PITCHED BATTLE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 452, 21 June 1937, Page 5

PITCHED BATTLE

POLICE AND STRIKERS MANY CASUALTIES 360 Police Against Five Thousand Rioters Press Association—Copyright. (Received 11.30 a.m.) New York, June 20. A Youngstown message states that one picket was killed and at least ten persons wounded at the gates of th© Republic Steel plant when part of a crowd of 5000 strike sympathisers fought a three-hour gun battle with a detachment of 360 police. Two women and four sheriffs’ deputies were among the casualties. The massed efforts of all the available city and county police, reinforced by other officials armed with rifles and sfhot guns, finally brought the fighting under control. The strike leaders demanded that Governor Daven should send the militia to the scene. A check -up of the riot showed that 28 fated been sent to hospital and scores of othres treated at private homes and strike headquarters for minor injuries. The Chief of Police, Capt. Olson, ordered the arrest of .all pickets carrying guns and other weapons. Twenty-four were arrested in the first few hours. Capt. Olson alleged -that the riot was planned in advance. He said pickets, without provocation, attacked the police with stones, paving blocks and bricks, after which the police used tdar gas. He denied that the police fired guns, but Union officials alleged that the riot was precipitated: by sheriffs and deputies firing from a motor car into a group of pickets. The women casualties mid they were wounded by this shooting.