
| Inc ueputy sIlSIlilo aiio b buhhiSh oi y
acting all together.
What you mean to say" said Sem
ator Walsh, Democrat, Massa-
chusetts, "is that directly or indi-
recty these men were directed by
the steel corporation?
"Yes, they are mill guards" Fitz-
patrick replied.
Public officials?" asked Senator
Walsh.
"They are sworn in as deputy
sheriffs," the witness explained. I'VE
don't know where their pay comes
from"
1T is a fact that this shooting
occurred in connection with coal
strike and before the steel trouble,
! isn't it?" asked Senator Phipps, Re-
publican, Colorado.
But she was shot to put the fear
into our people," Fitzpatrick said.
objects of Probe
Primary objects of the Senate investi-
CATION, Senator Kenyon said will be the
setting forth before the public of the
real causes and objects of the strike.
Fitzpatrick as we'll as Chairman Gary,
of the United States Steel Corporation,
who is to appear Wednesday, accord
ing to Senator Kenyon's plan OF pro-
cedure first will be asked for a detailed
statement and then be subjected to cross
examination by all members of the COM
mittee. 1t is hoped to complete the in
quiry and return a report to the Senate
| within a fortnight.
Declaring that Judge e. H. Gary,
chairman of the United States Steel
Corporation, had dealt "in f1ippant and
autocratic fashion" with labor repre-
sentatives, Samuel Gompers, president
of the American Federation of Labor,
| iYa hafOra a m
state Commerce Committee on organized
labor's opposition to the anti-strike Sec
tion of the Cummins Railroad Bill. said
| the steel strike was an example of the
necessity for the use of the strike by
labor unions.
Gompers on Stand
Appearance of Mr.. Gompers before
| the Senate committee came at the end
of the second day of continued attack
! by labor leaders against the privision
of tho Cummins bill which would make
| striking railroad men conspirators
against commerce and liable to fine and
Imprisonment. The labor chief sum-
married. the arguments presented by p.
]. MacNamara, vice-president of the
Firemen's and Engineers Brotherhood (;
]. E. Heberling, president of the Switch
mems Union; w. N. Doak. vice-presi-
dent of the Trainmcns Brotherhood /;
Andrew Furuseth, of the Seamen's
Union, and other witnesses, and dis
cussing the steel strike, declared:
When employers say there is nothing
to talk over, when they refuse to meet
representatives of labor, when they say
these representatives represent nobody,
how else is there to cnvince them but
by strike. Look at the steel strike
now. That was the position Mr.. Gary
took. A letter to him from me sent
last June is still unanswered.
"A committee to see him was greeted
with the word that he had nothing to
discuss with them. He treated us in a
| fippant and autocratic fashion. The
| strike Is now on much to my regret,
because wanted to see 1t delayed until
after the Presidents Industrial con-
| ference.
But IL you knew conditions in dis
tricts the United States Steel Corpora
tion controls you would understand.
Murder, assault arrest of men, prohibi-
ton of meetings on rented grounds,
workers dispersed by thugs. gangsters
and detective crooks employed by the
| companies A woman murdered in cold
blood, and the detective who did it
released on bond of S2,50O while men ar
rested in the meetings are held in $4,000
bail"
Where's that?" committee member
| interrupted him.
| AT McKeesport, Pa" Mr.. Gompers
rejoined. That's the sort of thing we
have to meet in guiding labor organiza-
tions. We've done and will continue to