The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1934-07-23
VIOLENCE MARKS
SKIRMISHES OVER
ALL OF COUNTRY
END OF NINETEENTH CEN
TURY WITNESSED MANY
INDUSTRIAL UPHEAvALS
BY employees
By RAIDER WINGET
ASSOCIATED Press Staff Writer

NTNS~O@AAtS4 kA~eS SAAAA WfAtSA/
/ WASHINGTON, July pa.
Pitched battles on land and water
i marked strike disturbances near
the close of the nineteenth cen
Jury.
The most conspicuous battle
was at Homestead, Pa, in mid
summer of 1892. At that little
town the Amalgamated Associa-
tion of Iron and Steel Workers
had organized workers in the
Carnegie Steel company plant.
Andrew Carnegie ordered Hem
ry Clay Prick, one of his officials,
! to post notice that after June
Ia. 1892, the company would OPP
crate open shop.
The union called strike and
surrounded the plant, while the
company sent 800 armed private
detectives up the Monongahela
river on tug to Homestead.
Strikers held the river bank as
the navy steamed up. Both
sides fired broadsides. The battle
ragged all day, leaving 10 dead
and more than so wounded.
Trouble In Chicago
! The navy called on the mil
! itia. Strikers, unable to hold out
against superior forces, surrend
ed.
/ Two years later the scene OF
serious labor trouble had shifted
to Chicago. with Eugene v. Debs
in a leading role. George Pull
man. sleeping car magnate, had
established Pullman, H., as
model town for his workmen. 1t
was regarded as ideal until Pull
man cut wages and discharged
many workmen.
! They applied to the American
! Railway Union for aid and called
a strike. Debs came in as lead
er and ordered boycott of Pull,
mans. Traffic stopped. Federal
soldiers came to the aid of the
company to stop damage and to
start cars moving in interstate
commerce. More than 1000 cars
were wrecked, and losses were
estimated as high as 100000
600.
Debs and others were jailed for
conspiracy under the Shermsn
antitrust laws of 1890 and en-
Joined from further action. Debs
called for general strike and was
promptly sentenced for contempt.
The first decade of the TWEEN
tieth century brought labor dis
putes which caused bombings,
kidnapings and the uprising of
the 10000" in New York City.
Los Angeles Bombing
The structural iron workers in
1906 declared strike against
the National Erectors' associa-
ton over alleged use of non
union labor in violation of an
agreement. Dynamiting follow
ed.
Perhaps the climax of this
campaign was. the bombing of the
Los Angelesf Times building in
1911 with a. Toss of u lives, |
Hardly had the headlines left
that case when attention center
ed on the uprising of the TO-
900" in New York, which lasted
from November %. 1909, to Feb
ruary Is, 1910. 1t involved shirt
waist workers.
Women On Strike
Louis Levine in 1.-THE Women's
Garment Workers" calls the fight
of the shirtwaist makers "the
largest strike of women ever
known in the United States"
Workers protested against such
alleged practices as the levying
of large fines for broken needles,
employers pastlng paper over
clock faces so workers would not
know they worked overtime and
forewomen following girls when
they left the room for few mo-
ments. Hours were long and pay
was low.
The breaking point came. and
1000 leaders held a mass meet
ing.
A girl in his teens, tired of
speeches, jumped to her feet and
cried for action. Her harangue in
Yiddish stampeded the people and
the 1000 arose mad shouted APP
proval of the strike of all 10000
workers.
Women and girls picketed
shops, braved insults and rough
treatment, went without food and
sleep. The end of the strike re-
suited in a partial victory for
strikers.