Tuesday May 2, 1916
From The New York Times: Thousands March Singing Marseillaise

The New York Times of May 2nd:

LABOR, ON MAY DAY, SEES DOOM OF WAR
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Speakers Oppose Armies, but Favor
Relentless Fight for Rights of Toilers.
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40,000 WORKERS IN PARADE
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Cloakmakers, 90,000 of Whom Strike Tomorrow,
Prominent in the March and Mass Meetings.
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One of the greatest May Day demonstrations of union workingmen and Socialists ever witnessed by the city was held yesterday. The masses turned out by the tens of thousands, either to march in the big parade or to line Fifth Avenue and other streets and shout their sympathies to the marchers. There were so many sections of the parade and such splitting up of it that a careful estimate of the number of marchers was impossible, the guesses of spectators varying between 20,000 and 40,000. More than 40,000, however, lined the streets and packed the parks, where mass meetings were held. Altogether it was probable that labor turned out more than 100,000 strong for the May Day demonstration.

The only disturbances of which the police took cognizance were started by a small number of anarchists, who were able to do scarcely more than start a row because of the promptness with which the police pounced upon them. Three anarchists were arrested for displaying red flags and distributing pamphlets in Rutgers Square, and half a dozen more who interrupted the Socialist meeting in Union Square, disappeared after a police warning.

Although the day's events began with the parade, the marching was more nearly a pouring of people into the heart of the city and out of it than a parade, for there was little attempt at regular formation. Tens of thousands of workers simply met at various points on the east side and poured into and up Fifth Avenue carrying banners expressing their sentiments, singing the "Marseillaise" to the accompaniment of scores of bands.

The police, from appearances, took no more notice of the parade than of any other traffic, and stopped and started the crossing lines of travel much as on any other day.

Banner Sentiments Pacific.

The Socialists, about 3,000 in number, the United Hebrew Trades, some 5,000 strong, and members of the carpenters, bakers and other unions formed in Rutgers Square shortly after noon and, headed by Chief Inspector Schmittberger in an automobile and a squad of mounted policemen, started toward Washington Square, where they were scheduled to meet the members of the Cloak and Suit Makers' Union.

Heading the banners in the Socialists's division was a series composing a sort of running speech by Congressman Meyer London. The first banner read: "The Greater the Army, the Smaller the People," and others behind it bore similar thoughts.

When Inspector Schmittberger, heading the Socialists, reached Washington Square, he found that the members of the Cloak and Suit Makers' Union, arriving there about twenty minutes sooner, had already started up Fifth Avenue, led by their Grand Marshal, George Wishnack. The police "vanguard" was forced to fall into the middle of the parade.

The members of the Cloak and Skirt Makers' Union also had numerous bands and carried many banners, among the inscriptions on them being quotations from Jacob H. Schiff, Dr. Felix Adler, Oscar Straus, and Mayor Mitchel.

At the cloakmakers' Madison Square meeting Benjamin Schlesinger, President of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union; George Wishnack, and other speakers addressed them, telling them that, in answer to the lockout by the manufacturers, the cloakmakers would be called out on strike today. Most of the speeches were in Italian and Yiddish. the manufacturers were denounced for unfairness and for "snubbing" the Mayor and the Conciliation Board.

The Socialists and striking and nonstriking members of other unions had their meeting in Union Square. Here the anarchists had already taken possession, several speakers having mounted an open wagon on which stood a banner announcing a birth control meeting to welcome Emma Goldman from jail. Policemen ordered the banner removed and the speakers to disperse, and the orders were obeyed.

The Socialists' Meeting.

Algernon Lee Speaking at Union Square

The Chairman of the Socialists' Union Square meeting was Algernon Lee, Educational Director of the Rand School.

[He said:]

This demonstration makes one thing sure...that the thinking workmen of New York are not going to stand for war or militarism. Our brothers in Europe are killing each other now, but after the war the working people of France, England, Germany, and the other countries of Europe will be ready to settle accounts with their masters.

Joseph D. Cannon of the Western Federation of Miners, was the next speaker. He said:

We depend upon you workingmen to keep us out of war. If war is started in this country and continues for any length of time, there will be a revolution against it.

This declaration was loudly cheered.

Resolutions were adopted protesting against "any policy which may draw this country into war," the presence of American soldiers in Mexico, and "the use of the State militia against striking workmen at Hastings, N. Y., and at Pittsburgh, Penn., and of the Federal troops at Anchorage, Alaska."

When the chairman asked for the affirmative vote, a great cry of "Aye!" rose in unison from the crowd. When he asked for a negative vote, four or five persons shouted "No!"

August Claessens, a Socialist leader, stirred the audience to greatest enthusiasm.

[Said he:]

We Socialists are going to answer all of this preparedness talk...with a slogan that is short and sweet. It is this: "To hell with preparedness."

[Said the speaker later:]

The United States, a republic...has a finer record for using troops against workingmen than any monarchy of Europe.

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[Photographs and emphasis added.]

SOURCE
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-May 2, 1916
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D00E5D8163BE633A25751C0A...

IMAGES
May Day 1916, NYC Parade, LOC
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ggb2005021570/
May Day 1916, NYC Parade & Spectators, LOC
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ggb2005021571/
May Day 1916, NYC Parade Socialists, LOC
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ggb2005021589/
May Day 1916, NYC Sign re Socialism & Preparedness, LOC
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ggbain.21591/
May Day 1916, NYC Garment Workers, LOC
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ggb2005021572/
May Day 1916, NYC Union Sq Algernon Lee, LOC
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ggb2005021590/

See also:

Hellraisers Journal: New York May Day Parade to Be Led by Locked Out Garment Workers by JayRaye
http://caucus99percent.com/content/hellraisers-journal-new-york-may-day-...

Meyer London
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer_London

George Wishnack, was Chairman of the Strike Settlement Committee
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=gsYUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcove...

The Ladies Garment Worker of June 1916
“The Great Strike of 60,000 Cloakmakers”
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=gsYUAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcove...

Benjamin Schlesinger, from Jewish Communal Register of NYC, 1917-18
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=xLUOkbBNmSAC&printsec=frontcove...

Algernon Lee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algernon_Lee

Joseph Cannon
-Information on Cannon is scattered around the web. Search google with his name and his union.
His wife Laura A. Gregg Cannon is actually better known to history:
https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/laura-a-gregg-cannon/17867

August Claessens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Claessens

Role of Jacob H Schiff, Mayor Mitchel & Oscar Straus as arbitrators
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=sGMMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcove...

Felix Adler
http://www.nysec.org/felixadler

From the Little Red Songbook
Joe Hill Memorial Edition of March 1916
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Songs_of_the_Workers_(9th_edition)
(Here for reference only, I am not sure which
version of the song the workers were singing
as they marched in NYC on May Day 1916.)

THE WORKERS' MARSEILLAISE.

Ye sons of toil, awake to glory!
Hark, hark, what myriads bid you rise;
Your children, wives and grandsires hoary—
Behold their tears and hear their cries!
Behold their tears and hear their cries!
Shall hateful tyrants mischief breeding,
With hireling hosts, a ruffian band—
Affright and desolate the land,
While peace and liberty lie bleeding?

CHORUS:
To arms! to arms! ye brave!
Th' avenging sword unsheathe!
March on, march on, all hearts resolved
On Victory or Death.

With luxury and pride surrounded,
The vile, insatiate despots dare,
Their thirst for gold and power unbounded
To mete and vend the light and air,
To mete and vend the light and air,
Like beasts of burden, would they load us,
Like gods would bid their slaves adore,
But Man is Man, and who is more?
Then shall they longer lash and goad us?

O, Liberty! can man resign thee?
Once having felt thy generous flame,
Can dungeon's bolts and bars confine thee?
Or whips, thy noble spirit tame?
Or whips, thy noble spirit tame?
Too long the world has wept bewailing.
That Falsehood's dagger tyrants wield;
But Freedom is our sword and shield;
And all their arts are unavailing!