Montana labor news., 1936-08-27
Strikebreaking Data Sought for
Senatorial Inquiry.
Scores of Subpoenas Out for Of
ficials.
BY EDWARD

Tor pay, IN industrial relations.
Officials of several of the agen.
cies promised full cooperation tc
the government. At the Pinkertor
offices attaches disclaimed knowl-
edge of whether a subpoena had
been served.
La Toilette at Helm.
The government agents acted
upon direction of United States
Senator Robert N. La Toilette as
chairman of the Senate committee
empowered to investigate interior
ence with labor and civil rights.
Each agent was armed with sub
poenas duces tecum, describing in
specific and inclusive terms the
type of material to be produced
within five days at the Washington
office of the committee.
Robert Wohlforth, secretary OF
the committee, and one assistant
descended on the spacious and al
ways well-guarded local offices OF
the Railway Audit and Inspection
Company (the R. A. and l. at rs
East Forty-fifth Street.
Strikebreaking Charged.
The Pittsburgh and Philadelphia
offices of the R. A. and I. were also
visited by committee agents, ac-
cording to telephone reports re-
ceived here by Richard Watts,
general counsel to the Senate in
vestigators.
Less well known than the Burns
and Pinkertons agencies, the R. A.
and /. is reputed to be the largest
labor espionage and strikebreaking
outfit in the country.
The subpoenas were so sweeping
they called on the Pinkertons'
Agency to surrender every scrap of
memoranda and record on labor
matters from its more than thirty
bureaus.
The Burns Agency was told to
deliver in Washington, not later
than August 10, all industrial spy
and strikebreaking records in its
twenty-eight offices, including
those in New York, Pittsburgh,
Chicago and San Francisco.
The Maritime and Merchants
Protective Association, regarded
as a Burns offishoot, was also
served.
A number of reputed R. A. & I.
affiliates, including the Central In
dustrial Service, the Corporations
Auxiliary Association, the Interna-
tional Library Association and For
est c. Pendleton, Inc, were also
told to bring their records to
Washington.
The r. A. & 1. has tweleve branch
offices in its own name.
W. Sherman Burns, head of the
Burns organization; ". w. Groves
and Foster Strader, president and
New York director of the R. A. g.
l., received personal subpoenas.
Mr.. Burns refused to discuss Sin
dustrial activities of his twenty
eight agencies, but said all records
requested would be turned over to
the Investigators. Mr.. Strader said
the R. A. & I. did no industrial
work, but refused to answer when
asked if any affiliates did.
Each office served, here as well
as in other cities, was picketed by a
committee agent after the subpoena
had been left. Mr.. Wohlforth and
Mr.. Watts refused to explain this
step, but it was obvious it was a
precaution against attempts to re-
move documents from the files.
The only difficulty reported here
up to this afternoon occurred at the
local office of the R. A. and l. Here
the committee agents wished to be-
gin examination of the files at once.
Those in charge of the office
promised general cooperation" but
gave little immediate assistance.
Late this afternoon, Mr.. Watts
and Mr.. Wohlforth were considering
serving the R. A. and l with more
drastic orders.
Two executives were not found
by process servers.
They were Robert S. Judge, gen.
eral counsel to the r. A.. and I.
and one of its directors, and Robert
A. Pinkerton, who divides his time
between his detective business and
fashionable society.
Agents of the Senate subcom-
mittee have been secretly at work
in New York for a week, it was
learned.
The investigation now is in the
hands of a staff of about forty
persons, mostly furnished by gov
eminent departments because the
committee has only $4,000 to
spend. Besides Senator La Fol
lette, Senator Ebert Thomas of
Utah is a member. The late Sen
ator Murphy of Iowa was the