The Connecticut labor news., 1922-12-22


 Everyone who listened to the! miners counsel left the court room with the feeling in his heart that at last the truth was coming to light, Mir. Kerr made 1t clear that whatever, the verdict of the jury in this case,l organized labor will take every legal! step to bring about measures that will, make such affairs as Herrin impossi-f ble in the future. He sounded the call. for nationwide campaign against the hiring of thugs and desperadoes m labor disputes. Through all his in. sistence that no one of the five in- .dicted men had anything to do with the killing with which they are charged, through all his references to the law which deals with killings pro- voked by acts of violence, rangs this clear hote-The gunman must go.
 The miners defense followed the opening for the prosecution. In that opening the state contended that 1t would be able to prove by a host of witnesses that the five men on trial were actually the five who Killed Howard Hoffman, strip mine gun man, in the Herrin cemetery. The state insisted that un1onism was not on trial in this case and that the jury must conhne it's deliberations to the actual killing and forget all principles of unionlsm or anti-unionlsm. The state maintained that the loading of coal at the strip mine could not be considered as an unlawful act and that the guards and strikebreakers were in the Peace of the People, when they were killed. The killings were described in detail and great stress was laid upon the statement that the guards were unarmed and had surrendered when they were killed. The jury was appealed to to bring in a conviction on the ground that the Herrin rioting had damaged the fair name of the county.
 Farmers Jury to Try Miners.
 The jury which had been finally se- lected on December 8, after month consumed in the examination of more than 200 taleSmen, listened attentive ly to the speeches from both sides There was no disorder in the court roonr as counsel spoke There were many townspeople in the audience, many of them women expensively dressed.
 The final selection of the jury was completed when the state accepted a panel of four farmers rendered by the defense. The jury consists of the following: E. s. Webb, Charles Mo Inturf, Nathan Pendland, Avery Grear, Oscar Swanner, George Craig, Henry Riddle, Samuel Watkins, w. H. Davidson, James Weaver, Hiram McMillan and George Cox All but Cox, who is member of the U. M w. of A., are farmers Mr. Riddle was at one time miner ,but has not dug coal for several years and is no longer a union member
 Many observers of the trial express ed surprise at the fact that II farm CTS are to try the five union men. It was thought there was some antag- onism among the farmers of William son toward the miners, but the de- fense thought otherwise. In all events both sides expressed themselves as satisfied with the selection. l. Is sig nihcant that only 32 peremptory cha1- lenges out of the two hundred allow ed By law were used in choosing this jury When C. w. Middlekauff of the prosecution who represents Attorney General 'Brundage in this case said that in his opinion the selection of jurors had gone slowly and that he wanted it put on record that the at torney general wanted speed, Judge Dewitt T. Hartwell, the presiding justice, said that he did not feel that there was anything unusual in the length of time taken to pick jury. He said: My observation has been how many jurors can get through the box but to ask the reasonable sort of qustions that will assure fair jury. I've seen a lot of labor cases where more peremptories were used than in