The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-02-20
Storm Mayors Office Demand
ing Relief From Prices.
Door Banged in Faces; Police
Drive Them Out.
LEADER IN EARNEST APPEAL
Indignant Housewives Take
Vengeance on Peddlers.
Overturn Pushcarts, Pour Oil
and Fire Vegetables.

New York, Feb. 2O.-Crying I'VE
want bread, we want bread" more
than three hundred women, bare
headed, scantily clad, their warm
est garment being shawl thrown
about their shoulders-stormed up
the steps of the city hall here today,
demanding relief from Mayor Mitchell
from the high cost of food.
Some declared their families were
starving.
Most of the women carried babies,
their faces showing the pinch of nun
ger, in their arms.
The women were headed by Mrs.
Ida Harris, president of the Mothers
Vigilance League and Marie CAM,
known as Sweet Marie" They came
from the Rutgers Square tenement
district where push cart pedolers nave
been steadily raising prices until the
women declared they are now utterly
unable to feed their families.
1--WE are starving. we want bread,
was the constant cry raised by the
women as they surged about the en-
trance to city hall.
Crowd Appeared Unannounced.
Walking quietly across city hall
park the women were at the very
stems of the building before they were
noticed They swept up the steps en-
masse. The doors were banged smut
in their faces and wild cries and inn
precautions followed.
A swarm of police reserves and
plain clothes men appeared. They
drove the-women down from the steps.
Marie CAM then mounted the steps
and addressed the women.
She urged the women to remain in
the street and especially to do nothing
that would give the police an excuse
to arrest them With this the crowd
ouieted and Sweet Marie" and Mrs
Harris were admitted to the building,
as representatives of the protesting
women
Mrs. Harris declared she represent
ed no political organization OF any
kind.
81 Represent Only Mothers:
'I represent no one but mothers"
she said my husband is a watch
man. / have three children and can
just manage to get along But other
mothers who can't get along come to
me with tears in their eyes and ask
me what to do
I'VE were promised a public school
in which to hold protest meeting
next Tuesday. By that time, tho,
hundreds would be starving, so we de-
termined to march down here to see
him."
Mrs Harris was told that the mayor
was not in his office but was prom
today or tomorrow.
Arrest Sweet Marie
At noon a delegation of women had
gathered in front of police headquar-
tiers demanding to see Police Commits
sioner Woods.
At the same time the police receiv-
ed word that two thousand additional
women were forming in Rutgers
Square to march to the city hall.
A serious outbreak was threatened
when Marie CAM was arrested after
persed. The crowd in city hall park
by this time numbered thousands.
Sweet Marie" has been identified
with agitatorS here and the police
quickly sought to separate her from
the women demanding food. She was
hurried into the police precinct sta
ton in city hall and then into a patrol
wagon. Sighting her in the wagon,
the women made rush for it, yelling,
screaming and demanding her re-
lease. A line of police was quickly
formed to stop the on-rushing wome 4
and the patrol whisked away.
Authorities Make Little Progress.
New York, Feb. 20.-The city au-
thorities today renewed their efforts
to curb the rising cost of food which
was responsible for riots yesterday in
three different places in the tenement
districts. Joseph Hartigan, commits
sioner of weights and measures, ap-
pealed to state commissioners of agri-
culture and state department of food
and markets thruout the country to
cooperate in bringing food supplies to
the New York market The situa-
jump in the price of staples partic-
Do