The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-06-23
STORY OF RIOT IS TOLDBy WOUNDED
 MEN IN HOSPITALS
Workers Were Shot After Sur- rendering-Miners Declare They Were MisIead by
 Company Officials

Herrin, Ill.,, June 22.-Half dozen wounded men, some of them lying on death beds, tonight gave an Assoei- ated Press correspondent the first actual eyewitness accounts of the mine fight last night and this morn ing, which brought dozens of casual ties when 5000 armed striking miners attacked the Lester strip mine near here, which was being op- eratd eby imported workers and guards.
 The substance of the stnte-
 ments by the wounded, who were
 among the besIcged, was that not
 mine worker was injured dur
 ing the fighting. but thnt the
 numerous killed were shot dowa
 after they had surrendered. There
 was nOthlng from the union
 miners to contradict these claims.
 Several of the men imported to
 work the mine absolyed the
 strikers from blame. saying that
 the ores responsible were those
 "who. xent ns here under false
 promises that tssrre would be no
 troubic.r and that she naInprs-
 would not objeet.v
 Some of the wounded interviewed were in the hospital here. Others were located in their homes.
 Joseph 0aRourke of Chicago. com mlssary clerk at the mine gave the most vivid account of the fight. lis story was related as he tossed in pain from half dozen bullet holes through his body
 Was Wisinformed
 T was sent down here by the Bertrand Commissary company. on West Madison street in Chicago he said. T had no idea what I was running into. don't blame the miners much for attacking us. for we were unknowingly being used as dupes to keep them from their jobs. We were given arms when we arr rived and machine gun was set up at one corner of the mine, guar Is were with us all the time and most of the guards were tough fellows sent by Chicago detective agency. understand the miners sent us warnings to leave town or we would be run out. We never got them, perhaps the bosses did When ~e saw the miners approaching yester- day afternoon, we did not know what tc do The guards prepared for fight, most of us workers wanted 10 surrender.
 "ThrouKh the night the bullets
 rained in us- We sought
 shelter as we could, the miners
 climbed upon the eoni piles and
 earth enbanIxments, and we were
 tfuuhfa fn xan fbavst Tti,n u,.a ~Hs
 kept firing, but most of us hid.
 Then the miners blew up our
 pumping station, we had no
 water and our food supplies were
 in freight car in the hands of
 the miners. About sunrise we
 put up the white flag. The miners
 poured In and we surrendered
 our arms.
 Up to this time not one of us had been injured that I know of, all though 1 understand that several. of the miners had been shot The miners spread around quickly and and six. The tied men then were rushed off ins different directions. Some of them tried to run, but they were shot down as fast as they moved
 "One miner asked who was the machine gun operaSor. Some one pointed him out and he was shot in his tracks. and his body laid over the machine gun. They tied five men with me, took us out on the road and told us to run. We ran and hundreds of bullets followed us. We staggered on, but finally three of our group fell, pulling the others with us. tied down, several bullet holes being in me already
 Fired More Shots
 T laid there while men came up and fired more shots into us from
 tContinued on page two)