The Washington times., 1909-09-05
BEHIND THOSE SCENES
AT M'KEES ROCKS, PA.
What Makes the Workers Revolt-Poolng of Work and
Pay-No Recourse for Grievances and Graft
Graft Graft

7 ". what is TO become of the per cent
interest due on SO, 600 OF preferred
| stock? Is the common stock to pass
dividends in a year when every other
steel plant in the vicinity OF Pittsburg
is earning profits?
The men and their families are paying
heavily, too. In one day I saw issued
to them thirty barrels Of potatoes, FIVE
barrels of onions, 500 pounds of coffee,
100 pounds OF sugar, 1000 pounds Of
fresh meat, loo pounds of salt meat,
400 loaves OF bread. and 500 pounds OF
rice. They nave had a relief fund Of
5000 Most Of that is spent. There are
those who say that in resentment
against the attitude OF Mr.. Hoffstot
other manufacturers in Pittsburg are
willing TO subscribe $40 900 for the main
tenance Of the strikers. But it would
be foolhardy TO rely upon even such
dislike ak 1 heard expressed for the
president OF the Pressed Steel Car Com
pany on every hand. These workmen
must expect to win their own light or
see that fight lost.
What Has Public
To Do With It All?
And what of that great third party,
the public. The chamber of commerce
Of Mckees Rocks has already felt tho
disaster OF such strike. Large as are
the other mills there it's stores are
threatened With serious danger Pitts
burg. whose sympathies have not re-
sponded 20 the sufferings OF a score of
other villages Ike ''Hunkeytown." has
found spokesman to intervene here.
Through A. E. Anderson, its resource
full committee on public defense-au
organization Of forty business men in
earnest TO do that everybody's business
which is nobody's business-has already
obtained from the courts an acknowl-
edgement that the public Is in fact a
party to this strike. The United States
Government las intervened-and through
Special Agent Schell of the Department
OF Commerce and Labor has satisfied
itself as to the food served the strike
breakers CWhat a comedy so much
apprehension seems as to that little 9S6,
when for years tie whole population of
'Hunkeytown," whose men worked al
the same plant as these strike-breakers.
were living on half the food of the
strike-breakers, less BEAUTIFULLY prepar-
edD But the greater work of the Ma
tional Government Is that undertaken
by Special Agent Harry Hoagland OF
the Department Of Justice. His work
has been to determine il any Of the
strike-breakers are being held in the
works BY force. BY the testimony Of
every one he has entered upon his task
with the utmost ,mpsrtiality and has
manifested rare force and energy.
Real Fight These
Mau Ara Cnrtard;ro IT,
None OF these movements. however.
touches the real object of the revolu-
ton being fought by these foreigners.
I saw their original demand upon the
company. II is a scrawI. 1t asks for
the elimination OF evil results, not
causes
We. the undersigned committee OF
the employees Of the Pressed Steel Car
Company" IL reads. do hereby pre-
sent petition for wage scale prior 20
April !. 1907 Also time-and-a-half for
overtime. and double for Sunday. Re
moval of Chief OF Police Farrell. No
employe to be discharged without the
case has been investigated and made
public to the employe."
That is all IL says. II does not say
what those men mean in their hearts
GIVE US courts! Give US ofnCerE or
the law, Give US freedom from graft
ing and blackmailing-in the works and
outside, Give Us safety for our wom-
en-, Give US our homes.
I attended a meeting on the very peak
OF the point OF McKees Rocks The
spot Il called Indian Mound" from the
fact that in making an excavation
there some one came upon some Indian
bones. Before me. ready TO vote as
their primitive fathers had done. by
holding mp their hands, sat possibly
5000 alien workmen. women. and chill
dren. They looked up and smiled as I
sat down amongst them. My mind ran
quickly over the names Of De Kalb
Kosciuszko. Pulaski. Steuben. Rocham-
beau, La Fayette young Croatian
editor. Frank Polio. was speaking
brace. prOslo 1e vec osam tjedana ato
traie oval straik" He was saying
Brothers. eight weeks have passed and
you are still on strike"
Brothers. Are they our brothers,
these people OF Hunk eytown? Is their
struggle. their revolution, ours2 Is the
hard Injustice of Stowe township that
close 10 us? Were the two women
caught in the net of an organization
whirling, whirling, whirlinE. always
whir1ing Tor profits. our sisters? Is this
fight for a middle course our fight, as
we'll as tileirs7 Are We that close to
McKees Rocks? We would better think
those questions over-yOu and l.