The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1909-08-31
BY J. v. Knight

PITTSBURG, Pa, Aug. 31.--
While 5000 men are on strike.
serf-like. asking rights of the
Pressed Steel Car Co., and getting
bullets for answers, the word of
one man could give them the boon
of justice they seek.
That man is F. N. Hoffstot, pres
ident of the company; what the
strikers ask is arbitration. Hoff-
slot says mo
While Hoffstot-"Baby" Hoff-
stot he is called-is cruising in his
private steam yacht along the At
lantis coast, his former workmen
are huddled together in the streets
of "Hunkeytown," near McKees
Rocks, watching constables evict
them from their homes. They are
miserable little novels, those
homes, and they are owned by the
company. The landlord is evicting
the men, women and little children
not because the rent is unpaid, but
because they have not paid it in
advance.
The bodies of those strikers
which were gathered up out of the
retreating ranks the other day
after bloody fight, do not mean
much now to the foreigners who
worked there for a pittance.
What their families and fellows
are seeking is arbitration. The men
whom they want to decide their
grievances may be corporation
lawyers, railroad presidents-any-'
one at all who has a fair mind.
The strikers are convinced that
ANYBODY who can hear their
stories of abuse at the bosses
hands, will not fail to restore
them to their rights as workmen.
Tales that have shocked even
Pittsburg are told under oath daily
by these men. Their wives and
daughters time after time have
been demanded as the price of a
right to work-to live. Foremen
in different crews at blood-ridden
Schoenville had grated continual
ly on the men. Pittsburg knew
that right along.
More than $50 affidavits have
been sworn to, and attested by JUS
tees of the peace in whose office
safes they are on file. These
sworn documents tell US that the
honor of these women and chill
dren-mostly Austrians-was sac
rificed by their husbands and
fathers because they had to in or
der to make peace with their graft
ing and lustful bosses. Atty. VIM.
N. McNair for the strikers, who
obtained these sworn charges,
said:
To-day we found a young strik-
err who married not long before
the strike started six weeks ago.
He has told us he did not see his
wife the first three days of their
marriage. She was with her hus-
,and's gang boss.
I'm one of the families evicted
from a company howell last week
was child whose father was a
boss in the car works. 1t is easy
to tell these children merely by
taking a walk through 'Hunkey-
town. Their mothers try to hide
them from the visitor by conceal
ing them behind the others when
group lines up for inspection"
Although the company recently
acknowledged the grating and
rapine among its bosses by GUST
ing 25 such men, 1t has not fur
. Their made amends for such con-
. ditions.
AS the English-speaking public
is learning more of the horrors
suffered by the 5000 men of IL
middle European nationalities
until even their stolid endurance
could bear no more. popular SYM
pathy is coming to the support of
the strikers in a way never be-
fore manifest in American indus
trial history.
Great public subscriptions for
the support of the strikers are be-
ing raised. Stores. corporations,
even banks are contributing. The
railroads are lending silent sup
port. Newspapers are urging the
men to stand together SO that pub
is opinion may win for them.
The revelations made by the
strikers have raised up a stencil