Bisbee daily review., 1920-05-01

speakers stated, the workers could re- fuse to stand by any wage agreement until the mine owners, unable to oper- ate their properties with any profit, would be forced to turn them over to the workers themselves. But the speakers did not content themselves
 with the strike as subject for their oratory; they turned barrages of yer. bal venom on the war and denounced it as Wall Streets war;" they de. nounced the Liberty Loan and declared that the red card of the l. w W. was the best Liberty Bond you can buy" Complaints of violence ana threats
 began to come in from everp part ot the district. Miners who continued to work were attacked by l. w. w. pick cts, their lunch buckets were thrown away and, in many cases, they were at lacked by gangs of strikers and badly
 beaten. Wives of miners began to re- ceive threats that their houses would be dynamited Or burned; men going to work were told by pickets that theiI wives and children would be outraged and then murdered; the American flag was frequently termed "a dirty rag" and the American government insulted in the vilest of terms by the I. w. w. No attempt was made by the I. w. w. and their sympathizers to conceal that 1 the strike was a direct blow at the government of the United States, the draft law and the war.
 On the afternoon of July 1ith, con. ference w1S held between the city marshall, the mayor. l. w. w. strike leaders and the sheriff. At this meet ing Mayor Jacob Erickson, incensed at the disloyal speeches. made in the park by l. w.. w. agitators, informed A. S.
 Embrce, one of the strike leaders, that the strikers were forbidden to use the park for meetings without permit
 He also called Embree's attention to city ordinances forbidding troublesome congregations on the streets. Embree
 replied that he and the strikers were tired of being deprived of our rights" and declared that he would no longer be responsible for the conduct of the 1. ". w. strikers as he could mo long CT control them.'
 If you can't control them, I can" replied Sheriff Wheeler.
 During his stay in the Warren Dis trict. Sheriff Wheeler had deputized
 hundreds of miners and citizens and
 organized provisional companies of these deputies. Immediately after
 Embree's declaration that he could no longer control his men, Wheeler called
 q meeting of all the captains of depu-
 ties and of representative citizens and
 city officials. The meeting was held
 on the night of the l1th and it was at
 this meeting that Wheeler told of con-
 ditions as he had found them in the
 district, of his fears that the I. w. w.
 and their following were getting so
 desperate that bloodshed and the
 wholesale destruction of property ap-
 peared Imminent and of his firm belief
 that drastic action was necessary to
 prevent such a catastrophe.
 Plans for the round up and dcporta- | tion of the trouble-makers were gone
 over in detail by Wheeler and his cap IalnS. lnfOuSnOul the HlSnJ the WoIh
 of disseminating orders to the hun dreds of deputies in the Warren Dis
 trict and Douglas was carried on. Ear | ly on the morning of the 18th scores [ Of posses gathered at appointed places. 1 The Bisbec Daily Review of that morn ! ing carried a four-column proclgma- 1 tion. signed by Wheeler. direc;;ug ar
 women and children to remain off the streets and announcing the sh"rifts 1 intention to bring the |. W. W. trouble
 at Bisbcc to an end.
 At aDout six o'clock Wheeler and his
 deputies started rounding up the men
 who were deported A large number
 of them were arrested whilc doing
 picket duty on the l. W. W. lines. 9th