Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-25
FORMER |.W.W.
EXPOSES PLOT
AGAINST j. {.
Sabotage Is aught by
w ord of Mouth to
'Wobblies,' Testifies.
Ex-L1eutenant of Bill
Haywood Is Surprise
Witness Against Ten.

Sacramento, Calf, Oct 24-Testi-
nony that the Industrial Workers of
the World no longer teach sabotage
in books and pamphlets, but pass the
instructions by word of mouth" was
given in superior court here Tuesday
by w. E. Townsend, who said he form
erly was lieutenant of William big
BID Haywood head of the ]. w. w
Townsend was surprise" witness for
the prosecution of ten admitted mem
bers of the organization who are on
trial charged with violation Of the
California criminal syndicalism law.
Townsend was on the stand most
of the day. He testified that he. as
trusted assistant of Haywood, had
obtained employment on at least two
railroads during the world war with
instructions to blow them up; that he
had served in various branches of the
military service, including the marines.
at Mare Island, California; that during
the war, several hundred members of
the /. W. W. were employed at
Chicago packing house, where MANY
of them, acting as inspectors. passed
canned meats, he said, which were un-
fit for consumption and likely would
poison the troops in France, for whom
they were destined, and that the I. w.
w. carried on an extensive system of
sabotage in the harvest fields of the
middle west.
Destroyed Wheat In Fields
In their sabotage of the harvest
fields, Townsend testified, harvesters
were destroyed, hay fields fired and
harvested wheat often destroyed by
placing the bundles of wheat INSIDE
down so that the kernels of wheat
drew moisture from the ground and
sprouted.
All of these acts of sabotage. Town
send related on the stand. were a part
of a general plan and crews of men
were assigned to the work of destruc-
ton.
Townsend testified that during the
from 1909 to 1921, he had i,ined
various branches of the military SER
vice eleven times.
Regarding his being stationed as a
marine at Mare Island, Townsend said
I'm my company of 4s men, eight
of them had carried I. w. w. cards.
The plan of the l. w. w. is to gain
friends in all branches of industry and
the government so that when the in
dustries are taken over, there will be
NO trouble"
Later Townsend testified:
''The I. W. w. sought to place Its
members in responsible positions SO |
they could help from within. Through |
/ became special railroad |
agent on the Rock Island and Santa |
Fe railroads.
tThe plan was. | could help blow |
up the railroads. But I never carried |
out my plans as the government got
busy and / was arrested by the de-
partment of Justice"
The industrial workers organization,
Townsend testified, maintains ''flying
squadrons" which 'are really gl1nmen
who ride up and down on the trains"
They beat up the train crews. threaten
them and even seek to coax them into
allowing I. w. w. members to ride
lpon the trains.
Townsend declared he had quit the
because he belived it was
wrong.
In reply to questions by Assistant
District Attorney Romeo Hughes, re-
ative to the desire of Haywood to
control the fighting branches of the
service, Townsend testified:
Haywood complimented me on my
work while in the army. navy and ma
ines, and he told me that it was i'm
,ortant to control Uncle Sans gum
men. Another time he said: IF I had
10000 men like you. I would show
his damned country what / could do +"
During his testimony, Townsend re-
ated how sabotage is carried on in
he lumber districts of the northwest
lie repeated testimony that has been
,iven at other trials. that spikes are
lriven into logs SO that they will de-
troy the saws in the mills. Townsend
declared that he had worked in the ]
umber camps where the sabotage was
,racticed.