Description
1919 MUSKEGON TRACTION & LIGHTING CO MICHIGAN Train Streetcar Transit Token RIOTOn August 5, 1919, the Muskegon Traction & Lighting Company tried to raise fares from 6 cents to 7 cents. A riot occurred, which caused an estimated $100-125k in damage. Gov. Sleeper issued the following opinion later in December:“In this matter it appears that on the night of Aug. 5, 1919, certain persons to the number of 30 or more, unarmed, tumultuously assembled in the streets of the city of Muskegon, Michigan, at about the hour of six o’clock in the evening, and within a short distance from, and in plain view of, the city hall, engaged in the obstruction of the passage of street cars, in setting street cars off the tracks, in overturning them and destroying the windows and the fixtures of the cars.”“During the progress of this tumult the mayor and the aldermen of the city of Muskegon held a session of the common council of the city of Muskegon from about 8 o’clock in the evening until about 8:15 or 8:20. The mayor and the members of the common council had due notice and knowledge of what was going on in the streets and none of them went among the crowd or as near thereto as they could with safety and commanded the crowd to disperse as they were required to do by law.“No determined or organized effort was made by the police force of the city of Muskegon to suppress the tumult or to arrest those engaged in it. Citizens called upon the fire department to assist in suppressing the riot and that organization refused to respond. The members of the police force went about on their usual beats and paid no attention to the tumult, which lasted from about six o’clock in the evening until three or four in the morning and did not interrupt the pursuit of their accustomed and usual duties.“No arrests were made of any persons engaged in the disturbance by any member of the police force, no names were obtained by any police official of persons engaged in the disorder and the description of not more than two persons was obtained by the entire department in order to make subsequent arrests. Since Aug. 5, 1919, the mayor and the common council have taken no steps to investigate or discipline the fire or police departments for failing to take efficient and adequate means for suppressing the riot and dispersing the crowd.“It further appears that a great amount of property belonging to the Muskegon Traction and Lighting Co., valued at the sum of from $100,000 to $125,000 (approximately $1.3 to $1.5 million today), was destroyed. The street car service of the city of Muskegon was interrupted and suspended awaiting the repair of the property of the traction company for a period of two weeks.Governor’s finding“In view of all this I find that the mayor and the common council of the city of Muskegon were guilty of misconduct in office and of willful neglect of duty. I further find that they should be removed from office and that the offices now held by them should be declared vacant.“Such failure on the part of the city or other officials to do their plain duty as enjoined by the law of the state cannot be too strongly or severely condemned.”“The highest consideration of every official should be the maintenance of order and the upholding of the supremacy and the majesty of the law. His own personal safety, friendship or desire for political preferment or popularity ought not to deter him for one moment from exercising of his sworn legal duty.“All these men had taken solemn oath to support and defend and enforce the statues of the state. The only excuse offered by them for not having done this in the suppression of these riots was that they did not know what the law commanded them to do. Such an excuse is unworthy of a public official whose first duty should be to learn what his obligations are and whose second duty should be the faithful performance of those obligations. This defense can therefore be given no consideration whatever for it is a maxim fundamental in our system of government that ignorance of the law excuses no one.”
