Hellraisers Journal: Labor Crucified in Pittsburgh; Mass Arrests of Electrical Workers and Machinists

Monday June 12, 1916
From the American Socialist: Special Report from Pittsburgh, Part I

From the American Socialist of June 10, 1916:

Today Hellraisers presents Part One of a special report from Pittsburgh on the aftermath of the Braddock Massacre of May 2nd. If anyone anywhere was imagining that perhaps the Coal and Iron Police might face prosecution for causing the deaths of three young workingmen, let us disabuse them of that notion. The Coal and Iron Police force, employed as they are by the Masters of Industry, will face no such charges. Rather the working men and women of the greater Pittsburgh area have been rounded up en mass and are themselves facing long prison sentences.

LABOR BEING CRUCIFIED IN
PITTSBURGH AGAIN
—–

(SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.)

PITTSBURGH, Pa.-There are 47 men and three women indicted for riot and seventeen of these are also held for action by the Grand Jury of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, upon the charge of murder. They have been electrical workers and machinists formerly employed by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, or sympathizers and Socialists who had the temerity to walk in a parade on the first of May, with signs and placards demanding an 8-hour day.

Pittsburgh, the great center of American Preparedness agitation, is a God-fearing and religious burg; so pious that on Sundays everything is peace and quiet but the tumultuous sound of church bells where Christians (?) worship, and the rattle of the machinery in the factories where Christians (?) are making shells for multiplying heavenly hosts.

The Westinghouse company, during the last year has accumulated a $50,000,000 divided; the average wage of its employes is less than $2.75 per day. To assist in this it has inaugurated a premium system among its workers. This premium is not evidenced by gold medals or blue ribbons for decorations like the trophies of stock shows, but when a device is to be made the man in charge fixes the minimum time for producing the article, and if it is produced in less time the worker is allowed a premium, that is additional compensation, and a few of the favored employes have received unusually high wages for premium (munitions) work. At the same time the rapidity of action and the tension of effort is racking and pulling to pieces their nerve force.

Desire 8-Hour Day.

All these conditions brought about the desire on the part of the workers in the Westinghouse company plant for an 8-hour day. They organized and went upon a strike about April 23rd of this year. Everything proceeded peaceably until May Day. This being the great International day for the working class of all countries, it appealed strongly to the American born and those designated in Pittsburgh as “foreigners”. The Slav, the Italian, the Croatian, the German, the Irishman, and a large number of native Americans joined in this celebration, demonstrating the fraternal unanimity among the working class in contrast with the blood-drenching frenzy and fury of their plutocratic and kingly masters in Europe.

These working men started on a parade from an elevation known as Hillside Street in East Pittsburgh, and marched thru an adjoining town, Braddock, which is only artificially distinguished by a street. They paraded, with a band at the head, and in the course of their march they passed by some iron works and steel industries where thousands of men are employed 11 and 12 hours a day at a wage of 25 cents per hour, men who live with their families at an elevation so low that the dense smoke belching from the factories of the valley gradually descends, giving the appearance of a black fog, with street lamps and house lamps dimly flickering. Many of the houses are old, worn, dilapidated, poorly furnished and wretched, mostly crowded with men, women and children. It was from these houses that many of the men had emerged who joined this parade.

One Man Scratched.

When passing the great shops across the street from the hovels in which they lived, some of them went in upon the sacred premises of industries owned by the great steel trust of this country.

The leaders, consisting of the president of the union, its secretary, the secretary of the county committee of the Socialist Party and several others immediately saw the danger and endeavored to prevent these men from engaging in so dangerous a frolic, and directed the band to immediately move back, press thru the crowd and get at the head of those who were in the factories of the McClintock-Marshall, American Steel and Wire, and the Edgar Thomson company.

The leaders encouraged the men to follow the band, which they did, and the band led this parade of a couple of thousand thru the factories and out upon the street. There was some damage done. An open-hearth furnace was injured in a shop where wages are at the best and an 8-hour day among many of the workers prevails. The men operating a furnace in the excitement failed to reverse the gas burners, which must be reversed every 20 minutes, and the damage will probably amount to a couple of thousand dollars.

One man was injured, an employe, on the right side of his face. He showed a scratch about one inch long on his cheek near his nose and said that he had been plugged by the end of a pick handle. The parade then dispersed and the marchers went home. This is all that occurred in a parade of five thousand men.

That some of the men in this parade were feeling boisterous can be explained from the fact that saloons which had been closed for some time were opened on the afternoon (the time of the parade) in the locality where this parade took place. If the employers desired an outbreak they could have contributed nothing better than the opening of saloons, after they had been closed for so long, upon this occasion when men were parading five to eight miles and most tempted to drink. This closes the first day’s trouble, or “riot”, and for this arrests were made by the wholesale. Every one suspected, to the number of 40, were placed in jail, without bail, by the coroner and the sheriff of Allegheny County.

Striker Shot To Death.

On Tuesday, May 2nd, it was found that a large number of foreign-speaking workmen in the Edgar Thomson mill had not returned to work, and were out striking for a reduction in hours. They were not organized or disciplined and many of them left their homes, some only walking in front of their houses and some a distance of 100 to 150 feet, all arriving in this short distance at what is known as 13th Street, Braddock. Along this street is a long board fence in front of the Edgar Thomson mill.

While these men were gathered there some boys threw some rocks. Guards which are maintained by the company, known as the Coal and Iron Police, replied with insulting language and gestures, and some of the men became excited and angry and one crossed the street and attempted to pull a board off the fence. He was immediately shot by a guard and fell dead. He was picked up by a few of his comrades, taken across the street and later removed to the morgue. This was about one o’clock. This murder infuriated the men who lived in the neighborhood to such a degree that some young men, 18 to 20 years of age, threw some rocks and stones. No guard, watchman, deputy or employe of the company, or anyone was struck.

Here we should pause in our description and record the fact that the Coroner’s inquest, where every method was used by the employers to produce witnesses, failed to show that any guard, any employe, or any person serving the company was shot, cut, struck or injured to the slightest degree; NOT ONLY UP TO THIS TIME BUT THRUOUT THE ENTIRE TRAGIC PROCEEDINGS OF THIS DAY. AND THIS SHOULD BE REMEMBERED IN READING THE BALANCE OF THIS DESCRIPTION.

When some of the boys, as stated, and men became aggravated by the killing of their companion some of them rushed forward toward the transport office. A company man, with a repeating magazine rifle, fired a number of shots, killing another working man, and another volley was fired killing another, and wounding four so severely that their lives were despaired off, some of them being in the hospital at the present time. In addition to this about 30 more were wounded to a lesser degree. The crowd then disbanded. J. H. Hall and Edgar Donaldson got into an automobile at some distance from the trouble and drove to the sheriff’s office where they went to report this outrageous murdering of workingmen. The sheriff proceeded to the scene, buy did not arrest deputies, coal and iron guards or the special policemen, or take away from them their automatic rifles or automatic riot guns.

[To be continued in tomorrow’s Hellraisers.

SOURCE
American Socialist
(Chicago, Illinois)
-June 10, 1916
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/american-socialist/v2n48-jun-10-1916-TAS.pdf

IMAGE
We Never Forget: Braddock Massacre by JayRaye
http://caucus99percent.com/content/we-never-forget-pittsburgh-steel-strike-and-braddock-massacre-may-2-1916

See also:

C99 Tag: Braddock Massacre of 1916
http://caucus99percent.com/tags/braddock-massacre-1916

C99 Tag: Pittsburgh Steel Strike of 1916
http://caucus99percent.com/tags/pittsburgh-steel-strike-1916