FIGHT FOR WORK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 152, 27 June 1914, Page 17

FIGHT FOR WORK.

IAMAZINtJ SCENES IN* ■RTJSH OF THE EN-EMPLOYED. Pushing, struggling, overwhelming policemen, and rendering powerless the city officials who were doing their best, nearly Aye thousand of Montreal's nuemployed this morning (says 'she "Montreal Daily Star" of April 20) swarmed around- the City Ilall in response to Mayor Martin's invitation to come and work for tbe city. The crowd waited nearly three honrs before the foremen could begin engaging tho men. Audi then the rush, was so great that the stone balnstrade bordering the Champ de Mars between the City Hall and the <"onrt House was torn away and a group of the eager men rolled down the slope. No one was seriously hurt. Chief Engineer Janin. who was supervising the distribution of the cards by which engagements are made, became isolated tn the crowd, and had to be rescued' by a squad of police from the whirlpool of humanity in which he was submerged. At last the scene of engaging m the spot had to be suspended, and cards were given out informing the unemployed ct the locality where they should' apply. Jost how many men have got work it is Impossible to say, the officials themselves did not know. Calculations were made uvhereby about 2.000 men could be taken on. Describing in detail the frantic rush for irork the "Daily Star" says: — When Chief Engineer Janin. escorted by this foremen, appeared on the Champ de Mars, the waiting men gathered in one Jmge heap, surging forward like a human wall, bands outstretched aloft. Mr Janin, fighting furiously to free himself, fled up Jhe steps to the City Ilall Square, where She was rescued by policemen. Then began a distribution of the cards. "•Married men only—no use if yon are not tnarried." Put the crowd heeded' not: they pushed nml swayed and tore and fought, struggling for the little white card which was to give them bread and lodgings. Several times they made energetic rushes, which almost carried the constables off their feet, and once the attack looked serious. There was a blinding rush, then a. crash. -Scores of men iaine tumbling down the stairs. The mob had torn down the hoary two-feet, broad railing of stone and plaster as if it were paper. There, was an outcry, and the throng wore repulsed by tbe police again. Then up they came, lighting blindly, a case of "get there first." Polacks and, Russians in morrjik costumes su<l felt boots, Italians in bright garments, and swarthy faces, French and English, even negroes, all fought and tore at each Other. Did men, grey-bearded, bespectacled; young lads not out of their teens, were carried along with the surge of the crowd. Men of all sorts and conditions and all nationalities were there. Some carried their marriage certificates with them. Others water, vaccination—no matter what, as lung as it was a certificate. Captain Bourgeois, who has been in Montreal police department for twenty-three years, declared that he "had never seen, such a mob in his life." "I did 1 not think there were as many unemployed," he said. "It is amazing."