The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1921-10-14
BIG BUSINESS
AIDED BY PRESS

New York. Oct. 8.-The unfairness
Of the public press toward steel
strikers two years ago is shown in
a report just made public by the
commission in inquiry of the inter
church world movement.
In explaining how public opinion
was manufactured against this ma
tion-wide strike, the report should be
the last word to convince organized
workers that it is necessary for
them to support their labor press.
Practically the entire press of the
country is included in the church
mems indictment.
The report states that 400 issues
of seven English-language dailies in
Pittsburgh, appearing during the
first two months of the strike, were
analysed. OF the 400 issues, there
was but one example of first-hand
investigation of conditions among
the strikers by Pittsburg reporter.
This single instance concerned po-
lice outrages on foreigners. 1t
appeared in the Pittsburgh Press on
October and the reporter described
| her Investigations as Startling"
Neither the Press nor any other pa
per printed another story of the
kind.
The report quotes many headlines
and stories from the Pittsburgh Ga
zette Times, Chronicle Telegraph,
| Post, Sun, Dispatch, Leader and
Press, and notes some of the more
obvious connections between their
ownership and industrial and fl
nancial interests.
No one of the papers made a
practice of telling a different story"
from the rest. None changed its pol
! icy adopted at the start in the light
of any later Investigations or pro-
tests. Even when the editors be-
lieved the facts to be different from
what they printed no change was
made in regard either to particular
stories or general policy.
To illustrate the unfairness of
these newspapers, the report re-
prints their headlines and then COM
pares them with facts that investi-
gators developed. On November II
it was announced in first page stor-
les that the strike had collapsed at
the Cambria mills in JohnstOwn 1t
was stated that from 5000 to 10000
strikers had broken ranks. The re-
port states that 600 men were at
work on the date referred to.
Extended reference is made in the
report to the repeated claim that the
strike was ''bolshevist" and "of Ger
man origin" The church men dis
miss these charges with this state
ment:
The most casual inquiry would
have sufficed TO develop the fact that
the steel workers felt that they had
actual grievances; that they COM
planned of the conditions under which
they had to live and that many of
them We're living in congested and
intolerable surroundings; that for the
most part they were working 10 to
IA hours, many of them with a "a
hour shift every fortnight, while
may worked seven days in the week.
Without single exception worthy
of note. the statements, demands,
grievances and testimony from the
side of the strikers were printed
under headlines or in a context tend
ing to give the impression that
what the striking steel workers
sought was something unwarranted
and that their grievances were un-
founded"
Killings by state or local police
We're reported as ''riots," for which
the victims were blamed, says the
report, Instances to prove this state
ment are cited. In one case a man
was killed by a state cossack while
playing with his baby in his yard.
The Commercial-Te Telegraph printed
story "occording to the state troop
ers," that the man was "skillfully
picked off by the troopers while
sniping" In the case of two negro
strikebreakers wounding a striker,
the Leader made no mention of the
assailants but praised the cossacks
for maintaining order" when they
jailed the wounded man.
The church men indict practically
the entire press of the nation for
unfairness to the steel strikers.
Despite certain exceptions, which
are cited, the report finds that "the
news in most other papers was of
the same general type" as in the
Pittsburgh papers.
"The Pittsburgh papers," it is
stated, "were simply a more en-
phatic example of policies which con-
vince labor that the press is unfair
to labor during a strike"
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