Attempts To End Strike Fail
During the day every attempt was made to effect an
agreement between the strikers and the company. Patrick
J. Shea, Executive of the car men's organization,
started at 10 A.M. to go to the City Hall to call on
Mayor Gaynor in the hope of inducing him to intercede,
but he reported later that he had been unable to find
Mayor Gaynor or any other city official. President S.W.
Huff of the railroad company, it was said, was in
Virginia, and Supt. Sullivan said that he could not act
in any official capacity without concurrence on the part
of President Huff. There the matter ended, both sides
declaring late in the afternoon that they would await
developments.
Leader Shea, for the strikers, said: "We are out to
stay, and nothing can move us. I have tried everything
to bring about a settlement, but there doesn't seem to
be any one around to settle with. I feel positive that
there will be no change in our attitude, and in any
event nothing can be done until President Huff of the
railroad company returns from his vacation in Virginia."
One riot, in which a woman figured occurred early in the
morning at Second Avenue and Ninth Street. A Smith
street car was heading for the bridge over the canal,
with rioters in pursuit. The woman approached the car
from the rear, pulled the pole from the wire, and fled
into the crowd, leaving the men to pull the conductor
and motorman from the car.
Policemen surrounded the car and a new crew of
strikebreakers was put in charge. When the car reached
Third Avenue the strikers rushed from their headquarters
and dragged E. Dwyer of 844 Sixth Avenue off, beating
him unmercifully. Dwyer, who was a passenger, and knew
nothing about the strike, was taken to the Seney
Hospital.
At 10 A.M. a crowd attacked a car at the same corner,
beating the motorman, Patrick Schwartz, and the
conductor, Thomas Flynn. Both men were taken to the
Seney Hospital. The car stood in front of the strikers'
headquarters for more than an hour. When a new crew
finally arrived to take it back to the barns every
window had been shattered. Crews Flee Their Cars
An attack was made on a car at Ninth street and Fourth
Avenue after it had successfully passed through the
fusillade of bricks at the corner below. James Ryan, the
motorman, and John Like and George Martin, conductors,
were dragged from the car and carried off bodily.
Following that the crews of three other cars deserted at
the same place and the four cars remained there until
late in the afternoon, when strikebreakers, under police
escort, marched from the car barns in a body and took
them in charge. This was the signal for united action by
the strikers and was followed by the greatest disorder
which prevailed during the day.
The leader in this group of strike-breakers was Fred
Brown, who said that he had been a strike-breaker for
years. He asked permission to take charge of the first
car, and it was granted without dissent on the part of
his associates. He started his car down the hill on the
left track instead of the right. When the car reached
the strikers' headquarters at Third avenue, with the
other three cars following close, it was running twenty
miles an hour. He held a lighted cigar in his teeth and
grinned at the strikers as he passed.
A hundred stones were hurled at him, one striking him
behind the right ear, but doing little damage. Brown ran
his car rapidly all the way to the car barns, where he
was complimented by Supt. Sullivan. Later, it was
learned that he had struck a striker at Fulton and Smith
Streets earlier in the day, and that the strikers had
dared him to make another trip in front of their
headquarters. The other cars, each going at full speed,
but with the motormen and the conductors hidden under
the seats also ran the blockade successfully.
Supt. Sullivan had said just before the four stalled
cars reached the car barns that he would make no more
attempts to run cars after he had the four safely stored
in the barns. But when he heard that the cars had been
brought back with only a few windows smashed and without
serious injury to any of the men he ordered the only
remaining stalled car on the smith Street line to be
brought to the barns by the strikebreakers.Car
Surrounded By The Mob
This car was stalled in the vicinity of Park Circle. Its
fender had been demolished by a boulder rolled into the
street. After this had been adjusted a crow started the
car, and all went well until it reached Fourth Avenue.
In front of St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic Church,
Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street, a large crowd had
collected and stones, some weighing twenty pounds, were
hurled at the car, which was moving at high speed. The
crowd surged into the street following the car and
joining a still larger crowd near Third Avenue. Mounted
police dashed alongside the escaping car and chased the
crowd, but they could not reach those in the yards
behind the fences, who continued to throw the stones.
Directly in front of the strikers' headquarters the car
slowed up for a moment, and a ten-pound rock struck
Policeman William Keyes, who was on the rear platform of
the car, squarely in the head. Keyes sank to the
platform, apparently dead, and a cry went up from the
crowd. Mounted
Patrolman Wolff had seen the stone thrown, and rode
straight into the yard surrounding the headquarters of
the strikers and arrested D. Clark, a striking
conductor, of 237 Bergen Street, Brooklyn. Ed Walsh,
another striking conductor, of 1250 Park Avenue,
interfered with Wolff and was arrested also.
With these two prisoners on their bands, six policemen
held back the crowd howling for the release of the
prisoners until reserves arrived in a patrol wagon. It
was the critical point in the day's rioting, and
thereafter the police took firmer measures to hold the
crowd in check. At 6 o'clock the strikers' headquarters
were entirely emptied of all loiterers by the police.
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