The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-03-30
BY OAKLEY JOHNSON
(Reprinted from The New Republic

that the 5000 demonstrators IN the mass paraoe
10 the Ford Motor Company plant were un-
armed and that the Dearborn and Ford police,
using not only revolyers but machine gun,
fred at them unnecessarily, even after the crowd
had begun to turn back. Already the civil
Liberties Union is taking g. hand IN the case;
she families OF the victims are planning to in
stitute civil suits against Henry Ford and the
Ford Motor Company; all the rioters" who were
under arrest have been released without being
required to give bond; public opinion particu-
larly in Detroit itself, is largely against Ford;
the city administration blames Fords own pol
icies. and the repressive policies of the Dearborn
administration for the tragic outcome.
Briefly stated, the following appears to be sub
stantiaIly what occurred:
About 10000 participants in an unemployed
demonstration on Monday March T. marched
with police permission along Fort Street from
downtown Detroit to the Dearborn city limits.
They we're walking in orderly formation, four
abreast singing or Joking, carrying banners.
few hundred women were among them. They
stopped Just before reaching Dearborn and were
addressed by Alfred Goetz who instructed them
to remain orderly, to use no violence and TO
maintain "proletarian discipline" AT the Dear
born limits they turned into Miller Road and
were met by about fifty Dearborn police, who
ordered them to turn back No parade permit
local policy toward radical demonstrations,
although in Detroit the permit, under Murphy's
liberal policy had been freely granted. The
rnarchers insisted on going ahead. The police
threw tear-gaS bombs, using up, according to
one report tear gas worth 81, $50. Maddened by
the gas, the crowd picked up stones and threw
them at the police. The police retreated, made
another stand, retreated again. Finally the
police used their guns killing one and wounding
,I,sa 81
Ford's private police, drove his car into the
crowd and fired either his revolver his tear
gas gun at the demonstrators. He was hit by
a rock and was taken back toward factory gate
number three by the police, who then in con-
junction with plain-clothes men in Ford's
employ, opened up with their revolvers, wound
ing Others The crowd, several hundred feet
from the gate, were then on the point of retreat
ing when the police and plain-clothes men
opened fire again with machine gun, killing
three more and wounding over score. The
crowd broke and ran. The workers carried of
some Of their wounded fellow marchers leaving
the dead and others Of the wounded lying in
the road
A score or so were arrested, and the wounded,
taken to the Receiving Hospital and to other
hospitals for treatment, were placed under tech
nical arrest and chained to their beds. Maurice
Sugar attorney retained by the international
Labor Defense for the arrested men, obtained
their release on writs of habeas corpus
On Friday night the Communists held an i'm
mense meeting in Arena Gardens, undisturbed
by the police Nearly six thousand people
packed the hall and there were several speakers,
including Biedenkapp of New York and Alfred
Coetz, one OF the five men the authorities are
supposed to be looking for. The police made no
attempt to arrest Goetz. The meeting was in
preparation for the funeral scheduled for the
next day.
At Ferry Hall on Saturday afteroon the
bodies lay in state. Above the collins, against
the wall, hung huge red banner bearing
picture Of Lenin. On one side was the motto,
Ford Gave Bullets for Bread" and on the other
police Bullets Killed Them Red roses were
banked in front of the collins. The band played
the Russian funeral march Of 1905. Rudolph
Baker, Communist district organizer, in brief
address spoke of the lives Of Joe York Joe
Russell, Joe De Blasio and Coleman Lenz-York
had worked in Ohio coal Mines seventeen-year-
old Russell had planned to go to the Soviet
Onion-and declared, TN the name of the district
committee Of the Communist party of Detroit,
we lay the blame for these murders directly
upon the shoulders Of Henry Ford and Mayor
Murphy"
At Grand Circus Park an hour later from the
thirteenth floor of Eaton Tower, I watched the
messed by several thousand spectators, the pro-
cession came slowly toward Grand Circus Park,
the band in front playing the "Internationale"
a massed square of workers carrying a huge red
banner with the slogan in white letters, Smash
the Ford-Murphy Police Terror" The funeral
cortege of score of automobiles came next, and
after it, as far as I could see up Woodward Ave-
nue., workers in mass formation, carrying ban
ners. At least 10000 must have participated
H. rru,a
10000 gathered at Grand Circus Park.
The police had cleared all traffic off Wood
ward Avenue. For two hours no wheel moved
on that street except those in the parade The
roars Of the crowd, cheering their speakers and
booing the police arose in waves to the window
at which I watched. The crowd divided some
remaining in the park to listen to speeches,
others packing into the five hundred automo-
hiles which drove up like a huge Ford belt line
to carry the marchers to the cemetery.
1t was bitter cold, but the late sun shone on
Che tall silvered smokestacks of Ford's River
Rouge plant the smokestacks glistening against
che sky like huge pipe organ Directly adjoin-
ing the road that passes the Ford factory, on
bhe extreme edge Of Woodmere Cemetery, a lot
had been purchased. Here in one grave the
bodies were buried, and here, 1t was announced,
within sight Of the Ford Factory, not far from
where the men had been shot to DEATH a nonu-
ment would be erected bearing an inscription
10 commemorate the manner of their killing.
In three successive interviews in his office,
Mayor Murphy assured me that free speech and