WAR SABOTAGE PLOTS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 46, 19 November 1918, Page 4

WAR SABOTAGE PLOTS

I.TV.W. LEADERS FOUND GUILTY AT CHICAGO. The trial of 101 leaders of the Industrial Workers of the 'World Society cunie to an end recently at Chicago. All the defendants were found guilty. 0 The fate of the Syndicalist movement in America, the Government contended, rested on the outcome of the trial of these 101 leaders, who were charged with conspiracy to disrupt the nation's waiu programme. The case has been continuously before thciPctleral Court here since April 1. The accused were charged with tho practice of sabotage, including the slowing down of production, and the wanton damaging of material;'- propaganda for strikes to delay the output of war munitions, and covert intrigues Against • military service.

.From all corners of America the. government summoned witnesses to substantiate charges that the I.AV.AW created a reign of terror in every section where itboastcd; strength in order to unset the country's war plans. It vus declared by'the chief prosecutor to be, in fact,"a government within a government," ruled by a "swivel-chair king, AVilliam D. Hnyirood, general secretary-trea-surer." from his headquarters in Chinago.

Included in this great mass of evidence were instructions for bringing about railroad congestion by the -mis-sending of freight, the wreckage of sawmills by driving spikes in timbers, the destruction of fruit orchards by placing copper tacks in the trees, and the ruining of grain by stacking shocks upside down.

Many of the 1-16 witnesses called by the Government, some of them former members of the 1.W.W., told ,of tho violent methods adopted by the organisation. Authorities were, intimidated in small communities, nnd police officials ill some instances were locked in their own gaols; workers were thrown from trains ior refusing membership iin the organisation, and other cruelties perpetrated.

The defence replied that the organisation was not responsible for the .'acts of individual members, and that violence was never advocated by the principal lenders or the members of the executive board. Many of tho defendants deliwred impassioned speeches in their defence.