New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-21
5000 at Protest Meeting
Ask Officials to Aid
in Reducing Prices
City Hall Stormed
by Hungry Mothers
Disturbances in Four Bor-.
oughs-Mayor to Meet
Delegation To-day

A horde of hungry women
marched to the City Hall yesterday
demanding food. That was only
one of the disturbances that tho
pressure of high prices inspired in
New York. There were riots on the
lower East Side, on Park Avenue,
north of Tooth Street; in the Clare
mont Park district of The Bronx and
in Brooklyn.
These eliminated last night in a
meeting of 5000 frenzied women in-
side and outside the Forward Build.
ing, 175 East Broadway, where, af-
ter much confusion, resolutions were
adopted calling upon the President,
the Governor and the Mayor to i'm
tervene and bring prices down.
RISE UNCALLED, FOR
THE rise in the cost Of living has
been so great and uncalled for" the
resolutions read, "that we are COM
PEELED to deny ourselves and our
children the necessaries of life. We
pay for our needs out of the wages
of our husbands, and the American
standard of living cannot be main
tanned when potatoes are cents a
pound, bread 6 cents, cabbage 20
cents and onions 18 cents. We call
upon you, Mr.. President, in this
crisis that we are facing"
The personal appeal of the women
who marched into City Hall Park
earlier in the day failed of its pDr-
pose, for the Mayor was away. He
said, however, last evening that ha
would be glad to see committee Of
ten women at noon to-day, if they
came in an orderly fashion.
A Gordon of uniformed policemen
and detectives was rushed in automo-
biles to protect the hall at the first
word of the mob's advance. Behind
the Gordon the iron outer gates of tho
building had been swung 20 and locked.
PARK IN TUMULT
Nevertheless the women kept City
Hall Park in tumult for more than au
hour before a combination Of persus-
sion and force got them to march north
again. While they remained they
screamed their slogan up into the faces
of the mounted policemen who rode
among them: "Give US food"
There were only about 300 OF the
women, but the crowd in the park had
swelled TO as many thousands within
few minutes, complicating matters for
the police. 1t was close 10 the noon
hour. and many other thousands os
business men and women, passing the
mark on their way to luncheon, obtained
first hand glimpse of what soaring
food prices meant to the submerged
tenth.
In the poorer districts throuehous
the city protests against the higher
cost Of living continued to be regis-
tered more strenuously il less specs
tacularly. Pushcarts were upset, ceilap
storerooms rsided, stocks OF boycotted
onions and potatoes scattered or de-
stroyed.
But overturned carts and battered
pedlers and produce sprinkled with
kerosene by embattled housewives and
the hunger which was the moving spirls
in the carnage were all epitomized ia
an incident which fell under the eyes
of a Tribune reporter at Madison and
Oliver streets.
BOY GAINS A PRIZE
On the corner stood boy with q
nrize-a hunk Of black bread overlaid
with a veneer Of CRIME which would
have meant instant condemnation had
minion of the Health Department been
near. The hungry boy was about i've
years old.
When he had bitten into his treasure
n couple of times another boy Of about
the same age approached on the run.
There was a clash, out Of which the
Youthful bread pirate emerged with the
stakes. Racing away, with the rightful
owner in hot pursuit, the pirate was
knocked down by a streetcar and rolled
along in front Of its fender for several
wards. A crowd gathered. Into the
crowd plunged the boy who had hrss
the bread. When he wormed
his way out again-which was just as
an ambulance came up to get the VIC
tim-he was contentedly eating
diminished hunk Of even more grimy
black bread.
The mob which descended on the City
Hall formed in Rutgers Square. There
were a couple Of Thousand OF the
women then. Half q dozen took turns
in harangu,ng the crowe. They spoke
in Yiddish. but there were plenty or
on hand TO volunteer the
information that two ideas stood out IN
all the speechmaking:
Let W. 6ght Ssx ss8xAS& ~ va