The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-09-03
POSTPONE HARLAN TRIAL 3 MONTHS;
MINERS TELL OF MURDER; NEED AID

houses. Miners say that the guns
confiscated in the soup hall we're kept
there because the other kitchen, at
Evarts, was CLOWN up.
NEW YORK, Sept. 2.-Joe Moore,
miner in Harlan, Kentucky, was
shot in the heart and killed instantly
by deputy sheriff Lee Fleener, who
also seriously injured Julius Baldwin,
now dying from bullet wound in
the head. jeff Baldwin, a brother
of julius, was also shot. The three
miners were standing in front Of the
miners relief station when sheriff
Lee Fleener suddenly opened fire on
them. The Federated Press CORES
pendent, Mrs. Harvey O'Connor, re-
ports that the AP. and UP. stories
stating the miners opened fire on
the sheriff, were false, and that no
reporters were around, but took their
story second hand from the sheriff"
In the same report, DR.. Haywood,
head physician Of the Harlan Hos
pital, is quoted to the effect that
Julius Baldwin was shot from be-
hind" The sheriff who shot the
miners is still at large The South
ern Office Of the international Labor
Defense Immediately wired a protest
to Gov. Sampson Of Kentucky and
to sheriff John Henry Blair Of Har-
Ian County.
The miners in Harlan Jail held IN
der criminal syndicalist charges will
be brought to trial tomorrow. The
prosecuting attorney announced to-
day that he will insist that Mrs. Jes-
sic London Wakefield, LID. organ
izer, should be tried first Mrs.
Wakefield has BEEN in Harlan for the
past two months conducting defense
work and distributing relief to the
prisoners and their families. Prior
to her arrest her Ford car was dyna-
mited by the operators thugs.
The LID. has accepted the offer
of Franklin Reynolds, a former as
sociate of Clarence Darrow, In con-
Quoting the legal defense of the Har-
Ian cases.
"The General Defense Q.W.W.) in
refusing to build a mass movement
fro the defense of the imprisoned
miners, 81 disrupting and endanger-
ing the lives Of the "a men who are
held on murder charges by the OPP
orators courts" according to state
ment issued by j. Louis Engdahl,
National Secretary Of the Interna-
tional Labor Defense. The statement
continues: THE two I.W.W. papers
have been attacking the LID. in
their attempt to middle the situa-
ton. This skeleton of once milit-
ant organization is trying to build
itself over the dead bodies of starv-
ing miners. The LID, which is nniIit-
antly defending $50 of all labor ca
ses in the United States, was work
ing in conjunction with the Ken
lucky miners in building defense
movement. The General Defense re-
fused to cooperate in a United Front
and insisted that they should have
full control Of the cases In a let
ter written by Herbert Mailer, head
Of the General Defense, to Voight,
Mailer said that the LID defends
only Communist workers and that
the WV undertakes to defend AFT
L., IWW, Socialist and Anarchist
workers, whcih is a deliberate mis-
representation, since the LID hand
les practically all labor cases in the
United States. Two more points
must be taken in consideration
First, the miners in Harlan asked
the LID to participate in the de-
tense; and second, a mass movement
is essential behind all legal defense
if the prosecuted workers are to es-
cape the electric chair. The General
Defense ignores all mass protest.
The LID will back the legal defense
Of the Harlan miners with a mass
movement and will support workers
Of all organizations militantly strug-
Cling against the terror let loose by
the coal operators"