The Coolidge examiner., 1939-07-27

the organization is mirror o.
public opinion which Is definitely
opposed to violence in labor dis
putes, and second, the fearless
. leadership of Marley.
They call him Fighting Kemp"
and his every utterance makes that
title appropriate. The thousands of
citizens who heard him over the
radio recently when he spoke at a
mass meeting of several thousand
members of the organization, mis-
sed half the effectiveness of his
speech by not being able to see
the expression on his face or catch
his emphatic gestures as he drove
J home a point. A member of one of
Arizona's pioneer families, Kemp"
as he is called by his host of
friends, is a real Western cattle
man. Powerfully built piercing
eyes that never waver from the
person to whom he is talking, he
gives even the most casual OBJ
server the feeling that he means
what he says and that he is the
sort one would like to call friend
Here are excerpts from his
/, speech as taken down in short
hand, that probably best describe
himand fully explain why the at
tack against him from certain
quarters has been so bitter:
"One day back in 1888 was
driving a bunch of cattle and at
the corner of Lateral % and Yuma
road, Johnnie Norton drove up in
his car We waved at each other
and stopped to talk | asked him
il he knew where | could get a
piece Of feed for my cattle and
for him to be on the lookout for
me if he found any. Then | asked
him how his sheep shearing was
coming along. Well, Johnnie Just
looked at me kind of funny and
said: Haven't you heard what
happened out at the shearing pens o.
and when | said I hadn't he said:
We were all at work out there
when a bunch of men appeared
on the scene, beat up my small
crew, kidnapped couple of 9TH
/ ers. stole all our tools and tore
our fences down."
/ Believe me. it was like hearing
a fairy tale. I couldn't imagine
such things happening in this
valley. The more we talked the
madder | got and Johnnie was al
ready plenty mad to start with.
Johnnie went ahead to tell me that
these labor racketeers wouldn't
let his men shear sheep without
union cards and had driven them
off his property. We agreed some
thing had to be done right now.
The sheep men of this state have
I been shearing their sheep for
many years on land they fought
and bled for through pioneer DAYS
to make safe and peaceful for pro-
fitable work. I tell you it was al
most like the bursting of a bomb
shell. Imagine gang of racketeer
thugs coming into our peaceful
community and beating and slug
ging men who are happy and con-
tented in their work. We decided
the only way to find out whether
our neighbors felt we were right
or not, was to get some of them
together and talk it over. We went
to our friends and had about
twenty farmers meet. We told
| them our story and found out
everyone felt as we did. We de-
cided to form an organization and
drive these outlaws out of our
country. Next we had a meeting
in the Masonic Temple. The place
was filled to overflowing with
honest law-abiding citizens and
property owners and it was at this
meeting tn at the Associated
Farmers of Maricopa County came
J into existence.
81 want to say here and now that
not a man in this group has any
fight against peaceful, orderly,
legitimate labor unions Or their
members. | also want to say that
we don't believe any individual
citizen in the state of Arizona or
any place else in the United States,
has to stand by and watch labor
racketeers intimidate through the
use of force and violence, and we
don't prpose to do it.
do you think for one minute
that the red-blooded American
! cifizenc of ArizoDa want to GOO