The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-14
CONRAD, LABOR
CIV CuOuIM lid
u l, OIEUVEIv VI
in PITTSBURGH
Framed Red Raids for
ID. of j. in 1920
BY LAURENCE TODD.

Nreoerateo Press STAN Correepondent.)
WASHINGTON, August 49,
Uncoverlng of labor spies and
provocative agents who have
been serving the steel barons
and coal kings of Pennsylvania,
and disclosures of the connec-
ton between radical" activi-
ties of these spies with orders
issued by prominent hackers of
Coolidge and Davis, is one of
the features which organized
labor promises to contribute to
the presidential campaign.
The first spy thus far dis
closed has been the standpat
Beattie, ultra-conservative labor
official and promoter of the
labor bank in Pittsburgh.
Worked for D. Of j.
The second is L. M. Walsh, alias Ed
Williams, alias L. M. Wendall, alias
C. H. Wentzell, alias ]. F. Conrad,
who has operated as an under-cover
man for the Otis Elevator Co. in
Cleveland. for the Mintz Detective
Agency in that city, under Arthur
Burgoyne in the Pittsburgh Office of
the Bureau of Investigation, U. S.
Department of Justice, and then for
the Employers Association of Pitts
1 burgh.
Representative Of the Information
al Association of Machinists who
have studied the record of Walsh Con-
rad as published by Dave Williams in
the Pennsylvania Labor Herald be-
lieve that he is the Herbert Little"
who was described to the Wheeler
investigating committee, in the testi-
mony of H. ]. Burton on May 10, as
having met Burton in Pittsburgh one
night and taken him to the office of
the Department of Justice there.
Little" furnished Burton with a lot
of alleged information of Russian red
plots, which he said the Department
had turned over to zone of the big
steel corporations" This -informa-
ton which Little claimed he had
brought home from a secret trip to
Russia was published by the steel cor
poration in order to combat the form
ing of unions among it's employees.
Was "Red Raid" Framer.
The Federated Press Is Informed
that series of sensational dis
closures of provocative agents, who,
like Conrad, were engaged in franz
ing up the red raids" of January,
1920, and in blocking the organiza-
ton of the steel workers and coal
miners in Pennsylvania and neighbor-
ing states, will be given to the coun-
try by the labor forces Names, dates,
terms of employment and the mo-
tives behind some of the betrayals
Of labor by officials and trusted or
ganizers will be barred.
Did His Stuff in Strike.
Conrad, a resident of Bellevue, a
suburb of Pittsburgh, where his tele-
phone is listed under the name of
Ed. Williams, has been getting his
pay as j. F. Conrad and has deposit
ed it in the bank to the credit of
Williams. He was assigned in Pitts
burgh to report on the activities of
radical organizations, during and af-
ter the steel strike of 1919 He be-
came notably radical in his utter
ances, and got himself arrested and
jailed for a brief time.
When employed by the bureau of
investigation he stayed away from
Burgoyne's Office, occupying instead
a room in the suite of the Employ
ers' Association in the Oliver Build
ling. His frequent reports to Bur
goyne on his radical activities includ-
ed claim that he had even enter
tanned w. Y. Foster, who was in
charge of the steel strike.
Canned by Pork Barrel Burns.
So pleased was Conrad to be asso-
ciating with the Employers Associa-
ton crowd that they obtained and
published In their bulletins the sub
stance Of his reports. When w. ].
Burns took charge of the bureau,
Conrad was among the men dropped
to make room for Burns men on the
public payroll, and the Employers
Association took him on. An unlucky
slip in printing an item which might
give away Conrad's real connections
led to his being removed to an Office
in the Penn building on Penn avenue,
where he is supposed to be a real
estate agent, accused of sometimes
being a bootlegger"- according to
Dave Williams account. In this same
building are the Offices of the bust
ness agents Of the Machinists, the
holders and the Pattern Makers I'm
ions.
All of these labor spies and provo
cative agents are known to the De-
partment of Justice. II the admins
tration desired to do so, 1t could dis.
close the whole list Of Burns frame
up operators, the amount OF their
bonds, and their life histories.