New-York tribune., 1919-09-29

PITTSBURGH, Sept 2S.-The Sun
day calm Of a placid, sunny autumn
day lay upon the hills and valleys of
the land of coal and iron to-day and
communicated itself to the men of the
furnaces and forgcs. 1t was day
the trials of life and the strikers took
delight in their leisure rather than in
the trouble of their struggle. They
strolled the streets, motored, played
football and even golf. went to church,
romped with the babies, visited over
the back fences and across the front
porches, attended orderly meetings in
halls and generally comported them
selves like men who had little to worry
about. Here and there groups gath
cred to discuss tho handbills from
headouarters, urging them to stand
firm and win the strike.
Even tho mills and furnaces showed
the Sunday influence, though clouds of
smoke all up and down the sOoty val
leys thet lie between the fair, rolling
plateaus, as bucolic as the valleys are
civic, were as signals of the struggle
that Is to be resumed when the en-
ployers will seek to take the offensive
ali along the line tomorrow.
Clarion Meeting Orderly
1t Ia one Of the briefest aspects Of
this intense industrial district that the
topography of the country confines the
mills and the mill towns to the bot
toms of the narrow valleys. so that at
no place outside the city of Pittsburgh
itself is the open country of farm and
forest more than mile or so from the
most complete mutilation Of natural
beauty that man Is able to make Agri-
culture and manufacture, rural leisure
and urban activity are side by side
and the most primitive and the most
complex Of mans activities confront
each other in startling contrast.
Thus it happened that the strikers
Of the Clarion mills, having no hall
at hand, met this afternoon in halls
In rural village in tributary valley
two or three miles back in the hills.
While squad of state police guarded
against possible disorder, the strikers
listened in the best Of good humor TO
speakers who assured them that the
great steel struggle was going their
way and warned them to observe the
law.
Principle of Struggle Stressed
The speeches here, as we'll as those
delivered at the many city meetings,
were remarkable for the fact that
there was practically no reference to
the wrongs Of the mill workers, which
are so much dwelt on for outside con-
sumption. 1t takes very convincing
speaker to convince well~clothed mon.
wearing SIS shoes, $40 silk shirts and
81 hats, with brown automobiles wait
ing without, that they are starving. or
that their lusty children are waning
away.
The speakers not being equal to that
task. dwelt on the strike az one for
great iple---tho principle Of
recognition of labor by capital. The
steel companies were represented as
automatically seeking to deprive their
men Of the right to organize and deal
with their employers through their
chosen representatives,. Besides deal
ing with the issues of the strike the
speakers gave the men the facts Of the
strike from their side, assuring them
that they could place no confidence in
the newspaper reports of the course
Of the strike.
Financial Situation Explained
"They tell you" said one of the
speakers, that the Edgar Thompson
mills at Braddock are running full.
Now. the fnct is thac there are Just
twentyfour men working in this plant,
or rather there were twcnty-four, for
when they came out the other day the
guards found one Of them carrying a
revolver and pinched him. so tina. IN
addition to being q scab he is now in
Jail"
The finances OF the situation were
explained to the men. and they were
void how out of their SO initiation fee
So goes TO their union and 81 to the
general organizing committee. They
were warned against believing stories
chat Che organizers were only getting
their money to decamp with it. and
they were told how one organizer who
ait out" with $1,000 was now in Jail
while the company that bonded him had
replaced the 81 200.
While this m~eting was in progress
shot was fired down the street, but
the meeting kept right on. when it
was learned that the shot was fired in
n private fcud and that the o-oundcd
striker had evidently suffered at the
hands Of q fellow striker instead Of
the police.
Fitzpatrick Goes to Conference
Outside OF meeting Of organizers
Of this district held in the morning
there was little activity at the ma
tional headquarters OF the strike to-
d;y. Secretary Foster said that the
out look was excellent for the closing
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