The New York herald., 1922-07-11

statements were ODtdiieu ldt away iiohi
Williamson county and not from any
man now in the hospital at Herrin.
First. there Is Robert Tracy OF Chi
cago. formerly fireman on the New
York Central Santa Fe and Illinois
Central railroads, in the naval transport
service during sixteen months of the
war, 81 years old married. two children.
He ran a locomotive in the mine.
Dynamite on Engine.
Tracy was sent to the mine on June
13 by the George T. Bertrand Employ
ment Agency, SCI West Madison street,
Chicago. He admits he knew It was
strike job" but says they told him the
men would be well guarded and would
have no trouble. AS soon as he got to
the mine he saw guards with rifles and
found there were twenty-five or thirty
guards divided into day and night
shifts. Tracy got shock at once. for
In the smoke box of his engine he found
ten or twelve sticks Of dynamite and
two cans Of blasting powder.
>If had fired the engine I'd have
been blown ito million pieces, / guess.
Tracy says.
The mine had been shut down since
April /, when the union men everywhere
went on strike, but William ]. Lester,
owner OF the mine. had decided to brave
the union and reopen 1t. and, according
to Tracy, the first coal was loaded on
June Is. He saw twenty-five or thirty
men in automobiles on the public road
near the mine and heard them ''holler-
ing" but couldn't make out what they
said. They were the strikers pickets.
On Tuesday. June 20. says Tracy. an
attack was rumored and Mcdowell put
him on night guard with rifle. The
next day. June 81. ne and his locomotive
spur Of the Chicago. Burlington and
Quincy Railroad. when bullets began
whistling through his cab.
They came" says Tracy, from some
fellows across the field about 200 yards
Off company property to the southwest"
He says this was the first shooting
he saw. The union miners insist that
the mine guards fired first
II opened the throttle, lay down beside
the boiler with my fireman. Otis Law
renee. and went over the hill toward
whistle" Tracy says. f4s
BY this time about sixty men were
firing. Tracy told Mcdowell and Nc
Dowell grabbed a rifle.
The shots were coming all over the
office.' Traey's story goes on. Some
fellows were lying under benches, some
out on the cars. The miners were shoot
Ing from a house north of us and from
trees and embankments.'
1t should be said here that ''emhank-
ments" at the pit mine are mountain
like. rising as high as sixty feet The
steam shovel. as 1t goes along, swallows
the dirt at it's feet and regurgitatss. IL
alongside, leaving in it's immediate wake
a smooth surface of coal and on either
side giant ridge of bare earth. These
ridges made perfect roosting places for
the sharpshooting mine guards and later
for the assaulting army as 1t closed in
around the level space near the office.
where the defenders made their last
stand
Tracy says Supt Mcdowell gave him
30-30 Marlin rifle and 100 cartridges,
sent him to a mound 100 yards from the
office to keep 'em off" There the union
miners shot at him and he at them until
dark.
Then" says Tracy, Mcdowell and
Findley (Allen p. Findley was time
keeper) called me down and told me
there was a miners union president there
and he was going to have a conference
with US to stop firing and l quit firing
and came down. Findley gave a white
sheet to a fellow named Jones, Jones
gave It to me and told me to hang 1t
on the telegraph wire and that was a
signal to the miners and the miners
president to quit firing. So we hung
II UP on the wires, on hill made by
a dump OF dirt just west Of the COM
missary cars. But as / hung the sheet
over the telegraph wires some fellow
commenced shooting at me. l guess
there were fifty shots fired at me before
could get off down the hill. Bullets
were coming IN every direction. They
| fired at the white sheet and at me too.
They quit shooting then and I crawled
down to the office
sniped Away All Night.
It then developed, says Tracy, that
| the miners president had not ap-
peared after all. The attackers sniped
away all night, but the defenders were
hidden under the steel coal cars behind
barricade Of ties, and up to that time
none OF them had been hit. 1t subse-
quently was learned that two miners.
Jordan Henderson and Joe Pitzkewich,
| a Lithuanian, both union men. had been
mortally hurt by shots from the mine.
| The Grazing of the union mob is attrib-
uted to the wounding of these two COM
rades
Through the night, says Tracy Nc
| Dowells orders were for his men not to
fire unless fired upon. Other survivors