May Day

Although International May Day fell far short of the hopes of the bloodthirsty and the fears of the police, the following things did happen in the following places last week:

France. Because infantry, cavalry and artillery regiments to the number of 7,000 men marched into Paris to be reviewed by General Pretelat and to back up 30,000 regular police, republican and mobile guards, the centre of the city was mouse quiet. But in the Place de la Nation a crowd estimated at 4,000 rioted all night long. Four policemen were shot, ten rioters injured.

Cuba. A crowd of about 10,000 people marching peaceably under red banners got as far as Carlos III Street in Havana when they heard something that sounded like a shot. Panicky soldiers fired wildly into the crowd, which returned the fire. Seven workers, one woman, two soldiers and a policeman were wounded. Next day students staged a protest meeting, rioted again. Soldiers this time killed one, wounded 16. Spain. An almost complete general strike tied up Spain for the day. Killed: 1; wounded: 14. Chile. Tight censorship closed the Press after clashes between Santiago crowds and mounted carabineros had killed one, wounded 13. Russia. Moscow celebrated the national holiday for two days. The first was given over to the traditional military display in the Red Square, reviewed by Dictator Stalin and War Commissar Klimentiy Voroshilov. The second day was a thoroughgoing bourgeois fiesta. Buildings were strung with electric lights, loudspeakers blared dance music in the streets, truckloads of actors gave free shows in the squares. Austria. Shrewd Chancellor Dollfuss chose the Socialist holiday to proclaim Austria's long-brewing corporative Constitution. That Viennese children should always remember it happily. 50,000 schoolchildren were marched to the gigantic stadium in the Prater to see an elaborate theatrical pageant. Elsewhere Austria was not quite so peaceful. Nazi sympathizers strewed paper swastikas all over Vienna, hung a great banner marked DEATH TO DOLLFUSS near the Opera House. Up from Italy on motorcycles came a party of 170 Italian Fascists to help celebrate the Dollfuss festival. Nazis and those who still remembered the War threw rocks and scattered tacks in the roadway. The Italians' tires were punctured more than 200 times. One, irritated, shot a bystander. Germany. Nazis celebrated by staging at Berlin's vast Tempelhof Air Field one of the greatest mass meetings the world has ever seen. It was best described by Frederick T. Birchall of the New York Times who last week won the 1934 Pulitzer Prize for topnotch foreign correspondence (see p. 59). Excerpts: "It has been said that there were 2,000,000 there. There may well have been more. No calculation is possible. Did anybody at home ever see 2,000,000 people gathered in one place? It is a stupendous sight. Imagine a great oblong field almost as large as Central Park in New York, but perfectly flat and treeless except for one lone oak. "At the upper end. in three groups of three each were 150 ft. flat frames of bunting ingeniously perforated against the wind force--the national flag in the centre flanked on each side by a swastika banner. In front of these, beside the parade oak, a single bare speaker's stand 30 ft. high with red covered chairs around it, jutted out into the field. . . . "Surrounding all and covering the whole field from edge to edge was a vast sea of faces. All dress was invisible except in the front line, all personality obliterated. . . . "Then Herr Hitler. And once more the magic spell that this man exercises over millions of his followers was seen at work as this throng hung upon his words. Yet there was little in them that was new-- perhaps there is little he needs to say that would be new to an audience that never seems to tire of the old. "At most this speech was a patchwork of past phrases, old catchwords and well-worn arguments. . . ." Ambulance men carried 4,064 people from the field while Handsome Adolf was talking.

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