The Connecticut labor news., 1922-07-07
DennisOn, of Illinois, Tells Colleagues Re- ports Have B e e n Greatly Exaggerated By Mine Operators to Boost Sympathy.

week. Senator Myers of Montana insisted on inserting in the Congress sional Record the most lurid newspa- per accounts of the entire affair. He was prepared to accept as gospel truth every word concerning "atroci- ties" sent out by the Associated Press and other news agencies. He assured the Senate that the author ities of Illinois were mere puppets in the hands of labor and that no at tempt would be made to punish the guilty. Senator Borah of Idaho, chairman of the committee on educa ton and labor, interrupted Myers to say:
 "I do not disagree with the Senator at all in his assertion that men should be protected and should be guarded in their rights. If those men went there to work they ought to have been protected, and even if they went there at the suggestions of detectives as strikebreakers they should have been protected against unlawful as saults.
 Curing Evil to Prevent Crime.
 But the men who brought them in there-the Operators-must have known from experience of the past
  brings on just such affairs as hap pened at this place. I quite agree that men have a right to work and are entitled to the protection of the law, but 1 am also believer in the propo- sition that these conditions can only be avoided by curing the evils which bring on such awful crimes" This did not stop Myers, who for years has indulged in periodical ti- rades against labor.
 In the House Congressman Goody- koontz of West Virginia, a spokes- man for the West Virginia coal op- orators, started the discussion by asserting that 40 "unarmed, defense less men" had been murdered" and that there were mo palliating facts, no mitigating circumstances" r..-.
 If the congressman had taken the trouble to read the morning paper he would have found that the death list totaled 2I instead of 40, and that two of the dead were union miners who had been murdered before any of the non-unionists were injured.
 Congressman Denison of Illinois, who represents the district in which Herrin Is located, replied to Goody- koontZ. s- ; 44-44 .'" l. Evidence of Unbiased Witness.
 Denison is an ultra-conservative Republican. Much of his law prac- tice, it is said, has been for coal com panies. During the six or eight years he has been in Congress he has voted almost uniformly with Big Business. Therefore, in discussing the situation in Williamson County he can scarcely be accused of being prejudiced in fa7 vor of organized labor. s-~e-.' '~t"~
 T think it is mistake" said Deni- son, flor men to try to discuss a sub iect, especially in a place like this, about which they know very little. l "I venture to say that not one-half | of what has been reported in the press in respect to that unfortunate | know that great deal of it is abso- 1 htely unreliable, and this is especial | ly true of those horrifying and re- pulsive details to which the gentle man from West Virginia, MT. Goody | koontz, has just made reference. '1 am a little surprised that the gentleman from West Virginia would dignify these stories by putting them in the Congressional Record and re beating them to the members of the House without first verifying their accuracy.
 "I do not believe there is an sec ton of the country where the people, including those connected with and influential in organized labor, have more respect for the law and less pa tience with its violation than do the people of southern Illinois
 Coal Miners Aggravated.
 "I do not think the trouble there has resulted from a local condition. There was a combination of circum- stances which led up to it, and which so aggravated and embittered the coal miners that reason gave way to passion and brought about the re- suits which l am sure all must de- plore.
 "The gentleman from West Vir- ginia has referred to the verdict of the coroners jury. The information I have Is that the coroner's jury heard, among other witnesses, some of the employees of the company whose mine was involved. The evi- dence of these witnesses was to the effect that the first man killed was a union miner, and that he was killed by an employe of the coal company when he was not committing any un- lawful act. I am informed that this man was killed when he was seen ap- preaching through the woods, and that testimony as to the manner of his death was clear and positive.
 "I am further informed that the union miners at Herrin had been de ceived by the coal company and that the company had broken contract which had been made between the company and the miners.
 "The fact that the coal company had broken it's contract and was be ginning to operate and mine coal contrary to an agreement which was alleged to have been made with the miners; the fact that the miners had been out of employment for three months; that they were hungry and