June 19, 1919
8,000 MILITIA TO 'MOBILIZE' AGAINST REDS
Will Be Rushed to Strategic Points Tomorrow Night for Practice.
READY FOR JULY PLOT
Palmer tells Legislators of New Conspiracy to Destroy.
City police and federal agents yesterday made visible
progress in weaving the net about the radicals they believe responsible for
both the May Day and June 2 bomb outrages. At the same time well-coordinated
plans were revealed whereby any efforts at further violence during the first
week of July will be nipped in the bud.
Though the Philadelphia police released yesterday Lydia
Vincocis and Samuel Miller, whom they arrested for distributing the “Anarchist
Soviet Bulletin” after each had paid a ten-dollar fine for handing out the
literature, detectives of Sergeant Gogans’ bomb squad in New York developed
evidence connecting the woman with a number of anarchist groups here and
elsewhere, and believed that there still may exist an important connection
between the apparently forged “Sachs & Co” labels found in Miller’s room
and the forged Gimbel labels of the May Day plot. They are continuing their
investigation.
In testifying before the House Appropriations committee in
behalf of the $500,000 special fund which he is seeking for the hunt, Attorney
General Palmer told the members that the department had been informed of a day
set for another attempt by radicals “to destroy the Government by one fell
swoop.”
Guardsmen to Mobilize.
It is officially stated that the eleven regiments of the
State Guard in New York city will be mobilized tomorrow night. Brig. Gen. Dyer
says this will be merely in the routine drill of the guardsmen, but the
mobilization nevertheless will furnish a demonstration of the speed with which
approximately 8,000 men can be well armed and equipped and rushed from their
armories to danger points, providing any July 4 riots are planned by the Reds.
It is further learned from a source close to those connected
with the hunt for dangerous radicals that a raid of hitherto unattempted
proportions will soon be made on their headquarters.
William J. Flynn, chief of the bureau of investigation of
the Department of Justice and in general charge of the whole campaign, went so
far as to say in Washington yesterday that it had been determined to the satisfaction
of the investigators that the first and second nationwide bomb plots were
hatched in the same nest, which has been virtually identified; that it had been
determined that there were two men instead of one in charge of the bomb which
exploded in front of the home of Attorney General Palmer in Washington, one of
them escaping uninjured when delay due to the presence of passersby in the
street caused the bomb to explode in the hands of his companion; that simple
steps had been taken to preclude the recurrence of such a demonstration July 4,
and that while important arrests and the final solution of the plots might
still be some distance off he felt absolutely confident that it was ultimately bound
to result from the mass of detailed Information already accumulated.
State guardsmen of the First and Second Brigades will be mobilized
in their armories In Manhattan and Brooklyn tomorrow night. Once assembled they
will he rushed to various points in the city which would he of strategic importance
in the event of civil disorder.
Brig. Gen. George R. Dyer, in command of the First Brigade,
said yesterday that these plans had been made jointly with Brig. Gen. James Robb
of the Second Brigade. Primarily, a drill in the ordinary sense for the
guardsmen, the arrangements were made without special orders from Gen. O'Ryan
or others.
Secondarily, it is admitted, the “drill” will furnish a
striking warning for any radicals who may be planning disorder here for the
first week in July.
About 8,000 men will be mobilized. There assembly and
equipment in the armories will be accurately timed as well as their movements
to the places in the city where they will form in the streets. Gen. Dyer did
not announce where these places will be. He said that one of the reasons for
the mobilization was to ascertain accurately just how many men were ready for
duty in the guard regiments, which have been maintained in a more or less
informal manner for some time.
In Manhattan the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Fifteenth,
Sixty-ninth and Seventy-first regiments will mobilize and in Brooklyn the order
will affect the Fourteenth, Twenty-third and Forty-seventh Infantry, the Second
Field Artillery and Third Field Hospital.
Lydia Vincocis Lived Here.
Detectives of Sergeant Gogan’s bomb squad have developed in
New York traces of Lydia Vincocis, the London Jewess arrested in Philadelphia
yesterday while distributing copies of the “Anarchist Soviet Bulletin,” which
they regard as of extreme significance. The woman was identified as having
lived for two months at 268 South First street, Brooklyn, under the name of
Rosenberg, and as having frequented many radical gatherings here.
Detectives Brown and Wallace of the bomb squad, accompanied
by Detective Cosgrove of the United States Shipping Board, found in the flat at
that address, which has been vacant two or three weeks, anarchist literature
connecting the women with the group which surrounded Emma Goldman before the
Goldman woman was sent to prison for her campaign of violence against the draft
law two years ago, and other papers showing her connection with other papers
showing her connection with other groups here and in Philadelphia.
They found that the “Anarchist Soviet” had been printed at
the Ukrainian Print Shop, 19 East Seventh street, and in going through other
print shops in the neighborhood the detectives picked up and brought to Police
Headquarters for examination Adolph Schnavel, acknowledged head of that group
of Russian anarchists who alluded to themselves in public as “philosophic”
anarchists, and Sergius Youmahanoff and Arthur Lesige of the Russian People’s
House, East Fifteenth street. They were released after they had answered
questions. Schnavel is on bail awaiting the decision of the courts on an order
of the Pittsburg authorities for his deportation.
The police here are ha yet unable to gauge the importance of
the finding in Philadelphia In the room of Samuel Miller of large folding
yellow envelope bearing the label "Sachs & Co., Broadway and
Thirty-third street, New York city." If this description of the envelope is
accurate, however, Sergeant Gegan points out that they are an obvious forgery. The
large dry goods firm at Broadway and Thirty-third street spells its name
differently Saks & Co.
“Saks & Co. were unable to tell us anything about the
envelopes today,” Sergeant Gegan said last night, “on such information as we
had about them. We have asked the Philadelphia police to send us more details
and a sample of the envelopes. Of course if they are genuine Saks envelopes it
may be that they have be legitimately obtained, as the woman Vincocis says she
is a dress maker and has received many samples. The finding of these labels,
however, when taken in connection with the forget Gimbel labels in which the
May day bombs were wrapped, is too Important to he neglected and will be fully run
down."
The New York police received pictures and finger prints of
the couple arrested In Philadelphia. Miller was not recognized here and
comparison with the finger print records in the bureau of identification showed
that neither of the two had been booked In the New York department. Detectives
immediately recognised the Vincocis woman as an attendant at Red gatherings
here.
Goldman Letter Found.
Little information as to her habits could be learned from her
one-time Brooklyn neighbors. The landlord and others, however, promptly
recognised the photographs. The landlord said the woman had leased the
apartment two months ago, before he owned the building. The janitor was also
new to the premises and knew little or nothing of the woman, who has not been seen
there in from two to three week. The police were not able to learn whether she
was there when either the May day or the June 2 bombs were despatched.
The apartment was searched and other picture of the woman,
some of them showing her with mate companions, were found. The detective also
came across a copy of the old Non-Conscription League letter, issued from 20
East 125th street, signed by Emma Goldman and dated May 11, 1917.
This was the document upon which the Goldman woman was sent to prison. It was a
violent appeal to resist the draft law.
With it was the pictured announcement of a mass meeting to
protest against the draft on May 13, presumably of the same year. It showed a man
stripped to the waist and facing the mouth of a cannon while he held a torn piece
of paper labelled "Draft Law." The poster and the letter announced that
the workers would fight, but not when ordered to do so by the capitalists.
Alexander Berkman, Judge Panken and other well-known radicals were announced as
speakers with Emma Goldman.
Another letter was from the Radical Library Bureau of 3226
Arlington street, Philadelphia. It was addressed to "Comrade Rosenberg,"
and told of the efforts of the bureau to raise money through a banquet. The
money, the letter said, was to be used for the purchase of a house. The letter
was signed "Benjamin F. Moore," the name of a radical well known to
the New York police.
This Information was promptly forwarded to the Philadelphia
police, and will, it is believed, prove of great importance in checking up the
associates of the couple In that city, possibly resulting In further arrests.
Federal officials in this city were still saying yesterday
that there is no immediate prospect of the arrest of the actual perpetrators of
the bomb outrages. They are determined that they will not make any charges they
cannot prove. They look on the arrests that have so far been made as but part
of the general plan to check up and coordinate all possible Information about radical
and to forestall their further activity.
Sergeant Gegan announced for the first time yesterday that
the woman Louise Berger, "Dynamite Louise" who was In the house on
Lexington avenue where three anarchists were by their own bombs July 4, 1914,
and who has been reported to be one of the objects of the present police search,
sailed for Russia from Hoboken two years ago and has not since returned to this
country.
FUND TO HUNT DOWN BOMBERS IS SLASHED
House Committee Cuts It to $1,400,000.
Special Despatch to The Sun.
Washington, June 18.—There were two witnesses to the bomb
outrage at the home of A. Mitchell Palmer here. This fact has been developed by
Chief Flynn of the Bureau of Investigations, who has been at work on the case
for two weeks.
The man who was blown to atoms had a pal and confederate
with him who also had a bomb in a grip. This man fled when his confederate was blown
to pieces and has not been located.
These facts were learned from Chief Flynn today. He said
that great progress was being made in the investigation of the Palmer and other
outrages and that it was only a question of time before the radicals who were
responsible would all be rounded up.
It was shortly after this announcement by Chief Flynn that
the House Committee on Appropriations reported the sundry civil appropriation
bill, with a heavy cut in the estimates of the amount considered necessary by
Attorney General Palmer for a clean-up of anarchists and other dangerous
characters in this country and a general reorganization of the bureau of investigation
and the Government corps of secret agents.
Supplementing Mr. Flynn’s statement the department tonight
made public testimony of Attorney General Palmer before the House
Appropriations Committee, asking for a special fund of $500,000 to carry on the
hunt for radicals. The Attorney General told the committee, as the testimony
revealed, that Government officials had been advised of a day set for another
attempt by radicals “to destroy the Government at one fell swoop.”
"We have received so many notices and got so touch Mr. Palmer
told the committee at his recent appearance, "that it has almost come to
be accepted as a fact that on a certain day In the future, which we have been
advised of, there will be another serious and probably much larger effort of
the same character which the wild fellows of this movement describe as revolution,
a proposition to rise up and destroy the Government at one fell swoop."
Before the bill was reported and the cut in estimates made
known Chief Flynn had stated that there was little doubt that another series of
bomb outrages might be expected. When it is to come he would not hazard a
guess. He would likewise make no statement in regard to a general roundup of "Reds"
before the date, which has been placed by guess in July. It is known, however,
that such a roundup is reasonably certain.
The House Appropriations Committee, in the face of this
situation, cut the appropriation asked by Attorney General Palmer from
$2,000,000 to $1,400,000. Attorney General Palmer had gone into full details in
explanation of his request. It was necessary, he said, to employ sufficient
agents and skilled men and to support the organization recently created with
Chief Flynn as the head of the bureau of investigations and Frank P. Garyan as
assistant to the Attorney General in charge of all criminal investigations.
Failure of the full appropriation is not expected to affect
these appointments, but it will have a decided effect upon the contemplated
organization and the combination of all Government investigation and secret
policy work under one head in a single department.
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