TEN THOUSAND BARBERS ON STRIKE

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 3979, 9 July 1913, Page 7

TEN THOUSAND BARBERS ON STRIKE

PANIC AMONG HALF-SHAVEN MEN.

There were 10,000 barbers on strike in New York one day in May, and the majority of New Yorkers who do not shave themselves went without their Sunday shave. A strike of barber’s assistants has been going on for a few days in Brooklyn (writes a correspondent), and this strike spread to New York, causing the closing of most of the barbers’ shops, including those in some of the most fashionable hotels in this city.

Some shops, however, persisted in keeping open, and the strikers went in a body of a hundred or so to these shops and by threats of violence compelled the more timid proprietor's to close their doors.

In Upper Broadway a large establishment, which refused to close, was the scene cf a riot. The proprietor has been “coining” money, and while every chair was filled there were dozens of customers awaiting their turn. The strikers demanded that the place be closed, but the proprietor refused, and telephoned for the police. Before the latter could arrive the angry strikers made an assault upon the shop with stones and with firearms. They shot afc the big glass front, and this so frightened the customers inside that a panic ensued. Men rushed out of the shop halfshaven, while many scuttled through back windows.

There was a lively half-hour, during which the shop was practically wrecked, while some of the assistants, who had been receiving large bonuses for remaining at work, were grievously maltreated. It required a large force of police to drive the rioters off and restore order.