The New York herald., 1922-07-11
HERRM, Sane Again.
NDSMASSACREHAD
touch OF KINDNESS
Aid Denied Some Wounded
Men, Yet Miner Carried
Water to One.
SAVAGE ACTS SHOWN
Two Mems Throats Cut and
Other Bodies Riddled
With Bullets.
TELLS OF NIGHT BATTLE
Engineer Says Besiegers Used
Military Tactics-Airplans
Circled Field.
TELLS OF NIGHT BATTLE
BY THoREAU CRoNYN.


Special Dispatch to THE New Yoax HsaLD.
HERRIN, ILL.,, July 10.-What really
happened hereabouts on June II and
%, from first to last? Who is respon-
sible for the massacre of the strip
miners? What evidence of guilt Is
there? An attempt to answer these
questions will be made in these dis
patches.
There has been nothing like 1t III
American history. Old timers here
concede that. One of them mentioned
the Custer massacre.
But Custer and his men," he said,
were killed in fight They did not
surrender to the Indians, but kept on
shooting until they died. And those
who killed them were not white men
but savages.
I'm the mob here in Williamson
county all. except handful of ne
groes, were white men, and most Of
them native born. from generations Of
American stock. There are many
foreigners at the mines and some of
them were In the mob. but don't go
blaming the foreigners. Some of our
own boys from Marion and Herrin
were in 1t. We believe the leaders
were ruffians from the wilder camps,
such as Christopher and Ziegler. but
the thing occurred here within few
:. miles OF our own homes, and we can't
dodge that fact. =.
Nothing like 1t, vet the miners mas
sacre somehow slipped easily out OF tho
news. The Ward case IN wcstchester
county, New York. kept the front mage
for a month: one obscure youth dead.
In less than ten days the murders near
Herrin appeared TO have been FORGOTTEN :
twenty-one dead; one Of them was a
Captain in the A. e. F.. another Is
proved by papers in his bullet punctured
coat to have fought through the Ameri-
can offensive at Chateau Thierry and
Meuse-Argonne honorably discharged
after eighteen months of service de-
scribed in his certificate Of discharge as
excellent" The greater part of the
Williamson county public would like to
have the massacre stay forgotten. but
It cannot be.
Kindness and Cruelty.
The good people of Herrin accuse the
press OF exaggeration. The writer made
o special effort to check this. The points
offered are: First, that undue promin-
ence has been given to the city of Her
rim; second. that there were acts of
kindness as we'll as Of cruelty; third,
that the survivors taken to DR.. J. T.
H. AL L..
In danger thereafter: fourth, that out
side newspapers with stories of the mas
sacre were not taboo; fifth. that meet
ing of the Lions, a fraternal organiza-
tion. in hall opposite the hospital
few nights after the slaughter was in
no sense a. jubilee meeting: sixth, that
the stories OF mutiliation were overdone
The facts are bad enough without
adornment. and anything that can be
said in favor Of the community should
be said. The correspondent cheerfully
notes:
First--The strip mine assaulted by
armed union miners on June 81. is not
In Herrin but in the township of West
Marion. The march of the mob sur
rounded defenders of the mine, after
their surrender was toward Herrin The
woods In which the mob did most of its
butchery are In Herrin township. The
cemetery near which six escaped strag-
glers were roped together and shot is the
of the United Mine Workers is In Herrin.
For the rest, Herrin has the best hotel
In southern Illinois. is the largest city
In Williamson county and has the best
telegraphc facilities. For these reasons
most of the stories were sent from Her
rim, although Marion, nine miles away,
Is the county seat and the strip mine
is almost exactly half way between the
two cities.
second--There were acts of Kindness.
One survivor told the writer that when
he lay in the brush with bullet holes in
his back and left leg and knife wound
In the neck he asked. as the weather
vas hot and he had no food or drink for
twenty-four hours. for water.
DRINK Of water Denied HIN.
He says the guard who stood over
him replied; Water, hell You won't
need no water where you're going"
on the other hand another survivor
picked up elsewhere said that miner
went to a farm house for pail of
water and passed It from lip to lip
among the wounded prisoners, There
are also sworn stories Of survivors who
were helped to escape by men and
women OF the region. and some Of these
nercfful folks were union miners, the
publication of whose names. these sur
vivors say. would mean their death.
Third--There was some talk OF mot
letting those scabs" leave the hospital
alive. but IL was discouraged by union
officers. and Mayor Pace of Herrin (who
In travelling auditor of the union)
personally escorted some of the wounded
TO the railroad station when they left for
Chicago All except four OF the sur
viving wounded have been taken away
unmolested. ~
Fourth-So many persons in Herrin
Continued on Page Four.