from Braddock. There the heroic Slavish priest, Reverend Adelbert
Kazincy, pastor of St. Michel's Roman Catholic church, bade defiance to
the Steel Trust and all its minions. He threw open his church to the
strikers, turned his services into strike meetings, and left nothing
undone to make the men hold fast. The striking steel workers came to his
church from miles around, Protestants as well as Catholics. The
neighboring clergymen who ventured to oppose the strike lost their
congregations,--men, women and children flocked to Father Kazincy's, and
all of them stood together, as solid as a brick wall.
Reverend Kazincy's attitude aroused the bitterest hostility of the steel
companies. They did not dare to do him bodily violence, nor to close his
church by their customary "legal" methods; but they tried everything
else. Unable to get the local bishop to silence him, they threatened
finally to strangle his church. To this the doughty priest replied that
if they succeeded he would put a monster sign high up on his steeple:
"This church destroyed by the Steel Trust," and he would see that it
stayed there. When they tried to foreclose on the church mortgage, he
promptly laid the matter before his heterogeneous congregation of
strikers, who raised the necessary $1200 before leaving the building and
next day brought in several hundred dollars more. Then the companies
informed him that after the strike no more Slovaks could get work in
the mills. He told them that if they tried this, he would do his level
best to pull all the Slovaks out of the district (they are the bulk of
the mill forces) and colonize them in the West. The promised blacklist
has not yet materialized.
Father Kazincy and the clergymen who worked with him, notable among whom
was the Reverend Molnar, a local Slavish Lutheran minister, constituted
one of the great mainstays of the strike in their district. They are men
who have caught the true spirit of the lowly Nazarene. The memory of
their loyal co-operation will long live green in the hearts of the
Pittsburgh district steel strikers.
A description of the repressive measures taken by the Steel Trust
against its workers during the early period of the strikes necessarily
relates almost entirely to Western Pennsylvania. With few exceptions,
the other districts were in a deadlock. So tightly were the mills shut
down that the companies could hardly stir. It took them several weeks to
get their stricken fighting machinery in motion again. But it was
different in Western Pennsylvania, in what we call the greater
Pittsburgh district; that has always been the key to the whole industry,
and there, from the very first, the steel companies made a bitter fight
to control the situation and to break the strike. The tactics used there
are typical in that they came to be universally applied as the strike
grew older, the degree of their application depending upon the amount of
control exercised by the Steel Trust in the several localities.
To carry on the terror so well begun by the suppression of free speech
and free assembly, the Steel Trust turned loose upon the devoted
strikers in Western Pennsylvania the great masses of armed thugs it had
been recruiting since long before the strike. These consisted of every
imaginable type of armed guard, official and unofficial, except
uniformed troops. There were State Constabulary, deputy sheriffs, city
police, city detectives, company police, company detectives, private
detectives, coal and iron police, ordinary gunmen, armed
strike-breakers, vigilantes, and God knows how many others. These
legions of reaction, all tarred with the same brush--a servile,
mercenary allegiance to the ruthless program of the Steel Trust--vied
with each other in working hardships upon the steel workers. In this
shameful competition the State Constabulary stood first; for downright
villainy and disregard of civil and human rights, these so-called
upholders of law and order easily outdistanced all the other plug-uglies
assembled by the Steel Trust. They merit our special attention.
The Pennsylvania State Constabulary dates from 1905, when a law was
enacted creating the Department of State Police. The force is modelled
somewhat along the lines of the Royal Irish Constabulary and the
Canadian Northwest Mounted Police. The men are uniformed, mounted,
heavily armed and regularly enlisted. For the most part they consist of
ex-United States army men. At present they number somewhat less than the
amount set by law, 415 officers and men. Their ostensible duty is to
patrol the poorly policed rural sections of the state, and this they do
when they have nothing else to take up their time. But their real
function is to break strikes. They were organized as a result of the
failure of the militia to crush the anthracite strike of 1902. Since
their inception they have taken an active part in all important
industrial disturbances within their jurisdiction. They are the heart's
darlings of Pennsylvania's great corporations. Labor regards them with
an abiding hatred. Says Mr. Jas. H. Maurer (_The Cossack_, page 3):
The "English Square" is the only open-field military
formation of human beings that has ever been known to
repulse cavalry. All other formations go down before the
resistless rush of plunging beasts mounted by armed men, mad
in the fierce excitement induced by the thundering gallop of
charging horses. A charge by cavalry is a storm from
hell--for men on foot. A cavalry-man's power, courage and
daring are strangely multiplied by the knowledge that he
sits astride a swift, strong beast, willing and able to
knock down a dozen men in one leap of this terrible rush.
Hence, the Cossacks, the mounted militiamen--for crushing
unarmed, unmounted groups of men on strike.
But the State Police do not confine themselves merely to the crude
business of breaking up so-called strike riots. Their forte is
prevention, rather than cure. They aim to so terrorize the people that
they will cower in their homes, afraid to go upon the streets to
transact necessary business, much less to congregate in crowds. They
play unmercifully upon every fear and human weakness. They are skilled,
scientific terrorists, such as Czarist Russia never had.
On a thousand occasions they beat, shot, jailed or trampled steel
workers under their horses' hoofs in the manner and under the
circumstances best calculated to strike terror to their hearts. In
Braddock, for instance, a striker having died of natural causes, about
two hundred of his fellows assembled to accompany the body to the
cemetery. To stop this harmless demonstration all the State Police
needed to do was to send a word to the union. But such orderly,
reasonable methods do not serve their studied policy of frightfulness.
Therefore, without previously informing the strikers in any way that
their funeral party was obnoxious, the Cossacks laid in wait for the
procession, and when it reached the heart of town, where all Braddock
could get the benefit of the lesson in "Americanism," they swooped down
upon it at full gallop, clubbing the participants and scattering them to
the four winds.
Similar outrageous attacks occurred not once, but dozens of times. Let
Father Kazincy speak of his experiences:
Braddock, Pa., Sept. 27, 1919
W. Z. Foster,
Pittsburgh, Pa.,
_Dear Sir_:
The pyramidal impudence of the State Constabulary in denying
charges of brutal assaults perpetrated by them upon the
peaceful citizens of the borough of Braddock prompts me to
send a telegram to the Governor of Pennsylvania, in which I
have offered to bring forth two specific cases of bestial
transgression of their "calling."
On Monday last at 10 A. M. my congregation, leaving
church, was suddenly, without any cause whatever, attacked
on the very steps of the Temple of God, by the Constables,
and dispersed by the iron-hoofed Huns. Whilst dispersing
indignation and a blood frenzy swayed them, a frenzy
augmented by that invisible magnetic force, the murmuring,
raging force of 3,000 strong men. One could feel that
helpless feeling of being lifted up by some invisible force,
forced, thrown against the flux of raging, elemental passion
of resentment, against the Kozaks of this State.
Nevertheless, it was the most magnificent display of
self-control manifested by the attacked ever shown anywhere.
They moved on, with heads lowered and jaws firmly set, to
submit. Oh, it was great; it was magnificent. They, these
husky, muscle-bound Titans of raw force walked home ... only
thinking, thinking hard. Oh, only for one wink from some
one, would there be a puddle of red horseblood mixed with
the human kind.
But no. We want to win the strike. We want to win the
confidence of the public.
Tuesday afternoon the little babies of No. 1 were going to
the school. They loitered for the school bell to summon
them. And here come Kozaks. They see the little innocents
standing on the steps of the school-house, their parents on
the opposite side of the street. What a splendid occasion to
start the "Hunkey's" ire. Let us charge their babies--that
will fetch them to an attack upon us.
They did. But the "Hunkey" even at the supreme test of his
cool-headedness, refused to flash his knife to save his
babies from the onrush of the cruel horses' hoofs.
I am relating to you, Mr. Foster, things as they happened.
You may use my name in connection with your charges against
the Constabulary.
Sincerely yours,
REV. A. KAZINCY,
416 Frazier St.,
Braddock, Pa.
[Illustration: COSSACKS IN ACTION
Brutal and unprovoked assault upon Rudolph Dressel, Homestead, Pa.,
Sept. 23, 1919.
_Photo by International_]
Governor Sproul paid no attention to Father Kazincy's protest, nor did
he to a long letter from Jas. H. Maurer, reciting shocking brutalities
fully authenticated by affidavits--unless it was to multiply his public
endorsements and praises of the State Police.
A favorite method of the Constables was to go tearing through the
streets (foreign quarter), forcing pedestrians into whatever houses they
happened to be passing, regardless of whether or not they lived there.
Read these two typical affidavits, portraying a double outrage:
STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA }
COUNTY OF ALLEGHENY } SS.
Before me, the undersigned authority, personally appeared
John Bodnar, who being duly sworn according to law deposes
and says that he lives at 542 Gold Way, Homestead, Pa., that
on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 1919, at about 2 P. M. he
went to visit his cousin on Fifth Avenue, Homestead, Pa.:
that he did in fact visit his cousin and after leaving the
house of his cousin was accosted on the street by a member
of the State Police who commanded him, the deponent, to
enter a certain house, which house was not known to the
deponent; that deponent informed said State Policeman that
he, deponent, did not live in the house indicated by the
State Policeman; nevertheless, the said State Policeman
said, "It makes no difference whether you live in there or
not, you go in there anyhow"; thereupon in fear of violence
deponent did enter the said house, which house was two doors
away from the house of the cousin of deponent; that after a
time deponent came out of the house into which he had been
ordered, thereupon the same State Policeman returned and
ordered deponent to re-enter the house aforesaid and upon
again being informed by deponent that he, the deponent, did
not live in said house, the said State Policeman forthwith
arrested the deponent and brought him to Homestead police
station, and at a hearing at said station before the burgess
was fined the sum of nine dollars and sixty-five cents,
which amount was paid by deponent.
JOHN BODNAR
Sworn to and subscribed before me
this first day of October, 1919.
A. F. Kaufman, Notary Public.
Here is what happened in the house into which Bodnar was driven:
STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA }
COUNTY OF ALLEGHENY } SS.
Before me, the undersigned authority, personally appeared
Steve Dudash, who being duly sworn according to law deposes
and says that he resides at 541 E. 5th Ave., Homestead, Pa.;
that on Tuesday September 23, 1919, in the afternoon of said
day, his wife, Mary Dudash, was severely scalded, burned,
and injured by reason of a sudden fright sustained when a
State Policeman forced John Bodnar into the home of the
deponent and his wife, Mary Dudash; that said Mary Dudash,
the wife of the deponent, was in a very delicate condition
at the time of the fright and injury complained of, caused
by the State Police and that on Sunday, Sept. 28, 1919,
following the date in question, namely the 23rd, the said
Mary Dudash, wife of deponent, gave birth to a child; that
on account of the action of the State Police in forcing John
Bodnar with terror into the home of deponent and his wife,
Mary Dudash, she, the said Mary Dudash, wife of the
deponent, has been rendered very sick and has suffered a
nervous collapse and is still suffering from the nervous
shock sustained, on account of the action of the State
Police, above referred to.
STEVE DUDASH
Sworn to and subscribed before me
this first day of October, 1919
A. F. Kaufman, Notary Public.
When on a mission of terrorism the first thing the State Troopers do is
to get their horses onto the sidewalks, the better to ride down the
pedestrians. Unbelievable though it may seem, they actually ride into
stores and inner rooms. Picture the horror a foreign worker and his
family, already badly frightened, at seeing a mounted policeman crashing
into their kitchen. The horses are highly trained. Said an N. E. A. news
dispatch, Sept. 26th, 1919:
Horses of the Pennsylvania State Constabulary are trained
not to turn aside, as a horse naturally will do, when a
person stands in its way, but to ride straight over any one
against whom they are directed. Lizzie, a splendid black
mare ridden by Trooper John A. Thorp, on duty at Homestead,
uses her teeth as well as her heels when in action. Her
master will sometimes dismount, leaving Lizzie to hold a
striker with her strong jaws, while he takes up the pursuit
of others on foot.
If this is thought to be an overdrawn statement, read the following
affidavit:
Butler, Pa., October 3, 1919
I, Jacob Sazuta,
21 Bessemer Ave.,
Lyndora, Pa.
Commenced work for the Standard Steel Car Company in
September, 1913, as laborer. About October 1916 was promoted
to car fitter in the erection department; in February, 1919,
was then taken and placed as a wheel roller, and I worked in
this capacity until August 6th, 1919 [the date the steel
strike began there].
On August 25, after receiving my pay, I was standing looking
in a store window, when State Trooper No. 52 rode his horse
upon me, THE HORSE STEPPING ON MY LEFT FOOT. Trooper No. 52
ordered me to move on, BUT AS THE HORSE WAS STANDING ON MY
FOOT I COULD NOT MOVE. He then struck me across the head
with his club, cutting a gash in the left side of my head
that took the doctor three stitches to close up the wound.
After hitting me with his club, he kept chasing me with his
horse.
JACOB SAZUTA
Sworn and subscribed before me
this third day of October, 1919.
E. L. Cefferi, Notary Public.
A few affidavits, and extracts from affidavits, taken at random from
among the hundreds in possession of the National Committee, will
indicate the general conditions prevailing in the several districts:
Clairton, Pa.
John Doban, Andy Niski and Mike Hudak were walking home
along the street when the State Police came and arrested the
three, making ten holes in Mike Hudak's head. Were under
arrest three days. Union bailed them out, $1,000.00 each.
* * * * *
Butler, Pa., Oct. 3, 1919.
I, James Torok, Storekeeper,
103 Standard Ave.,
Lyndora, Pa.,
On about August 15, 1919, I saw State Troopers chase a
crippled man who could not run as fast as his horse, and run
him down, the horse bumping him in the back with his head,
knocked him down. Later three men were coming to my store to
buy some things; the State Troopers ran their horses right
on them and chased them home. One of the men stopped and
said: "I have to go to the store," and the Trooper said:
"Get to hell out of here, you sons -- ----, or I will kill
you," and started after them again, and the people ran home
and stayed away from the store.
JAMES TOROK
Sworn to and subscribed before me
this 3rd day of October, 1919.
E. L. Peffer, Notary Public.
* * * * *
Homestead, Pa.
... two State Policemen made a forcible entry into the home
of deponent, Trachn Yenchenke, at 327 Third Ave, Homestead,
Pa., and came to the place where deponent was asleep, kicked
him and punched him, and handled him with extreme violence
and took deponent without any explanation, without
permitting deponent to dress, dragged him half naked from
his home to waiting automobile and conveyed him against his
will to the Homestead Police Station.... Fined $15.10.
TRACHN YENCHENKE.
* * * * *
Monessen, Pa.
... Concetta Cocchiara, 8 months advanced in a state of
pregnancy, was out shopping with her sister. Two State
Policemen brusquely ordered them home and when they did not
move fast enough to suit, followed them home, forced himself
into the house and struck affiant with a stick on the head
and grabbed her by the hair and pulled her from the kitchen
and forced her into a patrol wagon and took her to the
borough jail.... Sworn to before Henry Fusarini, Notary
Public, October 11, 1919.
* * * * *
Newcastle, Pa.
John Simpel,
1711 Morris Ave.,
Newcastle.
On Sept. 22, about 5.30 P. M. he was walking along
towards his home on Moravia Street. Hearing shots fired he
stopped in the middle of the street and was instantly struck
by bullets three times, one bullet going through his leg,
one through his finger, while the third entered his back and
went through his body, coming out through his abdomen. The
shots were fired from inside the gates of the Carnegie Steel
Company's plant. Mr. Simpel believes the shots were fired
from a machine gun, because of their rapid succession. He
fell on the ground and lay there for about ten minutes,
until he was picked up by a young boy.... He is now totally
disabled. He has a wife and a child and is 48 years of
age....
JAS. A. NORRINGTON, Secretary.
* * * * *
Farrell, Pa.
... There were four men killed here, one in a quarrel in a
boarding house and three by the Cossacks. Half a dozen were
wounded, one of them a woman. She was shot in the back by a
Cossack, while on her way to the butcher shop....
S. COATES, Secretary.
Many hundreds of similar cases could be cited. In the steel strike a
score were killed, almost all on the workers' side; hundreds were
seriously injured, and thousands unjustly jailed. To the State
Constabulary attaches the blame for a large share of this tyranny. The
effect of their activities was to create a condition in Western
Pennsylvania, bordering on a reign of terror. Yet it is extremely
difficult to definitely fasten their crimes upon them. No matter how
dastardly the outrage, when the Steel Trust cracks its whip the local
authorities and leading citizens come forth with a mass of affidavits,
"white-washing" the thuggery in question, and usually sufficing to cast
serious doubts on the statements of the few worker witnesses courageous
enough to raise their voices. What is to be thought of the following
incident?
Testifying before the Senate Committee investigating the strike, Mr.
Gompers related how, in an organizing campaign in Monessen, Pa. several
years ago, A. F. of L. organizer Jefferson D. Pierce was bludgeoned by
Steel Trust thugs, receiving injuries that resulted in his death. Mr.
Gompers had his facts straight. Yet the very next day, Mr. Gary,
testifying before the same Committee, produced a sworn statement from
the son of Mr. Pierce containing the following assertions:
I was with my father the night he received his injuries in
Monessen, Pa., and wish to state very emphatically that his
injury was not caused by any one connected with the United
States Steel Corporation. On the contrary, it was caused by
a member of the I. W. W. organization from out of town, who
was sent there at the time to create trouble, as the I. W.
W. organization was then trying to gain control of the
organizing situation. I wish again most emphatically to
refute Mr. Gompers' statement that this injury was caused by
some one connected with the United States Steel Corporation.
Upon being questioned, Mr. Gary "thought" that Mr. Pierce is employed at
Worcester, Mass. by the American Steel and Wire Company, a subsidiary of
the U. S. Steel Corporation.
Fortunately, however, in the steel strike the photographer secured a
proof of State Police brutality which the most skilled Steel Trust
apologists cannot explain away--a picture of the typically vicious
assault upon Mr. R. Dressel, a hotel keeper of 532 Dickson St. (foreign
quarter), Homestead, Pa. I quote from the latter's statement in
connection therewith:
I, Rudolph Dressel, of the aforesaid address, do hereby make
this statement of my own volition and without solicitation
from any one. That on the 23rd day of September I was
standing in front of my place of business at the aforesaid
address and a friend of mine, namely, Adolph Kuehnemund,
came to visit and consult me regarding personal matters. As
I stood as shown in the picture above mentioned with my
friend, the State Constabulary on duty in Homestead came
down Dickson St. They had occasion to ride up and down the
street several times and finally stopped directly in front
of me and demanded that I move on. Before I had time to
comply I was struck by the State Policeman. (The attitude of
said Policeman is plainly shown in the aforesaid picture,
and his threatening club is plainly seen descending towards
me.)
My friend and I then entered my place of business and my
friend a few minutes afterwards looked out on the street
over the summer doors. The policeman immediately charged him
and being unable to enter my place of business on horseback,
dismounted and entered into my place of business on foot.
My friend being frightened at what had happened to me
retired to a room in the rear of my place of business. The
Policeman entered this room, accompanied by another State
Police, and without cause, reason or excuse, struck my
friend and immediately thereafter arrested him. I was
personally present at his hearing before Burgess P. H.
McGuire of the above city, at which none of the aforesaid
policemen were heard or even present. Burgess asked my
friend what he was arrested for, and my friend referred to
me inasmuch as he himself did not know. The Burgess
immediately replied, "We have no time to hear your
witnesses," and thereupon levied a fine of $10.00 and costs
upon him. My friend having posted a forfeit of $25.00, the
sum of $15.45 was deducted therefrom.
The State Constabulary were sent, unasked for, into the quiet steel
towns for the sole purpose of intimidating the strikers. The following
took place at the meeting of the Braddock Borough Council, October 6:
Mr. Verosky: (County detective and council member) "Mr.
Chairman, the citizens of the borough wish to know by whose
authority the State Constabulary was called into Braddock to
take up their quarters here and to practically relieve the
police of their duties, by patrolling the streets on foot,
mounted, and always under arms."
Mr. Holtzman: (President of Council) "I surely do not know
who called them into town, but were I the Burgess, I would
make it my business to find out, in view of the fact that
the Constabulary is neither wanted nor needed here."
Mr. Verosky: "Well, in that case, the Burgess may throw some
light on the subject."
Mr. Callahan: (Burgess) "The question comes to me as a
surprise and I am sure that I don't know by whose authority
the Constabulary was called in."
Everything was calm in Braddock until the State Police came in. Then the
trouble began. It was the same nearly everywhere. The arrival of these
men was always the signal for so-called riots, and wholesale clubbing,
shooting and jailing of strikers.