Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-09-17
The Flag at McKees Rocks.

Yesterdays happenings at Mckees
Rocks were at the same time sinister
and reassuring. About 1000 strikers,
almost exclusively foreigners, gathered
about the mill gates to stop the Ameri-
cans who were on their way to work
There were about 400 of the latter. and
so determined was their rush for the
gates and SO fierce their onslaught that
in less than five minutes they had COM
pletely routed their antagonists. This
was one instance of race conflict. An
other occurred earlier in the day, when
the strikers assembled for experimenting.
In the crowd were a few Americans who
had quit work. One of the speakers,
Hungarian, was addressing the mob in
his own tongue. and was being interpret
ed to his American hearers. He cried:
These Americans are always interfering
with your rights" One of the largest of
the Americans in the crowd, by name OF
Kelly, by the way, pushed to the foot or
the speakers stand. You're liar, he
called He grasped the American flag
staff which has been raised at the stand
and shouted, "All Of you who are Ameri-
cans follow the flag" The news dispatch
continues:
Then ensued wonderful TRANSFORMED
ton. Americans simply raved and fought
their way through the mass of foreign
ers, hammering right and left to get to
the man with the Stars and Stripes.
The foreigners, much in the majority,
were stunned by the demonstration. In
side five minutes there we're perhaps
$500 Americans grouped around the man
with the flag, 100 yards from where the
original meeting had been held. They
held meeting of their own. at which
it was decided by unanimous vote that at
6:15 tomorrow morning every American
employee of the Pressed Steel Car Com
pany would march into the works, fol-
lowing the same old flag.
1.-The Pressed Steel Car Company. being
assured that the American workmen Will
stand by it, has arranged to do away
with all foreigners as soon as possible,
and has sent for 1000 American work.
men to be rushed from New York and
Chicago to take the place Of 1900 of the
foreigners now out"
One of the most dangerous elements in
out industrial situation today is the pres
ence in the large manufacturing centers
of numbers Of foreigners who have not
become American citizens. and who are
always ready to return to their own
country whenever they have acquired
what is to them a competence. These
laws, are totally Indifferent to our ma
tional welfare, and have no stake what
ever in even the affairs Of their imme-
date municipality. They are the mate
rial from which mobs are formed. They
are always ready for a fray. In the
large cities when street car lines are
tied up by strikes, they make most Of
the trouble They furnish a large per-
centage Of the 'sympathizers'' who block
the lines and stone >strikebreakers and
policemen and finally are injured In the
tardy applications of force to restore
order. The casualty roll at the close Of
these militant labor movements almost in
variably contains more foreign names
than American.
In the direct conflict between the races
the American sense of fair play will
dominate A few encounters like those
of yesterday at McKees Rocks will go far
to demonstrate to organized labor in this
country that American citizenship should
be made one Of the prime requisites Of
membership and should at the same time
prove to employers the wisdom and the
necessity Of cutting the foreign factor
out of the industrial equation as far as
possible.