STREET CLASH

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20737, 22 February 1939, Page 7

STREET CLASH

RIVAL IDEOLOGIES NAZIS IN' NEW YORK REMARKABLE SCENES (United press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright/ NEW YORK, Feb. 21 Over 25,000 people jammed every street leading to Madison Square Garden last night when the GermanArnerican Bund held an “Americanisation rally” beneath mingled swastika and American flags and placards reading: “Stop Jewish Domination of Christian Americans.” Sixteen hundred police held back protesting anti-Nazis, many of whom were trampled in the crush. Two hundred Socialists staged a ten-minute riot with 100 patrolmen, and they drove the police back until mounted reinforcements rushed up. Fists, banners and batons swung freely. Grev-shirted Storm Troopers pararded within the building, answering orders in German. Fight on Pavements Later the crowd swelled to 100,000 and rioting broke out all over the Broadway district. The greatest concentration of police in the department’s history fought men and women on the pavements and among the snarled traffic, mounted troopers constantly moving from place to place breaking up disturbances. Meanwhile, 22,000 Nazis within Madison Square Garden demonstrated comparatively uninterruptedly, while 1745 patrolmen outside and tear-gas squads on the roof made the building an impregnable fortress.

Violent Storm Troopers

However, a man named Greenbaum. who had evaded the police and 3000 Storm Troopers, suddenly leaped on to the platform while the Bund leader. Herr Fritz Kuhn, was speaking, and dashed toward Herr Kuhn, obviously intending to attack him. He was seized by the grev-shirted Storm Troopers and was kicked and beaten before the police rescued him. lie was taken to a police station, while Herr Kuhn continued speaking. Miss Dorthy Thompson, the New York Herald-Tribune columnist and wife of the novelist Sinclair Lewis, was removed after persistently laughing. The police brought her back and placed a guard over the press section. She explained: ‘‘l laughed to prove that free speech is not tolerated in this hall.”