Evening star., 1937-03-09
STR|KE-BREAK|NG
BY BURNS CHARGED
Evidence of Detective Unit
Activity Submitted in
La Toilette Probe.
BY JOHN c. HENRY.

tive Agency, the Tubize Chatillon Corp.
plant in Hopewell, Va, was supplied
with arms and ammunition obtained
from the Delaware State police, it was
disclosed before the La Toilette COM
mittee today
The armament for as many as 80
plant guards was supplied as a climax
to extensive labor espionage by Burns
operatives in Hopewell, 1t was brought
out. during time Of union organiza-
ton there in 1884.
Called to the stand, Arthur j. Mel
vile, Washington manager for Burns,
said he was little hazy" about the
gun transaction, but admitted negoti-
ations for the arms had gone through
his secretary to the Philadelphia man
ager.
With Raymond j. Burns, president;
w. Sherman Burns, secretary-treas-
urer, and j. w. Erb, Philadelphia
manager, on the stand, Senator La
Toilette submitted reconstructed op-
orators reports salvaged from ST.
Louis waste paper, reciting how strike
leaders in Chevrolet plant there had
been Shadowed for the purpose Of in
timidation. In an operation Of this
nature is was indicated by the reports,
the subject is allowed to know he is
under surveillance in the hope that
he will become sufficiently haraSsed TO
cease strike efforts
The St. Louis incident occurred last
year.
More direct strike-breaking opera
tions were disclosed by records bear
ing upon three other cases.
Drivers Furnished in Strike.
First of these was the furnishing Of
drivers to A. Schoenhut of Philadel-
phia during strike in 1888 In the
Summer Of 1884 the agency supplied
drivers to the Tubize- -Chatillon Co.
The report on this incident spoke of
the higher rate of pay charged for
this service.
In october, 1885, the agency sup
piled three mechanics to the Pitts
burgh Automobile Dealers Association
during strike in one of its member
plants
In each case of todays disclosures
the witnesses challenged the inference
that supplying workers at higher rates
OF pay than guards constituted actual
| strike breaking.
Erb. who was a Pinkerton employe
for 20 years before joining Burns in
1929, said the agency placed an un-
dercover man in the Tubize plant dur
ing the labor trouble Of 1884 at request
OF the plant management. Erb ad-
mltted he did not tell the undercover
man that he represented the Burns
agency.
Supervised Operation.
Erb said he supervised the Tubize
operation while he was Burns repre-
sentative in Richmond, with the work
under general Jurisdiction of the
Washington office. Some Of the op-
eratives' reports. he said, were made
directly TO the Washington Office.
Erb at the time was designated as
Washington Operative x-8, while the
undercover man in the Tubize plant
was known as Dill.
Samples of reports submitted by
Dill were concerned principally with
union organizing efforts.
One Of the Dill reports told of dis
charges of union members by the
Tubize Corp With reference to the
company's intention of breaking" the
union, after persistent questioning by
La Toilette, Erb admitted knowing
that Burns information was being
used for this purpose
All the witnesses have insisted for
the past two days that the agency
never allows use of its services for
the purpose of "disrupting" legitimate
unions.
AS yesterdays afternoon session
closed, the committee was question
ing the Burns officials closely about
the degree to which they had COM
piled with subpoenas to produce in
dustrial records on hand o. received
subsequent to service Of the subpoenas
last August IL.
Material Believed Withheld.
Although the committee obtained
only dummy reports in so far as op-
orators labor espionage records were
concerned, two developments Of the
afternoon made it evident that ma
terial covered by the subpoenas had
been withheld.
First of these developments was the
testimony Of David Huston, former
Burns detective, that on two jobs after
service Of the subpoenas he had SUBJ
mitted written reports on labor con-
ditions ir Pittsburgh plants. SUBJ
sequently, he said. he had been d.
rected to prepare dummy reports.
Second development was introduce
ton of the bulky pack Of reconstructed
records salvaged from waste paper
discards of the St. LoL.s Office Of the
agency. Picked up after service Of
the subpoenas, the records wer pieced
together by committee employees.
A feature of the afternoon session
was the charge by w. s. Burns that
a committee investigator had imper-
sonated a Burns detective in asking
access to waste paper deposits in the
New York of1ice building where the
agency is located. Burns SAID the mis-
representation was made to the build
ing superintendent and occurred be-
fore service Of the subpoena.
Committee Investigator Charles
Kramer and Secretary Robert Wohl-
forth took the stand to deny the
charge and Senator La Toilette Or
dered Burns to supply the name of
the building ofacial who had told him
0f the INSTRUMENTATION