The capitalists’ imported a labor commodity, derisively called ‘hunkies’ (later morphing into the epithet ‘honky’), Eastern European workers, for the steel mills of western Pennsylvania whose lives were non-nonchalantly dismissed by both bosses and labor ‘leaders.’ And still, when they stirred the world stopped.

‘Bethlehem’ from Solidarity. Vol. 1 No. 28. June 25, 1910.

Bethlehem! That magic name, for nearly two thousand years famous in the Christian world as the place where mythical history tells us the shepherds followed the star to the birthplace of Jesus; the objective point of many a pious pilgrimage to the Holy Land!

Contrast that old-time picture with this modern Bethlehem, situated in Pennsylvania, with smoke pouring from huge stacks and a hum of machinery that may be heard for miles. Quite a different scene from what the shepherds gazed upon in Palestine.

Take a walk along the streets of South Bethlehem and see the mass of men and women, a motley crowd speaking half a dozen languages, the sidewalks crowded with them jostling each other as they pick their way among the throng, here and there some University student making his way rapidly, escorting a well-dressed girl, keeping themselves, aloof as it afraid of contamination by contact with these foreigners, the many stores with brilliant lights exposing their wares to the public. The stores are not so crowded for a Saturday night, yet their owners are rubbing their hands with glee over the fact that the steel works are going at full blast again, with glee that the good times when they may help skin the worker of the little he makes are back again.

Talking with a resident, an eye witness of the memorable morning when the general strike was declared, he pointed to the crowd passing, this motley crowd, and said: “Ah! You mean the Hunkies?” They were the boys that morning.” And strange to say a majority of them returned to work. The first bunch that reported back were the English speaking machinists, a couple hundred that did not stay out more than eight days, and the rest; all Hungarians, Poles and Bohemiads, followed in the scramble to get the harness on them. I tried to find the reason for their returning to work. Were they satisfied with the conditions prevailing before the strike? Or after the first lesson in the skirmish against the corporation? I want to find out if they had any resentment against the company. Yes, they are bitter, very bitter toward the company and the industrial pirates at the head of it.

Here is the main cause that broke the strike: The unbelievable blunder of the American Federation of Labor leaders using Eighteenth century methods under Twentieth century conditions.

In this shop there are properly speaking no skilled mechanics; all of them are mere machine attendants. As long as the workers were all out together doing picket duty, all was well and good; the solidarity of the working class was shown at its full value. But as soon as the A.F. of L. began organizing crafts the backbone of the strike was broken. It created the same old aristocracy of labor. The I.W.W. came into the field too late to undo this work and to reap the full value of its efforts.

Then there was another cause that brought failure to the strike–secondary, it is true, but it had a great deal to do with the men returning to work. Asking a poor laborer why he did not stay out longer, he answered: “Me go back to the old country.” So many of them have returned to work to make some money so they can leave this land of the tree and brave. In deed, very brave, judging by the attitude. of the coal and iron police and the contemptible tools called the Constabulary, who, in enforcing “law and order,” were not particular on whose heads their clubs descended. Even small children are now made quiet by their mothers simply telling them: The bad man on the horse will get you if you don’t keep still.”

Over 3,000 men have been shipped out of town to different points by the A.F. of L., and quite a few that belonged to the Industrial Workers are still on picket duty. About 500 altogether are left in the town, of which 500 belong to different crafts affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.

The Schwab plant is running as usual. with its full quota of men. The workers are more driven, and exploited. All of them are sickly looking-human wrecks. In shop No. 2, called the D.M., the men are dissatisfied. With few exceptions all of them are grumbling. I spoke to over 60 of them, who told me another strike is imminent. It is too much. The big machines are manned by apprentice boys. The rest of the work is done by so-called mechanics, who get all the way from 14 cents up. If a mechanic can’t speak English he usually gets the 14 cents. All of them, including the apprentice boys, are more or less illiterate, and worst of all they don’t understand that there are other places in the United States besides Bethlehem, Allentown and Easton.

But the strike, an industrial battle, was an elementary class study that will help prepare them for the final clash. Men who were never on strike before found themselves surrounded at the gate by hundreds of their fellow-workers and told that a general strike had been called, told in six different languages. Dazed by all this they hesitated. Then their lunch baskets were torn from their hands and thrown up in the air. It is a pity some “full dinner pail” orators were not present to see the contents of those full pails coming down. In a few cases there were as many as two sandwiches with real meat in them. Others, in the majority, had only a piece of bread and a “full” onion.

It is safe to say that 75 per cent of the men did not know of the strike till they arrived at the gate, yet they all responded, having grievances against the company. They were determined, all of them, and surely would have won if they had had industrial education.

Another point is that the men have felt for the first time the hoof and club of the American Cossacks in this their first skirmish against capital. Hundreds of men intend leaving town. I am speaking of those working in the shop at present. Still, many new slaves are coming daily to hire out, but they do not stay longer than one or two weeks. And the [missing word] war dance for the Steel Trust has started. It is a bad sign for the Trust when loyal “home guards” have discovered that there are other masters to whom they can sell their labor power.

But here is the great mistake made by organized and unorganized labor: They are ignorant of the fact that really the work done by them with few exceptions does not require all around or skilled mechanics. The introduction of machinery has specialized the work. What the boss wants is a specialized worker–a man to do a certain thing; and you can take a man or boy who has never seen a machine before and it is safe to say that inside of three weeks you can make out of him a lathe, a milling machine, or a planer hand, and the only thing he has to do is to pull the levers and watch for the sizes. So the Bethlehem worker is merely a laborer, or rather a machine attendant, and he realizes this now. But the outside craft union leaders do not.

In plants like that of the Bethlehem Steel Company craft unions have no place. The sooner the workers understand that the better. What they need is not 75 separate unions, but one—a big union with one set of committees and officials. This fact is being driven into their heads here every day. They are waiting for another chance. These despised foreigners are waiting for the spark to ignite their rebel spirit again. With better experience of past defeats they will make McKees Rocks fade into insignificance,

“Ah! You mean the Hunkies? They are the boys.”

AMERICAN WORKER.

Bethlehem, Pa.

The most widely read of I.W.W. newspapers, Solidarity was published by the Industrial Workers of the World from 1909 until 1917. First produced in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and born during the McKees Rocks strike, Solidarity later moved to Cleveland, Ohio until 1917 then spent its last months in Chicago. With a circulation of around 12,000 and a readership many times that, Solidarity was instrumental in defining the Wobbly world-view at the height of their influence in the working class. It was edited over its life by A.M. Stirton, H.A. Goff, Ben H. Williams, Ralph Chaplin who also provided much of the paper’s color, and others. Like nearly all the left press it fell victim to federal repression in 1917.

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