The Great Steel Strike and its LessonsFoster, William Z.
History
The Great Steel Strike and its Lessons
Foster, William Z.
Steel Strike, U.S., 1919-1920; United States Steel Corporation
... Concetta Cocchiara, 8 months advanced in a state of
pregnancy, was out shopping with her sister. Two State
Policemen brusquely ordered them home and when they did not
move fast enough to suit, followed them home, forced himself
into the house and struck affiant with a stick on the head
and grabbed her by the hair and pulled her from the kitchen
and forced her into a patrol wagon and took her to the
borough jail.... Sworn to before Henry Fusarini, Notary
Public, October 11, 1919.
* * * * *
Newcastle, Pa.
John Simpel,
1711 Morris Ave.,
Newcastle.
On Sept. 22, about 5.30 P. M. he was walking along
towards his home on Moravia Street. Hearing shots fired he
stopped in the middle of the street and was instantly struck
by bullets three times, one bullet going through his leg,
one through his finger, while the third entered his back and
went through his body, coming out through his abdomen. The
shots were fired from inside the gates of the Carnegie Steel
Company's plant. Mr. Simpel believes the shots were fired
from a machine gun, because of their rapid succession. He
fell on the ground and lay there for about ten minutes,
until he was picked up by a young boy.... He is now totally
disabled. He has a wife and a child and is 48 years of
age....
JAS. A. NORRINGTON, Secretary.
* * * * *
Farrell, Pa.
... There were four men killed here, one in a quarrel in a
boarding house and three by the Cossacks. Half a dozen were
wounded, one of them a woman. She was shot in the back by a
Cossack, while on her way to the butcher shop....
S. COATES, Secretary.
Many hundreds of similar cases could be cited. In the steel strike a
score were killed, almost all on the workers' side; hundreds were
seriously injured, and thousands unjustly jailed. To the State
Constabulary attaches the blame for a large share of this tyranny. The
effect of their activities was to create a condition in Western
Pennsylvania, bordering on a reign of terror. Yet it is extremely
difficult to definitely fasten their crimes upon them. No matter how
dastardly the outrage, when the Steel Trust cracks its whip the local
authorities and leading citizens come forth with a mass of affidavits,
"white-washing" the thuggery in question, and usually sufficing to cast
serious doubts on the statements of the few worker witnesses courageous
enough to raise their voices. What is to be thought of the following
incident?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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