transcribed by Dorothy
Wiland
Robert Wuest's Narrow Escape.
Secretary of the Metal
Trades' Association.
While in Chicago, Incurred
Wrath of
Unknown Men, Who Assulted
Another Man by Mistake.
That a desperate attempt was made to kill Robert Wuest, the well-known national secretary of the Metal Trades association, is the firm belief of the police of Chicago. Mr. Wuest's headquarters are in the Union Trust building, and he lives in the Roanoke apartment house in Clifton.
For the past week or so, Mr. Wuest has been in Chicago for the purpose of getting in touch with the situation there relative to labor difficulties. His headquarters in Chicago are at the law office of Allen & Wesemann, at 88 La Salle street. The members of the law firm have represented the employers in many injunction suits against labor unions. Last Friday two strangers came to the office of the attorneys and asked for Mr. Wuest, who was in the same room with Alexander C. Allen of the firm. Nothing was said by either of the gentlemen as to who was Wuest.
The strangers asked for employment and were a minute labor joined by another man. Their conduct was so peculiar that they were refused. The men started to quarrel and left, muttering inaudibly. Shortly afterward Mr. Allen left the office to go to his home. He found the three men out in the hall, and they rode with him in the elevator to the ground floor. Not a word was said, but when the ground floor was reached the trio suddenly attacked Allen, knocking him down and kicking him. He was badly bruised, but is expected to recover.
Mr. Wuest told the police that he was confident that he was the object of the mission of the sluggers. He stated that owing to the fact that he was getting nonunion machinists to take the place of union men that there was a great feeling against him from organized labor. As secretary of the Metal Trades association Mr. Wuest is at the head of the employment bureau, which obtains men for plants affected by a strike. He had already placed a large number of nonunion men to fill the places of strikers in Chicago, which gained for him the ill-will of the labor unions.
Mr. Wuest stated that there was no doubt that the sluggers had mistaken Allen for himself. Immediately after the assault, the National Metal Trades' association offered a reward of $500 for the arrest and conviction of the assailants of Allen.
