May 27, 1917 – Seven weeks after the United States Congress approves a declaration
of war on Germany, the Chicago Conference Committee on Terms of Peace” holds a
rally at the Auditorium Theater in which protestors rail against the country’s
entanglement in the war an ocean away. There are 2,000 people outside the building
for which there is no room, and they instigate what the Chicago Daily Tribune calls the city’s first “war riot.” [Chicago Daily Tribune, May 28, 1917]
The paper reports, “The scene was Grant park, just across from the Auditorium
hotel. Michigan avenue’s thousands of
Sunday promenaders came to an amazed halt.
A steady flowing stream of automobiles pulled up short, blockading the
boulevard for many blocks in each direction … Then a huge, bearded and mop headed
Russian thrust himself above the heads of the others … ‘Why should American
workmen fight the workmen of Germany for any _______ _________ in the White House?’ he
bawled.” It took an hour to put down the
riot as “The air was filled with clubs, that cracked down upon the heads of the
rioters. The members of the meeting
shrieked imprecations, women bit and scratched the police, bull throated
malcontents bawled threats and ‘Down with the government!’ “Free speech!’ and
“No war.’” At first 40 officers show up,
followed by 35 detectives. In ten
minutes there are another 400 policemen trying to maintain order. The Tribune
reports, “’Free speech!’ screamed the women. ‘We want free speech!’ ‘You’ll get
it,’ bellowed back a square shouldered policeman as he whacked another
disturber over the head.” The Reverend
Irwin St. John Tucker, chairman of the peace terms conference, issues a
statement in which he separates the meeting in the Auditorium from the
disturbances across Michigan Avenue. It
reads, “The Chicago permanent conference on terms of peace is responsible only
for the mass meeting held in the Auditorium and for the resolutions officially
presented therein … The conference is determined, while exercising all our
rights under the law, strictly to observe all our obligations under the same.”
May 27, 1975 – After a City Council subcommittee approves $7.2 million for the rehabilitation of Navy Pier, a project that the Department of Public Works estimates may take closer to $34 million, the Chicago Tribune weighs in with its opinion. “Either it will be revived somehow,” the editorial states, “or it will be a big black eye on Chicago’s face as long as it remains. We hope a practical way can and will be found to make Navy Pier once again used, attractive, well served by public transportation from end to end as well as to it. The site is one of the most scenic and interesting urban sites in the country. Surely some time Chicago will find a means of turning Navy Pier’s unused potential into reality.”
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