Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-05-07
U. $. GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL ACCUSED OF ANT|-LAbQR PLOT Would Show Man Who Works for Wages Uncle Sam's
 Enemy FIREMAN, ACCUSER. MENTIONS NO NAMES Criticism, However, is Aimed at the Department of Justice-De- ferds Loyalty of the Rail-
 road Men

Washington, May 6.-Assailing what he described as ''despicable propaganda against labor" Timothy Healy, president of the Brotherhood of stationary firemen and oilers, charged before the railroad labor boasd today that "a high official of the government has been used to more thoroughly decisive the people into believing that man works for wages he is an enemy of our gov ernment"
 MT. Healy did not name the off, ! cial to whom he referred, but much of his long prepared statement to the board had to do with the announce ment by the department of justice concerning threatened demonstra, tions and violence of last May day Chairman Barton of the board pro- tested against criticism of other gov ernment departments being intro duced into arguments before the board on the demands of railway workers for increased wages, but MT Healy said the men he represented were wrought up over attacks on labor by government officials and that he had been instructed to lay before the board a statement on the loyalty of railroad men.
 MT. Healy told the board that the propaganda against labor began less than "A hours after the signing of the armistice. Labor was accused, he said, of being responsible for the high cost of living, the object be- ing to "poison the minds of the peo- pie to such an extent that the profi- teors could still further increase prices and place the blame on labor"
 Defends Loyalty.
 "The loyalty of our railroad men during the war cannot be denied by those who are honest and sincere" ]" continued MT. Healy. "But many honest and sincere people have list ened to the poisoned tongues and read the output of poisoned pens un- 1 til they believe that labor is dis | loyal. The crusade of this high gov ernment official is undoubtedly for the purpose of aiding the campaign of certain employees to secure laws establishing involuntary servitude.
 "Sedition laws were suggested that would tie labor hand and foot. | While ostensibly these laws were proposed to eradicate bolshevism, l. l w. w. and anarchism the real pur- pose was to prevent the normal ac- tivities of labor"
 MT. Healy declared that May day had been selected as day for "im- aginary terrible things to happen" because contracts of some unions customarily expire on April 30.
 "A newspaper editor" Mir. Healy said, "believes everything he reads in every other paper and he never changes his mind with the changes in procedure of the labor movement
 Trade unions as they grew older, he added, had discovered that May 1 was not always a good time for their agreements to begin. Nevertheless, he declared, newspaper editors con tinued to speak of May day strikes.
 "This made them fall for the prop aganda of great strikes, staying of high officials and public men on May l." continued the labor spokesman. Representatives of all the newspa- ners in the United States located in Washington were called into con ference and told of the great dan gers to the American government May day was to be a day of slaugh- 1 ter, a red letter day in the annals of government overthrowers' but { May dav was as peaceful as any oth- CT in the year. Outside of news paper columns and the minds of cer- tain governments officials all was contentment.
 Public Fooled. 6
 "This was vital blow to the in- stigators of the conspiracy to place more vicious stigma on organized labor than any yet used Even the I editors woke mp to the fact that they had been deceived and now they are printing editorials saying that the country is laughing at the gov ernment officials who had endeavor- ed to create fear that America was filled with disloyal men.
 "What did these government off cials do? They had expected May day strikes and under cover of them \ could more thoroughly work out their nropaganda plans against labor They held hurried conference and K decided something should be done to | square themselves with the peoples and so word went forth that there were no strikes or no trouble of any kind on May day and not even sign of murder because of the prepara. tions made to meet the situation. The fact is that nothing was prevented as nothing was contemplated"
 Referring to the high cost of liv' ing. MT. Healy said the public was easily misled.
 "At one time they were told tt eat fish and the cost of living woulc be reduced" said he. "They bought SO many fish that prices doubled ane tripled. They were told to ea1 cheap cuts of meat. They did SC and now pay as much for them a: they did for tenderloin and porter house."
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