With the aid of the local Catholic priest, thirty-two Hungarian immigrant Socialists are fired from the Bethlehem Steel Works. The year following, a revolt of the workers in the bloody 1910 steel strikes.

‘Company Fires All Socialists’ from the New York Call. Vol. 2 No. 172. July 20, 1909.

Steel Trust, Church and Press Fiercely Assail Hungarian Reds in Bethlehem.

BETHLEHEM, Pa., July 19. Fearing the power of the Socialist movement the Steel Trust, the church and press of Bethlehem, Pa., have begun an organized attack on the Socialist party. This flare-up against the Socialists was provoked by the formation of a Hungarian Local in South Bethlehem a short time ago.

Thirty-two men were discharged from the steel works for no other reason than that they were members of the newly-formed Socialist organization. Father A. Varlarky, rector of St. John’s Magyar Catholic Church, forced thirty-two of the Socialists out of his church. Bethlehem Socialists are asking whether it is the church that is opposed to Socialism or not. They argue that the church is opposed to Socialism.

An effort is being made to take away the bread and butter of the Hungarian workers in Bethlehem that dare to exercise their right to support say political party they desire. The forces of capitalism, including the bosses, the church and the press, are determined to make it impossible for any man to wear a Socialist button and hold a job either in Bethlehem or South Bethlehem.

Organizer Is Undismayed.

Simon Dezzo, a Hungarian, is the organizer of the Socialist sentiment among his countrymen, and he is undismayed by the concerted attack being made upon his principles. He believes that the organization of the Hungarian workers will be accomplished despite opposition and slander. The Bethlehem Globe quotes Father Varlarky as having said that there may be more Socialists in his congregation, but they are keeping quiet and are not showing their colors. Father Varlarky is also credited with having stated that he would be glad if all the Socialists were sent back to Europe, as we do not need them here, and that he would gladly assist in getting them deported. Finally this follower of the lowly Nazarene asserts that Socialists are merely breeders of disturbance, and that they are mostly idlers.

The Socialists of Bethlehem smile when Father Varlarky’s name is mentioned and ask what would happen to him if foreigners were to be deported. Their faces scowl when the priest’s charge that most of them are idlers is repeated to the them and denounce his statement as a lie. In contradiction of Father Varlarky’s charge the Socialists point to the fact that they are wage workers, not paupers, beggars or thieves, and also to, the fact that the first move of their opponents was the discharge of thirty-two of their number.

The New York Call was the first English-language Socialist daily paper in New York City and the second in the US after the Chicago Daily Socialist. The paper was the center of the Socialist Party and under the influence of Morris Hillquit, Charles Ervin, Julius Gerber, and William Butscher. The paper was opposed to World War One, and, unsurprising given the era’s fluidity, ambivalent on the Russian Revolution even after the expulsion of the SP’s Left Wing. The paper is an invaluable resource for information on the city’s workers movement and history and one of the most important papers in the history of US socialism. The paper ran from 1908 until 1923.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/the-new-york-call/1909/090720-newyorkcall-v02n172.pdf