Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 June 1937 — Page 13

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FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1087

AAR et ase...

* Membrial Day Killings at » Chicago ‘Deliberate Mass , Murder,” Onlookers Say

Report of Five Eyewitnesses Read in Congress; Police Even Frustrated Attempts to Help Those They Wounded, Is Charge.

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By Scripps-Howard Rewsoager Alliance WASHINGTON, June 18.—An

eyewitness account by five Chi-

cagoans of the Memorial Day clash at Chicago which resulted in nine deaths and scores of injuries has been read into the Congressional Record

* by Rep. O'Connell (D. Mont.), who charged that many of the press re-

ports of the incident were false or garbled.

Rep. O'Connell referred to the

clash as a “premeditated atrocity”

against striking steel workers, and asserted that “gun rule by politicians

and corporations must be énded.”

The eyewitness account was signed by Lawrence Jaques, M. D.; I. Krechevsky, University of Chicago; Meyer Levin, writer; Virginia W. Crosley and Isobel Cerney, a teacher. It follows, in part: “We saw the Memorial Day massacre at the Republic steel plant, and as impartial witnesses we have been drawn together by the necessity of making known the truth about this deliberate - and unprovoked mass murder. “Seme of us first became acquainted with each other in hastily volunteered first-aid cars, in. hospital operating rooms, and on the open prairie where we tried to pick up the slaughtered men, women and children, many of whom, like ourselves, had only come to see whether Chicagoans could be arbitrarily prohibited from exercising their constitutional rights.

‘Meeting No Secret’ “Among the wil..esses whose stories we have taken are physicians and surgecns, students of

theology, social workers, an author, housewives and other professional and manual workers.’ “This is what we saw: At 3 o'clock Sunday afternoon there was a strike meeting in the yard of the union headquarters. This meeting was no secret, it had been widely announced. About a thousand people were grouped in front of the speaker’s truck. It was a holiday crowd, being Memorial Day; wives and children were with the strikers. “All the speakers addressed the group on the subject of their civil liberties, pointing out that President, Governor and Mayor had guaranteed them the right to picket. ! “The Republic plant is situated in the midst of a prairie, except, for a block of houses before the gates of the plant. A public highway runs in front of these houses. Strikers have a full right to picket! upon that street. “Aecess to the street is by two roads through the prairie. The police have closed those roads.

Vote to | Picket Plant

“At the meeting the strikers voted unanimously to establish their, right to picket in front of the plant. | “We have seen the stories in the | newspapers, the tightening statements of police, about the ‘attempts of the mab to invade the plant’ They are lies. At no point was entrance of the plant contemplated or attempted. “A column of people, headed by two bearers of | American flags, started on a short-cut path across the prairie toward the street that fronts the steel plant. Many of us walked. in or alongside that column. We heard the remarks of the people, we know the temper of that crowd, and you must believe us,

_ they were utterly in faith that the

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police would ‘make no trouble’ when they saw the peaceful, almost holiday air of the crowd, when they saw that Sunday-dressed women and children were walking with their husbands. “The police were drawn up in a line across the street end. and further into the prairie. We could see them as we approached. waiting with drawn clubs and hands on revolvers. “The police made no attempt to ascertain the nature of the group or its intentions.

Onlookers Quiet, Is Claim

“The flag bearers came to a halt face to face with the police. One of us, a social worker, was in the first line of marchers and he can tell you that the spokesman for the strikers repeatedly explained to the police that the people wished to exercise their rights to picket the plant. ; “Several minutes passed while the men were talking to the police. Behind, hundreds of people, in line, and spectators spread out over the fields, waited quietly. This has been described to’ you in prejudiced newspapers as a killing, attacking mob armed with everything from razors to parts wrenched off cars and pistols. We were there and we can tell you this simple fact: The people were unarmed when they approached the police. “One of us saw Capt. Mooney walk to the -far edge of the crowd and announce perfunctorily, ‘I command you in the name of the law to disperse’ A moment later at some signal from the police captains the line of policemen advanced upon the crowd. “The crowd turned and many began to walk, some to run, back across the prairie.

Says Police Fired Abruptly

“There was no battle. There was no attempt to use tear gas before shooting into the crowd. There was no. warning fusillade of blank cartridges. : “The pelice fired in volley pointblank at the people. They also used iear gas. We can tell you that if the police had wished merely to disperse the assembly, tear - gas

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would have sufficed. The wind was with the police. “We turned and ran as soon as the 1 shooting began. '~ Some of the strikers picked up stones and hurled them back at the police as they ran. There was no shooting from among the strikers; the first shots were fired in volley, at a given signal, by attacking police upon a waiting crowd. “As the people ran the police advanced after them still firing. Almost all of the bullet wounds are in the backs and sides of the people. “One of us, running, heard a boy say, ‘I'm shot in the leg’ It was a boy of about 10. Our witness picked him up, ran with him toward the strike headquarters four blocks away. He attempted to put him into a passing car, but it was already full of wounded. Only the third car had room for the shot child. ‘Death in Patrol Wagon’

“Another of us saw a man picked up and put into a first-aid car. Two policemen seized the wounded man and yelled, ‘We want that —- They jerked him out of the car. His leg was bleeding profusely; an artery had been severed. The firstaid driver cried that the wounded man might die, that a tourniquet W8s necessary, and could be applied at strike headquarters. The police refused to wait for the man’s leg to be tied. They threw him onto the floor of a patrol wagon. He died in the patrol wagon on an hour-long trip to Bridewell Hospital. “Another of us tried to help a man who was on the ground shot. A policeman fired at the citizen attempting to aid the wounded man. He had to run and leave the man on the ground. “Those with bullet wounds were taken to the nearest hospitals. These hospitals, overwhelmed by the emérgency. sent back a call for helpers. One of us was in a car full of volunteers who responded to a call from the Burnside Hospital for assistants. Police would not permit them to enter the hospital, One managed to gét inside the hospital and found the nurses frantically calling for aid as several patients were in delirium. The police three times attempted to evict this volunteer, though the nurses each time intervened and insisted he was needed.

Doctor Refuses Removal

“We saw . patients with gun wounds taken from hospital beds, even though still feeble, and sent to jail. At a second hospital one of the doctors who makes this report to you steadfastly refused to permit police to remove wounded patients. { “Seven are already dead, others with abdominal wounds and fractured skulls may die, many are crippled, over a: hundred were inJured in this premeditated atrocity. “We feel that the people of Chicago can no longer permit this lawless, murderous use of their agencies of government. The suppression of eivil rights in Chicago must be stopped. Police violence

and brutality in Chicago . must be | Gun rule by politicians |

stopped. must be ended.”

NEW DEAL FOE - REA ‘CUSTOMER’

IN RUSH COUNTY

Willkie Has Two Farms on

Rural Project Line, Official Reveals.

Wendell L. Willkie, Commonwealth & Southern president, and

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the Rural Electrification Administration, it was revealed today. His signing up for membership in the Rush County REA was handled by his father-in-law, Phillip Wilke, according to Herbert Innis, secretary of the Rush County REA. According to Mr. Innis, both farms are listed in the name of his wife. Mr. Willkie, according to information from Washington, invested recently in several Indiana farms, among them two in Rush County. One of these is rented to Louis Berkemiere and the other to Charles Brown. There are two buildings on each farm and REA membership costs $5 a building, according to Mr. Innis. - According to the Rush County REA secretary, Mr. Willkie isn’t saving any money by obtaining current from the REA. He® said the average cost per

arch foe of the New Deal's public | month for service from the Governpower program, is a “customer” of | ment project is about $2.50 a month

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while current from the Rushville municipally owned power plant. or the Southeastern would be only about $2 a month. Oscar Newhouse, Rush County REA president, said the Willkieowned farms are a part of the 80 per cent of eligible farms which have been signed up for service in that county.

INDIANA TO SHARE PAINTING OF BRIDGE

Times Special MOUNT CARMEL, Ind. June 18. —Two crews of paintérs from two states are to paint the bridge over the Wabash River near this city. Indiana’s half of the bridge paint job is to be let Tuesday by the State Highway Commission. The Illinois half of the bridge is to be painted under the supervision of

RADIO CHOIR TO SING HERE A broadcast by the KDKA choral society of Pittsburgh from the William H. Block Co. auditorium over

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