One of the most violent incidents in an extremely violent strike, Pressed Steel workers attempting to prevent the arrival of scabs get revenge on a hated sheriff.

‘Eight Men Killed and Scores Hurt in Fight With Troops on Bridge at McKees Rocks’ from The Chicago Daily Socialist. Vol. 3. No. 254. August 25, 1909.

Unable to Starve Striker, Murder is Now Being Tried–Eight Men Killed and Scores Hurt in Fight With Troops at McKees Rocks–OVER 1,000 SHOTS FIRED–Pressed Steel Car Officials, Near Defeat, Get ‘Scabs’ to Force Rioting

BULLETIN

Pittsburg, Pa., Aug. 24. Shoot to kill is the order that was given out to the state constabulary, the hired assassins of the steel trust, by the officials of the Pressed Steel Car company at McKees Rocks this afternoon. According to latest reports the list of dead in last night’s battle may reach a total of twelve.

Pittsburg, Pa., Aug. 24. Having practically admitted their defeat in the present strike at McKees Rocks, the officials of the Pressed Steel Car company have now entered upon a policy of Inciting the strikers to riot in order to get an excuse to shoot them down. One of the first results of this new turn in the strike was a battle between the troopers and strikers last night, which resulted in the death of at least eight men and the injuring of score. of others, perhaps twenty of them seriously.

Made Violent by Starvation

The continued importation of strike breakers has been the method by which the company has kept the starving strikers on the verge of violence for the last five weeks. Each day more strike breakers would be imported, the men using every peaceable means of preventing them from taking their jobs.

Time and time again during the last two weeks the strikers have presented terms to the officials upon which they would go back to work, but without avail. It is estimated that 4,000 pressed steel workers engaged the state constabulary and deputy sheriffs in the hostilities last night that made a battlefield out of the Schoenville district. Volley after volley was fired by the participants on both sides.

List of the Dead

EXLER, HARRY, deputy sheriff of Pittsburg.

WILLIAMS, JOHN, state trooper, shot dead on Donovan’s bridge.

SIX UNIDENTIFIED STRIKEBREAKERS. whose bodies are said to have been removed to one of the back alleys of Schoenville.

The fatally wounded:

GUBERNAT, ADAM, 19: shot four times through the body by a trooper.

JONES, LUCIEN, of Beranton, shot through the body and terribly beaten.

KERNSHAKI, GEORGE, a strike sympathizer, employed by the Star Enamel Bucket company: mistaken for a strikebreaker: shot under the heart and through the lungs by Deputy Sheriff Exler.

O’DONNELL, PATRICK, state trooper: shot through the side.

SMITH, JOHN, B., of Mount Carmel, state trooper: shot several times through the body.

TYSOWSKI, MIKE: shot through the breast by a trooper.

Others injured:

KITCH, GEORGE M., state trooper of Columbia, Pa., frightfully beaten, will recover.

NAMET, FRANK, wounded in shoulder by state troopers, will recover.

BOY, identified; shot in the leg; taken away by the strike sympathizers.

HUNGARIAN, name known, of 313 Munson McKees Rocks: shot through the chest and taken away by strike sympathizer.

RUSSIAN, name unknown, shot through the head by troopers; carried away by strikers.

Like Russian Cossacks

One of the causes of the pitched battle last night was the almost continuous attacks and interferences with the strikers by the state constabulary, who have approached the Russian Cossacks in their tactics. Time and time again they have entered the homes of strikers on horseback, claiming that they were “looking for some man whom they wanted to put under arrest.”

During the last two weeks of the strike, which has now been on for over five weeks, the strikers have made frequent propositions to the officials of the Pressed Steel Car company in the hope that the strike might be brought to an end. These proposals have been met with the continued scorn and sneers of the steel magnates. It seemed that the climax of all the strikers ills and wrongs had been reached early yesterday afternoon when strike couriers circulated among their comrades and word was passed around for a monster mass meeting at the Indian mounds for 3 o’clock. An immense crowd congregated and it was estimated that by 8 o’clock over 10,000 had gathered there to listen to speeches be delivered in several languages. The men were counseled by several speakers to avoid violence and to treat as friends the imported workmen, because “at heart they are with us and are held in the plant against their will,” said one of the men who addressed the meeting.

Strike Breakers in Cars

Shortly after 7 o’clock the strikers began to assemble at the Schoenville end of O’Donovan’s bridge. Suddenly it was rumored that strike breakers were being brought from Pittsburg into the plant. The pickets were immediately doubled, messengers were sent scurrying through the entire strike zone, and inside of a few minutes several thousand strikers were at Nicoll avenue and George street.

Every car that came from the city was held up. This procedure had been going on for two hours when a car containing Deputy Sheriff Exler came along. A crowd of strikers immediately ordered the car to stop. The deputy was ordered to leave the car.

Deputy Shoots Into Crowd

Exler refused to leave the car and pulled a revolver and emptied six chambers into the crowd, none of the bullets taking effect. As soon as he was through shooting the enraged foreigners pounced upon him and all but tore him to pieces. He was kicked, jumped upon and afterward shot. His remains were picked up and then thrown onto the car. The crew was ordered to take the dying man back to town. The car pushed back across the bridge and stopped in front of Dr. C.L. McKinnon’s office. When Exler did finally reach the office he was just breathing his last, and he soon died.

Gallant Act of Troopers

When the rioting was at its height mounted state troopers galloped “gallantly” through the streets with riot maces drawn, cracking the heads of all person loitering in the vicinity of the mill.

Deputy sheriffs and troopers broke in the doors of houses suspected of being the retreat of the strikers, arrested scores of persons and placed them in box car jails in the mill yards.

At 9:30 none of the state troopers had left the plant, although the mob around it had maintained almost a constant volleying into the air and at any person whom they suspected as a strike breaker. The next car to arrive contained Troopers Kitch and O’Donnell. Three unknown foreign strike breakers were aboard it. The strikers boarded and immediately started to battle. The troopers were in citizen’s clothing and began to assist the strike breakers and make an attempt to preserve order. One of them struck at a striker after several epithets had been thrown at him. The troopers drew their revolvers, and then followed another terrific battle inside the car.

Over Thousand Shots Fired

The three foreigners and one of the troopers were killed in the first volley fired by the strikers. This volley came from both inside and outside the car and over a thousand shots were fired. During the early stages of the rioting women were conspicuous. Some of them were armed, others effectively used clubs and stones. These women, all foreigners, insane with rage, were mainly responsible for inciting the men to extreme measures. At midnight quiet reigned in the strike zone.

All Ready for More of It

When Sheriff Gumbert heard of the battle while he was at the county jail he called for fifty men to serve as deputies at the strike zone. Obtaining that number he went in an automobile to the scene of the rioting. He took with him ten riot guns and two boxes of riot ammunition. By the time the sheriff arrived the constabulary had dispersed the rioters, but the guns were placed into position ready for use in case the battle should be renewed.

The Chicago Socialist, sometimes daily sometimes weekly, was published from 1902 until 1912 as the paper of the Chicago Socialist Party. The roots of the paper lie with Workers Call, published from 1899 as a Socialist Labor Party publication, becoming a voice of the Springfield Social Democratic Party after splitting with De Leon in July, 1901. It became the Chicago Socialist Party paper with the SDP’s adherence and changed its name to the Chicago Socialist in March, 1902. In 1906 it became a daily and published until 1912 by Local Cook County of the Socialist Party and was edited by A.M. Simons if the International Socialist Review. A cornucopia of historical information on the Chicago workers movements lies within its pages.

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