STRIKERS IN AMERICA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2646, 30 October 1909, Page 7

STRIKERS IN AMERICA.

IN BATTLE WITH TROOPS. The grinding down of ignorant forthe .steel mills of McKeesport, near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, United States of America, has resulted in a strike riot that for loss of life, surpasses any industrial conflict in America for some years past. In a pitched battle between the workmen and State troops last month six men were killed outright and three others fatally woun/ded. The strike, •which had been in progress about a couple of months, attracted little notice until it was marked by bloodshed and death, notwithstanding that 3-300 men were directly involved. Now the Federal Government has started an investigation of the conditions, and dt is said the steel companies will be prosecuted on charges of maintaining a system of virtual peonage—a mild'form of slavery. Alen have sworn they were held in the works against their will. The men employed at McKeesport are mostly Austrians of the lower class: but few of them speak English, and they have no sort of organisation. Therefore, when they were goaded by their treatment into striking, none of tlie vast labor organisations of America went to their assistance. They are stated to have been imported by the steel companies because of their low standard of life, and willingness to work unreasonable liours for comparatively small wages. "It is the price wo pay for American supremacy in the steel trades, and the question arises. Is the supremacy worth such a price?" remarks one newspaper. The dispute which caused the strike is indicative of the inconsiderate treatment afforded the workmen. A pooling system of wages was introduced, under which the men were paid in a lump as each piece of work was completed, each man receiving a percentage of the cost of the completed job. Through this system /the companies managed to get more work out of the men for less money than under a straight wage scale. It was-sweating pure and simple. "The- worst rioting occurred on a Sunday," says a San Francisco paper. "Three new members of the State Constabulary, in plain clothes, refused to leave a car going into the works when ordered to do so by a body of strikers. Instantly there was wild rioting. Shots were iired; and the militia poured a volley into the crowd. Six strikers fell at the firsit round. The mob opened a return fire with rilles, and two troopers dropped from their horses fatally shot. During the early stages women were conspicuous. The wives of the strikers have played a prominent part in the conflict. On a former day a (Vessel (Conveying strike-breakers was fired on from the banks of the river, and tho signal for each volley was given by a woman carrying a baby in her arms. -Since the Sunday battle tlie strikers have virtually given up the fight.” Labor troubles are not confined to the 3500 ignorant steel workers . of McKeesport. In Western Pennsylvania alone there are nearly 30,000 men idle as the results of strikes, Jock-outs, and avalk-outs. Amongst these are 5000 employees of the American Glass Company, whose cessation of work has paralysed the glass-blowing industry of the country, 500 tin plate workers and 18,000 coal miners. The strikers complain that, notwithstanding the return of prospcrous'busineSs conditions, "panie wag© scales/ 7 instituted in the last months of 1007, still apply in practically every operating .plant.*