Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-12-21 | Page 11 | Charge Fires to I. W. W. Account

viEEFlST0 1. 1 KCOUIT Testimony Is Given at the Trial of Forty-six Suspects. SACRAMENTO, Cal., Dei:, u. Testimony Testi-mony concerning fires which government officials alleged destroyed property valued at millions of dollars during the past two years was presented today in the United States district court here, where forty-six forty-six alleged members of the Industrial Workers of the World are on trial charged with plotting violent opposition to the United States war program. Further reference was made by witnesses wit-nesses to "the cat." which federal officers assert is the I. W. W. symbol for (sabotage. (sab-otage. i The government has confhiri.nl its jjtowing to prove the alleged lawless na-Jure na-Jure of the I. W. Y. and tlie alleged ex- Mr istence of a plot against the government. Robert Duncan, special attorney for the department of justice. said late todav Vt 'nen the. trial was 'adjourned until December De-cember IiO. Horace J, Thorwaldson. sheriff of Fresno Fres-no county. California, told of a series of fires in the San Joaquin vailev in the summer of 1917, wh.;n the mills of the Fresno planing company, the Tlollenbeck Planing company and the Mad.iry flailing . - 1, company, the plant of the Fresno By-X By-X Products cornpany, the store of Kutner Ooldstein &- C'o. and a numher of haystacks hay-stacks and harns were burned. Roy P. Connor, 1 r. A. Iatour, Elmer Anderson, Frank Klliott and Caesar Ta- bib. defendants here, were arrested in Fresno September 1017, at. the time of the nation-wide rakls on T. W. W. headquarters, head-quarters, he said. On cross-examination, he said several Armenian boys were convicted con-victed of burning raisin trays about the time of the other fires. Hay valued at ?3Mflo and a woolen mill were among properties destroyed at Marysville in August. 1IS. C V. McCoy, sheriff of Yuba county, testified. Mortimer Morti-mer Downing, a defendant, who. he said, whs then interested in the case of H. D. Suhr and Richard Ford, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of JC. A. Manwell, district attorney of Yuba county, coun-ty, on August 3. Uii:i. during the Wheatland, Wheat-land, Cal., hopyard riots, and Roy P. Connor, Con-nor, also a defendant, were arrested, ho testified. A losfl of $1.20$. 000 was occasioned by ' the burning of the Red River Lumber company's yard at Wcstwood, Lassen county, California. f-PPtember 17, 1017. B. C. Bergen, investigator for Die board of, fire underwriters of the Pacific coast, t testified. He told of having dug up in ! tiie yard a quantity of phosphorous after the fire. "We were not ready last year, but we have gotten maps and plans and we will fix Vfl6on and California," Tinny Donovan, Dono-van, a defendant, told R. Rogers, steward stew-ard on a river dredger at Sacramento, March 5. Iftis, Rogers testified. Rogers said Donovan and a companion eccosted him on the street with "You're Bill Haywood's man." . Rogers said be Jtold them they wero trying to get him Into trouble, -whereupon, he- testified, thev produced from their socks I. W. W't cardR. "Wo are trying to get Parent! to form a local here," said a letter signed Vincent Vin-cent Hantelli, and read to the jury. San-telll San-telll is a defendant here. Louis Parent!, formerly secretary of the Latin branch of the I. W. W. at San Francisco, was con- vlcted at the Chicago 1. W. W. conspiracy I ' trial last summer. Another letter dated at Suttor Creek, Cal., February 11, 3917, i expressed regret at a decision in the j Mooncy case and urged more determina-j determina-j tinn "to apply the fear of the 'cats." I Thomas J. Mooncy was convicted of mur-! mur-! tier in connection with the San Francisco I preparedness day bomb explosion in 191(i.