1914.07.13: ‘SWEET MARIE’ RIPS CITY OFFICIALS IN SIDEWALK TALK

July 13, 1914

‘SWEET MARIE’ RIPS CITY OFFICIALS IN SIDEWALK TALK

Mounts Soap Box to Tell of Troubles During 60 Days on the Island

PRAISE FOR MISS DAVIS.

Says Board of Estimate Withholds Money to Clean Up Blackwell’s

Sixty days of confinement in the "pen" appears to have taken much of the "pep" and ginger out of "Sweet Marie" Ganz. It was a subdued and perfectly lady-like Marie who mounted a soap box at the north end of the Municipal Building shortly after noon and told less than a hundred onlookers--all she was able to muster during a harangue of more than an hour--of the conditions on the Island as she saw them. the police did not expect trouble and the two patrolmen sent from the Sixth precinct to chaperon the affair had nothing to do.

Marie is positive the Board of Estimate has a grudge against the Department of Correction and to the board she attributes most of the blame for the recent prison riots. She scored Warden Hayes.

"The Administration takes less interest in the Department of Correction than any other in the city," declared Marie. "Their appropriations are turned down right and left and when Miss Davis, whom the prisoners regard as blameless, wants money she has to go out and beg it from her friends.?

Marie urged the need for the classification of prisoners on the Island, pointing out that the present system of herding drug fiends, drunkards and victims of tuberculosis and other diseases together makes it impossible for a person in normal health to maintain it during a term in prison.

After an hour of oratory, "Sweet Marie" explained she was too weak as a result of two months' incarceration to tell all her troubles. She promised to be back on the job later in the week with data enough to convince any reasonable person of the "unbearable" conditions on the Island.

To get this she explained she would conduct her own investigation on the Island, but she failed to state just how she was going about getting the permission of the Correction Department for this particular research.

Miss Ganz, in a tirade on the newspapers that have referred to her as an "anarchist orator" says she is going to sue any publication that refers to her as a "red" after today. She had several copies of newspapers in which that reference was made.

"I have been to see Deputy Commissioner Rubin this morning," said Marie, "and he informs me I am not on the prison records as an anarchist. I am not an anarchist and never will be. I am for the workingmen."