Februrary 20, 1917
Mob Of Starving Women Storms New York City Hall
Feminine Horde From Tenement Houses And Ghetto Riot
Led By "Sweet Marie" Ganz They Terrify Financial District.
MAYOR MITCHEL NOT IN HIS OFFICE
Police Finally Scatter Crowd After Holding Leader on Riot Charge.
New York, Feb. 20.--Out of the Ghetto and the East Side tenements there swarmed hundreds of women screaming, "We are starved; we want bread."They swooped down upon the City Hall where rioting and scenes of disorder followed.
Thousands of women of the telement [sic] district fell into the line, led by "Sweet Marie" Ganz. In a long line they came, old women, hobbling and stumbling, shawl-wrapped heads and young mothers, holding aloft pale and wan babies. Their screams rent the air as traffic officers attempted to break up the parade of protest.
Walls of Babes.
Their numbers had dwindled by the time they reached the City hall and began loud cries of hunger. Plaintive wails from crying babes and shrieks of enraged women--like an echo of the present revolutions of Europe--all added to the intense excitement. demands for Mayor Mitchel fail to bring out the chief executive, but instead there came mounted policeman.
Within a few minutes after the vanguard arrived and assaulted the doors of the City Hall more than 5,000 excited men and women filled City Hall Park and a second call for reserve police went in. Down Park row there came hundreds of eager spectators, lured on by the first riot scenes this city has seen for many a day. Business men from the financial districts and employes from offices and shops nearby all added to the throng which jammed in upon the City Hall. Then there came the long line of stragglers.
A line of police was formed about the City Hall and stormed by the screeching women, many of them holding babies aloft and crying out: "You see them--they are starving. We want bread!"
"Back to the Tenements."
Orders went out from police headquarters for the dispersal of the mob and traffic officers along the line of march drove the women still on the way back to the tenement houses.
Lieut. William Kennel, the Mayor's aide, finally appeared at the doors of the City Hall. The sight of uniformed aide was the signal for a new outbust [sic] from the mob. Finally it quieted sufficiently for Kennel to announce the mayor would receive a delegation of four of the women.
There were immediate cries of "Marie." "Marie." "Sweet Marie." A little woman made her way up the city hall steps and there were loud cheers for "Marie." "Sweet Marie." Marie Ganz was the first delegate to the mayor. She chose as her associates Mrs. Ida Harrison, president of the Mothers' Vigilance league of the Eastside; Mrs. Tillie J. Plosky and Mrs. Annie Walker, both leaders in the tenement districts.
Oure [sic] in the corridors of the city hall, the delegation found they had been deceived. Mayor Mitchel was not in his office and it was announced he might not be in all day.
Rushing out to the city hall steps Marie Ganz told the crowd they had been betrayed and haranguing her followers, she succeeded in starting anew the screeching and yelling. Suddenly she was seized from behind by four husky policemen and dragged into the building where she was detained and then arrested for disorderly conduct.
Tumult Rises Again.
Robbed of their leader once more the roar of thousands of voices went up and little Benjamin Bernstein, 15, thin and scrawny, arose on the steps and addressed the crowd.
"I am starving." cried the lad, as tears swept down his pale face. "I've got a sister and a mother and a father and we all live on $3 a week. [$54.60 in 2013 dollars.]
Then the boy was swept into the maelstrom and his plaintive cries and protests were drowned by the moans and shrieks of the rioters as mounted police made their way through the mob attempting to break it up. After more than an hour of disorder, police finally succeeded in scattering the crowd in all directions and still shrieking out and muttering threats the hundreds of women made their way to the Ghetto and Eastside not in an organized body but in little groups, scattered by the police.
Today's demonstration was an aftermath of the food rioting yesterday in Hester and Rivington streets, and the Williamsburg and Brownsville districts. Incensed at the high prices charged by hucksters yesterday afteroon, hundreds of the tenement house women stormed push carts and street stands and wrecked them scattering the produce in the street.
Throngs of the frantic women assailed the police and attempted to rescue their leader, "Sweet Marie" Ganz when she was being taken from the city hall in a police patrol. Several times the women charged the officers and patrolmen were scratched during the melee. The women were finally driven off and "Marie" was taken to the Elizabeth street station.
See also:
Although the United States is not at war and England is, the price of potatoes is twice as high in this country as it is in Great Britain. A record of forty years standing was smashed today when potatoes went to 7 cents a pound [$1.27 in 2013 dollars] in New York. In London they are selling at three and a half cents a pound and by order of the government to more has been charged at this time...
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