The Gem worker and the Idaho labor herald. (Boise, Idaho) 1914-1917, 1916-05-18
(By Dante Barton)

Washington, d. C.-The United
States Steel Corporation went to the
front for the Employers Association
of Pittsburgh on May 2. Repeating
the Homestead tactics of 1892 its
armed guards, thugs, special police
men and detectives fired voliey after
volley from riot guns and repeating
rifles into the crowds of strikers and
ympathizers-men, women and chill
dren-killed three, fatally wounded
three others and seriously wounded
from forty to sixty more.
Following that open violence, the
Steel Corporation adm Employers As
sociation invoked the legal process
of Pittsburg to put the wrong persons
in Jail. Dragnet warrants brought i'll
the leaders of the unorganized num-
bers of the workers. They were cast
into jail and kept there without bond
and without trial by the arbitrary
seizure of power.
Pittsburgh is now a ferment OF
splendid and hopeful struggle of the
workers against economic and legal
oppression. The determined spirit
of revolt against wrong things is
spread throughout all its hundreds OF
thousands of workers. There will be
fluctuations in this industrial strug-
gle will not end until the workers
have won for the eight hour day and
the recognized right of organization.
There had been no violence in the
Pittsburgh industrial district until the
strike, which originated in the West
inghouse Electrict Company's plant
in East Pittsburgh, had spread to
the Edgar Thompson Works OF the
Steel Trust-a Carnegie branch in
Bradock. Realizing that their men
were going out, the Steel Corporation
officials began importing the Coal
and Iron Guards from Gary, Ind
These men arrived on Saturday, April
% Several of them boasted that
they had been in the employ OF the
Rockefellers in the Ludlow massacre
in Colorado. For ten days before the
fight at the Thompson Works about
10000 workmen and working women
from skilled mechanics to unskilled
day laborers, had been out on strike
Beginning on April p in the West
inghouse Electric Company i'll Easi
Pittsburgh, the strike had spread rap.
idlv until it included all the 10000 EN-
plovees of the various Westinghouse
plants. Within five or six days par
tia1 or complete strikes had seriously
crippled or tied up these other indus
tries scattered throughout the entire
Pittsburgh district:
Frank-Kneeland Company, McKin
tosh & Hemphill, Lewis Foundry &
Machine Company, Pittsburgh Gea
& Manufacturing Company, Pitts
burgh Valve, Foundry & Construc
ton Company, ]. &. J. B. Milholland
Thomas Carter & Sons Company, Fl
P Gazzams Company, Gillespie Man
ufacturing Company, General Engi
neering Model Works, A. Garriso
Foundry Company, Marine Manufac
turing Company, Tranter Manufac
turing Company, Invincible Vacuum
Cleaning Company, Hall Steam PUN
Company, Simonds Manufacturin
Company, Heppenstal Forge & Knit
Company. Taylor & Wilson, Dui
Manufacturing Company, Hubbard
Company, Epping, Carpenter Con-
pany.
The Pressed Steel Car Works an
The National Tube Company Of tn
United States Steel Corporation b
came involved in big strikes later
the week.
This great strike in the Pittsburg
industrial district centers in the d.
mand for an eight hour work da
1t is part of the great industrial NOV
ment of the workers throughout Il
nation for the eight hour day. The d
mand among practically all the worl
ers of Pittsburgh and Allegher
County has not been lessened or a
fected by the shooting of the worI
-
ers in Braddock. The consent OF Il
Westinghouse strikers to accept Il
mediation offered by Patrick Gilda
chief of the mediation and concili
ton board of the state department
labor and industry of Pennsylvani