The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1909-07-22
Nv ]. v. Knight.

The truth concerning the riots
that followed the strike of the
5OOO men of the Pressed Steel
Car Co. at McKees Rocks, is
not that a "herd" of Ignorant"
foreigners went out to do vio-
ience simply because they were
looking for trouble. /
The truth Is that the steel
company has so imposed upon
these patient laborers that they
were goaded to desperation. Be-
ing men of muscle, they know
only the one way of redressing
their wrongs, and they met the
polite, intelligent and prolonged
violence of their employers with
the vulgar, unthinking violence OF
men who know only the power of
their hands.
Conditions at the Pressed Steel
Car Co.'s works are described as
amounting to slavery. The Pitts
burg newspapers refer to them
as the shame of the city,"
The lowest wages, the worst
working conditions, the most bru-
tai treatment, looking to the
death of every human impulse
and instinct, graft, robbery, the
swapping Of human souls for prof
fits, have for years marked the
Pressed Steel Car works as the
most outrageous industrial insti-
tuition in the United States. The
great, gloomy mills are called
among the men "the slaughter
house." and of man who goes
to work in them 1t is said that
he has taken 1.-The last chance"
In these mills human life Is
worth less than a rivet. Rivets
cost money. Human lives cost
nothing.
The majority of the workers
are Hungarian or Slavish, who are
slow to absorb the English lam
guage and American customs. So
they have been imposed upon as
brutal men impose on dumb
beasts.
These workmen have been as
patient at their work as horses.
Every day sees one or more Of
them killed-slaughtered These
very deaths are unknown save to-
the workmen who see their bodies
hacked and butchered in the
pitiless machinery and the death
traps fill the big works. The
steel company never reports
deaths or accidents. and the pub
lie is thus kept ignorant of the
company's violence" Even the
local coroner keeps no record of
men killed.
When an ambulance enters the
yards, no matter how grewsome
its errand, the gates close on the
fact. for every employee is warned
against making any statement to
the public.
When some poor "hunky," as
the foreigners are called, is MAIN
ed at his work the foreman or
other petty boss pushes the
bleeding body aside to make room
for another living man, and the
wheels do not stop for an instant.
Until the present uprising these
strangely patient people have
even spoken of themselves as the
"company's men," Long oppres-
sion and constant bullying at the
hands of the bosses have made
them even consider themselves as
slaves. They live in dingy two
story frame houses, jammed close
together, looking like long black
rows of rough boxes. These houses
have four stalls each, described
as rooms" They rent for $12l
monthly. 1t has been charged
that while the workmen are not
forced to live in these company
houses, they do not long remain
at their jobs IL they rent else
where. 1t is the same way with
the company's store. No one is
forced to buy there, but as the
company owns all the property
around the mills and merchants
who have tried to establish bust
ness to run in opposition to the
company's stores, have never been
able to get sites for stores, the
men are practically forced to buy
of the company. Many of these
men earn less than 50 day, some
less than 81. Out Of these wages
they pay their rent back to their
employers, and the price of every
mouthful of food that they and
their family eat comes out of
their envelopes. The company's
stores give the men credit, and
the amount due the store is SUBJ
tracted from the contents of the
wage envelope. When a mans
rent and food bill equals his
wages he receives no money at
all.
There are some 10000 women
and children and old and Grip
pied people dependent upon these
5000 strikers. No decent Ameri-l
can farmer but would furnish
better quarters for HIS hogs than
those in which live these soul
crushed victims of the company
known as THE Last Chance" and
THE Slaughter House."
How the children survive is al
mystery. As soon as the boys are
old enough they are put to work.
The girls marry almost as soon as
they reach their teens.
The interior of company
house is more hideous than the ex-
terror. There is the bare floor.
one or two chairs, a soap box or
two for company, and cheap iron
cots bought at the company's
store. The tired workers sleep
on straw, and in the summer thel
bedrooms are sickening from the
heat and smell. Bathrooms, sinks
and piping are unknown in these
houses. The majority of the
women carry the water they use
from the river. All are miser-
ably clothed. The children rum
naked until they attain an age