international unions in the iron and steel industry met
today to consider the awful situation which exists in many
of the iron and steel industry centres. The coercion, the
brutality employed to prevent men and unions from meeting in
halls engaged, upon private property, in the open air, the
thuggery of the Corporations' emissaries, the wholesale
discharge of numbers of men for no other reason than the one
assigned, that they have become members of the unions, have
brought about a situation such that it is exceedingly
difficult to withhold or restrain the indignation of the men
and the resistance they declare it is their purpose to
present. The Executive Committee, relying upon the case as
presented to you last week and your earnest declaration to
endeavor to bring about a conference for the honorable and
peaceful adjustment of the matters in controversy, have thus
far been enabled to prevail upon the men not to engage in a
general strike. We cannot now affirm how much longer we will
be able to exert that influence; but we urge you, in the
great work in which you are engaged, to give prompt
attention to this most vital of issues; for if the men can
no longer be restrained it is impossible to foretell what
the future may hold in store for an industrial crisis which
may ensue and frustrate the project which you have worked at
for a peaceful and honorable adjustment of industrial
affairs in our country. A meeting of all the Presidents of
the twenty-four international unions in the steel industry
has been called to take place on Tuesday, September 9th in
Washington, D. C. to take such action as they deem
necessary. May we not have your reply on or before that time
as to whether or not a conference with the Steel Corporation
is possible.
SAMUEL GOMPERS
JOHN FITZPATRICK
D. J. DAVIS
WM. HANNON
EDW. J. EVANS
WM. Z. FOSTER
The international presidents met on September 9. A telegram from
Secretary Tumulty was laid before them, to the effect that President
Wilson had not yet been successful in arranging the requested
conference; that he was somewhat discouraged, but was continuing his
efforts. The general opinion took this to be final, that Mr. Gary had
definitely refused the President's request. But in order to make
assurance doubly sure and to convince all involved that everything
possible had been done to avert a break, the following further telegram
was sent to Mr. Wilson, over the objections of some who felt it was
practically asking him to declare the strike:
Washington, September 9, 1919
Honorable Woodrow Wilson,
President of the United States,
St. Paul Hotel,
St. Paul, Minnesota
Secretary Tumulty's telegram of September fifth to Samuel
Gompers was read today at the meeting of the presidents of
the twenty-four international unions in the steel industry,
and given the most careful consideration. After a long and
earnest discussion of it the undersigned were instructed to
wire you requesting a more definite statement as to the
possibility of an early conference being arranged by your
efforts between the heads of the United States Steel
Corporation and of the unions involved. Large numbers of men
are being discharged and otherwise discriminated against and
abused, and it will be impossible to hold our men much longer
from defending themselves by striking unless some genuine
relief is vouchsafed them. Our meeting will remain in session
here for forty-eight hours awaiting your reply before taking
final action. Please send answer to John Fitzpatrick,
Chairman of National Committee, American Federation of Labor
Building, Washington, D. C.
JOHN FITZPATRICK
M. F. TIGHE
WM. HANNON
WM. Z. FOSTER
On the day following Secretary Tumulty's answer was laid on the table
before the meeting, practically repeating what his first telegram had
said. It held out no definite hope for a conference, neither did it
suggest any alternative.[10] Clearly the unions had to act. President
Gompers and others had warned of the great power of the Steel Trust and
the eagerness with which the employing class would unite to give
Organized Labor a heavy blow in the steel industry. The union
representatives keenly realized the gravity of the situation and their
heavy responsibilities. It was in this frame of mind that they could see
no honorable way out of the difficulty except to strike. Accordingly
President Tighe of the Amalgamated Association moved that the strike be
set for September 22. His motion was unanimously adopted. The die was
cast. After telegraphing the strike order broadcast, the union men
scattered to their respective posts to organize the walkout.
Then came a bolt from the blue. Next morning the newspapers carried a
telegram from Secretary Tumulty to President Gompers requesting that the
strike be held off until after the Industrial conference, beginning
October 6. The committeemen could hardly believe their eyes, because the
telegram they had received from Mr. Tumulty had said absolutely nothing
about postponing the strike. Besides, since the President had asked Mr.
Gary privately to grant his workers the conference they were seeking,
and so gave him an opportunity to decline without publicity, it was
incredible that he would publicly make a request upon the unions which
involved their destruction, and which they would have openly to refuse,
thus putting them in a bad light and giving their opponents a powerful
weapon. But all doubts were set at rest by this communication from Mr.
Gompers:
AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR
Washington, D. C., Sept. 11, 1919
Mr. John Fitzpatrick, Chairman,
National Committee For Organizing Iron
and Steel Workers,
Washington, D. C.
_Dear Mr. Fitzpatrick_:
This morning I received a telegram as follows:
Dickinson, N. Dak., Sept. 10, 1919
Hon. Samuel Gompers,
President American Federation of Labor,
Washington, D. C.
In view of the difficulty of arranging any present
satisfactory mediation with regard to the steel situation,
the President desires to urge upon the steel men, through
you, the wisdom and desirability of postponing action
of any kind until after the forthcoming Industrial conference
at Washington.
J. P. TUMULTY.
You are aware of the reason which prevented my
participating further, the past few days, in the conferences
with the representatives of the various national
and international unions involved in this question.
In transmitting the above to you (which I am doing
by long distance telephone from New York) I want to
express the hope that something can be done without
injury to the workers and their cause to endeavor to
conform to the wish expressed by the President; that
even though the corporations may endeavor to provoke
the men to action, that they may hold themselves in
leash and under self-control, consciously demonstrating
their stamina and willingness to abide by the justice of
their cause and that their rights will be finally protected.
Fraternally yours,
SAMUEL GOMPERS,
President
American Federation of Labor
Upon the receipt of this letter a meeting of the National Committee was
at once called to consider the situation. And a serious one it was
indeed. Before the Committee lay two requests to postpone the strike;
one from President Wilson, clear and categoric; the other from Mr.
Gompers, qualified by the hope that it could be done "without injury to
the workers and their cause." To deny these powerful requests meant to
be accused, in the first instance, of hasty and disloyal action, and in
the second, of practical revolt against the officials of the A. F. of L.
It would be to start the strike under the handicap of an unduly hostile
public opinion. Yet to grant them meant ruin complete.
Conditions in the steel industry were desperate. Everywhere the
employers were making vigorous attacks on the unions. From Chicago,
Youngstown, Newcastle, Steubenville, Wheeling, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and
many other points large numbers of men were being thrown out of work
because of their union membership. Johnstown was a bleeding wound. In
the towns along the Monongahela river thousands of discharged men walked
the streets, and their number was daily being heavily increased.
In the face of this situation it would have been folly to have the steel
workers abandon their strike preparations, even if it could have been
done. It was like asking one belligerent to ground arms in the face of
its onrushing antagonist. The employers gave not the slightest sign of a
truce. Long before anything could be hoped for from the Industrial
conference, they would have cut the unions to pieces, had the workers
been foolish enough to give them the opportunity.
This the steel workers were determined not to do. Immediately after the
story got abroad that the strike might be postponed, they met in their
unions and notified the National Committee that they were going to
strike on September 22, regardless of anything that body might do short
of getting them definite concessions and protection. Many long weary
months they had waited patiently, under the urgings of the organizers,
for a chance to redress their grievances. And now when they had built
their organizations; taken their strike vote; received their strike call
and were ready to deliver a blow at their oppressors, the opportunity of
a generation was at hand, and they were not going to see it lost. They
would not postpone indefinitely, and in all likelihood break up
altogether, the movement they had suffered so much to build, in the
vague hope that the Industrial conference, which they had no guarantee
would even consider their case, and which was dominated by their arch
enemies, Gary and Rockefeller, would in some distant day do something
for them. Their determination to have the strike go on was intensified
by the constant ding-donging of the Steel Trust propaganda in the mills
to the effect that the A. F. of L. unions were cowardly and corrupt;
that they would make no fight for the steel workers, and that a
postponement of the strike would be proof positive that they had sold
out. Under such circumstances the workers could not consent to the
withholding of the strike. Practically all the steel districts in the
country solemnly warned the National Committee that they would strike on
September 22, in spite of any postponement that was not based on
positive assurances that justice would be done. The control of the
situation was in the hands of the rank and file.
The field secretaries and organizers present at the National Committee
meeting, men intimately acquainted with actual conditions, emphasized
the impossibility of postponement. Many of them, among whom were some of
the best and most conservative men in the whole campaign, declared that
an attempt to delay the strike, merely upon the strength of possible
action by the Industrial conference, would result in the swift
destruction of the movement under the worst of circumstances. The
workers would be bound to consider it a gigantic sell-out and to act
accordingly. As for themselves, they declared they would have nothing to
do with it, and would be compelled to present their resignations the
minute a motion to postpone prevailed. Dozens of them took this stand.
To the National Committee two courses were open: (1) It could postpone
the strike with the absolute certainty that it would break the steel
movement by so doing, because the strike would have gone ahead anyway in
a series of wild, uncontrolled, leaderless revolts, waged in an
atmosphere fatally charged with accusations of cowardice and graft. In
all probability the A. F. of L. would suffer one of the worst defeats in
its history, and gain such an evil reputation among the steel workers
that it could not approach them for many years, if ever, with an
organization project. Or (2) it could go ahead with the strike, with a
fighting chance to win. In any event, even if the strike were lost, it
would be through a clean fight and the honor of the movement would be
preserved. The steel workers would be convinced that everything possible
had been done for them. Thus the unions would retain their confidence
and be enabled to re-organize them at an early date.
Between certain, ignominious defeat and possible victory, or at the
worst honorable failure, the National Committee had only one choice.
Practically all the delegates present were of the opinion that the
strike had to go on. But some had to wire their international offices to
cancel their instructions to vote for postponement. On September 18, D.
J. Davis, Assistant President of the Amalgamated Association moved that
September 22 be reaffirmed as the strike date. This was carried.[11]
Then the Conference Committee addressed a long letter to President
Wilson, explaining in detail the situation as the union men saw it and
outlining the reasons for not postponing the strike. The letter closed
as follows:
Mr. President, delay is no longer possible. We have tried to
find a way but cannot. We regret that for the first time
your call upon Organized Labor cannot meet with favorable
response. Believe us the fault is not ours. If delay were no
more than delay, even at the cost of loss of membership in
our organizations, we would urge the same to the fullest of
our ability, notwithstanding the men are set for an
immediate strike. But delay here means the surrender of all
hope. This strike is not at the call of the leaders, but
that of the men involved. Win or lose, the strike is
inevitable and will continue until industrial despotism will
recede from the untenable position now occupied by Mr. Gary.
We have faith in your desire to bring about a conference and
hope you will succeed therein. We fully understand the
hardships that meanwhile will follow and the reign of terror
that unfair employers will institute. The burden falls upon
the men, but the great responsibility therefor rests upon
the other side.
After agreeing that all settlements made with the employers should cover
all trades, and sending a letter to the independent steel companies
inviting conferences with them, the meeting adjourned and the organizers
and delegates left to make good the following strike call, of which
200,000 copies, in seven languages, had been scattered broadcast
throughout the entire steel industry:
STRIKE SEPTEMBER 22, 1919
The workers in the iron and steel mills and blast furnaces,
not working under union agreements, are requested not to go
to work on September 22, and to refuse to resume their
employment until such time as the demands of the
organizations have been conceded by the steel corporations.
The union committees have tried to arrange conferences with
the heads of the steel companies in order that they might
present our legitimate demands for the right of collective
bargaining, higher wages, shorter hours and better working
conditions. But the employers have steadfastly refused to
meet them. It therefore becomes our duty to support the
committees' claims, in accordance with the practically
unanimous strike vote, by refusing to work in the mills on
or after September 22, until such time as our just demands
have been granted. And in our stoppage of work let there be
no violence. The American Federation of Labor has won all
its great progress by peaceful and legal methods.
IRON AND STEEL WORKERS! A historic decision confronts us. If
we will but stand together now like men our demands will
soon be granted and a golden era of prosperity will open for
us in the steel industry. But if we falter and fail to act
this great effort will be lost, and we will sink back into a
miserable and hopeless serfdom. The welfare of our wives and
children is at stake. Now is the time to insist upon our
rights as human beings.
STOP WORK SEPTEMBER 22
NATIONAL COMMITTEE
FOR ORGANIZING IRON AND STEEL WORKERS.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] Out of courtesy to the President the National Committee has never
made public these telegrams.
[11] After he had been made fully acquainted with the situation Mr.
Gompers said before the Senate Committee on Education and Labor,
investigating the steel strike: (Hearings, page 109) "Notwithstanding
what any of the officials of the trade unions would have done,
regardless of what the Committee would have done, the strike would have
occurred anyway, a haphazard, loose, disjointed, unorganized strike,
without leadership, without consultation, without advice. It was simply
a choice whether the strike would take place under the guidance and
leadership of men who have proven their worth, or under the leadership
of some one who might spring up for the moment."
VII
THE STORM BREAKS
THE STEEL TRUST ARMY--CORRUPT OFFICIALDOM--CLAIRTON--McKEESPORT
--THE STRIKE--SHOWING BY DISTRICTS--A TREASONABLE ACT--GARY
GETS HIS ANSWER
As the memorable twenty-second of September approached a lurid and
dramatic setting developed for the beginning of the great steel strike.
Everywhere the steel companies made gigantic preparations to crush their
aspiring workers back to slavery. The newspapers shrieked revolution.
The whole country was a-tremble with anxiety and apprehension.
Pittsburgh was the storm center. There, in its stronghold, the Steel
Trust went ahead with strike-breaking measures unprecedented in
industrial history. It provisioned and fortified its great mills and
furnaces, surrounding them with stockades topped off with heavily
charged electric wires, and bristling with machine guns. It assembled
whole armies of gunmen. Brute force was to be used in breaking the
solidarity of the workers. Said the New York _World_ editorially
September 22: "In anticipation of the steel strike, what do we see? In
the Pittsburgh district thousands of deputy sheriffs have been recruited
at several of the larger plants. The Pennsylvania State Constabulary
has been concentrated at commanding points. At other places the
authorities have organized bodies of war veterans as special officers.
At McKeesport alone 3,000 citizens have been sworn in as special police
deputies subject to instant call. It is as though preparations were made
for actual war."
Along the Monongahela river from Pittsburgh to Clairton, a distance of
twenty miles, there were not less than 25,000 armed men in the service
of the Steel Trust. In the entire Pittsburgh district, practically all
the petty parasites who prey upon the steel workers--the professional
and small business men--had been sworn in as deputies and furnished
firearms to defend their great overlord, to whom they all do
unquestioning service no matter how dirty the job. During the strike
Sheriff Haddock of Allegheny county stated to the Senate Committee
investigating the strike that there were 5,000 deputy sheriffs and 5,000
strikers in his jurisdiction, or one deputy for each striker. His totals
should have been multiplied by at least ten in each case; 50,000
deputies and 50,000 strikers would have been well below the mark. It is
noteworthy that although the danger of an uprising in the Pittsburgh
district was widely advertised no appeal was made for troops, nor was
there even any talk of an appeal. The reason was that the Steel Trust
had a vast army of its own, officered by its own officials, and it
needed no outside help.
Western Pennsylvania is controlled body and soul by the Steel Trust. The
whole district has the psychology of a company-owned town. All authority
centers in the steel industry. From there practically every institution
takes its orders. Local governmental agencies are hardly more than
public service departments of the Steel Trust. Their officials, city,
county, state and federal, obey the mandates of the steel magnates just
about as readily and naturally as do the superintendents and mill
bosses. No less than the latter they felt it to be their duty to break
the strike by whatever means their masters told them to use.
With the approach of the strike these lackey officials hastened _en
masse_ to the aid of the Steel Trust. Sheriff Haddock, besides swearing
in an army of guards and turning them over to the steel companies to
carry out their plan of terrorism, issued a flaming proclamation
practically setting up martial law and making it a riotous assembly for
three steel workers to meet together. Next day, September 21, the
organizers tried to hold a meeting in North Clairton--with the Burgess'
permission, and at a place on the public commons especially set aside by
the authorities for union meetings. About 3,000 steel workers gathered
to hear the speakers. Everything was going as peacefully as a Sunday
school picnic, when suddenly a troop of State Constabulary appeared upon
the scene, and without a word of warning, rode full tilt into the crowd,
clubbing and trampling men and women indiscriminately. They tore down
and threw in the mud the American flag floating above the speakers'
stand. Scores were arrested (including organizers J. B. Etchison and P.
H. Brogan) and held for heavy bonds on charges of rioting.[12] Many
were seriously injured, but fearing to report their cases to the doctors
and thus court arrest, as the latter were nearly all deputies, they
cured themselves as best they could. This crying outrage was perpetrated
under the authority of the Sheriff's proclamation. It was endorsed and
lauded by Governor Sproul, than whom the Steel Trust has no more willing
champion.
At the same hour as the Clairton outrage a similar attack was made on
the workers at Glassport, adjoining McKeesport. Not being allowed to
meet at the latter city the organizers had leased a plot of ground in
Glassport and had been holding regular meetings there, with the full
sanction of the local authorities. For the meeting in question they had
an official permit. But just as it was about to begin the State
Constabulary broke it up in true Cossack fashion, almost riding down the
Burgess in so doing. They arrested all they could seize. These were held
as rioters under bail of from $1,000 to $3,000 each. The venal
Pittsburgh papers screamed about the outbreaks that had been crushed by
the gallant State police, and praised them for their bravery in facing
the "rioting mobs."
Despite all these terroristic methods the Steel Trust could not break
the will of its workers. On September 22 they struck throughout the
entire industry with a discipline and universality that will be
remembered so long as steel is made in America. On Tuesday, the
twenty-third, 304,000 had quit their posts in the mills and furnaces.
All week their ranks were augmented until by September 30, there were
365,600 on strike. It was a magnificent effort for freedom, and twice as
big a strike as this country had ever known. By cities and districts,
the numbers of strikers were as follows:
Pittsburgh 25,000
Homestead 9,000
Braddock 10,000
Rankin 5,000
Clairton 4,000
Duquesne & McKeesport 12,000
Vandergrift 4,000
Brackenridge 5,000
New Kensington 1,100
Apollo 1,500
Leechburg 3,000
Donora & Monessen 12,000
Johnstown 18,000
Coatesville 4,000
Youngstown district,
including Youngstown, E. Youngstown,
Struthers, Hubbard, Niles, Canton,
Alliance, Massillon, Warren, Farrell,
Newcastle, Sharon, Butler, etc. 70,000
Wheeling district 15,000
Cleveland 25,000
Steubenville district 12,000
Chicago district,
including Gary, Joliet, DeKalb,
South Chicago, Indiana Harbor, East
Chicago, Hammond, Evanston, Sterling,
Peoria, Milwaukee, etc. 90,000
Buffalo district 12,000
Pueblo 6,000
Birmingham 2,000
5 Bethlehem Plants 20,000
-------
Total 365,600
The shut-down was almost complete. Throughout the country the industry
was stricken with paralysis. On an average the strike was at least 90
per cent. effective. In the great Chicago district practically all the
men struck, hamstringing the big plants in the various steel towns of
that section, Gary, Joliet, Indiana Harbor, South Chicago, etc. The
holding of the organizations in this district for a year, in the face of
Steel Trust opposition, by the organizers under Secretary Evans, and
later, De Young, was one of the most notable achievements of the whole
campaign. When the pent-up force was finally released it swept the
district like a flood, leaving hardly a wheel turning anywhere.
Youngstown is another place where great difficulties had been
encountered in the organizing work, the workers being deeply discouraged
by recently lost local strikes, and the authorities at some points so
hostile that it was impossible to hold meetings in the strategic places.
But so widespread was the discontent at the miserable working
conditions, and so well had the district crew of organizers under
Secretaries McCadden and Hammersmark done their work that when the
strike clarion sounded, the masses of steel workers responded almost to
a man. Trust plants and "independents" alike had to shut down. The steel
working population of the entire Mahoning Valley went on holiday. It was
a clean walkout. In the outer Youngstown district, as established by the
National Committee system, the companies, by the use of desperate
tactics, succeeded in keeping some of their men at work; in Sharon,
Farrell and Newcastle probably twenty per cent refused to obey the
strike call. But in Canton and Massillon, John Olchon and the other
organizers brought all the important mills to a dead stop.