Evening star., 1924-08-12
PLEA FOR IRELAND
RESULTS IN RIOT
Soap-Box Orators Clash
Over "Rights" to Air.
Police Called Out.
BY ROBERT T.. SMALL,


NEW YORK, Agust 12.-The world
at large may think that THE Irish
Question" has been settled, but here
In New York City you can still get
fight out of it at the drop Of a hat.
1t is the same old story of police
whistles, riot calls, broken heads and
ambulances hurrying to the hospital
for all they are worth. The styles
never change in this respect
New York is in the midst of its
midsummer madness. This means
that the street corners in the white
light districts are occupied nightly
by soapbox orators who discuss every
subject under the sun, or rather un-
der the stars. Public health, public
morals, truth, new thought politics
reparations. relatively, free love,
birth control. they are all one to
the corner spellbinders.
Flag AS Preventive.
Some of these patriots, uplifters
and cultists wrap themselves in the
American flag as they speak, treat
ing 1T as the symbol of freedom of
expression as well as thought They
think flag a day will keep the police
away. The latter are extremely toll
Grant, however. and seldom inter
fere until the fighting begins. New
York is getting as liberal with the
nuts and the cranks as the auth
critics in London who turn Hyde Park
over to the longhaired men and the
short-haired women and tell them to
go to 1t, to get all the rancor out of
their systems and then go home like
good citizens and go to bed.
with Ill the new ideas and the
queer ideas that are before the Amer
lean people today, one would think
the Irish question a bit threadbare or
shopworn as it were. Yet this is far
from the truth. The Irish fight in
spirit never dies. 1t quickly kindles
into fame, for North, is North and
South is South and never the twain
shall meet.
Health VS.. Ireland.
IT so happens that several outdoor
meetings We're going on at one and
the same time in Columbus Circle
last night. 1t also happened that
one soap boxer was discussing health
and the adjoining one was discussing
Ireland. There was bad augury
in this. Pretty soon the meetings
overlapped and then the fun began.
Some five thousand persons were in
the circle getting a 'bick" out of the
various free entertainments so Law
ishly on tap. The Irish orator was
extolling Eamonn De Valera and
intimated quite loudly that ireland
never would amount to anything
until the De Valera ideas were fully
adopted and Ulster was brought into
line. The Irish patriot proclaimed
his views with so much vehemence
that the health orator shouted over
to him that he was trying to grab
the air" and interfere with all the
other meetings. He also initma ed
in rather blunt language that Ire
land was not SO darned important
after all, certainly not as important
as the health of all good American
citizens.
That was enough. The Irish orator
climbed down from his stand and
made for the health man. 1t looked
very bad for the latter's general con-
stitution, but before the two princi-
pals ever got within striking dis
tance a melee was under way. A
melee in the very heart of New York
City on hot night is a difficult thing
to deal with and they had to call out
the reserves of half a dozen precincts
before order could be restored, and
nothing more heard about the circle
but the hum and the click of the
cheap taxicab meters as up and down
town traffic was resumed. At one
time during the fighting a lone man
who must have said something terri
BILE was being chased by more than a
hundred men and women. He took
refuge in an all-night restaurant
where a woman attendant quickly
shut the door in the faces of the pur
suers. The foiled one hundred then
turned quickly about and Joined the
milling and the pummeling at the
base of the statue of the discoverer
of this grand free country. Straw
hats, torn clothing and four or five
stray shoes made up the litter of the
battlefield when all was over. One
arrest was made. How that unfortu-
nate got into the tolls is not known.