United labor bulletin., 1914-07-25
MASTERS TAUGHT
FRUITFUL LESSON
Great westinghouse Company
humbleS to Workers
For First Time in Is Years This Great
Corporation Comedies thatItsl6,00o
Employees Have Human RIGHTS

Press dispatches have told in brief
that the Westinghouse strike at Pitts
burg was lost when the 10000 employees
returned to work last week The fol-
lowing editorial from the Daily Leader
of that city indicates that the strikers
won victory on the industrial battle
field that will prove fruitful of much
good in the future:
The Westinghouse strike in the Tur-
tie Creek valley is at an end and it has
taught the Westinghouse interests les
son they will never forget.
The lesson sends out its application
to every extensive employer of labor.
What happened to the Westinghouse in
terests can happen to every other cor
poration. and under like circumstances
is exactly what will happen to them, no
matter how large and how powerful.
The Westinghouse interests have
learned their lesson and will never re-
peat IL. One such lesson is enough.
'While the strikers, some 10000 all
told, have not secured all that some of
the most radical hoped for in the be-
ginning, perhaps, they have dealt a
crushing blow at the boasted supremacy
Of the corporations that comprise the
Westinghouse interests.
life and its end. with what is to follow,
are tremendous.
For the first time an army of men
and women in what have been virtually
slave pens have boldly dared to defy the
threat Of power and unite in a compact,
! intelligent organization
That in itself was a victory so pro-
found that the Westinghouse officials
/ are still suffering from the effects of
the shock of it.
That this organization could bring
out II solid mass these thousands of
workers made up of half a dozen ma
tionalities and religions, until now hos
tile and actively antagonistie, was the
second shock.
! But the crowning blow, the force
that struck terror to the hearts of the
officials, was that this diversified army
held together as men of one nation, one
language, one religion, with the tenac-
I ity OF fanaticism, for five weeks and
then 60 back in solid, unbroken body.
This solidarity, forgetfulness of ma
tional. racial and religious hostilities,
remembering only their class interest,
their welfare as workers, as exploited
victims of corporate potency, was the
blow that broke the heart of the West
inghouse fighting spirit
AAs a strike the movement was
unique in that for five weeks this army
of men and women of so many different
nationalities. including Bulgarians
Turks and Greeks, paralyzed the great
Westinghouse organization without dis
order or sign of actual violence. Nc
other strike of such numbers is recordes.
in the history of the labor movement.
"It Was this that struck terror into
the Westinghouse officials They recog.
nized a force with which they could no,
reckon. because it was something un.
known TO their experience.
The Westinghouse interests and theil
executive officials have been taught
that the interest of humanity is above
the interest of the dividend. hard as the
lesson was to learn.
They have learned that however de.
sirable it might be from the standpoint
of profit, the methods of 25 years age
do not fit the conditions and the human
interests of today.
The Westinghouse interests have
been taught that never again will the
l6,oo0 men and women employed in the
Turtle Creek valley plants submit to the
methods and relations of quarter CEN
tury ago.
And not striker and not an official
Of the Westinghouse interests believes
that any attempt will ever be made to
revive the practices that prevailed in
those big plants up to the time of the
strike.
For, in organizing in defiance of cor.
porate harshness and private punish
ments, and against spy system that
was almost perfect. and in organizing
a strike that held together for five
weeks and ends in democratic way by
common consent, the workers have given
the officials a warning that it can be
repeated.
Whatever the strikers may have lost
during the strike may be laid to Boise
/ Penrose.
That little was in the moral effect
that followed the arrival of the Penrose
'Cossacks' in the strike territory. 1t
gave the impression that the strikers
were violent, disorderly and dangerous !;
an impression that was unwarranted by
the facts.
1T was Penrose to whom the appeal
of corporate interest went for the Cos
sacks
''1t was Penrose, heedful of the cry of
Save usp from the corporate interests,
who gave the word for the sending of
the 'Cossacks.'
1T was Penrose who kept the Cos.
sacks in the strike zone; it was Pen.
rose who refused to allow them to be
sent away"