The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-26
Eleven of |. w. w. Prisoners
Blacklisted the Twelfth.
Jailer Gives Carl Schnell a
Cell to Himself.
He Joined in North Dakota To
Save Job, He Says.
Under Doctors Care, Prisoner
Is Almost Nervous Wreck.

Because of the treatment accorded
him by the other eleven 1. W. w
members confined in the county jail
Jailer Hixon has removed Carl Schnell
a German. to another cell. SchnelI
has gained the emnity of the other
members because he does not believe
in the principles propounded by the
organization, he stated today.
Schnell is the man who was beat
up" by two other I. w. w. members
while he was in Jail at Wichita a few
months ago. He is practically a
nervous wreck and has been in jaiIs in
various parts of the country for about
fifteen months. He is now under the
care of the doctor.
He Was BlackIisted.
Schnell was brought to Topeka from
Hutchinson with the other eleven men,
but refeused to have anything to do
with them. He stated today that he
was not a willing party to the hunger
strike declared week ago by the 1.
w. WIS, but that the men would not
let him talk to the sheriff or other
officers. They "blacklisted" him, he
have e smoke. He stated that only
one man. however. of the bunch in the
local Jail, had threatened him with
violence.
Schnell stated that he Joined the I.
w. w in the harvest fields of North
Dakota; that he got job with a farm
er there near Aberdeen; that the other
three men working for the farmer
were I. w. W's. He said when they
found out that he did not belong to
the organization that they refused to
work with him and that to avoid trou-
BILE for himself and employer he took
out a card.
Not an I. w. w. Believer.
After working there seventeen days
he went to Grand Forks and said that
on the train were number of 1. W.
w. agents who canvasSed the passen-
gers to find out whether they were
going to work in the harvest fields and
whether they belonged to the 1. W. w.
BecaUse he did not believe in the
activities of the organization. he said,
he left and went to Omaha, where he
worked for time, and then came to
Kansas City, where he applied at the
employment bureau for job in the oil
fields of Oklahoma. Instead he was
sent to Ell Dorado, but knew nothing
of the work.
Schnen said he told his employer
that he knew nothing of oil work, that
the 1. w. VS., who had a strong hold
there, did not want to work with him
because he was against their principles
and that he wanted to return to Chi
cago. where he had always spent his
winters.
Police Beat Him?
He said his employer consented to
this, but that before he left, being sick,
he went into Eldorado to get some
medicine. AS he was coming out of
the drug store. he said. the police ar
rested him for vagrancy. but finding
he was an enemy alien and that he had
an 1. w. W. card in his possession,
held him in the city Jail. He said
| that the police force, when they got
too much liquor. were in the habit OF
coming in at night and beating him up
and cursing him because he was a
German.
A week after his arrest Augusta
was raided by government officials
and a number of l. w. w. members
picked up and sent to Wichita Schnel
was sent with these men, and was con-
fined with them. He said they told
him that the organiza ton rented
property in Augusta for the Germans
who worked in the fields and thai
they, themselves, were "Old Country
Germans and members of long stand
ing in the I. w. W., but that the gov
ernment could do nothing to them
| Because he tried to enlighten them or
this subject. Schnell said. one of the
men started fight with him.
Two months later he was sent tC
/ Fort Douglas, Utah, and returned tC
| Wichita last September. 1t was or
/ this occasion, he said, that because he
! expressed himself against the prin-
l eiples of the organization. two other
| members confined with him beat hin
up. They told officers that the cu
! on his scalp was caused by him falling
| off a cot. Schnell was then a nervou:
wreck, and took several treatments
| from a chiropractOr. He stated tina
! in the Wichita he was kept for week:
without sufficient food. water or hea
and that he almost died.
He says he wants to receive hi:
sentence at once md begin serving it
| He insist that he has done nothing
| wrong; that he was an unwilling
, member of the I w. w; that he wa!
not against this country in the war
and that the only thing he should bt
! held for at all is because he is al
| enemy alien. for which he says he i,
! not to blame. He is charged will
conspiracy, together with the othe
I@1.a