Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-13
KENTUCK|ANS FAIL
TO SCARE DRESSER
Novelist Pans Newspapers
for Stories of Probe in
| Coal Fields.
M sha Associated Press.

~ enc Associated Press.
NEW YORK, November 13-Theodore
Dresser came back TO New York yester-
day and announced Kentucky can't
scare him.
EVEN If it were true" he said, dis
c.issing the Indictment for adultery
brought against him by the Bell County
grand Jury, II wouldn't give q damn"
He said he did not know whether he
would return to Kentucky to face the
charge and added:
"BIt if you think I'm afraid, you've
cot another guess ccming."
Concerning the adultery indictment
ne WAS apparently not so irritable. He
denied the charge reiterated his pre-
vious statement that 1t was for him o
physical impossibility, and added.
Even II It were true, ] wouldn't give
d o damn. My views on that subject are
> radically different from the public
opinions Of the average American-and
! mean public opinions, not private
opinions.
Hints at Hypocrisy.
eff any attractive woman became in
xerested in me. I'd think 1t was a very
lovely thing. But you must remember
7 am an immoral man. am the only
man In the United States who would
do that sort of thing"
Dresser sal0 ne KNEW the WOnan
mentioned in the indictment as Marie
rergain.
They've got her name spelled wrong"
he observed. They've put In p
where there should be b"
He said abe was q member OF the
party-sonnebody' secretary, he thought.
When he was asked where 0ne lived he
replied:
THAT'S my business"
The report that toothpicks were bal.
anced against his door, he characterized
heard Of"
Dresser and Samuel Orintz, mem
Der of the committee, said apparently
efforts had been made to warn them
that he was to be framed" Dresser
said a lawyer, whose name he withheld,
tried to see him the night before he
left about something which he said
would be serious for me" And Orintz
added:
Scores Newspapers.
"Af1 old fellow, who looked like
Kentucky colonel, came up to me, said
he was a former prosecuting attorney
and said, You boys had better be
careful. They are going to frame you
The novelist returned from his in
vestigation In the Kentucky coal region
III n SOII1CWIlhb LIuCuICHb
was considerably irritated with the
manner In which, on the whole. news
papers and press associations had re-
ported the situation and the hearings
conducted by himself and the writers
Committee and charged the press with
being traitors to every person who
really works.
Dresser discussed conditions he said
he found in the mining districts of
Harlan and Pineville.
!, 1--WE seen labor conditions all my
iife," he said, but I have yet to see
conditions equal to those ! saw there.
1.-THE miners and their families are
dying Of starvation. They haven't got
enough work, and they are not paid
enough for what they do. They get as
little as 30 cents a day, some Of them.
They are living on pinto beans and po-
tatoes-snany of them-and there's
nothing for the babies."
Says Help Refused.
He charged the miners could not get
help from the Red Cross II they be-
1onged TO their unions, and said coal
operators and authorities apparently
'have decided three things with regard
TO the miners:
I'D The men shah not become
members Of the miners union, (2) they
shall not meet to speak their minds,
and 90 they shall not read any Com
munist literature"