New-York tribune., 1921-09-20
Police Quell
Rioting Over
'Slave' Mart
Continued from page one)

(Ccntsnued from page one)
OF the Ledoux demonstration.
Ledoux announced in the afternoon
that New York would have to undergo
change of its civic conscience before
he would stage any human auction
here.
Mr.. Ledoux did not reach his decision
entirely voluntarily, or because he felt
that New York's civic conscience was
dead. He attained it chiefly because he
appeared earlier in the day as the
central figure in one of the most active
muscular exhibitions ever staged in
New York, in which a squad of police
charged between 5000 and 5000 per
sons gathered in front of Bryant Hall
using fists and niehtsticks before they
succeeded in dispensing the crowd.
1t was an exceedingly brisk and
somewhat brutal affair while it lasted
ending with the police escorting Mr..
Ledoux to taxicab in which he de-
parted from the scene while the de-
parting was good.
The cab took him to the home Of w.
B. Brice, of 11S East Fifty-fourth
Street, where later he made the follow
ing statement:
~ will not stage the auction of un-
employed men as | had planned. The
conscience of New York is in such O.
state that it is not ready to receive
such a lesson and I shall await it's
awakening before | put my plan into
operation.
My reason for going to Bryant Hall
to-day. was to appear as speaker be-
fore the unemployed men and women
am endeavoring to befriend and the
object OF the meeting was to draw up
petition to Governor Miller asking
his help in finding N leans to relieve the
unemployment. l had paid $50 for the
rent of the hall and had planned the
meeting in the perhaps fatuous belief
that free speech and free assembly. as
prevailed in New York.
"But all these rights, including the
sacred right of petition, were denied
by the action OF the police. | feel that
have the right to say that freedom
is dying in the United States and that
until the people of this country shall
rise and insist on their right to express
themselves through the mediums they
have IN the pulpit, forum and press we
can have no real freedom in America"
Mr.. LedouX's activities OF the day
started with a clash with the police,
shortly before noon, when he appeared
colored parasoi en- which was inscribed,
Lift Up Your Hearts" He was fol-
lowed by bakers wagon loaded with
buns and doughnuts.
Taking up a position behind the
statue of Peter Cooper he started to
distribute the food among the men who
rushed from the benches to cluster
around him. There were several hun
dred men in the gathering.
Barely had the hand-out begun, how
ever, when Police Inspector William A.
Coleman and Captain Archibald Mcneil
appeared at the head Of squad of ten
policemen and peremptorily ordered
him to move on. Ledoux obeyed, tell
ing the bakers wagon to follow him to
Bryant Hall, at Sixth Avenue and
Forty-tirst Street, but an official of the
baking company arrived and told him
that he no longer could have the use
Of the wagon, and so he marched on to
the hall alone, still bearing his parasol
aloft
5000 Gather in Front of Hall
This proved magnet for hundreds
of idle men and by the time Ledoux
reached the hall he was leading a
parade Of considerable size. This. aug
mented by the hundreds gathered be-
fore the main entrance to the hall,
formed a crowd estimated at more than
5000.
The gathering parted as Ledoux ap-
peared and made a path Tor him SO he
could ascend the steps to the doors.
There he was met by several policemen.
"You can't come in here" said one
patrolman. "police Captain Howard
mas ordered us to keep you out"
But l have paid for the use of this
hall, for the holding of lawful meet
lng, Ledoux demonstrated
Orders are orders, and we've got to
follow them" said the officer.
Hearing the discussion members of
the crowd began to express themselves
loudly and freely. This is a hell of a
lree country" was shouted by several.
There were numerous jeers, catcall,
and other sounds of disapproval.
These seemed to anger the police.
They asserted later that they warned
the gathering several times to dis
perse peaceably. Whatever the facts,
they suddenly charged the assemblage.
FOR the next five minutes there was a
rough -and tumble battle, approaching
riot, in which scores of men were
Knocked about and down by energetic
ally applied fists and nightsticks.
Escorted Away by Police
At the end of the atfray Ledoux, who
had not been subjected TO physical
handling. was surrounded by an escort
OF policemen, who walked him to Broad
way and Thirty eighth Street and per
lnltted him to enter a taxicab. Several
men in the crowd who had followed
cheered and tossed their hats in the air
when Mr.. Zero rs Ledoux is some
times called, was driven away
Despite his later declaration that he
would not hold his "auction OF the un-
employed detectives guarded the
steps of the Public Library until early
this morning, prepared to prevent any
violation of the law" it was announced
at Headquarters. 1t was also announced
in the evening by William p. Kehoe
secretary, of the Central Trades and
Labor Council, that representatives OF
that organization executive commit