Throughout the summer and fall the Commission of Government would not meet with the Unemployed Committee. It promised some work, but nothing ever turned up. By January, Power was sure it was time for more than a few meetings. Action was needed.

On January 10, the unemployed marched down Duckworth Street. Pierce Power led them up Military Road and over to Government House to give their demands to the Commission of Government. Power picked up a ragged child and held him over his head. This is what we are fighting for, he told the angry crowd. The chief of police stopped them at the gate. Power was not let down. He called for another meeting that night.

About 1,500 gathered on the courthouse steps. "I am determined," Power told them. "I am chained like the slaves of old. You think you are free. You too are chained... I say that a man has no business to live when he cannot pose as a free man." The audience cheered the demands Power brought. These included getting rid of the dole flour. This was brown flour imported from Britain. It had been put on the dole rations because it was said to be healthy. But the flour did not rise properly. The people hated it. It was kept in cold storage. It went moldy by the time it was used.

Their second demand was that they be given cash instead of dole orders. They had to work for the dole now. It wasn't charity. They thought they should get cash to buy what they needed instead of being forced to take whatever the merchants decided to give them.

Their third demand was to stop landlords from putting people out on the Street if they couldn't pay their rent. "I know a case where a woman and six children were evicted. The doors and windows were taken down in order to force them to leave the house. That man whose family was evicted should be here tonight. But that is an old story in Newfoundland." Power told the crowd they must not be ashamed of their poverty. They must not stay home when they were treated unjustly. They must come out and try to change things.

Their fourth demand was for clothing. "This is not a nudist colony," Power proclaimed. The crowd laughed and urged him on.

The last demand was to get rid of some of the officials at the dole office, especially Mrs. Muir. "We go there because we are forced to do so," he said. "A man who is willing to work does not want dole. He is forced to get it. You are put through the third degree by her tongue. 'Where do you live? How many children do you have? What do you want to have children for?'"