The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-08-04
MILITIA WAITS
CALL TO HALT
CHICAGO RIOTS
Eviction of Negro Starts
Battle; Thousands Fight
Police.
MAYOR CALLS FOR AID
Illinois Guard, MaSSed at
Camp, Ready to Speed
to Strife Scene.
By United Press

By United Press
CHICAGO, Aug. 4.-The entire
Illinois national guard force, nnassed
At Camp Grant for summer train
ing. was held in readiness today for
action while hundreds of police pa
crolled a riot-torn section of Chi
cago where three men were killed
and four wounded in Communist
headed uprising that developed be-
cause a tenant was evicted from
his home.
A request that the already mo-
bilized troops, numbering several
thousand, be prepared to advance
into the city on short notice was
received last night from Mayor
Anton j. Cermak, who was at
Mackinac.
The order came a few hours after
D bloody riot in a Negro district,
where many residents have been
unemployed during the depression
and where Communist leaders, some
of them trained in Russia, have
NhhOCQ CflOOlOll O1lll4l0 HULL
trouble for several weeks.
The south side district was out
wardly quiet today, while civic lead
ers met in an emergency unemploy-
ment relief conference.
Aid for JObIess Asked
Appeals to Governor Louis L. En-
tnerson and to charities for addi-
ttonal assistance to the jobless
among Chicagos $4,000 Negroes
were formulated at the meeting,
Joined in by white and Negro
leaders.
Police Commissioner John Alcock
personally directed safety measures
in the BLACK belt" One hundred
reserves were thrown into the dis
trict to await orders and patrols
broke up all attempts at gather
ings. The situation eased sufficient
~ to release off-shift superiors, but
ell patrolmen were held in readi-
ness.
Twenty-four alleged participants
IN the riots, including Louis Lemes,
the only white man in the group,
on whom Communistic literature
was said to have been found, were
questioned by police.
DR.. Harold Kingsley, pastor of the
Good Shepherd Congregational
church, Negro, declared, "the need
is immediate for food, shelter and
clothing. and should be met, but
Che need also exists for firm police
action, to halt Communistic agi-
tation."
The rioting late Monday started
when two municipal bailiffs and
two policemen accompanied M. j.
Kolliner, real estate agent, to 4311
South Michigan avenue, and moved
into the street the household goods
of the Negro tenant.
While the eviction was in prog
xess, several thousand unemployed
Communist sympathizers were being
organized for a parade in a park
not far away. When word reached
them Of the eviction, the rioting
started.
Reports of what followed were
conflicting. The police with Kolli-
ner were attacked. Reserves were
rushed out. There was open fight
ing in the streets.
Police Beaten Unconscious
One squad car which arrived early
contained two white policemen,
John McFadden and Martin Ernst,
and a Negro officer, Fred Graham.
IT was surrounded by the mob, the
police were dragged out and beaten
unconscious.
Other squads, arriving later, drove
back the rioters with gunfire and
found the three officers upon the
pavement. McFadden's head had
been pounded against the concrete
until his skull was fractured. The
other two had been slashed with
knives. stoned and beaten with
clubs.
The three men killed were all
Negroes and members of the mob
One was shot down as he stood over
an unconscious policeman with a
gun, READY 10 SIlOOO. OIlS Was lQS1-
titled as John O'Neil, in whose
pockets was found a membership
card issued by the Unemployed
Council, said by police to be Com
n1unist organization.
Demand Free Houses, Food
on the back of the membership
card were instructions to fight
against evictions," and club de-
xnands that unemployed by fed
and clothed by the city, given free
gas, lights and electricity, that va
cant homes be turned over to the
unemployed, and that free medical
service be given them"
Almost the entire motorized
power of the police department was
massed In the district before the
f1ghting was stopped and several
officers who had strayed from Their
squads we're rescued from buildings
in which they had been surrounded
BY the milling throngS.