The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-03-02

The strikers demands include 8 closed shop and wage increases averaging $2 a week. Real estate owners rejected these demands as "indefensible" because the closed shop necessarily conflicts with discipline and good service and also with American principles whereby every man is entitled to earn a Hv- ing regardless of race, creed ol union affiliation."
 Many apartment buildings, hotels office structures and lofts were cold the engineers and 1iremen had struck. Many had no telephone ser vice-building switchboard operators had quit. Table refuse and waste paper accumulated under kitchen cite tables, dust lay thick in the lobbies of de luxe hostelries - the janitors had gone, and the chamber maids with them.
 Dempsey, Cantor Affected
 Jack Dempsey, the manassa mau- Ter, bumped a big black baby buggy down 20 flights of stairs in the building near Central Park where he lives A daughter of Eddie Can tor declared via telephone from an- other eyrie that "no Cantor is walk ing that far just to get to street; ;;' The Cantors were staying aloft as long as groceries held out. The strike started violently. There were threats of more violence. Building owners hired SiX-foot strike break CTS from Pearl Bergof, the fred demon" who once said he had made $10,0OO,00O from smashing strikes A strike leader said pickets would flight fire with fire" A strike breaker was stabbed in the neck last night, striker slugged unconscious, two non-striking elevator operators beaten. Twelve thousand reserve policemen patrolling the vicinity of affected buildings arrested 25 pick cts in the first five hours of the strike.
 Started Yesterday
 The first workers walked out yes- terday morning in the northwestern quarter of Manhattan and parts of the Bronx. Today, they said, 20,- 900 apartment, office and loft build ings would be affected. Among them they listed the 102-story Elm pire State building, tallest office structure in the world. Officers of the building service employees in- ternational union bitterly de- nounced the union busting" policy they attributed to former Governor Alfred E. Smith, chairman of the Empire States directors.
 In buildings where strike-break- CTS had been employed, or clerks and managers had assumed duties foreign to their jobs, conditions were little better than in building without any service at all. Elevator signals buzzed impatient demands while novice operators fumbled with levers; radiators racketed the infor- nation that amateur boiler tenders were on duty.
 Emergency Help
 Most hotels and large apartments attempting to operate with emer- gency help, hired guards for all their doors. The bronze main door of one apartment hotel where two- room studios run to $120 a month presented evidence of fear. A bell boy had sawed off the nodded outer door knob, cast as an integral part of the door, so that it could be opened only from the inside. Po- lice Commissioner Lewis J. Valen- tine mobilized his force on a war time basis. The 4,O00 patrolmen normally on duty were increased to 12,000 by throwing the three shifts onto 24-hour duty. Valentine or dered the men to sleep in their sta ton houses and, in some districts, negotiated for emergency quarters
 Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia hurried home from Washington an- nouncing that he would concern himself first with health condi- tions" in affected buildings.
 Union President Angry
 James J. Bambrick, union pres- ident, exploded with anger at the intimation that the mayor would in- terfere to diminish effectiveness of the strike. He telegraphed La Guar dia that the strike was called "to escape economic slavery" and re- minded the mayor that employers had "contemptuously rejected" pro- posals for improved working condi- tions." Ut will be futile to try tc break this strike," he said. The strikers ask @ 8 a month wage in- crease, reduction of 8 54-hour week to 48 hours, and Q closed shop ir apartment buildings. Tn office and left buildings they want a g wage increase, Q 48-hour week, and closed shop. Bambrick said eleva- tor operators in some buildings were receiving S0 week, that chamber