Evening star., 1939-07-15


last month and its removal at
that time has been tolloUed by
Nation-Utde stoppdge of relief
work and strike action.
BY the Associated Press.
MINNEAPOLIS, July l5.-W. P. A.
operations were shut down in strike
Scared Minneapolis today after
bloody battle between police and
demonstrators last night in which
one man was killed and II persons
gassed or injured.
An appeal for Federal intervention
to restore law and order was on it's
way to Attorney General Murphy
in Washington, Mayor George E.
Leach telegraphing that certain
labor elements have openly
revolted against the Federal Gov
eminent and its w. P. A. admins
tration."
Nothing short of Federal inter-
vention can restore law and order"
ne added.
In Chicago, Howard Hunter,
deputy national w. P. A. admin
strator, told the Associated Prks
the shutdown Of relief operations
here had been approved by him
and by Col. F. c. Harrington, w. P.
A. commissioner. Length of the
suspension is uncertain, he said,
with the possibility that some of the
operations will be transferred to
other parts of the State.
The disorders leading to last
nights fatality developed at pm.
when police threw a protective
Gordon around lis woman sewing
project workers as they left their
Jobs to face threatening mob of
strikers and strike sympathizers.
Rocks Are Thrown.
Within period of few minutes,
shouts and screams of the pickets.
the reports of guns and showers of
rocks made bedlam in the downtown
district along Second street north,
wnere the sewing quarters are To-
Gated in a three-story brick build
ing. Riot guns barked from armored
police cars and gunfire spattered
down from nearby building top,
where yelling, throwing group
of men stood.
In the melee, Emil A. Bergstrom,
go, of Minneapolis, standing with
the demonstrators in a filing sta
ton lot across from the sewing
project building, was shot in the
head, dying shortly afterward in a
hospital. Who fired the fatal bullet
was an unanswered question.
Bergstrom was single and had
been on direct relief" since 1890,
the coroners Office was informed
today. Such relief is supplied by
the city and has no connection
with w. P. A.
Nine other persons, including a
14-year-old boy, Lynn Thompson,
and 10-year-girl, Joan Phyllie
Moskdick, we're shot, none seriously.
A policeman's jaw was battered and
five policemen and two otherts were
| gassed.
1t was the second fatality this
week in series of riots centering
at the sewing project, which has
operated in defiance of the strikers,
who are protesting lengthening of
their work month by Congress with.
out an accompanying pay raise.
Early this week policeman died
from heart attack after q skirmish
there with pickets.
Policemen Gassed.
Under police protection, the sew
ing project opened on schedule yes
terday morning. A clash, with
police using tear gas to hold back
mob. occurred at noon when the
work shift changed. Two policemen
were gassed when tear gas bomb
backfired and four other persons
were gassed, slugged or trampled.
AS the word went around that
well show them something tonight
when the lis women were to leave
the sewing project, crowd began
gathering in the early evening.
massing in the filling station lot.
A Gordon of about 100 police was
stationed about the sewing project
entrance and half-dozen tan
armored cars packed nearby. In
double file. the women started from
the building and pandemonium
broke loose.
"Scab," fink" traitor" and a
score of other epithets were shouted.
AS the demonstrators frenzy rose,
bricks, stones and eggs began to fly.
Windows in the project building
were shattered. Police sirens whined
and the armored cars edged toward
the crowd, tear gas bombs falling
from them. MY God! Why do
they pick on women?" exclaimed
one fearful worker.
New Tear Gas Assault.
Eyes smarting, the crowd and
demonstrators fell back, a roar of
blasphemy directed at police. The
lis women hurried to side street,
where the crowd again closed In
and widest disorder followed. Stones
and bricks rained anew from build
ing tops and the filling station lot,
provoking a new assault of tear gas.
A policeman fired a riot gun at Q
building face below the roof-top,
where men were hurting rocks.
Other gunf1re echoed, seemingly
from several sides. A boy ran
screaming to police, his finger bleed
| ing from bullet wound.
Then as suddenly as 1t started,
the melee was over, the teargassed
mob in full attention to its eyes.
There were bullet holes in several
buildings, the filling station and one
armored car windshield was cracked
by a shot. Police closed the area,
flooding 1t with searchlights.
Three men were arrested for the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.