Evening star., 1937-05-04
BR0THER'SSLAY|NC
RELATED At PROBE
.BY HARLAN MINER
Killing by Company Guards
Occurred Ten Days Ago,
Jasper CIouse Says.
ORGANIZERS AMBUSHED,
BOY OF II TESTIFIES
Saw Five Bullets Fired Into Car
by Deputies, Youngster Tells
La Toilette Group.
BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND
After launching probe OF UtoLa-
tons OF ciuil liberties By disclosure
OF espionage IN industrial plants
and accumulation OF priUate ar
sendlS. Senate subcommittee turned
its attention to conditions in Har-
Ian County, KY, home OF some of
World's richest soft coal fields.
Charges of strong-arm rule through
colluston betUeen coal operators
anD law enforcement agencies hare
been numerous and retuted onlv in
small part.
BY the Associated Press
Jasper Clouse. taciturn, thn-lipped d
Kentucky miner, testified before a
Senate committee today that he saw
his brother shot to death 10 DAYS ago
by two mine guards for the Harlan
Wallins Coal Co.
He told the La Toilette Civil Liber-
ties Committee he himself was beaten
into Inconsistencies and left lying in
the street Of Verda. the company's
Harlan County mining camp, beside
the bullet-torn body Of his brother,
Lloyd Clouse, United Mine Workers
organizer.
The shooting and attack occurred,
he said, on the afternoon of April "a.
The witness testified Bill Lewis and
Melvin Moore, deputy sheriffs hired
by the mining firm, had fired 10 or
II shots" at Lloyd Clouse as the
brothers walked out of a saloon.
Half Brother Testifies.
few minutes before CIouse took
the stand, his 12-year-old half-broth-
er, Markham Clouse, told investiga tors
he witnessed the ambushing of a
carload of union organizers by Lewis,
Moore and Luke and Lee Hubbard,
all company deputies.
Although he saw the officers pump
five bullets into the organizers au.
tonooile, seriously Wounding one
man, the youngster said. he was not
permitted 70 report the incident to
the grand jury.
The manager of the Harlan-Wallins
hrm, Pearl BaSsham, had warned his
family not to let him testify before
the grand jury, the boy explained.
Describing the Staying of his
brother, Jasper Clouse said Deputies
Lewis, Moore. Logan Middleton and
Maynard Hobbs were in the back OF
the room when the two miners entered
to buy liquor.
AS the brothers turned TO leave. he
continued, the deputies followed them
to the street.
Bill Lewis hollered for us to stop,
that he had to search us" Clouse
testified, land when We turned around
he and Moore started shooting.
Got Hit Over Head"
L got hit over the head after about
10 or u shots were fired. When
came to, was laying there in the
road beside my dead brother, and the
guards were gone"
He insisted that neither Lloyd
Clouse nor he had been drinking, but
conceded that Lloyd carried a pistol,
WA OlldI was CuSUUIldIN In
Harlan County. Lloyd Clouse had no
chance to draw the gun before he
was killed, the witness added.
Clouse said he moved his family to
Pineville, in neighboring county, the
day after the shooting, because he
feared they might be killed. He said
he had been discharged by the COM
pany the day after he Joined the
United Mine Workers.
Markham Clouse shyly testified that
he was hunting scrap iron" along the
wooded banks of mountain stream
on February 5, when he saw the off,
GERS start shooting from nearby cliff
Some of the five bullets fired splat-
tered around his feet, the gum Chewing
youngster related.
Organizer Wounded.
Earlier witnesses had told the COM
mittee Thomas Ferguson, union or
ganizer was severely wounded in tbs
shoulder by one of the rifle slugs.
John Clouse, l3-year-old son OF
Lloyd, told much the same story as
did Markham
Daddy came down." as the boys
were about to board train to testify
before the grand jury, John said, "and
said not to go, it wouldn't do no good
and Pearl Bassham said it might cause
trouble"
The boys story of Bassham's warn
(See LA TOILETTE, Page A-2)
ri AIP u0ME R0llGHT