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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday October 6, 1909
Alexander Berkman on Creation & Purpose of Pennsylvania Cossacks
From Miners Magazine of September 30, 1909:
THE PENNSYLVANIA CONSTABULARY AND
THE McKEES ROCKS STRIKE.
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By Alexander Berkman.
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Even before the memorable days of the Homestead strike, of 1892, there was a law on the statute books of Pennsylvania forbidding the importation of armed men from other states. Heavy penalties were attached to the offence.
However, when the Carnegie Steel Company was preparing to destroy the Association of Amalgamated Iron, Steel and Tin Workers, the then chairman of the company, H. C. Frick, imported armed Pinkertons from Chicago and New York to intimidate and shoot down the locked-out men. The history of that great struggle is well known. But when the strike was finally settled, public sentiment forced the district attorney of Allegheny county to bring charges of murder against Frick and other officials of the Carnegie company, they being legally responsible for the atrocious deeds of their imported myrmidons.
Naturally, the authorities felt too much respect for the Carnegie-Frick millions to press the charges of murder. It was feared that a jury of citizens might possibly send the Carnegie officials to prison. The cases were therefore never permitted to come to trial. But the popular outcry against the importation of armed ruffians became so strong that the Pennsylvania legislature was forced to action. The already existing statute was amended, making the importation of armed men treason against the state, punishable with death.
The industrial Tsars of Pennsylvania were not at all pleased with the situation. The new law expressly forbade the employment of Pinkertons, foreign or local. The people execrated their very name. It would be risky to face a charge of treason. The local Iron & Coal police were not sufficient to “deal effectively” with great strikes; nor was it financially advisable to keep a large private standing army who would have to be paid even When there were no strikers to be shot.
The coke, coal, and steel interests of Pennsylvania (practically the Same concern) faced a difficult problem. They were preparing to wage a bitter war against organized labor, fully determined to annihilate the last Vestiges of unionism among their employes. It was to be done effectively, yet economically. A very difficult problem. At last the solution was found. A high priced steel lawyer struck the right key. It was quite simple. Why risk popular wrath, possible prosecution for treason and murder, by employing Pinkertons? Why even go to the expense of hiring an army of private guards? It would be far cheaper and safer to have the great state of Pennsylvania act as their Pinkerton. What is the state for if not to protect the lords of money and subdue grumbling labor? The good taxpayers will do the paying.
A bill was introduced in the legislature. Just a little bill. On its face it looked quite harmless. Some burglaries had been committed in the Outlying western counties; the local police, it was said, could not cover the extensive territory; the smaller towns and villages were too poor to increase their police forces. The state should protect the weak. Let it therefore organize a special force to take care of the more obscure districts. Only that. Their sole duty would be to patrol the unprotected places.
The astute steel and coal lawyer knew how to make the proposed law look inoffensive. It passed without opposition.
No time was lost in the organization of the newly created state police, called constabulary. But the hasty passage of the law, the unusually large appropriation made for the purpose of organizing a “small patrolling body,” the almost dictatorial powers vested in its commander, and the latter’s militant attitude from the very beginning, soon began to arouse misgivings on the part of organized labor. But their fears were quickly allayed with the assurance “from authoritative sources” that “honest workingmen had nothing to fear” from the constabulary. These were merely to patrol the outlying, unprotected districts; they would not mix in local affairs; they had nothing to do with strikes; they’d be good.
The average man has great trust in the word of authority. The working man especially is trained-at home, in school, shop, and union—to respect the powers that be. Therefore, when the governor of the great State of Pennsylvania personally assured some protesting labor men that “honest workingmen had nothing to fear from the constabulary,” it was considered complete proof that all was well.
Then the constabulary got into action. It was recruited from the most brutal and savage social elements. Proven recklessness of human life was an indispensable qualification. The reputation of having “killed his man” was the standard of admission. It was the widely-heralded ambition of the constabulary’s commander to make his force a “terror to evil-doers.” He openly boasted the motto, “Shoot to kill.” The pay of his men was generous.
It was not long before the real mission of the state troops became evident. They made no attempt to do mere patrol duty. Instead, the least sign of dissatisfaction among men employed on the highways, track-layers, miners, and coke workers would immediately result in a descent of troopers. They terrorized the foreign workingmen, clubbing and shooting indiscriminately, and even invading peaceful homes in the dead of night to search for alleged weapons and to drag their unfortunate victims to prison, forcing them to run over miles of rough country chained to the saddles of the galloping horses
The name “trooper” soon grew to be a terror, indeed. They quickly earned the reputation they aspired to, proving themselves more inhumane and cruel than Russian Cossacks.
It gradually became the established custom to employ the constabulary in strikes. Clothed with full power over life and death, absolutely arbitrary and irresponsible, they have terrorized the whole of western Pennsylvania, participating in every strike since their organization. The brutality with which they have helped the traction company of New Castle to break the Street car strike of two years ago is still fresh in the memory of the people. They have acted in similar manner in every recent struggle between capital and labor in the great Keystone state, planting hatred and vengeance in the heart of the populace, and leaving devastation, ruined homes, and orphaned children in their wake. These modern Janissaries superseded by force of arms local administrations, usurped their jurisdiction, and established a veritable red reign of terror. The sovereign authority of Pennsylvania indeed became the Pinkerton of the industrial despots. But the wind that plutocracy and the state sowed is already beginning to bear fruit. The whirlwind is approaching.—Mother Earth.
[Drawing and emphasis added.]
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SOURCES
Quote Mother Jones, Powers of Privilege, Ab Chp III
https://www.iww.org/history/library/MotherJones/autobiography/3
Miners Magazine
(Denver, Colorado)
-June 3, 1909-Jan 19, 1911
Western Federation of Miners, 1909
https://books.google.com/books?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ
Miners’ Magazine of Sept 30, 1909
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.RA1-PA70
Article by Berkman
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.RA1-PA79
IMAGE
McKees Rocks Strike, Disciplined Striker, Ptt Prs p1, July 19, 1909
https://www.newspapers.com/image/141326899
See also:
“Pennsylvania Cossacks”
Miners Magazine of Sept 16, 1909
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=hT8tAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.RA1-PA45
Tag: Pennsylvania Cossacks
https://weneverforget.org/tag/pennsylvania-cossacks/
Alexander Berkman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Berkman
Mother Earth Magazine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Earth_(magazine)
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Which Side Are You On? – Billy Bragg
Lyrics by Florence Reese & Billy Bragg