The sun., 1919-09-22
Cots and Provisions Rushed
to Mills Where Battles
Are Probable.
EACH CLAIMS A VICTORY
Tin Plate Manufacturer
Locks Out $500 Men and
Closes His Works.
BRICK PLANTS MAY SHUT
Twenty to 40 Per Cent. Of
Workers Likely to Go Out
This Morning.
By a stag Correspondent o, THE Son.

P1TTSBURG, sept. Zl-N0 one mere
knows tonight how far the steel
strike, called now for o'clock to-
morrow morning, will go. Publicly,
both sides are making extravagant
claims. Privately, each admits GER
tain strength in the other side. Both
declare that they will give or take no
quarter.
There is possibility that the mills
and blast furnaces will open on re-
duced schedule with the men who re-
main loyal. The leaders of the strik-
ers predict a complete shutdown and
point to credible figures in their pos
session to sustain their claim.
Already the first skirmishes have
been fought. In McKeesport and in
Clarion strikers meetings were
broken up by State police, shots were
fired and arrests were made. Gener-
ally and with apparent sincerity the
strike leaders are counselling caution
and avoidance of trouble. They are
advising their men to "go fishing"
At Rankin and Braddock huge
meetings Of strikers were held with
the approval of the local authorities.
William z. Foster, moving spirit of
the strike in this pivotal district, and
other leaders addressed the men and
perfect order was maintained
Troopers Ride Into Crowds.
At Clarion and McKeesport, where
attempts were made to hold meetings
in defiance of the local authorities.
the State troopers rode through the
crowd as State troopers only can ride
and the meetings ended in a sheep
scramble for cover. The first shots
were fred at Clairton-into the air
and twenty union agltators are In Jail
without bail.
Tonight the first lockout by an op-
orator occurred. T. X. Crawford,
president of the McKeesport Tin Plate
Company, told gathering of citizens
at Port Vue that his mill, employing
1880 men, would close. 1t was the
tieup of the hot mill by a strike Of
several hundred men that the strikers
hailed as their first victory on last
Friday.
l. r. Reilly, organizer for the Amerf-
can Federation Of Labor in the Home
stead district, predicted last night
that z o'clock in the morning would
see strikes in the works of the Harbi-
son-Walker Refractories Company, the
large makers of fire brick; in the Key
stone Car Wheel Company and in the
Mesta Machine Company.
If this is true 1t marks the porten-
tous extension of the strike outside of
the ranks of the steel industry itself.
Reilly predicted also that 95 per cent.
Of the employees of the Carnegie Steel
Company would strike.
Tense Air About PittsburR.
The air of tensity outside the city
Of Pittsburg itself cannot be exagger-
ated. Every man, woman and child,
of course, is affected by the strike.
But almost every able bodied man, In
addition to his general interest in the
situation, went to bed tonight to
wake up tomorrow morning either a
striker or special deputy.
Except at the points mentioned the
valleys of the Allegheny and Monon-
gahela rivers We're as quiet as usual
on Sunday. The great chimneys
whence the flow Of smoke and flame
never ceases in normal times contin-
ued to belch. Women and children In
their Sunday frocks sat on the steps
of the workmen's cottages. The
streets for the most part we're de-
serted.
Pittsburg itself presents curious
anomaly. The Pittsburg papers, as a
matter Of reasonable safety, have
consistently played down the story.
Not a single paper has 80 far printed
1t on the front page. To the usual
run of Pittsburgers the strike will
come as a big surprise tomorrow.
But the men in the offices of the
steel companies and Of the strike
headquarters are suffering from no
such delusion. Most Of them took
sleeping equipment to their offices to-
night, with the expectation of staying
there indefinitely.
Both sides recognize in this strike
not only one of the most far reaching
Industrial struggles Of modern times.
so far as the numbers OF persons and
the size of the interests concerned are