Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-10-14
MORE ARRESTS
EXPECTED SHORTLY
CONTINUED from First Page)

in which two or three hundred shots
were exchanged between strikers and
present employees OF the road who
occupied the engine and tender. Fair
field in his confession stated that he
was regularly engaged in looking ai-
ter the pickets and carrying them to
and from the post each day and night.
That on July 5th, in the absence Of
c. L. Fox from the city, who was
usually in charge of the affairs at the
hall, Fairfield himself was in charge
and that he cautioned his men against
doing anything that would bring on
trouble, it having been reported at the
hall, that party of employees of the
road had fired into the engineers pick
ct post the previous night.
On the evening of July 5th, h" ~or.
ricd seven men to the engineer ~
ct post, each armed and that himself
A. w Roar and Crowder Gates took
a stand in the corn field near the en-.
gineer's post and that the four others
took their position on the north side
of the track; that when the engine ap-
preached the post and he saw seven or
eight men on it heavily armed, he be-
came unnamed and fired the first
shot at the engine with his pistol,
which was Immediately followed by
shots from Roar and Gates who were
armed with repeating rifles. The fire
was Immediately returned by the men
on the engine and two to three hundred
shots were exchanged between the
men on the engine and the parties on
the ground.
The firing became general from both
sides OF the railroad track and from
the engine. Fairfield specifically sta
ted that the shooting was not instig-
atcd or known to the labor unions or
their leaders. who repeatedly warned
against any act of violence, but that
there was a tacit understanding be-
tween all those who participated in
the shooting, that it should be done.
Fairfield further confessed that he
knew and participated in all the dyn-
anitins winch had been done on the
A. B. & A. since March sth, when
the men quit the employment of the
road, except the wreck at Talbotton
ard Cascade, near Atlanta. He adj
mitted that the successful dynamiting
had all been done by Preston Ware,
who is now in 'ail at Douglas, charg
ed with the dynamiting of the freight
train OF the A. 3. & A., on the night
of July 18th
tairticld's alleged motive for max
ing the confession and discriminating
his associates at this time according
to his Statement: arose from the burn
ing o. the home of his mother -in-aw
Mrs. Chas. Myrick on October 9th.
which he alleges was set afire by the
strikers a. an act of reprisal for al
legged statements having been made
by her TO special agents for the rail-
road. detrimental to the strikers.
Solicitor Wall states that others have
either wholly or partially confessed
but he is unwilling to give their names
or the statements made by them for
publication. Developments of equal
significance as Fairfield's confession
may be expected according to the So
licitors statement Criminal week of
the present term of the Superior cour.
begins next Monday and it is expected
that some OF these cases will be tried
then. A special term of the court NAV
be required to dispose of the cases as