New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-20
17Institutions in The Bronx,
Williamsburg and East
New York Affected
4Patrolmen Hurt;
80 Strikers Arrested
MaIcontents Hurl Rocks at
Windows, Revealing in
Helplessness of Police

School children in seventeen schools
in Williamsburg, East New York and
The Bronx yesterday responded to the
stimulus Of the opponents Of the Gary
system. and rose up in defiance against
The authority Of their teachers and
principals. From 1880 in the morning
until nightfall thousands Of juvenile
indictments marched and protested and
mouthed against the system
While the striking youngsters in
Manhattan Quoted down and began TO
resume their studies, the strike fever
caught hold Of the children in the
other two boroughs Before the thou
sands Of protestants. whipped into an
historical mob by the excitement Of the
occasion, had desisted their cries
against Mitchell and the Gary Plan"
hundreds of panes of glass in school
windows were broken. four patrolmen
were hurt and thirty children were
under Arrest.
$500 In Strike
More than $4,000 children were af-
fected By the outburst, but only half
that number participated in active
demonstration. Most of the ringlead-
ers appeared to be in deadly earnest,
and when questioned some would de-
clare that under the new system the
school hours were too long, or that
the pupils were being trained to be
tools Of the capitalists. Like parrots
they repeated the arguments of grown
Up politicians opposed TO the fusion
administration. The younger pupils
were just striking because the rest
were, and many insisted that they had
been forced 20 get into the movement
by aggressive leaders.
Speaking at Little Hungary last night
the Mayor charged Charles F. Murphy
with instigating the school strikes.
This Murphy has DONE" said the
Mayor. ITO serve the basest of political
motives, and it represents the lowest
act Of public degradation TO which the
leadership Of Tammany Hall has re-
sorted
Some Of the schoolteachers il seems
have aided the purposes OF Murphy.
That these teachers would spur chill
dren on to demonstrations in the
streets seems ungrateful, to say the
least"
Board of Education said last night,
after examining reports from the prin-
cinals of all the schools affected, "the
seriousness of the situation should not
= ,,,i,;,,;7ed neither should il be eX-
aggerated."
other officials at the headquarters
of the board. at Fifty-ninth Street and
Park Avenue, declared that IL was
evident that certain grown-ups
were interested in children's riot
ipg. particularly because Election Day
is almost at hand. Walter Gilpatrick,
who is at the head Of the new publicity
committee appointed to defend the
Gary system, asserted last night thaV
in The Bronx he had found that an
anti-Gsry school organization OF oloer
bows existed and probably planned the
disturbances. and that he had reason
10 believe that older men Of certain
organization were using the boys as
their tools.
When asked whether Tammany Han
was behind the trouble, MI GiiPatrlc
replied: 81 am a lawyer, and Will not
make such charge until ! have evil
dence with which TO support IT,
Expects Return of Order
DR.. Gustave Straubenmiller, Acting
Superintendent of Schools, who kept in
touch with the situation all day over
the telephone, expressed the opinion
last night that the restfulness OF sat
urday and Sunday would bring the chill
dren and the parents "to their senses
and that order would prevail next week.
lie said the present disturbances were
due 10 q hysteria which has arisen, and
which is comparable TO situation on
the East Side and in Brownsville a
decade ago, when impressionable
mothers believed in rumor that the
school authorities were cutting their
children's throats, merely because one
voungster saw another bleeding after
an operation for adnoids in school.
The fact that the discomfort spread
10 Public School &C, Brooklyn, which
had to be closed Yesterday, was given
by DR.. Straubenmuller as an indica-
ton that hysteria and not reason was
nj the bottom of the trouble, for that
school is not a Gary school.
John T. Nicholson, district superin-
tendent in the Brownsville section,
where the protest grew into real riot
at 10 o'clock yesterday morning, ex-
pressed a deep-seated suspicion that
politicians had fomented the struggle,
and has started an investigation 20 ger
specific proof. The Brownsville district
is a hotbed Of socialism and Oh anti
war feeling.
In The Bronx the trouble centred on
Public School AZ, at Claremont Park-
way and Washington Avenue. ne
Youthful "revolutionists" from all the
Gary schools in The Bronx directed
their energies against that schoolhouse'
According TO the report OF Eugene
Gartlan, the principal, the situation
was terrible" there, and 5000 children
stormed the building IN the morning
The police who had gathered AT every
Gary school in Manhattan, Brooklyn
and The Bronx, st the request OF rresi-
dent Wilcox, were able 70 hold the
demonstrators in check. Twenty, VINO
appeared TO be leaders IN Inc bronx
we're placed under arrest.
Cry down With Garyism.
In the afternoon hordes Of pupils
marched through the streets shouting
Down with Garyism!" Virtually Gil
the Bronx Gary schools got at least a
touch of the opposition movement Al
Public School 2s pupils from other
scbools gathered 10 foment trouble, but
nc police kept them in check. One
fifth OF the pupils, chiefly from the
lower grades. stayed away at fuollc
School IS. chiefly, II IS sald' because
,beir parents feared there would be
trouble For the same reason half the
students at Public School Oh stayea