Uninvited Picket Given Year Term for Having Gun
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Man Who ‘Muscled in’ N.Y. Ship Strike Refused to Leave Line
Pals Already Fined
A former Philadelphia strikebreaker who “muscled” his way uninvited into the picket line outside the New York Shipbuilding Corporation and had a loaded pistol in his possession was sent to state’s prison yesterday for from one to three years.
He is Henry Parks, of 7073 West Chester pike, Upper Darby, Pa., who pleaded guilty in special sessions court before Judge Frank F. Neutze to carrying a concealed deadly weapon.
When Judge Neutze pronounced sentence Mrs. Mary Parks, mother of the prisoner, became hysterical in the courtroom, crying out that “my son is a good boy—he didn’t do anything.”
Parks and four companions were arrested outside the Camden shipyard on May 5 on the complaint of the strikers. The latter protested that Parks had joined the picket line unasked and when he declared he had a gun and no one could force him out of line. Acting Motorcycle Sergeant James Wilson testified yesterday that a car containing five men stopped at the shipyard’s main entrance and the occupants had been drinking. Wilson and Motorcycle Policemen Earl Wright and Joseph Black found eight bullets on the floor of the car, and then rounded up the men. Parks was in the picket line and had a loaded gun, Wilson testified. At the time of the arrest, City Detective Benjamin Simon revealed that all five men were Philadelphia taxicab drivers and had taken those jobs as strikebreakers during the Philadelphia taxi lockout. The five men declared they had not come to Camden’s shipyard for that, that they had been drinking and were on their way to Gloucester for more beer when they saw the shipyard men picketing, and merely stopped to ascertain what progress had been made in strike settlement. The five were “booked” at police headquarters “on suspicion of inciting a riot” but in police court it was changed to “loitering” against four and the gun-toting charge against Parks. The latter was held in $2500 bail by Judge Pancoast for a grand jury indictment. He went into special sessions yesterday and pleaded guilty. The other four, obtaining fines of $25 each by Judge Pancoast May 7, were Archie Oates, 5150 Ludlow street; Charles Merriken, 5423 Pine street; and Herbert Lewis, 258 South Fifty-fourth street, all of Philadelphia, and John Mason, 1126 Roosevelt boulevard, Llanerch, Pa. On the day after the five men were arrested, Edward Baker, a member of the shipyard strikers’ grievance committee, reported to police that his car had been forced to the curb by another automobile containing the five prisoners. Baker had rounded up the witnesses for the police in the case against the five defendants.