New-York tribune., 1905-07-06
EAST SIDE RENT WAR ON.
Rioting Folloscs Quiet Siege of
Goerck-st. O7cner.

~gse economic upheaval the lower East
-Soe caused by the rent raising exactions of the
new owner and landlord OF the two tenement
houses. Nos. 100 and III Goerck-st. eliminated
in actual violence late last night the landlords
windows being smashed in by partisans of the
revolving tenants. and riot averted only by the
prompt action OF the police.
Following dispossess notices served on every
family and firm refusal TO pay, the storm had
been gathering all the evening, representatives
OF the forty families and their sympathizers
forming into sullen knots on the sidewalk and
the section ot the street Immediately below the
landlords apartments. From time TO time Rgly
threats were breathed against s. Cohen, the
new owner and landlord It was 10 p. m, how
ever. before there came a swift sudden, mex
plicable rush into this section OF the street
In few moments street and sidewalk were
blocked with excited East Side humanity, every
unit gazing in the direction of the landlords
apartments on the front of the first floor of No.
Ill. Then some one began to hoot and in
second the entire crowd Joined in and the air
was alive with shouts, jeeTs hootings and cat
calls
How IL happened no one knew, but the crowd
was suddenly startled by loud double crash.
followed by the tinkle OF falling glass, and,
looking up. saw two gaping holes in the land
In panic of fear Cohen dispatched small
boy TO the Delancey-st. police station, and two
policemen arrived in short order. after little
difficulty subduing and scattering the crowd
Thanks TO the fact that the shade was down,
Cohen and his family escaped injury.
Posters denouncing Cohen, and printed in
Yiddish and English. are now posted on the
walls. stairways and store fronts throughout the
neighborhood, and when the dispossess cases
come up before Magistrate Hoffman this morn
ing the tenants wives and children will attend
the court in a body and plead for delay.
Even earlier in the day small but angry crowd
had stood in front OF the buildings, occasionally
throwing mud and refuse at Cohens apartments
AS the result of this and BLACK Hand" postal
card, which the tenants protest Cohen wrote
himself the landlord is to-day a virtual prisoner
In his rooms venturing out only under police
protection.
$4,000 for the two buildings. giving first. sec
ond and third mortgages at 100000 $1,000 and
SsODO respectively. Other SPECTATORS too de-
clare he paid $1,000 too much for the buildings
BE this as IL may, Cohen apparently discovered
that To pay per cent interest on the first mort
gage and per cent on the second and third as
Wen as taxes, etc, he would have to raise the
rents S3 TO 50 month the buildings would
only bring him S32,500 each annually, a dead
loss of $4,000. The families in the two build
ings are nearly all Hebrews as is Cohen himself
The Hiddish notices compare Cohen unfaVor-
aoly with his predecessor, who did not raise
the rent. and urge resistance as well as a black
listing Of both buildings. The tenants declare
they will flight to a finish" pointing out that
any victory for the landlord would result in a
wholesale raising of the rent elsewhere. They
declare that there is no reason for the increase
and that they received no notice Of the rise.