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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday August 31, 1909
McKees Rocks Pressed Steel Car Company Faces Charges of Peonage
From The Pittsburgh Post of August 28, 1909:
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BRUTALITY, POOR FOOD, DAILY DIET
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Witness Collapses at the Inquiry.
—–NIGHT SESSION
—–Testimony of a startling nature tending to prove that imported workmen were held in restraint within the Schoenville stockade by clubs, blackjacks and riot guns, was brought out yesterday at the Government inquiry into the charges of peonage against officials of the [McKees Rocks] Pressed Steel Car Company.
Beginning yesterday morning and continuing until late last night, witnesses told in harrowing details of terrible times within the big Schoenville enclosure.
Mute evidence of the condition of the company’s food supply was furnished at the night session in the Federal building, when James Morris, one of the strike-breakers, fainted as he was about to be put on the stand. Willing hands carried the poor fellow out of the judge’s chamber and into the corridors, where a physician diagnosed his ailment as ptomaine poisoning. He was taken away in an ambulance.
That sick and discontented workmen had been hidden in filthy drill press pits when the Government officials inspected the plant, and that Foreman Samuel Cohen and Chief of Police A. T. Farrell, of the Pressed Steel Car Company, were the chief figures in intimidation and abuse of workmen, were two of the striking features brought out at the hearing.
Special Agent H. W. Hoagland, eager to make the Government’s probe a thorough one, gave the witnesses plenty of latitude and drew from them more concerning bad food and alleged inhuman treatment.
Strikers Have Their Innings.
Weak and emaciated, one haggard and unshaven strike-breaker after another went on the witness stand. Each had his own story to tell about life within the stockade and nearly all of them declared that they were ignorant of the strike when they were recruited in New York and Philadelphia.
Some told of being beaten with clubs and blackjacks, others of being cast into the filthy box car lockup when they became recalcitrant and tried to leave. Nearly all agreed on the matter of impure and improper food and there were many who showed signs of illness.
The strikers, their committee and their counsel. Attorney William N. McNair, had their inning. Strike-breakers were welcomed by the committee and many of them proved willing witnesses. There were some, however, who declared that they had not been refused permission to leave the Pressed Steel Car plant, but all declared that wages were held as hostage, and that in this way they really were forced to stay at work…..
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GOVERNMENT MAY BEGIN SECOND STRIKE INQUIRY.
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Special Agent of Department of Commerce
and Labor Investigating Here.
—–Another arm of the Federal Government has taken a hand in the peonage inquiry at Schoenville. Special Agent A. P. Schell, of the department of Commerce and labor, arrived from Washington yesterday and attended the hearing conducted by Special Agent Hoagland, of the department of justice in the federal building.
Mr. Schell remained with Mr. Hoagland much of the time during the day and while the two officials are working in harmony both, it is said, are following different lines of investigation.
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[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege, Ab Chp III
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/3
The Pittsburgh Post
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
-Aug 28, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/86955840
See also:
Tag: McKees Rocks Pressed Steel Car Strike of 1909
https://weneverforget.org/tag/mckees-rocks-pressed-steel-car-strike-of-1909/
Tag: Scabs Held in Peonage During McKees Rocks Strike of 1909
Note: A. P. Schell apparently released a report entitled:
“United States Department of Commerce and Labor, Immigration Service.
Report on an Investigation in Regard to Alleged Infractions of the Alien Contract Labor Law on the Part of a Car Manufacturing Company at McKees Rocks, Pa., September 1909 (by Inspector A. P. Schell)”
Sadly, I could not find Agent Schell’s Report online, more research needed.
Schell’s report mentioned here, search with above title, using quotes:
https://books.google.com/books?id=RrBGAQAAIAAJ
The Labor Argus
(Charleston, West Virginia)
-Aug 26, 1909
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85059855/1909-08-26/ed-1/seq-1/
Uncle Sam
-Will Investigate Peonage Charge at Pressed Steel Car Works at McKees Rocks.
Investigation Is Demanded
-By Secretary Morrison of the A. F. of L. of the Situation at the Works of the Pressed Steel Car Workers.
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Aug 28, 1909
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1909-08-28/ed-1/seq-1/
Steel Car Company Faces Ugly Charge
-Austrian Consul Formally Accuses Head of Company With Peonage
-Charge Is Presented in the Federal Court
-Austrians and Hungarians Are Kept in Enforced Slavery by the Trust
“Brutality” -page 1
“Brutality” (cont) -page 2
& see re: Investigators Hoagland & Schell
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Which Side Are You On? – Natalie Merchant
Lyrics by Florence Reese