Empire Casino

Empire Casino, in the Bronx, becomes the setting for a meeting expressing solidarity with Russia’s workers’ government. Its importance lies in the collision staged there: a public gathering and its message of international working-class solidarity meet the surveillance and coercive force of the state, ending in arrests.

Setting and Purpose

The meeting took place at Empire Casino a week after Ben Compton and his comrades began organizing support for a gathering to send greetings to Russia’s workers’ and peasants’ government. The venue held a crowd of a few hundred before police closed the doors. The occasion was both a political assembly and a visible test of whether workers could express solidarity with the Russian revolution in the United States.

A Watched Gathering

Two federal agents sat in the front row with a stenographer, recording the proceedings. In the gallery, soldiers and sailors in uniform arrived in small groups and tried to stare down the speakers. Outside, police used motorcycles to break up the crowd. The arrangement put surveillance inside the hall and force at its entrances, surrounding the meeting before the speeches had run their course.

Speeches and Arrests

The chairman announced that the meeting would send greetings from America’s oppressed workers to Russia’s victorious workers. Those present rose and cheered; the crowd outside cheered as well, while people nearby sang The Internationale and police whistles and a patrol wagon could be heard. When Compton spoke, he condemned the war as serving bankers and munitions makers and argued that workers would eventually turn the weapons they were being taught to use against the profiteers. Soldiers and sailors began pushing people from their seats, police converged on the speakers, and Compton and others were arrested. Men of conscription age had to show their registration cards before leaving. Compton was taken away in a closed limousine before he could speak to Helen Mauer.

Aftermath and Significance

The casino meeting’s immediate consequence was Compton’s arrest, followed by three days of detention and repeated questioning. The episode gives the location a significance beyond its role as a meeting hall: the gathering’s solidarity is voiced publicly, but its participants remain subject to surveillance, conscription checks, and arrest. Empire Casino thus marks the point where political speech and state repression meet in the novel’s account of wartime labor politics.