The Connecticut labor press., 1919-12-27
STEEL STRIKE BY NO MEANS OVER
 NOR IS IT LOST
National Committee Issues Bulle- tins Which Show Mills Are
 Badly Handicapped.
THE SHORTAGE IS ACUTE
Strike Breakers Quitting by Hun dreds and Product Proves De-
 fective-Misleading Reports.
(National Committee Press Bureau.)

Pittsburgh, Pa., Dec, 26.-The steel magnates and fnanciers who are 'in on the know are well aware that the steel strike isn't over, in spite of what the newspapers print for public consump- tion. So are buyers of steel For ex- ample, the New York Journal of Com merce on December 19, after saying that "a more optimistic sentiment is prevail ing" because of "a clearing of the at rnosphere of immediate labor trouble and the passing of the danger of coal famine" gets down to brass tacks i'll these words:
 But the situation as regards produc- ton and distribution is hardly better, nor can any material improvement be reasonably expected for possibly months to come. The mills are everywhere heavily sold and even if working at fullest capacity, cannot hope to over taken the market for some indefinite time In the meantime, consumers III many instances are at their wits end for supply
 The next day the same paper said that the demand for steel "has accumulated enormously and is now pressing the market hard for supplies at time when labor conditions had crippled mill op- erations. How far the supply of steel is behind requirements cannot even be estimated"
 And meanwhile the troubles of the rli1s continue. Strike-breakers are quit ting by the hundreds especially the negroes who like neither steady hard work nor cold weather. Evidently the companies are hard pressed because >he fc-ces~ they have are so inefficient in production.
 In a number of%p %piaces the officials are redoub1ing their efforts to get ffe -ald men back. In Joliet they offered to settle the mortgage on a church, amounting to 5000 if the priest would tell the men to go back to work. In Braddock, they went around to the mems houses saying, "Why don't you go back to work? The strike is won [" (That is a new dodge-usualy they say ''The strike is 1ost") Then they started rumor that the Braddock priest, Rev. Father Kazinci, who has been such a tower of strength to the strike, has be- gun telling men to go back to work But they fooled no one for the men went right to Father Kazinci and dis covered that it was, as usual, story spread in the hope of getting some men Homestead men are calmly sticking 1t
  since the first few weeks of the strike
 Pueblo, Colo, is keeping up its splen- did fight all the more notable because Pueblo is off thousands of miles from any other steel center and because the company-the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, owned by the Rockefellers principally-has been working cease lessly to get the men back, even offer ing most of the original strike demands if the men would go back under the company union" in existence there. Showing the progress of the battle Secretary w. H. Young writes:
 To-day December 18) was the grand opening day for the mills here-as given out by the officers of the company. Here is the 1ine-up-an actual count of the men going in and coming out of the mill. The total was 1,075; 336 white >, 709 MeXicans and negroes and few Italians. The assertions from union ranks counted among those entering or leaving the mill was 138. This is not so bad considering the terrific efforts put forth by the company to force men back into the mill Superintendents and foremen have made repeated calls at the homes of the strikers and, if the men happened to be absent, have done every thing to frighten women and leave them pdIilC SlIlCkSll III lSIC nope LlIdl LIlCg would beg their husbands te go back to work"
 Here are some hints of the things that are being done in Pueblo which make the ranks of the 6,O00 strikers stand so firmly: Through the efforts of Mrs. Peake, president of the International Auxiliary to the Machinists, and the Ladies' Aid Society, composed of the wives and relatives of the strikers here i'll Pueblo are going to see that every child of the strikers is given Christ mas stocking The city commissioners have donated the city auditorium for Christmas eve. We will have a Christ mas tree and a musical program and try to give the children and their mothers and daddies real Christmas cheer. cannot speak too highly of the work the women are doing. They are meeting here at the Labor Temple two days or more a week and making over clothing, etc. A big-hearted Irish member of the executive committee repairs old shoes for strikers kiddies
 Secretary Henry w. Raisse reports the Cleveland hgft going along excel lently. He says: The conditions are unchanged here and the men standing out as stronp as ever. The various plants are so hard up for men that they are OHerlnS all sorts or inducements 10 get the men back; but there seems to be no desire on the part of the men to let up in the fight They all say they will not go back to work until ordered to return by the national committee.
 "One of the rumors current here is that the Mckinney Company is offer ing the men the right to~'~Vong to the union, the eight-hour ds o discrirn- nation in taking them ~A and a 20 per cent increase in wages-and. be- sides this, they are willing to give any further concessions which the Trust will give if settlement is made with that outfit.
 "The rod mill managers of the Amer ican Steel & Wire Company are making extra strenuous ecorts to get their old men to return to work These mills are closed down tight but heard today that one of the men in the American plant of this concern has been reached and is