New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-05-09
STRIKERS RIOT; 35 HURT
SIX HUNDRED IN FIGHT
Longshorcmen Attack Nezc Work.
men-Three Policemen Injured.


.rcb street fighting the other side of the
river as happened last night when nearly six
hundred italians ano Poles joined battle in the
italian quarter near Metropolitan avenue Will
iansburg Three patrolmen seriously in
iured and when their comrades had broken up
the riot thirty-ffve rioters had been sent TO the
Williamsburg Hospital and twelve more locked
up in the Bedford avenue station.
A riot in the morning which had attended the
shipping Of the longshoremen strikebreakers TO
Manhattan had warned the police to be ready
for more trouble. Under cover of darkness. at
about o'clock. an attempt was made by the
steamship lines TO run their new men through
the strikers pickets TO their homes A few
blocks from the pier where the men landed a
detail of police were waiting at the Havemeyer
sugar refinery for trouble, but the strikers.
tipped OFF, by some friends. eluded them and
entertained" the new men in a way which
would have made Sam Parks and his old enter
tainment committee green with envy.
Just after o'clock a covered lighter with
more than three hundred strikebreakers from
the Manhattan piers docked at Metropolitan
avenue. All was quiet the lines were passed
ashore. but every tree, every door and shadow
and every roof concealed a striking longshore-
man The strikers from the sugar plant who
had been paid off earlier in the day and We're
shoremen. until there were close 10 three hundred
of them lurking about the pier. waiting for the
Italians and Poles TO get ashore.
STRIKE BREAKERS SURROUNDED.
The s;rategical experts leading their forces
did not allow single hostile move TO be made
until the strike breakers were clear of the pier
and the strikers had closed in behind them.
Then. just as it looked as though the strike
alu ba
every dark lurking place gave UP two or three
men. armed with clubs and pistols. paving
stones and guns. From the roofs there came a
voIey OF chimney tops. stones and all sorts of
old funk, which poured down on the heads of
the frightened Italians
Bunched close together they finally stirred up
courage 10 defend themselves, and the strikers
no longer had things entirely their own way
AS the strike breakers steadied the attacking
party began TO use their revolvers Fully a
score Of them were armed and at such close
range. every time they fired they hit somebody.
The Italians began 20 drop and the rest sour
ried to doorways or backed up against trees or
buildings. where they had chance TO defend
themselves with knives and dirlbs. These are
poor weapons against stones and clubs and
while the surgeons afterward spent most OF the
night sewing up knife slashes the strikers did
great damage with their clubs and revovers.
Eight blocks away, at the sugar house at
Kent avenue and South 4th street, were four
mounted patrolmen. Whistling for help they
charged down through Kent TO Wythe avenue,
where. at Metropolitan avenue, they ran into
the thick Of the riot. With the advantage OF
the height Of their mounts in their favor their
long nightsticks swung fail-like on the heads Of
everybody in sight. and the riotIng stopped for
the moment wherever the clubs descended.
PATROL8IAN HIT WITH STONE.
At Grand street and Kent avenue. when shots
were first fred, were Patrolmen Hagan and
KerTigan, plainclothes men, and Howard a
uniformed man from the Bedford sta
ton Not even stopping to rap for assistance.
Howard waded into the frenzied mob with his
Mghtstick. and was beating the rioters in his
immediate vicinity when he was hit from behind
by oobblestone. AS he pitched forward half
dozen Italians jumped him. but Hagan and
Rerrigan were there TO meet them with their
pocket billies and revolveHs The strikers could
have stayed, but they didn't to want 10.
Meanwhile some one had called up both the
Williamsburg Hospital and the Bedford avenue
station, where Captain Kremer was behind the
oesk, reading his orders to the forty patrolmen
about to 90 out on the o'clock tour. At the
double quick they rushed 10 Kent and Wythe
avenues
When they reached there close 10 a hundred
men were stretched out the ground. while
little swirls marked the passage of the mounted
men as they charged through the crowd. The
forty patrolrnen lost no time in making prison
ers. Wherever they saw a head they hit and
hit hard In three minutes strikers and strike
breakers were in full flight, save a few rounded
up in alleys and doorways.
Just as the police arrived the rioters virtually
seized four trolley cars Threatening the car
crews. they held them up until all four were
ioaded with the wounded and their friends. The
police, too busy with the rioters who stayed be-
hind. did not see them until too late 10 stop
them, and close TO a hundred wounded men,
some Of them probably seriously hurt, got away
with their friends.
TWELVE PRISONERS TAKEN
When the police got the situation in hand once
more and began to take stock they found that
they had twelve well battered prisoners all Ital-
ians and Poles. and a choice assortment OF cuta
bruises and torn uniforms. Nearly all Of them
had big, aching bumps on their heads, which
hey would not have had had they worn the old
style helmets to protect them. Howard was
seriously injured. while the two plaincIothes
men were painfully bruised.
-Four ambuiances came over from the will
iarnsburg Hospital and the surgeons had tra,r
hands full Thirty-fve men most ~ than, $40,
conscious were being held by the police for their
arrival Some Of them were cut sey,eraI bad
" 'iiot, while every other form Of minor in
pOs'ipe was possessed by the others. Two
" t'ioe u the men, hit by the strikers. clubs
are In a critical condtion 0'D"''
o. -, ---oi "eeh attacked only by the strik
Us lung Siioiehen the riot probably wou,a no.
s,.,,,.-~ 1U''' serious Proportions But the
a. INC sugar house believed that Tho
men were coming 10 take their n,aoos 80, -
a lelaClment OF nearly - '-0i'N