Evening star., 1936-08-02
BY THEODORE A. HUNTLEY.

PITTSBURGH, August ! tN.A.N.A).
Steel! Ore coming down from the
North. Coal coming up from the
South. Fusing here in Pittsburgh in
a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar
of fire by night.
Steel! Belching forth acids which
leave the hillsides sere and scrabrous,
but bring to this capital of an indus
trial empire wealth in proportion to
its affliction.
Driving in from the East over the
Lincoln Highway you get your first
glimpse of it from the summit OF
Laurel Ridge. the last crest Of the
/ high Alleghenies. Fifty-f1ve miles
away, on a clear day. the blue and
white Of the horizon changes to gray.
A stratified haze blankets the earth
| below. You see long, fiat ceiling
where the smoke haze stops. 1t looks
like smooth sea. But you know
that at the bottom lie Pittsburgh and
the long arms of its three rivers which
carry the clamor of steel back into
the surrounding hills.
Sun Changes Color.
Fifteen miles farther on, beyond
Ligonier, the conifers disappear from
! the countryside. the sun changes COL
or and you pass definitely under the
pail. For a hundred or two hundred
miles, depending on the direction Of
your travel. you cannot escape 1t. The
landscape is seen as through smoked
glass.
Beneath this pail. as one OF its
by-products, the Carnegie millionalres
were made-most of them only to
take their wealth to New York or else
where to spend it.
Beneath it Frick and Carnegie
had their famous quarrel-partially
patched up by Judge James H. Reed,
whose law partner, P. c. Knox, and
whose son. David Reed, both served
in the United States Senate.
Beneath it, in 1892. Frick was shot
down by Alexander Berkman, youth
full and ardent anarchist and lover
of Emma Goldman. Frick survived
to testify against him and send him
to prison for the best years of his
life. Berkman shot himself in France
only a few weeks ago, bringing his
turbulent life to a violent close.
Homestead Riots Still Recalled.
Beneath the pail occurred in the
same and the succeeding year the
historic Homestead riots. There are
men now living in Pittsburgh who were
hovs in the mill at the time They
remember the battles waged In and
about Carnegie's Homestead plant.
They remember how "the Pinker-
TONS" imported by Frick, were cast
adrift on burning barges at the rivers
edge as they exchanged shots with
the strikers. They remember how the
striking workers sent cooks into the
mills to poison the food and put
arsenic into the coffee Of the men
who stuck by the company.
Beneath it, since, State troopers
have ridden their horses onto the
porches of the workers and almost
into their houses as phase OF more
recent strikes.
Beneath it the Melons, taking up
where Carnegie and Frick left on,
have built an even greater empire,
giving birth to aluminium, to the by
product coke industry, to Gulf oil and
to a banking power which brooks no
real rival outside New York.
But New Struggle Impends.
And beneath it now the captains
of labor and industry marshal their
forces and set the stage for a new
test of strength. The present strug-
gle, however, has implications which
reach farther than any which have
preceded it.
If John L. Lewis can organize the
steel workers of Pittsburgh he can
organize those in Bethlehem, Youngs-
town, Lorain, Cleveland, Gary and
Birmingham. He can organize the
ore ranges at the head Of the lakes
And he can 60 on from there to Or
ganize rubber ana motors and oil and