The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 7, 1919, Page 5

[ guard the hotel and to find out, if pos- sible, who was going to attempt the de- struction.. I learned since that time that there never was any plan among the I. W. W. to wreck the building, and that the Thiel agency had no evidence on which to base their scare, but it was a matter of business, and it worked. From Tulsa I went to Drumright, Okla., where I met several more I. W. W. leaders. Among them was J. W. Whitehead, who was later sentenced to Fort Leavenworth for evading the draft, despite the fact that he was will- ing to serve and on two occasions went to Jen- nings to learn if a call had come for him. While in Drumright I received orders from the Kansas City office of the Thiel agency to locate a man named C. W. Anders son, acting national sec- retary of the I. W. W. Haywood already had been arrested and was in jail in Chicago awaiting trial on a charge of se- dition. Anderson was di- recting the activities of the organization and was having even a greater success- than Haywood. The federal and local au- thorities were seeking him, but had been unable to find him. * CLUE CLOSED CHICAGO OFFICE A chance remark by one of the men with whom I was associating gave me my first clue of where he was. This man declared that the author- Jities believed they had cleaned the I. W. W, out of Chicago and stopped operations from that point, but that, as a mat- 1, cital. ‘agent of the agency. If any one questions the authenticity of these letters we will be glad to pro- duce the originals in court. Here are some of them: - McGRATH TO WARE Omaha, March 21, 1918. Mr. W. H. Ware, 503 Dwight Bldg., Kansas City, Mo. Dear Sir: The National Nonpartisan league seems to be making great progress in this state, and in view of this fact I expect to land an operation with some of the interests here who are opposed to the League. This operation, if I am able to land it, would require the services of a very good operative, and I do not wish to make arrange- ments with clients unless you are in a position to furnish such a man. Operative should be able to mix with farm- ers, also should be capable of meeting and talking to business men. My understanding ers, ete. Kindly advise me at an early date if you have an operative available who could handle this operation. Very respectfully, (Signed) J. P. M. WARE TO McGRATH Kansas City, March 24, 1918, Mr. J. P. McGrath, P. O. Box 726, Omaha, Neb. Dear Sir: I am just in receipt of your letter regarding the National Nonpartisan league of Nebraska. X - We haven’t an operative just at present who could handle an operation of this nature. I advise, however, that you go ahead and, if possible, land the operation. I have a man down in Oklahoma who may be available in the near future. Advise me fully as to who these clients are, their responsibility, financial standing, ete. ‘ Respectfully, w. H. W. AST week the Nonpartisan Leader announced that it would not ask read- ers to believe any unsupported statements. We said we would have doc- umentary evidence to back every statement we made. sented some of our evidence to'back this portion of Mr. Moore’s remarkable re- This evidence consists of letters exchanged by W. H. Ware, manager of the Kansas City office of the Thiel Detective agency, and J. P. McGrath, Omaha is that the League maintains a school at Lin- coln for the purpose of instructing organiz- - .ative available. e e Herewith is pre- McGRATH TO. WARE ’ Omaha, March 30, 1918. Mr. W. H. Ware, P. O. Box 466, Kansas City, Mo. Dear Sir: A number of the leading busi- ness men of Omaha met this a. m. for the purpose of planning a campaign against the Nonpartisan league. I attended the meeting and anticipate that by tomorrow I will be able to forward an order for an operative. There seems to be some question as to the loyalty of the League. It also came out at this morning’s meeting that the League is connected with the I. W. W. The business men who are behind this operation have de- cided to leave practically everything up to J. P. Palmer, a local attorney. Palmer’s financial standing is rather ques- tionable. In view of this fact I took the mat- ter up with Joe Barker, who readily assured me that he would personally stand good for our bill, in event I am able to secure the operation. ; Pinkertons, also a local agency, are out after the operation, but am quite sure that with the help of some of our regular clients I will send you an order by tomorrow. Very respectfully, J. P. M. WARE TO McGRATH Kansas City, April 2, 1918. Mr. J. P. McGrath, P. 0. Box 726, Omaha, Neb. . Dear Sir: In regard to the Nonpartisan league, will say that we now have an oper- Operative Moore will be through down in Oklahoma within a day or 80. Moore has had considerable experience along these lines, and I am sure he would handle the work up there satisfactorily. Therefore it will be well for you to close up.a contract with these people as soon as possible. Moore is about the only man we have who will be available in the near future, and as I have other work waiting for this operative will expect to hear from you within the very near future. Respectfully, W. H. W. box-car route, but it was the hardest trip' I ever attempted. We were on the road for two weeks, riding part of the time, walking most of the time and hungry all of the time. Before we reached Fort Worth I learned through newspapers that Miller had been arrested there after a desperate gun battle, in which Mil- ler had been fatally shot. Before ‘he died Miller made a confession, in which he implicated Lusk, “Dublin Red” and a fourth man. ASSIGNED TO LEAGUE “JOB” As soon as I learned this I decided that my work was done, and leav- ing Whitehead I went to a hotel, cleaned up and rode back to Tulsa in a Pullman car. In Tulsa I met Jack- son again, who told me that I would be relieved of my I. W. W. inves- tigation, and that I was to report to the Kansas City office immediately. I left at once, and a day later reached Kan- sas City. The manager of the Thiel office there, . 'W. H. Ware, told me that I was to be sent to Lin- coln, Neb. “You’re going down there on the same kind of a proposition as you had in Oklahoma,” Ware informed me, “only it’s a higher class business. I want you to find out all you can about the Non- partisan league down “there in Nebraska. I don’t know what you’ll find when you get to Lin- _ coln, but from the ipfor- mation we have at hand it’s the same kind of bunch as the I. W. W,, only more dangerous, as they have plenty of money.” He went on to say ter of fact, Anderson was . in Chicago and directing the work of the organi- zation from that point. He gave me Anderson’s address. I got in toych with Jackson immediately, and in the Omaha pa- pers of the following day I learned that he had been arrested in Chicago. At about this time I was called into conference by the county council of defense of Tulsa and other bodies ‘which were interested in learning who blew up the Pew residence. I knew that my only chance of learning the identity of these men was to wait until some of my associates mentioned the case. I did not have to wait very long. An I. W. W. named Thompson inadvertently told me that four men were implicated, one named Lusk, another Miller, a third known as “Dublin Red” and a fourth man. I told the federal authorities of what I had learned and they informed me that their own operatives had reported the same thing, but the suspects had dropped out of sight. Some few days later I went with Whitehead to Pitcher, Okla., where we had to drop off the train. W 25 LS el 'MORE NEXT WEEK! wmwmmmmmm There we found more I. W. W.s, among them Lusk. As soon as possible I got in touch with authorities at Tulsa and early the next morning the sheriff and several deputies came to Pitcher and arrested Lusk, Whitehead and myself. When we were being taken to the train I proposed to Whitehead that we should attempt to escape. Whitehead agreed, and we broke away from the deputies just as we were being placed aboard the train. We streaked for it, the officers firing after us as we ran. How- ever, our break solved a difficulty both for me and the sheriff, who could not have released me with- out throwing suspicion of my real activities on me, nor in the nature of things could he keep holding me very gracefully. g From Pitcher we made our way to Oklahoma -City, and there I learned that Miller was in Fort Worth, Texas. This information also I gave to my employers, and then arranged with. Whitehead for a trip to Fort Worth. We started off, via the "The above is the first of the series of articles by Mr. Moore, telling his experience as a spy for the special interests. What he tells on these two pages is merely preliminary to his real story, which will begin in the next issue of the Leader. This next article should be read by every League farmer. It will show how the enemies of the farmer plot to defeat the League movement by any possible means. In that article Mr. Moore will tell how he was sent into Nebraska to “investigate” the League there. He will tell what sort of “evidence” .these employers wanted and why they wanted it, and he will tell also the names-of some of those who backed the fight with their money and their time. There will be also some more letters from McGrath to Ware and Ware to McGrath, substantiating what Mr. Moore tells in these pages. Watch next week’s Leader for the next installment of “My - Story—By a Spy for the Interests.” It will be even more interesting than this one. that he had found from the clients whom he was representing that the League intended to con- trol all the public utilities, elevators, creameries and packing houses. - From his talk I gathered that the Nonpartisan league was composed of a bunch of farmer thugs who by force of arms were going to take over the government and the principal in- dustries of Nebraska. As a matter of fact, his parting injunction o me as I was leaving for Lincoln was to be careful of how I conducted myself, as “there was a revolu- tion coming there and the League was at the bottom of it.” (Next week Mr. Moore will tell of some of his work in Nebraska, and how he was to go about getting “evidence” against the League. He will tell what sort of “evidence” they wanted, and of various schemes advanced to break up the League. It will be of far greater interest than this installment of his story, and of far greater importance to the League. Watch for it next week.) R T e T T N N T T e 1 A A A AR L2 2 5 5 550 AR S