The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-02-27
Admit They Once Lived i'm
Nihilist HOtbed Near
Barcelona -
STRONGLY SUPPORTED
Secret Service Men Believe Capture
Is of Great international
Significance


spent in questioning the Ia Spanish
anarchists arrested on Sunday in
raids that are thought to haye
thwarted a possible attempt to ass
assinate President Wilson, police and
Secret Service officials We're convinced
that the capture was of great inter
national significance.
Questioning revealed the fact that
the nihilists of Barcelona, Spain,
which city and the surrounding pro-
vince of Catalonia is known to the
police of the world as stronghold
of anarchism, not even surpassed by
Petrograd, are seeking to extend their
Vaccinations to the United States.
Some Barcelona anarchists, it was
recalled, were found to have been
associated with Russians in the re-
cent Bolshevist risings in Buenos
Ayres.
All but two of the fourteen men
arrested in New York have admitted
that they came to this country from
Barcelona or nearby in the province,
. They do not speak modern Spanish,
but the Catalonian tongue, which is.
a combination of provincial French
and ancient Castilian. ~, .S
These Catalonians would be parti-
cularly inimical to President Wilson,
it. was said by a prominent Spanish
citizen, because he did not obtain for
that province the autonomy from the
Madrid government for which Il a
movement had been launched when
the principle of self-deterninati0n
was first advanced by the President.
The police theory that the men
arrested belong to an interfatiofial
body of anarchists was strength theried
by their investigation into the habits
of the men. 1t was disclosed that The
prisoners seldom worked at the
simple trades they gave as their DC
cupations for more than two q or
three days at time, yet they }alERys
seemed plentifully supplied with mon
ey. The police believe that the fnAn-
cial assistance came from the inter-
national body ~
Another development of the day
which indicated that the prisoners
have strong support somewhere was
the appearance at Police HeadquaFt-
ers of Harry Weinberg, a lawyer
known on other occasionsto have been
counsel for radicals. Weinberg re-
fused to tell by whom he had been
retained, but demanded to talk to the
prisoners. His demand was not conf
piled with. He then consulted with
Joseph A. Bordeau and Ben. A. Mat
thews, assistant United States at
tornies, at the Federal Building, seek
ing to have the men arraigned at
once. He said he was prepared to
furnish bail for them. The federal
officials We're not ready to arraign the
men, however, and Weinberg left
The prisoners may not even be arr
raigned before Samuel M. Hitchcock,
United States Commissioner unless
the various agencies, who are exam
ining the men at Police Headquarters
complete their work. They are seek
ing information that might enable
them to press other charges against
the men other than the blanket one
of possessing or circulating seditious
literature.
The prisoners were captured on
Sunday.
Authorities did not have an op-
portunity to investigate carefully
the Spanish literature, pamphlets and
letters seized Sunday. Some of the
documents were given to trans
lators. Included were copies of the
Spanish magazine, Gel Corsario"
which Jose Grau, one of the prison
ers, edited, and of which Pedro Mar
tin was associate editor and business
manager.
Another magazine, copies of which
are being translated, is one called
Freedom, the Journal of Constructive
Anarchism. Hundreds of posters
describing the magazine and telling
where it may be bought or subscribed
to were found on one of the prison
ers.
Celestino Granada, one of. the seT-
en- prisoners questioned, stuck to a
story that he had lived with the Lex