The New York herald., 1922-07-11

agree with this, but some of them give
shortage OF ammunition as the reason
for the order. Between 9 and 10 p. M.
Tracy saw man sneak up the track
and bomb the bunk car.
About twenty-five or thirty men fired
at us all night" continued Tracy. "All
through the night heard them drilling
companies of men like an army, holler-
ing Squad. right! Squad, leftr Left
file "a regular military drill. There
were about 500 men about 100 yards
from the man who came up to bomb the
bunk car. Their leader whistled, and
each time they moved forward he'd
whistle again and they laid down. In
my judgment they were backing up the
men who done the dynamiting. After
he set the bomb off they went away.
heard them remark: Lay low. That
machine gun will get us II they find us
here','
Was there a machine gum" Tracy
was asked.
We'll. / suppose there was" he an
swered. II saw it the evening before. 1t
was not modern gun. 1t was a Thomp-
son sub-machine--a disk. 1t shot fifty
times and you had to reload it. 1t was
not much of a machine gun. 1t was MOTH
ing more than an automatic rifle--the
kind of gun you could pick up and
carry around. 1t was shot from the
shoulder"
The man whose body was hanged later
was accused by the union miners of
being the machine gun operator The
body has not been identified.
At this point Tracy recalled that about
dusk on June 81 an airplane circled
the mine. He said it either fired five
shots or the exhaust sounded like re-
volver. Refugees near the swamp after
the murders saw an airplane. There are
two planes at Herrin, used for CONNER
ciai purposes, but none will admit that
either Of these was the one in question.
At dawn the garrison was surrounded
and firing stopped. From this point
Tracy's story goes on:
AT dawn they gave us instructions
not to fire .any more but to send some
man out with flag of truce to meet
the leader of the miners: that we were
to surrender without fighting. / heard
Mcdowell tell Shoemaker that GJohn e.
Shoemaker. one of the murdered. was
the son of the Mayor of Charlestown.
IllA He was a graduate civil engineer
and McDowell's assistant
so they sent out big fellow named
they let out yell, the whole mob did.
Mac. He gets twenty yards from the
cars when they open fire on him and he
runs back. He did not have a white
flag then. but either him or Jones goes
an gets cooks apron and ties 1t on
broom and marches out with the white
flag. The miners said II we would
march out and lay down our arms they
would not harm us. l heard several Of
the miners say that. They said they
would take us on a train and let us go
back home.
I'VE laid down our rifles and put the.
shells between the cars and then walked
out. all Of us, with our hands over our
heads. Those were the instructions Of
the miners, and Mcdowell and Shoe
maker told us to do 1t. They advanced
on us from all directions. Some was
shooting in our direction and in the air,
and they hollered and yelled. A fellow
that kind of acted as leader told them
to quit shooting toward us. He was
a little heavy set fellow, dark COM
plected, about 40 or AZ years old
weighed about ITO pounds, had on a dark
suit or a blue serge.
He seemed to be very rea asonable, but
couldn't do anything with them. He held
up a AS automatic and told them Now
you ought to use judgment. There is no
use getting excited or starting any
trouble whatever. I am the leader of