Page 44

L. M. Reports:

Salt Lake, Utah, Thursday, December 2, 1915.

Hedberg said today that there was not an I.W.W. in
Salt Lake who knew how to make a bomb or explosive of any
kind; that the men who are organized here are working men
and are too cowardly to mix up in any work of this kind; that
some of the I.W.W.'s from the large cities were the men to look
out for, as they are dynamiting experts and not afraid of
anything. That these men never stay around a small town like
Salt Lake, but live in the larger cities like Chicago New York
and San Francisco; that the locals here are not smart enough
to do any dynamiting. He said that he did not know about
any frameup on the night of the 18th to do Governor Spry harm,
but around the first of Octover there was a bunch of dynamiters
in here from a number of the large cities, and they were prepared
to do the work, but Ed. Rowan talked them out of it
and advised them to leave town, so that he knew that Rowan
had nothing to do with any frameup here at any time. He said
"The bunchof us knew that we were being watched night and day
and would never take a chance on anything like that. Don't you
ever believe there was any plan of that kind. It is all rot.
Take Child for instance. There is a man who would not hurt
a fly. Lawrence is the only one of the bunch who don't know
much. He is always seeking cheap notoriety. One of the main
reasons he took such an active part in Joe's defense, was that
he wanted his name to appear in the newspapers. He would sign
his name to most of the telegrams and was always wanting to
make big public speeches. He thought it was a big honor to
have the detectives follow him. He would sneak around in the
different places and try to act like a suspicious character,
just to keep them on his trail, and they are still on his trail
and the first move he makes they don't like, he is going to
get pinched. I told him if he got into any trouble from his
nonsense, not to look for any help from me as I would have
nothing to do with helping a man who got in trouble from seeking
notoriety. Most of the men who were active in Hillstrom's
defense, did not want any of this notoriety. For that reason
I know that Rowan and others did not go riding around in an
auto planning to throw explosives, as they knew they were
being watched all the time, and to do a thing of this kind
would lead to their arrest. Even to make believe they were
going to do any damage, would bring lots of trouble, and trouble
is the thing we have all tried to avoid. While I do not know
where any of these men were the night of the 18th, I am confident
they were not in a game of this kind. If they had been, they
would be behind the iron fence by now awaiting trial."

Reported-M
Salt Lake 12/4/15