Evening star., 1936-08-02
Steel City's Smoke Pail Hides
Great Forces Impending Clash
Leaders of Labor and Management viii
Giue Opinions, but Workers Stand
Is What Counts.

, teXtiles-as he has already organized
coal-thus bringing to American in
dustry a labor power and labor
cohesion undreamed of until recent
years by any but the syndicalists, the
Communists and the I. w. w.
In the success or failure of this
Pittsburgh drive, therefore-for the
movement sponsored by Lewis in the
name of the Committee for Indus
trial Organization centers in Pitts
burgh and radiates from here to other
steel districts-lies the future of or
ganized labor as expressed in indus
trial unionism. And in it also lies
the rise or fall Of a new political
power. with Lewis and his associates
at the controls.
Serene Surface Hides Fear.
Already the thunder cracks and the
lightning streaks through lowering
clouds of conflict. Battle lines are
forming rapidly. And up and down
the valleys, in the midnight glare of
the Bessemer converters or the noon
day clash of the rolls, steel goes on
three shifts, "a hours day-sending
forth its sulphurous message of new
wealth. new energy, new hope, of pay
rolls larger than at any time since
/ 1929.
On the surface all is serene But
beneath the surface is fear. Fear of a
strike. Fear of violence. Fear OF
jobs. Fear for profits. Fear of COL
| lectivism.
There is anger. too. Between men
and management there is no hatred
as in other years. That may come
later-if the men strike. Now there
is only grim -jawed anger between the
men at the top-the leaders on both
sides. The game is in their hands
They are fighters. Theirs is the power
And both think they are right.
But the Men Themselves?
Between them stand the pawns
The men who will stand the brunt
of the conflict, If there is a conflict
| Industrial cannonfodder What dc
/ they think of it all? What do they
want? What do they intend to do:
Ask these questions in Pittsburgh ano
you get only opinions. Opinions from
union spokesmen. Opinions from stee
executives. Opinions from business
men. Opinions from politicians.
What do the workers think? ]
asked that question of so men who
should have known, but didn't. The
steel companies didn't, for the mer
in the mills do nottalk freely to theil
foremen. You ask the waitress in g
restaurant across the street from 9
mill.
"Oh, yes, they come in here" she
will tell you, but they never talk"
Let a stranger approach, and they
shut up like clam. Whether they
are or not, the men think company
spotters-they call them "stoolieS,
for stoolpigeon-are everywhere.
You Need Sponsors Here.
"Two Of them were in here last
night" said Mike, whose saloon /,
popular with the workers in one oi
the largest mills, and who once
worked in the mill himself. Mike
knows what they think, and If he
trusts you, will tell you. But as for thu
"stoolies":
IT tell 'em I don't know nothin'
Never hear nothin'. To hell with
'em!"
Mike sat at table with my spon.
sor, a leader of the Poles, the largest
Slavic group in the Pittsburgh district
and told me what the men were say.
ing. And I talked with the men them
selves-sometimes behind locked doors
I ate with them, drank with them
swan with them in Kennywood pool
their hilltop playground between
Homestead and Duquesne. saw then
in their club rooms. I listened tc
them when there were no "stoolies'
around. I know what they think, and
in the succeeding articles Of this
series I will give factual account oi
what saw and heard.
| scopyright. 1896. By the North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inc.)