HOME GUARDS HATED DAD
Here's a New Lindbergh Story - HOME GUARDS HATED DAD J^ERE'S a Lindbergh story that hasn't been going the rounds of the daily papers. It goes hack to the days of the World War, when Lindy's...
...What are you afraid of...
...Yet Scheri had left the South where there seemed some probability of trouble to go to the Columbine that Monday...
...Why not...
...that the industrial commission has stool pigeons among the miners, as has the Militia...
...His father was punished because he dared tell the truth, and it is quite likely that Lindy suffered too...
...Panken Attacks Tanvnany Judge Panken...
...We won't let them...
...Annear anr Newlon were there...
...Do you believe the farmers would hurt the city...
...the massacre, the strikers had gone tt the Columbine, been met by the sherifl and after some joking back and forth had followed the sheriff back to towr for coffee and doughnuts...
...Welborn would have gone straight to George Peart who naturally resented the new regime and who belonged to the old C. F. & I. school of labor-smashing tactics...
...lost more by taking my certi".cate oi election and giving it to a man wlrls not entitled to it than if It had permitted me to get my certificate...
...He also denounced Tammany for the sewer situation in Queens...
...About a mile outside the town—on a farm...
...The mystery lies here: While the Rooky Mountain Fuel Company always had been of the old hard-boiled school of coal operators, just about the time the strike started Miss Josephine Roche, a member of the Juvenile Court staff under Judge Ben Lindsey, Inherited dominant (though not a majority) Interest In the company...
...And, knowing as he does, how fickle the public mind can be, wouldn't trust it even on his arrival in Paris, when he amazed all present at the end of his world famous flight by his modest announcement : "My name is Lindbergh...
...Lindbergh is going to speak...
...They immediately discharged Walter Belk, notorious since Ludlow days, as head gunman at the Columbine and announced they would not dig coal under guard...
...We beat the postoffice," said Maurer, in describing this work...
...There was no evidence of trouble to come...
...The Saturday before the Monday of "Well, he Is stirring up the farmers...
...The storv: How the super-patriots did attack Lindberg (the elder...
...The State Police fear the same thing and plan to have themselves tried for murder before the facts come out so they can be treed and never tried Rockefeller Hand Seen in Massacre Colorado Fuel and Iron Desire to Embarrass Columbine Owners Subject of Comment By+Frank Palmer T"|RNVER—One of the first requests "that will be mane of the church Investigating committee representing Catholics, Protestants and Jews, after it reaches Colorado will be that it probe the "why" of the Columbine massacre...
...He refused to call the militia until after the Columbine affair...
...Just what are you, afraid of...
...He is a candidate for governor...
...In the state government, as centers disloyal to the governor, are- Adjutant General Newlon of the National Guard, who has differed with the Governor consistently since the strike began and who wanted trouble to prove the militia ought to be called...
...Peart could then have gone to "Pat" Hamrock and reached Louis $cherf, the chief of the state police, who, was for years a captain in the Rangers under Hamrock and learned his strike-breaking from him, and also Sam Lee, second In command, who is even worse then "'Scherf...
...For the moment it seemed that Annear's industrial commission had been saved...
...The I. W. W. leaders were Insistent there should be no trouble...
...Certalnj it is, they were set up before, during or Immediately after the killings...
...Hamrock could have used all of them, some directly and some indirectly...
...Here's a New Lindbergh Story - - HOME GUARDS HATED DAD J^ERE'S a Lindbergh story that hasn't been going the rounds of the daily papers...
...A couple of years later I first heard of Lindy, when he scattered the ashes of his fathes^ body from an aeroplane over his father's farm...
...In short, nothing could happen...
...The Captain "Dunnos" "I don't know...
...The NEWS has printed the statement that the Rockefeller Colorado Fuel, and Iron Company Is desirous of getting control of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company^ The C. F. and ' I. Is the hardboiled, labor-hating, strike-breaking and dominant Influence In the Colorado Coal Industry, but It has no mines In the northern field, where the Columbine lies...
...Assessments and taxes had been lowered for the large property owners and Increased for the small property owners," said Stump...
...The re*i*ilt ha* been a solidarity between the Socialists and the unions which brought the public powers under the control of the v:orking people...
...George Peart would have gone to his son, Ted, and the company end of the' frameup would have been taken care of...
...Lindbergh, candidate for governor was kept out of town, the press denounced him, every bank had cards in windows to show how bad he was, the campaign of villification was of the severest kind...
...We rallied our forces around the issue and' despite the fact that the politicians tried to divert our campaign to theoretical questions we kept on with the issue we picked and emerged with victory...
...Adams Feared Bloodshed Governor Adams was apparently anxious that this strike should pass without bloodshed...
...In the past it has always done the killing that broke strikes...
...We are going to give the workers a typical working class govern merit,'- said Maurer, and added that if strike...
...Lindbergh lost out by...
...Knowing the situation, Mr...
...Where is he going to speak...
...I can imagine the grim humor that must have been Lindy's when upon his a<Bjf£?il .sA...
...Yet six were killed and a score seriously wounded...
...It goes hack to the days of the World War, when Lindy's father was a candidate for governor of Minnesota...
...In fact he had been a state trooper all the time and was the one who called for the machine gun during the fight...
...Vincent that the gate be left open and the strikers be allowed to hold their meetings on the road in the mine—whether it is a coitoHy road or a private is yet to be determined ,—on the morning of the massacre Ted Peart had chained and padlocked the gate shut...
...Governor Was Floated Despite the orders of Governor Adams, the machine guns were left at the Columbine and the strikers Insist they were used...
...Others w£o spoke were James H. Maurer and George W. Snyder, members of the Reading City Council, Raymond Hofses of the School Board, Judge Jacob Panken and Jamas Oneal...
...a few thousand votes...
...Makes Personal Investigation A number of us were attending a convention in St...
...But Is there any evidence that there was such a frame-up...
...I see a splendid chance for propaganda work...
...So, there were a dozen or more of us who motored early one morning a hundred miles or so westward into the fanning sections...
...But for once President Jesse F. Welborn might have seen an opportunity to let another company do the killing, discredit humanitarian Ideals in coal mining, break Miss Roche's spirit and get control of the company...
...It took a private attorney and a private group of citizens to unearth thf graft systems to Queens Obonty," be saM...
...We went out on the street corners and talked assessments for ten weeks...
...There were years of pessimism and lack of interest by members but the work went on by a faithful few who knew that perseverence would eventually bring success...
...Ted would have seen to It that the gate was locked and the picketers infuriated into action that could be used as an excuse to set off the explosion...
...When there were difficult tasks to be accomplished by the ur.i'-'"s tne Socialist members undertook them when others held back...
...Four days later he "resigned...
...He gave orders that the state police should not use their guns except in defense of their lives, which were never endangered, and most important of all, when he heard there were machine guns at the Columbine on Nov...
...Washington from Paris, Secretary of State Kellogg claimed the honor of being the first to receive Lindy Perhaps Lindy's dignified silence carried with it the memory of him whose ashes he had scattered at the end of a life devoted to truth...
...He emphasised the importance of the work of Socialist* in the trade unions...
...Then they ordered that Ted Peart, son of the former General Manager and Superintendent at the Columbine,- leave the gates open and allow the strikers to hold their meetings in the Columbine, Miss Roche saying, as It is reported, that she would "sell her stock for fifty cents if blood were shed on- the property...
...And so it ran...
...They searched the picket lines every morning for guns and knives...
...Welborn knows the under-cover men in the ranks of the strikers and could have used them...
...I dunno...
...19, he ordered them removed immediately...
...Why doesn't he speak in town...
...There is a mass of circumstantial evidence to be laid before such a committee and It is believed by some' of the more optimistic that it will take only the right to put certain Individuals on he stand and ask a few questions to "break" the whole story...
...Why don't the farmers come Into town to hear him...
...There never was such a resentment In the city of New York as there is now.' he continued...
...Do you think they would blow you up...
...Minnesota had been saved from the danger of having as governor a man who told the truth...
...And, of course, Mr...
...Publicly they keep a poker face...
...She called Merle Vincent, a progressive attorney, to represent her Interests...
...We owe It to the ScciaUst movement of America and the world to make good, because we know that the eyes of the enemy are upon us...
...About midnight before the massacre, Scherf saw the Governor and assured him nothing could happen at the Columbine the next morning, "You can go to sleep in the assurance that everything will be all right...
...Punished For Truth Telling There you have a chapter from Lindy's boyhood in Minnesota...
...This was the keynote of an Inspiring speech delivered by Socialist Mayor-elect J. Henry Stump, of Reading, Pa., to a thousand or more Socialists and their friends in Hunts Point Palace, in New York City, last Sunday...
...Our success has really been the result of long years of plugging among the working classes...
...We are strangers In Minnesota, that's why we ask...
...f\ dunno...
...He Cecinrtd that this phase of the party work had become so systematic that within twenty rain: tea a piece of literature could be placed in every home In the city...
...who said be came tx the meeting primarily to urge Bronx Socialists to organize the way Reading Socialists had, declared that "Tammany ha...
...Struggle Brought Victory Stump also told of how the party had been built up through years of struggle...
...But the strikers hope an Impartial investigation by such a body as the Federal Council and Its allies will get all the facts, clear back to Rockefeller...
...Jim" Maurer told how the party organlzed, how it enlisted the help of women in house to house work, and the splendid system of distributing literature throughout the city...
...What happened at the camp between midnight and the attack has not been established, in other words, it is not known just who attended the drinking parties...
...It is de&riltely established that Louis Scherf reports to "Pat" Hamrock at the State House as often as be reports to the Governor and sometimes, apparTIMELY TOPICS (Coethnnet ha Fags H Reading Socialists Best the Post Office, "Jim" Master Says Party Can Cover City With Literature in 20 Minutes, Socialist, Victors Tell Large Audience "t^E ARB going to make a success of this thing...
...And Peart was on hand to take part In the proceedings...
...Pacifist...
...The home guard being made up as usual of those who like to wear soldiers' uniforms when there's no fighting to be done-—and the home guards were well organized in the rural centers of Minnesota...
...The Mayer was net interested " Both Stomp and Maurer spufce oyer WBVD, the Det» radio . station before proceeding to the Bronx meeting...
...It is entirely possible that there were some stool-pigeons in the picket line that morning although nothing has been founc to Justify that supposition...
...Tom Annear, Chairman of the Industrial Commission, who was frantically eager to get the men back In the mines at any cost...
...Don't you know...
...Despite the orders of,Mr...
...While the testimony is not all In, there Is already plenty of evidence of a frameup...
...We reached a city of 5,000 along about noon, and we were stopped at the edge of the town by the home guards, who looked us over, asked about our business and satisfied themselves that we were not farmers, then permitted us to enter the city...
...Everyone was prepared for the massacre but the strikers...
...They "accepted the resignation" of George Peart as General Manager and of Judge Jessie G. Northcutt, the leader in the fighting at Ludlow, as General Gpunsel...
...Seditionist, Pro-German and all the rest of the nasty names were hurled at him, but the chief weapon in the hands %f the regulars in that campaign of May ^nd June, 1318, was the "home guard...
...One experience will do...
...The admirers of his father now look upon him as the worthy son of his illustrious sire, who in his time became the victim of the greatest weapon In the political game—bunk...
...August Claessens presided...
...and a whole set of Republican politicians who want to discredit the Democratic Governor...
...Inside the town, we found home guards surrounding the banks, more home guards around the court house, others guarding the schools and other public properties—all in uniform and fully armed including bayonetted rifles...
...And they had t newspaper reporter there from the Denver Post, the bitter antagonist of Governor Adams and coal operator organ...
...Captain Is Questioned Our Inquiries as to what it was all about Anally brought us to the captain and the following dialogue took place: "Captain, what are all these soldiers doing here...
...We won't allow him in...
...It "just happened", according to the newspapers, that Tom Annear and Colonel Newlon were at the Columbine that morning to see what happened...
...I don't think the Socialist Party could have gotten for $10,000,000^ the amount of space in newspapers all over the country that they got this election...
...They announced that there win be an ali-d»y celebration In Reading an January 2 When the Socialists are inducted into office...
...Annear went immediately to the Governor with glowing praise of Scherf and his men, saying "Scherf ought to have a gold medal...
...Privately the leading figures mentioned in this story admit the disloyalty and say there was a frame-up...
...occurred "the capitalist employer will have his life and property protected" but tha'' the police powers would not be used tclub strikers or to serve as a strikebreaking force...
...ently in emergencies, before he sees the Governor...
...One wonders If he did that, whether he could fail to set up the machine guns he has not removed from the camp...
...Wanted Trouble Mr...
...Who is Lindbergh and what is he going to talk about...
...Enemy to his country...
...Paul at that time, and the stories we heard, induced us to see for ourselves...
...Before the 1928 Democratic convention the Governo- of New York State will have to arcoi-ni 'o the people of this nation for the r "rruption and gangster and murder me'.hods used by Tammany In the last election...
...The writer of the story found the Home Guards of Minnesota were chasing the elder Lintlhergh off the city streets for fear he might disrupt the country...
...Vincent had asked that Sam Lee be removed because of his attitude toward the strikers and had been told that Lee was a Deputy Sheriff...
...Presumably the State Police use themj too...
...It is knowr...
...An hour later, Scherf sent to Denver for the steel helmets of his troopers...
...Welborn or Mr...
Vol. 4 • December 1927 • No. 26
