Paragould soliphone. (Paragould, Ark.) 1918-1950, 1922-10-30
SUSPECTED
BOMB THROWERS
HELD BY POLICE
Tell Conflicting Stories
About Appearance
at Scene of E.x-
plosion.

Little Rock, Oct. 27-The arrests
of two men; the detention and sub
sequent release of a third man; re-
wards totaling $1,000 offered for
the arrest and conviction of the
vandals, were the results Of an all
day investigation by the police and
Missouri Pacific special agents OF
the attempt to wreck the home OF
w. ]. Cooms, 1910 West Thirteenth
street, which was badly damaged
early yesterday morning by an ex
plosive missile hurled from the
street Cooms, boilermaker, had
gone out on strike with the other
shopmen, but had returned to work
| Monday.
The two men arrested, William H.
Rawles, aged Al, of Levy, and John
Spurgeon, aged 80, living at 712
Parker street, North Little Rock,
were held incommunicado. Both
were subjected to a grueling exam
nation during the day and were
being questioned late last night.
Rawles and Sturgeon were ar
rested at Fourteenth and Brown
streets at 1880 O'Clock Yesterday
morning by Lieut.. e. j. Thompson,
Detective Sergeant Wright and Pa
trolmen Allen and Hopkins, assisted
by Missouri Pacific special agents,
l.. 1. til = h. 81 ~
explosion The officers say RaWles
and Sturgeon attempted to escape
but were captured after a race of
five and a half blocks when the
driver of the police car forced Rawles
and Surgeons car into curb.
Rawles is a boilermaker and Spur
geon a machinist. Both have been
out on strike since July /.
They gave Lieutenant Thompson
and the other officers a detailed ac-
count of why they were out in that
section of the city, but when detec-
tives began the all-day grilling yes
terday morning, officers say, they
contradicted their first statement
and made another, to which they
chung all day.
Home is Badly Damaged.
The porch of the Cooms home
practically was demolished and a
part of the side of the house was
blown in. 1t formed one OF the
walls of room in which Mrs. Lily
Smith and her young son, Carroll,
were sleeping. Mrs. Smiths arm
was cut by fragments of flying
glass. Articles in the room were
hurled about by the force of the
explosion. A large trunk that stood
near the damaged wall was thrown
into the center of the room. 1t is
believed that this trunk may have
prevented Mrs. Smith and her son
from serious injury. Mrs. Smith is
employed in local department store,
Cooms said that he had remained
loyal to the union as long as it
was possible for him to do so. He
said that he and his wife had been
and boarders.j He had been able to
find but little work since he went
on strike, he said. He is buying
his home on time payments, and was IN
danger of losing it because of his
lack of employment. With his fam
lily facing actual restitution and
believing that the shopmen's strike
was lost anyway, he said, he could
see no alternative but to return to
his former employment.
Mrs. Cooms told the police that
shortly after her husband went to
work Monday, two members of the
Executive Committee of the strikers
called at her home and asked for
her husband, saying that they had
job for him that would last for a
day or two. Mrs. Cooms said that
she suspected that the men had
heard that her husband had returned
to his work and that they had come
to his home to verify the report.
She gave them no information con-
corning her husbands whereabouts.
Cooms told the police that early
Wednesday night two representatives
of the strikers came to his home and
demonstrated with him because of
| his return TO the shops and tried
to induce him to quit again. How
ever he said that they made no
| threats.
The explosion occurred few
hours later.