The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-07
SERVICE MEN RAID
CLUB AND WRECK IT
Rooms of Soldiers, Sailors and
Marines Association Here
Are Attacked.
B0LSHEVISM IS CAUSE
Copies Of Debs's Last Speech
Found on Floor-Radical
Propaganda Discovered.
BOLSHEvISM Is CAUSE

The club rooms OF the Soldiers, Sailor,
and Marines Protective Association a.
1913 East Twenty-third street wer,
| wrecked at the hands OF between ffteer
and twenty men in the uniform Of sol
| diers, sailors ana marines between s.5t
| and sos o'clock last evening. 40
cording to passersby who told the polio,
what happened. the men entered the
| room on the second floor. using a key tc
open the street door and larger ant
more powerful object to break tho slas,
| above. They turned on the lights and
proceeded to wreck the inside of the
place, throwing stray chair legs and
telephone arms through the large plats
glass window to the street and barely
| missing with a typewriter some OF the
large crowd that quickly gathered.
Some one telephoned 70 the Eas
Twenty-second street police station, bu
by the time Sergeant Mccarthy, Police
men Wetzel and Sieger and the reserve,
arrived the show was over. The men II
uniform finished the fun by tearing Out
the chandeliers in the clubrooms, break
Ing the glass in all the doors ON the wa,
to the street and disappearing quietly II
many directions by surface car. elevated
and subway. They took with them one
OF their number who had been injured ir
the melee. The one clue to the cause OF
eAnN- Nl.,tN., Afzl- "A
crowd to repeat to the police was the
word "Bolsheviki."
Radical Literature.
Among the scraps OF literature which
covered the clubroom floor when the DO.
lice looked II over was n liberal sprink
ling of the last speech" of Eugene v
Debe. an illustrated demand that the
United States free the conscientious OBJ
1ectors who had been held under icl
cold showers. strung UP in cells unit
their eyes bulged And their tongles huns
from their mouths, dragged on the
ground by cruel guards and bayonettet
into Inconsistencies" and various othe,
scraps, indicating that the organixatio
had been in communication with radica
centres. The conscientious objsctoi
statement came from one Jules worts
man OF s02 Grand street, Brooklyn.
Another letter found in the mess came
from Harry Pepper. writing in behalf OF
Long Island City shoe workers who were
striking for a forty-four hour week and
asking the organisation to send hin
speakers for a meeting to-day.
In fact, the police were told as soon al
they arrived on the scene Of the riot tina,
the wreckers had moved from Twenty.
third street to the Rand School. the radi.
cal centre in Fifteenth street. The re-
serves were hurried down to protect that
centre, but nothing happened there. II
was necessary. however. to send for an
emergency crew OF the Consolidated Gas
Company 10 turn of the gas. which was
pouring from the broken pipes in the
Twenty-third street club rooms.
Club President Appears.
Shortly after II o'clock a man q lit
tie over five feet in height, wearing an
army officers trench coat, came through
Twenty-third street and declared that he
WAS the president OF tho Soldiers. Sailors
and Marines Protective Association. He
said that the rooms had been closed all
day and that he had been at a concert
nd had only learned Of the wrecking.
He refused at first TO give his name
but finally admitted that II was r
Tropp. He declared that he was a dis
charged and wounded soldier Of the
305th Field Artillery of the Seventy
seventh Division. He vigorously ien!ed
that his organization had any Bolshevist
tendencies. He said at first that II was
n labor organization and then qualified
that statement.
I'VE have about a thousand members
he said. They pay 10 cents a month
dues and we provide them with a meet.
ing place and reading room. Our oh.
ject is to secure Jobs for men who have
not union cards by inducing the labor
unions to give them temporary permits
to go to work, and We have cooperated
with the Central Federated Union ir
this work. As a result of this coopera-
ton We recently passed resolution de-
claring against any OF our members
going to work on jobs where there Is q
strike" '.
II Is the latter resolution which Tropp
blames for the nights trouble. He says
that a man who he believes was q Ca
madam recruiting sergeant and not ar
American citizen went to work with
some OF the other members OF the or
ganization for the Tugboat Exchange in
an effort to break the harbor strike
This Canadian. he says. has threatened
the organization and he believes that he
and his companions made good the
threat last night.
No Arrests Are Made.
The police, however. were unable to
substantiate this story and no arrests
were made. Tropp says he is a dental
mechanic and before the war was the
owner and proprietor OF a dental lab
oratory. The stationery found in the
club rooms gives Ralph Tropp as pres
ident. Maurice Wolfe as vice-president
Alfred II. Levitt as executive secretary
and Louis Prudential as financial Sec
rotary.
Form letters signed by the officers
contain appeals for members to pay up
their dues, to come to a meeting held
In Labor Temple last month and to pay
for tickets for the meeting. Account
books showed that a hundred or more
men had paid the dues. Tho .janitor OF
the building said the association had