AMERICAN UNEMPLOYED

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 March 1930, Page 4

AMERICAN UNEMPLOYED

WILL FIGHT IF NO WORK

SAN FRANCISCO, February 19. Shouting for “work and wages, or we’ll fight,” 1,200 unemployed men and women stormed the City Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, where they were turned back by the clubs of 200 policemen. Twenty .of the crowd and two officers were injured, and several of the inciters of the crowd were gaoled in an outbreak which stirred the advocates of “prosperity” and revealed with a vengeance the fact that there are many men out of work in these United States, despite the muchvaunted cry that prosperity reigns all over the country. The trouble in Cleveland began when one of the fifty women in the crowd, who was not permitted to enter the City Hall, commenced to cry, “The police are clubbing us!” This wits the signal for disorder. Word was passed along the line: “The police are clubbing us; break through the line.” The stampede started, and the police began clubbing. Twenty rioters fell with heads injured and bruised. Two men leaped on the back of inspector George J. Matowitz, a man of brawny physique, and brought him down. Two men struck at Lieutenant Oliver Torrence and downed him. At one time there were at least thirty of the rioters and, a half-dozen policemen lying on the street and the City Hall steps, receiving the heelprints of their comrades. Several fire companies arrived and attached their hoses to fire plugs in preparation to cool off the rioters if the police were unable to do so.

The mob finally fell back from the hall after ambulances and patrol wagons had gathered up the injured and three of the inciters. Turning on their heels, they marched with police

escort to the public square, where speakers clambered upon the pedestal of the statue of benevolent Tom Johnson, former mayor of Cleveland, and harangued their listeners. The County Welfare Committee meeting had been called to consider the unemployment situation in the city. A petition to relieve the unemployment had been presented to the council the previous week by more than 200 persons who crowded the Council Chamber lor the purpose. At the time they were escorted from the City Hall by police to the public square, where speakers harangued their listeners, declaring they would be heard by the council if they had to force their way into the Council Chamber the next time the petition came up for consideration. The petition was presented in the name of “The Council of the Unemployed.” In Milwaukee, in Wisconsin, there has also been a riot by unemployed during a procession of 400 idle workers.

.Senator La Follette, RepublicanIndependent of Wisconsin, asserted in the United States Senate that President Hoover had . “done nothing to remedy, the unemployment situation,” and that “optimistic ballyhoo statements” on unemployment had been issued by the Executive.

La Follette’s remarks followed a speech by Senator Goff, Republican of West Virginia, who had opposed tampering with present industrial tariffs where no evidence had been adduced before Congressional committees on the particular commodities. Goff called attention to reports that 400 unemployed marched recently in the streets of Milwaukee, and said from recent happenings it would seem the country needed prosperous industries and no tinkering , with existing industrial duties. The Wisconsin Senator replied, saying: “The consumer will be bound, gagged, and delivered if the attitude of the Senator from West Virginia and others is carried out.’ La Follette said: “Every day we get statements that business conditions are better,” adding: “I don’t think it lies in the mouth of any Republican in this Chamber to talk about unemployment wheni the Republican Party has done nothing about remedying the situation.”