Steel Strike of 1919

Name Date . PRIMARY SOURCE from Report on the Steel Strike of 1919 Section 1 A Commission of Inquiry appointed at the request of the lnterchurch World Movement of North America prepared a report on the steel strike of 1919. The report included affidavits from more than 500 striking and nonstriking steel workers. As you read this portion of the report, consider why investigators recommended that the 12-hour day and 7-day week be eliminated. t is an epigram of the industry that “steel is a “4 i.—Wake up. put on dirty clothes, go to J man killer.” Steel workers are chiefly attendants boarding house, eat supper, get pack of lunch. of gigantic machines. The steel business tends to “5:30 P.M.—Report for work.” become, in the owners’ eyes, mainly the machines. This is the record of the night shift; a record of Steel jobs are not easily characterized by chilly sci inevitable waste, inefficiency and protest against entific terms. Blast furnaces over a hundred feet “arbitrary” hours. Next week this laborer will work high, blast “stoves” a hundred feet high, coke ovens the day shift. What is his schedule per week? miles long, volcanic bessemer converters, furnaces Quoting again from the diary: with hundreds of tons of molten steel in their bel “Flours on night shift begin at 5:30; work for lies, trains of hot blooms, miles of rolls end to end twelve hours through the night except Saturday, hurtling white hot rails along,—these masters are when it is seventeen hours, until 12 Sunday noon, attended by sweating servants whose job is to get with one hour out for breakfast; the following close enough to work hut to keep clear enough to Monday ten hours; total from 5:30 Monday to 5:30 save limb and life. It is concededly not an ideal Monday 87 hours, the normal week. , industry for men fatigued by long hours. “The Carnegie Steel worker works 87 hours out First, what exactly is the schedule of the twelve- of the 168 hours in the week, Of the remaining 81 hour worker? Here is the transcript of the diary of he sleeps seven hours per day; total of 49 hours. He >a) an American worker, the ol)servations of a keen eats in another fourteen; walks or travels in the a) man on (1) how his fellows regard the job, the exact street car four hours; dresses, shaves, tends fur a) (I) record of his own job and hours made in the spring nace, undresses, etc., seven hours. His one reaction -c 0) of 1919, before the strike or this Inquiry, and is ‘What the Flell!’—the universal text accompany selected here because no charge of exaggeration ing the twelve-hour day.” d could be made concerning it. It begins: from The Commission of Inquiry, The Interchurch World “Calendar of one a) (lay from the life of a Movement, Report on the Steel Strike of 1919 (New York: -J Carnegie steel workman at Homestead on the open Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920), 58—60. 0) hearth, common labor: 0 “5:3() to 12 (midnight)—Six and one-half hours 0 Activity of shoveling, throwing arid carrying bricks and cm Options 0) (icr out of bottom of’ old furnace. \7er 1. Imagine that you are either a steel worker or a hot. 0) “12:30—Back to the shovel and cinder, within steel mill of’ficial. Write a letter to the editor of a 0 few feet of pneumatic shovel drilling slag, for three newspaper stating your opinion on the 12-hour anti one—half hours. day. Share your letter with the class. 2. Interview someone a) “4 o’clock—Sleeping is pretty general, including you know who works full E boss. time—a family member, a neighbor, a teacher— a) “5 o’clock—Everybody quits, sleeps, sings, about his or her typical work day. Then compare swears, sighs for 6 o’clock. this person’s schedule with that of the steel “6 o’clock—Start home. worker in this excerpt. “6:45 o’clock— Bathed, breakfast. “7:45 oclock—Asleep. Politics of the Roaring Twenties 9 DATE NAME CLASS Growing Up Black C that H As a child, Daisy Bates was told by her stepfather to “hate discrimination ‘ eats away at the soul of every black man and woman. Hate the insults and then hate won’t spell a thing.” As an adult, T try to to do something about it or your E Mrs. Bates followed her stepfather’s advice. She became president of the R Arkansas National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and 21 fought successfully for school integration. In the reading below, Daisy Bates recalls her childhood in the 1 920s and her first encounter with racial discrimination. was born Daisy Lee Gatson in the little as possible from the inevitable insult and humilia I sawmill town of Huttig, in southern Arkansas, tion that is, in the South, a part of being “colored.” The owners of the mill ruled the town. Huttig I was a proud and happy child—all hair and might have been called a sawmill plantation for legs, my cousin Early B. used to say—and an only everyone worked for the mill, lived in houses child, although not blessed with the privilege of owned by the mill, and traded at the general store having my own way. One afternoon, shortly after run by the mill. my seventh birthday, my mother called me in The hard, red clay streets of the town were from play. mostly unnamed. Main Street, the widest and longest street in town, and the muddiest after a “As I grew up in this town, I knew rain, was the site of our business square. It con sisted of four one-story buildings which housed a I was a Negro, but I did not really commissary and meat market, a post office, an ice understand what that meant until cream parlor, and a movie house. Main Street also divided “White Town” from “Negra Town.” How I was seven years old.” ever, the physical appearance of the two areas provided a more definite means of distinction. “I’m not feeling well,” she said: “You’ll have The Negro citizens of Huttig were housed in to go to the market and get the meat for dinner.” painted, drab red “shotgun” houses, so I was thrilled with such an important errand. rarely moth named because one could stand in the front yard I put on one of my prettiest dresses and my and look straight through the front and back er brushed my hair. She gave me a dollar and doors into the back yard. The Negro community instructions to get a pound of center-cut pork was also provided with two church buildings of chops. I skipped happily all the way to the market. the same drab red exterior, although kept spotless When I entered the market, there were several inside by the Sisters of the church, and a two-room white adults waiting to be served. When the schoolhouse equipped with a potbellied stove butcher had finished with them, I gave him my that never quite succeeded in keeping it warm. order. More white adults entered. The butcher On the other side of Main Street were white turned from me and took their orders. I was a lit- bungalows, white steepled churches and a white tie annoyed but felt since they were grownups it adults, spacious school with a big lawn. Although the was all right. While he was waiting on the relations between Negro and white were cordial, a little white girl came in and we talked while we the tone of the community, as indicated by outward waited. appearances, was of the “Old South” tradition. The butcher finished with the adults, looked do you want, little As I grew up in this town, I knew I was a down at us and asked, “What “I told you before, a Negro, but I did not really understand what that girl?” I smiled and said, chops.” He snarled, meant until I was seven years old. My parents, pound of center-cut pork asked the as do most Negro parents, protected me as long “I’m not talking to you,” and again © Prentice-Hall, Inc. 26 • Chapter 21 Primary Source Activity NAME CLASS DATE (continued) PRIMARY SOURcEACTIVITYj white girl what she wanted, She also wanted a My mother came out and told me my father want pound of center-cut pork chops. ed to see me. I ran into the bedroom. Daddy sat “Please may I have my meat?” I said, as the there, looking at me for a long time. Several times little girl left. The butcher took my dollar from the he tried to speak, but the words just wouldn’t C counter, reached into the showcase, got a handful come. I stood there, looking at him and wonder H A of fat chops and wrapped them up. Thrusting the ing why he was acting so strangely. Finally he p package at me, he said, “Niggers have to wait ‘til stood up and the words began tumbling from T I wait on the white people. Now take your meat him. Much of what he said I did not understand. E and get out of here!” I ran all the way home crying. To my seven-year-old mind he explained as best R When I reached the house, my mother asked he could that a Negro had no rights that a white 21 what had happened.

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