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Monday January 18, 1915
Chicago, Illinois -Lucy Parsons Arrested Leading Protest Against Hunger
Lucy Parsons, widow of Albert Parsons, Martyr of the great 1886 struggle for the eight-hour day, was arrested yesterday while leading a protest procession of Chicago's unemployed and hungry men, women and children. The peaceful protest began in front of Hull House and continued down Halsted Street. The protesters were attacked by police with revolvers drawn after refusing the order to disperse. It seems the protesters had been denied a permit, and were, therefore, making their voices seen and heard without the official sanction of Chicago's city government.
The hungry of Chicago are refusing starve silently, and for walking down the street with banners held aloft, they were attacked by police. Shots were fired by the police, but, thankfully, no one was killed. Thirty mounted men were also deployed against the protesters. They "galloped out under orders to cross the river on the north side and [deployed] into Halsted street along the different intersections between Polk and Madison streets." Nevertheless, the protesters were undeterred.
1,500 IDLE RIOT AROUND HULL HOUSE
WOMEN HELP SLUG POLICE; BULLETS FLY
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Haymarket Widow and 20 Others Locked Up After Parade Is Stopped,
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FATHER TUCKER HELD.
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For thirty minutes yesterday afternoon South Halsted street, between Polk and Madison streets, was the scene of pitched battle between mounted and fought police reserves and a "hunger procession" of 1,500 unemployed men, women, boys, and girls.
Shot were fired, clothes were torn, eyes blackened, and heads cracked while clubs, blackjacks, and revolver butts were used with bruising effect on heads, arms, and knuckles.
At the conclusion of the riot Halsted street looked like an armed camp, with squads of police stationed at the corners and mounted men patrolling the middle of the street.
Twenty-one Under Arrest.
As a result, twenty-one persons were placed in cells at the Maxwell and Desplaines streets stations on charges of inciting a riot. Six of them are women. Principal among the prisoners is Father Irwin St. John Tucker, assistant at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Blackstone avenue and Fifty-sixth street, and managing editor of the Christian Socialist.
Three veterans of the famous Haymarket riot participated in the fighting. They were Mrs. Lucy Parsons, widow of Albert Parsons who was hanged for alleged complicity in the riot; Herman Schuettler, first deputy superintendent of police, and Capt. James O'Dea Storen of the Maxwell street station.
[continued below at Women Help Slug Police]
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Riot Views of Different Sides
BY ASSIST. CHIEF SCHUETTLER.
The men had no right to parade without a permit. The officers merely did their duty. I expected trouble. That's why I detailed detectives at the meeting. They disguised themselves to be sure and hear just what the plans were.
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BY JANE ADDAMS.
We have had the unemployed meet on Sundays for seven years at Hull house. The meetings have been perfectly orderly in every case in all that time.
The meeting was called in the name of the League of the Unemployed. I do not think this name stood for much of an organization, J. Eads Howe ordered the hall. He had formerly taken part in the Sunday meetings held all winter at Hull house by the Brotherhood of the Unemployed. I suppose the gathering was the same body of men. I recognized many of the men as the same.
"We Want Work; Not Charity," "We Have Neither Food nor Shelter," and "We Refuse to Starve" were the banners carried by the men in the parade. The meeting seemed to be run off perfectly straight, and the men formed in line outside of the settlement in an orderly fashion.
One Italian who was arrested was passing on Halsted street when the parade was on its way. He was with his wife and children. He was arrested because he remonstrated with some officers when they jostled and pushed his children.
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BY CAPT. STOREN.
It is a wonder to me somebody wasn't killed. The women were fighting just as much as the men. Our policemen had a stubborn fight. I am satisfied that it came out as well as it did. If the policemen had not kept their heads as cool as they did somebody would surely have been killed.
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BY FATHER IRVING ST. JOHN TUCKER.
When I saw men being clubbed for carrying the Lord's prayer I thought the time had come to take a hand. I saw men slugged, with with blood running down their faces.
The police were not attacked, according to the story a lieutenant told me. He said the men were arrested because they had no right to walk in the streets.
[Women Help Slug Police-continued from above]
`
I. W. W. Circulars Used?
Although the meeting was held in the name of the League of the Unemployed, an organization recognized by Hull house, it was reported members of the Industrial Workers of the World had distributed circulars among the marchers, announcing the coming next week of William Haywood, an organizer of the I. W. W.
The strife followed the arrival of the police after a meeting of unemployed in Bowen hall, Hull house, while Miss Jane Addams, head resident of the settlement, was attending a peace meeting at Powers' theater. The most prominent Hull House resident attending the unemployed meeting was Miss S. P. Breckenridge, assistant dean of women at the University of Chicago. She witnessed the opening of the rioting in the street in front of Hull House.
Miss Addams Called.
Miss Addams was called from the Powers theater stage by Miss Breckenridge. The two women went first to Deputy Schuettler's office and then to the Desplaines street station, where they conferred with Police Captain Meagher. They left the station to arrange for procuring the release of the women prisoners.
Late last night Mrs. Mary H. Wilmarth of the Congress hotel signed $1,000 bonds for the release of the women prisoners and one of the men, a young Italian.
Rented by Eads Howe.
Bowen hall had been rented for the occasion by J. Eads Howe, the "millionaire tramp," according to the Hull House residents in charge, who said Howe has engaged the hall frequently.
Most of the speakers were foreign. A crowd of eight or nine hundred unemployed men and women, and boys and girls packed the hall. A crowd almost as big was standing outside, unable to get in. Among those in the hall were Detective Sergeants Fred Krueger and Herman Eastman, both disguised in old clothing and passing themselves off as workmen without jobs.
The detectives were present under orders from Deputy Schuettler who had read of the proposed meeting in the Saturday papers. They were detailed to get evidence on all speeches that might be incendiary or tending to incite violence.
Call Speech Incendiary.
"Lucy" Parsons was the principal speaker, who addressed the meeting in English. The detectives declare she told the audience to "go out and break windows and take food if they didn't have money to buy it." Dean Breckenridge, who sat throughout the speech, said she heard nothing of an incendiary nature.
"She was explaining," said Dean Breckenridge, "that labor is different from other commodities, which, if not sold one day, can be kept in stock and sold the next day. I heard nothing in her remarks that might incite a person to riot."
Recalls Haymarket Riot.
"I was invited to speak at the meeting and I did so willingly," Mrs. Parsons said to a reporter for THE TRIBUNE who interviewed her in her cell at the Maxwell street station. "I recalled to them that just thirty-years ago here in Chicago I carried a black banner with the one word "hunger" on it, and that I hoped I could carry such a flag again. I did not know it at the time, but just such a banner happened to be in the room."
Detectives Krueger and Eastman slipped through the crowd while Mrs. Parsons was speaking. They reported outside to Sergeant Mike Mills, who with Detectives Mike Devito and Paul Riccio had been assigned to watch the exterior of the building. Mills immediately telephoned Schuettler.
"They are going to march," he reported, "It looks like trouble."
Ordered to Demand Permit.
"Demand a permit from them," replied Schuettler, "and if they haven't got one order them to disperse. The reserves will be on the way to help you."
Schuettler's preparation for the parade had been completed the night before. The riot call was sent out over the police wire. In the squadrooms at the Maxwell and Desplaines street stations the bluecoats pushed back from the dominoe tables and piled into the automobile patrols.
From the stables at Illinois street and La Salle avenue Lieut. Albert Dunman, at the head of thirty mounted men, galloped out under orders to cross the river on the north side and deploy his men into Halsted street along the different intersections between Polk and Madison streets.
Carry Black Hunger Flag.
In the meantime the procession formed in Polk street, just west of Halsted. Four young Russian-Jewish girls carried the two poles of a large black banner on which in large white letters was the word; "Hunger."
Lucy Parsons took her position underneath the banner at the head of the procession. Other banners carried the slogans: "We Don't Want Charity. We Want Jobs," and Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread."
As the marchers, six abreast, turned north into Halsted street, Detectives Krueger, Eastman, Mills, Devito, and Riccio, and several others stepped in front of the procession and insisted that it halt. Mills demanded from those in the first rank to see their permit to march. He was told that there was no permit because a permit had been refused them.
"Then you will have to disperse," said Mills. "We are police officers and that is the order."
"To h--- with the orders, we're hungry," came a voice from one of the marchers.
Others in the procession warned their comrades, "Don't start nothing, but keep together." As though by magic, the procession surged on, melted at the point where the handful of detectives stood, and came together on the other side of them.
Maelstrom of Fists.
The policemen found themselves surrounded. The marchers in back began to push the banner bearers forward. Then the melee started. The police insist that they were trying to obey orders by stopping the parade. The marchers insist that there was no trouble until the police began to use their clubs.
In a minute the cluster under the swaying "hunger" banner was a maelstrom of fists and clubs. Girls and women shrieked and fell to the ground in the fray. A small, dark haired girl, climbing onto the shoulders of a man, dove head foremost into the center of the fight, her fingers reaching out for the eyes and hair of the policemen.
The detectives drew their revolvers and began to lay to right and left, felling all within reach. Those down grabbed the policemen by the legs and brought them also to the street. Women threw their arms around the necks of the plain clothes men, biting them and tearing their faces with finger nails. A girl with a red sweater crawled out of the seething mass with a clump of black hair clutched in her hand.
Three Shots Started Mob.
Then three pistol shots rang out.
They were fired by Detective Devito.
"I didn't shoot until after I was struck on the head with the handle of one of the banners," said the detective. "Then I got to my feet and fired. I heard Krueger and Eastman call for help. I knew we were hard pressed. And the reserves had not arrived. A woman had her arms around my neck and was almost choking me. I shot up into the air."
With black eyes and torn clothing the detectives fought their way to the sidewalk, and in front of a saloon corralled four men as their prisoners. They turned their faces to the marchers to fight any attempt at delivery, but no attempt was made.
Parade Reforms and Proceeds.
"Don't start nothing. Just march on around 'em," came the reiterated insistence from one guiding spirit in the crowd. As though nothing had happened the procession pushed on, and although the girls and women in the first rank bore visible evidence of the fray they still clung to the "Hunger" banner.
At Harrison street the marchers came upon a line of blue coats drawn across the street. It was the first detachment of reserves from Maxwell street. The policemen had clubs and revolvers drawn. The marchers refused to stampede. The procession marched up to the line of blue and brass, mingled with it, and passed through it. Lucy Parsons and the four Russian-Jewish girls with the banner were the first to fight their way through.
The policemen used their clubs right and left. The blows were returned with fists and feet and the banner handles. The fight at this place centered around four young women who were carrying the banner on which was printed, "Give us this day our daily bread."
A tall young man wearing the collar of the priesthood and the black clothes of the clergy, was standing on the corner. He carried a satchel. He was seen to drop the satchel and jump into the fray. In the midst of the seething mass he picked up the torn banner, wrenched it from the hands of two policemen, and carried it through the line.
Pastor Seizes Banner.
"It's Father Tucker, fellows, come on," came a shout from the crowd which surged over the line of bluecoats.
"This is a part of the Lord's prayer. Let me carry it," said the young man in black, whose hat was gone.
He took his place in the procession, which never heeded the prisoners taken by the police but continued its march.
At Adams street there was a clatter of hoofs as a squad of mounted men dashed out of the cross street and faced their horses toward the marchers. Still acting on the advice of the "keep together advocate," the marchers walked up to the horses, spread out over the side walks, walked between the policemen, and gained the other side still with an appreciable number of their members but minus Father Tucker and the daily bread banner.
At Monroe street a similar scene was enacted, although by this time the ranks of the marchers were becoming noticeably thinned. Those remaining appeared to be the more vindictive who had succeeded in fighting their way through.
Girl's Hair Disheveled.
The four girls carrying the "hunger" banner were still on their feet, although their hair was down, their clothes were torn, and three of them were nursing bruised fingers and faces. Lucy Parson still held her place under the black flag.
The marchers numbered about 150 as the procession arrived in front of the Academy theater on Halsted street, just south of Madison street. As though by a prearranged plan, two loaded street cars blocked one end of the street.
An automobile patrol careened on two wheels as it swung around the corner and backed up facing the crowd. It was packed with policemen from the Des Plaines street station. Bluecoats were hanging to the steps and running board. The policemen lined up across the street and charged down upon the straggling procession of survivors.
They reached the head of the column before the melting maneuver could be executed. Instead the police did the melting. Both ends of the bluecoat line wheeled inward, with the head of the procession as a pivot. The leaders of the marchers were surrounded. The remainder turned to retreat, but seeing the approach of mounted men in the rear made for doorways, alleys, saloons, lunch rooms, and basements, where they mingled with the surprised patrons and escaped.
At each of the street intersections where the police sought to stop the onward surge of the paraders, prisoners were thrown into the waiting or following patrol wagons. In the corner drug stores, marchers and policemen bathed with witchhazel the black eyes, bruised heads and hands, and other mementos of the various melees.
Three Charges Against Each.
The prisoners were all '"booked" under three charges-rioting, unlawful assemblage, and parading without a license. Bail was placed at $1,000 and on account of the charges being brought under the state code, bonds required the approval of a judge.
All were arraigned in the Desplaines street Municipal court this morning. Ransom E. Walker is one of the attorneys retained last night to represent the prisoners.
"I was struck a number of times," Detective Sergeant Mills said. "At one time I remember there were ten or more men punching at me. I punched back, but I made no effort to shoot. If the police had used their revolvers there would have been some dead and wounded. We merely were bent on dispersing the crowd, but we couldn't do so without the trouble that led up to the riot."
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[placement of photographs within articles above as been changed]
worries that the "respectable" citizens of Chicago could also take up "the ancient cry for bread."
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Lucy Gonzalez Parsons
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In honor of Father Tucker, Episcopal Priest,
who took his place with the poor and hungery of Chicago
on January 17th, 1915.
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