Evening star., 1934-08-25
UNION MAN DEF|ES
MOB IN KIDNAPPING
Armed Strike Leader Dares
Citizens as GuardSman
Goes to Save Him.
BY the Associated Press.

| BY the Associated Press.
McGUFFEY, Ohio, August 25-
Clubbed and spirited out of town by
| non-union sympathizers, Okey Odel
returned to this strike-ridden village
| a few hours later, armed himself with
| pistol and dared" any person tc
! come and take him from his front
porch.
Odell, leader of the Agriculture
Workers Union, an A. F. of L. affiliate
had large cash on his face. He re-
ported that the men who took him
from the deputy sheriffs' barracks
early this morning, after the bombing
of the home of Mayor Godfrey j. OFT
had threatened to kill him, but had
released him near Waynesfeld.
The latest violence in the three
months-old strike of onion workers
in the Scioto marshland-a labor
dispute that has been marked by
sporadic clashes of warning factions,
fires and three previous bombings-
brought an order from Adjt. Gen.
Frank D. Henderson to his assistant,
Lieut.. Col. John Volka to proceed
Immediately to the scene and report.
Volka said Sheriff Wilbut Mitchell
told him the situation was not out OF
control and made no request for
troops Once before Henderson de-
tailed an observer, Brig. Gen. Ludwig
CCnelly, to the scene and was assured
that the sheriff's force of so special
deputies was capable of handling the
situation.
After remaining on his porch fol
some time, Odell re-entered the house,
left his gun inside, and walked down
the main street.
Strikers Reappear.
IS Odell, accompanied by his
brother, Tunie Odell, strolled along
the street strikers and their SYM
pathizers reappeared one by one.
For a time the town was devoid
if strikers as groups of citizens, in
Guiding large numbers of non-union
workers, cruised about in automobiles
and trucks.
Okey said he was kicked in the ribs
and his captors drove him away from
the barracks about dawn. He feared,
he said, he may have suffered a frac-
ture.
Threatened, he said, he pleaded for
his release and was left to shift for
himself on condition he would not
return here.
He hitch-hiked his way to Nc
Guffey and returned to his home.
An eyewitness said the situation
had quieted meaSurably. He was in
formed, he said, by newspaper man
from Alger, that citizens there had
organized in similar fashion, prepared
to resist a reported movement of
strike-sympathizers from Lima and
Toledo into the strike area.
Mrs. Willard Wies, wife of the vice
president of the Agricultural Workers
Union, which now is but a few
months old, reported that one truck
] load of men came to her home early
this morning
I'VE have come to get Willard"
| She quoted them.
Her husband. she said, barricaded
himself in an upstairs room and was
not disturbed.
Citizens in Charge.
This village of TOO persons was in
the hands of group of its citizens,
| following the spiriting away of Odell.
An eyewitness reported the union
leader was taken from a deputy
sheriffs' barracks by 200 non-union
workers who have replaced striking
union workers. Odell was clubbed be-
| fore being loaded into a truck, the
! eyewitness said, and his head was
| bleeding as the vehicle moved away
| Mrs. Godfrey OFT, wife of the
! mayor, speaking for her husband,
| whom she asserted cannot be
! reached" declined to place an esti-
mate on the damage caused by the
/ bombing of the mayors home.
We consider it a wreck" she said
Everything is a terrible mess. I can't
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