The Riot of 1935

Spring had come to St. John's. The unemployed had survived on dole rations all winter. Their demand now was for money. They wanted to work for cash, not for dole orders.

On April 27 the snitch, One X, told the police that the Unemployed Committee planned to hold a parade on Jubilee Day. They had chosen May 6, the King's birthday, to make their demands known. He said they would carry banners reading "God save the King, but we want work." A photographer had promised to take pictures and send them to the British newspapers.

The commissioners did not want to deal with this parade. They thought it would ruin an important holiday and make them look bad. The commissioner for natural resources, Sir John Hope Simpson, met with Power and several other members of the Committee on May 2. His answer was given over the radio the next day. Five hundred men would be put to work that summer. Their meeting with Simpson had been a great success. A parade was no longer needed.

On Jubilee Day Pierce Power was busy gathering the names of the men who needed the government work. Power tried to present his list of names to the police on May 7. He was told that the commissioners had changed their minds. Men who wanted work would have to sign up with the police, not with the Unemployed Committee.

Five thousand people crowded into Beck's Cove for a meeting that night. The police reported that the crowd and the Committee were angry. "There has been a great change in the unemployed and they now figure that the promise of putting five hundred men to work was merely a ruse so that they would not parade on Jubilee Day," Detective Mahoney wrote in his report that night.

Pierce believed the Commission of Government was pushing for a showdown with the unemployed. He thought they must hold another parade. They must not back down. "Someone in this town must make a sacrifice," he told the crowd. "We will only fight for bread, clothes, and freedom. You must be prepared, everyone of us."²¹ According to Mahoney, Power told the crowd to arm themselves with "picks, tools, pokers, and the devil knows what."²²