New-York tribune., 1919-10-06
Mills Claim
They've W ON
Steel Strike
Continued from page l

be in a position to benefit by the other
industrial strikes that are in prospect.
Lost alone, they may win in a pool.
It prove the substantially Of their
assertions of progress and to answer
the reiterated statements of strike
leaders that the apparent activity in
the giant basic steel mills or the Pitts
burgh district is merely a, camoufage
OF mingled futile noise and impotent
smoke the Carnegie Steel Company
yesterday invited newspaper men to go
through the Homestead and Duquesne
plants at will. The company officials
accompanying the observers, while
producing the visual evidence of the
condition of the plants, also talked
about the struggle with the greatest
candor. The Duquesne plant, with all
its blast furnaces running and with
every unit operating from end to end
seemed to sustain to the limit the as
scrtions of the management that it
has been all but untouched by the
strike.
At Homestead. although the Satur-
day half holiday entered into consid-
Grafton. the visitors found in operation
virtually every mill and every furnace
that was in use before the strike
broke. The numbers of men in each
group were ALSO PeICePtiUly ldISeI
than they were during the first week
of the strike, and throughout the
colossal establishment it was plain that
steel in various forms was being made
steadily and methodically and that the
continuity of operations had not been
broken. 1t was also equally plain that
the absence of the bulk of common
laborers had resulted in the abandon
ment of most repair and plant con-
struction work and letting down in
all activities not absolutely essential
to production.
Foreigners Not Coming Back
An executive admitted that as yet
the fore gn strikers were not coming
back in considerable numbers, but as
serted that they were daily trickling
back, and that new men had been OBJ
tanned in reassuring degree. Ma
chimes were kept going with less than
full crews and Office men had been
Production was cons siderably under
normal and less than it might be
made. because it was important not to
tax the strength Of the loyal but in
sufficient force.
The strength of our position" said
the executive. "is that the strike did
not extend far enough upward to de-
stroy our working organization. The
structure is intact; it has simply lost
some of its members, who can be re-
placed in time. 1t is like an army
division, but is in need Of requirements.
One thing that helped US greatly was
that we had six or seven hundred re-
turned soldiers who had taken such
jobs as they could find before the
strike. These men on account of their
training and intelligence make splen-
did source Of supply for many of the
places above common labor. Very few
of these boys or our own returned
soldiers have deserted us.
THE tendency with each passing
day is for the men who quit in fear
TO return. We treat them without
rancor, but we do not displace any man
them places, and they are hand picked
the old men whose shop records were
none too good or who were leaders in
the strike are not accepted. In this
plant we are not drawing the line
against accepta BILE foreigners Frankly,
speaking generally, we want them
back. The sooner they come the better
for US, but also the sooner they come
the better for them. 1t will not take
more time than we can afford to fill
our forces without them"
ldihcu Will iNdIly O1 tue royal men
and all said that there was nothing to
Justify strike, and that most of their
fellows who had quit were of the same
opinion. A story was told of one we'll
placed foreigner who had used all his
influence to keep his fellows from
striking, but who, nevertheless, when
he found that all his neighbors had
gone out, followed them.
"Iou look as if you were below the
pauper line" | said, quoting Fitzpat.
rick, and attempting to be humorous
to robust worker at an open-hcartt
furnace
DO -" he answered with emphatic
earnestness. Of you think SO 90 dowr
to 81 Broadway and see how much
stock | have in this corporation. Also,
have $3,700 in Liberty bonds, $4,000 ir
war savings stamps, own my OWL
house, and have good health afte,
twenty years on the job"
"They couldn't bluff me in 1892
said another worker, "and they cam
bluff me now. The strike is a gomez
so far as this plant is concerned, a!
J you can see for yourself"
| agree with him.
The general strike situation in the