COUNTING THE COST

Taranaki Daily News, 10 March 1932, Page 7

COUNTING THE COST

RED RIOTING AT DETROIT

ALLEGED LEADERS ARRESTED

GIRL TAKES TRAGIC PART

HER SWEETHEART A VICTIM

By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 7 p.m. Detroit, March. 8. There was a counting of the cost today -in the Red labour disturbances at the Henry Ford works yesterday, possibly the most acute since the famous Haymarket riots. Four were killed and 50 injqred. The National Guard of Michigan has been mobilised. Twenty-nine alleged mob leaders, including one girl, have been arrested. Foster and four other well-known Communist leaders'are being hunted.

The Ford organisation has disclaimed all responsibility. “The Ford Company employed more men continuously at higher wages than any other industrial plant or aggregation of plants of the same size in the Detroit area during recent months and replaced, more former employees’ names on the payroll than any other firm, so that if Detroit wants an explanation of such a demonstration Detroit should look to the leaders who recruited the rioters and the sources from which their men were drawn,” the city prosecutor said. “No mercy will be shown any person who is proved to have participated in the riot. We understand those who inspired it are planning another demonstration in the industrial area. I have ordered the police to place all demonstrators, behind bars.”

The Dearborn chief of police defended the firing by his men yesterday. “They did so for their own protection, after everything else failed,” he said. One of the meet remarkable figures among the arrested persons was a girl who, when examined by the police, still wore a shabby blue dress stained with the blood of her slain sweetheart, who died in her arms during the fighting. She shouted defiantly to questions: “Yes, I was there., I am not sorry I did it for the starving millions. Blame Capitalism, which is the cause of all the suffering.” It is revealed that the girl urged the rioters on when faced by a troop of 50 policemen at the Dearborn city limits. “Come on, you dashed cowards,” she screamed, and led the way. Upon the mob’s third surge her sweetheart fell with a bullet wound. A motorist picked up the lifeless young man and the girl and proceeded to the hospital, where she was arrested.

It was announced to-night that among the various charges of homicide, assault and others to be pressed against the rioters will be violations of Michigan’s criminal syndicalism law.