1917 New York City Food Riot

October 2024 October 2024thumb|Marie Ganz speaking during the food riots of 1917 thumb|Food Riots of 1917 in the New York Times on February 21, 1917 The New York City Food Riot of 1917 were a series of demonstrations and riots which began on February 19, 1917, after a mob composed mostly of women confronted store and pushcart owners over the raising of prices following the shortages of World War I.Women in Bread Riot At Doors of City Hall. With Babies in Arms They Cry for Cheaper Food. Dispersed by Mounted Police. Police Fail to Break Rush. Mrs. Harris Makes Speech. Marie Ganz Arrested https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/02/21/98240700.pdf New York Times February 21, 1917 2015-02-13 Four hundred east side mothers, many Carrying babies and all shouting 'We want food for our children!' poured from Rutgers Square through East Broadway and the Bowery to City Hall about 11 o'clock yesterday morning and ... History Ida Harris, president of the socialist Mothers Vigilance Committee, and anarchist labour organizer Marie Ganz, led the crowds through Manhattan's Lower East Side. After another gathering on February 20, Ganz was arrested for "failing to comply with orders to stop stirring up the crowd."Ferrara, Eric. "The Food Riots Of 1917," The Gotham Center for New York City History (May 4, 2013). Archived at The Lo-Down. On February 22, the women stormed the city's poultry markets, assaulting customers and destroying chickens.“Food Seizure by Commissioner, Governor’s Plan,” New York Times (February 23, 1917). On February 24, thousands of New Yorkers marched on Madison Square, where "several high-profile speakers addressed the crowd." The food riots were effective in that "by the beginning of March, the city responded to the crisis by securing thousands of pounds of low-cost produce and wholesalers lowered prices." Although this succeeded in ending the riots, food prices continued to "fluctuate sharply throughout the war." See also List of food riots List of incidents of civil unrest in New York City References Food Riot Category:1917 riots Category:Battles and conflicts without fatalities Category:Food riots Category:Riots and civil disorder in New York City Category:Political riots in the United States Category:20th-century political riots Category:1917 in American politics