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Hellraisers Journal – Monday September 22, 1919
Nationwide Steel Strike to Commence at Midnight
From The Washington Times of September 21, 1919:
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ONLY MIRACLE ABLE TO STOP WALKOUT,
SAY ALL OFFICIALS
—–BY FRED S. FERGUSON.
United Press Staff Correspondent.PITTSBURGH, Pa., Sept. 21–Plans are complete for what may prove the greatest industrial battle this country has ever known, according to officials of the twenty-four steel workers unions, which will strike at midnight.
They declared it would be a fight to the finish for the right of collective bargaining, an eight-hour day, and an increased in wages.
The reports from all steel centers indicated that nothing short of a miracle would stop the strike.
Leaders of both sides declared President Wilson had taken no steps thus far to persuade steel corporation officials to meet the strikers committee.
Posses Sworn In.
State and municipal officials have taken every precaution to guard against public disorders. Posses of deputy sheriffs [deputized company gunthugs] have been sworn in many towns and cities ready for instant action. The state constabulary [Pennsylvania Cossacks] in the Pittsburgh district has been mobilized and given explicit orders.
William B. Wilson, Secretary of Labor, who is vacation at Bloomsburg, Pa., declared he had received no communication from President Wilson regarding a settlement of the steel strike.
Leaders of the steel workers’ unions reiterated their statements that they will close up every mill owned by or subsidiary to the U. S. Steel Corporation. Officials of the steel company were equally confident the strike would be a failure and declared so small a number of workers were unionized that there will be little suspension of work. They said, however, that wherever any widespread disloyalty to the company was evident, plants would be closed.
Prepared to Hold Out.
Union leaders said the men were prepared for as long a strike as was necesary to win the demands. Finances, according to W. B. Rubin, general counsel for the workers, have been provided to take care of a long drawn out fight.
Hundreds of women have begun the work of stiffening the morale of the wives and children of the workers.
Many mass meetings are to be held today when union organizers will exhort the men to stand pat on the union demands and endeavor to bring non-union workers into union ranks.
Labor leaders declared the strike would prove a test of strength against the biggest unorganized industry remaining in the country. Both sides view the impending strike as a “show down.” Secretary Foster of the steel workers’ committee declared today that if some eleventh hour action should cause a change in the situation he would have to summon other members of the committee here by telegram. He said he could not act on his own initiative and added that the men would not stop the strike except upon the most positive orders….
Strike Already Started.
The strike already in effect today at the plants of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company [Pueblo, Colorado]. As each shift came off, hundreds of men carried home their tools. Six thousand men are employed at the local plant, of which number 5,000 are unionized. Half of the remainder have announced their intention of casting their lot with the strikers. In many of the divisions of the plants it is father against son, brother against brother. Nine divisions superintendents have relatives in the ranks of the strikers-relatives who will “stick” to the men.
Wages, conditions hours-all that has been forgotten since the meeting between company officials and the representatives of the men. The “show-down” hinges now upon but one point-abolishment of the Rockefeller industrial plan [company union], once thought the most progressive concession ever granted labor by a big corporation.
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[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, Judge Gary Cup of Rice, Clv UMWC p540, Sept 16, 1919
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=-V5ZAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA540
The Washington Times
(Washington, District of Columbia)
-Sept 21, 1919, Sunday Evening
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1919-09-21/ed-1/seq-1/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1919-09-21/ed-1/seq-3/
See also:
Tag: Great Steel Strike of 1919
https://weneverforget.org/tag/great-steel-strike-of-1919/
The Great Steel Strike and Its Lessons
-by William Z. Foster
B. W. Huebsch, Incorporated, 1920
https://books.google.com/books?id=Hbt-AAAAMAAJ
Chapter VII-The Storm Breaks
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Hbt-AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA96
Labor in Crisis
The Steel Strike of 1919
-by David Brody
University of Illinois Press, 1965
[search together: “Colorado Fuel and Iron Company” “representation plan”]
[search: september 22 pueblo]
https://books.google.com/books?id=iCVb6cYoqoAC
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This Land Is Your Land – Bruce Springsteen
Lyrics by Woody Guthrie