The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-05-08
GET 200 LASHES.
q BESIDES ON
VISITORS DAY
Victims Are Tried by
Kangaroo Courts"
a. a Worket C0rrespondent.l


At Springfield, Illinois, where
picketing has been carried on by the
Save-the- Unionists. wonfen have been
brutally treated by deputy sheriffs
and company-paid guards They have
been pulled about by their hair, knock
ed down, and called obscene names
The coal company had issued instruc-
tions that every man arm himself
with pick-handles, crowbars, or any
other available weapon, and charge
the picket line. which was peaceful
and unarmed. Several of the pickets
were injured, and the women were
treated shamefully, in the melee that
followed. A machine gun had also
been placed at the mine by one of
the union officials, and instructions
given to use it upon the pickets at
the first opportunity.
The conditions of the striking min
ers in Pennsylvania have become SO
severe that several additional inves.
LEGATIONS have been made. The Uni.
yersity of Pittsburgh has sent dele
cation of students to make notes of
conditions, and a seminar of ministers
have been going through the strike
district, making inquiries regarding
the suffering, the starvation, the un-
sanitary conditions, and the brutal
ity that these people are forced to
endure
In the southern part of Illinois
drastic measures are being resorteC
to, in order to try to stop the spread
ing of the Save-the-U movement
A mass meeting scheduled at West
Frankfort had to be abandoned be-
cause of the arrest Of several persons
connected with the movement, among
them the speakers scheduled to APP
pear at the gathering.
The first arrest was that of the
man who was distributing handbills
advertising the meeting. When two
men, one of them a speaker, the
other a secretary in the movement
appeared at the police station to make
inquiries. they were informed tina
Re was being held incommunicado at
the city jail When they returned
the next morning to try to arrange
for the mans release, they too, were
placed under arrest and held incom-
municado. BY the time that small
GROUP Of their friends, and their wives
Rad gathered at the Jail. they had
'eo7 removed to the Benton County
Jail, where the prisoners are allowed
70 hold their farcical Kangaroo
Court" over each new victim. All
those who enter the jail are searched
and their effects are turned over to
The prisoners. If any man does not
possess anything Of value, he is Their
doslt with in this Kangaroo Court"
which sentences him to punishment.
This punishment usually consists Of
lashings with heavy leather straps.
and the number of lashes often reach
as many as 200. At the close
Of each visitors day the victim re
ewes IS additional lashes, until such
time as his relatives or friends sue
ed in raisinr the amount that he
was fined, by this so4callad prisoners
court
The Save-the-Union members were
fnHllv released, due to the diligent
efforts Of their friends. One Of them
vas reported to have had $25 taken
from him by the Kangaroo Court, y
and it is not exactly known what loss
the others sustained. These men told
things that We're almost unbelievable
as to happenings in the jail, but
asked that they be suppressed, as they
feared that if they were made public
that any other Of their men which
should happen to fall into the hands
Of this faction might be forced tc
undergo more severe punishment a,
result of any publicity that might
be given them. H. D.