POLICE DEFIED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22345, 17 February 1936, Page 10

POLICE DEFIED

MEMBER OF CONGRESS NEW YORK DEMONSTRATION RELIEF WORKERS' PARADE ITALIAN ROUGHLY TREATED By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received February 16, 6.35 p.m.) NEW YORK, Feb. 15 The police were puzzled for several hours to-day as to what to do with a member of Congress who was held for disorderly conduct. Vito Marcantonio, a Liberal Republican, representing one of the city's' Italian districts, was cuffed and otherwise roughly treated when he attempted to lead between 10,000 and 15,000 disgruntled Federal relief workers in a demonstration for an increase in pay. Because of the snow-covered condition of the streets a permit for a parade had been refused, but after making a speech Marcantonio shouted: "We will paiade anyway." At this the police moved in, and a Bcore or more, including Marcantonio, received minor injuries. He and a dozen others were detained, but eventually the Commissioner of Police ordered them to bo released, saying he did not wish to make martyrs of them. The main burden of Marcantonio s * speech was a denunciation of the Mayor, Mr. F. H. La Guardia, with whom formerly he was associated in a law office.