Salt Lake Telegram | 1937-08-19 | Page 4 | Strike Battle Shots Wound 1

STRIKE BATTLE SHOTSWOUHD 1 BANNING, Cal, Aug. 1 W-'ACIO. W-'ACIO. union picket was wounded wound-ed by gunfire from a metropolitan water district truck, while a' newspaper news-paper reporter and his wife were hot at by a water district policeman police-man in two violent outbursts in the Colorado rivet aqueduct strike last slight. D. D. Smith, member of a picket line at the aqueduct's San Jacinto tunnel, was struck down by what D. C. Ledbetter. district engineer, aid was a blast of buckshot from the truck after it had been stoned by pickets. - George Coverdale, Banning newspaper news-paper man, and his wife, Edith, reported re-ported they were the targets of two hots as they drove away from the -metropolitan water district's headquarters head-quarters near here, after getting -pictures and news about the strike. Engineer Ledbetter admitted a district policeman fired the shots. ;but said it was done in "a spirit of -bravado" and with no intent to 'harm, when the Coverdale automobile automo-bile failed to halt on order. The bullets went wild. 1 Unionists denied they hurled -rocks at the truck and thereby pre-'eipit.i.it pre-'eipit.i.it jht jhooting. - Tension mounted during the day, ;s Sheriff Carl S. Rayburn of River-ide River-ide county deputized scores of citi-"aens citi-"aens to patrol aqueduct camps. Although water district officials 'claimed work on the great bore Under San Jacinto mountains was progressing without serious inter-. inter-. ruptlon. union spokesmen an-( an-( flounced 1300 men had joined the '.walkout since Saturday and only 70 -Still were employed. Trie strike was called to support a ' demand for a closed shop.