MAY DAY DEMONSTRATIONS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 475, 28 May 1890, Page 4

MAY DAY DEMONSTRATIONS.

ORDER PRESERVED IN LARGE CITIES. BLOODSHED IN ONLY ONE STREET RIOT. POLICE AND TROOPS SUBDUE THE LONDON AGITATORS. The expectations of bloody street riots in many European cities on May 1 were not fulfilled. The only serious conflict between the authorities and the working men occurred at Pesth, Hungary, where the troops called out to preserve order charged the crowd with fixed bayonets, and many of the rioters lost their lives. In London the street crowds showed an ugly temper, but 2,500 police proved too much for them and they attempted no violence. In Paris the police arrangements were so perfect that no large crowds could assemble. About 500 people were arrested and about thirty were injured in the charges of soldiers, but no one was killed. One feature of the day was the number of Italians noted among the street crowds. Eighty per cent, of the German labourers remained at work, and there was no disorder in Berlin. There was a riot in Prossnitz, Austria, but no bloodshed. In Charleroi and Liege, Belgium, great processions marched through the streets, but they were orderly. Quiet prevailed also in Lisbon, Rome and other cities. In the United States the demonstrations were of a peaceful nature. At Chicago fully 30,000 men paraded the streets, but showed no signs of violence. The day at New York was a great failure, and in nearly all other places everything passed without any unusual display.

TROUBLE IN FRANCE. The Roubaix strike is extending to adjacent communes. At Croix the strikers attacked Holden’s factory, intending to plunder it. Troops dispersed them after a struggle. A despatch from Tourcoing, an extensive manufacturing town in the Nord, states that serious trouble has broken out there. The hands employed in twenty-six mills went on a strike in the morning, and great crowds gathered about the streets. These strikers were augmented by 5,000 strikers from Roubaix, another manufacturing town. Soon after this all hands began to show an ugly feeling, which culminated in serious rioting. The military was summoned at 8.30 p.m. Twenty thousand strikers were parading the streets, committing many excesses. Cavalry dispersed all groups. Twenty persons have been arrested. At Marseilles it is estimated that 50,000 workmen took part in the labour demonstration. The streets were noisy, but there was no breach of the peace. A large meeting was held, and one deputation was formed, consisting of forty presidents of trades unions and 3,000 workmen, to visit the Prefecture to present a petition in favour of eight hours. The Prefect declined to receive the deputation in a body, but offered to receive the members if they divided into groups. The deputation, however, had been instructed that it must be received as a whole or nob at all, and the party reported to the meeting, which then dispersed. CROWDS IN PARIS.

There was no manifestation in Paris worthy of the name. It was a feature of the day that although crowds assembled they did not consist of workingmen. About 500 gendarmes were drawn up in three squads at the southeries gardens and within the garden bivouacked two companies of infantry. People gazed upon them as though they had never seen soldiers before in the Champs Elysees. A row took place near the Elysees, where a man insisted on presenting a petition to President Carnot, and came in contact with the police, when bloodshed ensued. All waß quiet at the Place de la Bastile. In the evening there was trouble in the Boulevard des Capucines. The gendarmes, after a hard day’s work, were beginning to lose their tempers, and charged the crowd of boisterous youths after visiting their wrath upon some inoffensive citizen. Between 8 and 10 o’clock in the evening, in the Place de la Republique, the police chased the crowd, who threw stones. Arrests were made, and one boy had his leg broken. At 12.30 a.m. the boulevards were again thronged with excited people. In the Place Chateau d’Eu the cavalry charged the crowd, and several more arrests were made. The total number arrested during the day approaches 500. In a skirmish in the Place de la Concorde thirty persons were wounded. Most of them escaped arrest. * The feature of the day was the discovery that many of the Italian agitators were among the workmen—a fact that shows that foreign money is being employed to foment disorder and to sow bitterness between the two nations. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. The strikers conducted themselves in a riotous manner throughout the day. They impeded all kinds of business, stopping market carts and scattering and trampling upon their contents. The Civil Guard was continually engaged in attempting to disperse the rioters, but failed to quell them.' Finally a state of siege was declared. Late at night the strikers fired a tool hut. The guard chargedthe mob and twostrikers were injured. Another group attacked the printing office in which the proclamation was being printed. They put a stop to the work, and the authorities were obliged to get the proclamations printed elsewhere under military protection. At Valencia many of the masters conceded the demands of the working men, but the strikers prevented the men from resuming work. The railway goods porters and dockmen became riotous, but were suppressed by cavalry. Troops were guarding the threatened factories and other establishments. Similar disturbances occurred at Saragossa and Alicante.

RIOTERS BAYONETTED

The labour demonstration at Pesth was marred by bloodshed. A large number of workmen gathered in front of one of the rolling mills. At first they were orderly, but under the incitement of agitators they became aroused, and bitterly denounced the alleged tyranny of employers. They finally lust self-control and engaged in a riotous demonstration which the police were powerless to quell. Military assistance was summoned and appeared with fixed bayonets. The mob was ordered to disperse, and upon its refusal the troops charged. The crowd broke and fled in all directions. Many rioters perished by the bayonet. A FARCE IN LONDON. Labour day has come and gone in London without appreciable disturbance to the current of metropolitan life and activity. If success has failed to attend the greatdemonstration it has nob been for laok of favourable weather. From roof to pavement everything was bathed in one rich flood of mellow sunshine, yet the workman was not to be moved from his ehop for all that. Labour day was thus a complete failure in London. Only about 1,000 turned out. There was a general tone of grumbling, discontent and resentment at the meeting of working people. A small body of police was drawn uP ready for anything. The proclamation o* the Police Commissioner against parading the streets except by specified routes seemed to arouse the anger of the agitators. John Williams, a prominent Socialist, presided at the meeting and let off a vigorous denunciation of tyrants in general and of that legal murderer Monroe in particular. Monroe appeared to have adopted Bismarck’s method of governing the working classes. The movement to bring the hours of labour down to eight a day. The latter part of the nineteenth century would see a great social upheaval. The workers should secure their own final emancipation by means of organisation. They should take no heed of any political party. Many of the banners bore curious devices. The first arrivals at the meeting were the bearers of a large blood-red banner, inscribed withthelegend : “ Labour is the source of all wealth.” Red flags tipped with caps of liberty began to arrive in great profusion. Red sashes, rosettes and tricolour emblems lent something of vivacity to the scene. Another banner, soon afterward unfurled, was black and white, and bore the inscription, “Remember Chicago ; there will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle to-day.” The words of the device were those alleged to have been used by one of the Haymarket murderers. This banner also bore the names of those men : Ling, Engel, Spies, Fischer and Parsons, and the words “ Martyred November, 1887.” The whole design was profusely decorated with orison chains.

IN GERMANY. The Ist of May in Berlin proved a crushing defeat to those who wanted to bring about manifestation. Except that in the early hours of the morning some waggonloads of workmen in holiday attire drove out to spend the day in the country, there was nothing to distinguish it from an ordinary working day. It is estimated that between 80 and 90 per cent, of the workmen were at work today as usual. Reports state that the great manufacturing centres of Kiel, Dortmund, Neetz, Munster and Stettin show the same results. At Hamburg many men stopped work, but no excesses are reported. Some slight disturbances at Dantzig were promptly suppressed by the police. Fifteen hundred persons took part in the socialistic picnic at Leipsic, and at Dresden two meetings were attended by a few hundred and were addressed by Bebel and Singen. This crushing defeat the labour agitators attribute to the energetic action of the Emperor all over Germany in discharging those who remained idle and not taking them back for two or three weeks. The Iron Foundries and Machine Factories’ Union kept a record of the men who absented themselves from work to-day. Out of 18,818 men employed in sixty factories 2,995 were absent. In Hamburg 16,000 men remained from work and attended picnics.

THE AUSTRIAN DEMONSTRATIONS. Between midday and 2 o’clock, 60,000 working men of Vienna entered the Prater in separate detachments and unions. They were soon'distributed in innumerable beer gardens. Had the Emperor and Empress appeared they would have received an ovation, but the Prater Fahre this year was headed by Archduke Louis Victor, the Kaiser’s brother, and Archduke Otto, his nephew. Archduke William, the Kaiser’s uncle, passed along incidentally on his return from the races, and all met with enthusiastic ovations. Magnificent equipages lined the way, and every family of aristocratic importance was represented in the popular drive. From Prossnitz comes the news of a riot. It appears that a number of workmen were put in prison, and when their fellow-work-men gathered on the streets this morning a plot was hatched for their liberation. The result was a mob of 4,000 men made" an attack upon the prison. The authorities, however, were prepared, and the rioters were repulsed and completely routed. The troops did not use firearms. PARADES IN BELGIUM. An immense meeting of working men was held at Charleroi. Thirty thousand men marched to the place of meeting. All were singing the “Marseillaise.” The men were orderly and there was no trouble.

A procession numbering 3,000 miners formed in Liege and marched to the Town Hall, where a petition was presented to the authorities asking for the establishment of an eight-hour working day. At the great Glass Foundry at Courcelles some hands declare they will not return to work except at increased salaries. Instances of similar conduct are very rare, DISPLAY IN CHICAGO. The demonstration by organised labour in favour of the eight-hour day was a tremendous success. It was tremendous in point of the number of men who participated, the vastness of the aggregate industries represented, and the multitude who endoised the movement without actually taking part in the parade. More than 75,000 men accepted the invitation of the Federation of Labour to make May Ist a day of special observance on which to indicate to the world the desire of wageworkers for the eight-hour day. Fully 30,000 were actually in the line of march and more than twice that number lined both sides of the route of the parade throughout its entire length, and with word and cheer approved the sentiments avowed by the paraders. With the single exception of the stockyards division every detail, of the demonstration was carried out as planned, and the result justified the predictions of the promoters of the affair. The strength expected from the stockyards did not materialise. Instead of 10,000 men, as anticipated, less than 2,000 appeared in line.