Bisbee daily review., 1920-03-30

| prevented the speaker from being seriously injured by other men who ! rushed at him.
 On another occasion met a crowd ! of women. coming down Tombstone canyon, who had been frighten ed | away from a laundry in which they were employed. l investigated and found that they had been told that if they did not quit work the laundry would be dynamited in the same man. ner that one was dynamited at Grip pie Creek.
 Defies Authorit
 "On the afternoon of July II, 1917. attended meeting held at the City marshars office between the mar shal the Mayor of Bisbee and the I. w w strike committee. The mayor asked the strike committee to obey the laws. not to congregate in the heart of the city and not to use the city park for meetings without written permit. Mir. Embree. one of the members of the strike commit tee, jumped to his feet and told the
 
 no longer tolerate being deprived of their rights and that he would no longer be responsible for the conduct of his men, as he could not control them
 "I had heard threats that the
 mine shafts and tunnels would be
 taken possession Of oy some of
 the strikers and closed up, inn
 prisonirg the men who continued
 to work after the strike was
 called. There were large num-
 Der of Mexicans among the strik-
 CTS. II had several Mexican depu-
 ties watching them. One of them
 working in what is called Tin
 Town, reported to me that there
 were many ex-ViIIistas among
 these people and that some of
 them had cached away large
 stores of guns and ammunition
 in the Ajo mountains. These, my
 deputies reported to me, would be
 seized by the Mexicans at the
 proper time.
 After Embree said he could no longer control his men, l made up my mind that something had to be done and to protect the law abiding citizens of the community, l decided that I would strike first The night before the deportation, 1 received a telephone call from members of the l. w w.. who said to me: If you or any of your deputies come around our headquarters you are going to get a hot reception
 Wires to President
 On the night of July II, 1917. l called meeting of the captains of the deputy squads which I had organ ized. told them of the threats that had been made, of the seriousness Of conditions in teh district anu of my sincere belief that to prevent blood shed in the streets of Bisbee quick action was necessary. l had tried every possible means to protect the district from what thought then, and still think, was an impending catas- trophe I had wired to the governor of the state and to the president of the United States for aid and had received no response. At the meet ing in my office in Bisbee on July II. kept nothing that had learned from my deputies.
 The first thing I did was to write out my proclamation warning women and children 10 keep off the streets of Bisbee I gave my deputies orders which they carried out the following day
 "I did what ! thought was right. had been around the district
 for more than two weeks and
 found that the majority of the
 men on the strike were strangers in the district, e large number of
 them of foreign extraction. Many of them admitted they were strangers and told me that many
 more of their class were coming into the district. Men who watched incoming trains reported large numbers of sympathizers
 arriving in Bisbee every day. One of the leaders of the strike at Lowell told me that there were 5000 members Of the l. W. w. in
 the district. After the men were rounded up on July 12, 1917, there was no place where they could have been placed. The jail ca pacity of the county was only 15o persons. knew what the tactics of the |. w. w. were and realized that if | attempted to hold these
 men for any length of time, there would be even more s,,rious trouble. That is why they were taken to Columbus, N M., where there were troops that could take care of them" Wheeler concluded his testimony for the defense few minutes before five o'clock this afternoon. The state will begin it's cross examination att ten o'clock tomorrow morning.
 Stayed Voluntarily The r,rpatpr mart of thp session tbiq ]