The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-06-12
mo STR|KE,' is
SINCERE PRAYER
OF ALL GARY
Whole City Is Fearful of
Danger; Optimism Is
Only on Surface.
Continued From Page One)

where the steel worker plays at
night. The story is the same. They
don't want a strike.
Don't Think They Will
The merchants feel the same
way.
Here's the way the owner of one
Of the leading stores feels:
"Of course, I hope they get
things settled. 1t would be a
terrible thing if we had a strike
now-worse than in 1919. Why,
I've done more business in the first
five months of this year than in
the first six months of 1929, and
that's nice business. I don't think
they'll strike"
His feeling is typical of the rest
of the city's business men, but one
can detect more than a faint
anxiety beneath the optimism.
There are approximately $4,000
steel workers in Gary whose destl-
MES will be at stake in the strike
convention Thursday.
There are approximately $4,000
steel workers in the Calumet. This
region is the Fourth district Of the
An1algamated Association of Iron,
Steel and Tin Workers.
1900 at Illinois Steel
There are twenty-three locals in
the district, which includes Gary,
East Chicago, Indiana Harbor, IN
fact, all of the Calumet, and Joliet
and South Chicago.
Illinois Steel is big steel, not only
in Gary, but in the world. 1t en-
ploys about 10000 workers now.
About $500 more Gary workers toll
in the two plants of the American
Sheet and Tin Plate Company. Inc
remainder commute to plants IN
nearby cities.
Take Illinois Steel for example
Mill officials will tell you that their
men are satisfied and do not want
a, strike. They place the unionlza-
ton of the company at 10 per cent
The mill is operating at 60 per cent
of capacity against 10 to Is per cent
in January.
Queries about whether the COM
panv is setting up machine gun
nests at strategic points and electrl-
fying their fences are met with IN
credulity.
Flood Lights Installed
There's nothing like that, you're
told. and there is no evidence OF 1t.
The only preparations made mere
at the mills for a strike are the IN
stallation of some floodllghts ana
setting up of a sort of temporary
barracks so workers need not leave
the plant. -.
Union officials will dispute tne
INFORMATION figure.
You can see why the steel mills
don't want a strike. It's a costly
business.
Ernest Curtis, Pittsburgh, the
Amalgamated organizer, places the
union membership at Is per cent,
or $4,000 of the workers IN the
area.
Another union worker has more
impressive figures on the Illinois
Steel. He figures the coke fur
naces, the open hearths and the
blast furnaces are IS per cent
Acknowledgment.
Membership Is Mounting
Those three units are the mill, as
far as steel-making is concerned.
There's no doubt the union
membership is mounting. This
writer saw two workers come into
headquarters, one to pay his dues
and the other to join, in the space
Of a half hour. The increase started
month ago, union workers say.
The Gary union men disavow ad-
herence to the preachments of the
s'rank and file committee" which is
the left wing of the Amalgamated.
Roy Kelsey, Gary, the Fourth
district representative, has been
credited in wire dispatches with
putting in" with the rank and
f1lers" in some of the Washington
negotiations.
However, the local union men in
sist he is 100 per cent" back of
President Mike McTigue and the
rest of the national officers.
Not Wanted: A Strike
Let it be repeated-Gary doesn't
want strike, and doesn't believe
there will be one. On the surface,
all is calm. There is only that I'M
DERIVING fear that the rank and
flers" will swing things and then
in the words of one worker-"hell
will pop"
The most outward sign of labor
trouble in this busting and poly
glot city that makes steel and was
made by steel is in the downtown
section.
A picket patrols the Sidewalk in
front of a meat market.
His sign announces that "this
store is unfair to union labor and
in particular to the meat cutters
local.