The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-09-24
$4,000 Defy
Ban, March
To City Hall
in-Drenched JObless
Scorn New York Police,
Present Demands

NEW YORK. Furious In their
determination to march to City
Hall, scornful OF the torrential
downpour which for hours swept
relentlesSly over Union Square Sat-
urday, 10000 unemployed men and
relief workers def1ed the police edict
denying the right to present their
demands on the administration by
exercise of their one powerful
weapon-mass action.
Following the Union Square dem
onstration, the workers marched
through the rain to City Hall, and
the police were powerless to stop
them as they had promised.
According to Deputy Inspector
McAuliffe, $50 patrolmen, SO
mounted police and a great num-
Der of detectives we're on hand ito
maintain order" The stage was set
for another March 9Th, 1880 when
Grover Whalen pursued exactly the
same tactics to provoke the muir
derous attack on the workers which
/ followed.
Shortly after $50 am. several
hundred members of the Council of
Unattached Men filed into the
Square ahead Of schedule. These
are homeless men and they came
wearing the only clothes they pos
sessed. Many were coatless. They
held their banner aloft against
sweeping, chilly rain which drench-
ed them to the skin as they sang
Hold the Fort" with the band of
i the workers x-Servicemen,s
League. After them, in the down
pour, organization after organiza-
ton took its place on the North
Plaza.
Opening the meeting, Richard
Sullivan, secretary of the Unem-
ployment Council of Greater New
York, commented on the mill
tary array surrounding the demon
station He counterposed the state
ment of one-time Congressman La
Guardia to the effect that The re-
ception of petition should not be
made difficult /. and of any citi-
zen whether individually or in small
or large groups acts in an orderly
manner there should be no obstacle
placed in the way of prompt and
courteous reception of any petition
or protest"
Look about you," Sullivan said.
Here was Mr. LaGuardias chance
to put his orstory into effect, but
he forgot. We have seen greater
numbers of police try to provoke us
into violence and we have not for
gotten. The unemployment situa-
ton is not going to be solved by a
policemans night-stick. Nothing
but taxation levied upon big bust
ness, corporations, utilities and
large real estate holdings, nothing
but immediate cessation of pay
ments to the bankers, will supply
the funds necessary for even a sub
sistence level relief program"
That was the keynote of every
address. Speaker after speaker rose
to the drenched stand and hurled
his demand for unemployment in
surance into the armed ranks OF
the police. When the call to march
was sounded, the police officers in
charge held quick pow-wow and
decided to let the demonstration
filter out
Led by their band, f1anked by the
cops, the march proceeded down
Fourth Avenue with hardly a de-
lection among the thousands. The
unemployed marched four abreast
until they reached City Hall.
Guarding City Hall was another
detachment of several hundred
police. The marchers formed into a
mass picket line, four abreast, COM
pletely surrounding City Hall Park
while their committee entered
Major Lawrence B. Dumb. m, the
Mayors secretary, agreed to trans
NIT their demands to the proper
authority" then had the delegation
escorted out but deputy inspec-
tor and six detectives.