Embedded Files
John Wilczynski (aka Wileynski), 13, [BELOW] suffered a flesh wound to the leg, while riding his bicycle on the edge of the crowd. Word of the wounding of the young boys spread quickly through the crowd and surrounding community.
ORIGINAL CAPTION:
Walter Rozek, the ten year old son of Mr. And Mrs. George Rozek, of 18 Holmes Avenue, South River, died in South Amboy hospital last night 30 minutes after he was shot during an altercation between strikers, their sympathizers and private detectives, in South River. A policeman, six of the special deputies and another boy sustained injuries during the riot. Arrival of state troopers, who remained all night and were still on duty today, quieted the tense situation. The private detectives were remove, under guard to Prosecutor Hick’s office in New Brunswick for questioning. The ... picture was taken at the time the unfortunate victim made his first holy communion about two years ago.
Other reports would claim he was playing marbles during the riot. Rojek would die on the way to, or at, the South Amboy hospital.
The calm noted in early Monday newspaper reports was not apparent at the R & P Wash Suit plant. There, half of the Manning guards were stationed. By early afternoon, a crowd of strike sympathizers had gathered, along with some strikers who refused to enter the plant with the strange guards present. The crowd of strikers and sympathizers had grown from 50 to 400-500 by late afternoon and eventually a conflict developed. Bricks and rocks were thrown, town police and the rest of the Manning detectives came from borough hall and the crowd was tear-gassed. The crowd was chased down Water Street by the police and guards, who were firing pistols "in the air".
Two young boys were hit by gunfire during the battle, along with one of the Manning "detectives", an "old man" wounded in the arm and an "unidentified woman". Four detectives and one South River cop were also injured by thrown bricks and rocks.
9 year old Walter Rojek, * (refer to link concerning his name), who was on the outer edges of the crowd about a block away from the area, was shot through the back of the head. A NTWIU publication called him a "striker's son".
An interview with the family said both his mother, Anna, and his sister Jane were garment workers who'd gone back to work when their employer (assumed to be R & P Wash Suit Co.) settled with the union. Jane, one of Walter's five sisters, helped translate her mother's comments when she was asked "Why did these men shoot?"
"I don't know. We go back to work. Everything settled.
More wages. These fellers come. Pick fight. My boy killed."
[BELOW] THE DAILY WORKER (whose initial headline after the shooting on Tuesday, September 20 is above) featured an editorial cartoon about Rojek's murder by their well-known 1930s artist, Jacob Burck. After leaving the CP in the mid-30s, Burch went on to work for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Chicago Times and the Chicago Sun-Times. He would win a Pulitzer Prize in 1941 for Editorial Cartooning.
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