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
Pursuant to a resolution adopted by the Senate on September 23, in the
white heat of the strike excitement, the Committee on Education and
Labor was instructed to investigate the steel strike and to report back
to the Senate as soon as possible. Accordingly this Committee held
sittings in Washington and Pittsburgh, hearing about one hundred
witnesses all told. Its active members were Senators Kenyon (Chairman),
McKellar, Walsh (Mass.), Sterling and Phipps.
For the workers Samuel Gompers, John Fitzpatrick, M. F. Tighe and many
organizers and strikers testified, setting forth in detail the
grievances and demands of the men. For the steel companies came the
usual crop of strike-breakers and company officials, pliable city
authorities and business men from the steel towns. The star witness was
Judge Gary, who presented practically the entire case for the whole
steel industry. It is noteworthy that with the exception of one minor
hothead, the so-called "independents" made no defense before the
committee. They left it all to their master, the United States Steel
Corporation.
Mr. Gary was a good witness. Not for him were the antiquated blusterings
of a "divine-right" Baer or a "public-be-damned" Vanderbilt. He used the
modern method,--a mass of silky hypocrisies and misrepresentations for
the public, to cover up the mailed fist he has for his workers. He was
suave, oily, humble, obliging, persuasive, patriotic. He pictured the
steel industry as a sort of industrial heaven and the U. S. Steel
Corporation as a beneficent institution, leading even the trade-union
movement in reform work.
Inasmuch as Mr. Gary's peculiar notions of the "open shop," minority
rule by the unions, etc., set forth afresh by him at the strike
hearings, are discussed quite generally throughout this book, there is
no need to review them again here. We will note his testimony no more
than to give the facts of the death of Mrs. Fannie Sellins, of whose
murder he was so anxious to clear the Steel Trust.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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