New-York tribune., 1921-09-20
10000 Gathered Near
Public Library Driven
OFF After CIamoring
for Hours for Auction
Traffic Blocked
By Unruly Throng g
Officers Weld Clubs, but
Make No Arrests; Sale
Is Called Off by Ledoux

Twenty thousand persons conrre-
gated in front of the Public Library.
IN Bryant Park and adjacent streets
late last night to witness an auction
OF jobless men and women which had
been promised by Urbain Ledoux. auc-
tioneer of idle men.
Fifth Avenue, between Forteth and
Fiftieth streets, was filled with a
massed multitude. Forty Street
was also impossible for more than two
hours. The crowd was orderly at first.
but when subjected to police pressure
showed its temper, ieering Inspector
Boettler and his 800 detectives and
patrolmen. In few instances indi-
viduals resisted the police.
By III o'clock the gathering was so
large and some elements Of it so diff
cult to handle that all available police
reserves were summoned, and a steady
pressure excrted toward driving crowds
away from the library and it's vicinity.
Several clashes took place between
squads OF patrolmen under Captain
howard, of the West Thirtieth Street
police station and bands of trouble
makers apparently organized for the
occasion. Clubs we're used here and
there as groups resisted but in the
end, what threatened to be serious
riot was dispersed without arrests and
without injury TO any of the partici-
pants.
Crowd Demands Ledoux Appear
Where's Ledoux ?" was one slogan
that resounded throughout the crowd.
We want Zero-Mis-ter Zero" was
another.
Groups that had congregated on the
library steps We're charged and dis
persed and an announcement made bv
Captain Howard that Ledoux would not
appear. 1t became known that "Mr.
Zero" after his exciting experience at
Bryant Hall earlier in the day, when
the police charged and dispersed his
followers. had promised Lieutenant
James Fagan, of the bomb squad, that he
would abandon the plan for an auction
az the library at night. The crowd be,
beved that Ledoux had been placed
under arrest and shouts were heard
condemning the police for this action.
The curious began congregating soon
after o'clock. At that hour Bryant
Park was filed with men who appeared
to be of the working class. Early COM
ers occupied benches, but every yard
of grass was tramped into the dust be-
fore another hour had elapsed. Hun
dreds arrived from all directions on
II trains. subways, surface cars and
in automo obiles. BEFORE dark the park
and its approaches were in possession
of q milling crowd.
More. than two hundred passengers
ahghted fron, the Sixth Avenue al"
train at Forty-second Street and
packed the platform and steps of the
station, refusing to move on and block
ing egress for hours. Police warnings
that the structure might collapse and
cause a disaster were ignored.
When Inspector Boettler ordered
that Bryant Park be cleared Captain
Howard, with 100 men, advanced
through the several gates and ordered
"all out" This was the signal for a
demonstration on the part of the mob
that had every appearance of prear
rangement.
Police Clear Bryant Park
The hundred patrolmen closed in
from three sides and gradually worked
the throng out of Bryant Park, han
ding reluctant ones with great good
nature, but taking no back talk from
truculent individuals encountered here
and there.
In spite Of police efforts to keep the
crowd in motion congestion continued
to increase until II o'clock, when $50
patrolmen and sixty detectives were
engaged in an attempt to disperse the
multitude. North bound pedestrians in
Fifth Avenue were compelled to use the
east side Of the thoroughfare and those
south bound the west. More than 200
patrolmen were necessary to maintain
this order in force between Fortieth
and Fiftieth streets, with constant jams
necesstating reinforcements of police
at certain points.
After the police had dispersed the
huge gathering 500 ex-service men,
marshalcd by former army officers who
shouted military orders, formed in For
tieth Street, marched to Broadway and
thence to Central Park where speeches
were made near the Maine monument
denouncing "police brutality" and de-
manding fair treatment for men who
had served in the war. This meeting
also was dispersed by the police, most
of the men taking refuge in Central
Park.
Many members of this gathering were
men who had been sleeping in Bryant