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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday October 12, 1919
News from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Steel Strike Headquarters
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of October 10, 1919:
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STEEL BARONS ENDEAVORING TO DISCOURAGE STRIKERS
—–LYING PAMPHLETS ARE NOW BEING CIRCULATED
—–(Special United Press Wire.)
Pittsburgh, Oct. 10.-Charging distribution of unfair propaganda, leaders in the steel strike have protested against the circulation of handbills, in which the strikers are urged to collect benefits due them from strike headquarters. Union heads declare these pamphlets are being distributed by the operators in a frantic effort to create friction between the strikers and their leaders. Strike headquarters here announced that many foreigners in some districts, are storming the offices of their districts leaders in compliance with the circulars’ request.
Rioting broke out at Clairton, near here, this morning, when several foreigners it is alleged, expressed their intentions of returning to work. One man was shot and seriously wounded, three were stabbed and many were beaten, when state troops appeared on the scene and attempted to restore order.
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MORE BRUTAL THAN COSSACKS.
(Special to The Bulletin.)
Pittsburgh, Pa.-“More brutal than the German uhlans raiding Belgium! Worse than the Don cossacks in the days of the czars!”
That’s how John Fitzpatrick, lender of the great steel strike, describes the Pennsylvania state constabulary.
And these mounted men are the supreme representatives of law in western Pennsylvania.
They’re picked men on picked horses. They’re especially trained for their job.
Each man is armed with a long riot club, a big caliber pistol, and a repeating shotgun loaded with buckshot. The shotguns are carried in saddle boots, and they’re the most wicked short-range weapons ever invented.
Efficient? No doubt or it. Pennsylvania officials boast they’re the “finest body of men in the world detailed for law enforcement.” But its the manner of this enforcement-A law defying enforcement-that rouses public condemnation.
The strikers, many of them foreigners, are getting from these state troops a distorted idea of how we do things in America.
Gov. William Sproul wrote to William Z. Foster, secretary of the strike committee and head of the strike organization in the Pittsburgh district, warning him that severe measures would be taken to suppress disorder in any form.
Foster replied that all the disorders thus far reported had been inspired by the state police, and that the strikers were doing all in their power to keep the peace in spite of the constabulary.
A committee of labor leaders called on William S. Haddock, sheriff of Allegheny county, demanding protection from the raids of the constabulary, and this is the story, told by Eugene La Branch of the boiler-makers’ union, of one incident.
This and many similar occasions, the union men say they are prepared to report in detail to the proper authorities and to back up their charges with sworn statements of reliable witnesses.
Clairton now has the reputation of a rough town in a strike. It is referred to as a center of disorder. What happened in Clairton is told by La Branch.
No orders to disperse had been given. The first we knew the horses were upon us.
Each trooper held a revolver in one hand and swung the long club in the other. They struck out viciously at everyone in their way and everyone scattered.
There was no retaliation.
Tramples American Flag.
I was standing near the American flag on the platform when one trooper snatched it down. It fell to the ground and his horse stumbled in its folds and fell.
He swore that the horse had been shot, but no shots had been fired up to that time.
I saw one slightly built man stand with upraised hands in an attitude of surrender. A trooper rode up to him and drove his club against the man’s skull. Blood spurted and the man crumpled up on the ground.
It was hard to believe I was in the United States.
I saw women falling in their efforts to get away from the hoofs of the horses. At last, when the crowd was scattered, save for a few groups on the brow of a nearby hill, the troopers fired several shots.
Casualty reports of rioting in the mill towns all read the same. The dead, including women, have been shot by troopers. The wounded are battered by hoofs or gashed and are bruised by the long clubs.
Priest Complains of Troopers Rule.
Rev. Father Adelbert Kacinsky [Adalbert Kazincy], of St. Michael’s church, Braddock, has announced his intention of reporting to the state authorities one incident of trooper rule.
A mission is in progress in St. Michael’s church, which is Slovak, and the strikers are taking advantage of their leisure to attend services. Several hundred of them were coming from the church when a band of troopers arrived on the scene. Without stopping to ask questions or to issue orders, according to the priest and numerous other witnesses they rode straight into the crowd, driving their horses onto sidewalks and lawns in pursuit of scrambling men.
The burgess of Braddock is Wm. L. Callahan, the chief of police is James J. McCarthy.
At the outset of the strike they proclaimed that no disorder of any nature would be tolerated, and that strict justice would be administered, regardless of faction.
Now, in response to the complaints of strikers of attacks made by the state police, they say that the constabulary exceed them in authority and that they can do nothing.
Labor men feel that these officials are fair, but that they are helpless in the presence of constabulary.
Woman Writer is Robbed.
Miss Adele Shaw, a representative of Survey magazine, of New York, visited Braddock, and was shown the Edgar Thompson plant, with its armored machine gun nests, by Jas. Gent, a labor organizer.
As they were leaving the vicinity of the plant, walking along a public thoroughfare, a trooper dismounted and seized Gent. He was searched. Miss Shaw was searched and a number of papers containing notes and letters were taken from her and kept by the trooper.
Miss Shaw and Gent were then released. This trooper’s number is A5.
The charge is made that troopers ride into buildings in pursuit of the strikers, and that, they enter homes without warrants.
Antonio Scharo, a naturalized citizen of the United States, was arrested and fined $5 and costs after a trooper had entered his room and confiscated a revolver hanging above his bed.
Other cases are reported in which the troopers have entered the homes of strikers and beaten up men whom they say had insulted them as they rode along the street. In one of these incidents the punishment was administered the day after the offense.
Labor Leaders Oppose Violence.
It is charged by labor leaders that the function of the state constabulary in the strike crisis is to cause violence which will discredit labor.
At every meeting the strikers are urged to preserve the peace. Picketing of any kind is especially ruled against by labor leaders, which is contrary to the practice in strikes generally.
“We cannot afford to have any disorder,” the strike chiefs say.
But the state police and violence are always found together.
In many clearly defined instances, the violence has not started until after the arrival of the troopers.
“Every one of these club blows directed against innocent and unarmed men and women makes a bolshevik,” said one of the organizers who called on the sheriff. “The state police make it very hard for us to hold the men in check.”
There have been no attempts at retaliation, despite the daily casualty lists.
Helmets Conceal Troopers’ Faces.
The constables have nerve of a sort, although they carefully conceal their features by pulling down their helmets when they ride through a crowd. They are mighty well armed, and they bank on the fact that the strikers do not carry weapons. Men are stopped and searched frequently on the streets, and do not go abroad with guns in their pockets.
But I saw the whole deadliness of the strike summed up as a detachment of strikers rode past a boarding house group. One of the men, a little Italian, wore bandages about his head. He slipped out of view as the detachment approached, hiding in a shadowy hallway.
When they had passed I saw him reach his hand to his mouth in a passionate gesture, biting his own flesh.
It is a sign among the Sicilians-an unhealthy sign.
[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, UMWA Until We Win, Clv UMWC p618, Sept 17, 1919
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=-V5ZAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA618
The Butte Daily Bulletin
(Butte, Montana)
-Oct 10, 1919
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045085/1919-10-10/ed-1/seq-1/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045085/1919-10-10/ed-1/seq-2/
See also:
Tag: Great Steel Strike of 1919
https://weneverforget.org/tag/great-steel-strike-of-1919/
For full name of Boilermakers’ Union
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.li59kn&view=2up&seq=4
For more on Father Adalbert Kazinsky, see:
Striking Gridiron:
A Town’s Pride and a Team’s Shot at Glory
During the Biggest Strike in American History
-by Greg Nichols
Macmillan, Sep 16, 2014
(search: kazinsky)
https://books.google.com/books?id=Cq1zAwAAQBAJ
And a play for Father Kazinsky, entitled “Father K”
https://www.broadwayworld.com/pittsburgh/regional/Father-K-317806
http://www.theyoungstownplayhouse.com/event/b47e674a59269d8d44e1e91fc0ac0d6d
The Survey: Volume 43
Charity Organization Society of the City of New York, 1920
(search: “Adele Shaw” & see article page 58 from Nov 8, 1919 issue)
https://books.google.com/books?id=YU45AQAAMAAJ
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Worker’s Song – Dropkick Murphys