New-York tribune., 1916-07-27
Battle Follows Work
ers' Attempt to At
tack Own Leaders.
FIGHT STILL ON; ,
PACT REJECTED.
" Betrayed " Men Shrek
EpithetS at Union Off
CiaIs on East Side.

Breaking from the control Of their
leaders. thousands Of striking garment
workers yesterday engaged in riotous
demonstrations on the East Side and
fought savagely with 400 police re-
serves and plainclothes men hurriediy
called TO Stuyvesant Casino, Ninth
Street and Second Avenue. While the
mob surged about them, the police
battered the strikers with clubs, and
when the battle was ended many Of the
rioters had suffered severe injuries.
The reserves charged again and again
into the crowd before they compelled
the strikers 20 break. As the night
sticks swung, strikers dropped 20 the
pavement and were picked up on the
shoulders of their comrades and car
ried of.
After one charge Of the reserves, the
long line of strikers remained quiet
for few moments and then, like
great wave, moved across the pave
ment. BY sheer weight of numbers
they pressed the police back momen-
tarily. but the crushing blows from
the niehtsticks soon stopped them and
drove them back. At one time, fully
dozen men were lying in the street,
either dazed or unconscious. Many
were bleeding from injuries
Clubs Finally Rout Mob.
An Italian attacked a policeman
futilely with an umbrella. A second
later he sank 10 the pavement, stunned
from the blows Of half a dozen clubs.
Many women, most of them garment
workers. were in the crowd, and some
were in the thick Of the fray.
When the strikers finally realized
they could not stand against the police
their courage seemed suddenly TO leave
them and there was a wild rush for
cover.
Previous TO the riot, Benjamin
Schlesinger, international president Of
the union. had sought to explain the
terms of a proposed agreement with the
manufacturers to a gathering Of shop
foremen in the Casino. He was hooted
down amid a bedlam of denunciations
and epithets. Crook" traitor" and
other names Of vilifcation sounded
through the hall as the union leader,
for his safety. was hustled from the
building under guard. while threats of
bodily injury were shouted by the
strikers against the union officials, who,
they declared. had betrayed them and
"sold them out"
Union Officials in Flight.
Outside a crowd of 5000 strikers
surged back and forth across the
street for four blocks until the reserves
from the Fifth Street station appeared.
The rioters were awed for a few min
utes, and then, shouting defiance and
crying out against their leaders. they
started toward the police, only to be
halted by rain of blows from the
nightsticks. Scores Of plain clothes
men, pressed hastily into service, used
their fists in helping TO suppress the
riot.
While President Schlesinger was at
tempting unsuccessfully to address the
strikers on the second floor of the
Casino George Wishnack, one Of the
vice-presidents of the union, met with
a similar reception in thronged and
noisy room on the ground floor. He,
too, was compelled to get away from
the wrath Of the strikers.
Abraham Barof, secretary and treas
urer Of the union, was threatened, and
Solomon Metz, local labor leader,
made his escape through rear win
dow.
Police Rout Other Crowds.
At other gathering places Of the
strikers there were similar scenes OF
excitement and disorder. Noisy demon
strations were conducted at Beethoven,
Webster and Arlington halls.
A crowd of strikers appeared before
the Office of the Jewish newspaper
Forward" and created q disturbance
until they were dispersed by the police.
They bore banners printed in Yiddish,
which said: "Down with the agrees
ment." They shouted they wanted
some "real leaders" and not men who
would "sell them out" 10 the manu-
faeturers.
The strike leaders had hoped the
settlement would be approved by yes
terday and that many of the men
would be back at work Instead, the
action of the workers left the strike in
full swing, with a settlement apparent
ly still remote. Schlesinger, although
he believed the proposed agreement
should be accepted, told the men the
final decision lay with them and that,