The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, July 21, 1919, Page 9

5 ar ":J{’» . to Grand Island himself any friction between M]“.RvoMOORE himself and Gillen and others who had s threatened to mob P,0,BOX 691 i LINCOLN,NEBR, It was then arranged that Jensen was to work DEAR SIR, in Lancaster county for two or three weeks. Dur- ing that time I was with him nearly every day. I was present every time he talked with a prospec- tive member, and I never heard him utter a remark that might be construed as being disloyal. As a matter of fact, he im- pressed me as being very patriotic. ¥ Jensen told me that just before he left Daw- son county Gillen and others had tried in every way to “get something” on him. He said one morning, -while driving up to a farmer’s house, he met a man walking along the road and in- vited him to ride for a short distance. During a conversation on the road, the passen- 00, WHW ger, whom I knew to be - Aspry, informed Jensen that he would like to be- come an organizer, and asked Jensen if he minded the ncar fu;;une. * taking him around with him for a few days. Jen- sen said he agreed, and that during the time that the detective rode with him, Aspry was forever turning the conversation to liquor and women. Jen- sen told me he didn’t “fall for” anything of this kind, and that after a few days his companion dis- appeared. While Jensen was at work in Lancaster county, . Attorney Sorensen went to Lexington, and on his return reported that he believed it would be all right for Jensen to return to Dawson county and take up his work there again. PLANNED MOB TO RUN ORGANIZERS FROM TOWN Jensen, however, was not the only organizer against whom there was a plot arranged. At the meeting in Palmer’s office at which the other plans were hatched, it was planned to send someone out to Grand Island to attempt to organize a mob to run Felver, Berkland and Deaver, three organizers who were stopping in Grand Island, out of the city. Palmer said at that time that it was rather a dan- gerous and risky business to be starting up mobs which, in the heat of their passion, might commit murder, but he said he had a couple of men whom he could trust to send out there, and that perhaps he might make a trip up there himself, Some time later Palmer told me that he had sent two men up to Grand Island for the purpose of organizing a mob to tar and feather Felver, Berk- land and Deaver. He said he had later made -a trip LY MRoV.H,WARE P.0.BOX 46g EANSAS CITY MO, DEAR SIR, in an attempt to locate them, but that they evi- dently had moved from Grand Island before he arrived. At that time I did not know where Deaver and Berkland were working, but I did know that Fel- ver was working in Mer- rick county. I reported this fact to Mr. Palmer. When I told him he seem- ed highly elated and said: “This is good news. I will not let them get away this time.” Shortly after this Palmer told me that he had made arrangements with.a man whose . name he did not mention, but who, he said, lived in Clarks, Neb., to take care of Felver’s case. It was only a short time afterwards that I learned that Felver had been mobbed and that an attempt had been made at the time to hang him. While talking over this with Palmer he of the bills. \ - - ‘ OMAHA,June 27th,1019 l EVIDENCE l Palmer informs mo that aftor I left tho meoting Sunday morning it was arranged that H.DAVIS is to send a party down from Valley Oo.who you aro to introducé at tho LeaLguo office,and that this party will aftor having a conversation with certain Loaguc officlals swear that they are disloyal cto, Reépectfully Here are two of the letters, repro- duced from originals which have come to the Leader, that tell how the opponents of the League worked. H. Davis, mentioned in the letter above, is H. M. Davis, postmaster at Ord, Neb., mentioned in the accom- panying story by Mr. Moore, and the “operative” spoken of in the letter be- low was one sent to involve a League organizer. Both letters were written by J. P. McGrath, agent of the Thiel detective service at>*Omaha. The bot- _tom letter was written to the man- ager of the service at Kansas City. Mr. . Moore’s story on these pages is as " sensational as any which have preced- ed it. The plot center in Palmer’s office is exposed, and the various plans that were hatched there are told. Next week Mr. Moore will continue his story on the League and will make other in- teresting revelations of the manner of opposition the Nebraska League mem- bers are fighting. There also will be other letters produced in connection with the story, fully as interest- ing and instructive as these. The elient has had considerable to say regarding the operative sent out from the ST.LOUIS office,as I did not see any of this operatives reports I do not know exactly what class of work,he turned out,the client complains however that he made a completé failure out at LEXINGTON,and that he also made a mess of things at GRAND ISLAND,I amticipate that we méy have some difficulty in collecting this bill, _ Operative Moore seecms to be ‘doing good work and the o].ient is well pleased with the information wh:l.cin he is getting from the Lincoln office, I have no doubt but that this operation will be continued indefinitely providing we compromise with them on the ST,LOUIS operit:lves bills, kindly advise me at an early date as to what we could afford to take off Very Respectfully seemed very much pleased with him- self, and he gave me the impression that it was through his efforts that the at- tempted hanging was made. : While we were discuss- ing this affair I told Palmer that, in my opin- ion, they had gone a littl« too” far, and that I be- lieved that the Leaguc intended to bring sui! against them for the out- should this party arrive before you hear from MeroWARE do not introduce him rage. ‘ at League hecadquarters), judging from what I know about this fellow DAVIS as a fixor, this plan would only scrve to uncover yousand thercby ruin tho operation for all time, Am writing MgrMWARE regarding this and you may expect to hear from him in “Oh, hell,” Palmer rc- plied, “we are not afraid of anything they can do We have all the busines: men, with barrels of money, behind us, and we have Governor Neville with us besides. Neville is willing to go the limit in case it becomes neces- sary. We are not worrying about any suit they can start.” After this attempt at hanging Felver, the or- ganizer came to Lincoln and obtained a position with the Avery Threshing Machine company. I told Palmer of this and Palmer said that we would have to do something to fall back on in case a suit was to be brought against the Clarks mob. HURTZ’ PLAN TO “FRAME” ~ FELVER IS FRUSTRATED Palmer told me to go to Hurtz, general manager- of the Lincoln Telephone company, and see if he could not “fix up something.” I followed the in- structions and went to Hurtz, who said that he would see that Felver would lose his job with the Avery Threshing Machine company on the very next day. Hurtz then told me that when Felver should come to the League offices after losing his job 1 should advise him to go to Hurtz for a position, assuring him that he could find work at the tele- _phone company. Hurtz said he had a couple of trustworthy men, and that he would send Felver out with these men. Then the plan was that these men would engage Felver in a conversation, and that when they re- turned they would swear that Felver had made . disloyal remarks, regardless of whether he had or not. Thus, by making it appear that Felver was disloyal, public sentiment would be turned against him, and any suit which might be brought would lose because of this attitude of the people toward Felver and the League. Felver, however, sent these plans awry by quit- ting his job with the threshing machine company of his own accord. After this he left for the home - of his father in North Dakota and later joined the army. Palmer frequently wrote letters for the news- papers, signing the names of O. G. Smith of Kear- ney and Slama of Wahoo. Palmer told me that he was the author of these letters and that he had made arrangements witl: Smith and Slama for the use of their names. He said that the busines: men who were fighting the League did not wish " to appear in the open. and did not wish him, Palmer, to appear as fighting the League. Palmer told me that he had promised Smith to help him be elected to the state senate. As matter of fact, he was a candidate but was de- feated. Palmer was ix constant touch, during this time, with Smith by b letter, telephone and tele- graph. Smith also want- ed to be appointed chie:’ clerk of the lower house of the legislature, bu: despite Palmer’s help he again lost out. As for Slama, I do not know what was promised him, buf I do know that whenever Palmer wanted anything done in Saunders county he would telephone o: write to Slama or Placek. When a League pape: was started in Saunders county, Palmer frequentl; asked me to report on its progress, and told me that. the League would never be allowed to operatc the paper. i : By S e T eIenuIOn wne Leauer When Writing Advertisers | "