LABOR: River Rouge Riot

Said Henry Ford fortnight ago: “We’re going to risk everything we’ve got to create useful work for just as many people as possible.” At that time 70,000 men were working at the Ford Dearborn factory. Last week 1,300 who did not work there, but wanted to, gathered on a Detroit street corner. Quietly they began marching to the River Rouge plant to ask for jobs. At the Dearborn city line their number had doubled, their quietude had yielded to aggressiveness. Fifty Dearborn police tried to turn them back. Out from the mob burst a woman, crying: “Come on, you cowards!” Police went down under a fire of bricks, stones, clubs. Firemen and Detroit police hurried to their aid with tear gas bombs and high pressure hoses. On to the factory gate pressed the mob. There it was met by two volleys of high-aimed pistol fire, forced back. As the crowd reformed, Ford’s Service Chief Harry H. Bennett drove into its midst. In an instant his car was toppled over. Someone cried: “Save him!” The police fired point blank into the crowd. Twenty men fell, the rest scattered. Fifty lay injured on the skirmish field, including Bennett and many policemen. Four rioters were dead.