them a terrible beating and drove them out of town; tore down the tent in which the soup kitchen (for strikers) had been, pulling it down on the heads of the women, and shipped it with a part of the contents of the Union hall to De Ridder, La…. Men drifting into town who had never heard of the union were seized and thrown into jail, brought into court and given the option of going to work for the American Lumber Company, or being run out of town. Mayor Pressly of De Ridder had his resignation demanded because he refused to issue a proclamation prohibiting a mass-meeting.—They tried to run him out of town.¹⁹

FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND ASSEMBLAGE

Denial of freedom of speech and assemblage for workers, especially workers on strike, was constant during this whole period. The cases are so numerous that only a few notes are given.²⁰

During the financial depression of 1873–4 the unemployed of New York City were organized to make an impressive demonstration. Permits to pass through the streets and use Tompkins Square for a meeting on Jan. 13th, were secured from the police and the Board of Parks. On Jan. 12th, these were revoked, but the workers not knowing this, began to gather in the Square…. About ten o'clock when they were standing about peaceably, platoons of police rushed in on the unarmed crowd, violently assaulting them with clubs, wounding many and dragging some 30 or 40 off to the station-house.²¹

The freedom of speech and of meeting were subsequently violated over and over again. The police by menaces and other means, prevented the meeting called in Assembly Hall to protest against the action in Tompkins Square; and again they tried intimidation with the Cooper Institute meeting until at last the aggrieved workingmen and their sympathizers felt as though they had no rights which the municipality was bound to respect.

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