The sun., 1917-02-20
Pushcarts Attacked in
Williamsburg, Browns
vile and East Side.
DUMP VEGETABLES
INTO THE STREETS
Half Crazed Housewives
Force Storekeepers to
Close Their. Doors.
STARVATION FEARED
IF PRICES GO HIGHER
1900 at Mass Meeting De-
eide to Appeal to the
Mayor for Relief.

Woven OF the tenemepts whose slim
purses were unable to stand the strain
Of prices charged for potatoes. onions
and other vegetables. turned on push
cart pedlers in Manhattan, williams
burg and Brownsville yesterday after
noon. poured kerosene oil on their pitt
fully poor but high priced stock, upset
the pushcarts and drove the dealers he'll
ter skelter.
In Williamsburg. where the riots were
the most vigorous, the open air market
was broken up for the day.
So fearful were the butchers, srocers
and other storekeepers near by that the
half crazed women would wreck their
places while their rage was on that they
kept their front doors locked and VIM
dows barred until after the police re-
serves had restored order
When the trouble had subsided the
badly scared pushcart men crept from
temporary hiding, put their heads to-
gether and decided to send out q call
to the heads OF families in the disturbed
section to meet them In conference last
aight to talk things- -oyer.-....-... g.. ..,-.--
VIII Appeal to Mayor.
As result Of their plan to set them
selves right in the eyes Of their patrons
fully 1000 men and women gathered
with $50 pushcart pedleTs at Plaza Hall,
Grand and Havemeyer streets. where
they denounced food Spectators and re-
solved TO appeal to Mayor Mitchell and
10 John ]. Dillon. State Commissioner of
Ndg and Anr rlxnNp .
cannot be done to bring the price of nec-
essaries Of life within the reach Of the
poor.
The scenes in Williamsburg as the
women attacked the pushcarts were re-
peated on a smaller scale on the East
Side, particularly in parts of Hester
and Rivington streets. the stronghold of
pushcart men. Many carts were upset
and their contents dumped into cutters.
and many arrays of fresh vegetables
we're doused with kerosene oil. Similar
disturbances took place in Belmont, SUIT
lef and Lake avenues in the Brownsville
section OF Brooklyn
The police heard of numerous sporadic
outbursts on the part Of women who
couldn't pay the price demanded for veg
etables and took revenge on the only
men they could hold responsible-the
pushcart men. At no time did the riot
ing on the East Side become so serious
that reserves were called out. the police.
man on the block being able to take care
OF all trouble. One woman who was
specially vigorous In her treatment Of
pu'hcart goods at Hester and Ludlow
streets was arrested. She was taken to
Essex Market court, but a Magistrate let
her go with lecture.
walls Precede Riot.
The rloting occurred in Williamsburg
tiong three block stretch in Havemeyer
street from South First to South Third
street and on South First, South Second
and South Third streets two blocks be-
tween Roebling and Marcy streets. 1t is
neighborhood Of six story tenement
houses as a rule and is not unlike an
East Side ghetto, Many of the family
neads are employed in sugar refineries
and sweatshops and most OF the families
are large.
The housewives, who do the marketing,
have been grumbliRg for long time over
me advances in prices exacted by the
pushcart men. When they buzzed around
The pushcarts yesterday afternoon and
found that the prices of potatoes and
onions had been advanced from the day
before they were almost beside them
selves.
The pushcart men had paid the whole
salers at the rate of $15 for 100 pounds
OF onions in the morning. These pedlers
generally get the poorest stuff on the
market because its Is the cheapest. A
Wholesale price of fifteen cents pound
meant retail price Of twenty cents or
more. and the women were astounded.
Potatoes had cost at wholesale from
~ to $40 a barrel. and the prices the
puShcart man aakad fr0vr, THAR crlatnyY1.
ers daIed them.
There were walls in Yiddish as the
women. with shawls around their shoul-
ders. ran up and down the lines of push
carts hugging babies In their arms and
dragging small toddlers after them.
Starvation Feired.
We can't pay what you ask !" many
OF them shouted.
Its downright robbery screamed
others.
The pushcart men expostulated and
Tried to make the frantic housewives
understand they had to charge high
prices In order to get back the money
they had paid to the wholesalers. They
INSISTED they were making hardly any
proht for themselves. One man tried to
explain that he had paid 80 for barrel
Of potatoes and was selling them at q
'ate that would bring him but 30 cents
profit.
The women couldn't get into their
heads the intricacies Of big business.
They only knew that at the present rate
dollar wouldn't 70 a. far ~ Q quarter
had gone before things went up. They
Knew. too. that their husbands and chill
dren had to eat. and II food were 30
h'eh they couldn't boy It they would
s.-.s