AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

Otago Witness, Issue 4041, 25 August 1931, Page 49

AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS.

A SUPER ORGANISATION. WASHINGTON, August 19. i resident Hoover has appointed Mi " alter Lifford, president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, one of America’s largest corporations, to create a super organisation for meeting the unemployment crisis during the coming winter. The President thus hopes to avoid the threat of Socialistic legislation. He plans to meet the situation through a policy of local initiative, with tlie Federal Government acting as a central co-ordination.

The President indicated that he will fight every proposal for the enactment ot direct relief by the Federal Government.

DETROIT UNEMPLOYED. NEW YORK, August 22 A message from Detroit states that Senator Couzens, who was formerly Mr I™nnn F °> r Ti S part,,er ’ to -‘ la .v offered 1,000.000 dollars for the relief of unemployed here during the coming winter. He informed the Mayor that he had unsuccessfully tried to secure a sitting of a special session of Congress to deal with tlie question of unemployment from the national point of view. He said: "It is more important to me that the unemployed should be properly cared for than (hat my views should be adopted.” He asked that an additional 9.000,1)00 dollars should be raised for the same purpose. The Detroit State finances are badly deranged as the result of the outlay 7 of 1.500,000 dollars a month for relief during the past year. ° GUN BATTLES IN STREETS. HEAVY’ LOSS OF LIFE. . NEW YORK, August 22. The crime wave among gangsters reached a climax when warfare flared up in five places in the metropolitan area. Two policemen were shot dead and six others were wounded, while two robbers were slain and 15 citizens wounded. The outlawry was renewed in the same district in which bandits recently fired into a crowd, killing a child.

To-day three robbers raided the Mendoza Fur Company. They killed a patrolman who was guarding the pay roll and escaped with £lOOO. When they were speeding away the bandits fired on a motor car which was carrying a woman, a child, and a fireman whom the bandits mistook for a policeman. All were badly injured as the robbers raked the car with a machine gun.

The bandits were brought to bay in Bronx after shooting another patrolman, and two of them were killed. All the police reserves were called out.

CITIZENS ROUSED TO ACTION. NEW YORK, August 22. Three more persons—a policeman, a taxi driver, and a 13-year-old boy—are now in a critical condition and likely to die as a result of yesterday’s gun battle. The dead bandits have been identified as belonging to law-abiding families living in New York. They were only 20 years of age.

Popular feeling still runs high and the newspaper New York American, in a black leaded caption on the front page, says: “ Citizens of New York, this may be the fate of any of you unless you band together to put an end t<. the terrorism of crime. Every man and woman in the city should attend a monster mass meeting which will be held to-morrow night in Central Park.”

The newspaper adds: “ President Hoover is shocked at the story of widespread slaughter and he has directed that an immediate investigation be made by Federal detectives. Mr Walter Ferguson, chief of the Secret Service Eastern Division, has been directed to proceed to New York to co-operate with the Federal Department of Justice and the police. He has also been designated to investigate the position.”

Far-reaching changes in the New York Police Department’s signal and patrol system, with the introduction of radioequipped motor cars for rapid concentration in any part of the city have beeu announced by the Acting Mayor (Mr M‘Kee) as the result of yesterday's experience. DEATH ROLL NOW SIX. NEW YORK, August 22. The death roll now has increased to six by the death of an infant. More than 1000 bullets were exchanged in the battle, which extended over 12 miles of streets. The citizens are aroused to an intense pitch, and officers of the American Legion offered to mobilise 30,000 service men to assist tlie police to patrol the streets. A public mass meeting has been called to demand the end of the reign of terror.