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RUSSELL    SAGE 
FOUNDATION 


WAGE-EARNING 
PITTSBURGH 


THE  PITTSBURGH  SURVEY 

FINDINGS  IN  SIX  VOLUMES 

Editep  ev 
PAUL  UNDERWOOD  KELLOGG 


NEW    YORK 
SURVEY    ASSOCIATES, 
MCMX  IV 


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Copyright,  1914,  by 
The  RussEit  Sage  Foundation 


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INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

THE  Pittsburgh  District — companion  volume  to  Wage-earn- 
ing Pittsburgh — opens  with  an  interpretation  of  the  genesis 
of  the  community  by  a  native  Pittsburgher,  who  has  become 
one  of  the  civic  leaders  of  New  England.  Contributions  by 
other  writers  bring  out  the  slow  yielding  of  old  institutions  con- 
ceived in  the  day  of  small  towns,  and  devised  before  the  epoch  of 
applied  science,  to  the  demands  of  congregate  growth ; — the  bitter 
human  waste  and  rankling  injustices  of  the  period  of  transition; 
the  slow  unlimbering  of  the  powers  of  democracy  to  put  progress 
at  the  service  of  the  whole  people  as  well  as  of  the  few. 

Here  the  emphasis  is  transferred  from  civic  to  industrial 
forces,  and  we  trace  the  reaction  of  these  forces  upon  incoming 
peoples.  We  have  estimates  of  the  new  immigration  by  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  old — a  Welshman  from  the  anthracite  region,  and 
by  a  representative  of  the  new — a  Bohemian  who  has  helped  Slavs 
in  their  settlement  from  New  York  to  Texas  and  the  Northwest. 
We  have  the  impressions  made  upon  a  Russian  engineer  by  one 
<^  the  oldest  Christian  sects  of  East  Europe  set  down  in  the 
bituminous  field  of  Western  Pennsylvania.  And  we  have  a  com- 
mentary on  the  influx  of  Negroes — north  bound  from  plantation 
to  industry  along  the  route  of  the  "underground  railway"  of 
sixty  years  ago, — written  by  a  son  of  that  post-bellum  Negro 
leader  whose  faith  in  the  freed  slaves  won  for  him  the  nickname 
"We'se  a  Risin'." 

In  stark  contrast  to  this  flooding  of  the  steel  district  by  fresh 
immigration,  we  see  its  human  seepage  to  the  underworld,  see  it 
through  the  eyes  of  an  explorer  of  those  reverse  currents  which  set 
toward  degeneration  and  wrong-doing  in  congested  Manhattan. 
Finally,  we  have  the  entrance  of  further  recruits  to  industry  in  the 
growing  generation  of  a  glass  town, — a  faithful  picture  of  the 


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INTRODUCTORY  NOTE 

chalice  which  sheerly  materialistic  forces  substitute  for  the  brim- 
ming cup  of  childhood,  as  that  has  been  painted  by  artist  and 
poet  since  the  world  began. 

The  beginnings  of  social  control  over  economic  forces  beyond 
the  grasp  of  individual  men  and  women,  are  brought  out  in  three 
inductive  studies  of  organization  by  the  workers,  labor  administra- 
tion by  the  managers,  and  factory  inspection  by  the  public.  Con- 
ditions in  the  city  trades,  in  the  machine  shops  and  transportation 
— contrasting  with  or  influenced  by  the  anti-union  regime  in  the 
steel  industry— are  analyzed  by  an  economist  identified  with  two 
country-wide  labor  investigations — the  Federal  Industrial  Com- 
mission of  1900  and  the  Industrial  Relations  Commission  of  1913- 
i;.  The  human  side  of  works  management  is  shown  in  cross- 
section  for  38  plants,  by  an  industrial  engineer,  formerly  a  manager 
in  the  Pittsburgh  District.  A  full  decade  of  maladministration 
in  the  labor  department  of  Pennsylvania  (1903-12)  is  epitomized 
by  a  former  factory  inspector  of  Illinois,  who  was  the  pioneer 
in  setting  modem  standards  of  public  enforcement. 

These  movements  for  social  control  have  if  anything  been 
slower  of  evolution  in  the  commonalty  of  livelihood  than  in  that  of 
citizenship.  They  have  been  fragmentary,  inconclusive,  often  in 
conflict.  They  have  been  quicker  to  break  down  the  sanctions 
and  habits  of  the  early  days  when  those  have  stood  in  their  way, 
but  they  themselves  have  been  prone  to  revert  to  precursive  forms 
of  despotism.  They  not  only  have  had  to  adjust  themselves  to 
stupendous  changes  in  the  world's  way  of  making  things,  but  they 
must  compass  forces  at  once  more  desperate  and  more  promising 
than  any  in  the  civic  life  or  in  mechanics — forces  ingrained  in  a 
wage-earning  people,  resident  or  itinerant,  possessed  of  the  Ameri- 
can spirit  of  "getting  on," 

In  these  last  volumes  to  go  to  press,  the  effort  has  been  to 
preserve  the  validity  of  the  reports  as  a  transcript  of  conditions  at 
the  time  of  investigation;  but  to  bring  out  in  text,  footnote,  and 
appendix,  noteworthy  changes  for  good,  or  the  persistence  of  note- 
worthy evils. 

Paul  U.  Kellogg 

Director  Pittsburgh  Survey 


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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

[The  Eipbiutary  iiuBcnplu.  aftci  euh  aKtloa  □[  tbe  coatenti.  over  In  turn  tlw 
Kandins  und  cqwiunfot  of  Che  contiibuton  to  tliil  volume  «  the  time  of  the  Plctibur(h  Sor- 
ver;  their  praent  icaniiuis,  and  analogoua  work  ilnee;  their  writlnxs;  uid  tbc  data  and 
chumeli  tbrouih  which  cbcK  contributiong,  if  prcTioual)'  pubUthed.  were  bcoiwht  out.  The 
tetm  "macBxioe  publication"  tefers  to  theoiiKina]  publication  of  the  finding!  in  Ckaritit$  and 
Tki  Cowwrnj,  then  publiihed  under  Chaiitlei  Ihiblication  Committee.  *  nalioiul  committee 
of  the  Charily  Orianiialion  Society  ol  the  City  of  New  Vork;  ilnce  become  Tkt  Surrty.  pub- 
bahed  by  Survey  Ajoociatea.  a  membenhipcorpoiation.! 

1.    COMMUNITY  AND  WORKSHOP 

COMMUNrTY  AND  WORKSHOP 3 

By  Paul  U.  Kellogg 

Managing  editor  Cbariliis  and  Tbi  Commoni;  secretary  Charities  Publica- 
tion Committee. 

Editor  The  Suntj;  member  board  of  directors  American  Associa- 
tion for  Labor  Legislation,  New  York  Committee  on  Congestion  of  Population; 
chairman  Commillec  Occupational  Standards,  National  Conference  Charities  and 
Corrections,  St.  Louis,  191 1 ;  secretary  Committee  to  Secure  Federal  Commission 
on  industrial  Relations,  191 1-13;  assistant  director  Committee  on  Social  and  In- 
duitrial  Justice,  Progressive  Service,  1913. 

Magazine  Publication.  CkU  Risfonstbilitiis  0/  Dtmocracy  in  an  InduS' 
tri^Dittnct,  Jantiary,  igog;  biing  in  lubslanei  tbi  first  ilattnunlof  tbi  imeral  find- 
infi  0}  tbe  Pittiburfi  Survey,  as  set  /orib  before  the  joint  cotaeniion  of  toe  American 
Cteic  Association,  and  National  Municipal  League,  Pittsburgh,  Nocembtr  16,  igoS. 
Dittribuled  as  a  ptmpblrt.  Pittsburgb  Otic  Exbibil,  igo8. 

II.     RACE  STUDIES 

IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 35 

Bv  Peter  Roberts 

Secretary  for  Immigration  of  the  Industrial  Department  of  the  International 
Committee  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  1907-;  theretofore  pastor 
and  investigator  of  industrial  conditions  in  the  anthracite  coal  fields  of  Pennsylvania. 
Special  agent  of  committee  of  Pennsylvania  state  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion, reporting  on  needs  of  immigranti.  Dr.  Roberts'  Pittsburg  inquiry  was  the 
first  field  work  carried  out  by  the  international  committee  in  its  aid  to  Immlgnints 
which  DOW  extends  from  the  point  of  embarkation  to  each  of  the  industrial  districts 
in  this  countiy  where  they  are  employed.  His  Method  for  Teaching  Foreignen 
English,  which  has  been  adapted  to  all  races  and  many  occupations,  is  employed 
in  safety  campaigns,  citizenship  classes,  and  so  forth. 

Author:  AnthraciteCoal  Industry;  AnthraciteCoal Communities;  Immigrant 
Races  in  North  America:  The  New  Immigration;  English  for  Coming  Americans. 

Magazine  Publicatiom.     Tbe  New  Pittiburfbers,  January  a,  1909. 

A  SLAVS  A  MAN  FOR  A'  THAT 61 

Bv  Aix)is  B.  KouKOL 
Secretary  Savonic  Immigrant  Society,  1907-:  investigator  industrial  acci- 
dents, Pittsburgh  Survey.    Pastor  First  Slavonic  Presbyterian  Church.  Peckville, 


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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


pastor.  New  York  Ciiy,  1904-1907. 
Magminb  Publication.     A  Slm'i  a  Man  for  a'  Thai,  Jantutry  »,  igog. 

MEDIEVAL  RUSSIA  IN  THE  PITTSBURGH  DISTRICT  .  78 
Bv  Alexis  Sokoloff 

Engineer:  graduate  University  of  Moscow;  Academy  of  Mines,  Vienna. 
Investigator  (industrial  accidents)  and  draughtsman,  Pittsburgh  Survey,  1907-08. 

Engineer,  Tangier,  Morocco. 

Magazine  Publication.    This  article  bitherlo  unpublisbtd. 

ONE  HUNDRED  NEGRO  STEEL  WORKERS     ....    97 
Br  R.  R.  Wright,  Jh. 
Research  fellow  sociology,  University  of  Pennsylvania,  190^-07;  former 

_(  T,,-_;...  u;..: —    i-u ;_. — •'■atat  of  the  NegToes  in  business  in 

Washington,  1907-08;  field  secretary 


vestigator  of  the  Negroes  in  business  ir 
n  of  Washington,  1907-08;  field  secretary 
Armstrong  Association  of  Philadelphia,  [908-09;  director  of  Men's  Work,  Eighth 
Ward  Social  Selllemenl,  Philadelphia,  igo^-oS. 

Editor  Cbriitian  Recorder,  official  organ  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  1909-.  Dr.  Wright  is  connected  as  a  member  of  the  board  of  mana^rs 
or  practical  worker  with  numerous  organizations  for  the  benefit  of  Negroes. 

Author:  The  Negro  in  Pennsylvania;  also  the  pamphlet.  The  Negro  Prob- 
lem, a  Sociological  Treatment.  Also  government  and  slate  reports  mcluding 
The  Negroes  of  Xenia,  Ohio — a  social  study,  far  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor;  Prop- 
erty Holding  Among  Negroes  of  Pennsylvania,  for  the  Pennsylvania  Bureau  of 
Industrial  Statistics;  Industrial  Condition  of  Negroes  in  Pennsylvania,  for  same. 

Magaiine   Publication.     Tbii  article  bilberfo  unpubliibed. 


WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 113 

By  John  R.  Commons 

Professor  political  economy,  University  of  Wisconsin,  1004-:  secretary 
of  the  American  Association  for  Labor  Legislation,  1907-08;  member  Commission 
on  Public  Utilities,  National  Civic  Federation,  1903;  expert  agent  United  Stales 
Industrial  Commission,  1901;  director  American  Bureau  of  Industrial  Research, 
1904;  investigator  labor  conditions  in  stock  yards,  bituminous  mines  in  Middle 
west,  building  trades,  and  so  forth.  In  addition  to  his  own  field  work.  Professor 
Commons  bore  a  general  supervisory  relation  to  the  industrial  inquiries  of  the 
Pittsburgh  Survey,  Director  of  Milwaukee  Bureau  of  Economy  and  Eflkieocy, 
1910-11;   member  Industrial  Commission  of  Wisconsin,  igii-ij. 

Member  United  Stales  Industrial  Relations  Commission.  1913-. 

Author:  Races  and  Immigrants  in  America;  Trade  Unionism  and  Labor 
Problems;   Labor  and  Administration,  and  so  forth. 

Editor,  with  Richard  T.  Ely,  Documentary  History  of  American  Industrial 


AND  BY  William  M.  Leis 
Assistant  DepI,  of  Political  Economy,  University  of  Wisconsin,  1908-09. 


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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

Deputy,  Industrial  Commission  of  Wisconsin,  tgii-;  investigator  New 
York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability,  1909-1 1 ;  secretary  American  Associa- 
tion of  Public  Employment  offkes,  191)-;  expert  on  unemployment,  United 
States  C(»nmisMon  on  Industrial  Relations,  191)-. 


Macaiinb  Publication  (in  brief)-     Watt-earturt  of  Pittsburgb,  March  6 
;  rtprii^ed  0%  a  cbapUr  in  Comrnoni'  Labor  and  i^dminiilralioti. 


FACTORY  INSPECTION  IN  PITTSBURGH         ....   189 

(With  special  reference  to  working  conditions  of  women  and  children) 

Bv  Florence  Kelley 

General  secretary  National  Consumeis'  League,  1899-;  chief  state  in- 
spector of  factories  and  worluhops  for  Illinois.  1893-^7;  resident  Hull  House, 
Chicaso,  1891-99;  Henry  Street  (nurses')  Settlement,  New  York,  1899-:  trustee 
New  York  State  Child  llabor  Committee  and  National  Child  Labor  Committee; 
in  addition  to  her  own  field  work,  Mrs.  Kelley  bore  an  advisory  relationship  to  the 
indtistrial  inquiries  of  the  Pittsburgh  Survey,  especially  women's  labor. 

Author;  Some  Ethical  Gains  through  Legislation;  Modem  Industry  in 
Relation  to  the  Family,  Health,  Education,  Morality  (1914). 

Macuine  Publication.    Factory  ImpecUon  in  PiUiburgb,  March  6,  igog. 


INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  PITTSBURGH  DISTRICT  217 
By  H.  F.'J.  Porter 

Consulting  industrial  engineer.  Mr.  Porter's  practical  experience  in- 
cluded four  ^ean  in  the  shops  of  the  Delamater  Iron  Works,  New  York  City; 
assistant  engineer  in  the  rolling  mills  of  the  New  Jersey  Steel  and  Iron  Company, 
Trenton;  assistant  mechanical  engineer  Worid's  Columbian  Exposition  during 
the  construction  period;  assistant  chief  machinery  department,  in  charoe  of  machin- 
ery hall  at  the  Exposition:  Belhlehem  Steel  Company,  western  sales  manager, 
Chicago,  eastern  sales  manager.  New  York  City.  1894-1903;  vice-president  and 
_  manager  of  the  Westin^iouse-Nemst  Lamp  Company,  Pittsburgh,  1901-06. 

Expert  on  fire  prevention.  New  York  State  Factory  Investigating  Com- 
mission, igii-i3;  founder  and  first  secretary  Efficiency  Society,  Inc.,  I9II-I3; 
member  Committee  on  Fire  Prevention  and  Building  Code,  and  Welfare  Com- 
mittee, Citizens'  Union,  191 1-,  Committee  on  Factory  Laws  and  Regulations, 
Merchants'  Association,  191 1-,  Committee  on  Private  Departments  and  Exit 
Drills,  National  Fire  Protection  Association,  191 1-,  Committee  on  Fire  Prevention, 
American  Society  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  191 1;  lecturer  on  shop  organization 
and  management,  New  York  University  School  of  Commerce,  Accounts,  and 
Finance,  and  School  of  Business  Administration  of  Harvard  University.  During 
his  eight  yean'  work  as  consulting  industrial  engineer,  Mr.  Porter  has  introduced 
efRciency  methods  including  cost  systems  of  organization  and  management,  com- 
mittee and  suggestion  systems,  lunch  rooms,  libraries,  lecture  rooms,  schools,  and 
so  forth,  and  safety  features,  especially  in  the  direction  of  fire  prevention,  in 
industrial  plants  in  various  parts  of  the  country. 

Magazine  Publication.     This  article  hilbirto  unPtiUifhcd. 


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Br  Jkhes  Fo«»es 

SecRiiiy  McftdKUKT  Conr-iEHc.  CMrirr  0|3P.iiatioa  Socictv.  dly  of 
N«v  ^'orfc.  i9oo-a«.  >k  ilk  a  tqtud  of  (viicc  ci6t.-cn  ua^aol  to  him.  Mr.  FoAes 
ptacikilly  fncd  New  Yorii  of  |iiiJm»iiiil  bcagjin  J^nag  ibc  Low administntion. 
In  ri^onNnly  repnssiDf  ctuhubie  nposnnv  ud  11  iIk  sibc  tine  n<ubiliuling 
iadividiul  livo,  be  nude  pncikal  dcoMostratioo  of  ha  xleat  u  10  tociil  police. 

Secreliry  and  director  Niiioful  AssKUtio*  for  Prtvtnnon  of  Mendi- 
cancy, igo^. 

AalhOT  of  variout  writings  oa  city  and  ilincrant  meodicants  and  the  social 
atpccii  of  police  administration. 

Tbit  article  bilbtrio  mmpmUisM. 


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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


APPEND]  CES 


I.  Report  on  Labor    Conditions,  Stockholders'    Committee 

United  States  Steel  Corporation J9$ 

II.  Community  Contrasts  of  1914  in  Housing  of  Mill  Workers: 

1.  A  Soho  Hillside.    The  Persistence  of  Sanitary  Neg- 
lect in  Central  Pittsburgh.     By  Abraham  Oseroff  406 

2.  Midland.    A  Forerunner  of  Modem  Housing  De- 
velopment for  Industrial  Sections.     By  W.  C.  Rice    .     410 

HI.  y.  M.  C  A.  Work  for  Immigrants  in  the  Pittsburgh  Dis- 
trict.    By  H.  A.  McConnaughey 414 

IV.  The  Jewish  Immigrants  of  Two  Pittsburgh  Blocks.     By 

Anna  Reed 419 

V.  The  Negroes  of  Pittsburgh.     By  Helen  A.  Tucker.  .     424 

VI.  The  Cost  of  Living  in  Pittsburgh  and  in  Other  American 

Cities  Compared,  1909 437 

VII.  Advance  in  the  Cost  of  Living  in  Workingmen's  Families    440 
— VIII.  Statistics  from  Industrial  Development  Commission  442 

IX.  Industrial  Accidents  in  Pennsylvania 443 

X.  Public ReplyfromtheStateFactory Inspector  .  444 
XI.  An  ActCreatinga  DepartmentofLaborandlndustry,  191)  446 
Xtl.  Occupational  Diseases  Act 4$i 

XIII.  Women  Workers  and  Social  Agencies 4$3 

XIV.  Labor  Union  Hygiene  for  Brewery  Workers  .  454 
XV.  Surgical  Organization  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company.    By 

Wm.  O'Neill  Sherman,  M.D 455 

XVI.  Application  Blanks  and  Forms,  Westinghouse  Electric  and 

Manufacturing  Company 461 

XVII.  Relief  Department.  Westinghouse  Airbrake  Company  .       .     468 
XVIII.   PensionSystem.WestinghouseAirbrakeCompany  .     48$ 

XIX.  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-five  Working  Oiris.     ByCharles 

C.  Cooper 492 

XX.  Bureau  of  Safety.  Sanitation,  and  Welfare,  U,  S.  Steel  Cor- 
poration.   Statements  by  C.  L.  Qose 494 

XXI.  The    Pittsburgh    Morals    Efliciencv    Commission.     By 

Rudolph  I.  Coffee SOI 

XXII.  Statistical  Excerpts  from  Report  of  the  Pittsburgh  Morals 

Efficiency  Commission,  191) $07 

XXIII.  Records  of  Repeaters 510 

XXIV.  Excerpts  from  Report  on  Bureau  of  Police.     Prepared  by 

New  York  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research,  191)  Ji6 


Index 


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LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

River  at  night Fronlispiece 

More  than  a  worker  (In  color).    Drawn  by  Joseph  Stella.       .       .        i 

Congestion.    Map lo 

Growth.    Map lO 

Pittsburgh's  hospitals.    Map 1 1 

Health  maps 13-14 

Views  of  Vandergrift 15 

Jefferson  Avenue 

Adams  Avenue 
Pittsburgh  Tools.    I.  For  pig  iron.    II.  For  home  life  .        16-17 

Blast  furnace 

Equipment  for  home  life 
Housing:  a  district  problem 30-21 

Willow  Alley,  Braddock 

Jerusalem  Court  or  Bowery,  McKeesport 

Jerusalem  Court  from  Strawberry  Alley 

Wash  day  in  an  inner  court,  Braddock 

Miller  Street,  Duquesne 

The  rudiments  of  a  home 

Offspring  of  the  old-time  wells 

Rear  alley,  Duquesne 

Hazel  Alley,  McKeesport 

Residence  street,  Pitcaim 

A  street  in  Woodlawn 

Switchman's  shanty 38 

Young  steel  worker 39 

A5menseeAmerica(Incolor).    Drawn  by  Joseph  Stella    ...      31 

Slovak 36 

Lithuanian 37 

Italian 40 

Croatian 41 

New  Pittsburghers  and  old 44 

Basin  Alley 4$ 

Four  beds  in  a  room;  two  in  a  bed 48 

Night  scene  in  a  Slavic  lodging  house 48 

Slavic  lodging  house  on  South  Side 49 

Young  Russian .       .       ;3 


Digitized  .yCOOgle 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

Daughters  of  the  new  immigration $3 

Servian  mother  and  child ;4 

Lithuanian  women-folk $; 

Greek  Orthodox  priest  from  Croatia 56 

Slavic  churches 57 

An  old  Slav  (In  color).     Drawn  by  Joseph  Stella       ....  61 

Young  Russian  (In  color).     Drawn  by  Joseph  Stella         ...  68 

Slav  in  bread  line  of  1908  (In  color).    Drawn  by  Joseph  Stella  76 

Russian  miners 84 

Women  and  children 8$ 

The  younger  generation — and  the  old 92 

A  priest  of  the  Dissenters:  of  peasant  origin 93 

Russian  progressive  labor  circle 96 

Negro  steel  workers 97 

At  the  base  of  a  blast  furnace  (In  color).     Drawn  by  Joseph  Stella.  1 1 1 

Land  way  and  water  way 114 

One  hundred  years  of  river  traffic 11; 

A  floating  coal  vein 11; 

Coke  ovens  in  Connellsville  region 1 16 

Coke  workers 1 16 

The  West inghouse  properties 117 

Prince  or  Pauper 1 18-1 19 

Skyline  on  the  commercial  center 

Bread  line  at  Woods  Run,  April,  1908 

Engineer  and  fireman 138 

A  Pittsburgh  train  man 139 

Grinding  castings  on  an  emery  wheel 140 

Filling  molds 141 

Underground  machine  men 173 

Mine  workers  of  the  Pittsburgh  District 173 

Joseph  H.  Holmes 176 

Tliree  first-aid  men,  Federal  Bureau  of  Mines 176 

After  a  mine  disaster 177 

Underground  fighters 177 

Steel  worker.    Homestead  plate  mill t8o 

Two  types.    Photos  by  Hine 181 

A  glass-house  boy 188 

Boy  holding  molds  for  blower  in  a  South  Side  glass-house   ...  189 

The  "white"  blacksmith  shop 324 

Engineering  for  light  and  air 33; 

Cooling  hot  work 336 


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LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Cooling  drinking  water  for  an  entire  plant 227 

Fountain  in  machine  shop 237 

Girls'  dining  room 328 

Features  of  the  Heinz  factories 339 

Recreation  room  for  employes 

Sewing  class  for  employes 

Roof  garden  and  greenhouse 

Stools  are  poor  seats ajo 

Chairs  with  backs  are  better 331 

Washing  up  in  the  mill 333 

Inexpensive  type  of  sanitary  wash  bowl 333 

Swimming  pool  333 

Bath  house  and  plunge 336 

Locker  and  lunch  room 336 

Closet  in  Comfort  building  at  Lucy  Furnace 337 

Porcelain  urinal 337 

Conquering  dust.    View  in  carpenter  shop 348 

Exhaust  tubings  sucking  dust  from  a  circular  saw      ....     349 

The  outlet  where  the  sawdust  ts  bagged 349 

River  boat  for  Saturday  afternoon  outings 3^4 

Minstrel  show  given  by  employes  of  H.  J.  Heinz  Company  3$$ 

Auditorium  for  employes 2$; 

Welfare  building,  Westinghouse  Airbrake  Company  ....     356 

Gymnasium 357 

Ball  field,  Westinghouse  Electric  and  Manufacturing  Company  358 

College  room,  Westinghouse  Club 258 

Bridge  workers'  gardens 2;9 

Mining  towns  of  Pittsburgh-Buffalo  Company    ....     260-261 

Johnetta 

Marianna 

Panoramic  views  of  Annabelle 

Miner's  dwelling 

School  at  Marianna 
Woodlawn 264-365 

Double  houses 

Houses  from  $i,7$o  to  )i4,$oo 

High  school 

Municipal  building 

Department  store 

Meat  and  fish  market 
Pensioners:  American  Steel  and  Wire  Company 266 


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LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

Stock-holding  employes,  United  States  Steel  Corporation  .              .  367 

Housekeeping  center 27a 

Visiting  nurses'  headquarters 37 j 

Cooking  class 

Sewing  class 

Reading  and  instruction  room 

Sleeping  room 

H.  J.  Heini 276 

Arthur  A.  Hammerschlag 276 

Charles  L,  Taylor 277 

W.  B.  Dickson 277 

Map  of  Sharpsburg 278 

"The  great  black  mill  dominates  eye  and  ear" 279 

Back  to  back  houses 383 

The  way  to  work sSj 

Holding  molds 396 

Boys  in  a  Sharpsburg  glass-house 297 

Living  conditions,  Sharpsburg 302 

A  glass-house  boy's  home 303 

Relative  values 303 

As  the  mill  sees  the  town 303 

"  Making  a  pitch  " 336 

"Throwing  his  hat" 336 

Two  types  of  blind  mendicants 337 

A  Second  Avenue  lodging  house  and  mission 344 

Cheap  lodging  house,  interior 34; 

The  Bridge  of  Sighs 358 

APPENDIX 

Wing  of  the  largest  tenement  in  the  district 406 

General  view  of  the  Soho  Hill  District 407 

Clogged  drain  on  Maurice  Street 408 

Hydrant  adjacent  to  vault 408 

Rock  Street,    Showing  the  open  drain 408 

A  hillside  battery  of  disease 409 

Midland 410-413 

Town  plan 

Stucco  and  frame  buildings 

Low  cost  frame  houses 

Poured  concrete  houses 

Tenanted  by  owners 

Toy  I  and 


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LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Teaching  English  with  a  hatchet 414 

Boys  of  a  mill  section 414 

The  community  tent 41J 

Croatian  chorus  Javor 416 

Swedish  male  chorus 416 

Russian  singing  circle  of  Braddock 416 

At  the  old  city  hall 417 

Manufacturing  a  playground.    Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Wilmerding    .  .  418 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  community  work  at  Wilmerding 4  [9 

Emergency  hospital  equipment.    Carnegie  Steel  Company  .  4^6 

Emergency  hospital.    Clairton  works 

Office  and  store  room 

Redressing  room 

Operating  room 

Removing  a  foreign  body  from  the  eye.    Edgar  Thomson  works        .  457 

Automobile  ambulance.    Carnegie  Steel  Company      ....  457 

Hospital  ward.    Carnegie  Steel  Company 4S7 

First  aid  class.    Carnegie  Steel  Company 458 

Stretcher  drill 459 

Firat  aid  crew  letting  a  stretcher  down  from  a  crane  runway  in 
the  yards  of  a  steel  works 

First  aid  crew  applying  dressings  to  fractured  limb  before  carry- 
ing to  the  emergency  hospital 

Visiting  nurse.    Homestead 460 

West  Penn  gymnasium 460 

Oxygen  helmet 461 

Vanadium  steel  bone  plate  and  screws 461 


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LIST  OF  TABLES 

IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 
Roberti 

I.  Foreign  white  stock  of  Piitsburgh  in  1910,  by  moiherlongue    .       .       .      ja 
3.  Population  of  Austrian,  Hungarian,  Italian,  and  Russian  nativity,  Pitts- 
burgh, 1900  and  1910 3j 

3.  Amountsdepositedby  laSlavsina  Pittsburgh  bank.     1906-1907  54 

4.  Postal  savings  deposits  and  depositon  by  race  and  country  of  birth  of 

depositors,  Pittsburgh,  June  30,  1913 54 

ONE  HUNDRED  NEGRO  STEEL  WORKERS 

Wright 

I .  Ages  of  100  Ntgro  steel  workers 98 

3.  Years  of  employment  in  the  Clark  Mills  of  1 10  Negro  steel  workers  ein- 

ployed  March,  1907 ...       98 

k^.  Average  daily  earnings  of  100  Negro  steel  workers 103 

4.  Negro  population  of  Pittsburgh,  by  age  and  sex.     1910       ....     10} 

FACTORY  INSPECTION  IN  PITTSBURGH 
Kdley 
I.  Industrial  workers  in  Allegheny  County  in  1907  by  industry,  sex  and  age 
period.    Facsimile  report  by  Ekpartment  of  Factory  Inspection  of 

state  of  Pennsylvania 194 

3.  Children  at  work  in  Pennsylvania 196 

INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  PITTSBURGH  DISTRICT 

Porter 

I.  Benefils  and  pensions  paid  by  Carnegie  Relief  Fund.     1903-19:0  inclusive    36s 

SHARP5BURG:  A  TYPICAL  WASTE  OF  CHILDHOOD 
Butler 

t.  Ages  of  806  children  in  Sharpsburg  schools.     1908 386 

3.  Ages  of  41  Sharpsburg  children  under  fourteen  found  at  work  in  1908  388 

3.  Ages  at  time  of  beginning  work  of  j  77  Sharpsburg  children  under  seventeen 

found  at  work  in  1908 .188 

4.  Status  of  fathers  of  177  Sharpsburg  children  found  at  work  in  1908  .  389 

5.  Work  place  of  177  Sharpsburg  children  found  at  work  in  1908    .  .    390 

XV 


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PITTSBURGH 

COMMUNITY  AND  WORKSHOP 

Paul  U.  Kellogg 

IT  WAS  my  good  fortune,  the  summer  following  the  field  work 
of  the  Pittsburgh  Survey,  to  visit  Essen  and  the  other  in- 
dustrial towns  of  Rhenish-Westphalia. 
If  they  shattered  the  presumption  that  when  it  comes  to 
armor  plate,  I-beams,  tubes,  or  rails,  the  Pittsburgh  steel  plants 
beat  the  wortd,  I  was  not  conscious  of  the  fact.  But  a  week's  stay 
among  the  Krupp  colonies  at  Essen  brought  with  it  the  conviction 
that  we  in  America  have  much  to  do  before  we  match  the  Germans 
in  the  science  of  improved  community  conditions. 

Before  me,  in  terms  of  the  two  great  steel  centers,  lay  evi- 
dences (A  that  new  world-competition  which  has  crowded  ever 
thicker  upon  us  during  the  last  five  years.  For,  in  the  world's 
economy,  Essen  has  stood  for  guns  but  also  for  a  social  program ; 
•  its  forges  have  not  only  rung  with  the  "shining  armor"  of  mili- 
tarism but  they  have  been  lit  by  the  fires  of  an  unparalleled  internal 
policy  for  the  up-building  of  a  people.  With  Germany  thus  arm- 
ing with  chemist  tube  and  insurance  fund,  no  less  than  with  the 
weapons  of  the  Knipps;  with  China  in  the  throes  of  revolutions, 
economic  and  political,  which  may  send  the  East  after  centuries 
of  inaction  down  the  "rin^ng  grooves  of  change";  with  the  tn- 
surg«its  unsaddling  the  old  order  in  Mexico;  with  British  states- 
manship shaking  loose  from  tradition  and  enacting  new  social- 
economic  schemes  at  each  sitting  of  Parliament,  we  have  been  on 
the  threshold  of  a  contest  among  the  developing  nations  more 
significant  than  that  of  western  Europe  in  1914,  one  which  war 
will  not  settle,  nor  the  United  States  escape.  It  sets  the  test  of 
social  excellence — social  efficiency  is  too  hard  and  cramped  a  term 
— ot  whether  we  can  build  ourselves  up  as  a  great  body  of  Ameri- 
'  3 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

•/julns  who  in  trim  of  muscle  and  fresh  vigor  of  mind,  in  leisure, 
'*-  health,  and  stability,  in  creative  imagination  and  the  joy  of  the 
game,  can  match  the  labor  forces  of  the  other  great  producing 
nations  of  the  world, — match  them  not  in  any  narrow  sense,  such 
as  the  loading  of  ships  for  the  trebles,  or  the  piling  up  of  bank 
balances,  but  in  laying  hold  for  ourselves  of  those  things  which 
mean  the  fullness  of  living. 

For  it  is  a  competition  not  so  much  of  industrial  output  as  of 
social  capital.  By  dint  of  black  dirt,  split  fence  rails,  log  cabins, 
and  elbow  room,  the  American  pioneers  developed  a  valor  of  every- 
day life  and  citizenship  more  precious  than  would  have  been  crops 
surpassing  those  of  the  diked  gardens  of  Holland  or  the  terraced 
vineyards  of  the  Moselle.  The  challenge  to  Pittsburgh,  to  Fall 
River  and  Geveland  and  Newark  and  the  rest  of  our  work  cities 
is  this: 

Can  we  of  this  century  repeat  on  the  frontiers  of  industry 
what  the  settlers  of  the  last  century  wrought  for  their  generatunP 
Can  we  show  the  world  that  it  means  something  to  have  here  in 
America  a  new  continent  to  fashion  life  upon? 

Now,  the  physical  conquest  of  the  continent  spread  out  our 
people,  and  made  great  draughts  on  individual  initiative.  I  need 
not  recapitulate  the  serviceable  qualities  which  that  process  en- 
gendered; but  we  are  beginning  to  find,  in  our  scattered  forces,  in 
our  inadequate  social  machinery  and  in  our  ineptness  at  team  play, 
that  we  paid  a  price  for  those  qualities. 

So  untrained  to  act  in  unison,  we  are  told,  are  the  peasants 
of  some  Russian  districts,  that  the  recruiting  officers  tie  a  bunch 
of  grass  to  the  left  foot  of  each  man  when  he  falls  into  line  to  get 
him  to  keep  step.  Perhaps  our  own  English  marching  count — 
"  hay  foot — straw  foot" — had  a  similar  origin.  The  practice  at 
least  of  instructing  the  unintelligent  voter  how  to  cast  his  ballot 
with  the  crowd  by  seeing  that  he  has  a  piece  of  green  paper  or  a 
coin  in  his  trousers  pocket,  is  a  ripe  American  custom.  In  all 
seriousness,  however,  a  graft-ridden  municipality  may  be  nothing 
morethana  piece  of  governmental  machinery  built  for  a  small  town, 
— a  new  flywheel  rigged  up  here,  and  a  misfit  set  of  gears  clamped 
on  there. — charged  with  the  impracticable  task  of  serving  one  of 
these  new,  sudden,  over-toppling  aggregations  of  people  which 
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COMMUNITY  AND  WORKSHOP 

modern  factories  gather  about  them.  With  our  native  stock 
strong  in  individual  initiative  and  jealous  of  personal  rights,  and 
with  immigrant  peoples  pouring  in  to  add  differences  of  race, 
tradition,  and  religion  to  the  social  composition,  our  lack  of  habits 
and  media  for  collective  action  is  a  serious  handicap.  America 
has  yet  to  learn  how  to  apply  scientific  discoveries  and  the  economy 
of  organization  to  the  common  uses  of  the  people.  Before  the 
larger  international  competition  which  is  upon  us,  every  move- 
m«it  which  wrings  new  utility  out  of  our  existing  agencies  of 
goveniment,  or  brings  men  into  co-operative  action,  is  a  gain. 

The  Essen  Wav 

We  are  inclined  to  regard  the  cities  of  the  old  world  as  long 
established  and  to  find  justification  for  any  lapses  of  our  own  in 
the  newness  of  America.  But  the  visitor  to  Essen  soon  learns  that 
it  is  new  as  an  industrial  center.  The  chronolc^  of  the  develop- 
ment (A  the  steel  industry  there  is  not  altogether  different  from 
that  of  the  same  industry  in  Pittsburgh;  and  one  of  the  great 
problems  of  Fried.  Krupp  was  to  mobilize  and  hold  within  reach 
(^  his  furnaces  and  rolls  a  large  and  efficient  working  population. 

Entering  the  industrial  field  generations  later  than  England, 
German  manufacturers  did  not  have  a  trained  working  force  ready 
to  hand.  Krupp  had  to  draw  his  men  from  the  country  districts, — 
healthy,  unskilled  peasants,  unused  to  the  quick  handling  of  their 
muscles,  unused  to  working  indoors,  unused  to  machinery,  unused 
to  living  in  large  communities.  The  wages  offered,  as  against  the 
wages  of  agricultural  districts,  drew  them  to  Essen;  he  must  keep 
them  there  out  of  reach  of  his  competitors  and  he  must  see  that 
they  worked  at  the  top  notch  of  their  efficiency.  It  was  a  loss  to 
Herr  Krupp  when  a  man  with  five  years'  training  in  his  works 
left  Essen,  or  was  sick,  or  was  maimed. 

As  a  town,  Essen  was  unprepared  to  absorb  this  great  new 
industrial  population.  There  were  not  enough  houses;  the  new- 
OMners  were  sheltered  abominably  and  were  charged  exorbitant 
rents  by  the  local  landlords.  There  was  not  sufficient  food  supply 
within  reach  of  the  growing  city,  and  the  workers  had  to  buy  poor 
bread  and  bad  meat,  and  to  pay  heavily  for  them.  The  town  did  not 
have  sanitary  facilities  adequate  to  dispose  of  the  waste  which  a 
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congregation  of  individuals  sloughs  off  and  which,  if  not  properly 
disposed  of,  breeds  disease.  High  rents  and  high  prices  for  pro- 
visions pared  away  most  of  the  incentive  in  wages  which  must  be 
looked  to,  to  attract  this  working  force  to  Essen;  poor  houses  and 
poor  food  made  directly  for  stupid,  half-roused  workers  and  for  poor 
work. 

Primarily  as  a  business  proposition,  then,  Herr  Krupp  started 
that  notable  group  of  social  institutions  which,  from  one  motive  or 
another,  were  to  be  expanded  until  they  supplied  an  infinite 
variety  of  wants  to  the  Essen  workers.  The  firm  bought  up  suc- 
cessive plots  of  land,  laid  them  out,  sewered  them,  parked  them; 
and  at  the  end  of  fifty  years  30,000  persons  were  living  in  houses 
belonging  to  the  Essen  works.  During  that  time,  there  had  been 
a  growth  in  quality  as  well  as  in  the  number  of  houses,  the  buildings 
of  the  first  workmen's  colony.  West  End,  being  rough,  crude  boxes, 
while  the  later  cok>nies  ctf  Alfredshof  and  Friedrichshof  were  de- 
signed with  red  roofs  and  graceful  lines,  with  lawns  and  modern 
housekeeping  conveniences.  Rents  were  fixed  low.  t  found  not 
less  than  77  Krupp  supply  stores,  operated  on  a  profit-sharing 
basis,  selling  meat,  bread,  manufactured  goods,  and  household 
furniture.  One  of  the  greatest  bakeries  in  Germany  was  set  up  by 
the  Krupps  to  be  run  on  a  cost  basis,  along  with  slaughter  houses, 
flour  mills,  ice  making  plants,  tailor  shops,  and  other  establish- 
ments supplying  the  needs  of  the  community.  Hospitals,  con- 
valescent homes,  pensions,  invalidity  and  accident  funds  were 
early  instituted,  and  later  fortified  and  expanded  under  the  im- 
perial scheme  of  industrial  insurance  promoted  throughout  all 
Germany. 

From  the  standpoint  of  the  employer,  this  welfare  work  of 
the  Krupps  succeeded  in  keeping  neither  trade  unionism  nor 
socialism  out  of  the  ranks  of  the  working  force;  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  workers,  it  tended  to  put  them  in  a  position  of  semi-feudal 
dependence  for  comforts  and  to  sap  their  initiative  in  ways  not 
in  accord  with  American  ideas;  but  it  served  to  gather  at  Essen, 
to  keep  there,  and  to  keep  there  at  a  high  standard  of  working 
eificiency,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  labor  forces  in  Germany. 

It  was  this  last  aspect  of  Essen  which  served  us  as  a  parallel 
in  first  laying  the  findings  of  the  Pittsburgh  Survey  before  Pitts- 
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burgh.  The  question  we  held  up  was,  how  comparable  results  can 
be  achieved  in  an  American  industrial  district  where  one  corpora- 
ti<m  does  not  wholly  dominate;  where  we  are  dealing  with  a  much 
greater  aggregation  of  people  spread  over  a  much  greater  territory, 
and  where  we  must  work  out  our  solution  through  the  channels 
of  popular  government.  American  spread-eagleism  has  moulted 
considerably  since  the  90's,  but  there  is  still  sufficient  youth  and 
ginger  in  it — even  in  the  introspective  patriotism  of  an  investi- 
gator— to  make  me  set  down  the  civic  responsibility  of  democ- 
racy in  an  industrial  district  as  nothing  less  than 

"to  come  abreast  of  and  improve  upon  the  community  standards 
reached  under  any  other  system  of  government,  and  to  do  this  in  a  demo- 
cratic way  as  distinct  from  a  despotic  or  paternalistic  way." 

Our  inquiries  in  Pittsburgh  dealt  with  the  wage-earning  popu- 
lation (a)  in  relation  to  the  community  life,  and  (b)  in  relation  to 
industry.  In  summarizing  the  results  before  the  national  civic 
meetings  in  Pittsburgh  in  1908,*  I  endeavored  to  group  them  so  as 
to  bring  out  the  responsibility  of  democracy  imbedded  in  both 
relationships.  My  summary  may  serve  at  this  date  as  a  binder 
in  presenting  the  monographs  brought  together  in  the  two  con- 
cluding volumes  of  the  Pittsburgh  Survey,  dealing  as  they  do,  in 
turn,  with  certain  civic  and  industrial  problems  of  the  District. 

I  need  scarcely  repeat  that  the  tendencies  observed  in  Pitts- 
burgh are  to  be  found  in  other  of  our  industrial  centers.  Here, 
as  Mr.  Devine  points  out,t  because  of  the  extraordinary  industrial 
development,  these  tendencies  give  "tangible  proofs  of  their  real 
character  and  their  inevitable  goal."  Our  severest  criticism  of 
any  one  community  comes  not  from  comparing  it  with  its  fellows, 
but  from  comparing  the  haphazard  development  of  its  social  insti- 
tutions with  the  organic  development  of  its  business  enterprises. 
And  still  more  in  the  methods  and  scope  of  progressive  industrial 
organizations  should  a  responsible  citizenship  find  some  of  its 
most  suggestive  clues  as  to  ways  for  municipal  progress.    While, 


*  The  joint  convention  of  the  American  Civic  Association  and  the  Nationa] 
Municipal  League,  Pittsburgh,  November  16,  1908.  This  summary  deals  chiefly 
with  factors  in  community  and  workshop  environment  subject  to  social  control; 
and  does  not  enter  into  wages  and  other  questions  of  the  distribution  of  wealth. 

t  Devine,  Edward  T. :  Pittsburgh  the  Year  of  the  Survey.  The  Pittsburgh 
District,  p.  I. 

7 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

for  example,  distant  ore  strippings,  coal  pits,  and  coke  ovens  have 
been  linked  masterfully  with  the  furnaces  of  the  Pittsburgh  E>is- 
trict,  and  a  chain  of  steel  plants  has  been  flung  out  across  the 
country,  the  public  service  of  the  steel  communities  themselves 
has  been  cramped  in  the  sheathings  of  earlier  days. 

Administrative  Areas 

The  most  effective  city  administration  can  not  act  to  ad- 
vantage unless  the  units  through  which  it  operates  are  workable 
and  bear  some  relation  to  the  functions  they  are  designed  to  per- 
form. The  radius  of  the  old-time  city,  as  one  English  writer  has 
pointed  out,  was  the  distance  a  man  could  walk  from  his  work  in 
its  center  to  a  home  convenient  in  the  outskirts.  Today,  for 
most  purposes,  a  city  is  a  rapid-transit  proposition.  For  most 
purposes,  a  municipal  area  can  be  governed  most  effectively  if  it 
includes  all  such  districts  as  can  be  reached  by  city  workers,  by 
subway,  steam,  or  surface  lines.  The  movement  for  a  "Greater 
Pittsburgh,"  which  during  the  year  of  our  inquiry  was  advanced 
by  absorbing  Allegheny  City,  and  the  movement  for  a  "Greater 
Birmingham"  which  has  been  in  progress  in  the  analogous 
English  industrial  center,  are  recc^nitions  of  this  fact.*  Mr. 
Forbest  found  the  restricted  bounds  of  the  old  city  playing  into 
the  hands  of  yeggs  and  gamblers  and  hampering  the  police.  Such 
bounds  were  and  are  a  handicap  to  every  other  municipal  depart- 
ment. 

But  for  certain  functional  activities  of  a  great  center,  much 
wider  areas  must  be  reckoned  with.  In  1907  the  sanitary  force  of 
Pittsburgh  inspected  food  supplies  only  after  they  reached  the 
city,  and  sources  in  the  immediate  neighborhood.  Yet  the  300,000 
quarts  of  milk  said  to  be  consumed  every  twenty-four  hours  came 
from  8,000  dairies,  some  of  them  200  miles  to  the  west  in  Ohio. 
Today  the  Pittsburgh  dairy  inspectors  cover  the  whole  District. 
Again,  the  sewer  and  water  problem  of  Pittsburgh  is  a  watershed 
problem.  Over  one  hundred  towns  and  boroughs  are  dumping 
their  sewage  into  the  rivers  which  run  past  Pittsburgh  and  from 

'Woods,  Robert  A.:  Pittsburgh.  An  Interpretation  of  its  Growth.  The 
Pittsburgh  District,  p.  sa 

t  Forbes,  James:  The  Reverse  Side.     P.  307  of  this  volume. 


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COMMUNITY    AND   WORKSHOP 

which  Pittsburgh  must  draw  its  water.  No  one  of  these  govern- 
mental units  can  work  out  its  sanitary  problem  alone.  Close  co- 
ordination is  needed  throughout  the  whole  river  district.  Such 
considerations  have  given  scope  to  the  inquiries  by  public  and 
private  agencies  in  Pittsburg  during  the  last  five  years,  which 
have  supplied  the  community  with  large-scale  plans  for  sewage 
disposal,  traction,  street  development,  and  flood  prevention.* 

There  is  necessity,  then,  for  expanding  our  administrative 
areas  and  for  relating  each  to  its  function;  a  process  which  brings 
into  being  a  further  civic  problem, — how  to  create  this  enlarged 
municipal  machinery  without  sacrificing  that  local  loyalty  and 
interest  which  in  neighborhoods  and  small  towns  make  for  good 
government.  In  Pittsburgh  we  have  a  market  and  office  center, 
with  groups  of  outlying  mill  towns  and  half-agricultural  districts 
lying  between.  The  opponents  of  city  congestion  wish  to  break 
up  all  our  big  urban  centers  into  such  an  openwork  structure. 
If  the  citizens  of  Pittsburgh  can  create  effective  methods  (rf  govern- 
ment and  high  standards  of  community  well-being  for  this  ganglion 
of  working  communities,  they  will  have  made  an  original  contribu- 
tion to  municipal  science. 

But  let  us  look  more  closely  at  this  question  of  area  as 
applied  to  particular  social  institutions.  We  have  the  theory  in 
America  that  common  school  education  should  be  supplied  by  the 
public,  and  that  every  child  should  be  given  equal  opportunity  to 
secure  an  elementary  education.  Until  the  end  of  1 91 1  the  actual 
operation  of  the  schoc^s  was  conducted  in  Pittsburgh  under  an 
oki  vestry  system  of  ward  control — a  system  given  up  years  before 
by  Boston,  Cleveland,  Chicago,  Baltimore,  and  other  cities  of  the 
same  class,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  ward  has  proved  to  be 
an  ineffective  and  unjust  administrative  unit  in  education. 

Each  ward  laid  and  collected  a  tax  on  property  within  its  limits  for 
the  erection  and  maintenance  of  school  buildings.f  Thus,  ward  two  (old 
numbering)  in  the  business  district,  with  a  total  of  only  363  pupils,  could 
draw  on  property  that  had  an  assessed  valuation  of  {37,491,708;  while 

*  Bumi,  Allen  T.:  The  Coalition  of  Pittsburgh's  Qvic  Forces.  The 
Pittsburgh  District,  p.  49. 

t  Harrison,  Shelby  M.:  The  Disproportion  of  Taxation  in  Pittsburgh,  p. 
i$6;  also  Nonh,  Lila  Ver  Planck:  Pittsburgh  Schools,  p.  317.  The  Pittsburgh 
Kitrict. 


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WAGE-EARNING  PITTSBURGH 

ward  fourteen,  with  3433  children,  drew  on  property  worth  ^4,364.077 
(taxable  property  very  neariy  the  same  but  the  number  of  children  seven 
times  as  great).  Ward  thirty-«ne  had  1,173  children  and  only  13,074,085 
in  assessed  property — or  three  times  as  many  children  as  ward  two  and 
not  one-tenth  the  taxable  property.  No  wonder,  then,  that  the  valuation 
of  school  buildings  and  equipment  ranged  tiom  approximately  (41  per 
school  child  in  the  thirty-first  ward  to  |i,033  per  schocd  child  in  the  second; 
the  income  for  maintenance  of  buildings,  from  ^.00  per  school  child  in 
the  thirty-fifth  ward  to  $84  per  school  child  in  the  fir^t.  No  wonder  that 
our  investigators  found  buildings  in  which  children  were  obliged  to  sit  on 
benches,  or  on  chairs  in  the  aisles;  wards  in  which  basement  rooms  were 
thrown  into  commission  for  school  purposes  without  adequate  heat,  light, 
desks,  or  ventilation;  schools  unconnected  with  the  sewer;  schools  with- 
out fireproofing,  without  fire-escapes,  without  fire  drills. 

By  its  outvirom  system  of  ward  control  and  taxation,  the 
teaching  force  i^  Pittsburgh  was  supplied,  in  districts  where  the 
work  was  hardest,  with  school  houses  and  other  tools  which  were 
least  effective.  When  the  new  central  board  came  into  control  in 
the  fall  of  191 1*  it  took  over  some  ward  schools  which  in  plant 
and  spirit  ranked  with  any  in  the  country;  some  whose  equip- 
ment had  practically  to  be  scrapped  offhand. 

In  one  year's  time  the  new  board  remodeled  36  buildings;  built 
39  portable  structures  to  relieve  congestion;  installed  industrial  training 
in  13  grade  schools,  seven  high  schools,  and  two  industrial  schools;  re- 
graded  classes,  limiting  them  to  $0  each;  opened  46  ungraded  classes; 
checked  much  retardation;  created  a  department  of  special  schools  and 
extension  work,  and  one  of  vocational  guidance;  standardized  the  com- 
pulsory attendance  system;  threw  open  the  school  buildings  for  public 
meetings  and  social  centers;  and  otherwise  turned  a  less  than  half-used, 
disjointed,  decentralized  scheme  of  school-keeping  into  what  promises 
to  become,  cumulatively,  an  effective  instrument  for  education. 

Turn  to  another  sodal  institution — the  hospitals.  We  may 
conceive  that  the  first  service  of  a  hospital  is  to  be  a  refuge  for 
the  sick  and  injured,  and  that  an  adequate  hospital  system  should 
deploy  its  buildings  so  that  they  will  be  quickly  accessible  to  the 
people  who  are  likely  to  have  use  for  them.  We  may  compare 
such  a  system  to  a  telephone  company  which  thn>ugh  sub-ex- 
changes, centrals,  and  private  connections,  effectively  reaches 

*  Kennard,  Beulah:  The  New  Pittsburgh  School  System.  The  Pittsburgh 
District,  p.  306. 


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COMMUNITY  AND  WORKSHOP 

every  district;  or,  to  cite  a  contemporary  social  institution  in 
Pittsburgh,  with  the  library  system*  which  through  eight  branches 
and  44  sub-stations  places  books  in  easy  reach  of  the  entire  city. 

How  stood  the  case  with  the  hospitals  of  Pittsburgh?  The 
city  was  in  1908  served  by  a  group  of  private  institutions,  many 
of  them  adequately  equipped,  progressively  managed.  There  was, 
however,  no  system  of  co5rdination  between  them,  either  in  the 
operation  of  their  free  wards  or  in  the  maintenance  of  an  effective 
ambulance  service.  Sick  and  injured  people  were  carried  long, 
unnecessary  distances  at  great  risk.  New  hospitals  were  erected 
under  the  eaves  of  old  hospitals.  Seven  new  ones  were  going 
up  in  Pittsburgh  the  year  of  our  inquiry,  yet  when  they  were  all 
completed,  they  ]dt  a  great  belt  of  river  wards,  thickly  populated, 
without  a  convenient  hospital — wards  in  which  disease  was  rife. 

This  failure  to  think  through  the  hospital  needs  of  the  city  is  more 
than  a  matter  of  geography.  Motor  vehicles  have  expanded  the  sphere 
which  can  be  reached  by  a  given  hospital;  a  district  ambulance  service 
could  bind  the  existing  institutions  together  so  as  to  cover  fairly  promptly 
the  whole  urban  area.  The  need  is  organic  and  reaches  deeper.  The 
Wesleni  Pennsylvania  Health  Conference  of  1910.  which  brought  to- 
'  gether  representatives  of  no  less  than  7;  agencies,  laid  it  bare  as  never 
before, — the  14  dispensaries  each  working  independently  of  the  others, 
the  17  associations  maintaining  nurses  with  little  or  no  reference  to  each 
other's  efforts  or  capabilities,  and  the  33  important  hospitals  in  and  about 
Pittsburgh,  "every  one  of  them  going  headlong  about  its  business  of  life- 
saving  as  if  it  were  the  one  and  only  agency  in  the  field." 

In  the  last  few  years  there  have  been  marked  gains  in  providing  for 
the  treatment  of  particular  groups  of  casesf  and  in  hospital  social  service 
work  at  the  hands  of  progressive  superintendents.  Yet  it  remains  true  in 
1914  that  there  has  been  no  general  municipal  hospital  created  and  no 

•  Olcott,  Frances  J.:  The  Public  Library.     The  Pittsburgh  District,  p.  335- 

t  Perhaps  100  victims  of  luberculosii  could  be  cared  for  in  proper  inititu- 
ti<Mi»  in  Pittsburgh  In  1907-08;  whereas  there  were  in  the  city  fully  j.ooo  sufferers 
in  a  sufliciently  advanced  stage  to  be  a  peril  to  all  with  whom  they  came  in  con- 
tact, and  at  a  moderate  estimate  three-fifths  of  thij  number  were  unable  to  pro- 
vide proper  home  care.  When  a  municipal  sanatorium  is  opened  in  January, 
1915,  re-enforcing  present  provisions  at  the  private  hospital  of  the  Pittsburgh  Tu- 
berculosis League,  the  almshouse  pavilions,  and  the  state  sanatoria  at  Cresson  and 
Mt.  Alto,  will  have  at  least  600  beds  at  its  disposal — over  five  times  the  number 
in  1907-08.  but  still  a  bed  for  but  one  in  five  of  its  white  plague  victims. 

A  maternity  hospital  and  a  modem  convalescent  home  are  recent  additions 
to  the  other  specialized  institutions,  which  include  a  municipal  hospital  tor  con- 
tagious diseases,  besides  private  hospitals  for  eye  and  ear.  for  nervous  diseases  and 
for  children,  and  homes  for  incurables  and  for  crippled  children. 
II 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

adequate  division  and  coordination  of  effort  on  the  part  of  the  private 
hospitals,  no  systematizati<»i  of  visiting  nursing  or  of  ambulance  service 
[the  police  patrol  wagons  without  medical  attendants  picking  up  many 
accident  cases];  that  with,  if  anything,  a  surfeit  of  general  wards  and  beds, 
neighborhocxl  workers  complain  now,  as  five  years  ago,  of  the  difficulty 
experienced  with  certain  subsidized  hospitals  in  getting  patients  accepted 
who  are  not  on\y  sick  but  poor  and  without  influence;  that  for  some 
classes  of  cases — as  children  sick  with  a  complication  of  measles  and 
pneumonia — no  provision  at  all  exists,  no  matter  how  deplorable  the 
home  conditions  of  the  little  sufferers.  Meanwhile,  state,  county,  and 
city  all  continue  to  care  each  after  its  own  fashion  for  the  insane.  In- 
vestigations made  by  the  Public  Charities  Association  in  1914  disclosed 
that  at  (he  city  almshouse  at  Marshalsea  two  young  physicians  receiving 
less  than  fi.ooo  each  were  in  charge  of  702  insane  patients;  that  there  was 
no  laboratory  or  department  of  hydrotherapy;  that  absolute  authority  in 
medical  matters  was  in  the  hands  of  a  former  Pittsburgh  policeman  who 
had  been  appointed  superintendent  as  reward  for  political  services;*  and 
that  numbers  of  patients  were  kept  constantly  in  restraint  by  the  use  of 
band-muffs,  strait -jackets,  chains,  and  other  physical  devices. 

Gjntrast  this  general  lack  of  unity  and  standardization  with 
the  centralized  scheme  of  surgical  organization  instituted  by  the 
Carnegie  Steel  Company  in  1909,  which  reaches  from  first  aid  box, 
throu^  well  placed  emergency  hospitals  in  each  of  the  mill  towns, 
to  centralized  hospital  wards  in  Pittsburgh,  where  every  recourse 
of  science  is  available  for  the  more  serious  cases — a  system  which 
has  cut  down  infection  to  a  fraction  of  one  per  cent,  and  has 
measurably  reduced  the  period  of  convalescence.! 

Similarly,  with  6,000  children  of  wage-earners  going  through 
the  thirty  or  more  children's  institutions  of  Allegheny  County, 
there  is  so  little  co-operation  that  brothers  have  been  found  in 
one  institution  and  sisters  in  another,  without  an  agreement  on 
the  part  of  the  agencies  caring  for  them  as  to  a  future  plan.J 

A  Town's  Tools 

A  second  point  of  contrast  between  Pittsburgh,  the  industrial 
center,  and  Pittsburgh,  the  community,  lies  in  the  progressiveness 
and  invention  which  have  gone  into  the  details  of  the  one  and  not 

'  Since  superseded  by  a  qualified  alienist  as  the  first  step  in  a  general  reform. 

t  Sherman,  Wm.  O'Neill:  Surgical  Organization  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Co. 
Appendix  XV,  p.  ^i$  of  this  volume.  t  Lattimore,  Florence  L.:  Pittsburgh 

as  a  Foster  Mother.    The  Pittsburgh  Disirici.  p.  )]7. 


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HEALTH   MAPS 


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WARD  QROV/PS 

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COMFAKATIVE  MOKlftLTrr 


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COMMUNITY  AND  WORKSHOP 

of  the  Other.  This  is  illustrated  by  those  children's  institutions 
which  fail  to  respond  to  modem  movements  in  education,  hygiene, 
and  child-pladng.  it  is  illustrated  by  the  aldermen's  courts* 
which  clutter  up  and  befog  the  courseof  minor  justice.  Unsuper- 
vised and  unshorn  of  their  powers  of  petty  persecution  in  city 
and  mill  town,  they  compare  with  the  comprdiensive  municipal 
court  system  of  Chicago  about  as  the  open  forges  of  King  John's 
time  compare  with  a  Bessemer  converter. 

Again, — Pittsburgh  is  the  second  city  in  Pennsylvania  in 
point  of  population;  in  some  respects  it  is  the  center  of  the  most 
marvelous  industrial  district  in  the  world.  Thousands  of  men  and 
women  are  engaged  in  hundreds  of  processes.  The  state  factory 
inspection  department  had  up  to  the  end  of  1913  not  so  much  as  an 
office  in  this  city.f  There  were  inspectors,  but  for  the  working- 
men  laboring  under  insanitary  conditions  or  handling  unprotected 
machinery  they  were  not  easily  get-at-able.  The  conc^tion  we 
advanced  of  an  adequate  labor  department  office  in  Pittsburgh 
is  more  than  that  of  an  industrial  detective  bureau.  It  is  rather 
that  of  a  headquarters,  with  an  adequate  force  of  technical  experts 
and  physicians  who  can  study  consecutively  the  work  processes  oi 
the  District  with  the  idea  of  eliminating,  wherever  possible,  those 
conditions  which  make  for  disease;  with  laboratory  facilities  for 
ocperiment  and  demonstration  of  protective  devices,  calculated 
to  reduce  accidents; — drawing,  to  this  end,  upon  the  industrial 
experience  of  the  whole  world. 

The  factory  inspector's  office  in  Birmingham  (En^and)  is  in  close 
co-operation  with  courts,  with  employers,  and  with  workmen.  During 
the  three  years  ending  in  1908,  its  suggestions  reduced  the  number  of 
deaths  due  to  one  variety  of  crane  from  31  in  the  first  year  to  three  in 
the  last.  In  the  twelve  months  studied  by  the  Pittsburgh  Survey,  there 
were  42  deaths  from  crane  accidents  in  Allegheny  County  steel  mills  and 
the  public  authorities  did  not  even  know  their  number. 

All  of  the  great  industries  of  the  region  stand  in  need  of 
just  such  engineering  headquarters  as,  since  1908,  has  served 

•  Blaxier,  H.  V.,  and  Kerr.  Allen  H.:  The  Aldennen  and  their  Courts,  p. 
139:  also  Burns,  op.  cii.,  p.  56.  The  Pittsburgh  DJiirict,  and  Forbes,  James: 
The  ReverK  Side.  p.  377  of  this  volume. 

t  Kelley.  Florence:  Factory  inspection  in  Pittsburgh,  P.  i89of  this  volume. 
The  State  Department  of  Labor  and  Industry  created  in  1913  has  the  nucleus  of 
a  scientific  staff;  but  under  the  first  year's  appropriation  the  office  of  the  supervis- 
ing inspector's  staff  in  Pittsburgh  has  been  some  of  ihe  time  uithout  even  a  clerk. 

13 


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one  of  them — the  testing  laboratories  established  at  Pittsburgh 
by  the  Federal  Bureau  of  Mines.  These  have  not  only  demon- 
strated the  relationof  coal  dust  to  the  spectacular  mine  explosions, 
but  have  taken  up  the  everyday  safety  problems  of  the  pits. 

The  old-time  city  built  a  wall  about  it  to  keep  out  invaders. 
The  invaders  of  a  modem  city  are  infectious  diseases.  In  the  de- 
velopment of  sanitary  service  the  modem  city  is  erecting  its  most 
effective  wall.  In  Pittsburgh,  the  health  authority  was  up  to 
1909  a  subordinate  bureau  without  that  final  authority  which 
should  go  with  its  supreme  responsibility  toward  the  health 
of  $00,000  people.  Until  the  Guthrie  administration  there  had 
seldom  or  never  been  a  physician  or  sanitarian  as  head.  For 
five  years  there  had  not  been  so  much  as  an  annual  report.  Two- 
thirds  of  the  appropriations  to  the  Pittsburg  health  bureau  were 
engrossed  in  a  garbage  removal  contract;  only  one-third  was  free 
for  general  health  purposes. 

With  such  an  inadequate  barricade,  we  may  imagine  that 
disease  sacked  Pittsburgh  throughout  the  seasons  and  compari- 
son with  the  death  rates  of  four  dties  of  corresponding  size — 
Boston,  Baltimore,  Cleveland,  St.  Louis — for  five  years  I1902-06I 
showed  that  this  had  been  the  case.  In  her  average  death  rate 
per  100,000  from  typhoid  fever,  and  from  diarrhoea  and  enter- 
itis, Pittsburgh  was  highest.  Pittsburgh  was  next  to  lowest  in  the 
list  in  pulmonary  tuberculosis;  but  the  explanation  probably  lay 
in  the  tendency  of  local  physicians  to  ascribe  such  deaths  to  pneu- 
monia, bronchitis,  or  other  diseases  of  the  respiratory  system,  where 
Pittsburgh  was  again  highest.  So  also  was  Pittsburgh  highest  in 
deaths  from  violence  (other  than  suicide) ;  which  being  interpreted 
meant  accidents.*  Summing  up  the  health  situation  for  the 
Pittsburgh  Survey  at  the  ^d  of  1908,  Mr.  Adams  said:t 

"Between  public  indifference,  private  selfishness,  and  politi- 
cal inertia,  the  germ  has  pretty  well  had  its  own  way  with  Pittsburgh, 
and  the  city's  annual  waste  of  life  from  absolutely  preventable  disease 

'For  the  succeeding  five-year  period,  1907-11  inclusive,  not  only  was 
Pittsburgh's  typhoid  rate  cut,  but  also  its  rate  in  three  of  the  remaining  four  divi- 
sions dealt  with  in  (he  text.  Nevertheless  for  typhoid,  for  diarrhoea  and  enteritis, 
for  pneumonia,  bronchitis,  and  other  diseases  of  (he  respiratory  (rac(,  and  for 
accidents,  it  still  had  the  highest  rates  among  the  five  cities  comparedl 

t  Adams,  Samuel  Hopkins:  f^ttsburgh's  Foregone  Asset,  the  Public  Health, 
Cbaritkt  tmd  Tb*  Commant,  February  6,  1909,  p.  940. 


■d^yCoogle 


HEALTH  MAPS' 


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COMMUNITY  AND  WORKSHOP 

has  been  a  thing  to  make  humanity  shudder,  had  it  been  expressed  in 
the  lurid  tenns  of  battle,  holocaust,  or  flood,  instead  of  in  the  dumbly 
accepted  figures  of  tuberculosis,  typhoid,  and  infant  mortality.     . 

"Starting  at  the  lowest  level,  let  us  formulate  our  initial  axiom 
in  terms  of  dollars.  A  sound  man  can  do  more  work  than  a  sick  man. 
Therefore  he  can  make  more  money.  A  sound  city  can  do  more  work 
than  a  sick  city.  Therefore,  in  the  long  run,  it  can  accumulate  more 
wealth.  Public  health  is  a  public  asset.  This  is  a  truth  which  in  her 
sin^e-minded  purpose  of  commercial  and  industrial  expansion,  Pitts- 
burgh  long  ago  forgot, — if,  indeed,  she  ever  stopped  to  realize  it.  Conse- 
quently, at  a  time  when  all  the  other  great  American  cities  have  organized 
thdr  forces  thoroughly  and  are  waging  battle,  with  greater  or  less  scien- 
tific skill,  against  that  most  potent  of  all  destroyers,  the  germ,  this  mighty 
aggregation  of  half  a  million  human  beings  has  only  just  declared  war, 
and  has  bardy  established  its  outposts. 

Mr.  Adams  added,  with  a  touch  of  prophecy: 

"The  test  is  yet  to  come.  .  .  .  For  when  hygienic  and  sani- 
tary reform  impinges,  in  its  advance,  as  it  needs  must,  upon  the  private 
purse  of  some,  the  political  purposes  of  others,  and  the  industrial  and 
commercial  license  of  the  whole,  then  will  come  the  tug  of  war  Then, 
accCH-ding  as  shortsighted  selfishness  shall  prevail  over,  or  succumb  to, 
civic  pride  and  patriotism,  the  victory  will  be  to  the  germ  or  to  the  city." 

At  the  time  this  was  written,  Pittsburgh's  inadequate  health 
bureau,  with  inadequate  legal  authority,  was  for  the  first  time  in 
the  hands  of  a  skilled  sanitarian.  For  the  succeeding  five  years, 
the  new  department  with  augmented  powers  and  resources  was 
placed  in  the  hands  of  a  physician  who  was  without  training  in 
public  health  work,  1^0  had  been  president  of  the  notorious 
Councils  of  1908.*  Only  during  the  current  year  (1914)  has  Pitts- 
burg attacked  disease  not  only  with  an  adequate  departmental 
oi^anization  but  mth  a  trained  sanitarian  as  chief  of  service. 

Such  segments,  drawn  by  way  of  illustration  from  different 
branches  (rf  the  public  service  in  Pittsburgh,  make  it  clear  that  if 

*  In  June-July,  191},  the  New  York  Bureau  erf'  Municipal  Research  made  a 
report  to  the  Pituburgh  City  Council  of  tbe  work  of  varioui  public  department!. 
Its  icpoit  oo  the  department  of  public  health  revealed  large  and  apparently  busy 
(orcet  at  inspecton,  often  overiapping  each  other — milk,  meat,  and  food  inspectors 
visitiDg  tbe  same  stores,  sanitary  and  tenement  Inipectors  the  same  neighborhoods; 
bat  DO  fuflident  check-up  of  inspecton,  no  system  of  filing  complaints,  and  lax 
enfarcement  For  example,  milk  inspecton  sedulously  took  tbe  temperatures  of 
every  can  coming  from  the  same  shipping  point,  although  the  milk  had  not  been 

>5 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

democracy  is  to  lift  the  common  life  to  new  levels  it  must  over- 
haul the  social  machinery  through  which  it  operates  and  bring  it 
to  standards  comparable  to  those  set  by  banks,  insurance  com- 
panies, and  industrial  corporations. 

Social  Tests 

There  are  at  least  two  tests  to  which  such  social  machinery 
can  be  put  by  the  community.  The  first  is  that  of  operating 
efficiency.  In  hospitals,  in  schools,  in  municipal  departments,  units 
of  labor  and  product  can  be  worked  out  as  definitely  as  are  the  tons 
of  the  steel  workers,  the  voltage  of  the  electricians,  the  dollars  and 
cents  of  the  banks.  By  vigorous  systems  of  audit  and  long-headed 
systems  of  budget-making,  intelligible  to  the  ordinary  citizen,  the 
community  can  secure  an  output  from  these  social  institutions  com- 
parable with  the  investment  it  makes.  The  Bureau  of  Municipal 
Research  in  New  York  has  been  the  pioneer  exponent  of  this  pro- 
gram ;  and  we  have  examples  of  its  constructive  influence  in  budge- 
tary and  administrative  reforms  set  going  by  the  Pittsburgh  Civic 
Commission  under  the  new  Pittsburgh  charter  and  small  council.* 

There  is  another  equally  intensive  test  to  which  social  ma- 
chinery and  conditions  can  be  put.  It  is  conceivable  that  the  tax 
payer  may  get  his  money's  worth  from  the  municipal  government 
while  wage-earners  and  householders  generally  may  be  suffering 
from  another  and  irreparable  form  of  taxation,  which  only  in- 
creased municipal  expenditure  along  certain  lines  can  relieve. 
So  it  was  that  we  projected  our  inductive  research  in  Pittsburgh 
into  such  methods  of  social  bookkeeping  as  would  show  something 
(^  the  larger  waste  of  human  life  and  private  means. 

Let  me  illustrate  by  the  toll  of  misery  and  loss  which  preceded 

iced  in  transit  and  the  massing  of  these  readings  was  put  to  no  practical  use.  Smoke 
inspectors  made  igi  hour-long  observations  of  stacks  and  chimneys  in  191a,  th« 
only  value  of  which  was  to  obtain  legal  evidence:  but  there  were  no  prosecutions 
that  year.  The  tenement  division  was  the  exception  in  the  sanitaty  bureau  in 
having  a  system  of  records  well  devised  to  keep  staff  and  supervisor  in  touch  with 
field  conditions.  The  department  followed  an  extreme  go-as-you-please  policy 
toward  garbage  and  rubbish  contractors. 

A  distinctly  forward  step  under  this  administration,  however,  was  the 
institution  of  school  medical  inspection,  the  stall  consisting  of  inspectors,  diagnos- 
ticians, and  nurses.  Under  the  new  Edwards  administration  this  work  has  been 
expanded  into  a  bureau  of  child  welfare. 

*  Following  surveys  made  for  the  city  by  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Muni- 
cipal Research  and  the  Emerson  Company,  in  1913,  the  county  commissionen 
at  the  instigation  of  the  Voters'  League  engaged  the  Bureau  to  make  a  survey  of 
that  much  less  developed  but  large  spending  unit  of  government,  the  county. 


.d,Google 


Apparatus  for  produi:Lng  pig  iron  in  tonnage  thai  beats  the  world 


Digitized  .yCOOgle 


.d,Google 


COMMUNITY   AND  WORKSHOP 

the  erection  in  1905-08  of  the  six-million-dollar  filtration  plant* — 
the  city's  most  signal  investment  in  health.  For  thirty-five  years 
typhoid  had  been  endemic.  Computing  death  rates  per  100,000 
population  for  the  larger  cities  the  two  dties  which  are  today  com- 
bined in  greater  Pittsburgh  were  the  principals  in  a  scourging 
rivalry.  In  1901,  Pittsburgh  was  first  and  highest.  New  Haven 
second,  Allegheny  third;  in  1902,  Pittsburgh  was  first,  Allegheny 
second,  Washington  third;  in  1903,  Pittsburgh  was  first,  Geve- 
land  second,  Allegheny  third;  in  1904,  Columbus  was  first,  Pitts- 
burgh second,  Allegheny  third;  in  1905,  Allegheny  was  first, 
Pittsburgh  second,  and  Columbus  third;  in  1906,  Pittsburgh  was 
first  and  Allegheny  second.  But  this  showing,  startling  as  it  is, 
fails  to  afford  a  grasp  of  what  this  scourge  meant  to  the  wage- 
earners  (rf  Pittsburgh,  comparable  to  Mr.  Wing's  household  studyt 
erf  448  typhoid  cases,  with  their  2,323  weeks  of  lost  wages,  their 
hospital  charges,  doctors'  bills,  nurses*  fees,  cost  of  ice,  foods, 
and  medicines,  mounting  up  to  a  total  loss  of  $56,253  for  less  than 
half  the  cases  of  but  six  city  wards  in  but  one  year — ^wards  in 
which  lost  earnings  and  sickness  expense  were  at  a  minimum. 
There  were  other  drains  which  did  not  admit  of  tabulation.  It 
was  impossible  to  compute  in  terms  of  dollars  and  cents  what  it 
meant  to  a  family  to  have  the  father's  health  so  broken  that  he 
could  not  work  at  his  old  job,  but  had  to  accept  easier  work  at 
less  pay.  It  was  impossible  to  put  in  tabulated  form  the  total 
value  to  a  family  of  a  mother's  health,  and  strike  a  proper  balance 
when  typhoid  had  left  her  a  physical  or  nervous  wreck.  It  was 
impossible  to  estimate  what  was  sacrificed  by  a  boy  or  girl  obliged 
to  leave  school  in  order  to  help  support  the  family  because  typhoid 
had  incapacitated  the  natural  breadwinners. 

But  such  human  facts  bring  htune  to  a  workin^an  his  stake 
in  government,  his  share  in  the  civic  responsibility  of  democracy. 

Household  Needs 
The  municipality  is  not  alone  in  facing  the  demands  of  a 
new  (^ntury.    The  household  faces  a  shifting  and  socialization  of 

*  In  October,  1907,  there  were  $93  cases  of  typhoid  in  Greater  Pittsburgh; 
for  the  same  month  the  year  following— the  filtratbn  plant  having  been  set  in 
operation — the  number  was  96. 

t  Wing,  Frank  E.:  Thirty-five  Years  of  Typhmd.  The  Pittsburgh  Dijtrict, 
p.  63. 

3*  17 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

functions,  and  some  of  these  have  gone  by  default  in  the  process  of 
transition.  Much  of  the  sanitary  quandary  of  the  times  has  grown 
out  of  belated  attempts  on  the  part  of  families  to  supply  them- 
selves with  water,  keep  a  cow,  or  dispose  of  their  own  garbage  and 
excreta  in  the  midst  of  urban  conditions. 

With  these  and  even  larger  household  problems,  the  American 
no  less  than  the  German  industrial  community  is  concerned  if 
humanly  it  would  prosper.  1 1  was  beyond  the  compass  of  the  Pitts- 
burgh Survey  to  study  in  a  comprehensive  way  what  could  be  done 
to  improve  the  quality  and  lessen  the  cost  of  food  supplies. 

We  ran  upon  suggestive  clues.  The  new  filtration  plant  was  m 
it^lf  a  great  common  broaching  of  the  sources  of  clear  water,  and  the 
health  authorities  were  for  the  first  time  seriously  addressing  themselves  to 
cleaning  up  the  equally  contaminated  channels  through  which  the  city 
is  supplied  with  40,000  gallons  of  milk  per  day.  Before  the  Guthrie 
administration,  this  vitally  important  merchandising  received,  in  Mr. 
Adams'  phrase,  rather  less  attention  than  the  comer-stand  "vending  of 
collar  buttons. "  Yet  to  the  supply  of  impure  milk  more  than  to  any  other 
one  cause,  was  attributable  one-fourth  of  all  deaths  in  1907;  namely, 
those  of  children  under  one  year  of  age. 

The  ups  and  downs  of  dairy  inspection  in  the  years  since  can  not 
be  reviewed  here — the  elimination  of  fonnaldehyde,  the  enactment  of 
a  milk  code  setting  a  basis  of  bacterial  count  for  the  sale  of  milk,  the  estab- 
lishment of  municipal  milk  dispensaries,  with  physicians  and  nurses  in 
attendance  along  lines  pione«-ed  by  the  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny  Milk 
and  Ice  Association.  The  zero  point,  from  which  the  local  advances  in 
milk  control  can  be  measured,  may  well  be  the  conditions  of  certain 
local  dairies  visited  for  us  in  the  summer  of  1907  by  Dr.  George  W.  Goler, 
health  officer  of  Rochester,  an  international  authority  on  milk.   He  wrote: 

"Co  out  to  one  of  those  dairies  near  the  Country  Club  which  sup- 
plies milk  to  some  of  the  families  living  in  the  best  localities  and  see  the 
conditions  under  which  milk  is  produced  for  the  future  citizens  of  the  state 
and  nation.  A  dirty  one-room  house  that  once  did  duty  as  an  out-house, 
supplied  with  water  by  a  hose,  a  few  old  tubs  in  which  cans,  bottles, 
and  utensils  are  washed  in  cold  water,  and  where  atl  the  waste  flows  into 
a  vault  beneath  the  foundation  of  the  house.  A  damp,  dark  old  stable 
festooned  with  cobwebs,  without  drainage,  where  all  the  liquid  refuse 
finds  its  way  through  cracks  in  the  floor  to  the  space  beneath  the  structure, 
and  where,  on  filthy  floors,  in  some  cases  raised  but  one  poor  ptank  above 
the  common  floor  of  the  stable,  the  swill-fed  cows  stand  and  give  milk 
for  some  of  the  babies  of  Pittsburgh  aristocracy,  whose  parents  are  willing 
to  pay  the  munificcntsumofeight  cents  a  quart  for  the  product. 

"Visit  cow  stable  after  cow  stable  within  easy  motor  ride  from 
18 


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COMMUNITY  AND  WORKSHOP 

Pittsburgh,  and  the  conditions  of  filthiness  prevailing  in  the  stables  arc 
exceeded  only  by  the  depth  of  manure  and  mud  in  the  barnyards. 

"The  conditions  of  the  cows,  cans,  utensils,  and  barnyards,  at  the 
distant  points  from  which  the  city  draws  its  milk,  may  be  judged  by  the 
fact  that  they  pasteurize  the  milk  before  bringing  it  to  the  city,  and  pas- 
teurize it  again  before  it  is  sent  out  from  the  dairy." 

On  the  basis  of  conditions  found  in  1913,  the  Bureau  of  Municipal 
Research  recommended  a  "thorough  reorganization  of  the  food  inspection 
service"  of  the  Pittsburgh  Department  of  Health.  No  records  were 
found  of  the  number  of  places  inspected,  nor  was  a  record  kept  of  individual 
stores.  In  all  divisions,  except  milk  inspection,  numerous  violations  were 
recorded  with  few  prosecutions.  Important  advances  were  noted  in 
the  service,  yet  a  slaughter  house  with  privy  opening  off  the  killing  room, 
contemned  carloads  of  vegetables  dumped  in  the  railroad  yards  to  be 
picked  over  by  children,  loose  milk  sold  in  general  supply  stores,  often 
with  half  closed  cans  and  exposed  dippers,  were  examples  of  weak  links 
found  in  the  chain  of  protection  which  tended  to  vitiate  the  whole  service. 
It  was  reported  that  90  per  cent  of  the  milk  was  brought  in  an  average  of 
100  miles,  that  the  railroads  provided  no  refrigerator  cars,  that  60  per 
cent  of  the  creamery  milk  was  still  heated  to  keep  it  from  souring  during  the 
long  un-iced  haul  and  2$  per  cent  of  this  milk  reheated  after  reaching  town. 

One  of  the  reforms  early  instituted  by  the  new  health  administra- 
tion in  1914  was  the  concentration  of  milk  inspection  at  the  dairies.  No 
more  loose  milk  is  sold  in  stores,  and  but  one  pasteurization  is  permitted. 

Sanitary  regulation  is  of  course  but  one  phase  of  the  problem; 
the  need  is  to  promote  the  production  of  clean  milk  as  a  bountiful 
commodity.  Miss  Byington's  study*  of  the  cost  of  living  for  Home- 
stead householders,  especially  her  favorable  reports  on  the  garden  plots 
cultivated  by  a  few  of  them,  went  to  show  that  by  utilizing  unbuijt-up 
areas  in  the  neighborhood  of  Pittsburgh,  analyzing  the  soil  and  im- 
proving methods  for  facilitating  the  handling  of  garden  produce,  the 
marketable  supply  of  vegetables  could  be  measurably  increased  and 
the  cost  of  living  of  the  Pittsburgh  District  lowered  from  what  un- 
biased reports  have  shown  it  to  be, — wellnigh  the  highest  in  the  country-t 
The  situation  was  later  made  the  subject  of  a  special  inquiry  by 
an  economic  survey  instituted  by  Mayor  Magee  and  carried  forward 
by  Prof.  J.  T.  Hddsworth,  dean  of  the  School  of  Economics  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pittsburgh.  Recently,  the  Industrial  Development  Commission 
prompted  the  State  Department  of  Agriculture  to  start  a  truck  farm 
experiment  station  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city. 

•  Byington,  Margaret  F.:  Homestead:  The  Households  of  a  Mill  Town, 
(The  PitUburgh  Survey!)    New  York,  Charities  Publication  Committee,  1910. 
tS«e  tabulations.  British  Board  of  Trade.  AppendixVI,  p.  4)7orthij  volume. 
'9 


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wage-earning  pittsburgh 

The  Housing  Supply 

There  is  one  necessity  of  life  in  Pittsburgh  of  which  there  was 
and  is  a  paramount  shortage  and  to  which  the  Survey  gave  specific 
attention, — shelter.  We  could  but  compare  the  efficiency  of  the 
modern  blast  furnaces  to  perform  their  function  and  the  efficiency  of 
many  of  the  houses  to  perform  theirs.  The  output  of  the  one  is  pig 
iron;  the  output  of  the  other,  home  life  and  childhood.  The  tene- 
ment census  carried  on  by  the  Pittsburgh  Bureau  of  Health  in  1908 
showed  that  there  were  over  3,000  tenements  in  the  Greater  Gty. 
Nearly  50  per  cent  of  these  were  old  dwellings  built  and  constructed 
to  accommodate  one  family,  and  as  a  rule  without  conveniences 
for  the  multiple  households  crowding  into  them.*  With  these  and 
with  the  one-  and  two-family  dwellings,  which  continue  as  such 
to  shelter  the  vast  bulk  of  the  wage-earning  population  in  Pitts- 
burgh, the  primary  governmental  relationship  is  that  of  sanitary 
control.  The  forward  movements  of  the  last  five  years  have 
resulted  in  adequate  laws;  sanitary  improvements  have  been  in- 
stalled in  many  properties;  but  enforcement  has  been  so  sporadic 
as  to  amount  to  dallying  with  life  and  death.  Four  years  of  need- 
less delay  in  building  Pittsburgh's  filtration  plant  and  clearing  the 
disease-laden  water  supply,  sacrificed  an  easily  calculable  number 
of  lives.t  Less  calculable,  but  charged  with  all  manner  of  human 
miseries,  has  been  the  cost  of  more  than  as  many  years  of  needless 
delay  in  cleaning  up  Soho.J 

Under  intermittent  pressure  from  the  health  authorities 
thousands  of  privy  vaults  have  been  filled  and  abandoned,  yet  in 
1914  eight  to  ten  thousand  still  remain  in  use  in  Pittsburgh. 
Such  vaults  are  an  open  menace  to  health  because  of  the 
insects  which  carry  disease  from  them  to  the  tables  and  living  rooms 
of  the  people.  Consider  the  contrast, — these  old,  ramshackle, 
unwholesome,  disease  breeding  appliances  of  the  back  country 
here  in  Pittsburgh,  the  city  of  great  engineers,  of  mechanical 
invention,  and  dF  progress. 

There  are  three  phases  of  this  problem  of  shelter  which 
have  a  special  bearing  upon  my  main  thesis.    The  first  is,  that  the 

*  Dinwiddie,  EmJIy  W.,  and  Crowell,  F.  Elisabeth:  The  Housing  of  Pitts- 
burgh's Workers.    The  Pittsburgh  District,  p.  87. 

t  Wing,  Frank  E.:  op.  cit.    The  PitUburgh  District,  p.  Sy 
t  See  Appendix  I),  p.  406. 

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hydrant  had  been  out  of  use  for  two  days  and  the  tenants  had  had  to  carry  water  from 


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Wash  Day  in  an  Inner  Court,  Braddock 

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into  a  sewer  which  was  flushed  only  occasionally 


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COMMUNITY  AND  WORKSHOP 

health  authority,  however  efficient  in  supervision,  can  not  meet 
the  quantitative  demand  for  wholesome  accommodations.  Even 
though  Tammany  Hall,  Yellow  Row,  Painter's  Row,  and  other 
unnamed  shells  have  been  torn  down;  even  though  the  owners  of 
many  buildings  have  been  made  to  install  sanitary  appliances; 
the  situation  remains  unmet  unless  new  houses — new  houses  in 
quantity — ^are  erected  to  care  for  the  population  which  has  flooded 
into  Pittsburgh  and  which,  there  is  every  indication,  will  swell  as 
greatly  in  the  years  ahead. 

It  should  be  said  that  real  estate  dealers,  builders  and  building 
and  loan  associations  have  not  been  inactive.  Certain  industrial 
corporations  have  shown  initiative  in  developing  outlying  proper- 
ties.* The  situation  is  serious  enou^,  however,  to  demand  the 
formulation  of  a  constructive  public  policy  for  the  entire  r^on. 
In  the  words  of  our  original  report:! 

"It  demands  for  the  Pittsburgh  District  such  town  planning  and 
traction  development  as  will  open  up  wider  suburban  areas  and  relieve 
congestion.  It  demands  such  radical  modification  of  the  tax  system  as 
will  put  a  premium,  as  in  metropolitan  Boston,  <mi  home  building,  rather 
than  a  premium,  as  in  Pittsburgh,  on  the  speculative  holding  of  unim- 
proved land.  Pittsburgh  might  well  be  the  first  city  to  try  out  in  America 
the  a>-operative  building  scheme  which  has  gained  so  much  momentum 
in  En^nd,  and  by  which  the  shifting  industrial  worker  owns  not  a  house, 
but  stock  m  a  housing  company,  which  builds  wholesale.  Such  a  plan 
would  admirably  supplement  the  operations  of  the  realty  companies  and 
building  and  loan  associations  in  housing  the  growing  industrial  force  of 
the  steel  district,  and  would  offer  an  opportunity  for  investment  at  $ 
per  cent  and  the  public  good  such  as  opens  in  no  other  direction  to  the 
man  of  large  means  and  large  imagination  who  would  leave  his  impress 
<»  the  Pittsburgh  Dbtrict." 

Legislation  secured  by  Pittsburgh  civic  bodies  in  1911  and 
191 3  has  put  in  motion  radical  changes  in  the  tax  system;  the  town 
planning  and  traction  reports  of  1910-1 1  have  set  bench  marks  for 
community  expansion.  But  movements  for  promoting  building 
construction  have  failed  as  yet  to  lay  hold  upon  the  public  imagi- 

'  Note  pholographs  of  the  salelUle  com  muni  lies,  Vandergrift,  Woodiawn, 
Marianni  ind  Midland  illuslratios  this  volume.  See  also  Porter,  H.  F.  J.: 
Industrial  Hygiene  in  the  Pitlsburu  District,  p.  317  of  ibis  volume;  and  Rice, 
W.  C:  Midland.  Appendix  II.  p.  410. 

t  The  Pittsburgh  District  and  the  Housing  Situation.  Cbarititi  and  Tbi 
Commomt,  February  6,  1909. 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

nation  in  any  large  way;  and  in  contrast  to  Cleveland's  low-^are 
service,  Pittsburgh's  street  railway  system  obstructs  the  spread- 
ing out  of  homes  by  its  lack  of  through  routes  and  its  niggardli- 
ness with  transfers. 

This  haphazard  method  of  letting  the  housing  supply  take 
care  of  itself,  and  the  consequent  high  cost  of  rents,  cramps  the 
general  prosperity  of  the  city  only  less  than  it  cramps  the  standard 
of  living  of  tenant  wage-eamers.  Moreover,  it  puts  a  premium 
on  single  men,  drifters,  lodgers,  as  against  the  man  with  a  family. 
Immigrant  boarders  who  rent  from  a  boarding  boss,  and  sleep  eight 
or  ten  in  a  room  or  sleep  at  night  in  the  beds  left  vacant  by  the 
ni^t  workers  who  have  occupied  them  throughout  the  day, — 
such  transients  can  lay  by  money  in  the  Pittsburgh  District.  But 
the  immigrant  who  wants  to  make  his  stake  here,  bring  his  family 
over,  and  create  a  household,  must  pay  |io  or  |i;  a  month  for 
rent;  and  must  pay  high  prices  for  all  the  other  necessities  of 
life.  If  the  merchants  of  Pittsburgh  should  set  out  to  discover 
some  one  means  for  increasing  the  volume  of  purchases  of  the 
buying  public,  they  could  find  no  other  which  would  affect  it  so 
impressively  as  the  multiplication  of  households,  through  the 
multiplication  oi  convenient,  low  cost,  low  rental,  sanitary  houses 
with  which  to  meet  the  needs  of  stable  family  groups  as  against 
the  needs  of  the  lodgers. 

The  need  for  more  and  better  shelter  is  not  merely  a  city 
problem.  It  is  repeated  in  each  of  the  mill  towns  where  as  a 
whole  the  movements  for  sanitary  regulation  have  not  made  head- 
way as  they  have  in  the  greater  city.  Miss  Butler*  found  breed- 
ing places  of  disease  in  Sharpsburg;  back-to-back  houses  such  as 
were  condemned  in  England  seventy-five  years  ago.  Attractive 
homes  are  to  be  found  there,  in  Braddock,  Pitcaim,  Duquesne, 
McKeesport,  Homestead,  and  the  other  industrial  suburbs,  but 
the  accompanying  photographs  tell  the  story  also  of  old  buildings, 
filthy,  ill-equipped,  and  overcrowded;  and  of  new  buildings  vio- 
lating every  canon  of  scientific  housing.  Homestead,  for  ex- 
ample, had  in  1907-08  no  ordinance  against  overcrowding,  no  ordi- 
nance requiring  adequate  water  supply,  nor  one  forbidding  privy 
vaults  in  congested  neighborhoods.     Foreigners  were  crowded 


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COMMUNITY  AND  WORKSHOP 

thick  in  the  second  ward  between  the  river  and  the  railroads.  In 
31  courts  studied  by  Miss  Byington*  in  this  neighborhood,  only 
three  houses  had  running  water  inside  the  house.  One  hundred 
and  ten  people  were  found  using  one  yard  hydrant.  Out  of  239 
families,  ;i  families,  including  sometimes  four  or  five  people,  lived 
in  one  room  each.  Even  among  the  families  which  did  not  take 
lodgers,  half  averaged  over  two  persons  to  the  room.  A  crude  re- 
flection of  the  effect  of  these  conditions  was  indicated  by  the  death 
rate  in  this  second  ward.  To  every  three  children  bom  there 
one  died  before  it  reached  two  years  of  age,  as  against  one  to 
every  7  or  8  in  parts  of  Homestead  where  detached  and  livable 
dwellings  prevail. 

This  comparison  of  health  and  borne  conditions  in  a  small 
town  was  true  in  a  large,  cruel  way  of  Pittsburgh  itself.  In  co- 
operation with  the  Typhoid  Fever  Commission  we  analyzed  by 
wards  the  death  certificates  of  people  dying  in  Pittsburgh  dur- 
ing a  five-year  period.  We  grouped  these  wards  into  districts 
the  living  conditions  of  which  were  more  or  less  of  a  kind.f  Let 
me  compare  the  mortality  figures  of  wards  nine,  ten,  and  twelve 
(old  numbering) — a  group  of  river  wards  in  the  old  city,  near  the 
mills,  peopled  for  the  most  part  with  a  wage-earning  population 
of  small  income — with  ward  twenty-two,  a  new  residential  district 
in  the  East  End.  What  were  the  chances  for  life  for  the  men, 
women,  and  children  living  in  one  district  and  in  the  other  P  The 
chance  of  a  man's  dying  of  bronchitis  in  the  river  wards  was  two 
and  a.  half  as  against  one  in  the  East  End;  the  chance  was  four  of 
his  dying  from  pneumonia  as  against  one  in  the  East  End,  five 
of  his  dying  of  typhoid  as  against  one  in  the  East  End.  These 
are  rough  proportions,  but  they  are  of  terrific  significance.  Our 
American  boast  that  everybody  has  an  equal  chance  falls  flat 
before  them.  The  dice  were  loaded  in  Pittsburgh  when  it  came  to 
a  man's  health.  His  health  is  the  workingman's  best  asset;  and 
the  health  and  vigor  of  the  working  people  are  in  the  long  run  the 
vital  and,  once  lost,  the  irrecoverable  resources  of  an  industrial 
center. 

We  are  come  to  a  point  where,  without  going  into  further 

phases  of  the  municipal  life,  we  can  define  the  plain  civic  responsi- 

*  Byington,  op.  cit,  pp.  tjiff.       t  See  inserted  health  mapi,  facing  pp.  13-14. 


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WACE-EARNINC   PITTSBURGH 

bility  of  democracy  in  an  industrial  district.  That  responsibility 
is  so  to  rontrive  and  operate  the  social  machinery  of  the  community, 
so  to  lift  the  neighborhood  and  household  conditions  that  they  will 
attract  and  hold  a  strong  and  vigorous  labor  force  for  the  industries 
on  which  the  prosperity  of  the  district  must  depend.  Here  lies  the 
responsibility  of  the  community  to  the  industries  it  fosters  and 
the  responsibility  of  the  community  to  its  own  future: — lest  the 
rfficiency  of  its  workers  be  mortgaged  before  they  go  to  work  in 
the  morning.  And  this  responsibility  carries  a  counter  one. 
Neither  in  the  interests  of  the  community  as  a  whole,  nor  in  the 
interests  of  all  the  industries  as  against  those  of  any  single  industry, 
nor  in  their  own  interests,  can  the  people  afford  to  have  their 
working  strength  impaired  or  wasted  by  insanitary  or  health- 
taxing  conditions  during  the  working  hours. 

The  Social  Challenge  to  Industry 
To  begin  with,  Pittsburgh  can  not  afford  to  have  half  a  thou- 
sand workingmen  killed  in  any  year  or  a  vastly  larger,  unknown 
number  of  men  seriously  injured.  The  Pittsburgh  Survey  made 
an  intensive  inquiry  into  the  facts  surrounding  the  deaths  in  in- 
dustry during  twelve  months,  and  the  injuries  treated  in  the  hos- 
pitals during  three.  The  investigatkin  was  rarely  opportune,  for 
during  the  six  years  that  have  succeeded  commissions  in  more  than 
twenty  states  have  taken  up  the  problem  of  industrial  injury  and 
compensation.  Miss  Eastman's  investigation*  remains  perhaps 
the  most  serviceable  inductive  study  we  possess  of  the  workings 
of  the  old  common  law  system  of  liability  under  which  the  United 
States  entered  the  twentieth  century. 

We  found  that  of  the  536  men  killed  in  Allegheny  County  in  the 
year  studied,  the  accidents  fell  on  Americans  as  well  as  foreigners;  238 
were  native  bom.  There  were  195  steel  workers  killed,  la;  railroad  men, 
71  mine  workers,  and  i}$  in  other  occupations.  We  found  that  it  was 
the  young  men  of  the  District  who  went  down  in  the  course  of  industry. 
Eighty-two  were  under  twenty-one  years  of  age,  23 1  between  twenty  and 
thirty.  Over  half  the  men  killed  were  earning  less  than  |i$  a  week,  a 
fact  which  challenged  the  fairness  of  the  law  in  assuming,  as  it  still  does 
in  Pennsylvania,  that  wages  cover  risk.  In  63  per  cent,  whether  in  the 
case  of  married  or  unmarried,  death  by  industrial  accident  meant  the 
sudden  cutting  off  of  the  sole  or  chief  support  of  a  family. 

*  EastnuD,  Crystal:  Work-Accident*  and  the  Law.    (Kitsburgh  Survey.) 
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COMMUNITY   AND    WORKSHOP 

These  facts  as  to  the  native  born,  the  competent,  the  young, 
the  bFead-winning  who  went  down  in  the  everyday  operations  of 
industry,  were  summed  up  in  a  great  death  calendar  at  the  Pitts- 
burgh civic  exhibit  in  the  fall  of  1908 — ^its  $26  red  crosses  standing 
each  for  a  man  killed  at  work  or  who  died  as  direct  result  of  an  in- 
jury received  in  the  course  of  his  work.    The  case  was  put  thus: 


Htttburgh  hu  itamped  out  smallpox;  its  phyiidaiu  are 
fighting  tuborulous;  the  municipality  it  checking  typhoid. 
Cannot  engineera,  foremen,  employert  and  vrorkmcn  come 
together  in  a  campaign  to  reduce  accident!? 

Despite  notable  gains  made  by  certain  employer;  in  the  years  since 
this  exhibit  of  1908,  the  red  crosses  in  the  death  calendar  for  work>acct> 
dents  in  Allegheny  County  have  run  up  every  year  into  the  hundreds, 
serious  injuries  into  the  thousands,  many  of  them  needless.  No  greater 
public  service  could  be  done  by  labor  department,  coroner's  office,  health 
department,  union,  or  civic  body  than  to  make  current  public  analyses 
of  these  accidents,  such  as  would  show  what  plants  and  employments 
still  maim  limbs  and  snuff  out  lives  where  others  save  them. 

The  records  kept  by  the  state  factory  inspector's  office  up  to  the 
present  year  are  worthless.*  Neither  the  Allegheny  County  coroner's 
office  nor  the  Pittsburgh  Department  of  Health  segregate  deaths  from 
work-accidents  in  a  way  that  shows  how  far  the  gross  number  has  been  cut 
down.  The  coroner's  office,  however,  gives  the  following  figures  for  two 
trade  groups,  mines  and  mills,  1908-13  inclusive,  which  indicate  that  the 
twdve  months  studied  by  the  Pittsburgh  Survey — July  t,  1906,  to  June 
30,  1907 — were  prophetic  of  the  annual  death  toll  exacted  from  1908  on. 
Miw  MiUi 

1908 73  96 

'909 T  'M 

"gio 96  '55 

1911 Ill  101 

19" 79  'J' 

i9'3 <£5  '73 

Avenge  six  yean  ....    89  i)o 

Piltsburgh  Survey  [|3  montlu]    .     71  19; 

How  a  representative  steel  corporation  plant  has  cut  down  its 

accident  rate  is  charted  in  Appendix  XV,  p.  4^y    Yet  for  the  mills  of  the 

county  as  a  whole,  electric  shock  killed  ten  in  1913  as  against  seven  in 

1906-07,  operation  of  trains  24  as  against  42,  railroads  27  as  against  31. 

*  See  Appendix  X,  p.  445. 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

From  [907  to  1913,  inclusive,  the  department  of  health  credits 
traumatism  by  machines  with,  respectively,  33,  i;,  1 1,  30,  1 1,  31,  and  30 
deaths,  by  no  means  a  descending  scale. 

We  put  the  work-accident  cases  studied  to  that  same  test  of 
human  measurement  which  1  have  shown  was  of  such  significance 
in  gauging  the  losses  due  to  typhoid  fever.  This  steady  march  of 
injury  and  death  means  an  enormous  economic  loss.  Is  the  burden 
of  this  loss  justly  distributed?  we  asked.  What  takes  the  place  of 
the  wages  of  these  breadwinners?  What  resources  of  their  own 
have  these  families  to  fall  back  on?  What  share  of  the  loss  is 
shouldered  by  the  employer?  In  the  care  of  the  sick  and  depen- 
dent, what  share  falls  in  the  long  run  upon  the  community  itself? 

The  Pittsburgh  District  has  still  to  make  satisfactory  answer 
to  these  questions;  for  while  we  tallied  up  the  number  of  dead  and 
showed  the  misery  and  injustice  wrought  in  a  way  whidi  helped 
spur  other  states  to  action,  Pennsylvania  itself  remains  in  I9i4the 
only  one  of  the  great  industrial  commonwealths  which  has  failed  to 
enact  a  modem  compensation  law. 

The  year  of  our  investigation  saw  the  beginnings  of  that 
system  of  accident  prevention  which  has  since  lifted  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation  to  the  position  of  leadership  in  this  field. 
In  1910  it  adopted  a  relief  plan  anticipating  compensation  laws 
by  making  a  greater  share  of  the  accident  loss  a  fixed  charge  on  the 
industry.  The  problem  today  is  that  of  compelling  the  whole  Dis- 
trict to  match  standards  in  safety  engineering  and  compensation  set 
by  its  most  far-sighted  managers.  Our  analysis  brought  home  to 
us  that  the  pemianent  way  to  keep  down  the  accident  rate  would 
be  to  make  killing  and  injury  come  higher  to  the  employer. 

For  example,  take  six  men  who  were  totally  disabled  for  life  during 
the  three  months  studied— one  of  whom  lost  an  arm  and  a  leg,  one  of  whom 
isparalyzed.andfourof  whom  will  walk  on  crutches  the  rest  of  their  lives. 
Our  figures  showed  that,  of  these  men,  one  received  I36;,  one  liaj,  one 
$30,  and  three  no  compensation.  Bearing  in  mind  the  broad  policy  of 
the  Camegie  Relief  Fund,  and  of  the  standards  of  relief  set  by  excep- 
tional employers,  the  bald  fact  remained  that  in  the  case  of  both  injuries 
and  deaths,  including  both  married  and  single  men,  no  dollar  of  comptn- 
saiioti  was  received  from  the  employer  to  take  the  place  of  lost  income 
in  considerably  over  half  the  cases.* 

*  Thi»  excludes  luMpital  and  funeral  expense,  often  met  by  the  employer. 

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COMMUNITY  AND  WORKSHOP 

But  this  question  of  industrial  injury  is  only  part  of  another 
and  larger  question  of  the  relation  of  industty  to  health.  The 
workers  of  Pittsburgh  are  dealing  not  with  simple  ploughs  and 
wash  tubs  and  anvils,  but  with  intricate  machines,  often  in  great 
workrooms  where  hundreds  work  side  by  side;  dealing  with  poi- 
sons, with  voltage,  with  heat,  with  a  hundred  new  and  but  half 
mastered  agents  of  production.*  In  the  rapid  development  of 
factories  in  America,  we  have  only  begun  to  construct  them  with 
reference  to  the  well-being  as  well  as  with  reference  to  output. 

Let  me  illustrate  from  the  women-employing  trades  as  brought  out 
by  Miss  Butler's  investigations.!  In  two  of  the  aScommercialJaundries  in 
Pittsburgh  the  washroom  was  on  the  upper  floor.  In  26,  rising  steam  and 
excessive  heat  not  only  caused  discomfort  in  the  departments  above  but 
tended  to  induce  diseases  of  the  respiratory  organs.  Tobacco  dried  in 
many  of  the  stogy  sweatshops  made  the  air  heavy  with  nicotine,  filled  the 
room  with  fine  dust,  and  increased  the  danger,  always  present  in  the  to- 
bacco trades,  from  tuberculosis.  In  foundries  and  machine  shops  the 
custom  of  placing  annealing  ovens  in  the  rooms  where  cores  are  made 
caused  excessive  heat  in  the  workroom  and  filled  the  air  with  a  black  dust. 
Apart  from  dangers  of  accident,  of  speeding,  and  of  injurious 
processes,  the  health  of  a  working  force  bears  a  direct  relation  to  the 
length  of  the  working  day.  Mr.  Fitch's  analysis}  erf  the  time 
schedule  of  the  various  departments  of  the  steel  industry  showed 
that  in  a  majority  of  them  the  day  of  twenty-four  hours  is 
split  between  two  shifts  of  workers  who  averaged  twelve  hours 
each.  Up  to  1910,  a  fifth  of  the  men  worked  not  six  days  but 
seven  a  week;  and  a  very  considerable  share  of  them,  once  a  fort- 
night in  changing  shifts,  a  long  turn  of  twenty-four  hours.  The 
seven-day  week  has  since  been  cut  down  but  the  iron  rule  of  the 
twelve-hour  day  still  govems.J  Employers  may  differ  as  to 
whether  they  can  get  the  most  work  and  the  most  effective  work 
out  of  a  man  who  labors  twelve  hours  a  day,  or  ten,  or  eight. 
But  we  hold  that  the  community  has  something  at  stake  here. 
How  much  citizenship  does  Pittsburgh  get  out  of  a  man  who 
works  twelve  hours  a  dayP  Paternalistic  Essen  might  not  fare 
badly  by  such  a  schedule;  but  it  scotdies  our  American  mill 
•  See  Porter,  op.  cit.     P.  J17  of  this  volume. 

t  Butler,  Eliubetfa  B.:  Women  and  the  Trades.    (The  Pitubur^  Survey.) 
t  Fitch,  John  A.:  The  Steel  Workers.  (The  Pittsburgh  Survey.) 
I  For  report  of  .Stockholders  Committee  see  Appendix  I.  p.  39$. 
27 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

towns.  How  much  (^  a  father  can  a  man  be  who  works  twelve 
hours  a  dayP  Barracks  life  may  not  fare  badly  by  such  a  schedule, 
but  Miss  Bytngton's  study*  showed  how  it  bears  down  upon  house- 
hold life  in  Homestead.  The  community  has  a  claim  on  the  vigor 
and  intelligence  of  its  people,  on  their  activity  in  civic  affairs, 
^ich  it  is  letting  go  by  default.  So  long  as  Pittsburgh  continues 
to  tolerate  the  twelve^our  day  in  railroading  and  steel  making, 
it  will  get  only  the  tired-out  leavings  of  some  of  its  best  men. 

My  generalization,  then,  is  that  if  the  civic  responsibility 
of  democracy  in  an  industrial  district  is  to  be  met,  the  community 
should  do  what  a  first-rate  industrial  concern  would  do — figure 
out  the  ground  it  can  cover  effectively  and  gear  its  social  machinery 
so  to  cover  it.  By  social  machinery  1  mean  hospitals,  schools,  ser- 
vice to  householders;  all  that  wkle  range  of  activities  that  have  a 
direct  bearing  on  the  living  conditions  of  a  people.  It  should  hold 
these  agencies  accountable  for  results,  as  business  enterprises  are 
held  accountable;  and  its  touchstone  should  be  the  welfare  of  the 
average  citizen.  Unless  a  wage-earning  population  is  so  insured 
against  disease,  its  vigor  and  effectiveness  so  conserved,  the  com- 
munity is  not  meeting  its  responsibility  toward  the  industries  which 
d^)end  upon  these  workers  for  output  nor  its  responsibility  toward 
the  workers  who  depend  upon  these  industries  for  livelihood. 

In  turn,  the  democracy  should  see  to  it  that  the  industries 
neither  cripple  nor  exploit,  but  develop,  the  working  force  which 
constitutes  the  great  human  asset  of  the  community — a  communal 
resource  worth  conserving  to  the  utmost  c^  its  potential  good. 

Finally,  if  such  a  program  is  to  be  carried  out  in  an  Ameri- 
can and  democratic  way,  the  workers  themselves  must  have  greater 
leeway  in  which  to  bear  their  share  cf  the  burdens  and  responsibility. 

In  America 

For  who,  after  all,  is  to  carry  out  such  a  program  for  wcH-kshop 

and  community?    To  go  back  to  our  original  parallel,  the  Krupp 

name  has  stood  not  only  for  concern  for  hunuin  welfare,  but  for  a 

scheme  of  autocratic  control.    More  than  one  American  visitor 

has  drawn  huge  breaths  of  relief  on  getting  away  to  Dussddorf, 

or  other  of  the  Cernun  towns  whose  democratic  achievement  has 

fairly  matched  that  c^  the  industrial  over^cHds  d  Essen.    As 

*  ByingtoD,  Margairt  F.:  c^.  dt,  pp.  145  IT. 

a8 


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COMMUNITY  AND  WORKSHOP 

this  volume  goes  to  press,  all  western  Europe  is  wrestling  to  shake 
dynastic  militarism  from  the  shoulders  of  the  common  life.  With 
us,  the  age  long  struggle  for  newer  and  more  liberal  equilibriums 
asserts  itself  in  industry. 

In  the  days  of  its  height,  the  Amalgamated  Association  of 
Iron  and  Steel  Workers  paid  small  heed  to  the  needs  of  the  day  la- 
borers in  the  mills.  Today  many  a  highly  organized  craft  has  little 
concern  except  for  its  own  terms  of  work.  The  brewery  work- 
ers and  mine  workers  are  exceptions  and  not  only  indude  all 
laborers  in  brew-house  and  mine  in  their  scheme  of  organization, 
but  stand  for  safety  and  sanitation  along  with  hours  and  wages. 
But  in  general,  in  wage-eaming  Pittsburgh,  these  human  considera- 
tions are  being  pmnoted  from  above.  Not  only  has  the  Steel  Cor- 
poration— the  largest  employer  in  the  District  and  the  largest  in  the 
United  States — set  about  the  rehabilitation  of  the  housekeeping 
and  healthfulness  of  its  great  plants,  cut  down  accidents,  elimi- 
nated infection,  and  created  a  compensation  scheme  in  advance 
of  state  legislation,  but  the  influence  of  these  things  is  reacting 
favorably  upon  the  mill  towns.  Sanitary  committees  of  the  mills 
ask  the  borough  health  officers  how  they  are  protecting  the  milk 
that  goes  to  the  families  of  the  mill  workers.  Seven  thousand  men 
co-operated  on  these  committees  of  the  Steel  Corporation  last 
year.  This  has  meant  not  only  an  advance  in  physical  upkeep,  but 
in  human  understanding  between  different  grades  of  workmen, 
foremen  and  superintendents.  Yet  if  the  workers  who  are  now 
asked  to  co-operate  in  locating  washrooms  and  guarding  flywheels 
set  out  to  concern  themselves  with  the  hours  they  work,  or  the 
pay  they  get,  the  scheme  of  co-operation  breaks  down.  Meetings 
are  spied  upon  and  halls  closed.  "Trouble  breeders"  lose  their  jobs. 
They  are  in  a  belated  new-world  Essen,  more  scientific  in  its  welfare 
work,  but  as  autocratic  in  its  benevolent  dictation.  Profit  sharing 
and  pensi<Mi  schemes,  however  excellent  in  other  ways,  are  in 
themselves  so  devised  as  to  constrict  self-assertion.  Aroused  stock- 
holders have  helped  eliminate  the  seven-day  week  but  have  failed  to 
dislodge  the  twelve-hour  day.  Yet  if  the  workers  themselves 
should  organize  to  take  up  the  agitation  where  these  stockholdo^ 
left  off,  they  would  meet  not  only  with  inertia  but  with  reprisal. 

Meanwhile  forces  more  powerful  even  than  these  policies 
of  repressu)n  have  banked  workmen  down  upon  one  another.  The 
29 


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WAGE-EARNING   PiTTSBURCH 

changes  in  machinery  which  have  eliminated  much  craftsmanship 
and  created  a  great  mass  of  semi-skilled  work,  have  as  it  were, 
shaken  down  intelligence  like  a  quickening  leaven  into  the  body  of 
insecure  labor — and  we  find  creedal  and  racial  animosities,  differ- 
ences of  language  and  grade  of  skill  sunk  in  common  protest  like 
that  which  marked  the  mass  strike  of  Westinghouse  employes  in 
Turtle  Creek  valley  in  this  summer  of  1914. 

Approaching  the  situation  from  three  widely  separate 
quarters.  Prof.  Commons,  Mr.  Woods  and  Dr.  Roberts,  all  three, 
forecast  five  years  ago  this  emergence  of  the  under-men,  the  upward 
thrust  of  whose  aspiration  has  yet  to  stagger  the  steel  industry. 

In  the  community  life,  a  situation  not  without  its  analogies 
presents  itself.  I  n  the  swelling  Socialist  vote  and  the  spread  of  the 
single  tax,  in  the  movement  for  popular  control  over  municipal 
affairs  and  in  the  collective  action  of  small  churches  which  have 
broken  with  the  leadership  of  some  of  the  largest  and  most  estab- 
lished congregations,  we  have  so  many  manifestations  of  fresh 
alignments,  based  on  broader  reaches  of  the  social  order,  less 
patient  with  the  forces  which  have  dominated  Pittsbui^'s  growth, 
far  from  united  as  to  things  to  be  done,  but  tractable  through 
neither  the  old  type  of  ward  politics,  nor  the  ordinary  tuggings 
of  financial  leading  strings. 

Both  in  industry  and  civic  life,  then,  Pittsburgh  in  1 9 1 4— even 
more  sharply  than  when  the  first  investigators  of  the  Pittsburgh 
Survey  went  into  the  field  in  1907 — presents  the  clash  between  the 
Old  World  and  the  New.  It  puts  the  question  whether  the  domi- 
nating group  thrown  into  power  by  the  process  of  the  last  half 
century  is  to  set  the  meets  and  bounds  of  life  and  labor,  and, 
battened  down  by  its  policies,  we  shall  have  in  Pittsburgh  the  great 
flaring  up  of  a  repressed  and  divided  people;  or  whether  in  shop 
and  borough,  in  trade  group  and  city,  through  new  contacts  of 
understanding,  new  opportunities  for  growth  and  prosperity  broad 
enough  to  embrace  all  men,  democracy  will  yet  merge  the  elements 
which  make  up  congregate  industry ;  and  like  the  old  time  puddler's 
ball  of  raw  metal,  a  new  generation  will  "come  to  nature." 

The  five  years  since  the  first  publication  of  the  findings  of 

the  Pittsburgh  Survey  have  brought  marked  gains  in  the  fashioning 

of  life  in  the  Pittsburgh  District  and  in  the  nation.    Nonetheless, 

now  as  then,  the  challenge  of  social  circumstance  holds  for  both. 

30 


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■n  by  Joseph  SIrlla 


As  Men  See  America     II 


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II 
RACE  STUDIES 


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UoUurTamvu 

5ss?ia 

Wh'SJ'phooio 

or  FOUtCNOK 

Wsm  Stock 

NnmbB 

Ptrent 

Sumbtr 

Pit  ant 

N,-Atr 

PtrctM 

(ion 

EocUib  and  Cdtk     .       . 

3J.4S« 

.5.3 

73.3M 

38.4 

108*40 

J1.8 

..-l 

"■SSii  .... 

"t 

JI.6 

"■'1 

'". 

■"■;i; 

'" 

'". 

Total     .... 

30^7. 

11.7 

71.000 

37 -S 

ioaJ71 

30.8 

■  9.1 

SwcdUb    .... 

gST"    : 

1,370 

-0 

"'II 

\ 

1,501 

.8 

.■.;. 

Toul     .... 

IA.3 

1.1 

1.431 

■1      1        J.034 

I.D 

.6 

LatlD  and  Gnk 

French      '.'.'.'. 

Gran       .... 

14.198 
■48 

.0.1 

B,l8« 

1.1 

4-3 

946 

6.7 

": 

Total    .... 

.6.410 

11.7 

I0,»03 

S-7 

27.113 

8.3 

S.1 

Slovak      .... 

Sovenian. 

I^^l^^.pedecd' 

10.&06 

\'^ 
1.04a 

•:i 

1. 6  IB 

r. 

14.246 

i,M6 

log 

■9 

J4.8M 

048 

lO.J 
-4 
1-4 

6,s 
■  i 
I-S 

Total     .... 

3»,.46 

3T.{, 

11.894 

ii.]> 

fii.040 

18.7 

11.6 

UuclBHlSed 

Armenian. 
^TianandAc^de  .        . 

AUothet: 

IT.iOS 
2.716 

4^ 

1-9 

8.M8 
1.083 

173 

" 

10AJ6 

3,790 
70 

& 

S 

6.3 

Total     .... 

16.007 

II.4 

9,303 

4.9 

IS.400 

7.6 

4.7 

Unknown      .... 

IJ47 

.9 

1,764 

.9 

3.011 

-0 

.6 

Gnnd  total.        .        . 

140.436 

100.0 

101.4S3 

100.0 

331.019 

lOO-O 

62.2 

This  table  is  compiled  froin  statistics  presented  in  Volume  I  of  tlie  reporta  of  the 
ThirtEcnth  Census.  By  "foreign  white  stock",  is  meant  all  persons,  wliether  native  or 
foreign  born,  one  or  both  of  whose  parents  were  born  abroad.  The  right  liand  column 
of  the  table  shows  penons  of  each  specified  mother  tongue  as  a  proportion  of  the  total 
population  of  Pittsburgh. 

That  persons  of  Slavic  and  Lettic  stock  are  present  in  lai^e  numbers  is  one  of  the 
significant  facts  revealed  by  the  table.  In  the  foreign  bom  white  population  persons  of 
Slavic  or  Lettic  mother  tongue  outnumber  personsin  any  other  major  group;  in  the  native 
born  population  of  foreign  or  mixed  parenlage,  persons  of  Slavic  or  Lettic  mother  tongue 
are  more  numerous  than  persons  in  any  major  group  lave  Ihe  groups  composed,  respec- 
lively,  of  persons  of  English  or  Celtic  mother  tongue  and  of  persons  of  Germanic  mother 
tongue. 


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IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

Peter  Roberts 

THE  day  laborer  of  a  generation  ago  is  gone, — a  change  which 
has  been  swifter  and  more  complete  in  Pittsburgh  than  in 
many  other  of  our  industrial  centers.  "Where  are  your 
Irish?  your  Welsh?  your  Germans?  your  Americans?"  1  asked  an 
old  mill  hand.  "Go  to  the  city  hall  and  the  police  station,"  he 
said.  "Some  of  them  are  still  in  the  better  paid  jobs  in  the  mills; 
but  mostly  you'll  have  to  look  for  them  among  the  doctors  and 
lawyers,  office  holders,  clerks,  accountants,  salesmen.  You'll  find 
them  there." 

The  day  laborer  in  the  mills  today  is  a  Slav.  The  foreign 
bom  of  the  steel  district  include,  it  is  true,  representatives  of  every 
European  nation,  but  1  shall  deal  here  only  with  the  races  from 
southeastern  Europe,  which  for  twenty-five  years  have  been  stead- 
ily displacing  the  Teutonic  and  Keltic  peoples  in  the  rough  work 
of  the  industries.  The  tendency  of  the  Italians  is  to  go  into  con- 
struction, railroad  work,  and  the  mines,  rather  than  into  the  plants 
and  yards;  and  my  group  narrows  itself  down  to  the  dominant 
Magyar,  Slav,  and  Lithuanian.  What  1  have  to  say  of  them  in 
Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny  City  is  in  the  main  true  of  them  in  the 
manufacturing  towns  of  the  whole  District. 

Roughly  speaking,  one-quarter  of  the  population  of  Pitts- 
burgh is  foreign  bom."  The  foreigner  is  nowhere  more  at  home 
than  here,  and  nowhere  has  he  been  more  actively  welcomed  by 
employers.  The  conflict  of  customs  and  habits,  varying  standards 
of  living,  prejudices,  antipathies,  all  due  to  the  confluence  of 
representatives  of  different  races  of  men,  may  be  witnessed  here. 
The  whole  territory  is  thrown  into  a  stem  stmggle  for  subsistence 

*  In  1910  foreign-boni  whites  comprised  a6  per  cent  of  the  population  aod 
Negroes  about  j  per  cent. 

''  33 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

and  wage  standarxls  by  the  displacements  due  to  these  resistless 
accretions  to  the  ranks  of  the  workers.  The  moral  and  religious 
life  of  the  city  is  equally  affected  by  this  inflow  of  peoples.  The 
most  backward  of  them  are  superstitious  and  ignorant,  victims  of 
cunning  knaves  and  unscrupulous  parasites.  Their  religious  train- 
ing differs  widely  from  that  of  peoples  of  Protestant  antecedents, 
and  institutions  that  were  dear  to  the  founders  of  the  city  are  fast 
being  undermined  by  the  customs  of  immigrants  from  southeastern 
Europe.  Yet  as  a  whole,  they  bring  with  them  physical  and  cul- 
tural resources  which  as  yet,  in  any  large  sense,  the  English-speak- 
ing community  fails  to  elicit  or  thoughtlessly  wastes. 

An  exhaustive  study  of  the  immigrant  population  of  the 
steel  district  is  outside  the  limits  of  this  chapter.  I  shall  set 
down  only  what  a  month  brought  me  as  I  visited  lodging  houses, 
courts,  and  the  mills  of  Greater  Pittsburgh ;  as  I  talked  with  priest 
and  leader,  policeman  and  doctor,  banker  and  labor  boss;  but  I 
shall  present  the  facts  in  the  light  of  many  years'  residence  in  the 
anthracite  coal  communities,  where,  in  another  section  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, at  Mahanoy  City  and  Wilkesbarre  and  Scranton,  I  have 
known  the  Slav  and  the  Lett  and  their  efforts  to  gain  a  foothold 
in  America.  I  shall  deal  with  the  situation  not  as  it  appeared  on 
visits  during  the  hard  times  of  1907-08,  when  the  immigrants  re- 
turned home  by  the  thousands,  nor  in  the  recurrent  depression  of 
1914;  but  as  I  came  to  know  it  in  the  heyday  of  prosperity,  the 
early  fall  of  1907.  This  is  the  situation  with  which  the  interven- 
ing years  have  had  much  in  common  and  with  which  we  must 
reckon  in  a  permanent  way. 

In  1880  Slavs,  Lithuanians,  Hungarians,  and  Italians  formed 
less  than  1  per  cent  of  the  population  in  Pittsburgh  [including 
Allegheny].  By  1890  these  peoples,  with  the  other  immigrant  ele- 
ments from  Austria,  Hungary,  Italy,  and  Russia,  had  reached  3 
percent;  by  1900,  6percent;  by  1910.  13  per  cent.  By  1900  over 
one-fourth  of  the  foreign-bom  population  of  the  two  cities  combined 
came  from  the  four  countries  named.  The  movement  of  the  Teu- 
tonic and  Keltic  races  had  practically  ceased.    The  1910  census* 

*The  foreigD-bom  whites  in  rgio  numbered  140,4)6,  an  increase  in  ten 
yean  of  aj.soi.  or  aa.a  per  cent.  In  the  same  decade  the  total  population  of 
Greater  Piitsburgh  increased  only  18  per  cent  (froni4ji,;ia  to^jj.^oj).  It  should 
be  noted  that  ibe  increase  in  the  total  population  <m  the  entire  county  was  over 
JO  per  cent. 


■d^yCoogle 


IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

shows  an  actual  decrease  of  i,;i4  (from  33,839  to  33,32$)  in  the 
number  of  foreign-bom  whites  from  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
irtiile  the  number  of  whites  bom  in  Austria,  Hungary,  Italy,  and 
Russia  had  increased  from  29,87$  in  1900  to  68,487  in  1910.  They 
constituted  practically  one-half  of  the  foreign  bom — ^49  per  cent — 
a  proportion  all  but  tmce  as  great  as  in  1900. 

Polish,  Italian,  and  Jewish  immigrants  lead  the  list  from  these 
countries.  Lithuanians,  Croatians,  Servians,  Slovaks,  and  Ruthen- 
ians  are  numbered  by  the  thousands,  and  Magyars,  Greeks, 
Bohemians,  and  Roumanians  are  here  in  lesser  groups. 

Detailed  figures  for  immigrants  from  Austria,  Hungary,  Italy, 
and  Russia  follow  in  tabular  form. 


TABLE  2. — POPULATION  OF  AUSTRIAN,  HUNGARIAN,  ITAUAN,  AND 
RUSSIAN  NATIVITY.      PITTSBURGH,  1900  AND  igiO* 


ComtOry  of  Birth 

E>Eit50NS  OF  Each  Specified 
Nativity  in 

PerCbht 
Increasb 

1900 

1010 

Austriab 

Hongaiy 

[laly 

Riusiac 

117.4 
UJ-o 
117-4 
1J3-9 

Toul 

a!Ml75 

«I.h87 

129.3 

Vmma  born  as  apecified  as  a  per- 
MDtage  of  the  entire  foreign-born 
white  popuUtion  of  Pittsburgh  . 

a6 

49 

■United  States  Census,  1900  and  1910. 

t>  Including  Austrian  Poland  and  Bohemia. 

^Including  Russian  Poland, 

It  must  not,  however,  be  forgotten  that  Jews  and  Germans  form  a  large 
proportion  of  the  foreign  bom  from  Austria,  Hungry,  and  Russia. 

The  "nwther  tongue  statistics"  gathered  in  the  last  census  are  interesting 
in  tlus  connection.  In  Pittsburg  out  of  the  total  of  fordgn-bom  whites  37.9 
per  cent  spoke  "Slavic  and  Lettic"  tODgues,  and  of  these  more  than  half  were 
Pola.  Immigraflts  speaking  "Endi^  and  Celtic"  tongues  formed  a^.3  per  cent; 
German-speaUng  immigrants,  ai.o  per  cent;  Italian-spealung  imnugrants,  lai 
percent;aodiiiimigranuwliospokeYiddisfaorHebrcw,9.i  percent.   SeeT;" 


Yiddish  or  Hebrew,  9.1  per  centrSee  Table  1, 
35 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

The  representatives  of  these  nations  touch  elbows  in  the 
streets,  so  that  the  languages  heard  on  Saturday  night  when  the 
people  are  marketing  in  the  foreign  quarters  are  as  numerous  as 
those  in  a  seaport  town.  Twenty  dialects  are  spoken.  Yet  the 
polygbt  mass  that  confuses  the  visitor  and  induces  pessimistic 
impressions  as  to  the  future  of  the  city  is  each  morning  marshalled 
to  work  without  tumult.  The  discipline  of  the  industrial  estab- 
lishments converts  this  babel  of  tongues  into  one  of  the  chief 
forces  of  production.  Therein  lies  an  appraisal  not  only  of  the 
American  entrepreneur,  but  also  of  the  adaptability  of  these  men 
coming  from  nations  of  low  efficiency,  who  are  able  so  quickly  to 
fall  into  line  and  keep  step  in  an  industrial  army  of  remarkable 
discipline  and  output. 

In  normal  times  every  day  brings  its  quota  of  immigrants; 
occasionally  they  come  by  carioads.  The  records  of  the  ports 
of  entry  show  that  in  1907,  187,618  persons  gave  Pittsburgh  as 
their  destination,  but  many  of  these  scattered  to  the  neighboring 
Pennsylvania  tovms  and  many  undoubtedly  went  to  the  mills 
and  mines  of  eastern  Ohio.  The  city  ts  a  distributing  point  and 
owing  to  this  shifting  of  the  newcomers  the  outflow  may  often 
equal  the  inflow.  Conditions  in  local  industries  determine  which 
of  these  two  currents  runs  the  swifter. 

Before  taking  up  the  living  conditions  in  Pittsburgh  as  they 
especially  affect  these  immigrant  laborers,  let  us  consider  for  a 
moment  certain  of  their  characteristics  and  their  relation  to  the 
general  economic  situation.  First,  it  is  the  wages  that  bring  them 
here.*  The  workers  on  the  hills  of  Galicia,  in  the  vineyards  of  Italy, 
and  the  factories  of  Kiev,  earn  from  25  to  50  cents  in  a  day. 
When  the  American  immigrant  writes  home  that  he  earns  from 
{1.50  to  f3.oo,  the  ablebodied  wage-earner  in  the  fatherland  who 
hears  this  will  not  be  satisfied  until  he  also  stands  where  the  higher 

*  The  Federal  Immigration  Commission,  on  the  basis  of  its  natbn-wide 
inquiiy  in  1907,  reiched  the  same  generaliution  as  Dr.  Roberts  and  Mr.  Koukol 
(p.  Bo)  u  to  Ibe  ecoDOcnic  motive  in  present  day  immigration: 

"While  social  conditions  alFect  the  situation  in  some  countries,  the  present 
immigration  from  Europe  to  the  United  Slates  is  in  the  largest  measure  due  to 
economic  causes.  It  should  be  slated,  however,  that  emigration  from  Europe  is 
not  now  an  absolute  economic  necessity,  and  as  a  rule  those  who  emigrate  to  the 
United  States  are  impelled  by  a  desire  for  betterment  rather  than  by  the  neceuity 
for  escainng  intolerable  conditions."  Abstracts  of  Eteports  of  the  Immigration 
CcHnmissioa,  p.  15.  Washington,  191 1. 


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IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

wages  govern,  [t  is  these  homegoing  letters  more  than  all  else 
which  Tecniit  the  labor  force.  They  are  eifident  promoters  of 
immigration.  Said  Big  Sam  to  me,  in  his  broken  English,  "  There 
are  no  ablebodied  men  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  fifty  years 
left  in  my  native  town  in  Servia;  they  have  all  come  to  America." 

When  prosperity  is  at  flood,  the  men  in  charge  of  furnaces, 
foundries,  forges,  and  mills  in  the  Pittsburgh  District,  can  not  get 
the  help  they  need.  The  cry  everywhere  is:  "Give  us  men."  A 
foreman,  therefore,  will  assure  Pietro  and  Melukas  that  if  brothers 
or  cousins  or  friends  are  sent  for,  they  will  get  work  as  soon  as  they 
arrive.  More  than  that,  the  Slav  and  Italian  are  no  longer  de- 
pendent upon  the  English  boss  in  the  matter  of  finding  work  for 
their  countrymen.  The  inflow  from  southeastern  Europe  has 
assumed  such  proportions  in  the  industries  of  the  cities  that  super- 
intendents have,  in  some  instances,  appointed  Italian  and  Polish 
and  Lithuanian  foremen;  and  with  these,  as  with  German  and 
Irish,  blood  is  thicker  than  water.  They  employ  their  fellow-coun- 
trymen. They  know  the  condition  of  the  labor  market  and  can 
by  suggestion  stimulate  or  retard  immigration. 

The  tonnage  industries  of  Pittsburgh  have  expanded  tre- 
mendously in  the  last  two  decades.  Such  industries  need  strong 
manual  laborers  as  do  no  others.  The  Slavs  have  brawn  for  sale. 
Herein,  at  bottom,  is  the  drawing  force  which  accounts  for  such  a 
moving  in  of  peoples  and  the  readiness  with  which  they  find  their 
places  in  the  specialized  industries  of  the  District.  Pittsburgh  has 
clamorous  need  for  these  men.  Take  the  average  Lithuanian, 
Croatian,  Ruthenian,  or  Slovak,  and  his  physique  compares  favor- 
ably with  that  of  any  people.  Most  of  the  immigrants  are 
from  agricultural  communities.  Their  food  in  the  fatheriand  is 
coarse,  their  habits  are  simple,  their  cares  few.  They  have  an 
abundance  of  vegetable  diet,  pure  water,  pure  air,  and  sunshine, 
and  they  develop  strong  physical  organisms.  Taking  them  as  a 
whole,  we  get  the  best  of  the  agricultural  population.  The  day 
has  not  yet  come  when  the  weak  emigrate  and  the  strong  stay  at 
home.  No  ship  agents,  however  active,  can  reverse  the  natural 
order  of  the  tide  of  immigration,  and  natural  selection  supple- 
mented by  federal  scrutiny  gives  us  a  body  of  men  physically 
most  fit  for  the  heaviest  demands  made  by  our  industries. 
Nowhere  has  this  been  better  illustrated  than  in  Pittsburgh. 
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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

These  men  come  to  be  "the  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of 
water."  There  are  representatives  of  each  race  far  removed 
from  the  lowest  industrial  stratum;  but  taking  these  people  as 
a  whole,  the  bulk  of  the  unskilled  labor  in  the  city — ^the  digging 
and  carrying  in  the  street,  the  heavy  labor  in  the  mill,  the  loading 
and  unloading  of  raw  material  on  railroad  and  river,  the  rough  work 
at  forge  and  foundry,  the  coarse  work  around  the  factory,  and  the 
lifting  necessary  in  the  machine  shop — is  performed  by  them. 

This  is  the  level  at  which  they  enter  the  economic  order. 
What  trade  equipment  do  they  bring  into  the  work  with  themP 
Their  industrial  efficiency  is  low  and  I  should  estimate  that  9$ 
per  cent  have  no  knowledge  of  modem  machinery  or  methods  of 
modem  production;  they  are  children infactory  training.  Further, 
those  who  have  trades  find  themselves  in  an  industrial  environ- 
ment where  their  previous  training  is  of  little  value.  They  are 
ignorant  of  the  English  language,  and  the  few  mechanics  and  trades- 
men among  them  because  of  this  ignorance  can  do  no  better  than 
join  the  ranks  of  the  common  laborers.  We  must  bear  in  mind, 
however,  that  those  who  know  how  to  use  tools,  once  they  are 
put  to  work  that  requires  some  skill  adapt  themselves  quickly  to 
it.  Hence  we  meet  not  a  few  Slavs  and  Lithuanians  who  do  work 
of  a  semi-skilled  nature;  nor  does  the  exceptional  man  stop  there. 
Sons,  also,  of  men  of  these  nationalities  who  settled  in  the  city  a 
generation  ago  have  risen  to  positions  of  standing  in  the  industries. 
It  is  not  unusual  to  hear  of  this  man  or  that  who  has  become  a  fore- 
man in  the  mills  or  taken  a  place  in  business  or  in  the  professions. 

But  on  several  counts  the  average  Slav,  Lithuanian,  and 
Italian  is  not  as  acceptable  a  day  laborer  as  was  the  immigrant 
from  northwestern  Europe.  The  common  opinion  of  American 
employers  is  that  the  newer  immigrants  are  stupid  and  that  the 
supervisory  force  must  be  much  larger  than  that  required  for 
English-speaking  help.  Many  employers  would  no  doubt  prefer 
the  latter;  but  for  the  wages  they  offer  they  must  take  the  Slav  or 
mn  short-handed.  The  United  States  immigration  agent  in 
Pittsburgh  is  constantly  besieged  by  employers  of  labor  who  need 
help.  Many  stories  are  told  of  one  firm  stealing  a  group  of 
laborers  marshalled  at  the  port  of  entry  for  another. 

The  influence  which  letters  and  money  sent  home  have 

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IMMIGEIANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

in  recruiting  immigrant  workmen  has  been  spoken  of.  These 
people  make  little  or  no  use  of  labor  agencies,  unless  the  saloon 
and  the  small  bank  may  be  so  denominated.  In  each  nationality 
there  are  acknowledged  leaders  who  play  the  part  of  intermedi- 
aries between  superintendents  and  their  people.  But  such  investi- 
gations as  I  have  made  at  Ellis  Island  do  not  lead  me  to  believe 
that  the  employers  of  labor  in  Pittsburgh  violate  the  contract 
labor  law.*  Labor  agencies  in  New  York  City  make  a  specialty 
<rf  distributing  Slavs,  Lithuanians,  and  Italians  to  firms  in  need  of 
hands.  The  leader  who  supplies  men  to  a  mill  or  mining  concern 
gets  so  much  for  each  man  supplied.  Whatever  contract  there 
may  be  is  executed  this  side  of  the  water.  For  instance,  I  found  a 
leading  Croatian  who  had  a  specific  understanding  with  one  of  the 
mills  of  Pittsburgh  that  all  men  he  brought  would  find  employment. 
No  coatnct  was  executed  and  in  the  opinion  of  the  local  immigra- 
tion agent  there  was  in  the  proceeding  no  violation  of  the  contract 
labor  law. 

The  drawbacks  to  the  new  day  laborer  as  such  have  been 
stated.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  common  opinion  in  the  Dis- 
trict that  some  employers  of  labor  give  the  Slavs  and  Italians 
preference  over  English-speaking  applicants  because  of  their 
docility,  their  habit  of  silent  submission,  their  amenability  to 
discipline,  and  their  willingness  to  work  long  hours  and  overtime 
without  a  murmur.  These  foreigners  as  a  rule  earn  the  lowest 
wages  and  work  the  full  stint  of  hours;  in  the  machine  shops  they 
work  sixty  hours  a  week;  at  the  blast  furnaces  twelve  hours  a  day 
for  seven  days  in  the  week  with  a  twenty-four-hour  turn  every 
fortnight.  The  common  laborer  in  and  around  the  mills  works 
nominally  a  ten-hour  day,  but  overtime  is  the  rule  rather  than  the 
exception  when  trade  is  good.  The  unit  of  wages  is  an  hour  rate 
for  day  labor,  and  a  Slav  is  willing  to  take  the  longer  hours  (twelve 
hours  a  day  for  men  who  may  have  worked  fourteen  and  sixteen 
on  the  farms  in  the  fatherland).  In  1907  possibly  60  to  70  per 
cent  of  the  laborers  in  the  mills  came  out  Sundays  for  the  purpose 

•  In  the  wMIem  district  of  Pennjylvania,  there  have  been  instituted  by  the 
Hailed  States  attorney  within  ten  years  33  suits  for  violation  of  the  contract  labor 
law,  of  which  one  was  pending  in  June,  igi).  Of  the  remaining  31,  31  were  di»- 
<mitinued  under  direction  of  the  attorney  general  and  one  was  carried  through 
with  the  result  that  a  verdict  of  {i.ooo  and  costs  was  secured. 

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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

of  clearing  the  yards  and  repairing.*  In  one  mill  I  found  Russians 
(Greek  Orthodox)  in  favor  for  the  reason  that  they  ^dly  worked 
on  Sundays. 

My  belief  is  that  certain  employers  of  labor  have  reaped 
advantage  from  racial  antipathies.  For  instance,  the  Pole  and  the 
Lithuanian  have  nothing  in  common  and  each  of  them  despises  the 
Slovak.  Superintendents  know  this  and  use  their  knowledge  when 
foreigners  are  likely  to  reach  a  common  understanding  upon  wages 
or  conditions  of  labor.  These  considerations  have  helped  make 
it  less  difficult  for  factory  operators  to  keep  open  shop  and  non- 
union shop  in  Pittsburgh.  The  constant  influx  of  raw  material 
fr(Hn  backward  nations  into  the  industries  of  the  city  has  had 
somewliat  the  same  elTect  as  the  flow  of  water  in  an  estuary  when 
the  tide  is  rising.  All  is  ccMnmotion.  This  conditicm  will  exist  as 
b>ng  as  the  inflow  <^  Slavs  and  Italians  continues  as  it  has  in  the 
last  decade.  But  when  they  have  become  permanratly  placed 
and  their  workaday  intelligence  and  grasp  of  American  condi- 
tions rise,  racial  prejudices  will  give  way  to  common  interests. 
When  this  time  comes,  accustomed  as  they  are  to  association  for 
protection  and  to  following  directions,  Pittsburg  will  witness  the 
rise  of  stnmger  labor  organizations  than  were  ever  effected  by 
TeuttHi  and  Kelt. 

We  have  seen,  then,  the  Slavic  day  laborers  coming  into  the 
steel  district  in  vast  numbers.  Of  their  strength  and  their  lack 
of  skill  at  the  outset  there  is  no  doubt.  We  have  noted  some  of  the 
snap  judgments  that  are  current  about  them;  such  as,  that  they 
are  stupid  and  submissive.  And  we  have  noted  also  some  of  their 
potentialities  which  must  be  reckoned  with  «i  masse  in  the  future. 
All  this  puts  us  in  position  to  get  the  bearings  of  my  flrst  statement 
that  it  is  the  wages  that  bring  them  to  Pittsburgh,  and  to  see  what 
advances  they  are  able  to  make  once  they  have  gained  a  foothtdd. 
The  Slav  enters  the  field  at  a  rate  of  pay  for  day  labor  which  is 
higher  than  that  which  brought  the  Germans  and  the  Kelts.  The 
lowest  wage  I  found  Slavs  working  for  was  i^}4  cents  an  hour. 


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IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

The  wage  of  common  labor  in  a  majority  of  the  steel  mills  in  1907 
was  15  or  i6>^  cents  for  a  ten-  or  a  twelve-hour  day.* 

But  the  newcomers  know  nothing  of  a  standard  wage,  and 
when  work  is  scarce  they  will  offer  to  work  for  less  than  is  paid  for 
common  labor.  Such  was  the  case  with  a  band  of  Croatians  who 
offered  their  services  to  a  firm  in  Pittsburgh  for  $1 .20  a  day.  When 
the  superintendent  heard  it  he  said,  "  My  Cod,  what  is  the  country 
coming  to?  How  can  a  man  live  in  Pittsburgh  on  $1.20  a  day?" 
The  foreman  replied,  "Give  them  rye  bread,  a  herring,  and  beer, 
and  they  are  all  right."  (I  have  known  a  coal  operator  in  the 
anthracite  fields  to  pay  Italians  and  Slovaks  90  cents  a  day.  and 
ask  neither  what  was  the  country  coming  to  nor  how  they  could 
subsist.) 

More,  the  Slavs  will  consciously  cut  wages  in  order  to  get 
work.  A  man  who  knows  something  about  blacksmithing  or 
carpentering  will  work  at  a  trade  for  little  more  than  half  the 
standard  wage  of  the  District.  They  count  their  money  in  the 
denominati(»is  of  the  fatherland  and  estimate  its  value  according 
to  old  country  standards.  Some  foremen  take  advantage  of  this. 
Again,  skilled  men  will  at  the  command  of  the  boss  render  menial 
services  without  a  murmur.  "These  fellows  have  no  pride," 
said  an  American  craftsman  to  me;  "  they  are  not  ruled  by  custom. 
When  the  foreman  demands  it  they  will  throw  down  the  saw  or 
hammer  and  take  the  wheelbarrow." 

So  the  Slav  gains  his  foothold  in  the  Pittsburgh  industries, 
and  while  gaining  it  he  undermines  the  income  of  the  next  higher 
industrial  group  and  incurs  the  enmity  of  the  Americans.  Shrewd 
superintendents  are  known  not  only  to  take  advantage  of  the 
influx  of  unskilled  labor  to  keep  down  day  wages,  but  to  reduce  the 
pay  of  skilled  men  by  a  gradually  enforced  system  of  promoting  the 
Slavs.  In  the  place  of  six  men  at  |io  a  day,  one  will  be  employed 
at  $1  $,  with  five  others  at  half,  or  less  than  half,  the  old  rate,  who 
will  work  under  the  high-priced  man.  Inventions,  changes  in 
processes,  new  machines,  a  hundred  elements  tend  to  complicate 
the  situation  and  render  it  difficult  to  disentangle  the  influence 
c4  any  one  element.     But  this  much  is  clear:  the  new  immigra- 

*  For  pment  rates,  see  Commoni,  John  R.:  Wage-earnen  of  Pittsburgh. 
P.  ii9ofth)SvoluiDe. 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

tton  is  a  factor  which  is  influencing  the  economic  status  of  the 
whole  wage-eaming  population  in  Pittsburgh;  it  is  bound  to  be  a 
permanent  factor;  and  its  influence  will  be  more  and  not  less. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  imagine  that  the  Slav  or  Lithuanian  can  not 
adapt  himself  to  modem  industrial  conditions.  Possibly  20  per 
cent  of  these  laborers  from  southeastern  Europe  now  work  at 
machines,  the  skill  needed  to  operate  which  requires  a  week  or 
two  weeks  to  acquire.  To  be  sure,  they  are  machines  "so  simple 
that  a  child  could  operate  them,  and  so  strong  that  a  fool  can  not 
break  them."  Many  Slovaks  work  for  the  Pressed  Steel  Car 
Company  in  Allegheny,  as  riveters,  punchers,  and  pressmen,  while 
others  are'  fitters,  carpenters,  and  blacksmiths.  Some  Croatians 
and  Servians  are  rising  and  are  found  in  the  steel  mills  as  roughers 
and  catchers.  I  saw  Ruthenians  feeding  machines  with  bars 
of  white-^ot  steel.  It  was  simple,  mechanical  work,  but  of  a 
higher  grade  than  that  of  scrap-carrier.  The  Poles  who  during 
recent  years  have  emigrated  from  Russia  and  Austria-Hungary  are 
as  industrially  efficient  as  any  group  of  immigrants  and  work  in 
both  mills  and  foundries. 

A  forei^er  who  has  a  chance  to  become  a  machine  operator 
generally  goes  into  piece  work  and  in  1907  his  earnings  were  likely 
to  average  from  I2.00  to  {2.50  a  day.  But  all  men  at  the  machines 
are  not  on  piece  work.  A  foreman  explained  this  to  me  as  follows : 
"  If  the  machine  depends  upon  the  man  for  speed,  we  put  him  on 
piece  work;  if  the  machine  drives  the  man,  we  pay  him  by  the  day." 
The  man  operating  a  machine  by  the  day  got  from  $1.75  to  f2.oo. 
Many  boys  and  young  women  of  Slavic  parentage  work  in  the 
spike,  nut  and  bolt,  and  steel  wire  factories.  They  sat  before  ma- 
chines and  pickling  urns  for  ten  hours  and  received  from  75  cents 
to  $1.00  a  day. 

The  Slovak  riveters,  punchers,  shearsmen,  and  pressmen  in 
the  Pressed  Steel  Car  Company's  plant  were  paid  by  the  piece  and 
for  the  most  part  made  from  f  3;  to  $50  in  two  weeks.*  Fitters, 
carpenters,  blacksmiths,  and  painters  were  getting  from  $2.00  to 
$2.50  by  the  day.    A  Slavic  banker  told  me  of  Croatians  and  Ser- 

*  A  pooling  system,  accompanied  by  rale  cuts,  which  was  put  in  effect  in  1909, 
led  to  a  proloDged  stnkc  in  which  Sii\s  and  Americans  joined  forces.  See  Tbt 
SuT^,  XXll:  656-663  (August  7,  1909). 


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IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

vians  who  made  as  high  as  ¥70  in  two  weeks,  and  others  who  made 
between  $3.00  and  ^.00  a  day — many  of  them  in  positions  which 
once  paid  En^ish-speaking  workmen  twice  those  sums.  High  and 
low  are  relative  terms  and  they  signify  very  different  standards 
to  a  Slav  and  to  an  American. 

There  is  much  that  inspires  to  prophecy  in  the  sight  of  the 
thousands  of  Slavs  already  doing  efficient  worit  in  the  mills.  The 
sooner  the  English-speaking  workers  recognize  this  and  make 
friends  of  these  workers,  the  better.  No  class  of  work  is  now  mo- 
nopolized by  Teuton  and  Kelt,  and  the  service  rendered  by  the 
Slav  and  Lithuanian  will  b^ore  many  years  equal  that  of  the  for- 
mer in  market  value. 

With  this  rapid  statement  of  the  economic  position  of  the 
Slavs,  we  can  more  intelligently  approach  the  problem  of  their 
living  OHiditions.  But  first  let  us  bear  sharply  in  mind  that 
their  work  is  often  cast  among  dangers;  is  often  inimical  to  health. 
Many  work  in  intense  heat,  the  din  of  machinery,  and  the  noise 
of  escaping  steam.  The  congested  condition  of  most  of  the 
plants  in  Pittsburgh  adds  to  the  physical  discomforts  for  an  out- 
of-doors  people,  while  their  ignorance  of  the  language  and  of 
modem  machinery  increases  the  risk.  How  many  of  the  Slavs, 
Lithuanians,  and  Italians  were  injured  in  Pittsburgh  in  one  year 
noone  could  tell  me  in  1907.  No  reliable  statistics  were  compiled. 
In  their  absence  people  guessed  and  the  mischief  wrought  by 
contradictory  and  biased  statements  was  met  with  on  alt  hands. 
When  I  mentioned  to  a  priest  a  plant  that  had  a  bad  reputation 
he  said,  "Oh,  that  is  the  slaughter  house;  they  kill  than  there 
every  day."  I  quote  htm  not  for  his  accuracy,  but  to  show  how 
rumors  circulate  and  are  real  to  the  people  themselves.  Exag- 
{^rated  though  such  hearsay  was,  the  waste  in  life  and  limb  has 
for  years  been  great — and  so  continues — and  if  it  had  all  fallen 
upon  the  native  bom  a  cry  would  have  gone  up  long  since  which 
would  have  stayed  the  slaughter.* 

*  Of  tbe  }OOindiuImlfaUliIie»  inoneycarin  Allegheny  County  (J  "'y  ■■  'QOiS. 
to  June  )o,  iQo?),  gathered  by  the  E*ittsbuTgh  Survey  from  the  coronePs  office,  the 
einplover.  aixftne  family,  291  were  foreign  bom.  See.  in  this  volume,  Kellogg. 
Paul  U.:  Community  and  workshop,  p.  34;   Porter,  op.  cil..  page   345; 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

In  the  matter  of  oimpensation  for  injuries,  the  American 
workman  has  been  and  remains  at  sore  disadvantage  under  Penn- 
sylvania laws,  but  the  foreign  speaking  has  been  subjected  to  ad- 
ditional injustice.* 

Up  to  191 1,  if  the  widow  of  a  man  killed  in  a  mine  or  mUl 
of  Pennsylvania  lived  in  Europe  she  could  not  recover  any  dam- 
ages,t  even  though  the  accident  were  entirely  due  to  the  ne^ect  of 
the  company.  Because  of  this  ruling,  certain  strong  companies  in 
the  Pittsburgh  District  seldom  paid  a  cent  to  the  relatives  of  the  de- 
ceased if  they  dwelt  beyond  the  seas.  1  asked  a  leader  among  the 
Italians,  "Why  do  you  settle  the  serious  cases  for  a  few  hundred 
dtdlars?"  He  replied:  "We  find  it  best  after  much  bitter  ^tperi- 
ence.  The  courts  are  against  us;  a  jury  will  not  mulct  a  corpora- 
tion to  send  money  to  Europe;  the  relatives  are  not  here  to  bewail 
their  loss  in  court;  the  average  American  cares  nothing  for  the 
foreigner.  Every  step  of  the  way  we  meet  with  prejudices  and 
find  positive  contempt,  from  those  in  highest  authority  in  the 
courts  down  to  the  tipstaff.  When  I  settle  for  $300, 1  can  do  noth- 
ing better." 

The  influence  of  the  industries  reaches  still  further  into  the 
lives  of  the  immigrants.  Each  people  has  a  tendency  to  colonize 
in  one  section  of  the  city  and  to  work  in  some  one  mill.  The 
Bohemians  are  strong  in  Allegheny  City,  but  few  of  them  are 
found  in  Pittsburgh.  The  Slovaks  predominate  in  McKees  Rocks 
and  Allegheny  Gty,  and  many  of  ihem  are  found  in  the  Soho  dis- 
trict of  Pittsburgh.  The  Poles  are  numerous  in  many  parts  of 
the  Greater  City.  The  Lithuanians  live  in  large  numbers  on  the 
South  Side  and  near  the  National  Tube  Works  and  the  American 
Steel  and  Wire  Company.     Many  Ruthenians  work  in  the  Oliver 

PitubuTgb  Survey.)  An  appendix  therein  presenti  the  accident  prevention  work 
carried  on  by  the  cotutituent  companies  of  the  Steel  Corporation — the  largest 
employer  of  the  Diitricl — under  »  central  safety  committee  appointed  April, 
igO&.  Certain  progressive  employeis,  as  the  Pittsburgh  Steel  Company,  had  car^ 
lier  addrtsHd  themselves  to  some  phases  of  the  ptoblem;  more  have  done  so 
since.  But  there  is  no  local  or  state  compilation  of  accident  statistics  that 
amounts  to  anything,  and  the  public  remains  in  ignorance  as  to  the  current  human 
kMS  in  iikdustty. 

*See  p,  34,  thb  volume. 

t  This  law  of  1911  provides  that  when  an  alien  dies  from  injuries  the  bus- 
band,  widow,  parents,  or  children  of  such  alien,  although  residing  abroad  at  the 
time  of  tbe  injury,  can  recover  damages. 


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New  PiTTseuRGHERs  AND  Old 

Uniformed  national  socielies  in  Ihe  scsqui-centennial  parade  in  t^9.     Two  hjghlanden, 

represenrative  of  ihe  older  immigration,  at  ihc  lower  right 


Digitized  .yCOOgle 


Basin  Allev 
In  the  Italian  quarter  on  Ihe  Hill,  Pittsburgh 


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IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

Steel  Works,  while  the  Croatians  and  Servians  have  worked  for 
the  most  part  in  the  Jones  and  Laughlin  plants.  My  information 
is  that  other  things  being  equal,  foremen  try  to  get  one  nationality 
in  assigning  work  to  a  group  of  laborers,  for  they  know  that  a 
homogeneous  group  will  give  them  the  best  results.  National 
pride  also  enters  into  selection.  In  talking  to  a  Lithuanian  of  the 
serious  loss  of  life  which  had  occurred  when  a  furnace  blew  up, 
I  asked,  "Were  any  of  your  people  killed  in  that  accident?"  He 
answered  quickly,  "  No;  catch  our  people  doing  such  work  as  that ! 
There  you  find  the  Slovak."  Of  the  grades  of  unskilled  labor, 
the  Slovak,  Croatian,  Servian,  and  Russian  (Greek  Orthodox) 
may  be  said  to  perform  tasks  the  roughest  and  most  risky,  and  the 
most  injurious  to  health.  There  is,  then,  a  more  or  less  natural 
selection  of  peoples  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  different  great 
mills. 

The  geographical  contour  of  the  region  has  also  had  its 
influence  in  keeping  the  foreign  population  within  certain  limited 
districts.  The  two  rivers,  the  Allegheny  and  the  Monongahela, 
have  cut  their  beds  into  the  Allegheny  range,  leaving  a  narrow 
strip  of  land  on  either  side  of  their  banks  which  offers  limited 
sites  for  dwellings,  mills,  and  factories.  The  lowlands  were  pre- 
empted long  ago,  and  the  contest  for  parts  of  them  between  the 
mills  and  the  homes  has  been  intense.  There  is  an  advantage 
to  the  employer,  however,  in  having  his  crude  labor  force  within 
easy  call,  and  night  work  and  the  cost  of  carfare  help  keep  the  mass 
of  men  employed  in  common  labor  near  the  mills  and  on  the  con- 
gested lowlands.  1  visited  homes  of  Slavs  and  Lithuanians  which 
were  clean,  well  furnished,  and  equal  in  comfort  to  those  of  Ameri- 
cans of  the  same  economic  level.  These  foreigners  had  been  in 
the  country  many  years  and  their  children  had  become  thoroughly 
assimilated. 

But  our  first  concern  is  with  the  recent  comers,  who  too  often 
live  in  lodgings  that  are  filthy:  whose  peasant  habits  seem  to  us 
uncouth;  and  whose  practices  are  fatal  to  decency  and  morality  in 
a  thickly  settled  district. 

Yet  the  foreigner  pays  a  higher  rent  than  does  the  "white 
man."  In  Bass  Street,  Allegheny  City,  English-speaking  tenants 
were  paying  $15  a  month  for  four  rooms,  but  Slavs  were  charged 
45 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

fso;  othen  paid  |io  and  $I3  a  month  for  houses  for  which  Slavs 
were  charged  f  17  and  J18.  On  Penn  Avenue  a  Slav  paid  $17  for 
three  rear  rooms,  while  an  English-speaking  family  renting  ei^t 
rooms  in  the  front  of  the  building  paid  but  ¥33.  One  family  paid 
99.50  for  one  large  room  in  an  old  residence  on  the  South  Side; 
another  paid  $10  for  two  rooms,  another  }i6  for  three;  and  on 
Brandt  Street  a  man  was  found  who  paid  {22  a  month  for  four. 

The  rent  is  not  always  fixed  by  the  landlord.  Where 
lodgers  are  taken  it  is  sometimes  regulated  by  the  number  the 
"  boarding  boss"  can  crowd  in,  the  landlord  getting  $1 .00  a  nwnth 
extra  for  each  boarder.  Many  houses  of  from  eight  to  12 
rooms  had  in  them  anywhere  from  three  to  six  families.  They 
were  built  for  one  family,  and  until  such  time  as  the  owners  might 
be  forced  by  the  bureau  of  health  to  install  sanitary  appliances, 
there  was  every  prospect  that  they  would  have  equipment  for  but 
one.  Too  many  landlords  when  they  deal  with  foreigners  have  ap- 
parently one  dominating  passion — rent.  They  make  no  repairs, 
and  with  the  crowded  condition  above  described  the  houses  soon 
bear  marks  of  ill  usage.  Whenever  foreigneis  invade  a  neighbor- 
hood occupied  by  English-speaking  tenants,  property  depreciates. 
The  former  occupants  get  out,  the  invaders  multiply,  and  often 
the  properties  pass  into  the  hands  of  speculators.  Houses  once 
occupied  by  Slavs  can  seldom  be  rented  again  to  Angk>^axons. 

It  is  in  the  immigrant  lodging  houses  that  conditions  are  the 
worst,  though  not  always  so  with  the  choice  of  the  men.  The 
Croatians,  Servians,  Roumanians,  and  Greeks  have  only  from  5 
to  10  per  cent  of  women  among  them;  hence  the  men  of  these 
nationalities  have  but  few  boarding  houses  conducted  by  their 
own  people  to  go  to,  and  crowding  is  inevitable.  English-speaking 
and  German  families  will  not  open  their  doors  to  them.  Single 
men  in  groups  of  from  six  to  30  go  into  one  house  in  charge  of  a 
boarding  boss  and  his  wife.  Each  man  pays  from  75  cents  to 
$1 .00  a  week  for  a  place  to  sleep  and  the  little  cooking  and  washing 
that  are  to  be  done.  Accounts  of  food  for  the  company  are  kept 
in  one  book,  and  every  two  weeks  the  sum  total  is  divided  equally 
among  the  boarders,  each  man  paying  his  pro  raia  share.  The 
bill  for  two  weeks  will  hardly  amount  to  $3.00  a  man,  so  that 
the  average  boarder  will  spend  perhaps  $10  a  month  on  room  rent 

46 


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IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

and  maintenance.  When  men  pay  $3.^0  for  room  rent,  soup  is 
included  in  the  contract.*  The  mania  for  saving  results  in  many 
cases  in  skimping  on  the  necessaries  of  life.  A  priest  told  me  of  a 
Lithuanian  who  spent  10  cents  a  day  for  food  and  by  helping  the 
landlady  in  her  housework  saved  his  room  rent.  A  number  of  Rus- 
sians on  Tustine  Street  were  paying  $3.00  a  month  for  room  rent; 
they  bought  bread  made  by  Russian  Jews,  got  a  herring  and  a  pot 
of  beer,  and  lived — not  always — in  peace. 

Ekimestic  tragedies  sometimes  invade  these  communal 
households,  such  as  a  case  of  assault  and  battery  which  came  up  in 
an  alderman's  ofhce.  The  complainant  was  a  single  man  who 
appeared  with  a  ghastly  scalp  wound.  When  his  boarding  boss 
had  presented  his  bill  at  the  end  of  two  weeks,  the  charges  were 
^5.00  more  than  the  boarder  thought  they  should  be.  He  pro- 
tested and  the  boarding  boss  took  a  hatchet  to  silence  him. 

In  these  boarding  establishments  the  kitchen  is  commonly 
used  as  a  bedroom.  When  the  boarding  boss  rents  two  rooms, 
he  and  his  wife  sleep  in  the  kitchen,  and  the  boarders  take  the 
other  room.  It  is  not  altogether  unusual  for  a  boarding  boss  to 
rent  but  one  room.  He  and  his  wife  put  their  bed  in  one  comer, 
the  stove  in  another,  and  the  boarders  take  the  remaining  comers. 
Sometimes  the  rooms  are  so  crowded  that  the  boss  and  his  wife 
sleep  on  the  floor;  and  cases  were  repeatedly  to  be  found  where 
beds  were  being  worked  double  shift — night  and  day.  The  city 
bureau  of  health  in  1907  endeavored  to  reduce  the  number  of  beds 
in  a  room,  but  it  did  not  follow  that  the  people  occupjang  that 
room  got  out, — they  slept  on  the  floor  minus  the  bed.  The  prob- 
lem is  one  of  the  hardest  that  sanitary  inspectors  have  to  cope 
with. 

Sometimes  four  or  six  men  rent  a  house  and  run  it  them- 
selves, doing  their  own  cooking  and  washing  and  occasionally 
bringing  in  a  woman  to  clean  a  little.  They  may  stand  this 
for  about  six  months  and  then  leave  when  the  rooms  are  past 
cleaning.  Such  crowding  is  very  prevalent  in  the  low-lying  parts 
of  the  South  Side,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Penn  Avenue  in  the  city 

*  For  a  man  extended  presenlation  of  the  boardinsboss  syitem,  tee  B)iiigton, 
Marguet  F.:  Homestead:  The  Households  of  a  Mill  Town,  pp.  138-140.  (The 
nttslnir^  Survey.) 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

proper,  and  in  sections  of  Allegheny.  On  Tustine  Street  I  found 
33  Russians,  composing  three  families,  living  in  one  house  of  six 
rooms  and  an  attic.  The  Croatians  also  crowd  badly.  A  milk 
dealer  told  me  of  38  who  lived  in  a  small  house  in  Carey  Alley. 
When  1  asked,  "  How  do  they  live?"  his  reply  was,  "  I  don't  know 
and  don't  care  if  I  get  my  money  for  my  milk."  His  reply  summed 
up  the  attitude  of  many  of  the  English-speaking  people  who  have 
dealings  with  them.  In  Pork  House  Row  and  near  Eckert  Street 
in  Allegheny,  things  were  no  better,  and  conditions  in  some  blocks 
of  houses  under  the  California  Avenue  bridge  were  a:s  bad  as  any 
seen.  The  Italians  are  close  livers;  but  possibly  the  worst  con- 
ditions I  saw  were  among  the  Armenians  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Basin  Alley. 

Before  we  condemn  immigrants,  however,  for  the  filth  of 
their  lodgings,  we  must  remember  that  they  are  largely  rural 
people  unused  to  such  city  barracks,  and  that  they  are  frequent 
sufferers  from  our  own  municipal  neglect.  This  fact  is  illustrated 
especially  by  their  ignorance  of  the  danger  of  typhoid  fever. 
Dr.  Leon  Sadowski  estimated  that  as  high  as  $0  per  cent  of  all 
young  foreigners  who  had  come  to  Pittsburgh  up  to  1907,  con- 
tracted typhoid  within  two  yearsof  their  coming.*  Dr.  Maracovick 
told  me  that  in  four  years  no  less  than  100  Croatians  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Smallman  Street  had  come  down  with  the  fever,  and 
that  most  of  them  had  died.  "  You  can  not  make  the  foreigner 
believe  that  Pittsburgh  water  is  unwholesome,"  said  another 
physician.  "  He  comes  from  rural  communities  where  contamina- 
tion of  water  is  unknown."  Other  physicians  told  of  men  who  had 
been  warned,  deliberately  going  to  the  river  to  quench  their 
thirst. 

Where  so  many  single  men  are  huddled  together  the  laws 
of  decency  and  morality  are  hard  to  observe.  The  boarding 
boss  seldom  has  a  family  and,  in  going  the  round  of  these  houses, 
the  absence  of  children  is  conspicuous.  A  physician  who  works 
among  them  said,  "  The  average  boarding  boss's  wife  can  not  have 
any, — the  moral  conditions  make  it  a  physical  impossibility." 

*  The  municipal  filtration  plant  which  has  overcome  tbis  lituition  was 
first  operated  in  19116.  Sec  Wing,  Frank  £.:  Thiny-five  Yean  of  Typhoid.  The 
Pittsburgh  District,  p.  6j. 


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I  *  Room;  Two  in  a  Bed 

IS  writing  home.     Before  him  were  piclures  of 


NiCHT  Scene  in  a  Slavic  Lodging  House 
Three  men  in  the  far  bed,  two  in  each  of  Ihe  others,  twelve  in  the  room.     In 
some  of  these  lodgings  day  workers  sleep  at  night  in  the  beds  occupied  by  night 
workers  in  the  daytime 


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ii 

■3  2 


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IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

She  stands  in  striking  contrast  to  the  average  Slavic  woman  who 
in  her  natural  environment  is  the  mother  of  children.  These 
mid-European  peoples  are  not  so  passionate  as  the  Italians,  but 
many  of  the  single  men,  as  is  the  case  in  all  barracks  life,  will  fall 
into  vice.  A  physician  toid  me  that  gonorrhea  is  very  prevalent 
among  the  Croatians  and  Servians ;  another  said  of  the  Slavs  in  gen- 
eral, "They  frequent  cheap  bawdy  houses  and  come  out  diseased 
and  robbed."  Many  brothels  hereabouts  are  known  as  "Johnny 
Houses,"  for  the  reason  that  they  are  frequented  by  foreigners 
whose  proper  names  are  unpronounceable  and  who  go  by  the  name 
of  "John."  These  were  houses  of  the  cheapest  kind  given  over 
to  prostitutes  in  the  last  stages.*  The  number  entering  them  on 
a  "wide-awake"  (pay)  Saturday  night  was  large.  A  man  who 
knew  this  section  fairly  well,  said,  "Sometimes  these  men  have 
to  wait  their  turn." 

The  presence  of  young  immigrant  women  in  the  lodging 
houses  adds  to  the  seriousness  of  the  situation.  Here  again  it  is 
a  question  of  wages  that  brings  them  to  this  country.  They  do 
the  drudgery  in  the  hotels  and  restaurants  which  English-speaking 
^rls  will  not  do;  and  they  are  to  be  found  in  factories  working 
under  conditions  which  their  English-speaking  sisters  would 
resent.f  If  any  persons  need  protection,  these  young  women  do. 
There  was  no  adequate  inspection  of  the  labor  employment  agen- 
cies in  Pittsburgh,  which  solicit  patronage  among  them,  often 
to  wrong  them.  Not  only  did  some  of  these  agencies  make  a 
practice  of  taking  their  money  but  they  sent  girls  to  houses  unfit 
for  them.  An  innocent  girl  may  leam  the  character  of  the  house 
only  when  it  is  too  late.  And  even  if  sent  to  the  average  immigrant 
lodging  house  her  lot  is  a  hard  one,  especially  when  the  men  of  the 
place  are  on  a  carouse. 

Slavs  and  Lithuanians  are  fond  of  drink  and  spend  their 
money  freely  on  it.  Some  spend  more  money  on  beer  than  they 
do  on  food.  The  evidences  of  drink  in  the  homes  were  apparent 
on  all  sides.  Empty  beer  kegs  and  bottles  were  to  be  seen  every- 
where.    In  Lalimore  Alley  on  a  September  morning,  1  counted 

*  Sm  Forbes,  James:  Tbe  Reverse  Side.    P.  307  of  this  volume. 
tSee  Butler,  Elizabeth  B.*  Women  and  the  Trades,   pp.  34-35.    (The 
Pittsburfh  Survey.) 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

20  empty  kegs  in  one  yard;  and  in  another  comer  there  was  a 
pile  of  empty  bottles.  It  is  nothing  unusual  for  a  beer  wagon  on 
Saturday  to  deliver  into  one  of  these  boarding  houses  from  eight 
to  r2  cases  of  beer.  When  a  keg  is  opened  the  boarders  feel 
that  they  must  drain  it.  "  It  won't  keep,"  they  say.  Sunday  is  the 
day  for  drinking.  One  man  often  drinks  from  15  to  20  bottles, 
while  he  who  drinks  from  the  keg  consumes  from  two  to  three 
gallons.  The  appalling  size  of  these  draughts  is  of  course  influ- 
enced by  customs  in  the  old  country  where  beers  are  many  times 
lighter  than  our  intoxicating  American  brews. 

No  social  gathering  is  complete  without  drink.  Marriages, 
baptisms,  social  occasions,  holidays  are  all  celebrated  with  beer 
and  liquor.  There  is  no  good  time  and  no  friendship  without 
it.  The  Slavs  usually  rent  a  hall  to  celebrate  their  weddings. 
The  scenes  of  debauchery  with  which  such  festivities  sometimes 
end  are  discountenanced  by  the  respectable  element. 

Not  only  do  national  customs  and  national  tastes  and 
usages  make  for  drunkenness,  but  also  the  undeniable  fact  that 
the  liquor  saloons  are  the  only  American  institutions  which 
effectively  reach  the  great  mass  of  the  non-English-speaking 
immigrants.  For  the  young  men  pool  rooms  afford  loafing  places 
of  the  worst  sort.  The  cheap  vaudeville  shows,  nickelodeons, 
and  skating  rinks  are  run  for  profit  and  not  for  the  sake  of 
clean  recreation  such  as  the  community  should  provide. 

Where  the  environment  of  the  home  is  insanitary  and  repul- 
sive, and  where  opportunities  for  recreation  are  limited  and 
sordid,  crime  is  bound  to  flourish.  Approximately  one-fifth  of 
the  persons  incarcerated  in  Allegheny  County  in  recent  years 
have  been  immigrants  from  southeastern  Europe.  A  visit  to  the 
police  stations  of  the  South  Side  on  Sunday  morning  when  the 
police  magistrate  dispenses  justice  after  a  "wide-awake"  Saturday 
night,  is  a  thing  never  to  be  forgotten.*  In  such  a  section  the 
foreigners  form  a  majority  of  the  offenders.  On  one  of  my  visits 
to  a  South  Side  court  a  young  Slav  was  brought  in  who  had  vio- 
lated a  city  ordinance.  He  could  not  speak  English.  The 
magistrate  asked  him  how  long  he  had  been  in  the  country. 
"  Four  years,"  he  replied.  "And  you  can  not  talk  English?"  said 
•  See  Forbes,  James:   The  Reverse  Side.    P.  378  of  this  volume. 


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IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

the  judge.  "  Don't  you  know  that  you  ought  to  learn  English  that 
you  may  know  we  have  laws  and  ordinances  which  must  be 
obeyed?"  In  the  judge's  remark  there  was  a  deeper  commentary 
on  civic  duties  unfulfilled  than  he  perhaps  realized.  Who  was  to 
blame?  Was  it  the  Slav  boy?  Or  was  it  the  community  which 
had  failed  to  meet  him  halfway? 

Here  it  is  well  to  point  out  that  the  public  school  authorities 
had  not  made  any  strenuous  effort  to  open  evening  schools  for 
foreign  adults  in  the  city.  The  notable  exception  to  this  rule  was 
the  work  conducted  by  Principal  J.  W.  Anthony  among  the^Jewish 
people  of  the  Hill  District,  which  grew  out  of  classes  at  Columbian 
Settlement.  Another  evening  school,  in  the  establishment  of 
which  a  priest  was  the  prime  mover,  met  with  fair  success  for  a 
time,  but  the  foreigners  dropped  out  quickly.  When  asked  why 
the  school  was  given  up,  one  of  the  school  officials  said  that  the 
pupils  did  not  want  it  to  continue.  Their  hours  of  work,  however, 
their  fatigue,  and  changing  shifts  probably  were  more  important 
factors.  Kingsley  House,  Woods  Run,  and  Columbian  Settlement 
were  carrying  on  successful  classes  for  foreigners,  and  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Associations  of  the  districts  were  only  entering 
the  field  of  civic  and  language  instruction.*  The  development  of 
the  evening  courses  of  the  Carnegie  Technical  Schools  had  been  sig- 
nificant, but  as  yet  they  had  not  reached  unskilled  immigrants,  who 
need  a  nearby  elementary  help. 

The  camp  school  opened  at  Aspinwall  in  190;  by  Miss 
Sarah  Moore  for  the  Society  for  the  Protection  of  Italian  Immi- 
grants, was  the  first  of  its  sort  in  the  country.  This  school  and 
the  later  one  carried  on  at  Ambridge  illustrated  what  could  be 
dora,  and  what  response  could  be  looked  for  from  the  immigrants 
themsdves.  More  important  still,  these  schools  were  in  1907  the 
means  of  securing  the  passage  in  Pennsylvania  of  legislation  en- 

*  Dr.  Robmi'  npoit  in  1907  as  a  member  of  a  committee  of  the  Penmyl- 
vania  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  led  to  a  recognition  of  Ibe  importance  of 
work  for  imoiiBrants  by  both  state  and  national  bodies.  I^e  was  made  secretary 
fotiftimigratiMioftbciKWlmlusiriai  Department  of  the  International  Committee 
and  this  Pittsburgh  investigation  was  his  tint  lield  work  as  a  baiis  for  mapping 
oat  plans.  In  the  years  succeeding,  there  has  been  a  remartuble  expansion  in  the 
woric  among  foreigncn  carried  on  by  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
io  the  Pittsburgh  District.    See  Appendix  HE,  p.4i4of  this  volunte.—EDiTCM. 

51 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

abling  local  school  authorities  to  open  classes  for  adults.  But  in 
Greater  Pittsburgh  it  remained  true  that  the  educational  author- 
ities were  not  yet  awake  to  the  importance  of  opening  schools  for 
foreign-speaking  people  and  inducing  them  to  attend.  Yet  there 
could  have  been  no  greater  service  rendered  these  young  foreigners 
(or  the  city  that  harbors  them)  than  that  of  aiding  them  to  form 
clubs,  and  of  engaging  competent  men  to  teach  them  English  and 
give  them  some  idea  of  the  history  and  laws  of  the  country.* 

In  police  station  No.  3  on  Penn  Avenue,  the  cases  averaged 
44;  a  month  during  the  ten  months  covered  by  my  study.  Drunk- 
enness and  disorderly  conduct  predominated,  and  27  per  cent  of 
the  charges  were  brought  against  foreigners  from  southeastern 
Europe.  Three-quarters  of  the  accused  were  single  men.  The 
large  number  of  single  men  among  the  foreigners  who  lack  decent 
homes  doubtless  partly  accounts  for  the  frequency  of  their  arrest. 
Similar  proportions  were  found  at  station  No.  7,  Carson  Street. 

The  docket  of  an  alderman's  court  on  the  South  Side,  in 
an  area  where  Slavs  and  Lithuanians  form  a  large  part  of  the 
population,  showed  that  40  per  cent  of  the  accused  were  of  these 
nationalities;  but  these  cases  varied  greatly  from  those  in  the 
police  stations.  His  list  tended  to  confirm  the  general  report 
that  the  aldermen  were  giving  preference  to  cases  where  fees 
were  sure.  Immigrants,  ofttimes  innocent,  were  the  special  prey 
of  such  as  were  unscrupulous.  Even  so,  profits  were  not  what 
they  once  had  been.  "The  foreigner  knows  too  much  now;  old 
times  are  past,"  a  constable  said.  In  the  old  times  he  had  made 
from  $1 ;  to  $20  a  day.  But  even  if  the  most  flagrant  abuses  are 
now  infrequent  and  if  some  of  the  aldermen  are  of  good  character, 
the  system  of  irresponsible  petty  judges,  dependent  along  with 
their  court  attendants  upon  the  fees  that  come  in,  is  wrong,  and 
the  foreigner  is  the  most  grievous  sufferer  from  it.f 

*  See  North.  Lila  Ver  Planck :  Ptttiburgh  School*.  The  Pittsburgh  District, 
p.  187.  Also  Kennard,  Beulih:  The  New  Kttsburgh  School  System.  Ibid., 
p.  469.  Action  uken  by  the  new  central  board  of  education  in  1913,  made  night 
claue*  an  integral  part  of  the  lystem  of  public  education.  For  a  deicription  of 
the  work  of  Khool  and  home  libraries  among  foreignera  lee  Olcott,  Frances  J.: 
The  Public  Library.    The  Pittsburgh  District,  p.  334. 

t  In  1911  by  act  of  legislaturea  county  court  with  five  judges  wascstablisbed. 
In  I^ttsbur^,  it  makes  a  resort  to  aldermanic  courts  in  civil  cases  practically 
unnecesury.    In  spite  of  the  feeling  against  aldermanic  courts,  it  was  found  im- 

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IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

We  must  not,  however,  over-estimate  the  lawlessness  among 
these  people.  We  have  seen  the  manner  of  life  of  the  single  men 
of  the  industrial  army,  and  the  dangers  that  beset  them.  What 
encouragement  is  there  to  the  immigrant  who  seriously  wants  to 
get  ahead  in  life?  A  priest  estimated  that  one-tenth  of  the  young 
men  of  his  race  who  come  to  this  District  go  to  the  bad;  the  other 
nine-tenths  may  drink  more  or  less,  but  they  manage  to  save 
money  and  in  time  acquire  property.  Of  the  Lithuanian  families 
in  Pittsburgh  more  than  lo  per  cent  own  their  homes.  Many 
Poles  and  Slovaks  also  have  purchased  homes.  When  an  Italian 
resolves  to  stay  in  this  country,  he  buys  a  house.  But  in  1907 
few  Croatians,  Ruthenians,  and  Servians  owned  real  estate. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  there  are  influential  Slavs 
and  Lithuanians  living  in  the  better  residential  sections.  Some 
Poles  and  Italians  are  in  the  professions,  and  some  Lithuanians 
are  prosperous  business  men.  All  these  people,  however,  do 
business  among  their  own  countrymen,  and  as  yet  their  influ- 
ence is  largely  restricted  to  this  circle.  The  leading  banks  of  Pitts- 
burgh have  learned  that  immigrants  save  their  money,  and  many 
of  them  have  a  foreign  exchange  department  in  charge  of  a  foreign- 
speaking  man  who  is  a  leader  among  his  countrymen. 

A  banker  doing  business  among  the  Servians  stated  that  each 
pay  day  he  sent  back  between  ¥20,000  and  ¥25,000  to  the  old  coun- 
try. In  September  of  1907,  one  of  the  banks  on  the  South  Side 
where  the  foreigners  do  business  had  f6oo,ocio  on  deposit.  Such  a 
showing  had  come  only  after  a  vigorous  campaign  on  the  part  of 
the  banks  of  Pittsburgh  to  overcome  the  distrust  which  foreigners 
felt  toward  private  institutions.  1  ndividual  small  banks  conducted 
by  men  of  their  own  lutionality  were  the  rule  for  many  years. 
The  institutions  were  ephemeral  and  the  impression  prevailed 
among  the  laborers  that  they  were  schemes  of  sinister  men  to 
wheedle  their  money  from  them.  Some  men  still  secrete  their 
savings,  trusting  no  one. 

poraible  lo  abotUli  them  immediately,  both  because  of  the  strong  political  influence 
of  the  aldennen  in  their  several  winls  and  because  »  constitutional  amendment 
is  held  to  be  necessary.  So  that  in  civil  matters,  wherever  a  litipnt  is  so 
disposed,  and  in  criminal  matters,  the  aldermen  ply  their  activities  as  oif 
yore.  The  county  court,  which  has  proved  eminently  satisfactory  to  attom^s 
and  the  public,  is  regarded  as  an  entenng  wedge  which  will  ultimately  result  in  the 
abolishment  of  aidermanic  courts  in  Pittsburgh.  They  continue  to  be  the  petty 
custodians  of  law  and  rights  in  the  minor  industiial  communiliei  of  the  State. 
See  Blaxter,  H.  V.:  The  Aldermen  and  (heir  Courts.  The  Rttsbur^  District, 
p.  i}9.    Alw  Kellogg,  op.  dt.,  p.  ij,  and  Forbes,  op.  cit.,  p.  y^  of  this  volume. 

53 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 


Through  the  courtesy  of  one  ctf  the  Pittsburgh  bankers,  this 
table  of  13  representative  Slavic  depositors  is  given: 


TABLE  }. — AMOUNTS 

DEPOSITED    BY 
BANK.      1906-1 

3  SLAVS 
907 

IN    A    PITTSBURGH 

Amounts  Deposited  During 

DtpniioTS 

Neormber 

March. 
anlMay 

Jily.cnd 

TtAat 
DtpotiUd 

A 

B 

C 

D 

E 

F 

C 

1 

c ;   ;   ;   ;   ! 

L 

$9i 
103 
45 
ii 

60 
340 
70 

100 

lOJ 

as 

•& 

too 
60 

IJO 

190 
jo 

>30 

93 
as 

'd 

100 
60 
SO 

14s 

300 

90 

lOS 
7J 
SO 

»s 

'IS 

140 
40 

Ui7 
J35 
300 

300 
ajs 

SaS 

300 

The  extent  to  which  the  new  postal  savings  system  has  been 
utilized  in  Pittsburgh  is  shown  in  the  following  tabk: 

TABLE  4.— POSTAL  SAVINGS  DEPOSITS  AND  DEPOSITORS  BY  RACE  AND 
COUNTRY  OF  BIRTH  OF  DEPOSITORS,  PITTSBURGH,  JUNE  3O,  1913 


Deposits 

Depositors 

RauamdOmidty 
oj  Birtb 

Avtragg 
AmoHiaptr 
DepotUor 

AmtmM 

NuwAtr 

PtrOm 

Native-bom  white* 

I67.98 

UtAii 

315 

43-7 

Forcigii-bon)  whites  bom  in 

Russia        .              .       . 

Italy 

Gerauny    .... 

Fr/:   : 

Other  foreign  countries  > . 

;oi.ii 

9J-8s 

r7.79i 
6jJ4 
6.624 
4.140 

3.191 

143 
S9 
47 
41 
4" 
a? 
34 

■ri 

6-S 
S-7 
S-7 
37 

47 

Toui      .... 
Negroes 

»l«3-34 
3J.64 

J44.39I 
3S9 

39" 
■4 

S4-4 
1-9 

Grand  total       .       .       . 

fel77 

»66.i6s 

731 

100.0 

■  Includes  couDtcies  npnMottd  by  less  than  30  depositon. 


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Servian  Mother  and  Chclo 
Family  of  an  orihodox  prieit 


Digitized  .yCOOgle 


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IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  examine  once  more 
what  might  be  called  the  personal  ledger  of  the  Slavic  day  laborer 
in  Pittsburgh.  We  had  seen  that  more  than  half  the  Italians, 
Croatians,  Servians,  and  Ruthenians  are  single  men,  and  that  a 
large  proportion  of  the  other  races  are  similarly  placed.  Many  are 
married  but  their  wives  are  across  the  seas.  Their  policy  is  to 
make  all  they  can  and  spend  as  little  as  possible.  We  saw  that  in 
1907  the  wages  of  common  labor  were  from  $i  .35  to  $1.65  a  day  and 
that  those  who  had  acquired  a  little  skill  earned  from  $1.75  to 
I3.25.  The  monthly  expenditure  for  board  and  lodging  of  single 
men  bent  on  saving  did  not  exceed  |io  a  month.  Some  Russians 
complained  when  their  monthly  bill  amounted  to  $8.00.  The  drink- 
ing bill  did  not  exceed  {5.00  a  month;  and  the  sum  spent  on  cloth- 
ing hardly  equaled  that.  A  common  laborer  easily  saved  from  $10 
tofi;  a  month;  the  semi-skilled  workers  from  $20  to  I25,  boarding 
bosses  were  accumulating  what  was  to  them  a  competence. 

But  while  the  wages  o(  the  day  laborers  in  the  District  were 
high  for  the  single  man  who  lived  in  lodgings,  the  foreigner  who 
brought  his  family  here  and  paid  American  prices  for  the  neces- 
sities of  life,  faced  a  different  situation.*  The  father  of  a  family 
could  not  hope  to  get  accommodations  for  less  than  $13  or  $15  a- 
month,  and  then  he  would  have  only  two  or  three  rooms.  The 
Slav,  as  we  have  seen,  had  to  pay  more  than  the  English-speaking 
man  for  the  same  house.  The  man  who  earned  less  than  I40  a 
month  and  paid  even  }i2  in  rent  had  not  a  large  fund  on  which  to 
raise  a  family.  He  belonged  to  one  or  two  lodges,  which  meant 
an  outlay  of  |i. 00  to  )i.$o  each  month.  He  usually  paid  50  cents  a 
month  to  his  church,  and  as  often  sent  his  children  to  the  parochial 
school  at,  say,  another  jo  cents  for  each,  or  f  1 .00  for  three.  He 
had  to  buy  the  school  books  needed  by  the  child,  which  might 
amount  yearly  to  from  I3.00  to  ^4.00.  Is  it  surprising  then,  that 
the  children  were  sent  to  work  at  an  eariy  age  and  that  many 
were  reared  in  cramped  and  dirty  quarters? 

When  mills  are  running  regularly  and  the  father  is  able  to 
work  each  day,  such  a  family  manages  to  get  along.     But  when 

*  For  a  statistical  study  of  the  budgets  of  unskilled  laborers  see  Byington, 
Margaret  F.:  Homestead;  Tbe  Households  of  a  Mill  Town,  p.  i)8.  As  food 
prices  have  advanced  more  rapidly  than  wages  of  common  labor,  the  predicament 
of  the  immigrant  family  is  at  least  as  serious  today  as  in  1907.    See  Commons, 

g.  dt.,  p.  1 19:  also  Appendix  V)  I,  Advance  in  Cost  of  Living  in  Workingmen's 
miliei  Since  1907,  p.  440. 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

sickness  comes  or  work  ceases,  then  the  pinch  of  hunger  is  felt. 
Miss  Lippincott,  for  many  years  secretary  of  the  Pittsburgh  As- 
sociation for  Improvement  of  the  Poor,  stated  that  in  good  times 
but  few  Slavs  or  Lithuanians  applied  for  aid;  that  only  when  the 
father  was  killed  or  injured  was  aid  occasionally  needed. 

The  fraternal  organizations  among  the  Slavs,  Lithuanians, 
and  Italians  both  provoke  thrift  and  provide  various  forms  of  in- 
surance against  mischance.  They  are  the  dominant  form  of  social 
organization  and  afford  opportunities  for  leadership  to  the  stronger 
men.  The  National  Slovak  Society,  for  instance,  had  in  1908  a 
membership  of  50,000,  and  the  Polish  National  Alliance  75,000. 
Pittsburgh  had  some  30  locals  of  the  latter  society  alone,  each  with 
a  list  of  from  40  to  300  members.  The  lodge  oi^nizations  cS  these 
people  can  not  be  discussed  here  in  detail;*  it  is  sufficient  to  note 
that  in  case  of  sickness  and  death  they  look  after  their  members, 
that  they  provide  social  centers  for  the  more  thrifty  of  the  people, 
and  tend  generally  to  raise  the  standard  of  life.  Besides  these 
lodges,  the  Slavs,  Lithuanians,  and  Italians  have  organizations 
for  enjoyment  and  amusement;  the  Poles  have  societies  also  for 
self-culture,  such  as  dramatic  clubs  and  singing  societies. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  home  governments  of 
these  people  foster  the  formation  of  organizations  along  racial 
lines;  the  church  also  fosters  racial  societies.  In  so  far  as  such 
organizations  perpetuate  national  customs  and  habits  in  America, 
they  tend  to  make  assimilation  difficult.  A  strong  people  swayed 
by  racial  consciousness  on  foreign  soil  will  either  impose  its  own 
concepts  and  ideals  upon  the  social  life  around  it  and  modify  it, 
or  will  build  around  itself  a  wall  which  the  customs  and  habits  of 
the  country  will  find  difficulty  in  penetrating.  This  is  seen  in 
Pittsburgh.  The  Poles  and  Italians  form  a  city  within  a  city, 
the  customs  and  habits  of  which  are  distinctly  Polish  and  Italian. 

When  we  come  to  political  life,  we  must  accord  leadership 
to  other  than  the  Slavic  groups — to  the  Italians.  A  political 
leader  among  them  claimed  that  four-fifths  of  all  Italians  in 
Pittsburgh  who  had  been  in  the  country  five  years  were  naturalized. 
He  held  that  the  Italians  of  Pittsburgh  polled  about  5,000  votes 
which  were  scattered  over  1 1  wards.  Next  to  the  Italians  came 
the  Poles.  The  Polish  vote  was  set  at  4,000.  Many  of  these  men 
*  See  Byington,  op.  cit.,  pp.  158-168. 

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Greek  Orthodox  Priest  from  Cboatu 
n  trouble  the  priests  are  the  people's  counselors;  they  sympalhiie  with  Ihem  in 


■d^yCoogle 


"1 


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IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

had  been  voters  for  years,  but  of  the  influx  that  had  come  to'  Pitts- 
bui^  within  the  ten  years  preceding  1907,  not  30  per  cent  had 
ijeen  naturalized.  The  Poles  had  two  or  three  political  clubs,  and 
such  clubs  were  also  found  among  the  Lithuanians  and  Croatians. 
Too  frequently  the  racial  leaders — often  saloon  keepers — are  the 
satellites  of  some  English-speaking  politician  who  through  them 
controls  the  foreign  vote.  Some  of  the  more  intelligent  for- 
eigners are  dissatisfied  with  this  manipulation  of  their  people. 
Among  them  young  men  are  arising  with  political  aspirations. 
It  will  not  be  long  before  the  city  will  feel  their  presence.  If  in 
some  15  wards  the  Polish  and  Italian  votes  were  to  unite,  their 
leaders  would  hold  the  balance  of  power.* 

Slavs,  Lithuanians,  and  Italians  have  a  strong  religious  ele- 
ment in  their  make-up  which  plays  a  never-ending  part  in  such 
racial  communities  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  Pittsburgh  District. 
Unless  this  element  is  reckoned  with  these  people  are  not  to 
be  understood.  The  great  majority  belong  to  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic church.  Some  Protestants  are  found  among  the  Slovaks, 
Lithuanians,  Magyars,  and  Italians,  but  they  form  only  a  small 
percentage.!  Certain  of  the  southern  Slavs  are  subject  to  the 
Patriarch  (^Constantinople,  and  the  Russians  maintain  a  Greek  Or- 
thodox church.  Religious  ceremonies  and  observances  have  strong- 
est bold  upon  Poles  and  Lithuanians,  Croatians,  and  Servians.^  We 
have  seen  that  the  number  of  men  far  exceeds  that  of  women  among 
these  immigrants  from  southeastern  Europe.  This  the  church 
attendance  corroborates.  I  have  seen  in  Pittsburgh  a  congregation 
of  1,000  men,  all  in  the  prime  of  life,  so  intent  upon  the  religious 
exercises  that  the  least  movement  of  the  priest  at  the  altar  found 
immediate  response  in  every  member  of  the  audience.    The  ritual 

*  In  1910  Uie  city  wai  distributed  into  larger  ward  units  than  formerly. 
Tbe  I J  did  wards  spcdlied  in  the  text  have  now  been  included  within  the  bounda- 
riei  M  six  new  wards.  An  indication  of  the  trvth  of  the  power  of  a  united  foreign 
vote  is  fonnd  in  the  fact  that  Attorney  Frank  A.  Piekarski,  a  Pole,  was  appointed 
aisiiiant  city  solicitOT  in  1909. 

t  Tbe  Protesunt  denominations  in  the  city  conduct  missioo  work  among  the 
Slavs  and  Italians.  Several  missioiiarie*,  cdpotleur*.  and  Bible  readers  are  em- 
ployed. 

JThe  Roman  Catholic  church  has  not  the  influence  over  the  Bohemians 
and  Italians  that  it  has  over  the  above  mentioned  people.  Many  of  the  Bohemians 
are  free  thinkers.  The  luliansirereligiousbut  forthe  most  part  lukewarm  in  their 
attitude  toward  the  church,  and  their  edifices  do  not  compare  with  those  of  the 
PolM. 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

ctf  the  church  has  a  deep  hold  upon  Slav  and  Lithuanian:  often 
the  men  go  to  confession  at  six  in  the  morning  in  order  that  they 
may  go  to  communion  the  day  following.  When  men  are  so  em- 
ployed that  they  can  not  attend  mass  on  Sundays,  they  will  attend 
one  on  Saturdays.  The  home  must  be  consecrated  once  a  year; 
and  hundreds  take  their  baskets  laden  with  provisions  to  church 
on  Easter  morning  that  the  priest  may  bless  the  feast  they  hope  to 
enjoy  that  day. 

If  we  measure  the  efficiency  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church 
among  the  Slavs  and  Lithuanians  in  Pittsburgh  by  the  money 
spent  on  buildings  and  maintenance,  it  can  not  be  equaled  by 
either  American  Catholicism  or  Protestantism.  The  people  give 
freely  of  their  hard  earnings  to  erect  costly  church  edifices  and 
support  the  priesthood.  The  Slavs  and  Lithuanians  have  been 
on  the  South  Side  of  Pittsburgh  only  for  twenty  years,  but 
in  1907  they  possessed  church  property  valued  at  three-quarters 
of  a  million  dollars,  and  most  of  it  is  paid  for.  They  also  erect 
parochial  schools  and  maintain  them.* 

The  priests  have  great  power  over  the  lives  of  their  people. 
Some  are  charged  with  accumulating  riches,  but  taken  as  a  whole, 
I  view  them  as  a  body  of  men  loyal  to  their  vows  and  honoring 
the  profession  which  they  serve.  These  priests  are  busy  men. 
A  parish  of  two  or  three  thousand  means  endless  activities.  With 
the  influx  of  Slavs  and  Lithuanians  into  the  country,  and  the 
necessity  of  organizing  new  parishes,  the  difficulty  has  been  to 
secure  properly  qualified  priests  to  take  charge  of  them.  Hence 
many  of  these  clergy  are  overworked.  Considering  the  great 
numbers  of  their  countrymen  constantly  arriving  from  Europe,  it 
is  surprising  how  carefully  the  priests  keep  in  touch  with  the  new- 
comers. Some  whose  parishes  are  constantly  changing  take  a 
census  each  year.  They  know  the  affairs  of  their  people;  their  hous- 
ing conditions,  their  hardships  in  mine  and  mil),  the  wrongs  they 
suffer.  In  trouble,  the  priests  are  the  counselors  of  their  parishion- 
ers; sympathize  with  them  in  their  struggles;  institute  and  man- 
age insurance  societies  against  sickness  and  accident.  Some  found 
and  control  building  and  loan  associations.    Their  influence  lies 

*See  North,  Lila  Ver  Planck:  nttsburgh  Schools.  Part  11,  Roman 
Catholic  Parish  Schools  in  Pittsburgh.    The  Pittsburgh  Dislrict,  p.  338. 

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IMMIGRANT  WAGE-EARNERS 

primarily  with  the  adults  who  come  from  the  fatherland.  The 
children  are  not  so  amenable  to  the  discipline  of  the  church;  nei- 
ther do  they  give  their  earnings  as  freely  to  its  support.  The  for- 
ward problem  of  the  church  thus  becomes  one  of  meeting  the  re- 
ligious needs  oi  men  and  women  of  Slavic  blood  reared  in  a  new 
country. 

In  this  sketch  of  the  foreign-speaking  pet^les  of  Pittsburgh, 
brief  though  it  be,  we  have  seen  how  dependent  the  industries  of 
the  city  have  been  upon  the  supply  of  ablebodied  men  from  the 
agricultural  communities  of  Europe  that  have  freely  given  their 
strength  to  the  expansion  of  these  industries.  Never  was  there 
an  army  of  workers  more  docile  or  willing.  That  they  undermine 
the  income  of  the  next  higher  industrial  groups  is  clear,  but  once 
their  foothold  is  secure,  we  may  expect  the  rise  of  stronger  labor 
organizations  among  them  than  those  they  have  been  used  to 
displace.*  For  even  more  than  English-speaking  people  they 
believe  in  mutual  protection,  organizing  and  conducting  various 
societies  for  this  purpose.  The  churches  owned  by  them  repre- 
sent offerings  made  by  men  who  literally  earn  their  bread  by  the 
sweat  of  their  brows;  and  while  they  find  their  pleasures  in  crude 
ways,  many  save  money,  and  the  number  who  own  homes  is  in- 
creasing. 

It  is  also  clear  that  there  are  imperative  needs  of  these 
people  which  should  be  met  if  the  cause  of  civilization  is  to  be 
served.  The  fatal  and  non-fatal  injuries  of  the  mill  fall  heavily 
upon  them.  The  value  placed  upon  human  life  here  will  not  bear 
comparison  with  that  of  older  countries  whose  civilization  we  claim 
is  lower  than  ours.  Each  week  a  tale  of  wrong  and  suffering,  agony 
and  death,  is  sent  across  the  water,  which  seriously  reflects  upon 
the  industrial  life  of  America. 

We  have  seen  that  the  housing  conditions  considered  are  a 
disgrace  to  civilization,  and  that  the  insufficiency  of  houses,  the 
greed  of  landlords,  the  exigencies  of  some  of  the  people  and  the 
penury  of  others,  bring  about  this  condition.    There  should  be 

*  Abundant  proof  hu  been  given  of  tbe  ability  of  foreign  workmen  to  unite. 
A  case  in  point  was  the  strike  in  the  Pressed  Steel  Car  Works  in  1909.  Foreisnert 
had  displaced  striking  English-speaking  workmen  six  yean  before;  later,  tiKy  uietn- 
sclvcf  went  oo  a  prolonged  and  bloody  stHke. 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Stricter  regulation  of  immigrant  boarding  houses  alike  in  city  and 
mill  towns.  Americans  who  coin  money  in  shacks  and  those 
foreign  bom  who  are  too  greedy  to  pay  for  decent  quarters,  should 
feel  the  firm  hand  of  the  law. 

But  negative  work  is  not  enough;  positive  and  aggressive 
work  must  be  done  if  these  foreigners  are  to  rise  to  the  measure 
of  their  opportunity.  Every  nationality  has  its  esthetic  side. 
Other  cities  have  fostered  the  national  dance,  have  encouraged 
works  of  art,  and  have  induced  the  foreigner  to  show  the  artistic 
side  of  his  nature. 

This  in  far  greater  measure  should  be  done  in  Pittsburgh.* 
If  these  people  had  incentive  to  develop  their  needlework,  to  show 
their  artistic  skill,  to  sing  their  national  songs,  and  to  dance  their 
native  dances,  to  contribute  their  culture  to  the  common  store, 
the  life  of  the  city  would  be  richer  and  stronger. 

Then  why  should  the  descendants  of  those  who  gave  Lafay- 
ette a  welcome,  and  who  championed  the  cause  of  Kossuth,  not 
go  forth  in  sympathy  to  these  people  of  Slav  and  Iberic  origin? 
The  rich  inheritance  of  our  institutions  we  cherish;  we  believe 
them  to  be  more  excellent  than  any  which  the  older  countries  of 
Europe  can  boast.  Thousands  of  these  people  yearn  for  an 
insight  into  that  form  of  democratic  government  that  has  made 
America  great  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  But  they  are 
left  in  ignorance  of  our  language,  our  laws,  our  government,  and 
our  history.  We  should  be  willing  to  meet  them  halfway.  Public 
schools  should  enter  into  this  work  with  greater  zeal;  and  social 
agencies  stretch  the  cords  of  their  tents  to  take  in  these  men  who 
are  anxious  to  learn. 

*  The  fint  public  and  official  effort  to  recogniie  groupi  of  forej^en  wis  made 
in  connection  with  the  seiqui-centennial  celebration  of  die  founding  of  the  city 
in  September,  1908.  L.arge  delegationf  ot  more  than  a  dozen  nationalities  paraded 
in  their  homeland  costume.  The  Pittsburgh  Playground  Association  has  in  recent 
years  done  much  to  bring  out  the  artistic  side  of  the  foreign  bom  throu^  folk 
dances  and  participation  in  annual  May  festivals.  See  Kennard,  Beulah:  The 
Playgrounds  of  PittsbUT|^.     The  Pittsburgh   District,  p.  31$.      Leaders  ii     ' 


several  foreign  colonies  have  been  eager  To  lend  assistance.  EHttsburoh  Italians 
for  several  yean  have  celebiated  Columbus  Day  with  a  parade  and  ball.  Tbe  Y. 
M .  C.  A.  has  carried  on  "  all  nations  "  singjng  contests  in  recent  yean.  See  Ap- 
pendix Hi,  p.  417. 


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D,„i,z,d,  Google 


Drawn  by  Joseph  SIdIa 


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A  SLAV'S  A  MAN  FOR  A'  THAT 
Alois  B.  Koukol 

ABOVE  one  of  the  busiest  comers  in  Pittsburgh,  an  immense 
side  wall  advertisement  in  Croatian  solicits  patronage  for 
L  an  American  bank.  In  the  railroad  stations  and  on  the 
principal  thoroughfares  you  can  see  groups  of  people  who  bear  un- 
mistakably the  Slavic  physiognomy.  But  unlike  the  sign — itself 
an  evidence  of  the  new  immigration  from  southeastern  Europe — 
the  Slav  is  slow  and  unspectacular  in  making  an  impress  upon  the 
imagination  of  the  community.  He  is  reserved,  and  even  when  he 
comes  from  southern  districts  lacks  the  animation  so  characteristic 
of  the  Italian. 

Though  the  Slavs  are  one  of  the  three  largest  racial  elements 
that  immigration  is  adding  to  our  population,  though  in  the  Pitts- 
burgh District  they  constitute  over  one-half  of  the  workers  in  the 
sted  mills,  yet  in  spite  of  their  numbers  and  their  importance  as  an 
industrial  and  business  factor,  there  is,  1  believe,  little  actual  un- 
derstanding and  appreciation  of  them  on  the  part  of  Americans. 
The  bosses  know  them  chiefly  as  sturdy  and  submissive  workmen; 
their  American  fdlow-workmen  look  down  upon  them  largely 
because  of  this  patience  and  their  willingness  at  the  outset  to  work 
at  any  wages  and  under  any  conditions;  the  public  at  large  knows 
the  Slavs  by  their  most  obtrusive  and  objectionable  traits, — 
especially  through  the  newspaper  stories  of  their  rows  and  fights 
when  they  get  drunk  (hi  pay  day  <»-  when  celebrating  a  wedding 
or  a  christening.  Few  people  stop  to  think  that  in  spite  of  his 
proclaimed  stolidity  the  "Hunkie"  brings  with  him  aspirations 
the  same  in  character,  though  as  yet  not  so  ambitious  nor  so 
definitely  formulated  as  those  of  his  Ameiican  neighbor. 

It  is  my  design  to  set  down  something  of  the  spirit  of  the 
immigrant  Slav,  his  character,  his  attitude  toward  America,  and 
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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

the  effect  upon  him  of  the  conditions  under  which,  as  in  Pitts- 
burgh and  the  neighboring  mill  towns,  he  lives  and  works.  In 
preparation  for  this  task  1  visited  some  200  families;  moreover, 
\  am  a  Slav  by  birth,  and  all  my  life  1  have  lived  and  worked 
among  the  Slavic  people. 

The  natural  question  which  rises  in  one's  mind  is,  Why  did 
these  great  hordes  come  to  America  and  to  Pittsburgh?  Let  me 
answer  in  terms  of  men.  The  main  cause  is  economic*  On  the 
one  side  there  is  the  Old  World  surplus  of  labor  accompanied  by  low 
wages,  the  barrenness  of  the  land  which  every  year  becomes  more 
tnsufTicient  to  support  increasing  populations,  and  the  economic 
disasters  affecting  sometimes  individuals  and  sometimes  whole 
communities;  on  the  other  side,  tales  of  the  wealth  gained  by  some 
bold  pioneer  and  of  the  great  opportunities  in  this  country,  con- 
firmed and  exaggerated  by  the  crafty  agents  of  transportation 
companies.  An  illustration  of  this  economic  impetus  is  the  simple 
story  of  Grigory  Leshkoff.  Grigory  comes  from  a  Russian  peasant 
family  in  which  there  were  seven  sons  and  30  poor  acres  of  land. 
"  What  were  we  to  do  at  home?"  Grigory  demanded  of  me  with  a 
shrug.  "Just  look  at  one  another, — hey?"  One  by  one  these  sons 
left  the  crowded  farm  and  sought  work  in  the  few  mines  and 
factories  located  near  them.  Grigor/s  younger  brother  was  the 
first  man  from  the  village  to  seek  America,  coming  here  in  1902. 
Others  soon  followed  him,  however.  "And  now,"  said  Grigory, 
"  there  are  in  Homestead  at  least  jo  young  men  from  our  village." 

Grigory,  by  the  way,  is  a  veteran  of  the  Japanese  war,  having 
come  to  America  immediately  after  its  close.  But  he  had  tittle  to 
say  about  this,  one  of  the  great  conflicts  of  modem  times;  in  fact, 
he  looked  upon  his  experience  on  the  battlefields  as  quite  common- 
place compared  with  his  experience  in  the  steel  mills.  From  the 
first  he  emerged  without  a  scratch;  in  the  second  he  lost  a  leg. 
When  1  saw  him  he  was  deeply  concerned  as  to  what  a  strong  man 
of  twenty-seven  with  only  one  leg  was  going  to  do  with  his  future, 
— ^and  the  simple  peasant  saw  little  hope  ahead. 

Grigory  came  from  Chernigov.  From  this  province  and  from 
Minsk  and  Grodno,  where  the  soil  is  exhausted  and  where  the 

*  See  Roberts,  op  dt.     P.  3)  of  this  volume. 

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A   SLAV  S  A   MAN   FOR  A    THAT 

shares  of  the  villagers  tn  the  communes  grow  less  with  each  redis- 
tribution (tf  the  land,  the  Russians  are  setting  out  in  increasing 
numbers.  Not  altogether  dissimilar  causes  for  emigration  operate 
in  certain  districts  of  Austria-Hungary.  The  province  of  Pribich 
used  to  be  one  of  the  richest  wine-growing  regions  in  Croatia,  but 
some  twenty  years  ago  the  vines  were  devastated  by  a  blight  which 
necessitated  replanting  with  American  stock.  Through  this  dam- 
age to  the  vines  hundreds  of  once  prosperous  farmers  were  reduced 
to  poverty.  Many  of  them  came  to  the  United  States  in  the  hope 
of  earning  enough  money  to  pay  for  the  necessary  replanting  of 
their  vineyards.  Lazo  Milutich,  who  gave  me  this  information, 
was  himself  one  of  those  affected  by  the  calamity.  He  came  first 
to  Allegheny  City,  tried  different  jobs,  and  after  two  years' 
wandering  landed  at  Wtlmerding,  where  he  had  worked  for  ten 
years  in  the  same  foundry. 

Other  causes  than  economic  pressure  have,  of  course,  played 
their  part  in  this  great  migration.  Political  oppression  is  one. 
I  have  known  a  number  of  political  refugees  among  the  older  Slavs, 
many  of  whom  are  now  persons  of  importance.  And  another  is 
the  blandishment  and  trickery  of  the  steamship  agent.  John 
Godus,  a  Slovak  living  tn  Braddock,  was  one  of  a  group  of  1 2  young 
men  brought  here  in  1901.  To  their  village  came  a  man  dressed 
as  a  common  worktngman.  We  can  imagine  him  in  high  boots, 
wearing  an  embroidered  shirt,  and  smoking  a  long-stemmed  pipe. 
He  was  a  steamship  agent,  thus  disguised  to  escape  the  attention 
of  the  gendarmerie.  He  quietly  found  out  what  young  men  were 
at  the  age  when  one  has  to  present  himself  for  conscription  in  the 
army, — ^for  such  youths,  he  had  discovered,  were  the  easiest  to 
induce  to  become  customers;  secretly  argued  with  them  that  it 
would  be  foolishness  to  give  three  of  their  best  years  to  the  army, 
where  they  would  be  slapped,  kicked,  and  cursed;  and  in  the  end 
sold  them  all  tickets. 

It  is  periiaps  but  natural  that  Pittsburghers  should  believe 
that  the  fame  of  their  industries  draws  these  Slavs  straight  from 
their  villages  to  the  Union  Station  and  the  "  Point."  Yet  this  is 
true  only  in  exceptional  cases,  such  as  that  of  Joseph  Sabata,  a 
Bohemian.  He  was  an  iron  worker  at  home  and  was  employed 
in  a  large  rolling  mill  in  Moravia.  Its  machinery  was  imported 
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nostly  fram  the  United  States  xad  he,  oolidng  the  name  of  an 
AJlcgbeny  firm  on  xatt  at  the  pieces,  thooght  that  in  that  dty  he 
coold  learn  more  aboot  his  busiuess;  aad  so  he  decided  to  come 
over.  After  being  landed  at  Ellis  Island,  he  discovered  while  in 
line  muting  to  be  qoestianed.  that  e«vT>-bady  was  asked  to  show  an 
address.  Such  an  address  be  did  not  have,  bat  being  quick-witted 
behastily  scribbled  on  a  piece  of  paper  "Afiej^ieny,"  and  the  name 
of  a  cousin  stiQ  in  the  old  country  who  coold  scarcely  have  beard 
of  Pittsbm^'s  North  Side.  He  was  icadity  admitted,  went 
straight  to  AUe^ieny.  and  when  I  saw  him  was  earning  $3.7$  a  day 
in  a  machine  shop. 

In  another  case,  the  coming  to  Pittsburgh  was  wholly  acci- 
dental. Viclav  Milek.  a  Bohemian,  who  when  I  met  him  had 
been  in  this  country  d^teen  years,  came  here  with  his  parents 
niien  a  lad  of  sixteen,  intending  to  settle  with  the  rest  of  the  family 
on  a  farm  in  Wisconsin.  But  on  the  way  across  the  ocean  they 
became  acquainted  with  anothw  Bohemian  family,  bound  for 
Pittsburgh,  who  had  been  robbed  of  tlicir  moeey,  and  to  these  people 
AUIdc's  father  knned  |8o.  In  otder  not  to  kiee  this  money  be 
decided  to  keep  near  his  debtms.  Viclav  even  to  this  day  is  sorry 
that  hb  parents  didn't  go  onto  a  farm, — and  for  a  double  reason: 
first,  he  has  a  natural  preference  for  farm  labcH-  which  is  never  to 
be  gratified;  second,  in  the  course  of  his  work  tor  an  Allegheny 
company,  an  accident  crippled  him  for  life. 

In  the  vast  majority  of  cases  the  Slavs  in  Pittsburgh  had 
not  the  slightest  intention  of  settling  here  who)  they  first  came  to 
America.  Usually  their  settling  was  preceded  by  a  period  of  a 
year  or  two  or  even  Itmger  during  which  they  wandered  hither  and 
thither,  from  one  employment  to  another,  from  town  to  town, 
looking  for  the  right  place  in  which  to  establish  themselves. 

Large  numbers  of  the  Slovaks  come  to  Pittsburgh  by  way  of 
the  anthracite  fiekls.  At  the  time  of  the  strike  of  1902,  and  for 
several  years  before,  when  conditions  were  bad  in  hard-coal  mining, 
— half-time,  and  the  like  of  that, — Slovak  mine  workers  drifted 
west,  across  the  state  to  the  steel  mill  district. 

The  experience  of  a  Ruthenian  named  Kova]  is  typical  of  a 
great  number  of  men.  He  came  to  America  in  1900,  and  was  sent 
by  an  immigrant  home  in  New  York  to  work  in  the  forests  of  West 

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A  SLAV'S  A  MAN    FOR  A    THAT 

Virginia  as  a  woodcutter.  The  wages  there  were  only  ;o  cents  a 
day,  and  in  other  ways  conditions  were  so  bad  that  he  with  three 
comrades  ran  away.  They  set  out  through  the  woods,  finally 
coming  to  a  little  settlement  with  a  saw  mill.  Here  they  were 
offered  work  and  they  stayed  for  about  two  months,  earning  f  i.$o 
a  day.  Then  a  surveyor  who  spoke  Polish  came  to  the  village, 
and  he  told  them  that  in  Allegheny  they  could  earn  a  good  deal 
more  money  than  in  the  woods,  so  to  Allegheny  the  men  decided 
to  go.  There  they  obtained  work  as  laborers  in  the  locomotive 
works  at  $i  .;o  for  a  day  of  ten  hours. 

Such  a  wanderer  also  was  Smulkstis,  a  Lithuanian  who  had 
started  life  as  a  messenger  boy  in  the  telegraph  service  in  St. 
Petersburg.  He  came  over  to  a  friend  in  Wilmerding  but,  unable 
to  get  the  kind  of  work  he  wanted,  he  sought  out  another  friend 
in  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  where  he  got  a  job  in  a  woolen  mill. 
The  following  spring  found  him  back  in  Pittsburgh  as  a  machine 
operator  in  an  electrical  plant.  Four  years  after  his  arrival — 
he  was  still  only  twenty-two — he  was  a  crane  man  in  the  Home- 
stead steel  mills. 

A  Croatian  who  when  I  met  him  was  spending  the  winter  in 
Duquesne,  was  a  type  of  the  migratory  railroad  laborer  who  drifts 
from  one  contractor's  gang  to  another.  He  had  been  all  over  In- 
diana, Ohio,  and  the  Middle  West,  having  taken  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren with  him.  They  had  made  shift  in  cars  and  shanties  and 
construction  camps  of  all  sorts. 

One  fact  that  impressed  me  in  Pittsburgh  was  the  number  of 
Slavs  earning  low  wages  who  yet  seemed  to  be  fitting  themselves 
permanently  into  their  new  environment,  John  Gerza,  an  engine 
cleaner  in  the  Fort  Wayne  yards,  and  his  family,  had  apparently, 
in  their  five  years  in  this  country,  adapted  themselves  to  the  atmos- 
phere and  to  the  life  of  Pittsburgh.  There  were  no  regrets  nor 
lookings  backward,  nothing  to  draw  them  away  from  their  present 
life.  The  explanation  for  this  adaptation  is  the  explanation  in  so 
many  other  cases  that  it  is  worth  setting  down.  Gerza  lived  in  a 
Moravian  village  where  till  sixteen  years  before  there  had  been  no 
impulse  to  move  away  from  the  soil.  The  villagers  were  rooted  to 
their  ancient  homes;  they  thought  only  of  the  land,  and  they  tilled 
it  in  the  same  old  primitive  manner  of  their  forefathers.    Then  a 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

railroad  was  built  through  the  country,  and  factories  sprang  up. 
•These  drew  agricultural  laborers  from  the  villages,  and  thereby 
unsettled  the  population;  unsettled  the  old  conditions  of  life, 
practically  destroying  that  love  for,  that  almost  physical  kinship 
with,  the  soil  and  the  old  home  which  I  found  so  strong  among  the 
Slavs  in  general.  Gerza's  wife  used  to  work  in  a  sugar  factory  at 
home;  he  himself  used  to  be  a  brakeman  on  a  freight  train.  With 
them  it  was  not  the  severe  and  wrenching  change  from  farm  to 
factory,  which  involved  the  breaking  away  from  loved  surround- 
ings; it  was  the  comparatively  simple  change  from  one  industrial 
pursuit  to  a  comparatively  similar  industrial  pursuit. 

Palinski,  a  Russian  Pole  (rf  forty-five  who  had  been  in  Amer- 
ica eighteen  years,  was  an  excellent  example  of  that  really  consider- 
able class  of  low-paid  workmen  who  have  made  a  small  success — if 
owning  a  home  and  having  a  happy  family  and  feeling  content  be 
success.  The  highest  pay  that  Palinskt  had  ever  received  was 
%i  .6;  a  day,  and  yet,  though  he  had  five  children,  he  had  managed 
to  buy  in  conjunction  with  his  brother  the  house  in  which  they 
both  lived.  They  paid  Ji,6oo  for  the  property,  and  when  I  called 
upon  him  Palinski  told  me  that  Jones  and  Laughlin  wanted  to  buy 
it  and  he  expected  to  sell  for  at  least  ^3,000.  The  oldest  child,  a 
girl  of  fifteen,  was  in  the  public  school,  and  his  three  other  children 
of  school  age  were  being  sent  to  the  parochial  school  where  tuition 
must  be  paid  for.  The  house  was  strikingly  clean  and  well  ar- 
ranged. Palinski  seemed  to  be  well  satisfied  with  himself,  his 
family,  and  his  work. 

It  was  a  marvel  to  me  how  a  man  with  Palinski's  wages 
could  own  such  a  pleasant  home,  raise  so  large  a  family  of  children, 
educate  them,  and  keep  them  well  dressed  and  healthy.  The 
explanation  lay  in  a  great  measure  outside  Palinski.  He  was  a 
good  man,  but,  as  in  many  cases  where  Slavs  have  wrought 
pleasant  homes  out  of  little  wages,  the  credit  was  largely  due  to  the 
wife.  Mrs.  Palinski  must  have  been  a  wonderful  manager;  even 
to  the  casual  eye,  she  was  neat,  bright,  and  energetic.  In  estimat- 
ing the  worth  to  America  of  this  pair,  one  must  not  consider  alone 
the  hardworking  husband  and  the  able  wife;  one  must  consider 
their  contribution  of  healthy,  educated  children. 

Men  like  Palinski  are  fixtures;  in  a  gmeration  or  two  their 
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A  Slav's  a  man  for  a'  that 

children  and  children's  children  are  Hkely  to  form  an  indistinguish- 
able part  of  that  conglomerate  product,  the  American  citizen.  In 
contrast  to  these  men  are  the  great  numbers  who  are  not  content, 
who  are  not  luctures,  whose  great  dream  it  is  some  day  to  get  back 
to  their  native  village,  live  out  thdr  years  there  and,  what  is  no 
small  consideration  with  many,  be  laid  at  rest  in  friendly  soil. 
Why  these  men,  even  when  successful  here,  have  this  yearning 
and  return  home  for  this  reason,  presents  a  rather  tough  question 
to  most  persons.  That  question,  I  think,  I  can  best  answer  by 
reciting  the  case  cS  Mike  Hudak. 

Hudak  was  a  Slovak  who  came  to  this  country  when  a  youth 
erf  nineteen.  He  was  a  fine  type  of  man  in  every  way;  physically 
he  could  almost  be  classed  as  a  giant,  for  he  stood  six  feet  two,  was 
deep  of  chest  and  broad  of  shoulders.  He  worked  in  the  Pennsyl- 
vania railway  repair  shops  at  Oliver,  earning  |8o  a  month,  which 
is  good  pay  for  a  Slav  when  one  considers  that  the  work  is  regular 
and  not  dangerous.  He  seemed  to  be  a  figure  in  his  neighborhood, 
for  when  I  walked  home  with  him  one  day  he  was  addressed  from 
all  sides  in  tones  that  showed  liking  and  respect.  He  dressed 
neatly  and  had  a  fluent  command  of  English  gained  by  seventeen 
years'  residence  in  this  country.  If  there  is  any  type  of  immigrant 
that  we  need  above  all  others  it  struck  me  then  that  Mike  Hudak 
was  that  type. 

1  first  discovered  his  yearning  by  asking  him  why  he  was  not 
a  citizen.    "  Why  should  1  forswear  myself?"  said  he. 

1  did  not  understand. 

"As  I  am  going  back  to  my  own  country,  it  would  not  be 
right  to  give  up  my  allegiance  there  and  make  myself  a  citizen 
here." 

I  pressed  him  for  his  reasons  for  going  back,  and  he  gave  them 
to  me — reasons  that  fit  thousands  and  thousands  of  cases.  With 
him  that  preliminary  process  of  being  separated  from  the  soil  had 
not  taken  place,  as  with  John  Gerza.  He  was  a  fanner  by  age-old 
instinct:  his  love  for  the  land  was  a  part  of  his  being,  a  yearning 
which  would  leave  him  only  with  death.  Now,  since  over  here  he 
had  been  plunged  straight  into  industry,  the  only  land  he  had  ever 
known  in  a  way  to  become  attached  to  it  was  that  of  the  country 
in  which  he  was  bom,  and  when  the  time  came  when  he  was  able 
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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

to  gratify  his  longing  for  land  his  thoughts  went  only  to  his  old 
home.  So.  though  socially  as  well  off  here  as  he  would  be  there, 
and  economically  much  better  off,  he  was  going  back.  Undoubt- 
edly he,  too,  would  have  become  a  fixture  in  America  could  he 
have  gone  onto  a  farm  immediately  upon  his  arrival  here,  for  then 
his  instinctive  land-love  would  have  been  weaned  from  the  old 
country. 

The  Slavs,  as  has  been  said,  are  strong,  willing  workers,  and 
are  generally  considered  by  the  steel  mill  officials  the  best  laborers 
they  get, — but  now  and  then  there  is  a  man  who  is  too  slow  for 
America.  One  of  these  was  John  Kroupa,  a  Bohemian,  who  had 
been  here  twenty-two  years.  Faithful,  strong,  willing,  it  wasn't 
in  him  to  keep  up  the  pace.  In  his  earlier  years  here  he  was  em- 
ployed in  a  steel  mill,  but  he  had  been  dropped.  As  he  frankly 
said  to  me,  "  You  have  to  be  pretty  quick  in  those  mills,  and  it 
isn't  a  job  for  a  man  like  me."  Later  he  got  a  job  as  watchman 
on  a  Pennsylvania  Railroad  crossing  in  Woods  Run,  and  there  he 
worked  for  sixteen  years,  his  wages  I40  a  month  (in  the  last  two 
years,  $44)  for  a  twelve-hour  day  and  a  seven-day  week.  All  this 
while  he  hoped  for  promotion,  but  it  did  not  come  and  this  non- 
recognition  rankled  within  him.  "Other  men,  who  were  all  sore 
from  sitting  down  so  much,  were  promoted,"  exclaimed  he,  "but 
1,  who  was  always  hustling,  was  never  thought  of,  and  1  can  tell 
you  it  wasn't  an  easy  job  to  watch  that  no  accident  happened, 
as' more  than  300  trains  passed  that  way  every  day  and  very  often 
at  full  speed,  with  small  heed  to  the  city  ordinances, — 30  or  40 
miles  an  hour."  Finally,  the  crossing  was  abolished,  the  tracks 
having  been  elevated,  and  the  job  was  done  away  with.  The 
superintendent  came  to  him  at  his  watchman's  shanty.  "Well, 
John,  I  am  sorry  for  you;  going  to  lose  your  happy  home.  But 
you'll  get  another  just  as  good."  This  was  too  much  for  John; 
his  long  smouldering  disappointment  burst  out.  "Go  to  hell!" 
said  he.  "  Happy  home?  I  could  just  as  well  have  been  in  the 
penitentiary  over  there;  1  would  have  been  much  better  off,  with- 
out the  worry  I  have  had  here.  During  sixteen  years  1  haven't 
had  a  single  day  off.  Sundays  and  weekdays  both  I've  been  here 
for  twelve  hours.     Do  you  call  that  a  happy  home?" 

He  refused  a  new  watchman's  job  and  opened  a  little  store 


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A   SLAV  S  A  MAN   FOR  A    THAT 

in  Woods  Run,  which  he  established  out  of  his  savings  and  with 
the  help  of  his  children — a  store  which  might  have  served  Dickens 
for  one  of  his  grotesque  backgrounds,  for  here  were  on  sale  hard- 
ware, candy,  crackers,  bacon,  eggs,  molasses.  Kroupa  can  not 
be  classed  as  a  failure,  for  he  managed  to  buy  a  home  and  raise 
and  educate  a  good-sized  family,  but  his  qualities  of  constancy, 
honesty,  and  sobriety  do  not  come  so  high  as  some  others  in  the 
American  market. 

Among  the  Slavs,  the  Slovaks  strike  me  as  the  most  ambi- 
tious and  pushing.*  This  is  all  the  more  surprising  when  one  re- 
members that  the  conditions  out  of  which  they  come  are  as  bad  as 
the  conditions  surrounding  any  of  the  Slavs,  and  worse  than  most. 
The  Slovaks  when  they  arrive  are  poor,  illiterate,  have  no  training, 
are  inured  to  oppression;  yet  they  have  pluck,  perseverance,  en- 
terprise, and  courage.  From  their  ranks  are  recruited  many  of  the 
foremen  in  the  mills  and  an  ever  increasing  number  of  merchants. 
In  the  Woods  Run  district,  with  which  I  happen  to  be  best  ac- 
quainted, a  low-lying  mill  neighborhood  along  the  Ohio  in  Alle- 
gheny Oty,  probably  one-half  of  the  stores  and  saloons  are  in  the 
hands  of  Slovaks,  or  their  close  neighbors,  the  Hungarian  Rusnaks. 
They  began  as  common  laborers.  Most  of  the  stores  are  well  kept 
and,  in  general,  prosperous  looking,  and  among  their  customers  are 
not  only  Slavs,  but  Americans  as  well. 

A  type  of  this  class  of  men,  the  men  who  succeed  in  the  ac- 
cepted American  meaning  of  success,  was  John  Mlinek.  When  I 
first  saw  him  I  had  not  the  least  thought  that  he  was  a  Slav,  so 
well  dressed  and  thoroughly  conventionalized  did  he  seem,  and 
such  good  English  did  he  speak.  He  came  to  America  when  only 
fifteen  years  old  and  for  thirteen  years  worked  successfully  as  a 
breaker-boy  and  driver  in  the  mines  at  Mahanoy  City,  in  the  iron 
works  at  Elizabeth.  New  Jersey,  and  as  a  riveter  in  the  Pressed 
Steel  Car  Company  at  Allegheny.  In  this  last  place  he  was  soon 
making  from  $3.00  to  $4.00  a  day.  As  he  neither  drank  nor  in- 
dulged in  any  other  form  of  dissipation  he  saved  considerable 
money.     In  190$.  he  married  a  Slovak  giri  bom  and  brought  up 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

in  this  country,  who  for  several  years  before  her  marriage  had  been 
a  clerk  in  a  store  where  foreign  customers  traded.  She  was  a  little 
more  refined  than  the  average  English-speaking  girt  of  the  working 
class,  and  held  a  high  position  in  her  own  circle.  She  was  ambi- 
tious and  induced  her  husband  to  start  a  store  in  Woods  Run  for 
the  sale  of  cigars  and  candy.  From  what  I  could  gather  he  was 
doing  very  well,  and  they  already  must  have  saved  several  thou- 
sand dollars.  These  young  people  seemed  to  be  much  liked  in  the 
community;  they  were  prominent  both  in  their  social  circle  and 
in  their  church,  and  Mlinek  was  an  influential  man  among  the 
Slovak  societies,  though  he  did  not  push  himself  to  the  front.  He 
was,  i  should  say,  at  the  beginning  of  a  considerable  success;  his 
prospects  and  his  personality  favored  his  achieving  it;  only  some 
untoward  set  of  circumstances  could  keep  him  down. 

A  few  paragraphs  back,  in  speaking  of  Hudak,  I  drew  atten- 
tion to  the  powerful  call  their  native  bit  of  earth  makes  upon  so 
many  of  the  immigrants.  But  frequently  when  men  go  back, 
intending  to  stay,  in  response  to  this  call,  the  old  country  is  not 
strong  enough  to  hold  them.  Such  had  been  the  case  with  this 
same  John  Mlinek.  His  ambition  had  been  to  be  a  welt-to<lo 
farmer  in  Hungary,  and  recently  he  and  his  wife  had  made  a  pre- 
liminary visit  to  his  old  home  and  bought  a  farm.  They  remained 
a  few  weeks, — but  those  few  weeks  were  quite  enough.  He  came 
back  entirely  cured.  "Every  little  clerk  in  the  village  looked 
down  on  me,  because  I  didn't  speak  the  official  language,  Magyar," 
Mlinek  said  to  me.  "They  were  officials  while  I  was  just  a  peas- 
ant. They  didn't  earn  a  quarter  of  what  I  do,  yet  I  had  to  bow 
to  them.  That  made  me  sore.  In  America  I'm  a  free  man. 
Besides,  I've  got  a  better  chance  to  do  well  here  than  in  the  old 
country.    Yes,  America  is  good  enough  for  me." 

Mike  Mamaj  was  another  successful  man;  he  too  returned  to 
Hungary,  expecting  to  live  there,  and  he  too  turned  his  back  on 
his  native  country  and  set  out  again  for  America,  this  lime  to  stay. 
He  had  learned  to  speak,  read,  and  write  English,  and  was  full  of 
energy,  though  rather  rude  and  domineering  in  manner.  During 
the  early  part  of  his  career  in  America  (he  had  been  here  twenty 
years)  he  had  had  a  hard  time,  but  for  the  last  seven  years  he  had 
been  a  foreman  in  the  car  shops  at  Woods  Run.  He  had  70  men 
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A  Slav's  a  man  for  a'  that 

working  under  him,  and  part  of  the  time  he  had  earned  $ioo  a 
month.  He  owned  the  house  in  which  he  lived,  worth  about 
f2,soo,  had  property  in  the  old  country  to  the  value  of  $i,$oo,  and 
had  money  in  the  bank. 

Mamaj  was  proud  of  his  success,  of  his  home,  of  his  children. 
So  proud  that,  on  the  occasion  of  our  first  meeting,  though  the 
bedtime  hour  of  nine  had  come,  he  dragged  me  off  to  show  me  the 
evidence  of  what  he  had  done  in  America. 

First,  I  had  to  inspect  his  home,  which  was  neat  and  well 
furnished.  Then  he  ordered  his  children  (three  daughters,  aged 
eight,  ten,  and  thirteen)  who  were  going  to  bed,  to  dress  and  recite 
their  lessons  for  the  stranger.  While  the  girls  rather  sleepily  dis- 
played some  of  their  English  learning,  Mamaj  stood  by,  hands  in 
pockets,  and  nodded  proudly. 

One  deplorable  condition  that  1  frequently  met  with  among 
the  Slavs  was  contempt  for  American  hiw.*  This  is  largely  due 
to  the  teaching  of  experience, — and  experience  of  one  particular 
sort.  The  story  of  Vilchinsky,  a  Ruthenian  boarding  boss,  is 
a  common  one.  On  October  14,  1907,  one  of  his  boarders  was 
celebrating  a  patron  saint's  day.  This  meant  a  lot  of  drinking  by 
all,  and  during  the  festivities  they  got  more  or  less  under  the  in- 
fluence of  liquor,  but  they  were  in  their  own  house,  there  was  no 
public  disturbance,  and  toward  midnight  they  all  went  to  bed. 
About  two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  however,  when  they  were  all 
asleep,  officers  came  to  the  house,  wakened  everybody,  and  load- 
ing them  into  patrol  wagons  and  buggies  took  them  to  a  police 
station.  The  boarding  boss,  four  girls,  and  three  men  were  all 
taken  before  the  alderman  charged  with  disorderly  conduct. 
Without  any  regular  hearing, — none  of  them  could  speak  English 
and  there  was  no  interpreter, — the  squire  demanded  $20  apiece  for 
the  boarders  and  $$0  for  the  boarding  boss.  All  but  two  girls  paid 
the  fine  immediately,  and  these  two  were  then  sentenced  to  the 
county  jail.  During  the  following  day  their  friends  succeeded  in 
collecting  enough  money  to  pay  their  fines  and  the  $i.;o  extra  for 
board  in  the  jail.  Abuses  such  as  this  were  due  to  the  fact  that 
aklermen  and  constables  obtained  fees  from  the  fines  collected  (in 
this  case  amounting  to  I340),  which  made  it  to  their  interest  to 
get  as  many  cases  into  court  as  possible.    Many  men  with  whom 

'See  Roberts,  pp.  $0-53;   Forbei,  p.  $78. 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

I  talked  stated  that  the  constables  often  provoked  disorder  when 
none  existed  for  the  sake  of  the  profit  in  the  arrests.  The  Slavs 
knew  that  they  were  victimized,  and  at  the  same  time  they  realized 
their  helplessness;  the  natural  result  of  this  was  a  bitter  con- 
tempt for  law. 

"Huh!"  sneered  Vilchinsky,  "the  police  are  busy  enough  all 
right  stopping  disorder  when  the  men  have  got  money.  But  when 
there's  hard  times,  like  there  is  now,  a  man  can  make  all  the  noise 
he  pleases  and  the  police  won't  arrest  him.  They  know  he  hasn't 
money  to  pay  a  heavy  fine  and  costs.  It  ain't  law  they  think 
about.     It's  money." 

There  are  plenty  of  quarrelsome  Slavs  just  as  there  are  quar- 
relsome men  among  other  races;  and  when  you  have  a  combination 
of  Slavic  ill-temper  and  the  above-mentioned  judicial  practice, 
then  there  is  basis  for  trouble  indeed.  Zavatsky  and  Yeremin, 
Russians,  and  neighbors  in  a  steel  town,  drank  more  than  was  good 
for  them  one  Saturday  afternoon  in  a  saloon,  and  at  last  Zavatsky 
spoke  his  mind  about  Yeremin's  wife,  whom  he  did  not  consider 
as  good-looking  as  she  should  be,  and  indulged  in  drunken  threats 
against  her  if  she  did  not  stop  throwing  ashes  on  his  side  of  the 
yard.  Yeremin  repeated  to  his  wife  these  threats  and  remarks, 
and  Mrs.  Yeremin,  being  a  choleric  woman,  went  to  the  squire 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  was  very  late  in  the  evening.  But  as 
it  was  pay  day,  he  was  in  his  office  ready  for  business. 

A  constable  was  sent  to  Zavatsky's  house  to  arrest  him. 
The  constable  went  into  the  kitchen  and,  finding  nobody  there  or 
in  the  next  room,  went  on  upstairs.  Here  there  were  a  number  of 
boarders  talking,  but  they  were  not  dnmk.  The  constable,  seeing 
these  men,  thought  it  would  be  wisest  to  have  assistance,  so  he 
brought  two  policemen  and  then  started  for  Zavatsky.  They 
broke  open  the  door  of  the  room  where  Zavatsky  was  sleeping, 
dragged  him  out  of  bed,  and  told  him  to  get  up.  He  was  in  a 
drunken  stupor  and  afterward  claimed  that  he  did  not  resist  the 
constable;  in  fact,  scarcely  knew  what  was  going  on,  but  the  con- 
stable felled  him  with  so  heavy  a  blow  that  it  made  a  scalp  wound 
and  the  blood  rushed  out  and  blinded  him.  While  on  the  floor, 
Zavatsky  remembered  a  revolver  under  his  pillow,  and  raised  his 
hand  and  gat  it.  The  constable  wrested  it  from  him  and  accord- 
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A  Slav's  a  man  for  a' that 

ing  to  Mrs.  Zavatsky's  version,  exclaimed, "  I'll  give  you  a  revolver, 
you  son  of  a  gun,"  and  shot  Zavatsky  in  the  chest.  Mrs.  Zavatsky, 
catching  up  a  hammer,  rushed  at  the  constable,  but  he  knocked 
her  unconscious  by  a  blow  on  the  head  and  she  fell  to  the 
floor.  Before  that,  however,  she  had  screamed  to  the  men, 
"Come  down,  boys,  come  down,  they're  killing  the  gazda!"  One 
of  the  first  to  come  to  Zavatsky's  assistance  was  his  kum  (a  kum  is 
one  who  is  godfather  to  one's  children,  or  to  whose  children  one  is 
godfather;  a  very  close  relationship — generally  a  man's  dearest 
friend).  As  Zavatsky's  kum  tried  to  rush  into  the  room,  the  two 
oflficers  gave  him  several  violent  blows  on  the  head.  The  other 
men  rushed  down,  but  all  were  seized  by  the  officers,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  one  man  whose  flight  was  suddenly  stopped  by  a  shot 
in  the  leg. 

As  a  result  of  the  m61£e,  the  whole  household  of  lo  men  and 
one  woman  was  taken  in  patrol  wagons  to  the  squire's  court  and 
committed  to  jail,  charged  with  disorderly  conduct,  felonious  as- 
sault, and  interference  with  an  officer  in  performance  of  his  duty. 
Zavatsky  and  the  boarder  who  was  shot  in  the  leg  were  sent  to  the 
hospital  for  treatment.  At  first  it  looked  as  if  Zavatsky  were  not 
going  to  live.  After  a  hearing  four  days  later  the  prisoners  were 
all  committed  to  the  grand  jury,  and  according  to  my  information 
were  all  sentenced  to  jail  for  varying  periods.  None  of  the  police- 
men nor  the  constable  had  even  a  scratch  to  show,  although  they 
charged  these  lo  men  with  felonious  assault.  The  house,  when 
I  saw  it  just  following  the  affair,  looked  as  it  might  have  looked  the 
day  after  a  battle. 

Not  even  so  brief  a  sketch  as  this  would  be  complete  without 
an  instance  or  two  of  the  men  who  have  been  handicapped  by  in- 
dustrial acddent.*  Such  men  are  met  everywhere  in  Pittsburgh, — 
they  are  so  common  as  to  excite  no  comment.  In  proportion  to 
their  numbers  the  Slavs  are  the  greatest  sufferers  from  accidents 
in  the  Pittsburgh  region,  for  to  their  lot  falls  the  heaviest  and  most 
dangerous  work.  The  report  of  the  National  Croatian  Society  for 
i9o$-o6,  to  give  a  general  example  of  what  industrial  accidents 
mean  to  the  Slav,  shows  that  out  of  a  membership  averaging  about 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

17,000  for  that  period,  g;  men  were  killed  by  accident  (almost  a 
third  of  the  deaths  from  all  causes).  Eighty-live  other  men  were 
permanently  disabled.  In  addition,  97  died  from  consumption, 
the  inception  of  which  is  often  traceable  to  the  character  of  thei^ 
work. 

Andrew  Antonik's  job  was  to  run  a  "skull-cracker"  in  the 
Homestead  Mill.  This  is  a  contrivance  to  break  up  scrap  so  that 
it  can  be  more  easily  melted,  and  its  main  feature  is  a  heavy  pear- 
shaped  iron  ball  which  is  hoisted  into  the  air  and  then  allowed  to 
drc^  upon  the  scrap  which  has  been  heaped  beneath  it.  The 
crash  of  this  ball  throws  pieces  of  the  scrap  in  all  directions.  The 
work  is  very  dangerous,  especially  at  night  when  it  is  hard  to  see 
and  dodge  the  (lying  scrap.  One  Monday  night  (he  had  worked 
the  day  before  on  a  twenty-four-hour  shift)  Antonik  failed  to  see 
and  dodge.  A  chunk  of  scrap  weighing  four  or  five  hundred  pounds 
struck  his  leg  and  crushed  it  so  that  it  had  to  be  amputated. 

Almost  a  year  after  the  accident  1  went  to  visit  Antonik, 
and  found  a  mild-faced,  kindly  looking,  not  very  intelligent  man 
of  forty,  sitting  in  his  landlady's  kitchen  rocking  her  baby.  That 
was  Antonik's  job  now,  to  take  care  of  his  landlady's  children  in 
part  payment  for  his  board;  that  was  all  he  was  good  for  yet,  for 
he  had  only  a  leg  and  a  stump.  He  had  been  paid  Jijo  by  the 
company;  of  this  he  had  sent  f  ;o  to  his  wife  in  Hungary  and  had 
used  the  balance  to  pay  his  board  during  the  seven  months  since 
he  had  left  the  hospital.  Now  nothing  remained.  The  company 
had  promised  him  an  artificial  leg  and  light  work  as  soon  as  he 
was  able  to  get  around,  but  his  stump  was  not  yet  entirely  healed, 
and  as  he  had  not  a  cent  and  his  wife  was  writing  him  letters  beg- 
gjng  for  money  for  the  children — there  were  five  of  them,  the 
eldest  a  deaf  and  dumb  giri  of  thirteen — Antonik  was  worried. 

He  looked  at  the  future  blankly,  helplessly.  He  had  at  first 
planned  to  bring  his  family  here,  but  now  he  could  not  get  the 
money  for  that.  Nor  could  he  go  back  to  them.  He  wouU  be 
more  useless,  more  helpless,  on  a  farm  than  here.  The  only  solu- 
tion Antonik  could  see  to  the  lifelong  problem  suddenly  thrust 
upon  him  by  that  flying  piece  of  scrap,  was  for  him  and  his  family 
to  remain  indefinitely  apart,  he  working  at  whatever  poor  job  and 
at  whatever  low  wage  he  could  get,  and  sending  a  little  to  Hungary 
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A  SLAV  S  A  MAN   FOR  A  THAT 

to  help  out,  his  wife  to  continue  working  on  a  fann  at  1 2  or  i  $  cents 
a  day. 

CXten  the  handicapped  man's  problem  is  thrust  directly  upon 
the  wife  for  solution,  as  it  was  upon  the  wife  of  John  Hyrka. 
Hyrka  was  a  Ruthenian  of  thirty;  his  wife  was  twenty-eight.  He 
was  making  fair  wages  in  the  Duquesne  Mills;  they  were  both 
healthy  and  strong,  and  they  had  high  hopes  for  the  future.  But 
May  2(6,  1907,  John,  who  was  working  on  a  platform  directly  over 
a  limestone  mill,  stepped  upon  a  rotten  plank  and  he  shot  down 
into  the  mill.  Before  he  could  be  extricated  the  flesh  had  been  torn 
from  the  soles  of  both  feet. 

He  was  sent  to  the  McKeesport  hospital,  where  attempts 
were  made  to  graft  flesh  upon  his  soles.  Some  months  later  his 
feet  were  still  not  healed,  and  it  was  practically  certain  that  the 
grafting  would  be  a  failure  and  that  he  would  be  a  cripple  for  life. 

When  this  tragedy  descended  upon  Mrs.  Hyrka  she  was 
within  a  month  of  confinement.  Into  this  grim  situation  entered 
the  baby,  adding  its  cares.  For  months  after  the  accident  she  was 
in  no  condition  to  work,  and  when  she  did  regain  her  strength  the 
demands  of  the  infant  would  not  permit  her  to  take  up  regular 
empk>yment.  For  six  months  she  lived  upon  $30  a  month  paid 
her  by  the  company;  then  the  company  cut  off  this  allowance,  and 
after  she  had  felt  the  pinch  of  want  for  a  time,  she  demanded  a 
final  settlement.  They  offered  her  |6oo,  she  to  pay  all  further 
hospital  bills,  which  up  to  then  had  been  met  by  the  company. 
She  talked  the  matter  over  with  John,  and  between  them  they 
decided  that  to  have  the  flesh  scraped  from  one's  feet  and  to  be  a 
lifelong  cripple  ought  to  be  worth  as  much  as  f  1,000.  But  this 
seemed  an  exorbitant  estimate  to  the  company,  and  as  Mrs. 
Hyrka  held  firm  to  her  own  figures,  the  matter  was  still  unsettled 
when  1  left  Pittsburgh.  She  was  then  living  on  what  she  could 
borrow;  the  high  hopesof  twenty-eight  were  all  blasted;  she  knew 
that  she  had  a  cripple  on  her  hands  for  all  his  life,  thirty  or  forty 
years  perhaps,  and  she  was  wondering,  desperately  wondering, 
how  she  was  going  to  be  able  to  support  him. 

The  burden  of  the  home  making  may  fall  upon  a  child.  In 
looking  into  an  accident  case  I  called  at  a  home  in  Saw  Mill  Alley 
— a  cheerless,  dingy  neighborhood  that  is  flooded  every  year  by  the 
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iueh  water.  !  was  Rczned  n  lae  iucdiea  by  a  s^Uht  P;:^:^  oH 
rd  SficeB.  and  lona  d:s£:.-:«ered  ntai  sae  was  rhe  real  bead  at  ibe 
brjTie.  5oe  had  ;ist  lirraigc  :3e  wash,  and  ai  sadt  a  aae  nvn 
lSc  best  </  hr^Bcs  is  Arte  :c  be  in  disorder.  Here,  iuwcver. 
evrr/zhm^  was  neat  and  oean.  Annie  tcid  3ie  iier  stzry  vZind.y 
cnouzh.  Her  faiiier.  vto  bad  been  a  taboicr  in  ooe  <tf  tbe  mius. 
bad  been  killed  b>  an  engne  wt^e  wortic^  in  tae  yard  at  ni^t. 
Her  mother  had  remarried  and  soon  afur  had  beoi  boned  to 
death  b>-  tbe  expiosian  c€  a  kerosene  Lucp.  Annie  «xs  now  keep- 
ing house  for  her  brjCher  and  her  stepfalho'.  As  the  seventeen- 
year-old  brother  was  lather  sh> .  and  as  the  stcpfatho-  was  a  oi^t 
watchman,  by  nature  a  man  of  no  authority'  and  aijowcd  by  his 
work  little  opportunity  to  exercise  it  even  had  be  poMrswrd  it,  tbe 
main  control  oi  the  household  had  passed  ioio  Annie's  hands. 
That  anthority  she  was  using  weO,  as  was  shown  not  only  by  tbe 
tidiness  of  tbe  house,  but  by  the  fact  that  it  was  cfaiefl>'  through 
ber  tnflueoce  that  ber  brother  was  atttnding  night  sdwol.  She 
had  energy,  determination,  and  character.  She  read  and  wrote 
both  English  and  PoUsh.  She  said  sbe  hlted  to  read  books,  his- 
tory e^iedally,  bat  that  sbe  hadn't  the  time. 

A  quality  that  I  have  noted  again  and  again  among  the 
Slavs  is  their  readiness  to  bdp  their  countrvinen  in  distress. — 
already  instanced  by  tbe  case  of  Milek's  father  kniring  mooey  to 
a  robbed  feUaw^mmigrant.  Sometimes  this  generosity  shows 
itself  amid  the  most  adverse  circumstances,  as  it  did  with  Koval. 
Koval  (the  Rutbenian  that  1  mentioned  as  having  wandered  about 
before  settling  in  Pittsburgh)  had  himself  had  enou^  misfortune 
during  three  years  in  America  to  drive  all  unselfish  feeling  for 
others  out  of  a  man's  heart.  Oite  year  after  coming  to  this  coun- 
try he  sent  for  his  family  and  his  younger  brother.  Immediately 
upon  their  arrival  his  three  children  and  his  brother  fell  sick  with 
typhoid  fever.  They  were  no  sooner  well  than  Koval  himself 
contracted  the  fever.  This  illness  drained  their  resources  and 
forced  them  (o  fill  their  home  with  boarders — a  hardship  upon  the 
slight  wife,  all  (he  more  keenly  felt  because  keeping  boarders  had 
been  no  part  of  their  original  plan.  Then  all  three  of  the  children 
were  taken  ill  with  croup.  The  usual  price  for  a  doctor's  call  is 
$t.oo,  but  the  doctor  charged  $3.00  each  visit  inasmuch  as  he  had 

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A   SLAV  S  A  MAN    FOR  A    THAT 

three  patients;  Koval  protested  but  had  to  pay.  Two  of  the  chil- 
dren died,  and  Koval,  by  this  time  financially  exhausted,  had  to 
go  in  debt  to  the  undertaker  for  the  funerals.  And  then  amid 
these  last  disasters  came  the  financial  crash  of  1907  with  its  misery 
of  unemployment ;  certainly  enough  to  sour  the  milk  of  human 
kindness  in  any  man.  But  the  penniless  Koval  did  not  drive  out 
his  penniless  boarders,  now  only  a  burden.  Instead,  he  gave  them 
3  sleeping  place,  divided  with  them  the  food  he  could  get  on  credit 
from  the  grocery,  for  since  he  was  a  steady  man  and  a  house- 
holder Koval  still  had  some  credit;  and  for  the  food  they  still 
needed  he  and  his  boarders  would  go  and  stand  in  the  bread  line, 
which  had  been  established  in  Woods  Run.  Not  only  did  Koval 
not  throw  out  the  helpless  boarders,  who  already  encumbered  him, 
but  he  took  in  seven  additional  people  who  were  in  distress.  Two 
of  these  latter  were  young  men  from  his  native  village  who  had 
landed  in  Pittsburgh  in  the  midst  of  the  depression;  two  were 
Russians  who  had  been  found  wandering  through  the  streets, 
neariy  frozen,  by  a  policeman,  who  brought  them  to  Koval;  the 
others  were  a  countryman,  his  wife,  and  child  of  six,  to  accommodate 
whom  Koval  had  to  give  up  his  own  bed.  During  the  period  of 
my  acquaintance  with  him  Koval  was  supporting  1 2  boarders,  only 
one  of  whom  was  paying  him  a  cent. 

What  he  was  doing  seemed  quite  the  natural  thing  to  Koval; 
he  hardly  seemed  conscious  of  his  self-sacrificing  generosity. 
"Why  do  you  keep  all  these  people?"  1  asked  him.  "Why,  what 
else  could  1  doF"  he  returned.  "They  have  no  work  and  no 
other  place  to  go.  1  can  not  throw  a  man  into  the  street.  They 
will  go  themselves  when  they  can." 


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MEDIEVAL  RUSSIA  IN  THE  PITTSBURGH 
DISTRICT 

Alexis  Sokoloff 

THEY  appeared  in  immense  numbers  with  their  hideous 
looks  and  ugly  cries."*  So  to  the  proud  Romans  looked  the 
Cymbrians  and  Teutons,  the  forefathers  of  the  advanced 
nations  of  the  present  middle  Europe,  in  their  first  beaten-off  in- 
vasion of  Roman  soil.  So  now  to  the  prosperous  and  respectable 
people  of  America  look  the  "foreigners,"  especially  my  kith  and 
kin — the  Slavs.  So,  in  truth,  after  living  over  three  years  among 
Americans,  away  from  the  foreign  quarters,  did  these  immigrants 
appear  to  me,  too,  when  work  had  ^ven  me  a  panoramic  view  of 
their  life. 

Day  after  day,  walking  from  house  to  house  in  an  endeavor 
to  gather  information  about  men  whose  names  had  been  distorted 
by  their  American  transcription  and  whose  nationality  was  but 
vaguely  indicated,  seeking  addresses  given  only  approximately,  I 
caught  glimpses  of  hundreds  of  living  pictures — pictures  not  unlike 
vivid  photographic  snapshots. 

Here  is  one :  You  enter  the  kitchen  of  a  dark  tenement  under 
the  Tenth  Street  bridge.  The  dim  light  of  an  oil  lamp  on  a  long, 
dirty  table  shows  a  crowd  of  about  15  men  sitting  rather  silently 
around  the  table  and  along  the  walls;  in  the  foreground  a  dirty 
woman  with  a  huge  knife  is  busy  over  a  large  pan  containing  almost 
a  whole  fried  calf;  next  is  a  young  fellow,  perhaps  her  son,  chewing 
with  smacking  lips  at  a  large  piece  of  meat  held  in  both  hands, 
decidedly  dirty  hands.  You  can  not  help  but  notice  the  hungry, 
wolfish  looks  of  the  other  fellows  as  they  watch  the  lucky  one. 
You  ask  your  question  and  hurry  on  under  the  impression  that 
you  have  seen  a  repast  of  the  troglodytes;  only  afterward  bring- 

*  Quotation  from  a  [toman  historian  in  Cutiot't  HUtoiy  of  FraDce.  Vol.  I, 
Chapter  T. 

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MEDIEVAL  RUSSIA  IN    PITTSBURGH 

ing  a  little  correction  to  your  impression — ^that  it  was  not  a  dinner 
but  the  filling-up  of  the  dinner  pails  for  tomorrow  that  you  saw. 

In  photography,  by  some  process,  similar  pictures  can  be 
combined  into  one  which  makes  a  composite  of  them  all;  so,  too, 
my  snapshots  combined  into  one  picture  the  life  of  these  foreigners 
— ^a  weird  and  ugly  picture,  whose  gloom  the  few  cheering  impres- 
sions I  received  did  not  dispel.  There  were,  however,  some  pleas- 
ant sights  now  and  then;  for  instance,  that  of  a  newly  wed  Slovak 
couple,  both  hardly  more  than  children,  good-looking  and  con- 
tented; he  a  laborer  in  this  country  about  three  years,  she  here  less 
than  one.  He  had  been  slt^tly  injured  on  his  left  arm  and  upper 
body  by  an  explosion  of  a  blast  furnace,  and  received  about  jtjo 
from  the  company  at  one  time.  Peasant  girl  though  his  wife  was, 
yet  their  sin^e  room,  serving  as  kitchen,  living,  and  bedroom, 
showed  that  such  a  room  could  be  remarkably  attractive.  New, 
shining  kitchen  utensils  did  not  offend  me  beside  a  bright,  clean  bed. 

But  everyone  knows  the  effect  of  a  snapshot;  most  of  them 
show  the  creature  they  portray  in  a  grotesque  attitude.  A  paint- 
ing or  a  drawing,  product  of  patient  work  in  which  the  artist  can 
give  the  right  perspective  and  select  the  essential  from  the  super- 
fluous, surpasses  them  in  truthfulness.  I  should  be  willing  to 
reproach  the  Americans  for  having  merely  what  may  be  called 
snapshot  knoMedge  about  foreigners,  if  1  could  pretend  in  any 
way  that  what  I  am  going  to  say  about  Russians  is  the  result  of 
a  thorough  investigation.  But  at  least  the  lack  of  exhaustive 
inquiry  is  with  me  somewhat  compensated  for  by  foreknowledge 
of  the  subject:  I  am  a  Russian  myself . 

I  did  not  expect  the  Russian  worktngman's  house  to  add  any 
cheering  o^or  to  the  desolate  impressions  I  had  received  of  the 
foreigners'  standard  of  living,  although  my  first  contact  with  it 
had  been  a  pleasant  one.  This  was  in  Essen,  a  small  mining  town 
not  far  from  Came^e,  though  very  far  from  civilization.  I  was 
directed  to  the  houses  of  the  Russians  by  an  Italian  woman,  who 
showed,  to  my  amazement,  that  she  had  no  small  vocabulary  of 
Russian  words,  evidently  the  fruit  of  good  neighboring  with  these 
Slavs.  In  an  orderiy  enough  kitchen  I  came  upon  a  group  of 
genuine  Russian  "muzhiks,"  some  of  them  with  long  beards,  look- 
ing grave  and  mighty  venerable,  their  tn>users  tucked  into  high 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

boots  and  their  blouses  girdled  with  narrow  bands.  All,  however, 
were  dean  and  quiet.  The  mine  in  which  they  worked  had  been 
closed  for  a  long  while  and  few  people  had  remained  in  the  town, 
so  that  there  was  now  no  overcrowding.  1  was  greeted  with 
spontaneous  kindness  and  goodwill,  and  treated  to  a  ^ass  of  genu- 
ine "  kvas,"  that  healthy  national  beverage  made  of  dry  bread,  with 
no  alcohol  in  it.  My  ear  was  greeted  with  the  Russian  now  spoken 
near  Moscow  and  in  the  province  of  Tamboff,  so  musical  to  me,  in- 
deed, that  1  was  jealous  of  it,  after  the  characterless  speech  of  the 
educated  classes.  I  felt  myself  transplanted  to  a  Russia  more  real 
even  than  the  one  I  had  known  in  the  middle  provinces  of  the 
empire.  And  to  think  that  these  fellows  had  never  seen  Russia 
proper,  nor  had  their  fathers  or  grandfathers!  They  were  Old 
Believers  from  the  province  of  Suvaiki  in  Russian  Poland,  the 
northern  part  of  that  territory  which,  like  an  inland  promontory, 
juts  into  Prussia  and  Austria.  They  belong  to  the  second  migra- 
tion of  Old  Believers.  About  two  hundred  years  ago  their  an- 
cestors had  fled  from  the  persecution  of  the  Moscow  government 
to  the  republic  of  Poland,  then  still  a  force  in  Europe.  After 
Poland's  division,  some  became  subjects  of  the  Czar  again,  some 
of  Austria,  and  a  few  of  Prussia.  Few  Americans  have  ever  heard 
of  these  Russian  dissenters,  although  they  number  millions.* 
The  sect  is  a  product  of  the  church  reform  of  Patriarch  Nicon 
(Patriarch,  1652-1666).  However  strange  it  now  seems,  in  early 
times  the  Russian  government  marched  ahead  of  the  people;  in 
fact,  it  began  to  lag  behind  only  one  hundred  years  ago.  The 
monk  Nicon,  a  simple  peasant  (who  might  have  looked  like  one  of 
the  miners  sitting  before  me  in  the  house  in  Essen),  had  gained  such 
a  powerful  influence  over  the  Czar,  Alexis  Mikhailovich,  that  he 
could  handle  him  as  a  puppet.  He  conceived  the  idea  of  purifying 
the  Russian  Bible  and  liturgy  books  from  the  mistakes  of  transla- 
tors and  transcriptors,  and  of  eliminating  some  customs  not  agree- 
ing with  Greek  Orthodox  traditions.  Hence  the  schism.  The 
important  questions  whether  in  church  processions  one  should  walk 
"with  the  sun"  or  "against  it,"  whether  one  should  administer 

*  A.  Prugavin,  a  wellknown  invnti^tor  of  relis<otu  secti  in  Russia,  in  the 
first  chapter  of  a  pamphlet  on  the  Old  Believers,  tries  to  prove  that  the  govcm- 
inent's  estimite  of  j.ooo.ooo  is  incorrect  and  that  1 5,000.000  Is  but  a  conservative 
figure  for  the  number  of  Old  Believers. 

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the  Lord's  Supper  from  five  or  from  seven  "phosphors"  (1  do 
not  know  which  number  is  holy  to  these  dissenters  and  which 
to  us  orthodox),  led  to  some  fighting  and  much  head  cutting. 
But  the  causes  of  dissension  were  actually  much  deeper  than  ques- 
tions of  ritual;  the  revolt  was  one  of  the  last  unsuccessful  protests 
against  the  steadily  encroaching,  centralizing  dominance  of  Mos- 
cow. Thenfon,  we  see  exactly  the  most  freedom-loving  elements 
embracing  that  schism.  If  these  people  now  form  only  a  sprink- 
ling of  the  population  of  Russian  Poland  they  are  very  numerous 
in  the  northern  Russian  provinces  of  Arkhanguelsk  and  Vologda, 
in  Ural  and  in  Siberia.  All  the  Cossacks*  of  Orenburg  (the  pet 
bodyguard  of  the  present  Czar),  and  many  of  Don  and  Terek  are 
(^Believers.  You  smile.  Cossacks  and  freedom!  There  was  a 
time,  however,  when  the  name  of  Cossack  was  synonymous  with 
freedom,  association  with  which  now  remains  only  in  a  meaningless 
saying,  "free  as  a  Cossack."  Moscow  had  known  how  to  win  the 
Cossacks  to  her  cause  by  making  them  a  little  more  free  than  the 
rest  of  the  people.  It  is  natural  now  that  the  Old  Believers, 
almost  untouched  by  the  centuries  of  progress,  should  make  a 
common  cause  with  the  present  government — a  government  which 
would  be  glad  to  see  Russia  put  back  into  the  seventeenth  century.f 
They  now  revere  the  Czar,  who  in  times  of  persecution  they  actu- 
ally called  "anti<^rist."  1  was  advised  not  to  say  anything 
offensive  against  that  person  in  order  to  avoid  a  possible  big  un- 
pleasantness. 

For  good  looks,  the  Russians  are  rather  a  disgrace  to  the 
Slavic  race.  One  can  see  that  they  are  not  only  disinherited  sons 
of  the  Creek  and  Roman  civilization  to  which  the  other  members 

*  A  putoni,  wiriike  people  of  skilful  honemen,  inhabiting  different  partt 
of  Rinsia  ajxl  drawn  upon  largely  to  fumUh  cavalrymen  for  the  Ruisian  army — 
hence  the  erroneous  idea  often  entertained  that  the  term  Conack  means  primarily  a 
mounted  soldier. 

t  The  year  in  which  this  was  written,  the  Russian  Douma  look  up  tlie  ques- 
tion of  legalizing  the  Otd  Etelievers.  This  was  the  first  of  a  series  of  measures  de- 
signed to  put  inio  effecl  the  principles  of  religious  liberty  enunciated  in  the  empe- 
tot's  manifesto  of  May  i),  190;.  A  bill  was  introduced  lo  grant  this  sect  the  free 
practice  of  their  religion,  together  with  certain  special  riles,  but  denying  them  the 
privilege  of  proselyting  among  the  membeis  of  the  Orthodox  church,  oi^  preaching 
in  poblie,  or  of  using  the  title  of  priest.  The  bill  was  subjected  to  a  two-sided 
attack.  A  representative  of  the  holy  synod  denied  the  right  of  pariiainent  to 
legislate  in  matters  affecting  the  Orthodox  church,  while  the  Liberals  proposed 
~ts  removing  the  above  restriction. 

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WAGE-EARNING  PITTSBURGH 

of  the  Arian  family  belong,  but  that  they  committed  a  mesalliance, 
absorbing  many  Ugro-Finnish  tribes.  Out  of  a  dozen  Servians 
one  can,  in  my  opinion,  find  as  many  good-looking  chaps,  usually 
of  a  dark,  energetic  type,  as  among  other  men.  Among  Polish 
peasants,  one  often  meets  faces  of  a  noble,  almost  womanish 
beauty.  But  the  Russians  too  often  show  their  high  cheek  bones 
and  narrow  eyes.  Yet  among  these  Old  Believers  I  met  fine  faces 
under  beards  vdiich  with  a  little  trimming  and  grooming  would 
have  made  many  a  fellow  look  like  a  Tennyson  or  a  Longfellow. 

The  head  of  the  house  in  the  town  (^  Essen  was  of  this  type. 
There  was  an  almost  "  noblesse  d'allures"  in  the  broad,  quiet  sweep 
of  hand  over  his  long  beard,  during  the  course  of  the  argument 
which  we  had  started  about  those  same  beards.  "We  do  as  our 
fathers  did,"  he  said. 

He  recalled  the  picture  of  the  Russian  peasant  which  had 
lingered  in  my  memory  since  the  days  of  my  boyhood  in  Vologda 
in  the  north  of  Russia:  [A  sturdy  villager  coming  into  the  room, 
taking  off  his  cap,  slowly  and  reverently  crossing  his  brow  before 
the  holy  images, — z  whole  gallery  of  them  in  the  "red"  comer, — 
and  then  bowing  himself  before  our  peasant  host  and  each  of 
my  fellow-visitors.]  The  procedure  impressed  me  as  more  dig- 
nified than  the  pompousness  of  any  of  the  officials  whom  I  saw, 
and  I  wondered  that  the  custom  was  not  followed  now  by  their 
class. 

Yes,  they  might  have  come  yesterday  from  the  heart  of 
Russia,  so  little  could  the  influence  of  the  New  World  be  discovered 
upon  them. 

Yet  it  appeared  that  some  of  my  hosts  had  already  been 
in  America  more  than  eight  years.  Kalamazoo  stoves,  how- 
ever, seemed  to  be  the  only  articles  borrowed  from  progress.  None 
knew  more  than  a  few  words  of  English,  with  perhaps  a  few  of  Ital- 
ian or  Hungarian.  One  man  had  evidently  seen  the  nickelodeon 
picture  of  Salome's  dance,  as  the  long  beard  and  hair  in  the  figure 
of  St.  John,  current  in  the  films  of  local  instruments,  fortified  his 
argument  for  beards.  While  the  argument  was  still  unfinished, 
I  found  out  that  I  was  in  Essen  No.  i,  and  that  the  Polish  felk)W  I 
was  in  search  of  must  be  in  Essen  No.  2,  over  an  hour's  walk. 
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MEDIEVAL  RUSSIA   IN   PITTSBURGH 

I  had  received  of  my  countrymen,  1  scoffed  at  the  term  "nation  of 
low  efficiency,"  which  1  had  heard  applied  to  Russians.  Backward, 
yes,  but  not  of  low  efficiency !  It  must  have  been  men  exactly  like 
these  I  had  seen  a  moment  ago  who,  800  in  number,  conquered 
Siberia,  perishing,  all  of  them,  but  not  before  they  had  "greeted" 
Ivan  the  Terrible  with  a  "czardom."  Men  like  these  had  beaten 
and  repulsed  Tartars  and  Turks  and  challenged  the  dominion  of 
Moscow.  A  mighty  breed  these  men  of  the  backwoods.  They 
were  our  "frontiersmen."*  As  I  walked  along  1  picked  out,  as  a 
boy  picks  out  the  raisins  from  a  cake,  all  the  proud  mottoes, 
all  the  glorious  deeds  of  Russian  history.  That  war-cry  of  the 
republic  of  Novgorod,  "Who  is  against  God  and  Great  Novgo- 
rod!" Or  that  answer  of  the  besieged  Russians  to  the  victorious 
Mongolians  who  promised  the  defeated  ones  grace  on  condi- 
tion of  their  giving  the  tenth  of  all  the  people  in  slavery:  "Go 
on  with  the  fight!  who  will  be  left  shall  be  yours" — and  no  one 
was  left.  1  recalled  this  unconquerable  spirit  of  Russia  in  rising 
from  disaster  ever  since  that  eventful  day  when  the  Mongolians 
in  1224,  afterdefeating  the  Russian  army  at  Kalka,  had  eaten  their 
supper  sitting  on  the  wounded  Russian  princes  covered  with  boards 
and  saddles — those  princes  who  while  their  companions  had  been 
too  busy  with  petty  reckoning  among  themselves,  had  come  out  to 
meet  the  enemy.  The  spark  of  Promethean  fire  was  not  brought 
to  Russia  as  to  some  happier  nation  by  conquerors;  her  people 
have  had  to  strike  it  out  for  themselves.  By  the  time  I  found  my 
Polander,  I  was  almost  full  of  the  conceit  of  a  "Slavophil"  about 
Russia. 

I  was  soon  punished  for  my  fatuity,  however,  by  another 
snapshot  view.  I  had  come  with  special  purpose  to  make  ac- 
quaintance with  the  Old  Believers  in  Cokeburgh,  a  mining  town 
to  all  purposes  exactly  like  many  others  of  the  Pittsburgh  District, 
but  containing  an  especially  large  number  of  Russians.    Out  of 

'The  Old  BeKevm  are  strikir^y  described  in  a  novel  by  "Pechenky," 
pMudcnym  of  P.  I.  MelnikoR  (iSai-if^),  called  tn  ForeiO  and  On  Mouniami, 
a  quasi  epopee  classic  in  Russia  not  because  of  its  literaiy  merit,  but  on  account  of 
its  remaricable  dclinealion  of  character.  InterestinK  is  it  to  note  that  Pechersky 
himself  was  at  the  head  of  a  department  ruling  over  the  destinies  of  these  dissenters, 
wiuch  from  tAdta  times  had  been  one  of  the  most  crafting  of  all  the  grafting  depart* 
ments  of  the  government,  and  he  was  also  reputed  to  be  himself  a  grafter. 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

between  400  or  ;oo  miners  (almost  all  foreigners)  300  were  my 
countrymen,  about  half  of  them  Old  Believers. 

1  reached  Cokeburgh  on  a  beautiful  early  Sunday  morning. 
1  was  disagreeably  struck,  on  leaving  the  train,  with  the  sound  of 
what  seemed  to  be  drunken  brawls  sounding  from  many  houses. 
Such  indeed  they  were.  Yestenday  had  been  pay  day  and  bearded 
men  were  drinking  and  drunk.  Many  houses  were  deserted,  the 
revelers  being  grouped  in  a  few.  An  ugly  sight!  Dirty,  dis- 
heveled men  in  filthy  kitchens  filled  with  empty  bottles,  kegs,  and 
barrels;  everything  helter-skelter.  Worst  of  all  was  the  foul  lan- 
guage they  were  using,  without  any  provocation,  regardless  of  the 
presence  of  children.  I  knew  they  did  not  use  those  bad  words 
in  the  north  of  Russia.  This  is  the  influence  of  soldiery,  so  numer- 
ous in  Poland  and  on  the  borderline  and  so  hateful  everywhere. 
But  when  1  rebuked  them,  in  quite  unrestrained  expressions,  for 
their  foul  language,  nobody  knocked  me  down ;  they  were  ashamed, 
for  a  while  at  least.  They  felt  insulted  only  when  I  refused  to 
drink  a  glass  of  beer  with  them,  invariably  offered  without  pre- 
liminaries. Many  were  sitting  in  the  room  with  their  hats  on — a 
thing  1  would  not  have  believed  about  a  Russian  peasant. 

Revolting  as  is  this  drunkenness,  something  like  an  unhappy 
historical  tradition  prevails  among  Russians,  as  in  early  times  was 
the  case  in  Merrie  Old  England  and  as  is  the  case  in  Germany  at 
thepresentday — not  to  count  overindulgence  in  drink  a  sin.  Ato- 
tally  indecent,  drunken  man  in  both  Russia  and  Germany  is  more  an 
object  of  solicitude  and  sympathy  than  of  scorn.  Saint  Vladimir, 
the  apostle  of  Russia,  is  credited  with  having  said,  when  the  choice 
of  religion  was  proposed  to  him:  "No  Mohammedanism  for  us; 
Russia's  joy  is  drinking."  1  am  myself,  however,  enough  of  a 
German  student  to  appreciate  companionship  around  a  nicely 
served  table  with  beer  and  song.  Possibly  the  complete  lack  of  the 
esthetic  in  their  drinking  was  what  made  it  so  revolting.  Out  in 
the  open  air  beneath  green  branches  these  Slavs  might  not  perhaps 
have  looked  so  offensive.  They  may  have  had  some  such  idea 
themselves,  for  during  a  walk  1  took  in  a  little  forest  nearby  1  saw 
under  almost  every  tree  traces  of  successive  festivities.  Nobody 
was  really  senselessly  drunk,  however,  not  even  late  in  the  after- 
noon.   The  saying  holds  true  of  many  a  Russian,  "  Drunk  for  a 

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MEDIAEVAL  RUSSIA    IN    PITTSBURGH 

dime;  making  fuss  for  a  dollar."  If  they  Rg^t,  the  essential  weapon 
is  the  fist,  never  a  knife  or  a  pistol.  In  spite  of  the  lack  of  police 
surveillance,  or  perhaps  because  of  it,  drinkers  in  these  mining 
towns  get  into  trouble  less  often  than  they  do  in  the  city.  Yet  it 
is  decidedly  for  the  worse  that  they  drink  in  their  homes,  seMom 
going  to  the  saloons.  The  children  and  women  thus  become  used 
to  the  sight  of  debauchery,  though  I  saw  no  women  in  the  houses 
where  drinking  was  going  on.  The  women  were  by  themselves  else- 
where, untidy,  some  barefooted,  and  almost  all  in  weekday  clothes. 
"Why  is  this  so  here,"  I  asked  myself,  "when  1  remember  the 
streets  of  Russian  villages  on  Sunday,  bright  with  all  the  colors 
of  the  rainbow  in  the  women's  bands,  frocks,  and  kerchiefsP"  Pos- 
sibly the  answer  was  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  nearest  church 
of  Old  Believers  was  about  forty  miles  from  Cokeburf^,*  and  Rus- 
sian Sunday  adornment  is  inseparable  from  church-going.  Only 
girls  of  marriageable  age,  or  close  to  it,  were  displaying  quite 
American  apparel  and  hairdressing,  and  this  without  any  con- 
nection with  the  length  of  time  they  had  lived  in  America.  A  nice 
American  lady  to  whom  I  showed  the  picture  on  the  page  opposite, 
when  she  saw  the  girl  standing  first  from  the  left  said  that  she  must 
have  been  in  this  country  most  of  her  life.  Yet  she  had  been  here 
only  six  months.  I  talked  with  her  and  found  her  fresh,  with 
rustic,  awkward  bashfulness. 

The  village  "belle"  was  also  a  daughter  of  the  Old  Believers, 
but  she  had  bwn  brought  up  in  this  country.  Refined  in  feature 
and  of  slender  figure,  she  spoke  perfect  English,  yet  showed  much 
of  that  defiant,  overbearing  lack  of  kindness  one  meets  so  often  in 
the  city  shop  giri,  whose  manners  she  was  evidently  imitating.  I 
wished  her  to  pose  for  a  picture  with  her  uncle,  but  she  balked  at 
the  suggestion  of  being  photographed  with  such  an  un-American 
object.  She  could  not  see  as  1  did,  what  a  majestic  head  of  a 
boyar  her  uncle  had, — so  much  like  Boyar  Morosoflf,  he  who  re- 
fused to  sit  "below"  a  man  beneath  him  in  rank  at  the  Czar's 
ubie,  and  being  ordered  to  don  a  buffoon's  dress  so  taunted  the 
Czar  with  bitter  truth  and  insults  that  he  was  beheaded  for  dessert. 

The  large  woman  in  the  middle  of  the  group  was  possessor 

*  Now  nearer  at  hand,  in  Marianna. 

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of  the  sole  abstinent  husband  among  the  Old  Believers,  a  small 
taciturn  man.  "They  do  not  like  him;  they  don't  like  anybody 
who  does  not  drink  with  them,"  explained  the  woman,  "so  he 
stays  at  home."  He  proved  to  have  been  in  America  about  seven- 
teen years  (the  longest  term  in  America  of  any  Russian  that  1  met) 
and  six  years  in  Cokeburgh.  Nothing  in  his  manner  or  in  the  ap- 
pearance of  his  house,  though  it  was  decent  enough  (his  wife  and 
he  had  no  children,  no  boarders),  showed  particularly  the  influence 
of  America.  There  was  neither  the  quaintness  of  the  Russian 
"  izba"  about  their  barren  room,  nor  the  comfort  and  neatness  of 
the  American  home. 

1  saw  nothing  encouraging  about  my  countrymen  that  day. 
The  charming  strains  of  a  violin  being  played  with  a  clarinet,  which 
I  heard  coming  from  a  Hungarian  house  on  my  way  to  the  station, 
filled  me  with  deep  sorrow  because  of  the  lack  of  anything  beautiful 
in  the  lives  of  my  people.  If  that  music  could  but.  have  been 
theirs! 

Later,  in  another  mining  town  in  the  north  of  Allegheny 
County — Russeltown,  called  by  Russians  "Wet  Mines" — I  vainly 
tried  to  find  shelter  for  the  night  in  some  Old  Believer's  house.  My 
companion  was  a  Russian,  just  beginning  in  the  business  of  book- 
selling. Three  men  at  that  time  were  making  their  livings  by 
selling  books,  holy  images,  and  crosses,  but  mainly  books,  among 
Russians  in  and  around  Pittsburgh.  Ready  enough  were  the  Old 
Believers  to  let  us  into  their  houses,  but  these  were  crowded  be- 
yond belief.  The  rumor  that  Wet  Mines  was  about  to  start 
up  had  brought  a  multitude  from  other  places. 

"  Say,  Beard,  do  you  have  a  room  in  your  house  for  tonight?" 
This  to  a  burly  fellow  hardly  distinguishable  for  the  darkness,  yet 
unmistakably  an  Old  Believer.  "But,  my  'bratets'  (my  dear 
little  brother),"  he  kindly  responded  (I  was  ashamed  at  having 
apostrophized  him  so  roughly),  "  I  have  just  moved  to  the  town 
and  have  no  furniture  whatever  in  my  house;  it's  on  the  way;  if 
you  don't  care — welcome."  And  this  welcome  comes  out  of  the 
darkness  to  a  stranger,  of  whom  the  "  Beard"  can  see  only  that  he 
is  from  the  city  (a  bad  recommendation  indeed),  and  that  he  can 
talk  Russian.  No  asking  to  which  of  the  66  nationalities  in  Russia 
and  almost  as  many  religions  he  belonged — but  straight  out, "  Wel- 
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come. "  True,  there  was  not  very  much  to  which  the  visitors  were 
welcomed — a  quite  empty  house,  a  bundle  of  shawls  spread  upon 
a  pile  of  Straw  in  one  room  all  the  furnishings  they  possessed,  and 
nothing  at  all  in  the  other.  An  attractive-looking  woman  was 
sitting  on  the  floor,  gazing  dreamily  into  the  blazing  coals  of  the 
fireplace.  In  answer  to  my  "God  help,"  she  made  place  for  me 
before  the  fire.  In  a  moment  I  was  sitting  beside  her,  talking  to  her 
as  though  we  were  old  acquaintances.  Meanwhile,  the  man  was 
grabbing  a  big  armful  of  straw  from  his  own  pile,  and  preparing  a 
bed  for  the  bookseller  and  myself  in  the  other  room.  I  can  not 
help  remembering  that  bunch  of  straw.  It  makes  the  penny  dole 
of  a  poor  fellow  equal  to  the  gift  of  a  Rockefeller.  Christians 
those  peasants  are,  by  the  strongest  claim — natural  disposition. 
That  oft-repeated  cry,  "We  must  Christianize  the  foreigners,"  is 
like  breaking  into  an  open  door. 

To  the  woman  I  complained  of  the  disorder  and  filth  I  saw 
everywhere  among  my  people.  "Why  are  all  so  dirty?  Is  it  the 
same  over  in  Russia?"  She  became  animated.  "Why!  andboard- 
ers?  How  can  you  keep  the  house  clean  with  20  men  to  take  care 
of,  and  children?"  She  had  had  four,  one  of  whom  had  died,  and 
shewasnot  yet  twenty-three.  "Who  keeps  boarders  overintheold 
country?  Not  to  think  of  siich  a  thing!"  It  was  too  obvious  to  ask 
her  why  Russians  do  it  here.  It  is  the  only  chance  they  have  to 
accomplish  the  main  purpose  of  their  coming,  which  is  to  save 
mcmey;  an  amount  insignificant  in  America,  perhaps,  but  lai^  in 
a  Russian  village.  Boarders  and  keepers;  and  for  both  sides  it  is 
bitter.  The  "hazda"  receives  $3.00  per  month  from  each  man. 
For  this  sum  the  latter  is  entitled  to  a  lodging  together  with  some 
1 5  other  men.  A  neighbor  had  28  at  one  time,  said  the  woman,  in 
four  rooms — the  half  of  a  company  house — for  which  she  paid  J8.00. 
Each  room  was  about  30  feet  square. 

The  hazda  attends  to  the  washing  of  underwear  and  bed- 
clothes, suppUes  cabbage  for  the  soup,  and  does  the  cooking.  She 
reaps  s(»ne  profit  from  butcher,  bako-,  and  grocer  on  the  things  she 
purchases  for  her  boarders.  Minor  features  in  the  unwritten  con- 
stitution of  keeping  boarders  are  peculiar;  the  hazda  herself,  but 
not  her  man,  has  the  right,  free  of  charge,  of  taking  part  in  the 
mess;  so  have  her  ungrown  children.  When  the  men  wash  after 
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coming  from  work,  she  is  supposed  to  wash  their  backs.  Arduous 
task,  undoubtedly,  that  of  boarder-keeping.  At  the  highest  esti- 
mate, it  can  bring  about  $60  per  month,  if  based  on  20  boarders. 
With  the  husband  making  a  little  over  this  sum,  1  heard  of  a  couple 
who  had  managed  to  amass  J6,ooo  in  five  years.*  They  had  had 
exceptionally  good  fortune,  no  doubt,  up  to  that  point — no  seasons 
of  non-employment,  sickness,  or  other  losses.  The  husband  then 
died,  and  although  almost  half  of  the  money  was  spent  on  a  tre- 
mendous drunken  "pomin"  (that  heathenish  survival  of  accom- 
panying a  burial  with  a  carouse),  and  a  gaudy  monument  in  the 
cemetery,  the  wife  returned  to  Russia  a  rich,  envied  widow,  sure 
to  find  a  husband. 

"Say,  do  you  have  'banyas'  (bath-houses)  there  in  Suvaiki 
as  they  do  in  Great  Russia?"  "Oh,  certainly,  my  father  had  a  nice 
banya."  So  it  is;  even  the  poor  peasant  in  north  and  middle 
Russia  has,  besides  his  "izba,"  a  bath-house,  as  an  American  has  a 
bathroom.  It  is  not  a  very  elaborate  affair;  a  room  with  a  high 
bench  built  stepwise  and  a  big  water  tub;  hot  stones  from  the  fire- 
place in  the  anteroom  are  thrown  into  the  tub  to  heat  the  water; 
others  are  besprinkled,  producing  an  enormous  amount  of  steam, 
which  one  can  take  in  degrees  of  heat  on  the  different  steps  of  the 
bench.  Invariably  the  bath  is  accompanied  by  a  "birch  broom" 
beating  all  over  the  body,  thus  intensifying  the  heat.  The  bather 
especially  likes  that  taking-the-breath-away  sensation.  The 
amount  of  heat  a  peasant  can  stand  by  being  beaten  with  birch 
twigs  would  take  the  breath  away  forever  from  many  a  more 
highly  organized  being!  Steam  and  birch  twigs  remove  dirt  very 
effectively,  without  the  use  of  soap.  It  is  not  to  be  contended  that 
the  peasant  loves  his  banya  solely  for  the  sake  of  cleanliness;  it 
is  a  pleasure  to  him.  The  saying  that  it  is  only  in  the  third  genera- 
tion that  the  foreigner  in  America  takes  to  the  bath,  is  reversed 
in  the  case  of  Great  Russians  at  least.  It  is  the  first  generation 
that  changes  its  habits;  it  stops  taking  the  bath  niien  it  comes  to 
America.  A  Moscow  merchant  would  not  see  the  insulting  point 
if  I  should  read  to  him  what  I  saw  in  a  Sunday  newspaper  not  long 
ago,  that  he  goes  to  bath  once  a  year;  why,  he  might  as  well  be 
accused  of  not  liking  his  vodka  as  of  not  liking  hb  bath! 
*  In  this  case  possibly  a  clandestine  selling  of  liquor  helped. 


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"Why  don't  you  make  the  bath-houses  here?"  I  asked  my 
hostess,  and  she  explained  how  much  of  an  undertaking  it  would  be. 
"  Does  your  husband  drink  as  much  as  the  others?"  I  continued 
my  inquiry.  "Once  in  awhile;  he  does  not  spend  much  on  drink." 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  none  spend  much  on  drink.  A  keg  of  beer 
costs  only  $i.oo  and  is  sufficient  for  a  good  spree  for  five  men. 
Most  know  when  to  stop.  The  expense  comes  later  at  the  adjust- 
ment of  the  result  of  drinking;  payment  for  battery  and  arrests. 
"  Does  your  husband  beat  you?"  "  Doesn't  beat,  doesn't  love," 
she  answers  in  Russian  saying. 

1  neariy  failed  to  notice  the  woman's  children — three  of  them, 
sitting  quietly  not  far  from  us,  seemingly  possessed  of  that  "con- 
templative spirit  of  the  East."  The  oldest,  about  ten  years  old, 
attended  school,  and  spoke  English  as  well  as  Russian.  His 
father  had  already  taught  him  to  read  in  Russian. 

1  still  had  to  provide  a  quilt  and  a  bedckith  for  the  night 
<H]  my  straw  bed.  Again  going  from  house  to  bouse,  chance 
brought  me  first  to  an  English-speaking  family,  where  I  was  given 
to  understand  that  1  was  crazy  to  ask  such  a  thing — stranger  as  I 
was.  I  could  not  but  agree  with  them,  civilized  as  I  had  become, 
and  would  doubtless  have  acted  as  they  did.  But  in  an  Old 
Believer's  house,  1  got  a  quilt  and  a  sheet  just  for  the  asking. 
The  quilt  was  M  and  dirty,  but  the  home-made  linen  cloth,  fresh 
and  dean,  was  exquisite. 

Searching  for  my  companion,  1  came  across  a  group  of  Old 
Believers  outside  a  house.  Through  the  light  which  streamed 
from  an  open  door  I  discerned  standing  with  them  a  tall  man,  not 
very  well  shaved,  with  drooping  mustachios;  certainly  an  Ameri- 
can. He  proved  to  be  a  former  Texan  cowboy,  now  a  farmer  living 
on  13  acres  of  land  in  the  vicinity  of  Wet  Mines.  1  wondered  that 
he  kept  company  with  my  Old  Bdievers  and  told  him  so.  "Oh, 
they  are  as  good  as  gold  to  me,"  said  he.  As  1  engaged  in  conver- 
sation with  him,  not  as  a  Russian  but  just  as  a  "decent-like  fur- 
riner,"  his  opinion  could  not  have  lacked  sincerity.  I  found  him, 
later  on,  sitting  in  an  Old  Believer's  house,  among  a  bearded  crowd, 
drinking  and  jollying  with  them.  For  him  they  embodied  the 
essential  traits  of  a  "white  man":  no  littleness,  no  stinginess; 
readiness  to  fi^t  on  provocation,  redoubtable,  too,  in  fight;  the 
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good-natured,  cheerful  disposition;  and  last,  but  not  least,  the 
ability  to  drink  like  a  fish  without  dying  from  it.  Oh!  if  there 
were  but  common  soil  of  intercourse  with  Americans  for  these 
Russians  other  than  drinking! 

I  finally  found  my  companion  in  an  empty  house  surrounded 
by  a  crowd  of  young  fellows  who  were  poring  over  his  case  of  books. 
Among  them  were  four  American  boys.  Bottles  strewn  on  the  floor 
made  it  clear  that  drinking  was  going  on  in  this  house,  although  with 
the  exception  of  a  red-headed  fellow  they  called  "  Dutchman,"  who 
was  rather  piggish  and  obscene,  I  did  not  notice  anybody  behaving 
badly.  All  were  busied  with  books.  A  nice-looking  Russian 
youth  was  translating  the  inscriptions  under  the  pictures  in  a  book 
about  the  Russian-Japanese  War  to  a  refined,  sympathetic  Ameri- 
can chap  who  might  have  been  driven  from  a  good  position  by  bad 
times  out  of  the  city.  The  Russian  youth  talked  to  me  with  rap- 
ture about  the  joys  of  reading  a  book  with  the  long  title  "Story 
About  How  a  Lioness  Has  Reared  a  King's  Son." 

My  wish  to  secure  some  photographs  of  Old  Believers  suf- 
fered defeat  in  Wet  Mines.  The  investi^ting  proclivities  I  had 
displayed  gave  ground  to  rumors  that  1  was  a  detective.  Rus- 
sians hate  nothing  so  much  as  a  spy.  Only  two  women,  typical 
"babas"  (peasant  women)  in  the  house  from  which  1  got  my  quilt 
and  beddoth,  could  be  coaxed  to  pose;  but  1  spoiled  everything 
by  my  tactlessness.  They  wanted  to  put  on  their  Sunday  bravery, 
being  indeed  extremely  dirty  from  the  labors  of  the  morning  turn- 
out of  men  to  work.  "  You're  good  enough  for  me  as  you  are,"  I 
insisted,  "  I  want  you  in  everyday  clothes."  To  my  amazement 
the  older  woman  turned  on  me  in  a  fury.  "Look  here,  sport 
(frant),  I'll  break  this  stick  on  your  back.  You  want  our  pictures 
to  laugh  at!"  Poor  woman,  certainly  1  did  not.  The  memory  of 
those  howling,  whistling,  yelling  crowds — Americans  and  near- 
Americans — jeering  at  her  peasant  dress  when  she  first  came  to  the 
mining  town,  had  left  too  sore  a  spot  to  be  touched.  I  had  already 
seen  bearded  Old  Believer  men  going  on  a  long  way  round  to  the 
grocery  store  to  avoid  the  "ba,  ba"  (imitation  of  a  goat)  of  the 
boys  and  grown-up  men. 

But  for  this  incident,  1  found  the  Old  Believers  invariably 
the  most  kindhearted,  goodnatured  lot  of  people  I  had  ever  met, 
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almost  childlike,  despite  their  sometimes  sullen  looks,  and  I  learned 
only  to  love  them.  Not  much  of  an  asset,  is  it? — this  kind- 
ness and  goodnature — as  qualities  for  a  man  to  depend  upon  in  the 
struggle  for  life.  Yet,  if  the  golden  age  should  come,  more  of 
these  qualities  will  be  needed.  The  Romans  could  not  imagine  that 
any  force  but  brute  force  counted.  Nowadays  the  world  believes 
that  "brains"  alone  count.  1  do  not  wish  to  say  that  every 
casual  American  observer  wll  find  these  men  of  such  kindly  dispo- 
sition as  1  describe.  Ignorance  is  suspicious,  stubbornness  is 
difficult  to  handle.  And  he  is  difficult,  the  Old  Believer.  Maybe, 
too,  those  good  qualities  of  heart  belong  alone  to  men  who  have 
had  to  struggle  only  with  nature,  not  with  men,  for  their  existence. 
I  am  told  that  here,  under  the  ground,  it  comes  often  to  ugly  fights 
for  cars.  Through  faulty  organization  in  some  of  the  mines,  cars 
are  not  furnished  promptly  nor  in  sufficient  number  for  the  coal 
loaders.  And  Old  Believers,  it  is  said,  prove  more  savage  than 
anybody  else  in  the  contest  to  secure  them. 

In  common  with  all  Russians  in  America,  these  men  are 
steady  workers,  despite  their  k>ve  of  drink.  "  Drunkard  and  wise 
— two  virtues  in  him,"  they  are  apt  to  say  cynically  about  them- 
selves. Their  industry  came  rather  as  a  surprise  to  me.  We 
Russians  of  advanced  thought  often  agree  with  the  reactionanes 
in  one  thing;  that  the  "muzhik"  is  lazy.  "  If  he  vwAd  not  be  so 
lazy,  there  would  not  be  famine;  a  big  stick  is  good  enough  for 
him,"  says  the  reactionary.  "If  he  were  not  so  lazy,  he  could 
throw  all  that  pile  of  corruption  into  Hades,"  say  we.  Over- 
worked, the  Russian  peasant  of  course  is  not.  Can  one  imagine 
in  America  a  scene  like  this:  a  huge  fellow  lying  on  the  ground  in 
the  market-place  waiting  for  an  employer.  He  may  be  asleep;  all 
his  concern  is  to  produce  the  sole  of  his  bare  foot,  on  which  is 
chalked  the  price  he  expects  for  his  labor.  Woe  to  the  man  who 
shall  arouse  him  for  bargaining. 

Is  there  then  real  ability  among  them?  you  ask.  Have  any 
achieved  success?  To  be  sure,  there  is  no  railroad  president  among 
their  number,  but  I  know  a  heater-boss  on  the  South  Side,  who  is 
boss  over  five  furnaces;  he  can  make  $130  to  $150  per  month. 
Now,  to  the  ordinary  reader  this  may  seem  of  small  account.  But 
1  know  enough  of  steel  making  to  assert  that  it  is  about  as  easy  for 
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an  ordinary  American  college  graduate  to  become  a  railroad  presi- 
dent as  for  a  Russian  peasant  to  become  a  boss  heater.  The  work 
is  skilled  and  the  position  is  next  to  that  of  a  roller-boss  in  respon- 
sibility. This  man  has  been  in  America  over  fifteen  years;  he  has 
left  the  "  old  belief"  and  embraced  orthodoxy.  He  once  came  to  our 
newly  bom  Russian  club  and  threatened  us  with  all  the  terrors  of 
the  police  for  being  supposedly  enemies  of  the  church.  His  con- 
viction of  finding  protection  against  ideas  in  the  police  force  showed 
that  he  did  not  know  that  he  was  in  America,  and  not  in  Russia. 

I  n  Siberia,  many  Old  Believers  are  rich  gold  miners  and  traders 
with  China.  In  Russia,  also,  they  are  beginning  to  be  successful 
in  all  walksof  life.  The  leader  of  the  now  ruling  conservative  party, 
a  certain  Guchkoff  (his  brother  is  mayor  of  Moscow),  is  of  this 
stock.  Morosoff,  the  king  of  the  cotton  mills,  belongs  to  it,  too. 
In  a  recent  conversation  with  a  man  from  Riga,  that  thoroughly 
German  city  of  the  Baltic  provinces,  this  man  spoke  of  the  Old 
Believers  as  "  those  millionaires."  Indeed,  very  many  of  their  num- 
her  there  have  achieved  large  fortunes.  A  sufficiently  striking 
example  is  such  a  wellknown  name  as  that  of  KusnetsolT,  which 
appears  on  each  china  plate  made  in  Russia.  The  main  thing, 
however,  to  record  of  them  is  that  they  are  of  that  stock  of  Russian 
peasants  who  sit  on  a  soil,  barren  and  sterile,  but  which  I  never 
heard  to  be  in  famine.  Famine  in  Russia  is  the  product  of  a  rich 
soil,  which  having  been  for  centuries  scratched  only  enough  to 
yield  a  bare  sustenance,  refuses  it  now. 

Certainly,  here  in  America,  it  is  hard  for  these  peasants  to 
compete  for  success.  Among  other  Russians  one  may  find  mechan- 
icians even  educated  men.  It  is  easy  for  a  German  to  open  a  deli- 
catessen store,  for  a  Jew  to  open  any  kind  of  store  (each  may  have 
been  in  business  in  the  old  country),  thanks  to  the  help  and  advice 
of  their  countrymen.  Advice  is  so  often  much  better  than  money. 
The  best  advice  on  business  matters  was  given  me  always  in  the 
Russian  tongue,  and  1  do  not  forget  that  it  was  from  Russian  Jews. 

It  is  characteristic  that  I  met  so  many  Slavs  in  the  heating 
processes  of  the  steel  mills.  There  they  find  the  chance  to  start 
and  to  leam  by  themselves.  The  starting  stages  of  a  laborer 
around  the  furnace  or  of  an  assistant  heater  are  very  arduous. 
Naturally  enough  the  Slavs  get  the  job.  Whatever  their  manner 
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MEDIEVAL  RUSSIA   IN    PITTSBURGH 

of  life  is,  the  Old  Believers  are  the  most  self-dependent  group 
of  Slavs  in  America.  Not  having  the  help  of  the  church.  Old 
Believers  are  accustomed  to  stand  much  more  alone  than  other 
Russians.  1,  who  have  not  a  good  word  for  the  Russian  ofRcial 
church  at  home,  recognize  the  helpfulness  of  it  here,  where  it  gives 
some  kind  of  organization  to  the  amorphous  mass  of  Russian  peas- 
ants. The  Old  Believers  show  a  remarkable  weakness  in  their 
church  oi^nization,  caused  mainly  by  the  ambiguous  position  of 
their  priests.  In  the  Greek  church,  ordination  is  a  sacrament  and 
can  be  performed  only  by  a  bishop.  Now  bishops  can  be  appointed 
only  by  an  assembly  of  bishops,  and  many  Old  Believers  argue 
that  the  so-called  "Austrian"  bishops  are  not  lawful  and  they 
recognize  only  the  priests  of  the  Orthodox  church  who  come  over 
to  "old  belief."  Others  either  wrangle  about  their  priests,  or  do 
not  recognize  any.  Out  of  the  estimated  10,000  Russians  in  the 
state  of  Pennsylvania,  in  my  opinion  close  to  3,000  are  Old  Be- 
lievers. Of  these  over  1,000  live  in  Allegheny  County  and  the 
vicinity.  Yet  scattered  as  they  are  these  people  have  only  one 
prayer  house  (in  Essen),  and  one  priest — a  peasant,  quite  like 
any  member  of  his  flock,  without  education,  although  undeniably 
a  good,  sober  man.  He  was  bom  a  Prussian  citizen  and  served  in 
the  Prussian  Guards,  with  whom  he  was  at  Sedan  in  1870,  as  a 
non-commissioned  ofBcer.  Afterward  he  became  a  Russian,  and 
worked  as  a  small  boss  on  government  railroads.  Now  here  he  is 
a  printHS  inUr  pares  with  the  Old  Believers.  His  six  foot  three, 
or  thereabout,  looks  extremely  sound,  and  no  one  would  think  him 
to  be  sixty-seven  years  old.  This  pnest,  however,  does  not  seem  to 
be  goierally  accepted,  and  many  marriages  await  a  blessing  in  the 
(dd  country.  Lack  of  organization  is  generally  a  weak  point  with 
Old  Bdievers;  indeed,  the  worst  thing  I  know  about  them  is  that 
they  are  not  strong  union  men  and  they  are  accused  of  having 
brokm  up  the  longshoremen's  union  in  Erie.  1  do  not  know 
whether  or  not  this  chaise  be  true,  but  1  do  know  that  the  derisive 
"  ba,  ba's"  hurled  at  them  must  have  been  no  Small  factor  in  any 
estrangement  of  the  Old  Believers  from  the  rest  of  the  workingmen. 
If  to  me  should  be  put  the  question  that  so  persists  in  the 
discussion  of  any  group  of  immigrants:  Are  they  desirable,  those 
long-bearded  Russians?  1  am  almost  ready  to  say  no.  Not 
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because  of  their  drunkenness;  this  can  be  cured,  and  must  be  cured. 
Sweden,  thirty  years  ago,  was  a  land  of  drunkards;  not  so  today. 
Not  because  of  their  crowded,  inhuman  living.  This  can  be  reme- 
died by  regulations  similar  to  those  that  in  time  of  war  are  posted 
on  every  freight  box-car  in  Russia — "  Eight  horses  or  40  men  only." 
But  rather  because  of  the  fact  that  so  few  wish  to  become  American 
citizens.  1  can  not  see  how  a  group  of  men  can  be  desirable  in  any 
country  which  they  regard  as  a  purgatory,  be  they  ignorant  Rus- 
sian peasants  in  America,  or  highly  skilled  Belgian  engineers  in 
Russia. 

Together  with  the  rest  of  the  Russians — for  the  matter  of 
that,  with  the  rest  of  the  Slavs — these  Old  Believers  live  as  though 
yet  on  passage,  in  steerage,  "temporarily,"  without  thought  of 
adapting  themselves  to  the  conditions  that  surround  them,  still  less 
of  improving  them.  They  expect  to  go  back  home.  Patriotism 
has  nothing  to  do  with  their  return.  It  is  a  matter  of  personal 
expediency.  A  simitar  phenomenon  exists  in  Russia.  Our  small 
industrial  force  there  is  more  than  half  composed  of  such  hybrid 
contingents — peasants  coming  to  the  industrial  centers  "to  make 
money  for  taxes";  living  in  conditions  as  bad,  though  hardly 
worse  than  those  in  Pittsburgh.  But  here  the  parallel  ceases,  for 
though  a  Russian  city  is  by  no  means  a  great  center  of  culture,  its 
civilizing  influence  on  the  hordes  of  peasants  who  flock  to  it  is 
much  more  rapid  and  effective  than  is  the  case  in  America.  Here 
in  this  great  country  of  freedom  and  enlightenment  the  wall  that 
encircles  ignorance  seems  to  be  higher  and  more  impregnable  than 
that  of  China.  Still,  if  I  noticed  among  my  people  any  inclination 
to  stay  here,  it  was  among  these  same  Old  Believers.  Many  have 
made  the  journey  here  two,  even  three  times,  and  have  lost  at- 
tachment to  their  native  soil.  Perhaps  these  would  not  now  be- 
come farmers.  If  when  Old  Believers  first  arrive  they  could  be 
helped  to  settle  in  their  primordial  capacity  of  husbandmen,  the 
United  States  would  have  in  them  a  good  agricultural  element.  Not 
that  I  believe  my  long-bearded  countrymen  to  be  human  material 
inferior  for  whatever  purpose  to  any  other  people  coming  to  the 
United  States.  But  undoubtedly  it  would  be  a  hard  task  and  a 
long  one  to  turn  men  who  for  two  hundred  years  have  preserved 
their  Russian  traits  in  Poland,  into  Americans.  Possibly  decent, 
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neighboriy  Americans — not  merely  reformers  and  social  workers — 
could  conquer  Russian  ignorance  and  superstition  if  they  could 
overcome  their  own  disgust  at  the  "  hideous  looks  and  ugly  cries" 
of  the  foreigners.  So  Marius  conquered  the  Cymbrians  and 
Teutons  by  making  hts  soldiers  first  face  the  barbarians  without 
fear.     Yet,  it  can  hardly  be. 

It  is  up  to  the  Russians  themselves  to  convert  their  unen- 
lightened compatriots  to  "Americanism,"  not  using  the  term  in 
the  European  sense  of  shrewdness  and  agility,  but  as  meaning  what 
is  good  in  civic  life.  There  are  already  Russians  in  America  fitted 
for  such  work.  The  revolution  has  sent  over  here  many  men  who 
in  their  own  country  were  ready  to  risk  their  lives  to  teach  people 
how  to  live  like  human  beings.  Where  are  you?  Some,  as  did 
Garibaldi,  may  be  making  candles  for  a  miserable  pittance,  lost  in 
dreamsof  returning  home  to  fight.  Others,  indignant  at  themselves 
and  at  their  countrymen  for  giving  themselves  up  to  selfish  pur- 
suits when  they  have  known  the  service  to  principles,  are  de- 
nouncing America  for  all  kinds  of  things.  Here  is  a  task  for  you, 
Gdevy?  ot-sovis! 


■d^yCoogle 


MODERN  RUSSIA  IN  THE  PITTSBURGH 
DISTRICT 


EUswtiUi,  Fa.  Kliamoa's  Hall 

>>  CFIIOTT    IT   tnjl   («0» 


Bia&  Slaviaae,  Bobro  FosaloTat' 

SKTURDHY  BU'C.  JULY  17 

Concort  mm  ir  Danco 

AmericAiMl  You  Are  Welcomel 

AdnlMlnlBCoaMrtMdDucr,  TScawlfltc 
AJiaMin  «»  DMWrty.    McaCoB»l» 

naMinenBsivEiJuiaiHai 


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ONE  HUNDRED  NEGRO  STEEL  WORKERS 
R.  R.  Wright,  Jr. 

HOW  far  have  Negro  workmen  gained  a  foothold  in  the  great 
tonnage  industry  at  the  basis  of  Pittsburgh's  economic 
life?  Accustomed  as  the  public  is  to  associating  Negroes 
with  personal  service,  small  business  enterprises,  and  unskilled 
labor,  their  participation  in  steel  making  is  worth  some  scrutiny, 
as  an  indication  of  the  part  they  may  play,  and  the  meaning  of  this 
part  to  them  and  to  the  community,  in  the  American  industrial 
development  of  the  future.  While  Negroes  make  up  perhaps  less 
than  2  per  cent  of  the  working  force  of  the  steel  plants,  individual 
workmen  hold  positions  of  all  grades,  from  that  of  yard  laborer  to 
skilled  workman  or  foreman.  My  commission  was  to  make  a  per- 
sonal study  of  [00  Negro  steel  workers,  belonging  to  what  is  perhaps 
the  most  remarkable  group  in  the  industry — those  employed  in  the 
Clark  Mills  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company.*  Negroes  first  went 
to  work  at  this  plant  during  a  strike  in  the  8o's  t  and  at  the  time  of 
my  inquiry  in  1907  they  made  up  one-sixth  of  the  force. 

The  men  in  the  group  studied  were  employed  for  the  most 
part  on  the  rolling  mills  (steel) ;  some  few  on  the  mills  which  roll 
the  iron  from  the  puddling  furnaces. 

'The  total  numbcrof  Negroes  in  these  milli,  all  of  whom  were  interviewed, 
was  I  to,  and  statistics  taken  from  the  company's  reports,  aod  so  forth,  cover  the 
entire  group.  Otherwise,  the  facts  given  concern  only  the  i  oa  men  of  whose  lives  and 
work  an  intimate  personal  study  was  made.  Names  and  addresses  were  supplied 
by  an  official  of  the  Camegie  Steel  Company,  himself  a  Negro,  but  the  data  were 
secured  chiefly  from  the  men  themselves.  They  were  met  at  the  mills  during  meal 
times  and  on  pay  day;  at  the  churches  and  at  their  social  clubs;  and  the  homes  of 
about  7J  per  cent  of  them  were  personally  visited  from  once  to  four  or  ttve  times. 
Thus,  although  complete  information  could  not  be  secured  from  all  the  men,  the 
writer  had  opportunity  to  study  the  Negro  steel  worker  under  various  conditions. 

t  For  occasional  references  to  Negro  mil]  workers  and  tabulations  as  to  their 
budgets  see  Byington,  Margaret  F.:  Homestead:  The  Households  of  a  Mill  Town. 
(The  Pittsburgh  Survey.)  Excerpts  from  Miss  Tucker's  general  survey  of  the 
Negroes  of  Pittsburgh  afford  the  community  background  of  this  special  group.  See 
Appendii  V,  p.  414  of  this  vdume. 

7'  97 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

They  were  nearly  all  men  in  the  prime  of  their  working  years, 
when  1  met  them,  only  six  being  over  fifty  years  (^  age.  Over 
half  were  between  twenty-five  and  forty. 

TABLE   1. — AGES  OF    100  NEGRO  STEEL  WORKERS 


'It* 

Mtn 

14  ynn  Mid  1««  than  16  year* 

16  yean  aod  leu  than  30  yean 

30  yean  aitd  leu  than  3)  yun 

aj  yeaii  and  lew  than  jo  yeare 

)0  yean  and  leu  than  );  yean 

}i  yean  and  leu  than  40  yean 

40  yeaira  and  lest  than  50  years 

i 

i 
17 
'9 

100 

FROM  FARM  HAND  TO  MILL  WORKER 
The  length  of  service  of  these  men  was  difficult  to  ascertain, 
because  some  of  them  had  not  been  continuously  employed  at  the 
mills.  A  few,  owing  to  the  financial  depression,  were  not  actually 
engaged  in  the  steel  work  at  the  time  <^  my  inquiry,  but  they  ex- 
pected at  any  time  to  return  to  it.  The  time  of  beginning  work 
in  the  Clark  Mills,  of  all  the  Negroes  employed  in  March,  1907, 
was  secured. 


TABLE  2. — YEARS  OF   EMPLOYMENT   IN  THE  CLARK    MILLS    OF   I  lO 
NEGRO  STEEL  WORKERS   EMPLOYED   MARCH,    I907 


Year,  in  MiTl  Work 

M«t 

1  year  and  lesi  than  3  years 

3  yean  and  leu  than  3  yean 

3  years  and  leu  than  4  years 

4  years  and  less  than  j  yean 

j  years  and  less  than  8  yean 

8  yean  and  less  than  10  years 

10  years  and  less  than  i;  yean 

1$  yean  and  leu  than  31  yean 

i 

'1 

7 

Total 

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ONE  HUNDRED  NEGRO  STEEL  WORKERS 

That  is,  about  one-fourth  of  the  men  were  new  to  the  work, 
having  been  employed  less  than  a  year;  neariy  half  had  been  em- 
ployed for  less  than  two  years,  less  than  one«ighth  from  two  to 
five  years,  about  one-fourth  from  five  to  ten  years,  about  one- 
sixth  for  more  than  ten  years.  A  few  men  had  been  employed  as 
many  as  thirty  years  in  mill  work.  A  roller,  probably  the  high- 
est paid  Negro  workman  in  the  Pittsburgh  District,  claimed  to 
have  started  in  the  mills  in  Virginia  at  eleven  years  of  age  and 
to  have  continued  in  the  work  for  forty  years.  Others  began 
between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  fourteen.  As  a  rule,  however, 
skilled  men  who  had  worked  up  had  entered  the  mills  after  they 
were  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  many  after  they  were  twenty. 
Very  few  of  the  men  in  responsible  places  had  started  under 
fourteen  or  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age.  On  the 
other  hand,  few  cases  were  found  of  Negroes  working  in  the  mills 
who  had  not  done  some  kind  of  hard  labor  before  they  were 
sixteen  years  of  age. 

Most  of  the  men  were  Southerners.  Of  the  94  who  gave  their 
birthplaces,  61  were  bom  in  Virginia,  nine  in  Tennessee,  seven  in 
Alabama,  two  in  Kentucky,  four  in  North  Carolina,  one  in  Mary- 
land, five  in  other  southern  states,  three  in  Pennsylvania,  and  two 
in  other  northern  states.  Most  of  them  had  made  their  start  in 
life  before  the  days  of  compulsory  education  and  child  labor  laws. 
Generally  the  work  done  was  on  a  farm  or  in  a  house  or  hotel; 
rarely  in  a  factory  where  a  special  posture  or  a  special  routine  for 
the  entire  day  was  required.  After  reaching  more  mature  years, 
they  had  usually  been  engaged  in  some  kind  ctf  out-door  labor,  such 
as  railroad  work,  hod-carrying,  or  farming;  a  few  had  been  in  in- 
door domestic  or  personal  work  before  drifting  into  the  mills  in  the 
South  or  North.  The  currency  and  speed  of  the  transition  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  neariy  half  had  been  in  the  mills  less  than 
two  years,  and  neariy  half  also  had  begun  working  in  the  mills  the 
first  year  they  came  to  Pittsburgh. 

As  to  education,  there  was  but  a  limited  amount  among  them. 
No  one  of  the  100  men  questioned  would  admit  that  he  could  not  read  and 
write,  and  evidence  to  the  contrary  could  not  be  obtained.    A  large  num- 
ber of  them  admitted  having  had  less  than  two  years'  schooling.    In  the 
99 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

rural  districts  of  the  South,  where  most  of  these  men  were  bom,  the  school 
term  had  been  from  two  lo  five  months  and  school  facilities  were  woe- 
fully inadequate.  As  a  consequence,  very  few  had  had  the  equivalent  of 
a  Pittsburgh  grammar  school  education.  Several,  however,  who  had 
come  to  the  city  in  their  youth,  had  attended  the  Pittsburgh  public 
schools  from  one  to  seven  years. 

Of  the  Negro  boys  in  the  Gark  Mills,  most  of  those  I  talked  with 
were,  like  the  men,  natives  of  the  South,  but  had  come  to  the  city  before 
they  were  twelve  years  of  age.  Only  one  had  completed  the  grammar 
school  course.  Most  of  Ihem  had  not  reached  the  fifth  grade.  How 
many  started  to  work  earlier  than  the  Pennsylvania  law  allowed,  I  had  no 
means  of  learning  with  accuracy.  One  little  fellow  who  looked  to  be  about 
fourteen,  and  to  weigh  loo  pounds,  claimed  to  be  sixteen  and  to  have 
worked  two  years;  he  was  in  knee  pants. 

As  a  rule  Negro  boys  do  not  remain  in  the  mills  long,  nor  work  up 
in  them.  Of  the  boys  under  twenty  years  of  age  reported  to  me,  only  two 
had  been  in  the  mills  more  than  two  years.  Many  drop  out  the  first  year. 
Once  having  earned  money,  however,  they  do  not,  except  in  rare  cases, 
return  to  schoiri.  One  man  who  had  been  a  mill  worker  for  many  years, 
hadasonof  sixteen  years  who  had  been  in  the  mill  four  years.  In  another 
family  there  were  two  boys  aged  fifteen  and  seventeen;  both  had  been  in 
Pittsburgh  for  nine  years  but  they  had  gone  only  as  far  as  the  fourth  grade 
in  school.  The  younger  had  worked  in  the  mills  about  a  year  and  a  half; 
the  older  one  about  nine  months.  These  boys  earned  from  75  cents  to 
f  i.i;  per  day  and  they  and  their  guardians  expressed  great  pride  in  this 
fact.  No  doubt  they  contributed  quite  largely  to  the  family  income. 
In  but  few  instances,  however,  were  the  boys  living  with  their  parents. 

UP  FROM  UNSKILLED  LABOR 
Most  of  the  men  who  had  been  five  years  or  more  in  the 
Clark  Mills  had  worked  up  from  unskilled  labor  and  were  en- 
gaged at  some  point  in  the  process  of  steel  manufacture.  Three 
had  reached  the  highest  position — that  of  roller — two  on  one  mill 
and  one  on  another.  The  two  Negroes  who  were  on  the  same  mill 
had  complete  charge  of  it  with  from  10  to  18  men  under  them, 
white  men  as  well  as  Negroes. 

In  order  to  gauge  the  responsibility  borne  by  these  men  the  process 
of  rolling  as  carried  out  in  this  plant,  one  of  the  older  and  smaller  plants 
of  the  Steel  Corporation,  should  be  described:  The  bars  of  steel,  or 
what  are  technically  called  billets,  come  in  specified  sizes  to  a  mill.    These 


■d^yCoogle 


ONE   HUNDRED  NEGRO  STEEL  WORKERS  ■'.;.• 

billets — my  description  is.  of  course,  that  of  a  non-technical  man-^iaie 
heated  in  a  furnace  and  then  rolled  into  shape  to  suit  the  order.  Ai.the-. 
furnace  from  two  to  four  men  are  employed — the  heater,  who  superip'-*'.. 
lends  the  furnace  and  is  responsible  for  the  temperature  of  the  steel,  thaC . . 
it  be  taken  out  at  the  proper  time;  the  charger,  who  puts  the  steel  into  the 
furnace;  and  the  assistant  heater,  who  helps  the  heater  and  is  subject  to 
his  orders  and  sometimes  paid  by  him.  When  the  metal  is  properly  heated, 
a  boy  called  the"puller-up,"ordoor  boy,  opens  t  he  door;  the  heater  draws 
the  steel  with  a  pair  of  swinging  tongs  and  carries  it  to  the  first  rolling 
machine  (the  mill),  where  it  is  rolled  several  times,  till  it  becomes  a  certain 
length  and  thickness.  This  first  rolling  machine  is  called  a  roughing 
machine,  and  the  men  are  called  "roughers," — sometimes  "rougherv 
up"  and  " rough ers-down "  or  "catchers,"  according  to  the  work  done. 
On  the  far  side  of  the  machine  a  boy  stands  who  raises  the  steel  to  a  higher 
roll,  so  that  the  rougher-up  or  catcher  can  push  it  through;  he  is  called  the 
"hooker-up."  Then  come  the  finishing  rolls,  at  which  stand  two  men,  who 
rdl  the  steel  into  its  proper  width  and  breadth.  Two  men  at  these  tcA\s 
are  called  "finishers."  "Shearsmen"  or  "sawyers"  cut  the  steel  sheet, 
and  "fillers,"  "bundlers,"  and  other  laborers  prepare  it  for  the  consumer. 
The  "rdler"  has  entire  charge  of  all  machines  and  is  responsible  for  all 
the  processes  from  the  furnace  to  the  finishing.  He  receives  the  order  from 
the  superintendent  as  to  the  product  desired;  he  must  order  his  raw  ma- 
terial, set  his  rolls,  and  prepare  all  machinery  for  work,  and  is  responsible 
for  the  product.  All  told  J9  of  the  men  studied  had  reached  the  posi- 
tions described— rollers,  roughers,  finishers  on  rolls,  puddlers,  mill- 
wrights, heaters,  and  so  forth. 


Most  of  the  men  are  paid  by  output,  so  that  their  wages 
depend  upon  their  own  efforts  and  those  of  the  mill  crew  they  work 
with.  Like  the  whites,  the  majority  put  in  a  twelve-hour  day; 
and  like  the  whites,  the  unskilled  workers  earned  less  than  {2.00  a 
day.  But  a  full  fourth  of  the  Negro  workers  were  earning  $3.00 
or  over-  Two  rollers  reported  earning  fis  each  per  turn,  that 
is,  a  day  or  night  of  twelve  hours;  but  out  of  this  each  paid  a 
helper.  Another  roller  said  that  he  averaged  $7.50  per  turn  after 
paying  his  helper.  Heaters  reported  I6.50  per  turn  to  be  divided 
with  a  helper.  One  hundred  steel  workers  reported  their  average 
earnings  to  be  as  follows: 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 


Auraf  DaOy  Eamingt 

Mm 

i.ooandlcu  thMji.jo 

6 

].;o  and  leu  than  tj.oo 

j.oo  and  leu  than  ^j.jo 

j.jo  and  leu  than  $4.00 

4.00  and  leu  than  Js-oo 

I 

4 
4 
9 

100 

•  The*e  were  largely  youtlw. 

As  to  expenditures,  no  definite  information  was  secured, 
except  in  regard  to  the  item  of  rent,  which  ranged  from  |S.oo  to 
fz;  for  dwellings  containing  from  two  to  seven  rooms.  Most  d 
the  houses  in  which  the  men  lived  were  frame  buildings,  situated 
in  back  streets  and  alleys.  Only  two  were  on  streets  paved  with 
asphalt;  about  a  score  on  streets  paved  with  stones;  and  the  rest 
on  unpaved  streets,  where  the  mud  stands  heavy  and  thick  during 
rainy  seasons.  Within  the  houses,  however,  the  conditions,  even 
in  the  poorest  homes,  were  better  than  without.  Many  had  neat 
sitting  rooms  or  parlors  containing  pianos  or  organs.  In  nearly 
all,  large  crayon  portraits  and  landscape  chromos  found  conspicu- 
ous place.  Food  seemed  to  be  substantial  and  abundant.  I 
visited  a  number  of  homes  just  at  dinner  time  and  without  pre- 
vious notice,  always  to  find  an  ample  supply  of  good  food.  Like- 
wise on  a  certain  pay  day,  I  spent  three  hours  at  one  of  the  mills, 
meeting  men  as  they  came  to  get  their  pay.  None  came  in  their 
working  clothes;  most  had  polished  their  shoes,  which  were  dif- 
ferent from  the  ones  worn  at  work;  all  were  well,  even  stylishly, 
dressed,  and  bore  nothing  about  them  to  indicate  their  calling. 

As  very  few  of  the  Negroes  now  in  the  steel  mills  were  there 
as  boys,  so  very  few  of  those  now  there  had  children  to  take  their 
places.  The  supply  of  Negro  labor  comes  from  without,  and  must 
continue  so  to  come  if  the  group  studied  are  representative.  For 
while  we  found  a  large  numberof  marriages  among  them,  the  num- 


■d^yCoogle 


ONE  HUNDRED  NEGRO  STEEL  WORKERS 

ber  of  children  to  these  marriages  was  small,  averaging  but  one  to 
the  family. 

Out  of  89  reporting  their  conjugal  condition,  67  were  married, 
seven  were  either  widowed,  divorced,  or  separated,  and  tj,  chiefly 
youths,  had  never  been  married. 

The  percentage  of  married  men  among  these  Negro  sted  workers 
was  very  much  higher  than  among  the  Negroes  of  Pinsburgh  as  a  whde. 
Of  the  families  of  the  74  men  who  were  or  had  been  married,  the  largest 
contained  six  children;  three  families  contained  live  children  each;  five 
families,  three  each;  14  families,  two  each;  and  nine  families  had  (Mily  one 
child  each;  while  43  men  who  were  or  had  been  married,  reported  no  chil- 
dren. (In  all  cases  I  mean  living  children.  Several  m«i  had  lost  their 
only  child,  and  a  number  had  lost  more  than  one.)  Nearly  three-fifths 
(;6.8  pN  cent),  therefore,  of  the  married  Negro  steel  workers  had  no  chil- 
dren, and  among  the  total  of  74  who  bad  been  married,  there  were  only  73 
children.  Their  tendency  seemed  to  be  to  marry,  but  not  to  have  chil- 
dren. Why  this  is  I  am  unable  to  say;  but  these  data  accord  with  those 
secured  elsewhere,  showing  a  general  decrease  in  the  size  of  the  Negro 
family  in  urban  cwnmunities. 

Bearing  in  mind  the  eomomic  status  of  a  majority  of  these 
people,  a  gjance  at  the  age  distribution  of  Pittsburgh  Negroes  as 
given  in  the  1910  census  will  illustrate  the  family  situation  which 
lies  back  of  the  fact  that  the  Pittsburgh  mills  are  not  gathering 
their  Negro  steel  workers  out  of  the  native  Negro  population: 

TABLE    4. — NEGRO    POPULATION    OF    PITTSBURGH,    BY    ACE    AND 
SEX.      1910 


Mala 

Total 

Numhtr 

Percent 

Lisstha 

849 
1,307 
3.489 
a.789 
1.779 

330 

973 

III  16 

■IS 

55 

■f 
1,85 

3.o7« 
409 
i"3 

1  year  and  leu  thin  j  yean 
J  yean  and  leu  dian  10  yean 
10  yean  and  leu  than  ij  yean 
1 }  yean  and  leM  than  30  yan 
M  yean  and  leu  than  aj  ytun 
aj  yean  and  leu  than  jj  yean 
ii  y^m  and  leu  than  45  yean 
4$  yean  and  leu  than  6;  yean 

7.0 
7.6 
7-» 
71 

36!  I 
19.1 

■4 

Total 

'J.3J1 

13,371 

3s,633 

.«>.o 

.d,Google 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

The  excess  of  males  (who  form  ^2  per  cent  of  the  Negro  pop- 
ulation) over  females,  is  worthy  of  note  for  the  reason  that  in  the 
United  States  as  a  whole  males  constitute  slightly  less  than  half 
(49.7  per  cent)  of  the  Negro  population.  Far  more  striking  is  the 
small  proportion  of  children  under  fifteen  years  in  this  group, — 34 
per  cent  as  compared  with  37  per  cent  for  the  entire  Negro  popu- 
lation of  the  United  States;  and  the  large  proportion  of  persons 
between  the  ages  of  twenty  and  forty-five, — 55  per  cent  in  this 
group  as  compared  with  37  per  cent  in  the  entire  country.  Aged 
persons,  that  is,  persons  sixty-five  years  of  age  or  older,  form  in 
Pittsburgh  1.6  per  cent  of  the  total  Negro  population,  tn  the 
United  States  3  per  cent. 

It  is  evident  that  if  the  Negro  population  of  Pittsburgh  is 
to  develop  normally  the  percentages  at  both  extremes  must  be- 
come greater;  but  this  will  mean  a  greater  number  of  dependents, 
and  poverty  among  them  must  greatly  increase  unless  they  have 
the  foresight  to  husband  their  resources  and  create  a  surplus. 

Most  of  the  men  spent  as  rapidly  as  they  earned.  Among 
the  100  studied,  there  was  little  saving  except  through  insurance. 
All  carried  some  kind  of  insurance,  both  in  regular  companies  and 
in  other  organizations;  some  had  policies  in  two  or  three  insurance 
companies.  Most  (^  the  married  men  and  some  of  the  single  ones 
carried  straight  life  policies,  as  well  as  sickness  and  accident  insur- 
ance. One  man  reported  having  $1 ,000  in  bank,  another,  (2;,  and 
several  others  reported  unspecified  sums.  About  a  dozen  claimed 
to  possess  property,  but  only  half  of  these  owned  real  estate  in  Pitts- 
burgh. One  man  owned  two  lots.  Some  said  they  had  little  places 
in  the  South,  inherited  from  parents;  a  half  dozen  held  preferred 
stock  in  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  some  of  them  as 
many  as  five  shares  at  a  par  value  of  $  100  per  share,  paying  7  per 
cent  per  annum.    These  were  men  in  the  higher  places  in  the  mill. 

COMMUNITY  LIFE 
The  chief  social  organization  among  them  was  the  secret 
society;  the  church  next. 

The  Knights  of  Pythias,  the  Odd  Fellows,  and  the  Masons  were 
represented  in  the  order  named;  while  the  True  Refonners  and  the  Gal- 
104 


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ONE   HUNDRED  NEGRO  STEEL  WORKERS 

lilean  Fishennen  contained  many  members.  Less  than  half  of  the  men 
were  members  of  a  church;  many  who  were  not  members  said  their 
wives  were;  but  most  of  them  attended  church  occasionally.  Church 
members  were  usually  Baptists.  In  the  midst  of  the  mill  district  was 
the  Good  Hope  Baptist  church,  pastored  in  1907  by  a  pure  black  from 
Alabama,  Rev.  C  H.  Messer  by  name.  Several  mill  workere  were  on  his 
board  of  deacons  and  trustees,  and  the  church  had  a  large  following 
among  them.  A  noticeable  feature  to  one  well  acquainted  with  Negro 
churches  elsewhere  was  the  orderliness  of  the  service.  On  the  occasions 
of  my  visits  there  was  an  entire  absence  of  the  emotional  expressions 
for  which  the  members  of  this  race  are  so  generally  noted,  and  very 
practical  sermons  applicable  to  the  life  of  city  Negroes  were  given.  The 
president  of  the  oldest  Negro  building  and  loan  association  in  the  city, 
a  worker  in  the  mill,  is  an  officer  in  this  church,  and  the  effort  to  establish 
a  day  nursery  for  Negroes  is  now  chiefly  supported  by  the  members.  In 
the  opinion  of  one  of  the  Negro  pastors,  contact  with  the  foreign  element 
in  the  mills  had  done  a  great  deal  to  lessen  the  faith  of  his  people. 

While  there  was  no  labor  union  among  the  Negroes  of  the  mill,  a 
social  club  was  maintained.  1  visited  this  club  on  Sunday  afternoon  and 
listened  to  the  proceedings,  which  ranged  from  a  discussion  on  the  Bible 
to  one  on  the  construction  of  machinery  used  in  the  mills. 

Except  on  Saturday  night,  there  was  not  a  great  deal  of  drinking; 
and  it  very  seldom  happened,  I  was  informed,  that  a  man  came  to  work 
under  the  influence  (^  liquor. 

I  n  all  cases  Negroes  and  whites  seemed  to  work  together  with- 
out friction,  though  in  the  early  days  there  had  been  in  every  plant 
more  or  less  trouble,  even  bloodshed,  riot,  and  killing.  White  men 
have  often  refused  to  work  with  Negroes,  but  where  the  manage- 
ment has  stood  by  the  right  of  the  competent  Negro  to  work,  this 
open  protest  has  died  out.  In  the  Clark  plant,  for  instance,  a  num- 
ber of  years  ago.  no  Negroes  were  employed.  Now  Negroes  work  in 
most  of  the  mills.  On  one  mill,  already  mentioned,  where  the  two 
chief  rollers  were  Negroes,  both  had  several  white  men  under  them; 
on  another  mill,  a  Negro  roller  was  always  on  the  night  turn  and  had 
a  different  group  of  workmen  under  him  each  week.  In  each  group 
there  were  white  men.  In  one  furnace  the  chief  heater  was  a  Negro 
and  his  assistant  was  white ;  in  another  the  chief  was  white  and  the 
assistant  a  Negro;  another  furnace  had  a  Negro  heater  and  Negro 
assistant,  and  a  white  boy  to  open  doors;  another,  a  Negro  rougher 
105 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

and  catcher  and  a  white  hooker-up.  In  some  cases  even,  Negroes 
did  all  or  most  of  the  skilled  work  and  whites  the  unskilled  work; 
but  1  did  not  find  any  mills  in  which  Negroes  did  all  the  unskilled 
and  whites  all  the  skilled  work.  In  the  Black  Diamond  Mills, 
Negroes  did  most  of  the  puddling.  Though  in  some  mills  Negroes 
filled  chiefly  the  positions  where  the  workers  are  subjected  to  the 
most  heat  or  hard  physical  efi'ort,  as  in  the  case  of  heaters,  rough- 
ers,  and  puddlers,  they  were  by  no  means  limited  to  them. 

As  to  the  quality  of  their  work,  I  was  informed  by  the  super- 
intendent of  one  of  the  plants  where  Negroes  were  largely  em- 
ployed, and  where  some  of  the  heaviest  and  most  diflicult  labor, 
requiring  much  skill,  was  directly  executed  and  supervised  by 
them,  that  the  work  was  well  up  to  the  standard,  and  that  the 
output  equaled  the  amount  usually  turned  out  by  white  workers. 
The  same  superintendent  said  that  no  sentiment  governed  the  em- 
ployment of  Negroes;  it  was  purely  a  matter  of  business,  and  they 
held  their  own  because  they  could  do  the  work. 

THE  NEGROES  AND  THE  UNIONS 
The  Negro  steel  workers  of  Pittsburgh  are  not  union  mem- 
bers and  they  have  not  been  for  many  years. 

The  history  of  the  Negroes  in  ccHinection  with  the  iron  and  steel 
unions  is  long  and  interesting.*  In  the  early  days,  before  the  Amalga- 
mated Association  of  Iron  and  Steel  Workers  was  formed  in  1876,  there 
exbted  the  Sons  of  Vulcan,  in  which  the  puddlers  were  the  dcxninant  de- 
ment. There  were  at  this  time  Negro  puddlers  in  the  South,  but  they 
were  kept  out  of  the  Sons  of  Vulcan  by  a  constitutional  clause  limiting  mem- 
bership to  whites  only.  Consequently,  when  in  1875  a  strike  in  one  of  the 
Pittsburgh  mills  occurred,  colored  men  came  from  Etichmond,  Virginia,  and 
took  positions  as  puddlers.  This  was  the  beginning  of  Negro  puddlers  in 
the  Pittsburgh  mills.  The  next  year  the  Amalgamated  Association  of  Iron 
and  Steel  Workers  was  formed  and  its  preamble  declared :  "  In  union  there 
is  strength,  and  in  the  formation  of  a  national  Amalgamated  Association 
embracing  every  iron  and  steel  worker  in  the  country,  a  union  founded 
upon  a  basis  broad  as  the  land  in  which  we  live,  lies  our  only  hope."  No 
Negroes  were  organized  at  that  time,  but  a  few  years  later  they  were  or- 
ganized in  both  Pittsburgh  and  the  South.  Their  connection  with  the 
union  which  was  at  one  time  one  of  the  strongest  in  the  country,  has  not, 
however,  been  very  satisfactory. 

•See  Tucker,  Helen  R.:   The  Negroes  of  Piltsburgh.     Appendix  V,  p.  434. 
106 


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ONE  HUNDRED  NEGRO  STEEL  WORKERS 

The  general  opinion  of  the  Negro  men  I  talked  with  was  that 
the  unions  were  a  hindrance  rather  than  a  help  to  them.  Several 
had  been  members,  and  one  had  been  president  of  a  southern 
union  and  delegate  to  a  national  convention  of  steel  workers; 
some  had  gone  out  on  strikes  for  the  union.  Their  testimony  may 
be  summarized  as  follows: 

(i)  The  organization  out  of  which  the  Amalgamated  Asso- 
ciation of  Iron  and  Steel  Workers  was  formed  did  not  admit  Ne- 
groes. 

(2)  After  the  Amalgamated  Association  was  formed,  white 
union  men  refused  to  work  with  Negro  union  men,  or  to  help  pro- 
tect Negro  union  men  in  a  controversy  with  employers. 

(3)  All  the  new  opportunities  secured  by  Negroes  have  been 
secured  in  spite  <^  the  union  and  not  with  the  union's  co-operation. 

(4)  Membership  has  been  offered  only  after  the  Negroes 
have  successfully  won  their  places  as  against  the  unions. 

In  support  of  the  first  point,  they  say  no  Negro  is  known  ever  to 
have  been  a  member  of  the  Sons  of  Vulcan,  the  Associated  Brotherhood  of 
Iroa  and  Steel  Heaters,  or  the  Iron  and  Steel  Roll  Hands  Union;  and  that 
amalgamating  these  bodies  did  not  lessen  the  original  prejudice,  despite 
the  clause  in  the  constitutkHi  already  referred  to.  The  most  intelligent 
labor  leaders  may  have  meant  to  include  Negro  workers  in  the  union  pro- 
gram, but  it  was  not  so  understood  by  the  mass. 

In  support  of  the  second  statement,  several  instances  are  given 
wh«e  uni<»i  white  men  refused  to  work  with  their  colored  brethren.  One 
of  (he  principal  instances  was  at  Beaver  Falls,  Pennsylvania.  Some 
N^ro  workmen  who  at  their  union's  request  had  struck  in  Pittsburgh, 
heard  of  the  need  of  puddlers  in  Beaver  Falls.  They  did  not  go  alone,  but 
were  accmnpanied  by  the  secretary  of  the  union — a  white  man — who 
tried  to  gel  wt^k  for  them  there.  But  the  Beaver  Falls  men  would  not 
work  with  them,  despite  the  pleadings  of  the  secretary.  The  Negroes  had 
to  return  to  Pittsburgh.  Other  instances  have  been  recited  to  me,  some 
of  which  show  that  the  declarations  of  the  constitutions  and  the  broad 
stand  taken  by  some  union  officials  were  repudiated  by  the  workmen. 

In  support  of  the  third  statement,  it  is  asserted  that  Negroes  now 
work  only  in  non-union  mills;  that  they  got  their  opportunity  in  the  Black 
Diamond  Mills  by  takingihe  place  of  strikers,  after  they  had  been  ignored 
by  the  union  at  Beaver  Falls;  that  they  secured  their  place  in  the  Clark 
Mills  as  wdl  as  in  Homestead  and  most  of  the  other  places  by  going  in 
107 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

after  white  union  men  had  quit;  and  that  only  after  they  had  gotten  into 
the  mills  were  they  offered  membership  in  the  union.  Then  the  Negroes 
in  Pittsburgh  were  organized  and  a  little  later  the  Negroes  of  Richmond, 
so  that,  as  they  put  it,  the  whites  might  be  insured  against  the  latter  acting 
as  strikebreakers.  The  last  attempt  to  organize  the  Negroes  was  in  1901, 
when  many  of  them  at  the  Clark  Mills  struck  in  order  to  help  white  men 
maintain  the  union.  The  strike  failed,  and  since  then  the  union  has  been 
entirely  eliminated  from  the  Carnegie  plants. 

The  whole  history  of  unionism  in  the  Pittsburgh  steel  in- 
dustry as  far  as  Negroes  are  concerned  has  been  the  attempt  on 
the  part  of  white  workmen  to  use  the  former  to  their  advantage, 
without  giving  any  corresponding  advantage  to  them.  Thus,  in 
Pittsburgh,  as  elsewhere,  intelligent  Negro  workmen  are  in  a  quan- 
dary, believing  most  fervently  in  the  ideals  of  labor  unions,  but 
obliged  to  oppose  them  because  of  their  practice.  It  is  only 
another  instance  of  the  unfortunate  blundeiing  of  labor  men  in 
letting  prejudice  and  undemocratic  ideas  drive  away  from  them 
the  sympathy  and  co-operation  of  the  thinking  element  of  any 
rapidly  rising  group  such  as  Negroes  are  becoming.  Action  of 
this  kind  gives  the  opponents  (A  the  labor  movement  3  weapon, 
destined  to  become  more  and  more  powerful,  with  which  to  com- 
pass the  defeat  of  those  plans  for  the  betterment  of  the  conditions 
of  life  and  work  which  are  cherished  by  every  laboring  man,  re- 
gardless of  race  or  color. 

As  a  rule  the  men  were  Republicans,  though  they  were  less 
fervently  partisan  than  is  usual  among  Negroes  of  the  working 
class.  The  action  (A  President  Roosevelt  in  the  case  of  the  Negro 
troops  at  Brownsville,  Texas,  had  dampened  their  ardor  at  the 
time  of  my  visit.  Yet  no  man  with  whom  I  talked  ventured  to 
call  himself  a  Democrat;  and  1  found  no  Socialists  among  them.  I 
discussed  the  question  of  socialism  with  several.  One  man  said 
it  was  a  pretty  good  theory;  and  he  noticed  that  most  of  the  people 
for  it  were  poor,  while  the  wealthy  were  as  a  rule  against  it.  So 
far  as  he  was  concerned,  he  sympathized  with  the  poor.  "Things 
are  bad  I  know,"  he  said.  "The  poor  people  don't  get  what  they 
ought  to.  But,"  he  added,  "  1  am  afraid  of  the  poor  white  men; 
they  don't  see  that  we  Negroes  have  to  live  as  well  as  they,  and 
they  are  not  willing  to  give  us  a  chance.  So  far  as  I  am  concerned, 
108 


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ONE   HUNDRED  NEGRO  STEEL  WORKERS 

1  let  socialism  and  all  that  sort  of  thing  alone;  and  I  stand  by  the 
man  that  stands  by  me,  and  that  is  the  rich  man  every  time." 
And  he  concluded  with  the  emphatic  statement:  "No  Negro 
ought  to  have  anything  to  do  with  socialism." 

And  this,  I  found,  was  the  general  attitude  of  the  Negro 
workingman  who  had  thought  at  all  on  the  subject.* 

THE  NEGRO  AS  AN  INDUSTRIAL  FACTOR 
The  most  difficult  task,  in  making  such  a  group  study,  is  to 
draw  accurate  conclusions  from  the  information  secured,  but  the 
following  seem  to  be  beyond  controversy. 
It  is  of  significance, 

(i)  That  Negroes  are  able  to  direct  and  successfully  run  the 
machinery  connected  with  this  most  important  and  dangerous  in- 
dustry— the  making  of  steel. 

(2)  That  Negroes  will  work  under  men  of  their  own  race, 
without  the  supervision  of  a  white  man;  and  that  under  certain 
circumstances,  white  men  will  work  under  the  supervision  of  and 
cooperate  with  Negro  superiors. 

(3)  That  the  output  of  a  steel  mill  is  not  necessarily  limited 
because  the  work  is  directed  chiefly  by  Negroes. 

(4)  That  Negroes  of  this  particular  district  are  largely  out 
of  touch  and  harmony  with  the  great  popular  movements  of  trades 
unionism  and  socialism,  not  so  much  because  they  are  out  of  har- 
mony with  or  opposed  to  the  fundamental  principles  involved, 
but  because  past  experiences  have  made  them  lose  faith  in  the 
efRciency  of  such  movements  to  lessen  their  own  (the  Negroes') 
ills. 

($)  That  the  Negroes  in  Pittsburgh,  because  of  their  recent 
coining  to  the  city,  and  the  small  proportion  of  young  children  and 
very  old  people  who  would  naturally  be  dependents,  are  enjoying 
a  prosperity  which  a  more  normal  development  of  a  native  Negro 
population,  unless  accompanied  by  increased  foresight  and  thrift 
among  them,  will  very  probably  lessen. 

(6)  That  the  majority  of  Negro  steel  workers  are  not  re- 
producing themselves;  while  they  work  hard,  eat  good  food,  and 

*  In  191 3,  the  Secretary  pro  tern,  of  the  Allegheny  County  Campaign  Com- 
mittee of  the  Socialist  Party  wrote:    "So  far  ai  1  have  been  able  todiicover,  we 
do  not  have  a  single  colored  steel  worker  in  the  party  in  Allegheny  County." 
109 


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'7/  Tut  T'stAtr^  »  drittar  tc  :te  SiSlx.  «k  ii  weama 
tSotm  Scpnn  aflo- fkfv  an  ^  wobiB  a^  knaEaMarAaled 
ynfftfjJy  meCsa^  to  tiKir  oic  ^id  txm^^  n  dm^aod-  v^ 
thoM  dawaag  tkor  belt  3>«ans  ^  wok  titm  Agm  ««.  o^pcs 
the  Imrdea  «f  tkor  cU  J^  b^  tkeir  ictEn  ts  ite  SoE^    TIk 


Digitized  .yCOOgle 


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D,„i,z,d,  Google 


in 
INDUSTRY 


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GAINFUL  OCCUPATIONS  IN  PITTSBURGH 


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_  .       iployed  In  i; 

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The  Dumber  and  the  general  nativity  ar-"  — 


10  per  cent  in  ipoo.    The 


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ftirtUbe 


noted  that  the  largen  group , 

who  number  almoat  lo.ooo.  The  second  largeat  group  cnuiata  of  leBcral  laborer*  and  tbe  third 
largest  of  machinists  and  miltwrishts.  Tlie  proportion  of  native-born  whites  of  native  pamts 
is  largest  among  electricians  and  electrical  englnecn  and  •malleM  among  taHon;  tbe  proportioii 
of  native-born  whites  of  foreign  parents  li  largest  among  apprentices,  and  among  [lumbers  snd 
gMsndsteim  fitter*,  and  *malleM  among  tailors;  Ihepropmtlon  -" — '—  ■— ^  —>--—--  •-•-'- 
est  among  tailon  and  among  labr— —  '"  '"*"  *«..«j«—  k»--*  i. 

UharETs  in  ear  and  railroad  *bop* . 

ler  among  (eneral  laborer*  and  among  furnace  men,  anetter  men.  beaten  and  pour- 


iamuchlli 


tailora;  the  propOTtloo  of  forei«n-bom  whites  is  __ 
iron  foundries,  blaat  furnace*  and  rolling  mill*,  and 
ipprcnilces.    The  propoitkn  of  Negroes 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

John  R.  Commons  William  M.  Leiserson 

PITTSBURGH  THE  POWERFUL— THE  [RON  CITY— 
THE  WORKSHOP  OF  THE  WORLD.  Situated  on  the 
Allegheny  plateau  at  the  headwaters  of  the  Ohio,  rich  in 
mineral  resources,  easily  accessible  to  markets,  such  are  proud 
claims  of  a  district  beyond  all  others  the  strategic  center  for  the 
production  of  wealth. 

PITTSBURGH  RIOTS  OF  1877— HOMESTEAD  STRIKE 
OF  1892— PITTSBURGH  MILLIONAIRE.  These  tell  of  Pitts- 
burgh's strategic  position  in  another  campaign — the  worldwide 
struggle  for  the  distribution  of  wealth. 

Gigantic  in  its  creation  of  wealth,  titanic  in  its  contests  for 
the  division  of  wealth,  Pittsburgh  looms  up  the  mighty  storm 
mountain  of  Capital  and  Labor.  Here  our  modem  world  has 
achieved  great  triumphs  and  faced  grave  menace. 

Outwardly,  much  of  western  Pennsylvania  is  not  inviting. 
The  surface  is  hilly,  with  narrow  and  precipitous  valleys  and  few 
flood  plains.  Not  much  of  the  land  is  suited  to  cultivation,  and 
the  meager  agriculture  of  its  populous  areas  is  shouldered  to  the 
uplands.  But  for  heavy  manufacturing  Nature  has  peculiarly 
exerted  herself.  Three  great  rivers  and  three  smaller  ones  afford 
transportation.  The  Allegheny  comes  down  from  New  York 
state,  draining  an  area  of  ii.joo  square  miles.  From  West 
Virginia  comes  the  Monongahela.  At  "The  Point"  of  Pittsburgh 
these  two  rivers  mingle  their  waters  to  form  the  Ohio,  and  this 
river  carries  the  products  of  the  city  to  the  west  and  south.  Within 
the  Pittsburgh  District  these  three  large  rivers  receive  the  waters  of 
smaller  ones.  The  Youghiogheny  empties  into  the  Monongahela, 
the  Kiskeminetas  joins  the  Allegheny,  and  Beaver  River  flows  into 
the  Ohio. 

Through  the  hills  which  line  these  rivers  run  enormous 
8-  113 


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WACE-EAKNiNG    PITTSBURGH 

vdns  of  bituminous  coal.  Located  near  the  suiface,  the  coal  is 
easily  mined,  and,  elevated  above  the  rivers,  much  of  it  may  be 
brought  to  cars  and  boats  by  gravity.  There  are  billions  of  tMis 
of  it,  good  for  steam,  gas,  or  coke.  Then  there  are  vast  stores  (tf 
oil,  natural  gas,  sand,  shale,  clay,  and  stone,  with  which  to  give 
Pittsburgh  and  the  tributary  country  the  lead  In  iron  and  steel, 
glass,  electrical  machinery,  steel  railroad  cars,  tin  plate,  air  brakes, 
and  fire  brick. 

To  the  gifts  of  nature  has  been  added  the  bounty  of  gov- 
ernment. Besides  Pittsburgh's  share  in  the  long  time  benefits  of 
tariff  legislation,  G>ngress  has  appropriated  over  |20,ooo,ooo  for 
river  improvements  in  this  region.  The  Monongahela  in  its  ori- 
ginal condition  was  navigable  for  steamboats  only  at  high  stages.' 
Today  steamboats  go  its  entire  length  in  Pennsylvania;  and  for 
$2  miles  beyond  the  West  Virginia  line,  as  far  as  Fairmont. 

As  a  result  of  these  improvements,  frei^t  rates  on  fuel 
have  been  reduced  and  manufactures  stimulated.  Coal  formeriy 
shipped  by  rail  now  goes  by  river  at  a  cost  in  some  cases  reduced 
as  much  as  So  per  cent.  The  woric  of  the  government  on  the 
other  rivers  and  in  Pittsburgh  harbor  proper  luis  brought  similar 
results.  The  Allegheny  River  and  the  Ohio  about  nttsburgb 
formeriy  abounded  in  boulders,  snags,  bars,  and  shoals.  Most  of 
these  obstructions  have  been  removed,  and  the  government  is 
continuing  its  work  of  making  navigation  easy. 

The  transportation  system  provided  by  nature  and  govern- 
ment is  supplemented  by  a  network  of  railroads;  five  trunk^ine 
systems  with  their  branches  and  a  score  of  leased  lines  radiate 
from  the  city.  Besides  these,  there  are  several  connecting  lines 
owned  by  the  steel  companies,  binding  together  the  various 
plants. 

Business  enterprise,  taking  advantage  of  these  resources, 
is  able  to  turn  out  from  the  district  surrounding  Pittsburgh  what 
is  without  any  doubt  the  greatest  annual  tonnage  of  any  similar 
area  in  the  world.    The  greater  part  of  this  tonnage,  of  course, 

•  A  private  company  built  seven  lockj  and  dams  on  the  river  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, producing  slack  water  from  Pittsburgh  to  within  two  miles  of  the  West 
Vir^nii  state  line.  The  United  States  government  paid  this  company  $).70o,ooo 
for  Its  property  and  rights,  and  appropriated  S3,JDO.O(X>  more  for  building  new 
locks  and  dams  and  improving  the  old  ones. 

"4 


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i 
II 

si 

I  ° 


.d,Google 


A  Floating  Coal  Vein 
Barges  from  the  up-river  mines,  lying  off  Pitlsburgh 


Digitized  .yCOOgle 


WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

arises  from  the  heavy  products  of  coal  mines  and  steel  mills.  Coal 
mining  has  been  marvelously  perfected.  Electricity  applied  to 
undercutting  and  hauling  enables  a  single  mine  to  turn  out  6,000 
and  7,000  tons  of  coal  a  day.  En  EMstrict  No.  5  of  the  United 
Mine  Workers  of  America,  including  with  Allegheny  County  eight 
other  counties  of  Western  Pennsylvania,  fifty  million  tons  are  pro- 
duced yearly. 

With  its  output  of  pig  iron  the  Pittsburgh  District  supplies 
over  one^ourth  the  total  product  of  the  United  States,  and  not 
far  from  one-sixth  of  the  iron  and  steel  tonnage  erf  the  world  is 
produced  in  Allegheny  County  alone.  The  value  of  the  products 
of  the  iron  and  steel  industries  for  a  territory  with  a  ten-mile  radius 
was  in  igio*  over  $300,000,000.  In  that  territory  the  value  of  the 
products  of  the  allied  foundry  and  machine  shops  amounted  the 
same  year  to  over  |$o,ooo,ooo;  that  (rf  electrical  machinery,  ap- 
paratus, and  supplies  to  $20,000,000;  that  of  the  products  of  rail- 
road car  shops,  including  manufacture  and  repair,  to  approximately 
917,000,000;  that  of  glass,  to  $9,000,000;  that  erf  all  manufactures 
to  above  half  a  tullion. 

In  the  production  of  this  enormous  wealth  thousands  of 
workers  consperate.  According  to  the  census,  Pittsburgh  has  a 
population  of  half  a  million.f  According  to  local  enthusiasts  the 
population  is  five  times  that  number.  Both  figures  are  misleading. 
The  first  limits  the  city  to  its  political  boundaries;  the  second 
extends  it  over  a  radius  of  75  miles  from  the  court  house,  and 
includes  a  territory  under  the  government  of  three  states  and  a 
score  or  more  counties.  It  is  difficult  to  define  the  limits,  but  the 
whole  ot  Allegheny  County  is  homogeneous  in  an  economic  and 
social  sense,  and  corresponds  roughly  to  what  is  commonly  termed 
the  Pittsburgh  District.^    Here,  roughly,  a  million  people  live,§ 

'The  coal  and  iron  trada,  civic,  ceiuus,  and  linanctat  bodies  employ  different 
geographical  units  in  discussing  this  industrial  region,  so  thai  il  is  difficult  to  bring 
together  broad  statements  as  to  the  Pittsburgh  District.  Tor  compilations  for  a 
10  mile  radius,  based  on  the  census  of  1910,  as  issued  by  the  Pittsburgh  Industrial 
Devdopment  Commission,  tee  Appendix  VIII,  p.  443. 

t  United  States  Census,  1900— 431,} la:  1910 — J33.90}.  Both  figures 
include  All^hcny  City,  annexed  in  1907. 

t  When  not  otherwise  qualified,  the  term  F*ittsburgh  District  as  used  in 
this  section  may  be  undentood  to  refer  to  Allegheny  County. 

I  United  Stales  Census,  1900— Tyf.ojS;   igio — 1,018,463. 
115 


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WAGE-EARNtNC   PITTSBURGH 

move,  and  have  their  being.  Of  these,  approximately  2jo,ooo  are 
wage-earners  employed  in  3,000  establishments. 

How  do  these  wage-earners  fare  in  the  division  of  products 
derived  from  these  magnificent  resources?  What  is  their  share  and 
how  do  they  get  it?  These  are  questions  which  are  fundamental 
to  our  inquiry.  First,  there  is  everywhere  the  great  ocean  of  com- 
mon labor — unprivileged,  competitive,  equalized — making  up 
from  two-fifths  to  one-half  the  total.  Above  this  expanse,  here 
and  there  for  a  time,  appear  like  waves  and  wavelets  those  whom 
skill,  physique,  talent,  trade  unionism,  or  municipal  favoritism 
lift  above  the  fluid  mass.  Restless,  unstable,  up,  down,  and  on, 
like  the  ocean,  so  is  the  labor  of  Pittsburgh.  From  the  employ- 
ment bureau  c^  a  huge  machine  works  we  learned  that  in  a  single 
year  of  continued  prosperity,  1906,  they  hired  12,000  men  and 
women  to  keep  up  a  force  of  10,000.*  And  this  restless  "go  and 
come  "  is  only  slightly  less  with  the  skilled  than  with  the  unskilled, 
for  the  foreman  of  the  tool  room  in  the  same  establishment  esti- 
mated that  to  keep  up  his  required  force  of  100  men  possessing 
the  highest  grades  of  mechanical  skill,  he  hired  100  men  during 
the  year.  The  superintendent  of  a  mining  property,  lacking, 
however,  the  exact  records  of  our  machine-shop  bureau,  insisted 
on  the  amazing  figure  of  5,000  hired  during  the  year  to  maintain 
a  force  of  1 ,000.  The  largest  operator  of  the  District  thought  this 
was  too  high,  but  said  that  hiring  2,000  in  a  year  to  fill  1,000  per- 
manent positions  was  not  an  exaggerated  index  of  labor's  mobility 
in  the  Pittsburgh  District. 

What  are  we  to  infer?  Seemingly  the  economist's  hypothe- 
sis of  the  immobility  of  labor  compared  with  the  mobility  of 
capital  is  almost  reversed  within  the  Pittsburgh  District.  The 
human  stream  from  Europe  and  America  whiris  and  eddies  through 
the  deep-cut  valleys  of  the  Monongahela,  the  Allegheny,  the 
Ohio,  like  the  converging  rivers  themselves.  But  the  ponderous 
furnaces  and  mills  remain  fixed  like  the  hills.  What  is  the  explana- 
tion of  this  pass  and  repass  of  labor?  Is  it  the  climate,  the  fog, 
the  smoke?  Is  it  the  difficulty  of  finding  homes  and  the  cost 
of  housing  and  living?    Yes,  answers  our  employment  bureau, 

•  See  Porter,  H.  F.  J.,  op.  cjt.      P.  117  of  this  volume. 
116 


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Coke  Workers 

The  waste  ot  ihe  old- lime  ovens  is  a  fifid  forconservalion  where  chemist  and  engineer 

are  vying  with  one  another 


D,„i,z,d,  Google 


D,„i,z,d,  Google 


WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

which  has  made  a  careful  study  of  the  situation  with  which  it  deals. 
Is  it  the  defeat  and  exclusion  of  trade  unionism,  which  in  other 
places  makes  for  stability  and  the  rights  of  priority  for  the  man  who 
has  longest  held  the  job?  No,  for  neither  the  inflow  nor  the  outflow 
of  organized  mine  workers  is  appreciably  less  than  that  of  unorgan- 
ized machine  workers  or  steel  workers.  Is  it  low  wages  and  long 
hours?  No,  answer  the  mine  workers  again.  Is  it  specialization, 
speeding  up,  over-exertion?  Yes,  very  largely.  These  are  both 
cause  and  effect  of  excessive  restlessness. 

By  minute  specialization  of  jobs,  by  army-like  organization, 
by  keeping  together  a  staff  of  highly  paid  regulars  at  the  top,  the 
industries  of  Pittsburgh  are  independent  of  the  rank  and  file.  Two- 
thirds  of  the  steel  workers  are  unskilled  immigrants,  and  thousands 
of  them  in  their  ignorance  of  English  are  as  uncomprehending  as 
horses,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  kind  of  Gee!  Whoa!  and  gesture 
commands  that  suffice  for  directing  them.  Specialization,  elimi- 
nation of  skill,  payment  by  the  piece  or  premium,  speeding 
up,* — these  are  inherently  the  aims  of  Pittsburgh  business  men, 
and  the  methods  that  turn  out  tons  of  shapes  for  the  skilful  work- 
ers of  other  cities  to  put  into  finished  products.  Without  its 
marvelous  framework  of  organization,  eliminating  dependence  on 
personality  in  the  masses  and  thereby  rendering  personality  more 
indispensable  in  the  captains,  it  would  be  impossible  for  Pittsburgh 
to  convert  its  stream  of  labor  into  the  most  productive  labor 
power  known  in  modem  industry.  Large  rewards  for  brains, — 
to  overseers,  managers,  foremen,  bosses,  "pushers,"  and  gang 
leaders  in  descending  scale;  heavy  pressure  toward  equality  of 
wages  among  the  restless,  changing,  competitive  rank  and  file, — 
these  are  the  principles  which  Pittsburgh  applies  to  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  wealth  in  the  production  of  which  she  holds  supremacy. 

These  contrasts  in  the  economic  scale  are  scarcely  more 
violent  than  the  ups  aitd  downs  in  the  common  fortunes  of  the 
District.  Andrew  Carnegie  has  said  of  the  iron  and  steel  industry 
that  it  is  a  case  of  either  Prince  or  Pauper.  Certainly  no  staple 
manufactured  article  responds  so  violently  to  the  prosperity  and 
depression  of  the  country  as  pig  iron.    So  it  is  with  all  the  indus- 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

tries  of  Pittsburg  that  follow  in  the  train  of  King  Iron.  When 
the  Pittsburgh  Survey  began  its  work  In  September,  1907,  the 
Prince  was  oo  his  throne, — full  years  of  prosperity  and  glorious 
optimism  had  been  his.  Long  before  September,  1908,  Carnegie's 
Pauper  walked  the  streets.  From  every  type  and  class  of  labor 
came  the  report  of  a  year  with  only  half,  or  three-fourths,  or  even 
one-third  of  the  time  employed.  Hardly  another  city  in  the 
country  was  hit  as  hard  or  stunned  as  long  by  the  panic  as  was 
Pittsburgh.    The  overwork  in  1907  was  the  out-of-^work  in  1908. 

Here,  again,  was  evidence  of  the  marvelous  mobility  of  labor. 
Suddenly  the  dikes  of  prosperity  that  had  held  tn  the  great 
level  ocean  of  immigrant  coirmion  day  labor,  which  we  estimated 
at  two-flfths  to  one-half  of  the  250,000  wage-earners  of  the  Pitts- 
burgh District,  gave  way.  Thousands  of  foreigners  left  pre- 
cipitately for  Europe.*  For  such  unskilled  laborers  as  stayed 
and  could  find  work,  the  rate  of  pay  held.  Organized  labor, 
which  in  numbers  may  have  been  one-third  of  the  total,  fell  to 
possibly  one-fifth,  and  trade  union  earnings  from  the  various 
heights  to  which  they  had  been  lifted,  began  to  sink  to  the  un- 
organized level.  Those  divisions  of  organized  labor,  which,  like 
the  building  trades,  were  able  to  protect  their  high  rates  of  hourly 
pay,  suffered  most  of  all  from  unemployment,  and  their  level  of 
yearly  earnings  fell  furthest  toward  the  level  of  the  unorganized. 

Between  the  great  level  of  common  labor  and  the  higher 
levels  of  organized  labor  were  the  other  third  or  two-fifths  of  all 
the  wage-earners,  whom  physique,  talent,  skill,  or  municipal 
favoritism  had  also  lifted  above  the  mass  of  their  fellows.  These, 
too,  in  the  common  experience  of  unemployment  began  to  fall 
toward  the  lower  level  of  earnings. 

Slowly,  in  the  succeeding  years  came  the  rehabilitation  of 
earnings  and  employment,  until  in  some  trade  groups  still  higher 
levels  were  reached  and  until  with  1913-14  another,  if  lesser  period 
of  ebbing  activities  set  in.    Significant  developments  since  1907- 

*  This  CToa-tt»i  shuttling  of  unikiiled  labor  is  responsive,  alio,  lo  Europein 
events.     During  the  Balkan  War  immigrants  were  scarce,  unskilled  latxir  ra 


o  $3.75  and  tyoo  a  day  for  emergent  work  and  stories  were  current  of  employers 
'stealing"  carloads  of  recruits  from  each  other.  A  year  later  (1914 — before  the 
general  European  war},  an  employment  agent  slated  he  could  supply  as  many  men 


IS  needed  at  half  that  figure.  The  general  European  war  has,  itself,  potentialities 
which  may  change  the  labor  situation  in  the  American  sleel  district  more  funda- 
mentally than  the  most  prolonged  hard  times. 


■d^yCoogle 


PRINCE  OR  PAUPER 
Andrew  Carnegie  has  said  of  Ihe  iron  and  steel  induslry  that  it  is  either 
ne  or  the  olher 


Skvlime  of  the  Commercial  Center 
Some  monuments  to  Pittsburgh's  might  in  time  o(  prosperity 


■d^yCoogle 


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WAGE-BARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

08,  as  well  as  in  the  years  preceding,  are  noted  in  the  following 
pages,  but  they  deal  primarily  with  the  status  of  the  Pittsburgh 
worker  at  the  close  of  the  seven  prosperous  years  with  which  the 
century  opened,  as  this  status  was  thrown  into  relief  by  the  suddm 
shifting  from  prosperity  to  depression. 

First  Prince,  then  Pauper;  overwork,  then  underwork;  high 
wages,  no  wages;  millionaire,  immigrant;  militant  unions,  master- 
ful employers;  marvelous  business  organization,  amazing  social 
disorganization.  Such  are  the  contrasts  of "  Pittsburgh  the  Power- 
ful." the  "Workshop  of  the  World!" 

DAY  LABOR 

When  he  is  free  to  make  his  own  bargain  with  the  employer, 
and  competition  is  unrestricted,  the  Pittsburgh  laborer  who  is 
without  skill  or  command  of  English  gets  in  prosperous  times 
$2.ooa  day  or  under.  In  1907-08  he  sometimes  got  as  low  as  |i.3s 
for  a  stint  of  ten  hours.  In  the  mills  and  yards  outside  the  ctty 
t6}4  cents  an  hour  was  the  prevailing  rate  for  the  kind  of  work 
done  by  the  Slav  immigrant,  but  in  Pittsburgh  proper  1 ;  cents 
was  more  generally  paid  for  such  labor.  Jones  and  Laughlin  in 
the  city  could  hire  Slavs  at  1;  cents,  while  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation  in  the  mill  towns  was  paying  i6}4  cents.* 

To  railroads  and  contractors  belonged  the  distinction  of 
being  the  industrial  employers  who  paid  the  lowest  wages  for  day 
labor.    Section  hands,  mostly  Italians,  in  the  Pittsburgh  District, 

*  Certain  »teel  mills  have  paid  as  1owas(i.3i  per  day  in  subsequent  years; 
one  establishnieni  in  1910  paying  but  }[.o6.  This  level  is  not  one.  however,  set 
by  the  industry  at  a  whole.  The  policy  of  the  Steel  Girporation  has  been  to 
siandardiu  pay  for  unskilled  labor  and  hold  to  it  in  good  limes  and  bad.  laying 
off  men,  and  working  the  mills  part  time,  bul  not  cutting  the  day  labor  rate. 
In  igro.  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  raised  its  rates  to  17}^  cents  an 
hour,  Jones  and  Laughlin  to  [6.  In  igij  the  Steel  Corporation  raised  to  30 
cents  an  hour,  Jones  and  Laughlin  to  I7>i  cents.  This  represents  an  increase  in 
hourly  wages  for  common  labor  (from  1907  to  [91))  of  31  per  cent  (or  the  Steel 
Corporation,  and  of  17  per  cent  for  Jones  and  Laughlin,  Meanwhile,  the  cost  of 
food  in  workingmen's  families  for  the  North  Atlantic  stales,  as  reflected  by  the  best 
estimates  available,  that  is,  the  index  numbers  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Labor  statistics,  has  advanced  36  per  cent.  The  advance  for  the  country  as  » 
whole  has  been  ^  per  cent,  while  that  for  the  North  Central  states  with  which 
Pittsburgh  has  more  in  common  economically  than  the  geographic  area  with  which 
the  census  classifies  it,  has  been  )3  percent.     See  Appendix  VII,  p.  441. 

Such  a  comparison  of  wages  and  prices  from  1907  to  1914  does  nothing  to 
alter  the  sober  finding  of  the  Pittsburgh  Survey  in  1907-08  that  common  labor  in 
the  Pittsburgh  District  is  paid  leu  than  the  standard  of  famity  subsistence.  For 
the  meaning  of  this  in  the  lives  of  the  people,  see  Byington,  Margaret  F,:  Hom«< 
stead:  The  Households  of  a  friill  Town.  (The  Pittsburgh  Survey.) 
119 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

earned  i'i}4  cents  an  hour,  $1.35  a  day,  but  the  employment 
agents  on  special  contracts  seemed  to  be  able  to  get  i6}4  cents. 
We  struck  up  a  bargain  with  one  of  these  enterprising  wholesale 
dealers  in  humanity  as  he  was  leading  his  gang  to  the  depot.  He 
claimed  to  have  sold  them  at  this  rate  of  pay  for  work  in  Alle- 
gheny County,  and  offered  to  furnish  us  a  hundred  like  them  for  a 
month,  to  lay  natural  gas  pipe  in  Wisconsin  at  $2.00  a  day,  pro- 
vided we  paid  their  round  trip  traveling  expenses  back  as  far  as 
Chicago  and  gave  him  exclusive  contract,  together  with  the  sole 
privilege  of  running  the  commissary.  Giving  his  name  and  number 
in  the  telephone  book,  he  referred  us  to  the  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany, for  whom  he  claimed  to  be  sending  men  to  Oklahoma  for  the 
same  kind  of  work  on  the  same  terms,  the  company  paying  the  round 
trip  expenses  back  to  Pittsburgh.  Probably,  however,  the  Italian 
section  hands  in  the  Pittsburgh  District  at  Si. 3^  a  day  were  getting 
as  much,  or  more,  out  of  the  railway  companies  as  they  could  have 
netted  out  of  their  fellow-countryman,  this  Americanized  padrone. 
Eight  to  twelve  dollars  for  a  week  of  sixty  hours  has  since 
1907-08  been  the  gamut  of  wages*  for  the  unskilled  where  compe- 
tition is  free  and  English  unessential.  Higher  levels  are  reached 
even  in  unskilled  work  when  trade  unionism,  municipal  politics, 
or  the  Enf^ish  language  become  factors  in  the  situation.  The 
building  laborers,  for  example,  were  getting  $2.00  for  a  day  of  eight 
hours  in  1907-08.  This  was  50  to  60  per  cent  more  by  the  hour 
than  was  paid  for  a  similar  zero  degree  of  mechanical  skill  in  other 
jobs.  In  1908  the  hod-carriers  and  mortar  mixers  among  them 
secured  $3.00  a  day,  or  a  scale  of  37K  cents.  This  rate  was  due  to 
the  institution  of  the  Building  Laborers'  and  Hod  Carriers'  Union, 
established  by  the  American-bom  English-speaking  common  la- 
borers, white  and  colored,  to  protect  themselves  against  the  "  green  " 
Slavsand  Italians.  But  this  organization  was  weak.  Only  theaid 
of  the  organized  skilled  trades  in  building  construction  made  it 
possible  for  them  to  launch  their  effort  for  short  hours  and  high 
pay.t  but  these  trades  were  as  yet  making  no  effort  to  protect  the 

*ln  :gi)  prevailing  day  rate}  ran  front  (1.6;  toSa.i^and  labor  was  hard  to 
get  at  that.  In  1914  before  the  outbreak  of  the  European  war,  jobs  were  hard  to 
get  at  |i.7{.  This  was  in  the  general  labor  market,  including  contract  work, 
which  reflected  the  ups  and  downs  of  demand. 

t  On  account  of  a  comparatively  dull  season  in  1910  in  building  operations, 
the  day  laborers  were  not  steadily  employed  during  that  year  The  large  contract- 
ors took  advaDtage  of  this  fact  and  declared  for  the  open  shop,  and  a  strike  ensued 
120 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

mass  of  excavators,  chiefly  immigrants. 

The  state  limits  work  on  public  jobs  to  eight  hours,  and 
municipal  and  state  politics  showed  its  hand  also  in  the  $2.00  paid 
by  the  municipality  to  the  200  day  laborers  it  employed  directly.* 

When  labor  is  in  heavy  demand,  the  English  language  is 
worth  2  cents  an  hour.  The  non-English-speaking  worker  be- 
ginning at  i6}4  cents  can  often  get  i8>^  cents  by  the  time  he 
becomes  sufficiently  Americanized  to  fill  a  job  where  a  knowledge 
of  English  is  needed.  Additional  fitness,  adaptability,  a  political 
connection,  or  trade  unionism,  with  no  additional  mechanical  skill, 
brings  him  an  additional  2  cents,  8  cents,  or  even  10  cents  an  hour. 

TRANSPORTATION  WORK 

Teamsters.  In  the  factories  and  on  the  railroads  the  Slav 
and  the  Italian  fill  the  ranks  of  common  labor;  it  is  among  the 
teamsters  that  the  Negro  finds  his  congenial  job.  The  factory 
is  too  confined,  the  work  too  monotonous;  but  following  his 
horses,  he  can  see  the  sights  and  get  paid  for  riding.  Of  9,000 
teamsters  in  the  District  in  1907-08,  more  than  one-half  were  Ne- 
groes. 

A  teamster  reaches  his  stable  between  6  and  6.30  a.  m.  and  is 
supposed  to  quit  at  ;  p.  m.  He  must  clean  and  take  care  of  his  horses. 
Usually  he  gets  an  hour  for  dinner.  On  the  average  he  works  ten  hours 
a  day,  but  this  is  not  fixed;  he  must  get  through  with  his  route.  If  he 
has  very  much  overtime  he  usually  receives  his  regular  rate  per  hour  for 
it.  Sunday  and  holiday  work  are  paid  for  at  the  same  rate.  In  the  city 
the  teamsters  do  not  have  much  overtime,  but  in  the  mills  overtime  adds 
a  considerable  amount  to  the  drivers'  earnings.  One  man  interviewed 
earned  nineteen  and  one-half  days'  pay  in  two  weeks.  He  averaged  right 
along  about  eighteen  days  at  every  fortnightly  pay  day. 
which  resulted  in  a  partial  victory  for  the  employers.  Since  then,  as  part  of  the 
general  trend  In  the  building  trades,  the  union  has  built  up  a  membership  of  ijoo. 
All  big  jobs,  on  skyscrapers  and  other  buildings,  where  organized  labor  is  in  con- 
trol, employ  union  building  laborers.  Union  hod-carrien,  scaffold  builders,  mor- 
tar mixers,  and  so  forth,  receive  ^jyi  cents  an  hour.  The  common  laborers  who 
do  the  excavating  work  receive  if  cents.  Men  who  bepn  work  half  an  hour  ahead 
of  the  mechanics  and  leave  half  an  hour  late,  get  lime  and  a  half;  double  time  on 

*  Under  the  civil  service  rules,  which  apply  to  all  city  employes,  day  laborers 
have  to  pass  a  physical  examination.  A  law  of  189;  requiring  contractors  doing 
public  work  to  work  their  men  no  more  than  eight  hours,  was  declared  unconsti- 
tutional by  the  supreme  court  in  1911.  Prior  to  1907  the  city  had  paid  fi.jo 
and  f  1.7J  for  ordinary  day  labor. 

121 


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WACE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

The  usual  wage  in  Pittsburgh  in  1907-08  was  }io  a  week  for  the 
driver  of  a  singlehorse,  and  }i 3  for  two  horses.  In  the  suburban  towns, 
tH  was  usually  paid  for  driving  a  two-horse  team.  Thus  the  predomi- 
nant rate  was  18  to  30  cents  an  hour.  The  steel  companies  paid  their 
teamsters  |3.oo  for  a  ten-hour  day,  with  overtime  and  Sunday  work  at 
the  same  rate.  The  express  cranpanies  were  paying);;  and  |6o  a  month. 
There  were  no  fixed  hours  and  the  men  were  obliged  to  keep  at  their  work 
until  all  deliveries  were  made.  They  had  every  other  Sunday  off.  Simi- 
lariy,  the  cab  drivers  had  to  clean  their  own  carriages  and  worked  Suadays, 
holidays,  and  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night  without  extra  pay.  In  1904 
the  wages  of  these  were  ^9.00  and  iio  a  week.  A  strike  in  1905  raised 
wages  to  $14  a  week  cm  carriages  and  $1^  on  hearses.  The  bosses  thm 
signed  an  agreement  with  the  cab  drivers'  union,  renewed  in  1906. 

The  three  locals  of  team  drivers,  cab  drivers,  and  ice  men  at  the 
height  of  their  power  numbered  about  3,000  men.  Only  the  cab  drivers' 
organization  survived  the  hard  times.  In  1913,  the  International  Broth- 
erhood of  Teamsters,  Chauffeurs,  Stablemen,  and  Stablemen's  Hdpers 
organized  a  local  which  is  still  in  a  formative  state.  The  garbage  collec- 
tors employed  by  city  contractors  went  on  strike  in  the  summer  of  1913, 
organized,  and  secured  a  raise  fnmi  |3.oo  to  |3.3j  a  day. 

RivERHEN.  A  class  of  American  workmen,  akin  to  the 
teamsters  in  skill  but  not  in  color,  are  the  river  transport  workers. 

The  working  day  is  twelve  hours  on  the  double  crew  boats 
and  somewhat  longer — as  high  as  fifteen  or  eighteen  hours — on 
boats  with  single  crews.  Double  crews  are  six  hours  on  and  six 
hours  off.  The  men  eat  and  live  on  the  boats  and  work  seven 
days  in  the  week.  The  effect  is  demoralizing.  They  work  for  a 
"stake"  and  then  "  knock  off  "  until  their  money  is  gone.  Drunk- 
enness is  the  prevailing  evil  among  them. 

Their  wages  per  month  in  1907-08,  with  board  included,  were: 
firemen  and  deckhands,  $;o;  mates,  $jo;  engineers,  |ioo;  captains,  f  laj. 
About  500  rivermen,  organized  as  a  local  branch  of  the  International 
Longshoremen,  Marine  and  Transport  Workers'  Association,  called  a 
strike  in  January,  1907,  and  demanded  $60  a  mtmth  for  firemen  and 
deckhands,  and  fSo  for  mates.  The  strike  was  lost,  and  after  two  months 
the  men  went  back  to  work  at  the  old  rates. 

The  marine  engineers  organized  in  the  fall  of  1913,  and  attempted 
to  secure  better  terms  in  the  spring  of  1914.  The  companies  refused  the 
demands,  the  men  went  on  strike,  and  outside  engineers  were  brought  in 
to  take  their  places. 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

Stkeet  Railway  Employes.  So  far  we  have  been  discuss- 
ing the  transportation  men  whose  work  is  closely  akin  to  primi- 
tive methods  of  haulage.  These  lead  up  to  the  employments 
which  have  come  in  with  mechanical  horse  power.  Motormen  or 
conductors  can  be  broken  in  almost  as  fast  as  teamsters.  Yet 
the  wages  of  the  street  railway  men  are  30  to  30  per  cent  higher 
by  the  hour  and  they  work  an  hour  or  two  less  per  day.  They  are 
today  fitter  and  steadier  men  than  the  teamsters.  They  have 
more  responsibility,  and  their  organization,  a  branch  of  the  Amal- 
gamated Association  of  Street  and  Electric  Railway  Employes,  is 
a  strong  one  and  makes  annual  agreements  with  the  Pittsburgh 
Railway  Company.  The  union  in  1907-08  had  about  2,700  mem- 
bers and  included,  with  the  exception  of  about  100  men,  all  the 
motormen  and  conductors  working  in  Pittsburgh.  This  was  the 
third  largest  local  union  of  street  railway  employes  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  wages  it  secured  by  joint  agreement  were  the  high- 
est east  of  the  Mississippi.  Prior  to  the  absorption  of  all  the  street 
railway  lines  by  the  Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  and  the  adop- 
tion of  the  secret  ballot  in  political  elections,  employment  could  be 
secured  through  political  leaders.  Since  then  the  men  have  been 
hired  as  they  come,  according  to  fitness. 

Runs  on  the  street  cars  are  ctmtinuous  and  there  is  no  time 
off  for  meals.*  Unduly  long  runs  may  mean  overwork  and  insuffi- 
cient help;  while  short  runs  may  mean  low  earnings  for  the  crews 
who  have  them.  Therefore,  the  schedule  of  hours  and  runs  ts  an 
important  matter  to  street  railway  operatives.  In  1907  the  Pitts- 
burgh Railways  Company  revised  its  schedule  so  as  to  shorten 
the  long  runs  and  equalize  the  work.  The  longest  run  was  brought 
down  to  ten  hours  and  forty  minutes  as  against  eleven  hours, 
and  nine  or  ten  hours  became  the  day's  work  for  most  street 
railway  employes.  Extra  pay  for  Sundays,  holidays,  or  overtime 
was  not  allowed,  but  Sunday  runs  were  arranged  for  somewhat 
shorter  periods  than  on  weekdays.  These  schedules  represented  a 
reduction  of  30  to  40  per  cent  in  the  hours  of  labor  since  1902. 

On  June  36,  1909,  all  the  motormoi  and  conductors  employed  by 
the  Pittsbu^  Railways  Company  went  out  on  strike.  Their  main 
grievance  was  that  the  company  had  promised  to  reduce  the  number  of 

*  Tbe  men  must  leUe  a  few  minutes  between  trips  for  their  lunches. 
123 


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"short  runs"  from  213  to  half  the  number,  but  had  not  done  so.  Other 
grievances  related  to  methods  of  discipline  which  the  employes  complained 
were  too  severe.  Through  the  efforts  of  Mayor  Magee  the  company 
agreed  on  June  39  to  reduce  the  short  runs  to  106  and  to  leave  the  other 
matters  to  a  board  of  arbitration.  The  men  returned  to  work  pending 
the  arbitration.  The  report  of  the  board,  which  was  accepted  by  both 
sides,  ordered  the  reinstatement  of  an  employe  who  had  been  dismissed 
for  drunkenness,  and  provided  punishment  less  severe  than  discharge. 

Under  an  agreement  made  in  1910.  either  party  was  obliged  to 
notify  the  other  in  writing  thirty  days  before  the  expiration  of  the  agree- 
ment, if  they  desired  to  make  any  changes  in  the  contract.  By  this 
time,  in  contrast  to  the  teamsters,  all  but  $0  of  the  3,000  street  railway 
men  in  Pittsburgh  wore  the  union  button.     The  proportion  still  holds. 

The  agreement  in  force  in  1908  fixed  the  wages  of  first-year  men, 
both  motormen  and  conductors,  at  24^^  cents  an  hour,  and  the  rate 
advanced  by  stages,  so  that  three-year  men  got  26j<  cents.  This  scale 
represented  a  reduction  in  view  of  a  loss  in  earnings  by  the  company 
following  the  panic  of  1907,  of  one-half  cent  per  hour  from  that  made  in 
the  preceding  year  by  a  board  of  arbitration.  The  agreement  of  1910 
restored  the  1907  rate  for  the  men  then  in  the  service  and  increased  the 
wages  of  those  who  should  remain  with  the  company  three  years  or 
more.  The  rates  fixed  were  25  cents  an  hour  for  the  first  six  months 
of  service,  25^^  for  the  second  six  months,  26K  for  the  second  year,  27X 
for  the  third  year,  and  28}4  cents  for  those  employed  more  than  three 
years.  After  191 1  those  who  had  been  in  the  service  of  the  company 
more  than  four  years  were  to  receive  29^  cents  an  hour,  but  all  new  men 
who  should  be  employed  after  April,  1910,  were  to  be  started  at  23 
cents.  The  1912  scale  was  as  follows:  first  six  months,  23^^  cents; 
second  six  months,  3;  cents;  second  year,  26^^  cents;  third  year,  28  cents; 
fourth  year,  29  cents;  and  after  four  years,  30  cents.  In  1914,  the  men 
asked  for  a  35-cent  flat  rate  for  all,  and  the  demands  are  [July-Septem- 
ber] in  process  of  arbitration. 

Railway  Employes.  To  handle  the  enormous  trafRc  of  the 
Pittsburgh  District,  the  various  railways  employ  about  50,000 
people.  Of  these  the  Pennsylvania  lines  have  about  35,000.  The 
men  actually  employed  on  the  cars  and  engines  are  classed  as 
switchmen  (or  yardmen)  and  roadmen.  Yardmen  do  not  go 
outside  of  the  switching  yards.  They  receive  the  trains,  distribute 
them  to  the  various  tracks  for  unloading,  and  make  up  trains  to 
be  given  to  the  roadmen. 

124 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

About  3,600  men  are  employed  in  the  switching  service  in  and 
about  Pittsburgh.  A  switching  crew  is  composed  of  one  conductor 
or  foreman,  three  brakemen  or  helpers,  an  engineer,  and  a  fireman. 

Considering  the  requirements  of  the  railway  service,  its 
severity  and  danger,  as  well  as  the  wages  and  hours,  the  condition 
of  the  yardmen  is  similar  to  that  of  the  roughers  and  catchers 
in  the  rolling  mills.  They  are  much  the  same  kind  of  men, 
largely  American  bom,  of  strong  physique  and  endurance,  working 
long  hours  at  the  hardest  work. 

Up  to  1907  most  of  the  yards  guaranteed  their  switchmen  a  mini- 
mum half  day  of  six  hours.  If  they  worked  less  than  this  they  received 
a  half  day's  pay.  If  they  worked  over  six  hours  they  received  pay  for 
the  actual  time  employed.  One  yard  guaranteed  the  men  a  full  day's 
pay  if  they  worked  over  six  hours.  In  1907  a  minimum  day  of  ten  hours 
was  established  and  the  pay  was  arranged  on  the  hourly  basis.  This 
change  was  the  result  of  a  threatened  strike  in  the  fall  of  1906  for  an 
eight-hour  day  and  an  increase  of  6  cents  an  hour  in  the  rate  of  wages. 

The  rival  unions  in  the  yards,  the  Switchmen's  Union  of  North 
America  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Railway  Trainmen,  both  presented  these 
demands.  To  head  off  the  proposed  strike  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad 
issued  an  order  increasing  by  10  per  cent  the  wages  of  all  employes  receiv- 
ing less  than  ^200  a  month.  The  move  succeeded.  The  Brotherhood  of 
Railway  Trainmen  immediately  modified  their  demands,  the  Switchmen's 
Union  held  out  for  the  original  demands,  the  railway  companies  en- 
tered into  conferences  with  the  trainmen  and  a  compromise  was  arranged, 
— the  men  to  work  in  two"  tricks  "of  twelve  hours  each,  one  coming  on,  the 
other  off,  at  6:30  a.m.;  but  to  be  paid  for  eleven  hours — the  dinner  hour 
being  deducted — and  to  be  guaranteed  a  minimum  day  of  ten  hours.  That 
is,  if  a  man  is  out  only  two  or  three  hours  he  still  gets  his  guaranteed  rate 
for  the  day.    The  rates  were  fixed  at  the  scale  given  above  for  1906. 

In  1910,  and  again  in  1912-13,  scales  in  the  eastern  territory  affect- 
ing $3  lines  have  been  fixed  by  a  series  of  arbitration  awards,  the  last 
beingthoseof  the  engineers  dating  from  May,  1912,  the  firemen  from  April, 
191),  and  the  trainmen  from  November,  1913.  For  the  most  part,  the 
rates  paid  on  the  Pennsylvania  lines  have  been  above  these  awards,  the 
general  level  for  all  roads  in  the  territory  creeping  up  toward  them,  and, 
in  some  few  instances,  passing  them.  The  rates  per  hour  for  yardmen 
on  the  Pennsylvania  are  from  so  per  cent  to  nearly  95  per  cent  higher 
than  those  of  twenty  years  ago. 

125 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 


190t 

1906 

ISIO 

latt-ts 

c^. 

C^s 

CaO, 

Ctntt 

C«tfi 

Enpoeer,  IHy  or  nigbi    . 
nreman,  Day  or  ni^t     . 

r,i 

Conductor,  Day        .       . 

34 

tl 

38.0 

aj.i 

JO.I> 

X 

Night      .       . 

19 

34.a 

-JI.O 

37M 

:e  it  above  the  general  award,  whkh  was 


In  some  of  the  mill  yards  the  night  crew  and  the  day  crew 
change  shifts  every  two  weeks.  Before  the  enforcement  of  the 
seven-day  rule  in  1910,  these  mill  switchmen  were  once  a  month 
confined  to  their  engines  or  cars  for  twenty-four  hours. 

In  the  railroad  yards  in  1907-08  day  crews  usually  got  off 
every  other  Sunday.  Night  crews  worked  one  Sunday  and  had 
two  off.  The  present  general  practice  of  the  Pennsylvania  is  to 
observe  a  Sunday  shut  down.  In  case  of  wrecks  crews  are  out  as 
long  as  twenty-five,  thirty,  and  even  forty-eight  hours.  Outside 
of  emergencies,  however,  the  hours  of  yardmen  are  regular;  little 
overtime  beyond  twelve  hours  is  required. 

The  reverse  was  true  of  roadmen  up  to  1907.  While  the 
time  tables  were  so  arranged  that  the  hours  approximated  twelve 
or  thirteen  per  day,  congestion  of  freight  compelled  men  to  work 
much  longer.  A  man  starting  with  a  freight  could  not  tell  when  he 
would  get  back.     He  might  have  to  lie  for  hours  at  a  siding. 

Prior  to  the  enactment,  in  1907,  of  the  federal  law  restrict- 
ing hours  in  inter-state  commerce  to  sixteen,  some  men  reported 
being  out  thirty,  forty,  and  even  sixty  hours  at  a  stretch.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  months  ei^teen  to  twenty  hours  was  the  regular 
thing  for  freight  crews.  The  time  record  of  an  engineer  for  two 
months  in  1907  was:  August,  twenty-six  days,  391  hours;  Sep- 
tember, twenty-five  days,  386  hours;  average  fifteen  hours  a  day. 
Twice  during  September  he  worked  forty  hours  at  one  turn.  He 
began  Saturday  noon  and  quit  Monday  morning. 

The  effect  of  the  Federal  law  in  correcting  these  excessive  hours 
is  shown  in  the  percentage  relation  which  overtime  paid  freight  crews 

126 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

and  passenger  crews  bears  to  the  total  wages  paid  such  crews  during  the 
years  1913  and  1913  for  the  Pennsylvania  lines  east  of  Pittsburgh: 
1911    .  /^ivi;M  5.1  percent       Paitngtr  \,t  pn  cent 

igi)     ...         "      6.1  percent  "        3.1  percent 

Moreover,  it  would  be  extremely  uneconomical  for  a  company  to 
operate  with  the  old  irregularity — since  under  the  awards  train  employes 
are  guaranteed  a  ten-hodr  day  for  time  held  away  from  home  terminal 
after  a  given  number  of  hours,  ranging  from  eighteen  to  twenty-eight 
hours.     To  quote  a  Pennsylvania  R.  R.  official  as  to  present  praaice: 

"While  the  Federal  Law  places  a  time  limit  of  t6  hours  in  which  an 
employe  may  remain  on  duty,  the  percentage  of  men  relieved  in  order  to 
avoid  this  violation  is  comparatively  small.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  railroads  have,  during  the  past  decade,  expended  large  sums  of  money 
in  yards  and  terminals  as  well  as  additional  running  tracks,  which  has 
resulted  in  permitting  the  men  to  make  their  runs  in  reasonable  time.  In 
fact  the  majority  of  freight  runs  on  the  Lines  East  of  Pittsburgh  are  paid 
for  on  the  basis  of  1 1  hours,  while  the  running  time  consumes  8,  9,  and  to 
hours,  thereby  giving  the  employes  a  bonus  of  the  hours  saved  under  the 
i  I  hours  paid  for.  Of  course,  under  extraordinary  circumstances,  these 
crews  are  detained  beyond  the  time  limit  placed  on  the  run,  in  which  case, 
however,  they  receive  overtime  on  a  minute  basis." 

The  pay  for  the  men  on  the  road  is  fixed  by  a  combination  of 
hourly  rate  and  mileage  ran.  A  minimum  day  of  ten  hours  is 
guaranteed,  on  an  assumed  run  of  100  miles  in  that  period.  If 
the  employe  is  out  longer  than  ten  hours,  or  makes  over  100  miles 
in  that  ten  hours,  he  gets  extra  compensation  on  a  pro  rata  basis- 
miles  or  hours,  whichever  is  greater. 

The  1907,  igio,  and  1912-13  scales  per  100  miles  or  less  or 
ten  hours  or  less  are  shown  on  the  following  page.  They  indicate 
the  general  rise  in  pay  throughout  the  period,  and  the  last  two 
columns  show  the  relation  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  rates  to 
the  general  award. 

Some  of  the  railway  brotherhoods  have  strong  organizations 
in  the  Pittsburgh  District,  but  their  insurance  features  and  the 
difficulty  of  calling  a  strike  on  a  railroad  system  serve  to  make  the 
men  conservative  and  to  delay  improvements  in  their  condition. 
It  required  federal  legislation  to  set  a  limit  of  sixteen  to  their  con- 
secutive hours  of  labor.  The  switchmen's  union,  affiliated  with 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor, — as  the  railway  brotherhoods 
are  not, — has  shown  a  more  aggressive  spirit  and  has  incurred  the 
hostility  of  the  railway  managers,  who  are  inclined  to  favor  the 
127 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 


rival  union,  the  Brotherhood  of  Railway  Trainmen.*  This  conflict 
of  jurisdiction,  especially  in  the  switchyards,  also  tends  to  stand 
in  the  way  of  action  for  improvement. 

MINIMUM  SCALE.      lOO  MILES  OR  LESS,  10  HOURS  OR  LESS 


1907 
Award 

mo 

Award 

ms-is 

Award 

19lt-lS 
P.R.R. 

Local  Frtigbl  Trains: 
Engineer  <lowejt  type  engine) 
Fireman  (lowest  typeen^ne) 
Conductor    .... 
Brakeman     .... 
Flagman       .... 

Throttgh  Fuighi  Trains: 
Engineer   (highest   type  en- 
gine)   

Fireman  {highest  type  enpne) 

$}.6o 
a-io 

a.40 
j-so 

2.80 

U7i 
i.oo 
J.97S 

4-75 
3.00 

Isoo 
J-J5 
4- SO 

J.OO 

4.75 

J.30 

>5-"> 
3}  5 
4- SO 
3.00 

J.00 

4.8s 

).JO 

Note:  The  passenger  scales  and  schedules  are  if  anything  more  complicated 
than  those  of  the  freights.  In  general,  the  positions  are  preferred  as  they  are  more 
regular  and  ^ve  a  man  more  time  at  home,  even  when  they  do  not  net  more  pay. 


It  is  evident  that  organization  has  made  a  decided  difference 
in  the  condition  of  men  engaged  in  the  transportation  trades. 
Teamsters  and  rivermen,  whose  unions  are  weak  and  unstable, 
have  been  checked  in  reducing  their  hours  of  labor  or  increasing 
wages.  In  contrast  with  these  the  street  railway  employes,  whose 
organization  by  1910  included  all  but  50  of  the  platform  men  in 
Pittsburgh,  have  greatly  reduced  their  hours  of  labor  since  1902, 
and  in  addition  have  secured  many  improvements  in  their  condi- 
tions of  employment  together  with  substantia]  increases  in  wages. 
The  organizations  of  the  steam  railroad  employes  have  been  strong 
in  numbers  but  they  have  lacked  aggressiveness.  Their  hours  of 
labor  are  therefore  comparatively  long,  and  whatever  reduction  of 
hours  they  have  secured  has  come  through  governmental  action. 
Substantial  increases  in  wages  have  come  to  them,  however, 
partly  from  the  desire  of  the  companies  to  head  off  any  militant 
organizations  among  their  men. 

'The  secretary  of  the  switchmen's  union  gives  this  range  of  rates  on  the 
three  lines  in  which  they  have  a  fooling  in  the  Pittsburgh  District  in  t9i4:  yard 
crews, — conductors,  day  jS-jg,;  cents  per  hour;  night,  39-41-1;  brakemen,  day, 
35-36.5;  night,  36-38.5. 

128 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 
SUPPLY  TRADES 

In  juxtaposition  to  the  transportation  industries  in  Pitts- 
bur;gh  which  employ  teamsters,  rivermen,  and  railway  men,  whose 
working  hours  are.  for  the  most  part,  spent  out  of  doors,  may  be 
placed  a  group  of  "  indoor  occupations, "  which  present  locally 
even  greater  contrasts  in  the  process  of  labor  organization.  The 
workers  in  these  occupations  include  the  mercantile  employes 
in  stores  and  printing  plants,  and  the  bakers  and  brewers — chief 
among  the  food  producers  of  the  city.  Ail  these  industries  are 
closely  identified  with  city  life,  and  in  them  we  find  the  general 
sentiment  of  the  community  toward  labor,  often  the  result  of 
union  propaganda  or  union  purchasing  power,  playing  a  part  in 
determining  the  status  of  the  workers. 

The  difficulty  of  standardizing  the  multitude  of  retail 
stores  made  it  impossible  even  for  the  strong  union  of  "sales 
people"  which  once  existed,  to  have  any  effect  on  wages.  Yet 
this  union  was,  during  the  big  day  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  when 
the  general  spirit  of  organization  was  strong  in  the  land,  able  to 
shorten  the  hours  of  work  and  fix  definite  hours  for  opening  and 
closing  of  shops.  In  this,  to  be  sure,  employers  were  willing  to  ac- 
quiesce in  so  far  as  competitors  could  be  made  to  open  and  close 
at  the  same  time,  and  the  reduced  hours  continued  long  after  the 
union  dropped  out.  Among  the  bakers,  shortage  in  the  supply  of 
workmen  helped  to  fairly  double  their  wages  within  a  period  of 
fifteen  years  and  to  cut  down  hours  by  one-third  to  one-half.  But 
to  the  scarcity  of  workers  must  be  added  the  ease  with  which  the 
use  of  the  union  label  can  be  enforced  where  consumers  are  mainly 
working  people.  This  fact  accounts  for  the  strength  of  the  Jewish 
bakers'  union.  The  effective  use  of  the  union  label,  and  also  of 
the  boycott,  in  another  industry  where  the  consumers  are  very 
largely  workingmen  is  illustrated  by  the  brewery  workmen.  They 
have  organized  the  entire  industry,  and  by  uking  into  their  organ- 
ization every  workman,  whatever  his  trade,  who  works  for  the 
brewery,  they  present  a  solid  front  to  employers.  The  result  is 
that  brewery  workmen  enjoy  an  eight-hour  day  and  their  earnings 
approximate  that  of  men  with  a  much  higher  grade  of  skill.  Sim- 
ilarly in  the  printing  trades,  those  empbyed  on  newspapers  have 
been  in  a  strategic  position  from  the  fact  that  public  pressure  coukl 
9*  129 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

be  brought  to  bear  on  the  publishers.  It  has  given  them  an  ad- 
vantage, so  that  their  earnings  are  greater  and  they  work  fewer 
hours  per  day  than  do  men  in  the  book  and  job  offices. 

Retail  Clerks.  For  a  long  time  Pittsburgh  had  one  of  the 
strongest  organizations  of  retail  clerks  in  the  country.  Although 
the  union  is  now  practically  destroyed,  the  hours  and  conditions 
of  labor  which  it  first  established  by  agreements  with  employers 
have  tended  to  continue. 

Salespeople's  Assembly  No.  4907,  Knights  of  Labor,  of 
Allegheny  County,  Pennsylvania,  was  organized  about  1885. 
From  the  very  beginning  it  proved  successful  and  grew  rapidly. 
In  1902  and  1903,  at  the  height  of  its  power,  it  had  agreements 
with  3;  stores  and  counted  1,200  members.  All  but  two  of  the 
largest  stores  were  unionized.  These  two,  Boggs  and  Buhl  in 
Allegheny,  and  Joseph  Home  and  Company  in  Pittsburgh,  by 
offering  conditions  just  a  little  better  than  those  provided  in  the 
agreements,  were  able  to  keep  the  union  out. 

The  union  found  it  impossible,  as  has  been  said,  to  regulate 
wages,  and  consequently  the  agreements  were  concerned  only 
with  hours  and  conditions  of  work.  Previously,  clerks  had  worked 
an  indefinite  number  of  hours.  They  would  arrive  at  the  stores 
at  6  or  7  in  the  morning  and  remain  until  9  or  10  at  night.  Satur- 
day nights  they  worked  much  later.  Having  no  fixed  day  there 
had  been  no  pay  for  overtime,  and  often  Sunday  work  was  unpaid. 

The  first  agreements  of  the  union  fixed  the  hours  definitely 
at  7.30  a.  m.  for  the  opening,  and  6  p.  m.  for  closing,  except  on 
Saturday,  when  the  closing  hour  was  10  p.  m.  All  work  outside 
of  these  hours  was  overtime,  for  which  time  and  one-half  was  to  be 
paid.  Work  on  Sundays  or  holidays  was  paid  double  the  regular 
rates.  These  agreements  were  usually  for  periods  of  three  or  five 
years.    The  last  of  the  series  of  city-wide  agreements  provided: 

I.  Store  open  not  earlier  than  8  a.  m.  the  year  round. 

3.  Store  closed  not  later  than  ^.^o  p.  m.  during  first  five  working 
days  of  the  week,  except  from  the  first  Monday  after  the  Fourth  of  July 
until  the  first  Tuesday  after  the  first  Monday  in  September,wf)en  the  dos- 
ing hour  shall  be ;  p.  m. 

3.  Store  closed  not  later  than  9  p.  m.  Saturdays,  except  as  here- 
after provided  for. 

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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

4.  Store  closed  all  day  Decoration  Day,  Fourth  of  July,  Labor 
Day,  Thanksgiving,  Christmas,  and  New  Year's,  as  governed  by  state  law. 

;.  The  party  of  the  second  part  shall  have  the  privilege  of  keeping 
store  open  on  the  six  (6)  evenings  preceding  Christinas  not  later  than 
to  o'clock. 

6.  All  services  required  before  the  time  and  after  closing  shall  be 
paid  for  at  the  rate  of  time  and  half-time,  pro  rata  to  wages,  provided 
that  when  stock  needs  attention  at  closing  time,  )0  minutes  shall  be 
allowed  to  place  it  in  order,  and  further  provided,  that  customers  in  the 
act  of  buying  at  closing  time  shall  be  served  until  purchase  is  concluded. 
All  salespeople  who  are  disengaged  at  closing  time  shall  be  promptly 
permitted  to  depart. 

7.  One  hour  shall  be  allowed  for  dinner  and  supper,  and  should 
this  privilege  be  forfeited  in  the  interest  of  business,  so  cents  shall  be  paid 
for  it. 

8.  Tardiness  in  the  momtng  or  at  meal  times  shall  be  subject 
to  the  regulations  of  the  firm  (as  per  store  rules)  except  that  when  penal- 
ties are  imposed,  they  shall  in  no  case  exceed  time  and  half-time,  pro 
rata  to  wages. 

9.  No  employe  shall  be  continued  in  service  who  does  not  work  in 
harmony  with  the  Salespeople's  Assembly,  and  in  engaging  help  due 
preference  shall  at  all  times  be  given  to  its  members. 

10.  No  goods  shall  be  sold  by  others  than  members  of  this  assembly 
except  they  are  only  special  or  extra  help,  and  all  such  shall,  upon  demand, 
beccone  members 

[Other  rules  provided  that  all  employes  must  be  members  of  the 
union  except  proprietors'  relatives,  managers  or  buyers.) 

When  in  [90;  this  agreement  expired  at  the  store  of  Eisner 
and  Philips,  that  firm  refused  to  renew  it.  The  employes  struck 
and  were  defeated.  One  by  one  the  stores  gave  up  the  agreements. 
While  the  hours  which  had  been  agreed  to  were  not  immediately 
changed,  the  union  was  disrupted  and  it  now  maintains  its  exist- 
ence on  paper  only.  Several  attempts  of  the  Retail  Clerks' 
International  Protective  Association,  which  is  affiliated  with  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor,  to  reorganize  the  sales  people, 
have  proved  unsuccessful.* 

The  effect  of  the  absence  of  a  union  soon  became  apparent.     In 

1908  Labor  Day  was  not  observed  as  a  holiday  by  the  retail  stores;  and 

some  of  the  stores  which  had  fomieriy  closed  at  ;  p.  m.  during  July  and 

*  An  employe'  association  instituted  since  1906  is  not  in  any  sense  a  union. 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

August  during  this  year  remained  open  till  ^rjo.  The  same  year  Miss 
Butler*  found  i4stores  working  regularly  from  8  a.  m.  to  9:30  p.  m. — the 
schedule  or  the  old  union  agreement.  Eight  stores,  however,  were  work- 
ing from  8  a.  m.  to  6  p.  m.  Two  stores  were  open  not  only  Saturday 
evenings  but  evenings  during  the  week  as  well  until  9  and  10  o'clock. 
One  store  had  no  Christmas  overtime  and  its  trade  was  apparently  not 
lessened  thereby;  but  the  others  had  overtime  amounting  to  from  ten  days 
to  two  weeks.  Six  of  them  had  a  double  shift  arrangement  whereby 
employes  were  on  holiday  duty  alternate  evenings,  coming  later  on  the 
days  fdlowing  nights  at  work.  Seventeen  stores  had  no  double  shift 
during  the  holidays,  requiring  a  working  week  of  from  73  to  84  hours. 

Wages  of  retail  clerks  vary  so  greatly  that  it  is  impossible  to  give 
any  general  rates.  In  1907-08  clothing  salesmen  began  at  f  10  or  $12  per 
week,  and  when  experienced  their  wages  rose  tofiS,  $20,  and  $2;.  "Gents 
furnishing"  salesmen,  including  hat  salesmen,  were  usually  started  at 
yS-oo  per  week.  Experiencedmengotfromfia  tofiS.  In  I907-o8some 
department  stores  salesmen  received  as  little  as  f6.oo  per  week  and  women 
less  than  this  amount.f  Sale  people  had  thus  been  unable  to  better  their 
own  conditions  since  the  union  failed.  They  have  gained  since  by  move- 
ments among  the  purchasing  public.  In  some  of  the  large  department 
Stores  conditions  were  above  the  average  in  1907-08,  and  special  con- 
sideration was  shown  the  women  employes.  But  up  to  1910  only  one 
store  in  Pittsburgh — McCrecry's — met  the  "white-list"  requirements  of 
the  Consumers'  League.  Three  other  department  stores — ^Joseph  Home 
Company,  Boggs  and  Buhl,  and  Meyer  Jonasson  &  Company,  were  on  the 
white  list  in  1913;  ij  are  listed  in  I9i4.t 

Printers.  The  pnnting  trade  is  subdivided  into  severa! 
branches.  The  pressmen's  and  feeders'  unions  engaged  in  a 
country-wide  strike  beginning  in  1907  and,  as  far  as  practical  pur- 
poses were  concerned,  lost  in  Pittsburgh,  and  in  many  other  places. 

*  For  detailed  description  of  conditions  among  women  workers  in  the  mer- 
cantile houses  see  Chapter  X  of  Buller,  Elizabeth  Beardiley:  Women  and  the 
Trades.  (The  Pittsburgh  Survey.)  In  November,  1913,  a  new  law  went  into 
effect  providing  for  a  mty-four-hour  week  and  a  ten-hour  day  for  girl  employes 
under  twenty-one  and  excluding  them  from  all  night  work  after  9  p.  m.,  makmf;  no 
exception  for  mercantile  houses  at  Christmas  time.  For  the  191)  law  affecting 
women's  work,  see  Kelley,  op.  cit.    P.  ai)  of  this  volume. 

t  Wages  of  salesgirls  among  a  group  studied  by  Kingsley  House  in  1913 
ranged  from  (3.00  to  tl-oo  for  girls  from  fourteen  to  seventeen;  $4.^  to  fio  for 
girls  over  that  age.  See  Appendix  XIX,  p.  49a,  A  nwvement  for  a  minimum 
wage  law  failed  in  1913,  and  will  be  agitated  again  in  191$. 

X  For  white  Ibl,  see  Appendix  XIII,  p.  4J4. 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

In  the  commercial  plants  in  Pittsburgh  their  strike  gradually  dissi- 
pated but  was  never  fonnalty  called  off.  The  way  the  matter  was  left 
was  that  where  a  shop  worked  longer  than  the  eight-hour  day,  it  paid  time 
and  a  half  for  the  ninth  hour.  The  web-press  men  of  the  newspaper 
ofTices  have  fared  better  than  the  flat-bed  men  of  the  commercial  shops, 
getting  from  I3.00  to  13.7$  in  1914  as  against  $3.00  to  $^-49  in  1907,  and 
working  an  eight-hour  day. 

Although  the  open  shop  movement  in  the  printing  trades  lost 
the  typographical  union  many  places  in  Pittsburgh,  this  branch 
was  more  strongly  entrenched  than  the  others.  In  1907-08  the 
union  had  400  members,  or  less  than  one-half  the  compositors  in 
Pittsburgh.  All  but  one  newspaper  and  about  half  the  job  offices 
were  working  under  closed  shop  agreements.  The  depression 
threw  half  the  men  out  of  work  and  many  of  the  job  offices  closed 
down.  In  the  years  since,  the  largest  job  offices  have  remained 
open  shops  but  all  the  dailies  belong  to  the  Pittsburgh  Newspaper 
Publishers'  Association  and  are  parties  to  joint  agreements  with 
local  No.  7  which  have  raised  standards. 

Under  the  agreement  governing  morning  and  evening  newspapers 
in  1907-08  piece  work  was  forbidden,  all  work  was  on  a  time  basis  and  the 
test  of  competency  of  employes  on  machines  was  4,000  ems  per  hour. 
This  was  raised  to  $,000  per  hour  by  agreement  in  January,  1909. 

The  minimum  wage  of  all  employes  in  the  composing  rooms 
of  the  morning  newspapers,  except  proofreaders,  machine  tenders,  and 
machine  tenders'  assistants,  was  60  cents  per  hour.*  After  eight  hours 
the  rate  was  70  cents.  On  evening  newspapers  the  minimum  rate  was 
$5  cents,  and  for  all  work  over  eight  hours  it  was  65  cents.  For  all 
work  over  ten  hours,  the  rate  was  price  and  one-half.  Proofreaders  on 
both  morning  and  evening  papers  were  paid  $33  per  week,  and  j$  cents 
an  hour  for  overtime.  The  minimum  wage  for  machinists  was  $5.00  pet 
day  and  their  assistants  got  {3.30. 

In  January,  1914,  a  live-year  agreement  was  entered  upon,  setting, 
for  the  morning  newspapers,  6;  cents  per  hour  during  the  first  three  years, 
66  cents  during  the  last  two  years,  seven  and  one-half  or  eight  continuous 
hours  at  the  employers'  option  to  constitute  a  day's  work,  exclusive  of 
half  an  hour  for  luncheon;  proofreaders  to  receive  not  less  than  $33.50 
per  week  for  an  eight-hour  day  with  overtime  at  65  cents;  machinists  to 
receive  not  less  than  |$.oo  per  day,  and  machine  tenders  not  less  than 
(3.3$.  On  evening  newspapers  the  rate  is  60  cents  per  hour  for  cc»n- 
*The  Pittsburgh  DitpaUb  paid  6r  cents  an  hour. 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

positors  during  the  first  three  years,  6i  cents  the  last  two,  hours  identical, 
proofreaders  to  receive  not  ]ess  than  f33.$o  with  overtime  at  60  cents, 
machinists  and  machine  tenders  the  same  as  above.  For  all  work  over 
eight  hours  in  any  one  day,  the  rate  is  price  and  a  half.  The  work  is  on  a 
time  basis  exclusively,  and  bonuses  are  prohibited. 

In  book  and  job  offices  printers  and  proofreaders  received  in  1907-08 
a  minimum  of  $16  a  week  for  day  work,  and  $19  for  night  work.  This  had 
been  the  rate  in  Pittsburgh  for  ten  or  fifteen  years,  and  in  the  opinion  of 
the  officials  of  the  union  it  was  ridiculously  small.  Where  plants  were  run 
in  three  shifts,  one  received  the  day  scale  and  two  the  night  scale.  Piece 
work  (hand  setting)  was  at  the  rate  of  38  cents  per  thousand  ems  for  day, 
and  40  cents  for  night  work.  Overtime  by  day  or  piece  was  at  the  rate 
of  price  and  one-half.  Operators  on  monotype  or  linotype  machines 
received  a  minimum  rate  of  $2 1  per  week  for  day  work,  and  $2$  for  night 
work.  The  minimum  rate  for  casters  was  $18  by  day  and  fas  by  night. 
Where  two  casting  machines  were  employed  the  rate  was  (31. $0  for  day 
and  fsi-so  for  night  work. 

During  the  current  five  years  the  union  has  stood  for  a  scale  of 
prices  ranging  from  $17  for  proofreaders  and  journeymen  in  1909  to  (30 
in  191$,  night  work  at  (3.00  per  week  above  the  day  scale,  and  overtime 
at  the  old  rates.  Machine  and  casting  scales  have  remained  about  sta- 
tionary except  that  monotype  operators  who  take  charge  of  casting  ma- 
chines and  linotype  operators  call  for  a  scale  of  $34.  Piece  work  has  been 
abolished  in  union  shops. 

Where  these  agreements  are  in  effect  apprentices  are  limited  to  one 
to  five  journeymen  in  the  jobbing  offices,  one  to  eight  on  the  newspapers; 
while  practical  printers  who  want  to  learn  to  operate  the  machine  must  be 
paid  the  regular  scale  after  a  twelve  weeks'  probationary  period. 

The  agreement  between  the  union  and  newspaper  publishers' 
association  provides  that  neither  party  shall  enter  into  a  sympathetic 
strike  or  lockout,  and  that  matters  of  dispute  be  submitted  to  a  committee 
of  arbitration  selected  two  by  the  publishers,  two  by  the  union  and  these 
four  to  select  a  fifth;  decisicMi  to  be  final  and  binding  on  both  parties.  A 
similar  arbitration  scheme  is  provided  in  the  jobbing  agreement. 

Bakers.  Among  bakery  workmen,  unionism  is  yet  weak. 
Hardly  30  per  cent  were  organized  in  1907-08.  In  the  preceding 
period  of  prosperity  the  supply  of  bakers  had  not  been  up  to  the 
demand,  due  to  the  fact  that  the  long  hours  and  Sunday  work  had 
teniied  to  keep  boys  out  of  the  trade.  Because  of  this  shortage  of 
bakers  conditions  had  improved  considerably,  but  when  the 
financial  panic  with  its  consequent  unemployment  came,  the 
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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

men  were  not  able  to  stave  off  a  general  reduction  in  wages  of 
I3.00  per  week. 

The  200  union  bakers  were  organized  in  three  local  unions 
of  the  Bakery  and  Confectionery  Workers'  international  Union 
<^  America.  There  are  few  American  bakers  in  Pittsburgh.  Ger- 
mans, Austrians,  and  Slavs  predominate.  There  are  also  some 
Italians,  who  in  1907-08  were  entirely  unorganized,  and  worked 
under  the  worst  conditions.  One  of  the  locals  was  composed 
entirely  of  Yiddish-speaking  bakers,  and  these  had  the  only 
union  bakeshops  in  the  District.  This  Jewish  local  union  made 
agreements  with  two  boss  bakers  by  whidi  the  latter  accepted  the 
union  scale  of  wages  and  hours,  and  in  return  were  empowered 
to  place  the  union  label  on  all  their  products. 

Bakery  workmen  are  divided  according  to  their  work  into  three 
classes.  The"first hand"isonewhoattendstheoven.  "Second  hands" 
work  at  the  bench  and  are  sometimes  called  "bench  hands."  The 
"third  hand"  is  the  helper. 

The  improvement  in  the  bakers'  condition  during  the  fourteen 
yearspriortothepanicof  1907  can  be  seen  in  the  course  of  their  wages  per 
week: 

1900         1007 

10-  II*         I5t 
7-    8*        i3t 

During  the  period  referred  to  the  hours  of  labor  steadily  decreased. 
In  1894  bakeries  operated  fourteen  and  sixteen  hours  every  day,  while 
on  Friday  twenty  hours  was  the  rule.  By  1900  the  hours  had  fallen  to 
about  eleven  per  day.  In  the  two  union  shops  in  1908,  the  men  worked 
r^ulariy  a  ten-hour  day, — one  shift  from  ;  p.  m.  to  3  a.  m.  and  the  other 
from  3  a.  m.  to  ta  m.  These  were  the  only  shops  where  the  hours  were  fixed, 
with  the  exception  of  the  large  bakeries,  like  those  of  the  National  Bis- 
cuit Company,  where  the  men  who  worked  at  the  ovens  worked  the 
same  number  of  hours  and  got  from  18  to  30  cents  an  hour.  Most  ba- 
kers had  a  working  day  of  ten  or  eleven  hours,  except  on  Friday  when 
the  usual  time  was  thirteen  hours.  The  Icmger  time  on  Friday  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  no  work  is  done  Saturday  night. 

The  agreements  in  the  two  label  shops  in  1907-08  provided  for  the 
minimum  scale  shown  in  the  first  column  on  page  1 36,  although  the  actual 
wages  were  found  to  be  higher. 

'With  board,  lod^n^  and  liundTy.  fSio-fn  with  board,  lodging,  and 
lanndiy.    l^.oo-IS.oo  with  board,  lodging,  and  laundry. 

135 


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2d  hand    .      . 

4-       6- 

6-    8' 

3d  hand   .     . 

3.  SO-   5' 

4-    S' 

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WACE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

SCALE  OF  WAGES   PER  WEEK   IN  JEWISH   LABEL  SHOPS 

1907-S  1914 

First  hand,  at  oven fao  ^37 

Second  hand,  foreman  of  bench  work      .       .        16  aj 

Second  hand,  bench  worker     ....        1 ;  30 

Third  hand,  helper 13  18 

Following  the  financial  depression  the  bakers'  unions  more  than  re- 
gained  their  ground.  The  general  rates  in  the  trade  have  advanced  to  the 
standard  set  by  the  label  shops  in  1907-08,  while  the  Jewish  unions  have 
brought  the  scale  in  the  small  shops  up  to  the  figures  given  at  tberif^t. 
In  1910  when  they  presented  their  scale,  there  was  a  strike  that  lasted 
only  four  hours.  The  men  won,  receiving  an  increase  in  wages  and  a 
reduction  in  the  number  of  working  hours. 

En  [913  the  Polish  bakers  organized,  securing  a  six-day  week,  a 
nine-hour  day  and  $20  a  week  for  first  hands,  (17  for  second;  in  1914,  the 
bakery  salesmen  of  the  Hill  District  organized,  getting  a  six-day  week  and 
an  all-round  increase  of  $1.00  a  week;  and  in  1914,  also,  the  Jewish  cake 
bakers  got  six  days,  nine  hours,  and  a  f  1 .00  a  week  raise. 

The  unions  have  failed  to  get  any  permanent  footing  in  the  largest 
establishments,  where  in  1907-08  laborers  got  from  1;  to  so  cents  an  hour, 
and  oven  and  bench  hands,  30  to  30  cents. 

Brewery  Workers.  The  brewery  workers  are  the  only 
workmen  in  the  Pittsburgh  District  whose  entire  industry  is 
thoroughly  organized,  and  this  favored  position  they  owe  to  the 
union  label  and  the  boycott.  Every  brewery  in  the  Pittsburgh 
District  works  under  a  signed  agreement  with  the  brewery 
workers'  union,  and  every  agreement  provides  for  the  closed  shop. 
These  establishments  employed  about  3,000  people  in  1907.  As 
has  been  stated,  every  employe  in  and  about  a  brewery  is  admitted 
to  the  union,  regardless  (A  his  occupation.  The  type  tA  organiza- 
tion is  thus  different  from  any  thus  far  described.  Incidentally, 
this  has  brought  the  organization  into  c(»)ftict  with  the  engineers' 
and  coopers'  unions.  In  these  jurisdictional  disputes  the  principal 
point  at  issue  has  been  whether  members  of  these  two  crafts 
who  work  in  breweries  shall  belong  to  their  respective  unions 
or  whether  they  shall  remain  in  the  brewery  workers'  union. 
It  is  the  old  question  of  trade  autonomy  versus  the  industrial 
group. 

The  effectiveness  of  the  latter  form  of  organization  in  such 
an  industry  as  brewing  is  seen  in  the  wages,  hours,  and  condi- 
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tions  of  labor  laid  down  in  the  contracts.  In  that  signed  in  April, 
1907,  it  was  agreed  between  the  employers  and  the  union  that 
in  case  of  dull  business  the  workingmen  without  exception  should 
be  laid  off  in  rotation,  and  no  one  was  to  be  laid  off  for  more  than 
one  week  at  a  time.  In  case  of  sickness  the  employe  had  to  be 
restored  to  his  position  on  recovery.  Disputes  were  to  be  settled 
by  means  of  a  conference  committee  composed  of  three  members 
of  the  union  and  three  men  appointed  by  the  employers.  If  no 
decision  were  reachol  an  outside  party  was  to  be  chosen  as  arbi- 
trator. Other  points  in  this  three-year  agreement — which  except 
for  the  increases  in  wages  has  been  renewed  in  practically  identical 
form  in  191 1  and  1914 — are  as  follows: 

Beer  might  be  given  free  to  all  employes  during  working  houn  at 
option  of  employer.  The  tenn  of  apprenticeship  in  the  wash-house, 
cdlar,  and  brew-house  was  set  at  "not  less  nor  more  than  two  years,  and 
each  firm  was  required  to  have  its  apprentices  instructed  in  all  the  dif- 
ferent branches  of  the  trade  during  that  time."  Apprentices  were  not 
to  be  under  eighteen  or  over  twenty-one  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  be- 
ginning their  apprenticeship.  They  had  to  become  members  of  the  union 
within  two  months  after  their  engagement.  One  apprentice  was  per- 
mitted to  every  wash-house,  cellar,  or  brew-house  employing  less  than  10 
men;  to  10  men,  two  apprentices;  to  30  men  three;  and  for  every  addi- 
tional 10  men  one  more  apprentice  might  be  employed.  In  the  bottling- 
house  one  apprentice  was  allowed  for  every  live  men  or  fraction  employed. 

Eight  hours  constituted  a  day's  work  for  all  men  within  the  brew- 
cries.  Nine  hours  were  required  of  brewery  drivers  and  stablemen  in 
contrast  to  the  ten-hour  day  of  the  unorganized  stablemen  and  drivers 
employed  by  wholesale  liquor  dealers.  Seven  days  constituted  a  week's 
work  for  engineers,  engineers'  helpers,  wipers,  oilers,  firemen,  and  fire- 
men's helpers.  All  other  employes,  except  drivers,  who  on  Sunday  were 
to  give  not  more  than  one  hour  to  cleaning  their  teams,  worked  six  days 
a  week..  Drivers  and  bott ling-house  employes  were  paid  time  and  one* 
half  fw  Sundays  and  holidays,*  but  regular  rates  for  ordinary  overtime. 
AH  other  employes  were  to  get  time  and  one-half  for  overtime  as  well  as 
for  work  on  Sundays  and  holidays.  Previous  to  1907  bottling-house 
employes  had  worked  eight  and  one-half  hours  per  day,  and  the  men  in  the 
breweries  nine  hours.  Engineers  and  firemen  reduced  their  hours  from 
twelve  to  ei^t  the  same  year. 

*  Since  raised  for  drivers  to  double  time  for  extra  work  on  these  days. 

137 


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WACE'EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

The  following  table  shows  the  scales  of  wages  signed  ii 
and  1911: 

Miniwaim  H^agi 
1907  1911 

Wash-bouse  employes  and  coopers  in 
the  wash-house  or  pitch-yard      .  fifi.oo  (week)  fiy.jo 

Men  in  the  cellars  and  brew-house     .     1 7.00       "        1 8.00 

First  man  in  the  wash-house,  brew- 
house,  and  feimenting  cellar  18.00       "        19.00 

First  cellar  boss 30.00       ".       31.00 

Chief  engineers 1 10.00  (month)  1 10.00 

All  other  engineers      ....     20.00  (week)    31.00 

Firemen,    pipe-litters,    and    repair 
workers 17.00 


>  19.00 
19.  SO 

30.50 
33.  $0 
35.00 
33.  JO 


18.00 

ers,  wipers,  oilers,  malt-dryen,  and 

ice-pullers i;.oo  "  16.00 

Route  drivers 19.31  "  30.00 

Shippingorprivatetradedrivers  16.50  "  ly.jo 

Bottled  beer  drivers    ....  18.00  "  19.00 

Stablemen 1 5.00  "  16.00 

Whcdesale  dealers' drivers .  16-30  "  16-21 

Helpers 14.00  "  14.00 

Bottling-house  employes   .  3.50  (day)       3.50  (wi 


17.50 
31.50 
19.00 

30.50 
17.50 

l6-3i 

16- 

ek)  17.50 


It  will  be  seen  that  the  earnings  of  the  men  who  worked  in  the 
brewery  proper  ranged  in  1907  from  f  16  to|30  per  week,  while  all 
bottling-house  employes  got  $2.50  per  day.  Work  was  steady,  and 
though  it  required  but  half  the  time  to  learn  the  brewer's  trade, 
the  journeyman  bad  an  annual  income  equal  to,  if  not  greater 
than,  that  of  the  ordinary  building  trade  mechanic.  Again,  the 
wages  of  stablemen  were  )i  $  per  week,  while  drivers  received  from 
%\6  to  %2\.  Considering  the  reduction  of  hours,  the  union  had 
therefore  increased  the  wages  of  its  teamsters  over  those  (A  unor- 
ganized teamsters  Jo  to  60  per  cent  by  the  hour.  In  1909  and 
191 1  the  men  in  the  breweries  entered  into  agreements*  with  the 
owners,  which  still  further  increased  wages,  and  again  in  1914.! 

"  In  1913  the  United  States  Brewers'  Aswciation  and  the  brewery  workers 
negotiated  through  their  repmentativei  a  co-operalive  plan  of  accident  and  sick- 
ness ifuurance,  otd  age  pension,  and  so  forth,  remarkable  for  its  comprehensiveness. 
It  was  voted  down  by  union  referendum. 

tThe  1914  agreements  contain,  along  with  the  wage  scales,  a  Kbeme  of 
sanitary  standards.    See  Appendix  XIV,  p.  454. 

138 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

METAL  TRADES 

Next  to  the  steel  mills  the  manufacture  of  machinery, 
machine  parts,  and  appliances  occupies  the  greatest  number  of 
workers  in  the  Pittsburgh  District.  These  "metal  trades," 
as  they  are  commonly  called,  are  as  closely  related  to  steel,  the 
major  industry  (A  Pittsburgh,  as  that  is  dependent  upon  the  vast 
stores  of  coai  in  the  surrounding  country.  They  are  the  sub- 
sidiary industries  which  use  the  iron  and  the  steel  from  rolls  and 
furnaces  and  make  it  up  into  finished  products.  In  these  indus- 
tries thousands  (A  mechanics,  machinists,  moiders,  blacksmiths, 
and  boiler  makers,  mainly  Americans,  are  doing  the  skilled  work, 
while  immigrants  find  occupation  as  foundry  laborers.  Both 
American  boys  and  immigrant  men  work  as  machine  hands  and 
helpers  in  an  endless  variety  of  jobs. 

Plants  which  fabricate  the  structural  parts  for  bridges, 
buildings,  viaducts,  and  so  forth,  are  characteristic  of  the  region. 
Their  operations  lie  midway  between  the  heavy  work  of  the 
tonnage  industries  and  the  highly  skilled  work  of  such  establish- 
ments as  the  New  England  tool  factories  and  the  automobile 
works  of  the  Middle  West.  The  development  of  machinery 
with  its  ever  increasing  specialization  has  played  havoc  with  the 
organizations  of  workers  in  these  midway  groups.  Moreover,  em- 
ployers have  combined  to  prevent  the  men's  organizations  from 
dictating  terms  of  employment.  The  result  has  been  that  nine 
hours  has  constituted  the  prevailing  day's  work  for  many  years. 
All  attempts  to  reduce  the  hours  to  eight  have  failed,  except  in 
the  case  of  a  comparatively  small  number  of  blacksmiths  and 
boiler  makers.  Instead  of  having  a  minimum  rate  set  by  what  the 
men  determine  to  be  a  fair  day's  pay,  wages  are  determined  by 
what  the  employer  considers  a  man  to  be  worth  to  him.  Increases 
of  wages  have  accrued  mainly  to  the  men  of  higher  skill  among 
the  pattern  makers,  iron  moiders,  and  blacksmiths. 

Their  unions  have  not  had  enough  coherence  one  with 
another  to  secure  advantages  for  the  whole  industrial  group, 
such  as  the  brewery  men  have  won  for  their  calling.  Not  until 
we  reach  the  building  trades  do  we  again  find  solidarity  and  co- 
operation among  a  group  of  alliol  crafts. 

Machinists.  Probably  i  ;,ooo  men  were  employed  in  the  machine 
shops  of  Allegheny  County  in  1907-08.  The  highest  skill  was  found  among 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

the  ;,ooo  in  contract  or  jobbing  shops.  These  are  all-round  mechanics; 
they  may  have  a  different  kind  of  work  to  do  each  day  and  are  able  to 
work  from  blue  prints.  About  one-fourth  of  these  belonged  to  the  union 
in  1907,  and  the  same  proportion  is  reported  to  hold  in  1914.  The  re- 
maining 10,000  were  chiefly  "machine  hands"  working  in  "specialized 
shops,"  in  which  a  particular  product  is  constantly  duplicated  and  each 
workman  is  confined  to  operating  a  single  machine.  The  specialized 
shops,  of  which  the  Westinghouse  plants  are  examples,  are  run  "open 
shop."  This  specialization  in  the  machine  industry  has  been  one  of 
the  causes  which  has  weakened  the  machinists'  union  thnnighout  the 
country.  In  the  So's  the  Pittsburgh  branch  of  the  International 
Association  of  Machinists  controlled  nearly  all  the  machinists  in  the 
District.  It  was  able  to  establish  the  nine-hour  day  (1890)  several  years 
before  the  general  agitation  for  nine  hours  began  in  other  parts  of  the 
country.  Now  the  union  confines  its  efforts  entirely  to  the  contract 
shops,  and  in  these  also  it  has  lost  ground. 

The  largest  employers  of  machinists  were  in  1907-08  united  in 
the  Manufacturers'  Association  of  Pittsburgh,  affiliated  with  the  National 
Metal  Trades'  Association.  The  latter  association  is  composed  of  persons, 
(inns,  or  corporations,  owning  or  controlling  plants  in  which  areemployed 
not  only  machinists,  but  molders,  core  makers,  pattern  makers,  black- 
smiths, brass  workers,  electrical  workers,  pipe-fitters,  and  members  of 
kindred  trades  handling  iron,  steel,  brass,  or  other  metals.  Members 
pay  1 1  >{  cents  per  month  for  each  operative  earning  $3.00  and  over  per 
day.  Two  men  earning  less  than  $3.00  each  count  as  one  operative. 
The  National  Metal  Trades'  Association  insures  all  its  members  against 
strikes.  When  a  strike  occurs,  the  national  association  supplies  strike- 
breakers free  of  cost.  The  employer,  however,  must  pay  for  their  board, 
lodging,  and  protection  where  these  are  necessary.  In  times  of  peace  the 
national  association  employs  "special  operatives,"  hired  usually  at  fioo 
a  month,  whose  business  it  is  to  make  a  daily  report  to  the  employer  re- 
garding everything  that  goes  on  in  the  shop.  These  men  are  empbyed 
by  members  of  the  association  at  about  3$  cents  an  hour,  the  difference 
between  this  rate  and  the  }ioo  being  paid  by  the  national  office. 

For  several  years  prior  to  1904  the  machinists'  union  of  Pittsburgh 
made  verbal  agreements  with  the  Manufacturers'  Association.  The 
scale  was  30  cents  per  hour  as  a  minimum,  with  a  fifty-four-hour  week. 
Many  machinists  were  paid  more  than  40  cents.  In  1904  the  employers' 
organization  wrote  to  the  union  asking  for  a  conference  to  discuss  wages, 
but  the  union  refused.  Times  were  bad  and  the  machinists  feared  wages 
might  be  reduced.    The  old  scale,  therefore,  remained  in  force. 

On  April  I,  1907.  the  union  presented  a  demand  for  a  minimum  of 
40  cents  per  hour,  a  fifty-hour  week,  and  a  10  per  cent  increase  for  those 
140 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

who  were  already  getting  more  that)  40  cents  an  hour.  The  employers 
offered  a  7K  P«r  ""t  increase  for  ail  men,  in  order  not  to  establish  any 
fixed  minimum.  The  union  refused  this  crffer  and  ordered  a  strike. 
About  1,800  mm,  including  3oo  apprentice  boys,  were  involved.  The 
National  Metal  Trades  Association  supplied  the  firms  in  the  Manufac- 
turers' Association  with  strikebreaken.  At  first  the  employers  were 
seriously  crippled.  A  member  of  the  Manufacturers'  Association  said 
that  the  strikebreakers  who  were  sent  in  were  a  "bad  lot";  they  were  in- 
eflicient  and  they  refused  to  work  long  in  one  place.  But  the  employers 
managed  to  keep  the  shops  going,  and  as  the  strike  dragged  on  some  of 
the  dd  men  went  back  and  the  better  strikebreakers  developed  into 
good  workmen.  A  number  of  the  smaller  firms  conceded  the  demands  of 
the  union.  Many  of  them  had  in  fact  been  paying  40  cents  an  hour  be- 
fore the  strike,  and  the  union  waived  its  demand  for  a  fifty-hour  week. 
The  larger  shops,  however,  continued  to  run  with  non-union  men. 

The  strike  was  still  in  progress  when  the  panic  came.  Fully  half 
of  the  machinists  were  thrown  out  of  work,  and  remained  out  for  a  whole 
year.  In  the  scramble  for  what  work  there  was,  union  demands  were  for- 
gotten. The  menbegantoleave  theirorganizations;  of  the 30 machinists' 
kxlges  in  the  District  10  only  remained  intact.  Lack  of  work  turned  the 
balance  so  far  in  favor  of  the  employers  that  the  union  was  defeated. 

Thereafter,  the  fifty-four  hour  week  has  continued  to  prevail  in  most 
shops,  the  working  day  running  from  7  a.  m.  to  ;  p.  m.,  with  time  out  for 
lunch,  and  from  6  p.  m.  to  6  a.  m.  five  nights  a  week  where  night  shifts 
were  employed.  Many  firms  allow  a  Saturday  half  holiday,  making  up 
the  time  by  operating  9^  hours  on  five  days,  and  ^yi  hours  on  Saturday. 
Time  and  one-half  for  overtime,  and  double  time  for  Sundays,  is  paid  in 
union  and  in  "open"  shops.  The  ten-hour  day  governs  in  the  machine 
shops  of  the  steel  companies;  in  these  and  other  non-union  establishments 
only  straight  time  is  paid  for  overtime. 

The  strike  put  an  end  to  the  old  fixed  minimum  wage  for  machinists. 
Few  skilled  men,  however,  get  less  than  the  30  cents  per  hour  which  had 
prevailed  theretofore.  The  practice  in  1908  was  to  start  a  man  usually  at 
about  33  cents  an  hour,  but  sometimes  as  low  as  35  cents,  rates  running 
up  as  high  as  4$  and  $0  cents,  with  perhaps  40  cents  as  the  average.  The 
Westin^ouse  Company  in  1914  are  paying  machinists  38  to  3;  cents  an 
hour,  approximately  market  rates  for  the  District. 

Following  the  strike  of  1907  the  employers  have  determined  the 
ratio  of  apprentices  to  journeymen  as  they  see  fit. 

What  union  officials  termed  an  "ilt-advised  strike  of  newly  or- 
ganized men"  broke  out  in  the  machine  shops  of  the  Pennsylvania  Rail- 
road between  Pittsburgh  and  Altoona  in  the  summer  of  1910.  Union 
officials  did  their  utmost  to  avoid  this  strike,  but  the  men  had  suffered 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

SO  long  under  real  or  fancied  grievances  relating  to  the  method  of  pay  for 
piece  work  and  to  an  allied  black  list,  that  they  could  not  be  restrained 
from  walking  out.  The  company  imported  strikebreakers  and  the  strikers 
were  beaten.  The  men  were  organized  into  the  Pennsylvania  Shop 
Employes' Association,  and  receive  some  recognition.  In  May,  1911,  the 
machinists  and  blacksmiths  in  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  shops  struck. 
Wages,  hours,  and  thesystemof  piecework  were  the  points  of  contention. 
Here  the  strike  was  more  successful. 

In  the  summer  of  1914  came  a  spirited  but  unsuccessful  mass  strike 
in  the  Westinghouse  plants  in  East  Pittsburgh  under  the  guidance  of 
leaders  of  the  Detroit  Branch  of  the  1.  W.  W.  Seventeen  nationalities 
were  fused  and  held  tt^ether  for  three  weeks  before  the  break  in  the  ranks 
came.  Five  thousand  out  of  a  payroll  of  14,000  had  been  laid  off  due  to 
the  depression  and  the  working  time  cut  down  to  stave  laying  off  others. 
Efficiency  system  abuses  and  discrimination  against  socialist  leaders  who 
had  organized  the  Allegheny  Congenial  Industrial  Union  were  charges 
brought  against  the  company,  which  President  Herr  agreed  to  take  up  if 
the  men  returned  to  work.  This  they  refused  to  do  as  a  body,  the  strike 
from  the  beginning  being  less  for  specific  demands  than  an  appeal  to  solid- 
arity among  the  workers,  coupled  with  revolutionary  propaganda.  The 
company  then  advertised  for  men  and  the  Strike  petered  out.  It  was 
marked  by  restraint  on  both  sides. 

MoLDEKS.  About  4,000  wage-earners  were  employed  at  molding  in 
the  Pittsburgh  District  in  1907-08,  less  than  half  of  whom  were  members 
of  the  International  Molders'  Union.  The  six  locals  had  together  some 
1,900  members,  including  300,  or  about  three-fourths,  of  the  core  makers 
employed  in  the  District.  Of  the  skilled  molders  only  about  300  were 
outside  the  unions,  while  in  the  malleable  iron  works,  employing  about 
1,000  men  of  less  skill,  there  were  no  union  men  whatever.  To  be  eligible 
to  the  union,  a  molder  must  have  served  an  apprenticeship  of  four  yean, 
or  worked  four  years  at  the  trade.    The  union  has  held  its  own. 

The  employers  are  organized  in  a  branch  of  the  National  Founders' 
Association.  Earlier,  this  association  controlled  36  of  the  68  foundries 
in  the  District,  and  these  36  employed  a  majority  of  the  molders.  In 
1907-08,  however,  only  six  companies  belonged  to  the  association.  While 
the  molders'  union  had  been  able  to  get  but  one  employer  to  sign  an  agree- 
ment, the  skilled  employes  in  most  shops  were  union  men.  A  majority 
of  the  molders  employed  by  the  Westinghouse  Machine  Company,  for 
example,  belonged  to  the  union.  In  prosperous  times  the  molders  have 
been  well  able  to  maintain  the  union  scale  of  wages,  but  when  a  depression 
comes  employers  usually  manage  to  reduce  wages.  Tlius  in  1908,  when 
about  two-thirds  of  the  skilled  molders  were  out  of  work,  employers  re- 
duced the  daily  rate  from  $3.^0  to  $3.3$. 
142 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

After  a  strike  in  1899,  fj.oo  was  established  as  the  minimum  wage. 
In  1903  a  10  per  cent  increase  was  secured,  making  the  daily  rate  $3.30. 
Following  a  reduction  in  1904,  which  the  employers  voluntarily  restored, 
the  union  in  1906  secured  an  increase  of  30  cents  per  day,  and  f3-;o  re- 
mained the  minimum  daily  wage  until  the  hard  times.  By  1910,  the 
molders  had  so  far  recovered  their  strength  that  in  unionizing  one  of  the 
largest  shops  in  this  District,  a  scale  was  secured  providing  for  $3.7;  for 
a  nine-hour  day,  and  by  1913  this  had  risen  to  ¥4.00,  the  present  scale. 

The  molders'  union  is  opposed  to  the  piece-rate  system.  This 
system  has  prevailed  in  the  malleable  iron  works,  which  are  entirely  un- 
organized and  in  which  in  1907-08  the  men  earned  about  $3.00  per  day. 

Nine  hours  has  been  the  molders'  working  day  since  1902.  Some 
shops  have  been  working  nine  hours  per  day  for  thirty  years.  Time  and 
one-half  for  overtime;  double  time  for  Sundays  and  holidays  is  paid  both 
molders  and  pattern  makers. 

Pattern  Makers.  As  early  as  1878,  pattern  makers  in  Pitts- 
burgh formed  a  union  under  the  Knights  of  Labor.  Now,  however,  they 
are  part  of  the  Pattern  Makers'  League.  There  has  been  little  trouble 
between  employers  and  men  and  from  the  labor  standpoint  this  trade 
continues  one  of  the  best  in  the  vicinity.  In  1907-08,  300  men  out  of 
about  4io  working  at  the  trade  in  the  District  were  organized. 

Four  dollars  for  a  nine-hour  day  was  the  prevailing  rate.  This 
wage  was  the  union  minimum  and  the  nine-hour  day  had  prevailed  since 
1891.  Many  union  men,  however,  got  $4.2^  per  day  and  a  few  made  as 
much  as  |;.oo.  The  Westinghouse  plants  employed  some  union  men, 
but  they  were  a  minority.  Wages  in  these  latter  plants  were  40  and  43 
cents  per  Eiour.  The  men  were  started  at  the  former  figure.  The  dif- 
ference in  money  between  the  union  scale  and  the  Westinghouse  rates  was 
therefore  small,  a  difference  made  up  to  the  men  by  the  steadier  work 
which  the  big  company  afforded.  In  1914,  the  rate  in  the  Westinghouse 
plant  at  Trafford  City  is  from  40  to  45  cents,  while  the  union  minimum 
was  45  cents  an  hour  in  manufacturing  shops,  50  cents  in  jobbing  shops. 

The  course  of  wages  per  day  for  pattern  makers  for  thirty  years  in 
the  Pittsburf^  District  has  been  as  follows:  1880-  fa.3$;  1884- fa. 50; 
1887-  $3.-jy,  1890-93,  $3.00;  1893-96  about  $2.yy,  1897,  l^.oo;  1900 
$3-5°;  1905-10.  ifoo:  1913-14.  >40S-$4SO- 

Boiler  Makers.  The  boiler  makers  might  be  classed  among  the 
metal,  building,  or  even  the  transportation  trades.  They  work  in  shops, 
work  outside  on  buildings,  and  for  the  railroads.  Less  than  half  of  the 
1,500  boiler  makers  in  the  District  were  organized  in  1907-08.  When 
employed  outside  they  had  the  wages,  hours,  and  conditions  general  in 
the  building  trades.  Their  scale  then  was  {3.60  per  day  of  eight  hours,  or 
4$  cents  an  hour.  Inside  men  had  the  nine-hour  day,  like  the  machinists 
"43 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

and  the  tnolders,  and  their  pay  was  about  the  same — (3.IJ  a  day  or  3; 
cents  an  hour.  In  the  railroad  shops,  boiler  makers,  like  all  other  em- 
ployes, had  less  favorable  conditions.  The  hours  were  ten  and  wages 
$i.y)  a  day.  The  400  to  600  men  who  worked  in  the  steel  mills  repairing 
boilers  and  doing  similar  work  were  all  non-union,  and  theirs  was  the 
poorest  rate  in  this  trade — f  300  for  a  day  of  ten  hours. 

Employment  was  very  steady  for  boiler  makers  during  1906-07. 
The  panic,  however,  caused  many  to  leave  town,  and  about  a  third  of 
those  remaining  were  out  of  work  during  1908.  No  attempt  was  made 
on  the  part  of  employers  to  reduce  wages  on  account  of  hard  times,  and 
with  the  return  of  prosperity  the  union  made  great  strides  in  member- 
ship. By  1910  about  two-thirds  of  all  the  men  in  the  District  had  become 
organized.  They  had  also  secured  an  increase  in  wages  by  that  date  and 
had  reduced  the  number  of  working  hours  for  many  inside  men  to  eight. 

By  1913  outside  workers  secured  a  rate  of  ;o  cents  per  hour  for  an 
eight-hour  day,  inside  workers  40  cents  an  hour  for  a  nine-hour  day.  Rail- 
road boiler  makers  secured  38  cents  per  hour  for  a  nine-hour  day,  and  boiler 
makers  in  the  mills  receive  $4.00  for  a  ten-hour  day.  Moreover,  men  in 
this  union  have  gotten  the  highest  overtime  rate  in  the  District.  On 
some  classes  of  repair  work  on  Sundays  the  pay  has  been  three  or  four 
times  the  ordinary  rate  per  hour.  Boiler  makers,  also,  are  allowed  the 
so-called  "dirty  dollar"  given  to  them  by  the  employer  to  cover  the  cost 
of  laundering  and  the  destruction  of  their  clothes  when  engaged  in  some 
particularly  difficult  and  dirty  work. 

BLACKSMrTKs.  The  union  blacksmiths  of  the  District  comprise 
about  one-third  of  the  total  number  engaged  in  this  work.  In  1907-08  the 
union  numbered  about  600  men,  divided  as  follows:  100  wagcm  and  carriage 
men,  and  $00  men  in  miscellaneous  shops.  Experienced  men  got  50  cents 
per  hour  for  an  eight-hour  day,  and  time  and  one-half  for  overtime,  with 
double  time  rate  on  Sundays  and  holidays.  Non-union  men  got  anywhere 
from  20  to  40  cents  per  hour  and  worked  nine  and  ten  hours  per  day  with 
straight  time  for  overtime  work,  in  1913  and  1914,  the  union  agreements 
have  called  for  a  minimum  for  helpers  of  iSyi  cents,  maximum  33^ 
cents;  minimum  for  blacksmiths  (new  men)  37^^  cents;  experienced  men, 
47><-53  cents. 

BUILDING  TRADES 

Turning  to  the  building  trades  we  And  a  set  of  workmen  who 

have  forced  their  daily  rates  of  wages  higher  than  those  of  any 

other  men  in  the  District.    At  least  four  things  have  helped  them 

do  this:  First,  the  skill  required  in  the  trades;  second,  the  closely 

144 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

allied  anions;  third,  the  seasiHial  character  <^  the  work;  and 
fourth,  the  fact  that  the  work  has  to  be  performed  by  local  em- 
pk>yers  at  a  particular  place,  at  a  particular  and  usually  limited 
time,  under  constant  pressure  from  the  purchaser. 

Amcng  the  building  trades  rates  of  wages  are  highest  in 
those  which  require  the  longest  period  of  apprenticeship,  and 
which  have  the  longest  periods  of  seascnial  unemployment.  In 
1907-08  wages  ran  from  43 >^  cents  an  hour  for  painters,  up  to  65 
cents  for  bricklayers.*  Most  of  the  trades  received  ;o  cents  an 
hour.  All  men  who  earned  45  cents  an  hour  or  more,  with  the 
excepticMi  of  roofers,  had  spent  at  least  a  probationary  four  years 
Mon  they  had  been  admitted  to  their  trade.  Slate  and  tile 
roofers  had  an  apprenticeship  period  of  only  three  years.  Steam- 
fitters  and  plumbers  required  five  years,  while  structural  iron 
workers  required  eighteen  months  of  actual  work  at  the  "  construc- 
tion of  bridges,  viaducts,  buildings,  or  other  constructicmal  work 
either  of  wood  or  iron."  The  tile  layers'  apprenticeship  period 
was  only  two  years,  but  apprentices  were  taken  only  from  among 
the  helpers,  who  ctften  worked  a  good  many  years  at  not  much 
over  half  the  journeymen's  pay.  Hoisting  engineers,  who  got 
;o  cents  an  hour,  bad  no  specified  apprenticeship  rules,  but  the 
state  required  these  men  to  be  licensed,  and  a  license  was  issued 
only  after  an  examination  and  two  years'  work  around  the  engine. 

Bricklayers  were  getting  the  highest  wages  per  hour  in  the 
building  trade.  They  have  a  longer  period  ctf  unemployment 
than  do  any  other  group,  seldom  working  more  than  seven  months 
in  the  year.  Their  yearly  earnings  at  65  cents  an  hour  in  1907 
averaged  not  much  over  $800.  Next  to  bricklayers,  plasterers 
lose  the  roost  time;  they  work  perhaps  seven  or  eight  months  in 
the  year.  Their  hourly  rate  was  53^  to  56K  cents;  yet  the  an- 
nual earnings  of  the  ordinary  plasterer  were  only  about  $700.  In 
fact,  whatever  the  rate  per  hour  might  be,  it  worked  out  that  the 
annual  earnings  in  most  of  the  building  trades  ran  from  about  $700 
to  fSoo.  in  those  trades  which  had  a  high  daily  wage  and  steady 
work  the  jrear  round,  such  as  that  of  elevator  constructors  and 
dectricians,  there  was  a  scarcity  of  workroen. 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Altogether,  about  i;,ooo  workingmen  were  organized  in 
the  building  trades  unions.  They  represented  perhaps  75  per 
cent  of  all  the  men  working  at  these  trades.  In  the  separate 
trades,  the  proportion  of  organized  to  unorganized  workmen  varied 
greatly.  Plumbers,  bricklayers,  and  elevator  constructors  had 
over  90  per  cent;  other  trades  ran  from  50  per  cent  upward. 

There  was  seldom  much  difference  between  the  wages  of 
union  and  non-union  mechanics.  In  most  cases  the  union  rate 
was  also  paid  to  non-union  men.  Where  there  was  a  difference 
the  union  rate  was  usually  paid  to  some  men  in  the  shop;  that  is, 
the  wages  were  not  depressed  in  all  the  occupations,  owing  to 
lack  of  organization.  In  a  union  shop  there  was  usually  a  flat 
rate  for  all;  for,  although  the  union  fixed  only  the  minimum  wage. 
employers  were  not  inclined  to  go  above  that. 

In  all  building  trades  the  hours  of  labor  were  et^t  per  day. 
In  most  of  the  trades  this  period  had  been  established  during  the 
years  1900-02.  Bricklayers  and  masons  won  their  eight-hour  day 
in  (896  and  plumbers  in  1898.  Many  of  the  trades  have  since 
secured  a  four-hour  day  on  Saturday  during  the  summer  months 
and  some  the  year  round. 

While  most  of  the  building  trades  were  well  organized  in 
1907-08,  some  organizations  seemed  to  be  losing  ground.  Within 
a  few  years  preceding,  employers  in  at  least  three  trades  had 
established  the  open  shop,  and  in  each  case  this  was  fc^owed  by  a 
reduction  in  wages.  The  Pittsburgh  Local  of  the  Bridge  and 
Structural  Iron  Workers'  Union  had  been  almost  disrupted  in 
the  struggle  with  employers  organized  as  the  National  Erectors' 
Association.  The  latter  refused  to  pay  the  union  scale  of  $6>^ 
cents  an  hour,  would  not  recognize  the  union,  and  paid  50  cents 
per  hour  to  skilled  mechanics  and  a  lower  rate  to  the  less  skilled. 
Almost  all  master  plasterers  were  running  open  shops  and  had 
reduced  wages  from  ^.50  to  $4.20  a  day.  The  carpenters'  union 
was  unable  to  maintain  its  scale  of  ;o  cents  an  hour,  and  the 
master  builders  paid  anywhere  from  43K  to  50  cents.  In  several 
other  trades  employers  and  unions  had  been  fighting  over  the 
closed  shop  and  the  scalest^wages.  In  the  strug^of  these  trades, 
as  in  those  of  others  reviewed,  employers  were  aided  by  the  financial 
depression  of  1907-08,  which  threw  many  men  out  of  work. 
146 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNERS  OP  PITTSBURGH 

In  the  period  of  their  greatest  strength  the  workmen's  organi- 
zations had  secured  signed  agreements  from  the  employers,  but 
in  1907-08  most  of  the  trades  were  working  without  agreements, 
and  union  officials  claimed  to  be  opposed  to  making  them.  1 1  was 
noticeable,  however,  that  unions  without  agreements  were  with 
difficulty  maintaining  their  wage  scales,  while  plumbers  and 
elevator  constructors  who  had  signed  agreements  were  secure 
in  their  union  wages  even  through  the  panic. 

In  this  experience,  we  may  have  a  clue  to  the  spread  of  agree- 
ments and  "sympathetic"  action  throughout  the  building  trades 
in  the  years  since.  Not  only  have  the  wage  cuts  of  1907-08 
been  made  good,  but  there  have  been  marked  general  advances 
in  pay;*  in  some  crafts  made  secure  against  such  a  financial  de- 
pression as  that  of  1914  by  three  and  five-year  compacts. 

Detailed  Description  by  Trades 
Bricklayers  and  Masons.  Practically  all  the  bricklayers  and 
masons  who  work  for  building  contractors  in  the  Pittsburgh  District  are 
organized  in  trade  unions.  The  membership  of  these  unions  in  1907-08 
included  about  i,;oo  bricklayers  and  ;oo masons.  The  non-union  men  of 
this  trade,  who  numbered  about  600,  found  employment  mainly  in  the 
mills,  where  pay  was  ^j}4  cents  per  hour  and  ten  hours  constituted  the 
working  day.  Up  to  the  year  previous  the  pay  of  non-union  men  had 
been  only  30  cents  per  hour.  These  men  were  thus  averaging  about  one- 
half  the  sum  the  union  bricklayers  in  the  building  trades  could  make,  but 
their  work  is  comparatively  steady  the  year  round.  In  1914,  non-unbn 
men  are  getting  from  40  to  60  cents. 

During  the  period  from  1888  to  189;,  40  cents  was  the  minimum 
rate  per  hour  and  nine  hours  constituted  the  day  among  organized  Pitts- 
burgh bricklayers.    From  1896  to  190$  wages  were  raised  from  4;  to  $0 

•  lncreas«  have  ranged  from  8  to  jo  per  cent.  Whereas  In  1907  only  two  of 
the  I J  building  trades  unioni  listed  in  this  study  were  getting  60  cents  an  hour  or 
more  we  find  the  scales  of  i  [  of  them  calling  for  that  standard  or  above  in  1914. 
The  prevailing  rate  may  be  said  to  have  shifted  from  ;o  to  63^  cents  an  hour,  or, 
putting  it  in  terms  of  dollars  and  days,  from  S4.00  tof  ;.oo.  Fifty-six  and  a  quarter 
cents  if  the  lowest  hourly  rale  set  by  a  building  trade's  union  today  in  Pittsburgh — 
that  of  the  painters,  whereas  they  got  43^4^  cents  in  1907,  and  the  hoisting  en- 
gineers as  low  as  jj^i.  The  bricklayers  continue  at  the  top  of  the  list  in  1914  with 
70  cents  as  their  present  hourly  rate,  but  the  tile  layers  and  plasterers  have  68^ 
cents.  The  plumbers  will  have  the  same  in  191;  and  the  electrical  workers  in  1918; 
while  the  long  term  agreement  of  the  plasterers  calls  for  73  cents  In  1915,7}  cents 
in  1916;  and  that  of  the  plumbers  for  7$  cents,  a  year  later  |f6.oo  a  day).  For 
changes  In  collective  organization  in  building  trades  see  p.  183. 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

cents;  to  60  cents  in  1906;  6;  in  1907;  and  70  in  1913.  The  wages  of  the 
masons  similarly  rose  from  3;  cents  in  1888  to  5$  caits  in  1907,  with 
prospect  of  60  in  1914.  Many  workmen,  of  course,  make  more  than  the 
minimum-    The  eight'hour  day  has  prevailed  in  both  trades  since  1896. 

Despite  their  high  hourly  rate  of  pay,  the  bricklayers  were  averag- 
ing in  earnings  in  1907-08  no  more  than  fs.jo  per  day.  They  work 
perhaps  half  the  working  days  of  the  year.  The  masons  were  averaging 
even  less — about  $2.2y,  but  by  the  use  of  fires,  tents,  canvas,  and  other 
means,  interference  with  their  work  by  inclement  weather  has  become 
steadily  less,  so  that  it  may  be  said  to  be  no  longer  seasonal. 

The  union  bricklayers  and  masons  of  Allegheny  County  were  in 
i907-o8organiiedtnsixlocalsoftheBricklayers'and  Masons' International 
Union  of  America.  Three  locals  were  composed  of  bricklayers  and  three 
of  masons.  These  locals  elected  a  committee  of  la  members,  six  from 
each  trade,  which  was  known  as  the  executive  committee  of  the  Inter- 
national  Union,  Allegheny  County.  AH  executive  and  judiciary  powers 
covering  Allegheny  County  were  vested  in  this  committee.  "  It  shall  be 
the  tribunal  to  which  all  matters  of  general  importance  to  the  welfare  of 
the  several  unions,  or  any  of  their  members  shall  be  referred.  .  .  . 
cases  of  unions  against  unions  and  individuals,  after  action  has  been 
taken  by  subordinate  unions." 

No  agreements  had  been  made  between  the  Bricklayers'  and 
Masons'  Union  and  the  Master  Brick  Contractors'  Association  for  five 
or  six  years.  But  the  executive  committee  referred  to  issued  a  working 
code  which  the  union  was  powerful  enough  to  enforce.  The  code  stated 
that  "any  person  coming  on  any  job  who  is  not  a  member  of  the  Brick- 
layers'and  Masons'  International  Union,  and  who  does  not  appear  to  be  a 
practical  bricklayer  or  stone  mason  must  be  examined  at  once,  by  a  com- 
mittee appointed  by  the  steward,  which  committee  must  report  on  the 
day  of  its  appointment,  if  possible,  and  in  no  case  later  than  the  next 
succeeding  day,  as  to  whether  the  applicant  be  a  practical  bricklayer  or 
stonemason  or  not,  and  if  the  report  be  unfavorable,  he  must  immediately 
cease  work. " 

Further,  "no  member  or  members  of  a  stone  masons'  union  shall 
be  allowed  to  cut  or  lay  stone  for  any  person  or  contractor,  or  company 
who  employs  non-union  bricklayers,  and  no  member  or  members  of  a 
bricklayers'  union  shall  be  allowed  to  lay  brick  for  any  person,  contractor 
or  company  who  employs  non-union  stone  masons. " 

The  code  laid  down  the  other  conditions  under  which  the  men 
might  work.   The  day's  work  of  eight  hours  was  to  be  performed  between 
8  a.  m.  and  ;  p.  m.,  except  Saturday,  when  work  must  end  at  la  o'clock 
148 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

noon.  Time  taken  for  lunch  might  be  thirty  or  sixty  minutes  as  the  men 
elected.  Piece  work  was  prohibited.  No  work  was  to  be  done  on  Labor 
Day.  Any  member  working  on  the  other  legal  holidays  or  on  Sunday 
must  be  paid  double  time.  Overtime  was  permitted  in  cases  of  extreme 
emergency,  on  condition  that  time  and  one-half  be  paid.  The  employer 
had  to  pay  carfare  unless  the  men's  place  of  work  could  be  reached  by 
payment  of  one  five-cent  fare.  Any  time  lost  in  waiting  for  pay,  or  in 
going  frmn  job  to  job,  or  while  waiting  for  or  building  scaffolds,  was  paid 
for  at  the  regular  hourly  rates.  The  bricklayers  and  masons,  when  struc- 
tural iron  workers  or  others  were  on  a  job,  demanded  that  they  be  pro- 
vided with  proper  covering  at  the  expense  of  the  contractor,  to  protect 
them  from  danger.  No  member  or  members  or  local  union  could  call  a 
strike.  All  grievances  had  to  be  submitted  to  the  executive  committee  of 
Allegheny  County.  Strikes  were  illegal  unless  sanctioned  by  this  com- 
mittee. Foremen  were  obliged  to  be  members  of  the  union,  and  no  fore- 
man or  apprentice  could  lay  brick  or  stone  before  or  after  regular  working 
hours  except  as  overtime.  The  first  man  on  any  job  was  designated  as 
steward.  He  was  the  guardian  of  the  interests  of  the  others,  and  had  to 
be  respected  as  such.  This  working  code  was  strictly  enforced.  It  was 
required  that  the  authorized  business  agent  be  recognized  and  permitted 
to  inspect  the  men's  cards;  and  that  whenever  the  rate  of  wages  was  in 
dispute,  the  pay  envelope  should  be  submitted  to  him  on  request. 

Article  13  read :  "No  member  of  any  union  in  this  jurisdiction  shall 
work  on  any  job  where  the  men  have  quit  work  on  a  question  involving 
this  working  code,  under  such  penalty  as  the  union  may  detemiine. " 

The  initiation  fee  of  the  Bricklayers'  and  Masons'  Union  was  $2y 
Dues  were  50  cents  per  month,  and  it  was  provided  that:  "In  case  of  a 
strike  for  wages  each  and  every  member  who  may  obtain  the  established 
rate  of  wages  shall  be  assessed  not  less  than  fifty  cents  nor  more  than  one 
dollar  per  day,  as  the  union  may  agree,  to  establish  a  fund  for  the  relief 
of  those  on  strike. "    In  1913  dues  were  set  at  Jii.oo  per  month. 

Unlike  somt  of  the  other  building  trades,  the  bricklayers  and 
masons  have  not  slumped  in  hard  times,  holding  almost  every  man  in  the 
District  with  the  exceptk>n  of  the  men  who  work  in  the  mills. 

Bridge  and  Structural  Iron  Workers.  Men  who  put  up  the 
iron  and  steel  framework  for  the  great  skyscrapers  and  bridges  are  in  a 
much  less  favorable  position  than  bricklayers  and  stone  masons.  Their 
trade  is  newer,  less  secure,  and  has  run  afoul  of  the  great  manufacturing 
interests  which  supply  the  erectors  with  steel  shapes.  The  local  of  the 
Bridge  and  Structural  Iron  Workers'  Union  was  organized  during  the 
summer  of  1900.  By  January,  1901,  it  had  700  members.  A  year  later 
149 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

this  number  had  doubled,  and  in  190;  the  membership  was  1,800,  There- 
after for  several  years  the  union  grew  steadily  weaker,  due  first  to  a  struggle 
with  the  employers'  association  [which  culminated  in  the  country-wide 
dynamiting  conspiracy  of  the  national  officials  of  the  union  and  their  con- 
victions at  Los  Angeles  and  Indianapolis];  and  secondly,  to  the  decline  in 
building  operations  following  the  financial  depression  of  1907.  The  union 
now  seems  to  be  on  the  upgrade  again  in  Pittsburgh. 

To  be  eligible  to  the  union  a  man  must  have  worked  at  least  eighteen 
months  at  the  "construction  of  bridges,  viaducts,  buildings,  or  other  con- 
structural  work  either  of  wood  or  iron. "  After  this  period  of  apprentice- 
ship he  must  pass  an  examination  both  as  to  health  and  ability  to  do  the 
work.  Noman  over  fifty  years  of  age  is  eligible  to  membership.  Foremen 
may  or  may  not  be  members  of  the  union,  as  they  see  fit. 

The  employers  are  organized  as  a  branch  of  the  National  Erectors' 
Association.  Membera  of  this  association  are  firms  which  do  iron  and 
steel  construction  work  throughout  the  country.  The  American  Bridge 
Company,  a  constituoit  company  of  the  United  States  Steel  Gnporation. 
is  the  most  influential  member  of  this  association.  Other  important 
firms  with  headquarters  in  Pittsburgh  are  the  Riter-Conley  Manufactur- 
ing Company,  McQintic-Marshall  Construction  Company,  Pittsburgh 
Construction  Company,  Pittsburgh  Steel  Construction  Company,  Fort 
Pitt  Bridge  Company,  and  HeyUPatterson  Company.  This  association 
in  1906  broke  off  all  relations  with  the  International  Association  of  Bridge 
and  Structural  Iron  Workers  and  entered  upon  the  policy  of  maintaining 
open  shops,  making  no  agreements  and  dealing  with  the  men  individually. 
In  1907  on  every  job  a  card  (see  opposite  page)  was  tacked  up  stating  the 
conditions  under  which  all  men,  union  or  non-union,  must  work. 

Before  the  structural  iron  workers  were  organized  in  1900  skilled 
men  among  them  earned  only  27!^  cents  an  hour.  In  January,  1901,  the 
union  demanded  f  J.oo  per  day.  This  sum  was  won  after  a  strike  lasting 
five  days.  In  May  of  the  same  year  the  union  entered  into  an  agreement 
with  employers  by  which  wages  were  raised  to  {3. 60  per  day.  A  three 
weeks'  strike  established  the  rate  of  50  cents  per  hour  as  a  minimum. 
It  was  in  1906,  when  the  union  demanded  56X  cents  per  hour,  that  the 
employers  organized,  established  the  open  shop,  and  thus  were  able  to 
hcA6  to  the  old  rate  of  wages.  Some  union  men  continued  to  work  for  the 
companies  in  the  association,  but  they  had  to  abide  by  the  working  rules 
of  the  employers;  among  them,  that  grading  as  to  "skill  and  fitness" 
should  be  by  the  employer  and  not  by  the  union  card.  Only  such  bridge- 
men  as  were  accounted  "skilled"  were  paid  50  cents  per  hour.  The 
wages  of  the  others  varied  from  $2.00  per  day  upward.  But  the  hours 
which  the  union  had  reduced  from  ten  in  1900  to  nine  in  1901  and  eight 
150 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 


PRINCIPLES  AND  WORKING  RULES 


NATIONAL  ERECTORS'  ASSOCIATION 
Date nace  ... 

ist.  Work  will  be  conducted  on  the  Open  Shop  plan. 

2nd.  The  right  to  work  will  be  accorded  to  every  man 
irrespective  of  his  membership  in  any  organization. 

3rd.  Eight  hours  shall  constitute  a  day's  work. 

4th.  The  minimum  rate  of  wages  to  be  paid  to  skilled 
bridgemen  shall  be  50  cents  per  hour.  Skilled  bridgemen 
shall  be  competent  to  perform  such  work  as  the  erection, 
rigging  and  handling  of  travelers  and  other  important 
mechanical  appliances  used  in  the  erection  of  work,  the  erect- 
ing in  place  and  connecting  of  members  entering  perma- 
nently mto  a  structure,  and  the  driving  of  field  rivets. 

;th.  When  one  shift  only  is  worked,  time-and-one- 
half  will  be  paid  for  overtime.  When  two  or  more  shifts 
are  worked,  the  men  in  each  shift  will  be  paid  the  regular 
rate  of  wages  per  hour.  Double  time  will  be  paid  for  work 
performed  on  Sundays  and  the  following  holidays :  Decora- 
tion  DAy,  Fourth  of  July,  Labor  Day,  Thanksgiving  Day, 
and  Christmas  Day,  or  the  days  observed  as  these  holidays. 

6th.  Workmen  will  be  paid  every  two  weeks  upon 
pay  days  to  be  fixed  by  the  employer,  except  in  localities 
where  it  is  required  by  law,  or  where  it  is  the  prevailing 
custom  to  pay  weekly. 

7th.  It  will  be  the  general  custom  to  withhold  not 
more  than  one  week's  time  to  enable  the  employer  to  prepare 
the  payrolls,  etc. 

8th.  When  3  workman  is  discharged  or  laid  off,  he 
shall  be  paid  in  full  within  24  hours. 

9th.  When  a  workman  leaves  the  service  of  the 
employer  of  his  own  accord,  he  will  receive  the  pay  due  him 
on  the  next  regular  pay  day. 

loth.  No  persons  other  than  those  authorized  by  the 
employer  shall  have  access  to  the  work  during  working  hours. 


Card  Posted  on  All  Jobs  in  the  Pittsbukch  District  in  1907-08 
in  1903,  the  employers  found  it  inexpedient  to  increase.     In  1913,  as  part 
of  a  general  revision  of  rates,  the  association  raised  its  Pittsburgh  rate 
from  ;o  to  56^^  cents — the  figure  demanded  by  the  unions  in  1906. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  prosperous  times  the  working 
season  lasts  but  eight  or  nine  months.     During  the  hard  limes  from  Octo- 
ber, 1907,  to  June,  1908,  three-fourths  of  the  Pittsburgh  structural  iron 
151 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

workere  could  find  no  employment.  During  this  period  the  union  was 
practically  out  of  existence  and  contained  but  a  handful  of  members. 
These  few  men  were  able  to  get  56K  cents  per  hour  by  working  on  small 
jobs  scattered  over  the  District.  Corresponding  to  the  employers'  oppo- 
sition to  agreements,  we  found  the  union  opposed  to  them  as  a  result  of 
their  experience.  The  charge  was  that  contracts  were  not  kept.  Further- 
more, as  stated  by  the  president  of  the  Pittsburgh  local,  the  union  wanted 
to  take  advantage  of  improved  trade  conditions  and  not  be  bound  by  any 
agreement.  By  1910,  the  union  had  built  up  a  membership  of  ;oo,  and 
about  9S  per  cent  of  the  members  were  steadily  employed,  although  the 
strike  against  the  Erectors,  begun  in  1906,  nominally  continued. 

In  1914,  the  union  reports  a  membership  of  1,300  in  Pittsburgh. 
In  1911  the  housesmiths  consolidated  with  the  structural  iron  workers 
and  they  have  so  strengthened  their  joint  position  by  making  commcHi 
cause  with  the  other  crafts  in  the  building  trades  that  since  1913  local 
office  building  construction  has  been  closed  shop.*  Their  present  scale  is 
62}4  cents  an  hour  or  $j.oo  for  eight  hours,  time  and  one.^alf  for  over- 
time, and  double  for  Sundays  and  holidays. 

Housesmiths.  Housesmiths  and  structural  iron  workers  were 
affiliated  in  the  same  international  union  long  before  the  consolidation  of 
their  Pittsburgh  locals.  The  housesmiths  do  the  ornamental  iron  setting 
in  the  interior  of  buildings.  There  was  hardly  a  score  of  non-union  men 
in  the  District  in  1907-08,  and  the  union  had  much  more  effective  control 
of  the  trade  than  had  the  structural  iron  workers  of  theirs.  The  stronger 
position  of  the  housesmiths  was  due  to  the  fact  that  they  worked  chiefly 
for  small  competing  contractors  to  whom  the  work  of  setting  up  the  orna- 
mental iron  work  was  let. 

On  January  t,  1906,  the  Master  Housesmiths'  Association  entered 
into  a  three-year  contract  with  the  housesmiths'  local  union,  in  which 
they  agreed  to  employ  none  but  union  men.  Where  union  men  could 
not  be  had  non>union  men  might  be  employed,  providing  the  men  were 
satisfied  to  become  members  of  the  union.  The  union  agreed  not  to 
permit  its  members  to  work  for  any  contractor  who  failed  to  comply  with 
the  terms  of  the  agreement,  and  to  use  all  lawful  methods  in  furthering 
the  ends  it  was  desired  to  achieve  by  the  agreement.  Ac«)rding  to  this 
agreement  not  more  than  one  helper  was  allowed  to  each  filter  or  journey- 
man, and  each  firm  could  have  one  apprentice,    Apprentices  had  to  begin 

*  Thefabricating  plants  continue  non-union;  and  only  a  share  of  the  bridge 
workers  are  organized.  The  bulk  of  the  open  shop  work  consists  of  bridges,  via- 
ducts, and  mill  buildings:  in  1914,  also,  the  steel  for  the  Pennsylvania  freif^t  sheds 
in  Pittsburgh  is  being  erected  by  a  member  of  the  National  Erectois  Association, 
open  shop. 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

under  the  age  of  nineteen,  had  to  register  in  the  union,  and  if  they  could 
command  the  union  wages  for  helpers  they  might  act  as  such.  A  fore- 
man if  he  used  tools  must  become  a  member  of  the  union.  Misunder- 
standings, whenever  they  arose,  were  arbitrated  by  three  disinterested 
parties  and  work  was  to  continue  pending  the  arbitration.  Sympathetic 
strikes,  however,  were  not  to  be  considered  violations  of  the  agreement. 

The  wages  fixed  by  the  agreement  provided  that  for  the  years  1906 
and  1907,  ;o  cents  per  hour  should  be  paid  for  fitters  (skilled  house- 
smiths)  and  35  cents  for  helpers.  On  January  i,  1908,  the  fitters  were  to 
receive  an  increase  to  56X  cents  or  ^4.50  per  day.  This  had  been  the 
wages  in  the  trade  in  many  cities  during  1907.  Pittsburgh  housesmiths 
remained  behind  because  of  their  three-year  agreement.  During  the  de- 
pression, moreover,  many  employers  were  able  to  cut  the  rate  to  $0  and 
even  to  47^^  cents  per  hour;  but  later  the  fitters  secured  an  advance  to 
$6>^  cents  per  hour;  and,  with  the  structural  iron  workers,  today  get  6a>i 
cents  as  against  33>^  cents  in  1900.  In  demanding  these  increases  the 
housesmiths  have  argued  that  their  trade  is  extra  hazardous.  They  claim 
that  a  man  has  been  killed  or  several  badly  injured  on  every  skyscraper 
erected  in  the  Pittsburgh  CMstrict*;  on  one  large  building  alone  two  men 
were  killed  and  two  crippled  for  life,  while  six  more  were  injured. 

The  eight-hour  day  was  secured  by  the  housesmiths  in  1900. 
Working  hours  have  since  been  from  8  a.  m.  to  5  p.  m.,  all  work  performed 
before  or  after  these  hours  being  paid  at  the  rate  of  time  and  one-half; 
Sundays  and  holidays  at  double  time. 

Hoisting  Engineers.  The  hoisting  engineers  send  the  materials 
up  to  the  bridges  and  buildings  in  process  of  erection.  They  are  employed 
mainly  by  the  construction  companies  which  belong  to  the  National 
Erectors'  Association,  and  in  1906  they  met  the  same  fate  that  befell  the 
bridge  and  structural  iron  workers  at  the  hands  of  that  association.  The 
power  of  the  uni<m  was  broken  and  the  open  shop  generally  established. 
The  union  of  Hoisting  and  Portable  Engineers  which  was  organized  in 
i9or  and  grew  steadily  until  1903,  had  in  1907^-08  a  membership  of  but 
too  out  of  1. 000  hoisting  engineers  in  the  E>istrict.  Later  they  added  to 
their  strength  by  taking  in  the  Afro-American  Engineers'  Union  and 
became  able  to  control  work  done  outside  of  the  National  Erectors'  As- 
sociation. In  1914,  the  union  split  temporarily,  one  faction  joining  forces 
with  the  bricklayers  and  one  with  the  building  trades  council. 

No  apprenticeship  system  exists  in  this  trade  beyond  what  the  law 

requires  for  securing  a  license  as  a  steam  engineer.    To  secure  such  a 

license  the  applicant  must  have  worked  on  an  engine  for  at  least  two  years, 

*  In  1909,  nine  men  were  so  killed. 

"53 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

and  he  must  pass  an  examination  conducted  by  two  competent  engineers. 
It  is  unlawful  to  operate  an  engine  without  a  license. 

Eight  hours,  which  was  secured  by  the  union  in  1901,  is  the  working 
day  for  all  hoisting  engineers,  except  those  employed  in  the  steel  mills. 
In  1907-08  the  latter  usually  worked  twelve  hours  at  3;  cents  an  hour. 
The  rate  of  wages  generally  paid  in  1907-08  was  37>^  cents  an  hour.  Some 
of  the  smaller  building  contractors  employing  union  men  paid  ;o  cents. 
By  1913  the  hoisting  engineers  had  shared  in  the  general  advance  in  the 
building  trades,  the  union  rate  for  broken  time  being  62yi  cents  an  hour. 
For  work  by  the  week  $27  was  paid.  In  January,  1914,  the  union  raised 
to  6s  cents. 

Carpenters.  The  carpenters  of  the  Pittsburgh  District  in  1907-08 
mustered  a  total  of  36  locals  of  the  United  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and 
Joiners  of  America.  These  had  an  aggregate  membership  of  nearly  4.000 
which  was  a  majority  of  the  carpenters  in  the  District. 

The  local  unions  elect  delegates  to  a  carpenters'  district  council 
of  Pittsburgh  and  vicinity,  which  looks  after  the  general  interests  of  all 
carpenters  in  the  District.  For  many  years  the  union  made  agreements 
regularly  with  the  employer?.  But  in  1905  the  Master  Builders'  Associa- 
tion declared  for  the  open  shop  and  locked  out  all  union  men.  Two  years 
later  not  only  master  builders  but  workmen  said  they  were  opposed  to 
agreements.  The  officers  of  the  union  contended  that  agreements  pre* 
vented  them  from  taking  advantage  of  improved  conditions  to  increase 
their  wages.  They  complained,  however,  that  under  the  open  shop  the 
unorganized  men  were  benefited  by  their  union,  and  that  for  this  reason  it 
was  hard  to  get  new  members.  With  the  estaUishment  of  the  open  shop, 
moreover,  the  union  was  unable  to  enforce  the  rules  of  its  apprenticeship 
system  by  which  any  person  under  twenty-five  years  of  age  might  engage 
himself  to  learn  the  trade  of  carpenter  and  joiner,  and  after  three  years,  if 
competent,  enter  the  union  as  a  journeyman,  and  receive  not  less  than  the 
union's  minimum  rate  of  wages.  [Since  changed  to:  age,  twenty-two; 
apprenticeship,  four  years.]  The  contractors,  moreover,  graded  the 
carpenters  in  the  open  shops  as  to  their  "ability  and  competence"  and 
paid  them  accordingly.  Their  rate  of  wages  for  skilled  men  in  1907-08 
was  4)K  cents  per  hour,  while  the  union  rate  was  50  cents.  Those  who 
were  less  skilled  were  paid  less,  some  receiving  only  30  cents  per  hour. 

Radical  changes  have  come  since.  The  union  is  today  working 
under  a  three-year  agreement  signed  in  May,  1914,  with  the  builders  com- 
posing the  Builders'  Exchange  League,  on  a  dosed  shop  basis,  calling  for 
i6yi  cents  the  first  half  year.  60  the  second,  and  63}^  the  last  two  years. 

Eight  hours  is  the  general  working  day  in  the  trade,  although  some 
154 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

nMi-union  men  work  ten.  For  all  work  over  eight  hours,  time  and  one- 
half  was  paid  in  1907-08;  holidays  double.  The  new  agreements  call  for 
a  forty-four  hour  week,  a  Saturday  half-holiday,  and  double  time  for 
Saturday  afternoons,  as  well  as  Sundays. 

Electrical  Workers.  The  electrical  workers,  also,  were  in  1907 
straying  against  the  open-shop  movement  and  more  recently  against  a 
split  in  their  own  ranks.*  In  190$  the  electrical  contractors  tried  to  es- 
tablish the  open  shop,  but  after  a  strike  lasting  about  a  month  they  signed 
a  two-year  closed-shop  agreement.  When  this  agreement  expired  the 
struggle  began  again,  and  was  still  in  progress  in  1907-08.  No  agree- 
ments were  being  made,  but  the  union  tried  to  enforce  its  closed  shop 
rule,  and  in  many  cases  was  successful.  Here,  as  with  the  carpenters, 
there  has  since  been  a  change  of  front. 

There  are  two  classes  of  electrical  workers:  "inside  wiremen"  who 
do  the  wiring  in  buildings,  and  "linemen"  who  work  on  the  streets  and 
underground.  Together  they  numbered  about  800  in  the  Pittsburgh  Dis- 
trict, and  the  local  unions  of  the  two  trades  had  about  600  of  these  men 
enrtdled.    Today  90  per  cent  of  the  men  are  reported  as  union  members. 

To  become  an  inside  wireman  a  boy  has  to  serve  an  apprenticeship 
of  four  years.  The  ratio  of  apprentices  to  journeymen  permitted  by  the 
union  where  it  is  in  control,  is  not  more  than  one  to  three.  There  is  con- 
siderable division  of  labor  in  this  trade,  but  the  union  has  tried  to  prevent 
any  permanent  classification  of  men.  It  has  insisted  that  every  apprentice 
shall  be  taught  to  become  an  all-round  electrician. 

Thetowest  point  in  the  wages  of  wiremen  was  reached  in  1899  when 
the  rate  was  fs.a;  perdayof  ten  hours.  The  next  year  this  was  increased 
to^.  JO.  In  1901  the  union  secured  $2.70  per  day,  and  reduced  the  hours 
to  eight.  From  1903  on,  the  wages  of  inside  wiremen  were  ^.00  per 
day,  and  in  1913  those  working  for  contractora  were  able  to  secure 
14.60.  Time  and  one-half  for  overtime,  and  double  time  for  Sundays 
and  holidays,  are  paid  as  in  other  building  trades.  Practically  all  these 
gains  were  made  by  means  of  strikes.  In  June,  1914,  without  a  strike, 
but  through  negotiatran,  nothing  less  than  a  five-year  agreement  was 
entered  upon  calling  for  3^yi  cents  an  hour  for  the  first  year  (^4.60), 
63^  cents  the  second,  third,  and  fourth,  and  68><  cents,  the  fifth  year. 

Steady  employment  is  the  rule  for  most  wiremen.  Those  who 
work  for  amusement  places  and  private  persons  do  not  have  steady  work, 
but  their  rate  of  pay  per  hour  is  from  laK  to  25  percent  higher  than  that 
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Although  linemen  do  not  belong  to  the  building  trades,  they  will  be 
treated  here,  as  they  are  directly  connected  with  other  electrical  workers. 
Their  local  union  includes  linemen,  trimmers,  underground  cablemen, 
cable-splicers,  trouble-men  working  for  distributing  companies,  telephone 
switchboard  men,  attendants,  repair  and  station  constraction  men  in 
central  lighting  and  power  stations.  In  all  there  were  350  members  in 
1907-08,  while  about  100  competent  mechanics  and  about  100  of  less  skill 
remained  outside  the  union.    The  union  itself  has  been  torn  by  fighting. 

The  apprenticeship  regulations  of  linemen  differ  considerably 
from  those  of  the  inside  wiremcn.  The  apprentice  must  be  over  eighteen 
years,  whereas  the  inside  wiremen  require  him  to  be  under  eighteen.  The 
period  of  service  is  three  instead  of  four  years,  and  at  the  end  of  the  period 
the  apprentice  is  initiated  into  the  union  without  an  examination. 

Of  the  employers  of  electrical  workers  the  Bell  Telephone  Company 
was  least  controlled  by  the  union  during  the  year  studied.  It  employed 
23;  men  and  had  an  open  shop.  The  company  had  been  able  to  reduce 
the  minimum  wages  by  subdividing  the  work  and  grading  the  pay  ac- 
cording to  the  skill  required.  This  practice  was  prohibited  by  the  unicm 
wherever  it  was  in  control.  It  permitted  no  specialization  on  such  work 
as  installing  tdcphones,  for  example,  and  required  3  skilled  mechanic 
to  do  this.  Union  men  were  employed  almost  exclusively  by  the  police 
and  fire  departments  for  their  wiring,  and  by  the  city  lighting  plant  in 
Allegheny.  The  same  was  true  to  a  slightly  lesser  extent  of  the  street 
car  and  lighting  companies.  No  political  pull,  union  men  said,  was 
necessary  for  an  electrician  to  get  a  job  from  the  municipality.  In- 
ciden'tally,  the  workmen  favored  municipal  ownership  and  operation 
because  the  city  lighting  plant,  the  police  and  fire  departments,  offered 
better  conditbns  of  employment  than  they  had  been  able  to  win  from  the 
private  companies. 

The  wages  of  linemen  varied  with  different  employers.  The  city 
of  Pittsburgh  paid  the  men  who  took  care  of  its  police  and  tire  wires  tgp  a 
month,  while  Allegheny  paid  {3.3;  per  day.  In  1913  Greater  Pittsburgh 
was  paying  its  linemen  fj.jo  a  day.  Cable  splicers  in  1907-08  got  f  3. 50  a 
day  from  the  telephone  companies  and  $1 10  a  month  from  the  Allegheny 
County  Lighting  Company.  Installers  working  for  the  Bell  Company 
were  paid  from  $i.;o  to  ^3.75  per  day.  This  was  the  work  which  the 
union  required  to  be  done  by  skilled  electricians  at  journeymen's  wages. 
The  union  rate  for  skilled  mechanics  was  J3.35  per  day,  a  rate  generally 
established  during  1907  after  a  strike  lasting  twelve  houis.  In  1908, 
however,  the  employers  took  advantage  of  the  depression  to  reduce  wages 
3;  cents  per  day.  The  linemen  struck  and  remained  out  for  five  months, 
but  to  no  effect.  Three  dollars  per  day,  which  had  been  paid  for  five 
■  S6 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

years  preceding  1907,  was  the  rate  which  was  again  established.  By 
1910,  the  rate  for  outside  men  had  risen  again,  this  time  to  ti-75-  The 
hours  of  wwk  for  linemen  are  nine  per  day  except  on  public  work,  where 
by  statute  they  are  fixed  at  eight. 

Elevator  Constructors.  One  of  the  strongest  unions  in  Pitts- 
burgh is  that  of  the  elevator  constructors.  In  1907  it  had  ijo  members 
and  controlled  the  trade  absolutely.  There  were  not  a  dozen  non-union 
men  in  the  District  and  most  of  these  were  "knockabouts."  There  are 
said  to  be  less  than  the  dozen  today. 

The  work  of  an  elevator  constructor  requires  considerable  skill, 
and  the  supply  of  skilled  mechanics  who  could  do  the  work  has  not 
kept  up  to  the  constantly  increasing  demand.  Some  helpers  become 
journeymen  elevator  constructors,  but  the  business  agent  of  the  union 
had  never  heard  of  a  case  of  an  apprentice  becoming  a  journeyman, 
although,  as  will  be  seen,  apprentices  were  provided  for  in  the  agreements 
between  employers  and  the  union.  This  was  one  source  of  the  union's 
power.  The  recruits  were  all  skilled  mechanics.  To  become  a  member 
of  the  union  a  man  was  required  to  be  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  or 
Canada,  or  he  must  have  declared  his  intention  of  becoming  such.  The 
initiation  fee  was  f^o.  half  of  which  must  be  paid  upon  application.  Then 
the  applicant  was  submitted  to  an  examination  by  a  board  of  examiners 
consisting  of  five  members.  This  examination  cost  him  53.00.  If  he 
passed  he  had  to  pay  the  rest  of  his  initiation  fee  before  he  could  become 
a  member.  Workmen  of  other  crafts  could  become  members  after  they 
had  been  employed  at  elevator  work  for  three  months  on  a  "permit  "card 
issued  by  the  elevator  constructors'  union. 

The  union  classified  workmen  into  mechanics  and  helpers-  A 
mechanic  was  one  who  had  successfully  passed  the  examination  provided 
by  the  union  and  who  received  the  regular  rate  of  mechanic's  wages 
required  by  the  union  and  agreed  to  by  employers.  Helpers  were  men 
registered  by  the  union  to  hdp  mechanics.  A  helper  had  to  furnish 
suitable  tools  and  provide  a  box  for  them,  and  was  not  allowed  to  do 
mechanic's  work  unless  under  the  immediate  personal  direction  of  a 
mechanic  No  mechanic  was  permitted  to  go  on  jobs  unaccompanied 
by  a  hdper,  nor  a  helper  unaccompanied  by  a  mechanic — except  to 
inspect  elevators. 

The  employers  had  come  to  meet  annually  or  semi-annually,  as 
the  Elevator  Manufacturers'  and  Builders'  Association,  to  make  trade 
agreements  with  the  union.  These  agreements  laid  down  the  conditions 
under  which  work  should  be  earned  on.  In  case  of  trouble  or  misunder- 
standing  between  an  employer  and  his  workmen,  provision  was  made  for 
arbitration  of  the  difference.  A  conference  committee  of  five  members, 
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two  from  each  side  and  the  four  electing  another,  was  permanently  estab- 
lished to  consider  all  difficulties.  Work  must  go  on  pending  the  decision 
of  the  conference,  except  in  cases  where  the  international  union  ordered  a 
strike.  It  was  provided,  however,  that  no  strike  ordered  by  the  Inter- 
national Union  of  Elevator  Constructors  should  be  considered  a  breach  of 
the  arbitration  clauses  in  the  agreement.  Employers  further  agreed  to 
employ  only  union  men,  and  the  union  bound  itself  not  to  let  any  of  its 
members  enter  into  competition  with  employers  or  permit  them  to  take 
contracts  on  their  own  account  to  do  elevator  work. 

Under  the  agreement  in  force  in  1907-08,  one  apprentice  was 
allowed  to  each  shop  where  there  were  less  than  10  mechanics.  Where 
there  were  more  than  10,  employers  might  have  one  apprentice  to  every 
10  mechanics.  A  preference  for  apprentices  between  the  ages  of  eighteen 
and  twenty-one  was  expressed,  and  apprentices  had  to  join  the  union 
and  pay  an  initiation  fee  of  fia  Piece  work  of  any  kind  was  prohibited 
and  the  union  imposed  a  fine  of  (35  on  its  members  for  a  first  offense 
and  f  100  for  every  offense  thereafter,  for  any  violation  of  this  rule.  In 
order  to  avoid  jurisdictional  disputes  with  other  unions  the  agreement 
enumerated  the  kinds  of  work  on  which  the  contractors  should  employ  only 
members  of  the  union.  This  agreement,  however,  did  not  entirely  pre- 
vent trouble  with  other  trades,  particularly  with  the  carpenters  and 
housesmiths.  The  work  of  the  elevator  constructor  partakes  so  largely  of 
acombinationof  that  ofother  trades  that  these  jurisdictional  disputes  have 
aroused  considerable  animosity. 

The  working  day  specified  for  elevator  constructors  was  ei^t  hours, 
except  on  Saturdays  during  June,  July,  and  August,  when  it  was  four 
hours.  "Regular  time"  was  between  8  a.  m.  and  $  p.  m.  Where  work 
was  done  in  two  shifts,  the  night  shift  was  paid  at  the  rate  of  time  and 
one-half.    For  alt  other  overtime  the  men  got  double  pay. 

Wages  were  fixed  at  ;o  cents  per  hour  or  {4.00  per  day  for  me- 
chanics, and  )sH  cents  per  hour  or  $3.85  per  day  for  helpers.  "Permit" 
helpers  received  jiXcentsper  hour,  or|3.;opcr  day.  It  was  agreed,  all 
men  working  outside  of  Pittsburgh  and  within  a  radius  of  35  miles  of  the 
city  hall,  should  receive  traveling  expenses;  leaving  for  their  work  on  the 
train  nearest  8  a.  m.,  the  time  spent  in  traveling  being  at  the  expense  of 
the  employer.  Apprentices  were  paid  $i.$o  per  day  during  the  first  year, 
and  50  cents  per  day  additional  each  succeeding  year. 

During  the  depression  in  1907-08  nearly  one-half  of  the  men  of 
this  trade  in  the  District  were  out  of  work;  but  in  good  times  they  are 
employed  practically  the  year  round. 

By  the  end  of   1909,   the  union   had  organized  practically  all 

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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

elevator  constntcton  in  the  District,  and  in  the  spring  of  1910  secured 
employers'  signatures  to  a  scale  of  $6}^  cents  per  hour  for  me- 
chanics and  37>^  cents  for  helpers.  Under  this  agreement  the  summer 
Saturday  afternoons  off  became  a  part  of  the  regular  schedule,  and  men 
in  the  trade  worked  a  forty-four-hour  week.  In  May,  1913,  a  new  three- 
year  agreement  was  entered  into,  fixing  62}4  cents  for  mechanics,  40  cents 
for  helpers,  Saturday  half  holiday,  and  overtime  paid  double.  In  the 
twelve-year  period  since  1903,  the  mechanics  have  lifted  the  wages  of  their 
helpers  to  a  point  higher  than  their  own  were  at  the  beginning  of  the 
period.  They  themselves  are  getting  twice  what  they  had  at  the  start. 
The  course  of  wages  since  the  organization  of  the  union  in  1901, 
up  to  1913,  has  been  as  follows: 

laos     100a    190^-^)8    1606-06    1910-13    161S-18 
Helpers  .  fi.8o  |3.so     $3.50         la.85        ^JJX*     l3.3o 

Mechanics  .  3.50     3.50       3.7$  4.00         4.S0       5.00 

Painters,  Decorators,  and  Paperhancers.  The  union  of  paint- 
ers, decorators,  and  paperhangers  in  Pittsburgh  has  been  in  continu- 
ous existence  since  1886.  Until  a  few  years  ago  it  regularly  entered 
into  agreements  with  the  Master  House  Painters'  and  Decorators'  Asso- 
ciation. In  1907-08  there  were  no  agreements,  but  the  union  was  strong 
enough  to  enforce  its  conditions  in  most  shops.  There  were  from  1,600 
to  1,800  union  men  in  the  District,  all  being  employed  in  house  painting 
and  decorating.  Car  painting  for  the  railroads  and  street  car  companies 
was  done  by  non-union  men.  There  were  also  ;oo  or  600  painters  in  the 
county  not  belonging  to  the  union,  a  good  many  of  these  working  in  the 
steel  mills. 

The  union  men  were  distributed  among  16  local  unions,  each  of 
which  sent  two  delegates  to  a  council  known  as  District  Council  No.  1, 
Brotherhood  of  Painters,  Decorators,  and  Paperhangers  of  Allegheny 
County,  Pennsylvania.  The  objects  of  this  council  are:  "the  establish- 
ment of  a  central  representative  body  having  jurisdiction  over  all  matters 
rdating  to  the  trade  and  general  interest  of  the  organized  painters,  dec- 
orators and  paperhangers  of  Pittsburgh,  Allegheny,  and  vicinity;  to 
bring  about  harmony  and  unity  between  all  local  unions  for  the  common 
interest  of  all;  to  establish  an  eight-hour  workday;  to  establish  a  mini- 
mum rate  of  wages  for  all  journeymen;  and  issue  annually  a  code  of 
working  rules  relating  to  change  of  wages,  etc  "  This  district  council  has 
centrally  located  headquarters  which  are  open  from  8  a.  m.  to  $  p.  m.  It 
exercises  "I^pslative  and  executive  power  on  all  matters  relating  to  the 
common  interest  and  welfare  of  the  local  unions  and  their  members." 
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It  establishes  "a  minimum  rate  of  dues  of  fifty  cents  per  month,  and 
initiation  fee  for  all  locals  in  this  district. "  The  district  council  has  power 
"to  frame  all  working  or  trade  rules  (subject  to  referendum  of  the  local 
unions)  and  enforce  the  same,  collect  all  fines  for  the  violation  of  trade 
rules,  issue  a  quarterly  working  card,  order  all  strikes  and  decide  all 
disputes  between  locals  or  members."  It  also  has  power  to  make  trade 
agreements  with  employers. 

The  union  rules  require  that  the  shop  chairman  shall  see  that 
each  man  employed  is  a  member  of  the  union  in  good  standing.  Ap- 
prentices are  allowed  in  the  ratio  of  one  to  every  lo  journeymen.  All 
apprentices  must  be  registered  with  the  district  council,  and  fresco  ap- 
prentices must  be  indentured  to  the  local  union  of  fresco  painters. 

The  regular  workday  is  eight  hours,  from  8  a.  m.  to  13  noon,  and 
from  13:30  to  4:30  p.  m.  For  all  work  done  outside  of  these  regular 
working  hours  the  rate  of  time  and  one-half  must  be  paid,  and  double  pay 
is  required  for  Sunday  and  holiday  work.  The  non-union  car  painters 
and  those  who  work  in  the  mills  are  employed  regularly  ten  hours  per  day. 

House  painters  received  in  1907-08  43>^  cents  an  hour,  or  I3.40  per 
day,  while  the  rate  for  fresco  painters  and  decorators  was  jo  cents  an  hour, 
or  {4.00  per  day.  Paperhangers  worked  by  the  piece  and  their  usual 
earnings  were  from  fj.oo  to  {7.00  per  day.  If  an  employer  preferred  to 
employ  them  by  the  hour  he  had  to  pay  62)4  cents  an  hour.  Car  painters 
employed  by  the  railroads  earned  from  $60  to  f8;  per  month;  those 
working  for  the  street  railway  company  were  paid  |3.so  to  ^3.00  per  day. 
In  the  mills  the  wages  of  painters  were  ^.75  and  I3. 00  per  day;  but  these 
non-union  men  were  employed  regularly  through  the  entire  year,  while 
the  union  men  in  the  building  trades  had  work  only  about  eight  months 
in  the  year. 

In  1909,  the  union  was  able  to  secure  the  adoption  of  a  new 
agreement;  and  in  1914  is  working  under  a  56^  cent  scale. 

Plasterers.  Plastering  is  still  another  trade  in  which  there  has 
been  a  struggle  m  Pittsburgh  over  the  open  shop,  the  employers  having  the 
upper  hand  in  1907-08,  the  unions  in  1913-14.  In  1907-08  there  were 
peitaps  700  plasterers  in  the  District;  only  about  half  that  number  were 
in  the  union  and  no  agreements  were  in  effect  between  the  employers  and 
the  union.  Some  40  Negro  plasterers,  working  for  Negro  contractors, 
were  all  non-union. 

The  union  had  a  set  of  working  rules  which  it  tried  to  enforce 

when  it  got  control  of  a  shop.    Under  them  no  one  was  permitted  to 

take  charge  of  a  job  as  a  foreman  unless  be  had  been  a  member  of  the 

union  for  one  year.    These  rules  also  made  definite  provisions  for  keeping 

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up  the  efficiency  of  the  members.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  foreman  when 
starting  a  job  to  examine  the  specifications  and  see  that  atl  work  was  done 
as  specified.  A  penalty  was  imposed  for  working  without  specifications. 
FuTtber,  "any  workman  doing  a  piece  of  work  not  according  to  specifica- 
tions, if  found  guilty  {was]  subject  to  a  minimum  fine  of  $1.00  for  fiist 
offense  and  for  second  offense  the  fine  [was]  not  less  than  |$.oo  and  as 
much  more  as  the  executive  board  [might]  decide." 

Provisions  for  apprenticeship  were  very  minutely  worked  out. 
The  employer  was  required  to  make  application  to  the  union  for  permis- 
SKMi  to  employ  an  apprentice.  In  the  application  the  employer  was  to 
state  the  name  and  age  of  the  boy  wishing  to  serve  his  trade,  and  the  wages 
that  he  would  pay  in  each  year  of  the  boy's  apprenticeship.  He  was 
furthennore  required  to  pledge  himself  not  to  discharge  the  apprentice 
without  good  and  sufficient  reasons.  Grievances  on  the  part  of  either 
cmE^oyer  or  apprentice  were  to  be  submitted  to  the  executive  board  of  the 
union  for  investigation  and  imposition  of  penalties.  An  employer  who 
bad  been  in  business  for  at  least  one  year  was  entitled  to  one  apprentice, 
and  two  years  after  the  indenture  of  the  first  apprentice  he  could  take 
another.  The  union  attempted  also  to  limit  each  employer  to  two 
apprentices. 

Plasterers  in  Pittsburgh  have  been  working  eight  hours  per  day 
since  1898.  From  1896  to  1898  the  hours  were  nine,  and  prior  to  that 
time  ten  hours  was  the  rule.  Plasterers  lose  much  time  from  seasocul 
causes,  working  for  only  seven  or  eight  months  a  year. 

The  union  rate  of  wages  in  1907  was  ^6yi  cents,  or  S4-$o  pcr  day. 
By  establishing  open  shops  employers  were  able  to  reduce  this  rate  to 
f4.ao  per  day,  the  rate  generally  paid  from  1900  to  1905.  The  non-union 
Negro  plasterers  earned  about  $3.00  a  day. 

In  March,  1910,  the  plasterers  secured  a  new  agreement  with  the 
big  contractors.  It  was  a  closed-shop  agreement;  closed  at  both  ends, 
the  men  binding  themselves  not  to  work  for  other  contractors  and  em- 
ployers binding  themselves  to  hire  no  men  but  those  bdonging  to  the 
union.  Wagesunderthisagreement  werefixedat  ff.oofor  anei^l-hour 
day  {62}4  cents).  In  contrast  to  the  carpenters'  union  at  this  period  the 
plasterers'  union  was  adding  to  its  membership  daily,  attributing  the 
increase  to  its  closed-shop  agreement. 

In  the  spring  of  1914  they  entered  upon  a  three-year  compact  at 
(5.50  {68fi  cents)  the  first  year,  95.7$  the  second,  and  I6.00  the  third;  an 
eight-hour  day,  forty-four-hour  week,  one  and  one-half  time  for  overtime, 
and  double  time,  legal  holidays  and  Sundays. 

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Plumbers.  Practically  all  plumbers  in  Pittsburgh  are  American 
bom  and  practically  all  are  members  of  the  union.  They  work  umier 
signed  agreements  with  the  master  plumbers  and  make  one  of  the  strongest 
labor  bodies  in  the  city.  The  j  per  cent  of  Pittsburgh  plumbers  who  are 
unorganized  find  work  in  small  shops  not  parties  to  the  agreement,  or 
in  the  mills. 

Plumbers'  apprentices  serve  five  years.  They  are  registered  in  the 
union  and  pay  2;  cents  per  quarter  for  their  working  cards.  When  they 
are  ready  to  come  into  the  union,  their  initiation  fee  is  put  down  to  one- 
half  the  regular  amount.  The  minimum  initiation  fee,  according  to  the 
constitution,  is  };o.    The  union  sometimes  charges  more  than  this. 

There  were  in  1907-08  about  400  master  plumbers  in  the  Pitts- 
burgh District  and  they  employed  from  700  to  800  plumbers.  Local 
plumbers  were  first  organiied  in  1879  under  the  Knights  of  Labor. 
Wages  were  then  ^3.00  for  a  ten-hour  day.  In  1884  they  gained  a  nine- 
hour  day  with  a  minimum  rate  of  ty^o  for  journeymen  and  $3.00  for 
apprentices  who  had  just  served  their  time.  During  the  crisis  of  1893 
the  union  disappeared,  but  by  1894  it  had  regained  the  scale  of  Ij.jo  for 
nine  hours. 

In  1898  the  eight-hour  day  was  won.  Four  dollars  a  day  was 
secured  as  a  minimum  in  1901.  Two  years  later  the  union  struck  for 
^.jo,  and  the  men  were  out  over  four  months,  but  they  lost  the  strike. 
In  May,  190$,  the  Master  Plumbers'  Association  signed  a  closed-shop 
agreement  with  the  union  on  the  basis  of  $4.00  for  an  eight-hour  day,  the 
agreement  to  last  for  three  years.  [The  rate  of  wages  for  plumbers  in  the 
nearby  open  shop  town  in  Pennsylvania  was  from  I3.00  to  ^3-75  for  a 
nine-hour  day.]  A  supplement  was  added  to  this  agreement  in  1907, 
which  gave  first  class  journeymen  $4.50  per  day  and  second  class  (ap- 
prentices just  out  of  their  time)  I4.00;  no  member  allowed  in  second 
class  over  two  years.  It  also  provided  for  a  Saturday  half  holiday,  fnm 
June  1st  to  September  30th,  to  be  paid  for  at  double  time  if  worked. 

Under  a  renewal  agreement  signed  in  1910,  first  class  plumbers 
were  to  receive  Ij.oo  after  January  1,  1913,  and  second  class  plumbers 
I4.J0  per  day.  The  plumbers  are  now  working  under  a  five-year  agree- 
ment which  calls  for  a  raise  to  |j.$o  for  first  class  and  f  ;.oo  for  second 
class  plumbers  January  1,  1915;  and  f6.oo  and  Ij. 50  respectively  January 
I,  1917;  the  eight-hour  day,  forty-four  hour  week,  time  and  one^ialf  for 
overtime,  and  double  time  for  holidays  and  Sundays. 

SxEAMFiTTEas.     Practically  every  steamfitter  who  works  in  the 
Pittsburgh  building  trades  is  a  union  man.     In  1907  they  were  members  of 
Local  No.  318,  International  Association  of  Steamlitterf  and  Steamfitters' 
Helpers  of  America,  which  had  400  members  in  Pittsburgh. 
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in  1913,  the  steamfitters'  national  was  taken  into  the  United  As- 
sociation of  Pliunben,  Gas  and  Steamfitters.  The  Pittsburgh  steamfitters 
are,  however,  organized  in  a  separate  local  1449)  and  claim  that  there  are 
not  more  than  2  per  cent  non-union  men  in  the  District,  and  that  those 
work  on  jobs  away  from  Pittsburgh.  About  300  non-unkin  men  work  in 
the  mills  of  the  District,  most  of  which  employ  a  dozen  or  1 5  steamfitters 
the  year  round.  There  were  also  in  iQoyinthecityfourorfivenon-union 
shops  which  bid  on  mill  work.  These  employed  from  1 50  to  300  steam- 
fitters. For  scMne  reason  the  union  had  never  been  able  to  organize  the 
men  in  these  shops.  It  was  not  that  their  employers  were  opposed  to  an 
organization,  for  the  same  employers  recognized  the  union  of  machinists 
and  paid  their  scale.    The  men  simply  refused  to  join. 

The  steamfitters  in  the  building  trade  were  organized  in  the  late 
90's.  Trade  agreements  were  made  from  the  very  banning,  and  they 
have  been  welt  kept,  employers  and  workingmen  being  strongly  in  favor 
of  them.  The  agreement  which  went  into  effect  in  January,  1907,  did 
not  stipulate  that  there  should  be  a  closed  shop,  but  the  scale  was  main- 
tained by  requiring  that  if  a  non-union  man  were  employed,  he  must 
become  a  party  to  the  agreement.  Further  provisions  required  that 
there  should  benolimitatton  totheamountof  worka  man  might  perform 
during  the  working  day;  nor  must  there  be  any  restriction  on  the  use 
of  machinery  or  tools.  Steamfitters  were  required  to  work  with  any 
manufactured  material,  ezcq>t  prison  made,  furnished  by  the  employer, 
a  proviso  which  would  compel  the  men  to  use  materials  made  by  non- 
union men. 

Strikes  were  to  be  avoided  by  means  of  a  board  of  arbitratbn. 
This  board  was  made  up  of  four  members  from  the  employers'  association 
and  four  members  from  the  union.  Parties  to  a  particular  dispute  were 
made  ineligible  to  the  board.  In  case  of  a  dispute,  work  was  to  go  on  as 
usual,  the  board  meeting  within  two  working  days  after  it  had  been  noti- 
fied of  the  trouble,  in  cases  where  the  board  could  not  decide,  an  umpire 
was  to  be  selected  by  the  board,  both  sides  were  to  make  their  argument 
before  the  umpire,  and  the  latter  was  obliged  to  render  decision  wtthtn 
twenty-four  hours.  Should  either  employer  or  union  wish  to  terminate 
the  agreement,  notice  must  be  given  three  months  in  advance. 

The  men  of  this  trade  are  divided  into  four  classes:  steamfitters, 
junior  steamfitters  or  second  men,  experienced  helpers,  and  inexperienced 
helpers.  AH  but  the  steamfitters  rank  as  apprentices.  Inexperienced 
helpers  are  apprentices.  When  they  have  worked  at  the  trade  three 
ro(»iths  they  may  become  experienced  helpers.  Junior  steamfitters  or 
second  men  are  those  in  the  last  years  of  their  apprenticeship.    The 

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apprentice  usually  serves  five  years,  but  he  may  become  a  journeyman 
sooner  if  he  passes  the  examination  given  by  the  union.  Each  employer 
may  work  one  second  man  if  he  has  one  steamfitter.  If  he  has  six  steam- 
fitters  he  may  have  two  second  men  and  one  extra  second  man  for  each 
additional  three  fitters. 

The  regular  working  hours  for  all  steamfitters  in  the  building 
trades  were  from  8  a.  m.  to  la  noon  and  from  13:30  to  430  p.  m.  Fot 
work  before  and  after  these  hours,  time  and  one-half  must  be  paid,  while 
double  time  was  paid  for  Saturday  night,  Sunday,  and  legal  holidays.  In 
the  mills,  however,  pipe-Utters  were  working  ten  hours,  while  the  men  re- 
ferred towhoworkedforcontractors  that  bid  on  mill  work  had  a  nine-hour 
day  and  were  paid  $3.00.  The  rate  for  the  steam  pipe-fitters  had  for  years 
been  36>^  cents  an  hour  or  $3.6$  a  day;  16  cents  an  hourfor  helpers. 

For  union  men,  the  scale  of  wages  agreed  upon  in  1907  was  as  fol- 
lows: Steamfitters,  50  cents  per  hour;  junior  steamfitters  (or  second  men), 
34H;  experienced  helpers,  28}i;  and  inexperienced  helpers,  i8>^  cents. 
The  men  presented  new  agreements  in  1908  and  again  in  1909,  proposing 
increased  wages.  Both  years,  employers  refused  to  sign,  and  work  con- 
tinued under  the  1907  compact.  Gains  had  come  by  1913,  the  second 
men  being  cut  out  entirely  and  a  flat  hourly  rate  of  $6yi  cents  for  steam- 
fitters and  ^lyi  cents  for  helpers  paid  union  men.  The  long  term  agree- 
ment now  in  force  gives  the  steamfitters  63>£  cents  per  hour  to  December 
31, 191$,  and68^cent5to  December  31, 1916. 

Sheet  Metal  Workers.  A  sheet  metal  worker,  as  defined  in  the 
constitution  of  the  Amalgamated  Sheet  Metal  Workers'  International 
Alliance,  is  any  one  of  the  following  mechanics:  "Tin  and  Sheet  Metal 
Workers,  Metal  Roofers,  Cornice  and  Skylight  Workers,  Metal  Furniture 
Workers,  Furnace  and  Range  Workers,  those  making,  setting,  and  finish- 
ing Metal  Sash  and  Frames,  Jobbers,  Assortment  Workers  and  Copper- 
smiths, and  those  who  put  on  Iron  Ceilings  and  Sidings  (both  interior 
and  exterior),  as  well  as  all  who  do  sheet  metal  work  made  of  No.  10 
gauge  and  lighter." 

Excluding  those  who  work  in  mills  and  railroad  shops,  there  were 
in  1907-08  about  500  sheet  metal  workers  in  the  Pittsburgh  District. 
These  were  employed  in  the  building  trades  and  in  the  job  shops.  Three 
hundred  and  fifty  of  them  belonged  to  the  local  union  of  the  American 
Sheet  Metal  Workers'  International  Association,  which  had  fair  control 
of  the  trade.  It  made  agreements  with  some  of  the  largest  as  wdl  as 
with  the  smallest  employers,  with  those  belonging  to  the  employers' 
association  and  with  those  who  were  independent. 

Sheet  metal  apprentices  must  register  in  the  union  and  pay  %yoo 

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regtslration  fee.  They  serve  four  years  and  are  then  examined.  If  they 
prove  their  ability  to  command  the  minimum  rate  of  wages  of  the  union. 
they  are  then  initiated  free  of  charge.  The  regular  initiation  fee  is  $4y 
An  apprentice  who  neglects  to  register  must  pay  the  entire  initiation  fee. 
Not  more  than  one  apprentice  for  every  four  joumeymen  is  permitted 
by  the  union,  where  it  can  control.  It  also  strictly  prohibits  sub-con- 
tracting and  piece  work  in  the  building  trades. 

The  union  in  Pittsburg  dates  back  to  i88a  Before  the  time  of  the 
organization  wages  were  $i  .7;  per  day  of  ten  hours.  Since  then  the  mov^ 
ment  of  wages  has  been  gradually  upward,  successive  steps  being  $1.7$. 
f^.oo,  I3.25,  fa. 50,  I3.68,  $3.00,  $3.40,  and  ^3.60  per  day — the  rate  in 
1907-08;  at  the  same  time  the  hours  going  down  from  ten  to  nine  and 
then  to  eight.  Non-union  men  were  paid  various  rates  from  $j.oo  to 
>}.40  in  1907-oa 

For  ten  months  in  the  year  there  is  enou^  work  for  all  sheet  metal 
wcvkers.  About  three-fourths  have  work  the  year  round.  With  the  de- 
pression, a  number  left  the  District,  but  the  union's  control  was  again  in 
evidence  in  May,  1910,  when  a  circular  letter  declared  the  rate  at  which 
the  men  should  work:  ;o  cents  per  hour  for  an  eight -hour  day  [^4.00].  A 
two-year  agreement  in  1913  set  the  rate  at  sj  cents  [$4.40]. 

Slate  and  Tile  Roofers.  Throughout  the  Pittsburgh  District 
there  were  in  the  year  studied  about  60  slate  and  tile  roofers'  shops, 
employing  in  all  about  13$  men.  Of  these  shops.  36  employed  none  but 
unkm  men,  although  the  largest  shop  was  "open."  The  membership  of 
the  union  was  only  63,  although  it  had  had  as  many  as  1 17  members. 
The  empkiyers  of  the  trade  are  organized  nationally  as  the  Slate  Roofers' 
Association.  Members  owned  six  of  the  union  shops,  including  the 
four  largest  in  Pittsburg.    One  of  these  later  became  an  open  shop. 

Hie  apprenticeship  requirements  of  the  union  were  three  years' 
service,  one  apprentice  to  each  shop  if  it  had  at  least  two  men  working 
all  the  year  round,  and  r^stration  of  the  apprentice  in  the  union.  The 
registration  fee  was  $$.oo.  When  a  registered  apprentice  was  initiated 
into  the  unicm  he  paid  only  half  the  initiation  fee,  which  was  $2y 

No  agreements  were  made  in  this  trade  for  a  decade  following 
I90)wben  the  union  broke  the  last  one  with  a  sympathetic  strike.  Wages 
were  then  40  cents  an  hour.  From  1903  to  1907  the  scale  paid  in  the  union 
shops  was  S4.00  per  day  of  eight  hours,  with  the  usual provisionsoftime 
and  one-half  and  double  time  for  overtime  and  holiday  work  respectively. 
Wages  in  the  open  shops  varied  from  30  to  50  cents  per  hour.  Although 
the  panic  of  1 907  threw  many  roofers  out  of  work,  wages  were  not  reduced. 
Ordinarily,  steady  work  at  this  trade  lasts  about  seven  or  eight  months 
in  the  year.    By  1913  the  union  had  become  strong  enough  to  secure 

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another  agreement,  securing  $';  cents  an  hour  for  that  year  and  60  cents 
an  hour  for  1914. 

TtLE  Layers  and  Helpers.  Pittsburgh  is  considered  by  the  tile 
layers  as  the  best  place  for  steady  work  in  America.  Ninety  per  cent 
of  the  men  work  the  year  round.  There  had  not  been  a  slack  period  for 
five  years  prior  to  the  panic  in  1907.  Yet  that  was  the  unfortunate 
season  hit  upon  by  the  men  for  a  try-out  of  strength  with  their  employers. 
Up  to  January  1, 1908.  the  Tile  Layers'  and  Helpers'  Union  made  biennial 
closed-shop  agreements  with  the  Tile  Dealers'  Association.  In  October. 
1907,  the  union  gave  notice  that  at  the  expiration  of  the  agreement  they 
would  want  |$.oo  per  day,  instead  of  the  I4.40  which  they  were  getting. 
The  employers  took  this  opportunity  to  declare  for  the  open  shop.  A 
year  later  two-thirds  of  the  tile  layers  were  working  in  closed  shops,  but 
the  rest  were  open.  In  January,  1910,  however,  with  75  per  cent  of  the 
men  organized,  and  steady  work  for  six  months  previous,  the  men  were 
able  to  make  a  five-year  agreement  with  a  majority  of  the  employers. 

The  total  number  of  tile  layers  and  helpers  in  the  District  in  1907- 
08  was  about  200.  There  were  two  locals,  one  composed  of  tile  layers 
and  the  other  of  helpers,  each  of  which  had  about  6;  members.  Appren- 
tices were  usually  taken  from  the  helpers,  and  were  required  to  serve  two 
years.    One  apprentice  was  allowed  in  each  shop. 

The  union  established  eight  hours  as  the  working  day  in  this  trade 
in  1900.  At  that  time  wages  were  ^.00  per  day  for  tile  layers  and  f  1.90 
for  helpers.  From  1903  to  1907  the  journeymen's  scale  was  $$  cents  per 
hour,  or  I4.40  per  day,  and  helpers  received  I2.2;.  Following  the  strike 
of  1907,  wages  in  the  union  shops  became  ^;.oo  a  day,  while  open  shops 
were  paying  the  old  rate  of  I4.40.  Helpers  usually  got  $2.50  a  day. 
Apprentices  were  paid  I3.2;  per  day  during  the  first  six  months,  and 
thereafter  during  apprenticeship  they  received  an  increase  of  aj  cents 
per  day  every  six  months.  The  agreement  of  191D  called  for  60  cents  per 
hour  for  a  journeyman's  eight-hour  day,  and  (3.00  per  day  for  appren- 
tices, the  pay  of  the  latter  to  be  increased  at  the  rate  of  ;o  cents  per  day 
every  six  months  until  they  become  journeymen.  By  1913,  joumeymm's 
wages  had  risen  to  fy^o  per  day.  The  union  does  not  allow  piece  work, 
but  in  some  open  shops  non-union  men  are  compelled  to  work  by  the  piece. 

Note. — In  addition  to  agreements  and  advances  noted  under  the  above 
headings,  the  following  additions  to  the  building  trades  scales  are  illustrative  both 
of  the  devektpment  of  new  fonni  of  construction  and  of  the  general  standards  of  the 
group  which  areapplied  to  them:  asbestos  workers  f4.a5  per  day,  eight-hour  day, 
rorty-four-hour  week;  cement  workers — who,  with  a  membership  of  ;50.  are  be- 
coming an  important  group — f3.$o  per  day,  eight-hour  day,  forty-four-hour  week; 
composition  roofers,  I4.00  per  day,  who  are  yet  to  be  recogniicd  by  the  Master 
Roofers. 

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MINE  WORKERS 

Engaged  in  the  mining  operations  of  the  nine  counties 
in  Western  Pennsylvania  claimed  as  the  jurisdiction  of  District 
No.  5,  United  Mine  Workers  of  America  were,  in  1907-08,  about 
80,000  men.  About  30,000  were  organized  under  the  United 
Mine  Workers,    By  1914  this  number  has  increased  to  over  40,000. 

The  relatively  small  number  of  men  in  the  union  gives  a 
false  impression  of  its  power.  It  exercises  an  influence  greater 
than  its  numbers.  The  organized  men  are  grouped  solidly  in 
the  counties  nearest  to  Pittsburgh.  Here  they  have  incr^sed 
their  wages,  reduced  their  hours,  and  improved  the  conditions  of 
labor.  All  around  this  organized  field  non-union  men  are  found, 
but  it  b  in  the  Connellsville  region  to  the  south  that  the 
greater  number  of  non-union  mine  workers  are  concentrated. 
There,  as  well  as  in  Westmoreland  County,  the  miners  have  for 
twenty-five  years  been  unorganized.  Sometimes  a  rise  in  the  union 
scale  of  wages  has  compelled  the  Connellsville  operators  to  increase 
wages  in  order  to  prevent  their  men  from  forming  a  union.  The 
hfghlT  wagrr  r""*  "h"-^^-'  ^'?v"=  '«  *hr  iminn  h^M".  .'^'""'  been 
influential  in  improving  conditions  amonj;;  the  non-union  miners; 
the  latter,  on  the  other  hand,  have  been  a  constant  menace  to  the 
organized  mine  workers. 

Outside  the  fields  referred  to,  the  union  has  been  making 
steady  prepress  in  the  Pittsburgh  District.  During  the  five  years 
from  iqo^  tn  ipop  its  membership  almost  doubled.  In  1903  the 
average  monthly  membership  was  iJi59Li  in  1907,  30,;87;  in 
1914,  43,000.  in  the  year  1907  tHere  was  an  increase  of  over 
7,000,  or  about  30  per  cent.  This  growth  was  principally  in  what 
is  known  as  the  District  proper,  along  the  Monongahela  River 
and  its  tributary,  the  Youghiogheny.  In  1907-08  the  union  gave 
its  attention  to  completing  the  organization  of  the  miners  in  the 
Allegheny  Valley.  In  1910  and  191 1  its  efforts  were  spent  in  an 
unequal  struggle  to  organize  the  mines  at  Irwin,  Latrobe,  and 
Grecnsburg,  and  other  points  in  Westmoreland  County.  In  1912- 
13  the  resources  of  the  national  body  were  poured  into  the  nei^- 
boring  West  Virginia  fields — newer  and  equally  unorganized,  where, 
as  result  of  the  contracts  secured,  the  union  now  claims  a  member- 
ship of  40,000.  In  1913-14  the  fight  shifted  to  the  Colorado  field. 
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The  Strike  of  the  Slavs  in  Westmoreland  County  was  in  some 
ways  even  more  significant  than  the  strug^e  of  the  native  moun- 
taineers to  the  south  which  took  on  almost  the  aspect  of  civil  war. 
For  Westmoreland  County  is  the  very  gate  of  the  coke  region, 
which  has  been  unorganized  since  H.  C.  Frick  broke  the  union  in 
the  8o's.  In  the  early  spring  of  i^jp^fae  men,  largely  immigrants, 
struck  for  the  union  scale  of  wages,  for  a  reduction  in  the  number 
of  working  hours  for  check-weighmen,  and  for  other  arrangements 
which  would  put  them  on  a  par  with  the  organized  miners  about 
Pittsburgh.  Processions  of  miners  went  from  one  mine  to  the 
next,  calling  the  men  out;  labor  organizers  speaking  the  different 
tongues  formed  them  into  locals.  Recognition  of  the  union  finally 
became  the  underlying  issue.  Strikebreakers  and  guards  were  im- 
ported by  the  companies,  dashes  followed,  and  several  men  were 
killed.  The  strikers'  families  were  ejected  from  the  company 
houses  and  lived  in  tents  throughout  the  entire  winter  of  1910-11. 
Thousands  of  dollars  were  spent  by  the  employers  and  by  the 
United  Mine  Workers  in  their  efforts  to  control  the  situation. 
With  the  summer  of  191 1 ,  a  slack  season  of  coal  mining  throughout 
the  country  made  the  drain  on  union  resources  too  heavy  to  con- 
tinue, and  sixteen  months  after  its  inauguration  the  strike  was  de- 
clared off,  the  men  returning  to  work  on  such  terms  as  they  could 
make  individually.  Little  union  growth  has  followed  there  in  the 
years  succeeding. 

Various  personal  and  corporation  policies  were  involved  in 
this  struggle.  The  fact  that  some  Westmoreland  coal  is  made  into 
coke  makes  the  ultimate  outcome  significant  with  respect  to 
the  coke  regiMi  proper.  If  the  union  succeeds  here,  it  feels  that  it 
will  have  prestige  in  the  Connellsville  and  Uniontown  districts 
where  it  must  deal  with  the  most  powerful  business  corporation  in 
the  United  States  committed  to  an  anti-union  policy — the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation.  Meanwhile,  the  fact  that  immigrant 
miners  could  be  held  together  by  union  leaders  through  a  summer 
and  winter  of  great  privation  is  significant.  They  showed  dogged 
persistence  in  keeping  up  the  fight  to  an  even  greater  degree  than 
they  did  in  the  mass  strike  at  the  Pressed  Steel  Car  Works  at  Mc- 
Kees  Rocks,  in  1909,  or  the  Westinghouse  strike  (^  1914. 

These  three  strikes  give  appraisal  of  the  Slav  as  a  force  in  the 
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cccmomic  struggles  of  the  next  decade  in  the  Pittsburgh  EMstrict. 
And  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  today  the  mine  workers  in  the 
Pittsburgh  District  are  overwhelmingly  Slav.  During  the  last 
fifteen  years  there  has  been  a  marked  falling  off  in  the  number  of 
English-speaking  men  in  the  mines.  Operators  state  that  in 
most  mines  barely  2$  per  cent  of  the  men  can  speak  English,  while 
in  a  large  number  the  percentage  is  much  smaller. 

This  influx  of  immigrants  from  southeastern  Europe  has 
had  two  important  effects:  First,  it  has  prevented  the  mine 
workers'  union  from  improving  laMr  conditions  m  the  l'iTt&lJUii;li 
District  as  fast  as"it4«»  improvedThem"in~rhgTafra7illiiiuis,-Mtd 
farther  west.  Each  newlv_arrived  immigrant  tRTffRs  of  a  job  in 
Pittsburgh.  Here  he  must  be  taught  his  unionism.  Hisl^iorance 
of  industrial  conditions  and  his  unfamiliar  tongue  make  him  difli- 
cuft  to  reach.  The  union  translates  its  constitution  and  other 
literature  into  the  Italian  and  Slavic  tongues,  it  employs  organizers 
who  speak  the  languages,  and  it  lowers  initiation  fees  from  $10  to 
f $.00  and  fj.^o  to  attract  the  newcomer.  When  he  has  learned 
bis  lesson  he  hears  of  better  conditions  in  other  districts,  goes  west, 
and  becomes  a  strong  union  man.  This  process  is  constantly 
being  repeated.  It  could  be  seen  plainly  in  the  mine  employing 
1,000  men  which  had  to  hire,  according  to  its  superintendent,  in 
1907,  5,000  men  a  year  to  keep  up  its  force.  As  a  general  rule 
throughout  the  District,  3,000  men  have  to  be  hired  during  the  year 
to  keep  1 ,000  going. 

The  second  effect  of  the  influx  of  Slavs  is  that  their  lack  of 
intelligence  makes  improved  machinery  and  a  perfected  organiza- 
tion of  the  mining  processes  absolutely  essential.  There  is  a 
direct  connection  between  the  increasing  number  of  unintelli- 
gent mining  laborers  and  the  increased  use  of  mining  machinery 
during  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years.  Which  is  cause  and  which  is 
effect  is  difficult  to  determine.  In  a  dispute  over  the  introduction 
of  a  new  appliance  for  dumping  coal  at  the  tipple,  the  operators 
contended  that  the  scarcity  of  intelligent  labor  compelled  them  to 
adopt  some  mechanical  means  to  dump  and  handle  coal  at  the 
surface. 

While  constant  immigration  has  kept  the  mine  worker  of 
the  Pittsburgh  District  somewhat  behind  his  brother  workmen 
^  - 


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WAGE-EARNINC   PITTSBURGH 

farther  west  in  securing  better  working  conditions,  the  union  has 
forced  up  wages  in  the  District  so  that  the  Slav  in  the  organ- 
ized mines  is  paid  from  $o  to  90  per  cent  more  per  hour  than 
his  countrymen  working  in  the  mills  and  factories  of  Pittsburgh 
at  jobs  requiring  the  same  amount  of  skill  and  strength. 

The  hours,  wages,  and  rules  under  which  coal  is  mined  in  the 
Pittsburgh  District  are  fixed  at  biennial  conventions  of  workmen 
and  employers.  First,  the  operators  of  a  competitive  area  cover- 
ing several  states  meet  with  representatives  of  the  union  and  lay 
down  the  conditions  under  which  the  men  are  to  work  within  their 
territory.  After  these  conventions,  district  conferences  are  held 
to  settle  all  local  matters,  and  agreements  are  signed  by  both 
parties,  to  hold  until  the  next  convention.  Afpypfppnts  hBtyppn 
miners  and  operators  were  first  made  in  1886,  but  were  discon- 
tinued'until  the  system  of  interstate  convuuliuiis  began- in  1898. 

By  means  of  these  agreements  the  union  in  the  flrst  ten  years 
cut  down  the  hours  of  work  about  20  per  cent,  while  earnings  in- 
creased almost  100  per  cent.  Ten  hours  was  the  working  day  at 
the  outset  of  the  decade;  eight  at  the  end.  Many  kinds  of  work, 
such  as  entry  cutting,  room  turning,  and  removing  clay,  which 
are  incidental  to  the  regular  work  of  the  miner,  but  for  which 
formeriy  nothingwas  paid,  now  have  a  regular  scale.  This  "dead 
work"  in  a  mine  employing  i$o  men  adds  about  $1.50  per  week 
to  the  wages  of  each  of  them.  It  has  meant  an  addition  of  about 
10  per  cent  to  a  miner's  pay.  A  company  with  a  payroll  of  |8,ooo 
now  pays  $Soo  for  dead  work,  where  formerly  it  paid  nothing. 

Another  way  in  which  wages  have  been  increased  is  by 
establishing  the  system  of  check-weighing.  In  the  Pittsburgh 
District  the  practice  of  having  a  check-weighman  was  established 
in  1898  without  a  strike.  The  Pittsburgh  Coal  Company,  whicfa 
was  formed  by  a  consolidation  of  smaller  companies  in  1901, 
agreed  at  the  first  convention  thereafter  to  put  in  check-weigh- 
men,  if  the  men  would  agree  to  sign  a  contract  not  to  sue  for 
wages.  It  was  common  for  men  to  claim  a  greater  tonnage  than 
the  company  allowed  them.  Legally  the  company  could  not 
force  the  men  to  make  such  a  contract,  but  most  of  them  signed. 

An  idea  of  the  general  movement  of  wages  from  1898  on 

170 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 


may  be  had  from  the  following  table.  The  complete  scale 
for  each  two-year  period  now  contains  nearly  aoo  items,  and 
provides  a  price  for  each  kind  of  work  that  may  appear.  When 
agreements  were  first  made  only  two  sentences  were  needed. 


A  CALENDAR 

OF   RISING    PAY 

Scale— Tbinvtin  jyi  in.  Stritntd Coal* 

1898- 

1900- 

190S- 

1904- 

1906^ 

1910^ 

mt<^ 

1900 

leot 

1904 

1906 

1910 

ma 

1916 

Pick-raining,  per  con 

166 

S.So 

yv> 

Ms 

loo 

i-ts 

Si. 00 

Undercutting     in 

.170a 

,1604 

.1708 

.181a 

..9.6 

Loading  ra  rooms. 

per  ton     . 

■36 

,4368 

■ASf^ 

.4364 

.4560 

.4856 

■MS* 

Undercutting  in 

.lOJO 

Loading  in  rooms, 

per  ton 

■36 

.4168 

.4700 

■«7J 

.4700 

,Soa8 

.J656 

InM*  Day  Waf*  Sealt 


1898- 

1900- 

190S- 

1904- 

1906^ 

1910- 

1911'- 

1900 

1904 

1910 

me 

1916 

Track  liyers    .       . 

t2-28 

U.f6 

Ja4a 

Ja.,6 

U.10 

>3.84 

TnckUyen'hdpers 

1-75 

a.  10 

a.  16 

a.aj 

a.j6 

a.49 

Trappers  <• 

1.00 

1.6, 

Cagen      .       .       . 

"■7» 

a.s6 

a-4a 

a.j6 

a.70 

a-84 

Dnver* 

1-75 

a.4a 

a.70 

"■7S 

a.  10 

a.4a 

a.70 

a.a4 

W.ter  haulers 

Timbermcn.     when 

«nployed.       . 

a.  ,6 

a.56 

>a4 

presied  air  plants 
Other  inside  labor 

1.8s 

a.aa 

j-lb 

a.64 

a.78 

'-7S 

a.:o 

a.36 

a.a) 

a.}6 

a.49 

■Thin  vdnisthemost  common  in  Allegheny  County. 
fcThe  1906-08  scale  was  renewed  for  igo8-io. 
c  The  iQia-i^  scale  was  renewed  for  1914-16.     Motormen  t 
fa.9$  per  day  to  the  inside  scale  in  191a. 

*  These  are  the  boys  who  take  care  of  the  trap  doors. 

171 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Day  laborers  outside  of  the  mines  received  in  1906-08  from 
It  .$0  to  }3.2S  per  day.  For  a  number  of  years  the  miners'  officials 
tried  to  secure  a  fixed  scale  of  wages  for  outside  day  labor  but 
without  success  until  1914.* 

On  the  basis  of  the  union  scale,  employes  of  the  National 
Mining  Company  were  able  to  earn  during  1907  an  average  of 
$3.90  to  $3.00  per  day.  They  worked  about  335  days  out  of 
the  year.  That  was  an  exceptionally  prosperous  year,  however; 
ordinarily  the  number  of  working  days  run  about  300.  But 
to  average  the  wages  of  all  the  men  working  in  the  mines 
hardly  gives  an  adequate  idea  of  their  earnings;  the  men  must 
be  considered  in  groups.  Wages  of  inside  day  labor  were  fixed 
by  the  scale  of  1906-08  at  $3.36  to  |3.$6  per  day.  Counting  33$ 
working  days  as  average  for  1907  the  earnings  of  an  underground 
day  laborer  were  from  fsji  to  |$76.  It  must  be  remembered, 
however,  that  in  ordinary  years  he  gets  less  than  300  days'  pay. 

A  pick-miner  can  mine  about  three  tons  of  coal  a  day. 
At  the  1906-10  scale  of  90  cents  a  ton  he  coukl  make  92.70  a  day 
and  f6o7.;o  for  a  year  of  335  days. 

Men  who  do  the  undercutting  with  machines  are  excep- 
tionally skilled.  Two  men  usually  work  together  with  one  machine. 
They  go  from  room  to  room  and  cut  a  slot  about  six  feet  deep 
under  the  coal  at  the  bottom  of  the  bench.  They  were  making 
J40,  f6o,  $80,  sometimes  even  I90  in  two  weeks  in  1906-08.  To 
make  the  last,  however,  they  often  worked  over  eight  hours.  The 
majority  of  the  cutters  made  from  l3.oo  to  S4.00  per  day;  some  as 
low  as  I2.S0.  The  annual  income  of  the  average  undercutter  was 
from  $700  to  $800.  In  this  it  was  about  on  a  par  with  the  skilled 
men  in  the  building  trades.  Both  were  working  eight  hours  per 
day,  but  the  undercutter  probably  had  a  somewhat  smaller  rent 
to  pay,  for  he  usually  lived  in  a  company,  house. 

Behind  the  cutters  come  the  loaders.  TKeyTftdbtThe  coal 
which  has  been  undercut,  and  load  it  on  three-ton  cars  to  be  taken 
out  by  mules,  electricity,  or  gravity  to  the  tipple  and  dumped  into 
boats  or  railroad  cars.  The  loader  works  by  the  ton.  Under  the 
1906-08  scale,  heaveragedaboutj2.35  per  day  and  $500 per  year. 

*  Minimumt  now  wt  for  outside  day  men  are  as  followt:  dumpen,  ^.)o; 
ram-operaton,  S3.48;  pushers.  taoS;  trimmers,  ti.iy,  car  cleaners,  b.oo.  This 
is  about  to  per  cent  over  the  rates  paid  before  the  outside  men  came  under  the 

172 


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D,„i,z,d,  Google 


D,„i,z,d,  Google 


WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

The  highest  earnings  in  the  District  were  made  in  the  great 
mine,  Vesta  No.  4,  owned  by  the  Jones  and  Laughlin  Steel  Com- 
pany, which  employed  about  1,000  men  and  had  an  average 
output  of  almost  6,000  tons  a  day.  In  this  mine,  which  had  a 
thidc  vein  and  paid  according  to  the  mine  run,  two  average  men 
with  an  electric  machine  could  undercut  five  rooms  of  40  tons  each, 
or  200  tons  per  day.  At  the  price  paid,  5.6;  cents  per  ton,  these 
men  together  made  9i  ■  -30  a  day,  or  each  of  them  $5.65.  Some 
cutters  in  this  mine  drew  regularly  fSo  and  $90  every  two  weeks. 
An  ordinary  cutter  working  every  day  that  Vesta  No.  4  was  in 
(^wration  in  1907  could  have  earned  over  |i,soo.  Loaders  in 
this  mine  averaged  almost  I3.00  per  day,  which  for  the  year  would 
be  tgoo.  Aside  from  the  most  modem  methods  employed,  the 
advantage  to  the  men  of  Vesta  No.  4  was  the  great  number  of 
days  which  it  operated.  During  1907  it  worked  306  days.  Even 
if  the  Vesta  mine  worker  could  make  no  more  by  the  hour  than  the 
man  in  the  other  pits,  his  annual  earnings  were  greater  by 
almost  a  third. 

It  is  difficult  to  compare  wages  in  union  mines  with  those  in 
non-union,  for  men  are  not  paid  on  the  same  basis.  Connellsvilte 
miners  were  working  ten  hours;  they  had  no  check-weighman  to 
tally  their  tonnage  and  they  got  no  extra  pay  for  "dead  work."  The 
rate  for  day  laborers  was  in  1907-8  $2.3;  per  day.  This  was  about 
20  per  cent  less  per  hour  than  was  paid  to  the  union  day  laborer. 

Very  few  miners  who  work  by  the  piece  supplement  their 
regular  earning  by  working  overtime.  The  union  discourages 
it.  E)ay  laborers  do  most  of  the  overtime  work.  Experienced 
men  are  needed,  however,  to  fix  up  the  mine  after  the  day's  work 
is  over.  In  Vesta  No.  4,  a  regular  night  force  of  repair  men  was 
employed,  thus  doing  away  with  overtime  work.  But  in  most 
mines  alt  repairs,  changes,  and  the  like,  are  done  at  night  by  day 
men. working  overtime.  Cases  are  cited  where  the  same  man  made 
1$  to  18  shifts  in  two  weeks,  instead  of  12.  The  union  has  tried 
to  do  away  with  this  extra  work,  but  has  found  it  impossible. 

In  each  union  mine  there  is  a  mine  committee  whose  business 
it  is  to  look  after  the  interests  of  the  union.  The  men  report 
grievances  to  this  committee  and  it  takes  them  up  with  the  super- 
intendent. It  also  sees  that  none  of  the  union  rules  or  the  rules 
17} 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

of  the  signed  agreement  are  violated.  While  it  is  understood 
between  the  operators  and  the  union  that  there  shall  be  no  dis- 
crimination as  to  the  men  to  be  employed  in  the  mines,  the  practice 
of  signing  scales  for  all  occupations  and  making  deductions  from 
the  men's  pay  for  check-weighman  and  union  dues,  brings  practi- 
cally all  the  men  into  the  union,  and  they  have  at  least  a  union 
shop,  if  not  strictly  a  closed  shop.  Under  this  so<alled  "check-' 
off"  system,  the  wages  of  the  check-weighman  and  the  expenses 
of  his  office  are  collected  semi-monthly  through  the  pay  office  upon 
a  statement  of  time  made  by  the  check-weighman.  The  amount 
so  collected  is  deducted  on  a  percentage  basis  from  the  earnings 
of  all  those  actually  engaged  in  mining  coal.  Deductions  for 
union  dues  are  also  made  through  the  pay  office.  The  amount 
of  such  deduction  is  stated  by  the  mine  committee  subject  to  the 
instructions  of  the  men.  The  agreement  provides  that  when 
union  dues  are  thus  paid  they  shall  follow  deductions  for  check- 
weighman,  accident  and  death  benefit,  rent,  and  smithing. 

^1  pAarly  gi/pj^Yjninn  jn  Allegheny  Countj^  there  are  com- 
pany  houses  for  the  miners.  Up  to  1910  the  operators  would  not~~ 
let  the  union  interfere  withthe  rents,  which  went  up  and  down  with 
changes  in  the  wage  scales.  They  rose  J  1.00  a  month  with  the 
new  scale  in  1906.  A  four-room  house  with  a  lot  measuring  up 
to  too  feet  rented  in  1908  for  from  |6.oo  to  $10  per  month.  Large 
houses  cost  more  in  pn^rtion.  Rents  of  these  houses  were  only 
about  half  what  laborers  paid  for  similar  quarters  in  the  city  of 
Pittsburgh,  and  the  companies  as  a  rule  kept  the  buildings  in 
fair  repair.*  While  there  was  wide  disparity  to  be  found  between 
sanitary  and  housing  conditions  in  the  dwellings  of  different 
mining  villages,  the  mine  workers  themselves  expressed  very  little 
dissatisfaction  with  the  company  houses.  On  the  contrary,  these 
seemed  to  be  in  great  demand. 

Complaints  were  sometimes  made  that  certain  companies 
would  not  give  a  man  a  house  unless  he  bought  at  the  company 
stores.  Most  of  these  stores  near  Pittsburgh  were  in  1907  man- 
aged by  two  companies  which  have  since  been  merged  in  the 
Federal  Supply  Company  conducted  by. the  Pittsburgh  Coal 
Company. 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

Unlike  the  company  houses,  these  stores  have  been  at  times 
sources  of  bitter  discontent,  the  usual  charge  being  that  men  who 
did  not  deal  with  them  were  discriminated  against.  The  union 
has  several  times  appointed  committees  to  make  investigations  of 
these  charges,  but  nothing  has  come  of  them.  Prices  charged  at 
the  stores  in  1907  were  usually  those  generally  prevailing  in  the 
community.  Fully  two-thirds  of  the  company  stores  had  competi- 
tors, and  this  kept  the  prices  down.  In  isolated  communities 
where  a  company  had  a  monopoly,  prices  were  higher.  To  trade 
on  credit  the  men  got  checks  with  small  amounts  printed  on  them. 
The  amounts  of  their  purchases  were  punched  on  these  checks,  and 
deducted  from  the  wages.  Some  miners  paid  cash  for  ail  they 
bought;  others,  in  contrast,  cashed  their  credit  checks  at  a  dis- 
count. This  practice,  however,  was  no  longer  common  in  1907, 
the  companies  discharging  men  who  discounted  their  credits. 

The  question  of  mine  accidents  long  since  became  a  bitter 
one  at  the  conventions  of  District  No.  5-  Both  everyday  risks 
and  the  enormous  loss  of  life  from  explosions  were  subjects  of 
complaints.  In  Miss  Eastman's  report  for  the  Pittsburgh  Survey 
an  analysis  of  mining  fatalities  in  Allegheny  County  during  twelve 
months  showed  that  one-fourth  of  them  were  humanly  preventa- 
ble,* and  that  the  problems  presented  by  the  remainder  had  not 
been  grappled  with  from  the  standpoint  of  prevention  in  the  way 
in  which  European  countries  have  addressed  themselves  to  the 
same  problem.  During  ordinary  years  in  the  Pittsburgh  District, 
about  1 5  miners  are  injured  and  three  killed  for  every  i,oeo  men 
employed  in  and  aboiit  the  mines.  From  July,  1906,  through 
June,~  7907;  there  were,  foi- example;  71 -fatal  accidents  among  the 
mine  workers  of  Allegheny  County.f  Three  were  due  to  explo- 
sions of  powder  at  miners'  homes.  In  the  county  there  were  not 
quite  20,000  mine  workers  employed.  If  we  count  the  under- 
ground fatalities  as  68,  the  death  rate  was  3.4  per  thousand.  This 
rate  is  greater  than  that  of  any  country  in  Europe,  and  about  equal 
to  the  average  for  the  United  States.J    The  succeeding  years,  1907 

'Eastman,  Cryjut:  op.  cit.,  pp.  84IT,  flbid.,  pp.  34ff.  The  succeeding 
yean  have  averaged  more  than  ibU.    See  Kellogg,  op.  dt.,  p.  3$. 

t  Number  ofmen  killed  for  each  1,00a  men  employed — average  for  five  yean: 
France  (igoi-oj).  0.91;  Belgium  {igca-oS),  1.00;  Great  Britain  (19(0-06), 
1.18;  United  Sum  <i903-o6),  3.39. 

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and  1908,  were  marked  by  a  number  of  horrible  mine  disasters 
in  the  bituminous  field  dT  Pennsylvania.  In  December,  1907, 
there  were  gas  explosions  in  two  mines  of  the  Pittsburgh  District 
in  which  274  men  were  killed.*  The  general  opinion  among  the 
men  in  the  pits  was  that  the  slaughter  might  have  been  prevented. 

The  Pennsylvania  employers'  liability  law  of  1907  (known  as  (he 
Casey  Act)  was  urged  by  miners  throughout  the  state.  This  statute 
removed  managers,  superintendents,  and  foremen  from  the  class  of 
fellow-servants,  and  made  them  vice-pnncipals  for  whose  acts  the  em- 
ployers  were  responsible.  As  a  result,  operators  began  to  take  greater 
precautions  to  prevent  the  occurrence  of  accidents. 

The  1907  session  created  also  a  commission  to  revise  the  bituminous 
mining  laws  of  the  state. 

The  following  amendments  were  advocated  by  the  ofGcers  of  the 
miners'  union,  not  only  to  lessen  the  danger  of  disasters  but  to  prevent 
some  of  the  ordinary  accidents  which  in  the  long  run  result  in  greater 
human  loss: 

I.  That  all  miners  employed  in  gaseous  mines  be  required  to  pass 
an  examination,  have  two  years'  experience,  and  hold  a  certificate. 

3.  That  the  company  employ  certificate  fire  bosses  to  charge  and 
fire  all  shot  in  gaseous  mines  after  all  other  men  are  out  of  the  mine. 

3.  That  it  be  compulsory  to  use  safety  lamps  in  mines  having 
dangerous  quantities  of  gas  and  where  there  is  danger  of  an  explosion. 

4.  That  all  mines  that  are  dry  or  dusty  be  sprinkled  daily. 

5.  That  the  ventilation  be  increased  to  300  cubic  feet  for  each 
miner. 

6.  That  an  extra  fan  be  kept  for  use  in  case  of  emergency. 

7.  That  openings  be  made  to  the  surface  from  the  inner  working) 
of  every  mine. 

8.  That  use  of  electricity  be  discontinued  in  mines  generating  gas. 

9.  That  all  trappers  be  at  least  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  trap 
doors  abolished  wherever  possible. 

10.  Superintendents  to  hold  managers'  certificates. 

While  some  of  the  features  suggested  were  incorporated  in  thecom- 
misskui's  report  in  1909,  certain  measures  of  safety  suggested  by  the  unkm 
were  wholly  disregarded.  Four  of  the  five  members  agreed  to  the  report. 
The  fifth  member,  however,  Francis  Feehan,  president  of  the  Pittsburgh 

*  Darr  Mine,  Pittsburgh  Coal  Co..  and  Naomi,  of  the  United  Coal  Co. 
Later,  I S7  men  were  killed  by  an  explosion  in  ihe  Marianna  mine  of  the  PittsbunA- 
BuffaloCoalCo.,  and  in  191  j,  9731  the  Cincinniii  mineof  ibe  Pittsburgh  Coil  Co. 


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After  a  M:ne  Disaster 
Miners'  wives  and  children  wailing  for  news  from  the  entombed  men.     The 
ture  of  mine  explosions,  the  explosibility  of  coal  dust,  and  (he  technique  of  pre- 
ntion  have  been  three  lines  of  emphasis  in  the  work  ot  the  Federal  Bureau 


i  Fighters 

One  of  the  rescue  crews  of  the  Bureau  of  Mines  wearing  oxygen  helmets  which 
admil  of  breathing  poisonous  gases  for  iwo  hours.  Nol  a  few  mining  corporatioi 
have  such  apparatus  and  rescue  ' '""'       --■'■'  ■  ■  ■ 

as  instructors,  and  emergency  r 
comes  of  a  disaster. 

Curiously  enough,  the  Pittsburgh  Experiment  Station  of  Ihe  B 
was  located  in  Ihe  old  arsenal  buildings  of  Civil  War  days. 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

District  No.  $,  U.  M.  W.  of  A.,  refused  to  sign  it.  The  recommendations 
made  by  the  commission  were  defeated  and  no  changes  in  the  bituminous 
mining  laws  were  made  by  the  legislature  of  1909.  In  191 1,  James  Rod- 
erick, chief  of  the  Pennsylvania  state  department  of  mines,  prepared  a 
revision  of  laws  relating  to  bituminous  mining,  and  succeeded  in  having  his 
recommendations  passed  by  the  legislative  session  of  that  year  in  spite  of 
opposition  by  Mr.  Feehan  and  his  district.  Mr.  Roderick's  revision  em- 
bodied features  of  the  report  of  the  commission  of  1909,  to  which  objection 
was  made  by  the  unions.  The  191!  statute  permits  open  lamps  to  be 
carried  in  some  parts  of  mines,  in  other  parts  of  which  only  safety  lamps 
are  allowed,  and  also  permits  the  use  of  electricity  in  gaseous  mines. 

A  state  commission  was  created  by  the  legislature  of  191 1,  to  in- 
vestigate the  general  subject  of  itidustrial  accidents  and  workingmen's 
compensation.  This  commission  drafted  a  bill  which  was  supponed  by 
labor  unions  and  public  bodies  alike,  but  which  was  defeated  in  the  legis- 
lature of  1913.  Further  inquiry  was  authorized  and  another  Ounmission 
report  will  come  before  the  legislature  of  191  j. 

In  May,  r9o8.  Congress  authorized  the  establishment,  under 
the  technological  branch  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  of  a 
station  for  the  investigation  of  mine  explosions,  and  Pittsburgh  was 
chosen  as  the  location  for  the  first  station.  This  was  evened  in  December, 
1908.  Two  years  later  Congress  definitely  established  a  bureau  of  mines 
under  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  which  has  developed  an  engineer- 
ing laboratory  at  Pittsburgh  and  a  system  of  mine  rescue  cars  and  safety 
demonstrators  throughout  the  bituminous  field.  In  October,  1911,  this 
bureau  held  a  miners'  life-saving  demonstration  in  Pittsburgh  which  was  a 
signal  step  forward  by  the  federal  government  in  its  program  to  raise  the 
standards  of  state  mining  laws  and  enforcement  and  to  carry  out  an  edu- 
cational propaganda  among  employers  and  unions. 

The  part  which  the  unions  have  thus  played  in  the  cumula- 
tive moventent  for  safety  in  the  mining  industry  is  in  contrast 
to  the  corresponding  movement  in  the  steel  industry  where  the 
hazards  are  equally  great  and  for  long  were  equally  neglected,  and 
where,  in  the  absence  of  any  chance  for  collective  action  or  expres- 
sion of  opinion  on  the  part  of  the  men,  the  movement  for  safety 
has  come  from  the  top.*  These  two  employments  offer  further 
points  for  comparison  and  contrast. 

'This  has  been  true  atw  of  the  Connellsvilte  region,  where  in  recent  years 
the  H.  C.  Frick  Company  hai  applied  ihe  general  safety  program  of  the  Steel 
Corporatioa  to  the  coal  pits,  with  marked  results. 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

MINE  WORKERS  AND  STEEL  WORKERS-A  COHPARtSON 
The  two  industries  employing  the  largest  number  of  men 
in  Allegheny  County  are  the  coal  mines  and  the  steel  mills.* 
There  are'piuUablj'  t^muu  iilIiLe"\WJlKeis  *n  llie  LUUniy  and~7'orooo 
to  80,000  steel  workers.  In  some  cases  the  mines  are  owned  by 
the  steel  corporations.t  The  nationalities  of  the  two  sets  of 
men  are  similar,  with  a  large  proportion  of  unskilled  and  semi- 
skilled Slavs  in  each  industry.  The  hours  of  labor  in  the  mines 
are  eight  with  no  Sunday  work  as  against  ten  and  twelve  in  the 
mills  with  (up  to  1910)  much  seven-day  work.  In  1907-08  the 
wages  paid  to  the  common  laborer  underground  at  the  coal  mines 
were  $2.^6  per  eight-hour  day,  while  the  wages  paid  to  the  same 
class  of  Slavs  at  the  Pittsburgh  mills  were  $1.50  for  ten  hours  or 
I1.80  for  twelve,  and  in  the  mill  towns  $1.65  and  ¥i.98.t  Meas- 
ured by  the  hour,  the  Slavs  employed  by  the  same  company  were 
paid  90  to  100  per  cent  more  as  mine  workers  than  as  steel  workers. 
Again,  "loaders,"  who  follow  the  undercutting  machines  in 
the  mines,  and  who  were  practically  common  laborers  paid  by 
the  ton  instead  of  by  the  day,  earned  about  $2.35  to  $2.80  for 
eight  hours,  while  metal-wheelers  and  cinder-pitmen,  doing 
similar  heavy  work  in  the  mills  and  paid  by  the  ton,  earned  $3.28 
to  ¥2.41  for  twelve  hours.  The  miner  earned  29  to  35  cents  an 
hour  and  the  steel  worker  19  to  20  cents. 

When  we  come  to  the  highest  paid  jobs,  there  is  no  position 
in  the  mine  to  be  compared  with  the  roller  on  a  bar  and  guide  mill 
or  on  a  plate  or  structural  mill.  Some  bar  and  guide  mill  rollers 
earned  $\o  to  J(i6  per  twelve-hour  day,  and  plate  and  structural 
mill  rollers  {7.00  to  $8.00  a  day.  But  these  men,  though  usually 
spoken  of  as  workmen,  are  really  foremen,  overseeing  the  work 

*  For  a  detailed  sUtement  of  labor  conditions  in  the  Pittsburgh  steel  industry, 
SM  Fitch,  John  A.:  The  Steel  Worken.    (The  Pittsburgh  SurveyO 

t  True  of  Vesta  mines  of  Jones  and  Laughlin  Steel  Co.,  and  the  National 
mines  of  the  United  Stales  Steel  Corporation. 

J  [n  1910  the  rates  paid  mine  laborers  rose  ;.j  percent,  while  an  increase  of 
6  percent  for  unskilled  labor  was  announced  by  the  U.  S.  Steel  Corporation.  These 
bases  for  comparisons  had  not,  therefore,  been  materially  changed.  In  1913  a 
further  increase  of  14.3  per  cent  was  made  by  the  U.  S.  Steel  Corporation,  while 
laboren'  wages  in  the  mines  increased  ^.a6  per  cent  in  1913.  The  contrast  in 
1914  is  therefore  less  unfavorable  to  the  mills  than  in  1907-08,  but  now,  as  then, 
taking  unskilled  labor,  which  is  the  basic  rate,  the  mine  laborer  still  ivories  shorter 
hours  for  higher  pay.  Day:  Mill — (a.oo  [ten  hrs.] — (1.40  [twelve  hrs.];  Mine — 
Sa.63 (eight  W].    Hour:  Mill— accents:  Mine— jaK cents. 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

father  than  doing  it;  and  the  company  hires  and  discharges  the 
crew  on  their  recommendation.  The  blooming  mill  roller  is  dif- 
ferent. He  actually  works  the  levers  himself,  and  to  him  may  be 
compared  the  electrical  undercutter,  who  operates  the  machine 
that  undercuts  the  coal.  The  undercutter  earned  $3.25  to  $$.00 
per  eight-hour  day  in  1907-08,  and  the  blooming  mill  roller  an 
average  of  {6.25  for  twelve  hours.  The  miner  earned  40  to  6$ 
cents  an  hour  and  the  blooming  mill  roller  about  $0  cents. 

In  another  respect  the  mine  worker's  position  is  superior. 
The  houses  iiT'wnicn  ne  lives,  many  6F  them  belonging  to  the 
company,  are  quite  convenient,  with  open  spaces  between  them, 
and  the  rentals  in  igoT^-oSwereaboutfz.ooper  room  against  {4.00 
paid  by  the  mill  worker.  Taking  everything  into  account — wages, 
hours,  leisure,  cost  of  living,  conditions  of  work^ — it  appears  that 
common  laborers  employed  by  the  steel  companies  in  their  mines 
were  so  to  go  per  cent  better  off  .than  the  same  grade  of  laborers 
employed  at  their  mills  and  furnaces;  that  semi-skilled  laborers 
employed  at  piece  rates  were  40  to  50  per  cent  better  off  in  the 
mines;  and  that  the  highest  paid  laborers,  the  steel  roller  and  the 
mine  worker,  were  on  about  the  same  footing. 

In  1897  conditions  in  the  mines  were  similar  to  those  in  the 
mills  in  1907.  The  day  laborer  received  $r  .35  to  $1 .50  for  ten  hours. 
It  was  in  that  year  that  the  long  strike  of  coal  miners  throughout 
the  interstate  field  took  place,  with  the  result  that  for  the  ten 
years  succeeding,  wages,  hours,  and  conditions  were  established  by 
agreement  between  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America  and  the 
coal  operators'  associations.  Under  these  agreements,  the  condi- 
tions <^  the  poorest  paid  laborers  improved  perhaps  20  per  cent. 

The  fate  of  unionism  in  the  two  industries  is  interesting 
and  enlightening.  Consider  first  the  bearing  of  organized  capital 
on  the  outcome.  Since  there  have  been  many  mine  operators 
competing  in  the  various  markets,  the  cpal  miners'  union  has  been 
able  to  take  advantage  of  this  competition  by  playing  ofT  com- 
petitors against  each  other.  It  became  a  direct  benefit  to  the 
operators  to  have  wages  fixed  by  agreements  which  could  make  the 
labor  cost  the  same  for  all  competitors.  The  steel  workers  have 
no  such  competing  employers,  and  they  do  not  possess  this 
advantage.  Especially  since  the  great  consolidation  (^  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation,  employers  have  been  secure  in  fixing 
179 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

labor  costs  in  other  ways  than  by  agreements  with  their  employes. 

Consider  the  outcome  from  the  standpoint  of  effective  labor 
organization.  Prior  to  the  Homestead  strike  of  1892,  the  steel 
industry  was  dominated  by  the  Amalgamated  Association  of 
Iron,  Steel,  and  Tin  Workers.  There  were  two  defects  in  this 
organization.  It  included  only  the  skilled  or  semi-skilled  and  high- 
priced  workers,  and  it  had  no  effective  discipline  over  its  local 
unions.  The  situation  was  such  that  the  manufacturer  was  handi- 
capped by  arbitrary  restrictk>ns  which  the  national  officers  of  the 
union  deprecated  but  could  not  correct,  while  common  labor  did 
not  benefit.  For  the  sake  of  both  the  manufacturer  and  the  laborer, 
the  union,  which  had  overreached  itself  and  was  headstrong 
in  its  power,  had  to  be  disciplined  and  was  finally  thrown  out. 
Since  that  time  the  manufacturers  have  gone  to  as  mad  an  extreme 
in  bearing  down  on  their  employes  as  employes  had  previously 
gone  in  throttling  manufacturers. 

Contrast  with  this  history  that  of  the  mine  workers,  a  body 
of  men  of  the  same  general  intelligence  as  the  steel  workers,  but 
whose  national  union  is  both  able  and  willing  to  discipline  its  local 
unions.  Leading  coal  operators  assert  that  they  can  carry  cm 
their  business  to  better  advantage  with  the  union  than  without. 
If  there  were  no  union,  they  would  be  menaced  by  petty  strikes 
whenever  a  few  hotheads  stirred  up  trouble,  and  at  times  when  the 
operator  might  be  tied  up  with  contracts  to  deliver  coal.  But 
under  the  annual  agreements  with  the  union,  operators  are  safe 
in  making  long  contracts,  and  they  can  conduct  their  business 
on  even  closer  calculation  for  labor  than  for  materials  whose 
prices  fluctuate.  Furthermore,  this  union,  taking  into  its  member- 
ship the  entire  body  of  workers,  has  been  a  greater  benefit  to  the 
mass  of  unskilled  labor  than  to  the  few  who  are  highly  skilled. 

SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSION 
Accwnparison  of  the  conditions  in  the  numerous  other  indus- 
tries which  we  have  considered  does  not  show  such  striking  con- 
trasts as  does  this  comparison  between  mine  workers  and  steel 
workers;  and  in  a  local  study  such  as  this,  it  would  be  going  too 
far  to  generalize  as  to  the  forces  which  have  pushed  the  workn^ 
in  some  trades  steadily  upward,  giving  them  more  pay  and  more 
leisure,  while  other  trades  have  remained  nearer  the  level  o( 
180 


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TWO  TYPES 
n  workmen  in  Ihe  mLisler  industry  of  Ihe  Pittsburgh  District 
PMot  by  Hixt 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

common  labor.  A  recapitulation  of  working  conditions  and  forms 
of  organization  in  the  different  industries,  however,  does  bring 
to  light  certain  tendencies  and  developments  which  we  believe  to 
be  characteristic  not  only  of  the  Pittsburgh  District,  but  of  indus- 
trial conditions  everywhere. 

The  combined  membership  of  the  various  unions  in  the 
Pittsburgh  District  in  1907-08  was  about  50,000.*  Approxi- 
mately one  out  of  every  four  or  five  workers  belonged  to  a  union, 
but  the  proportions  varied  greatly  in  the  different  industries. 

The  simplest  form  of  organization  is  the  local  union.  This 
is  usually  a  branch  of  some  national  union  composed  of  workers 
following  the  same  craft.  Thus  Pittsburgh  blacksmiths,  whether 
working  in  wagon,  carriage,  or  machine  shops,  or  in  foundries,  all 
belong  to  the  same  local  union  of  the  International  Brotherhood 
of  Blacksmiths.  When  the  membership  is  large  and  there  are 
many  local  unions  of  the  same  trade  the  practice  is  to  organize  a 
district  council.  Thus  the  26  local  unions  of  the  United  Brother- 
hood of  Carpenters  and  Joiners  of  America  elected  delegates  to 
a  Carpenters'  District  Council  of  Pittsburgh  and  Vicinity.  It 
was  the  district  councils  which  usually  employed  "business 
agents"  to  took  after  the  interests  of  all  the  workers  in  the  trade. 

To  unite  all  the  unions  of  all  crafts  in  the  district  there  is  a 
central  body  known  as  the  Iron  City  Central  Trades  Council.f 
Each  union  is  entitled  to  two  delegates  for  the  first  100  members 
or  majority  fraction.    At  the  time  of  this  investigation  there 

*  This  was  exclusive  of  the  30,000  mine  workers  in  unioni  whose  member* 
ship  included  men  from  nine  counties  in  western  Pennsylvania. 

t  An  earlier  central  body  has  persisted,  although  its  influence  was  practi- 
cally gone  in  1907.  The  United  Labor  League  was  organized  in  1^;  as  part  ot  the 
Km^ts  of  Labor  movement,  admitting  to  memberahip  all  local  unions  whether  be- 
longing to  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  or  the  Knights  of  Labor,  or  un- 
affiliated with  either.  In  tgot,  unions  affiliated  with  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  broke  away  from  the  United  Labor  League  and  organiied  the  Iron  City 
Trades  Council.  This  grew  rapidly.  The  League  was  accused  of  admitting 
"scab"  or  bogus  unions.  The  American  Federation  of  Labor  ordered  all  its  locals 
to  join  the  new  organization,  and  the  United  Labor  League  was  practically  de- 
stroyed. 

The  constitution  of  the  league  had  prohibited  it  from  endorsing  any  political 
candidates.  Not  so  the  Iron  City  Council,  and  soon  it  was  discovered  that  some 
bbor  leaders  were  getting  pay  for  these  endorsements.  Charges  of  blackmailing 
employers  and  misappropriating  funds  cropped  out.  In  fact,  developments  have 
been  very  similar  in  character  to  those  going  forward  in  kindred  municipal  circles. 
Various  "ihake-ups"  have  occurred  in  which  oflicials  have  been  thrown  out  of  the 
organization  and  reform  leaders  have  endeavored  to  restore  confidence  in  the  cen< 
tral  body,  among  the  rank  and  file  of  the  unions. 

I  Si 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

were  94  delegates  to  the  council,  representing  34  unions.  The 
council  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  local  unions  of  the  city  as 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor  does  to  the  national  unions  of 
the  country.  It  is  a  general  legislative  body  concerning  itself 
with  matters  of  common  interest  and  leaving  matters  affecting 
particular  crafts  in  their  own  hands.  In  order  to  secure  action 
by  certain  closely  related  trades,  there  are  affiliated  with  thb 
city  body  trade  sections,  such  as  the  Building  Trades  Council, 
the  Metal  Trades  Section,  and  the  Allied  Printing  Trades  Council. 

A  further  stage  in  united  action  is  represented  by  the  or- 
ganizations of  the  mine  workers  and  the  brewery  workmen.  These 
are  "industrial"  unions.  Instead  of  organizing  by  crafts,  all 
men  in  the  mines,  whatever  their  trade,  join  one  union;  and  all 
employes  in  or  about  the  breweries,  whether  brewers,  teamsters, 
or  engineers,  belong  to  the  union  of  brewery  workmen. 

Turning  to  the  conditions  in  the  various  trades,  wages  are 
lowest  in  those  occupations  in  which  organization  is  most  difficult, 
and  in  which  the  workers  are  compelled  to  make  individual  bar- 
gains with  their  employers.  Year  after  year  the  wages  of  common 
laborers  have  fluctuated  from  }8.ooto$i2  per  week;  only  here  and 
there  groups  have  gained  better  rates.  Some  strong  union  has 
given  them  a  boost;  or  they  have  worked  under  the  public  eye 
where  popular  sentiment  favored  them. 

In  the  transportation  trades  teamsters  and  rivermen  had  in 
1907-08  for  years  been  working  for  little  above  what  common 
laborers  earned;  but  the  street  railway  employes'  union  had  se- 
cured increases  of  from  20  to  30  per  cent,  and  the  union  of  brewery 
workmen  had  raised  the  wages  of  brewery  wagon  drivers  50  and  60 
per  cent  above  what  other  teamsters  earned.  [Both  since  in- 
creased.] 

Retail  clerks,  as  a  class,  gained  little  increase  in  their  wages 
during  the  five  years  preceding  1908;  but  bakery  workmen  gained 
20  per  cent  in  the  same  period  and  more  than  $0  per  cent  from 
1894  to  1908.  It  was  not  so  much  their  union  as  a  shortage  in  the 
supply  of  bakers  that  made  their  wages  rise.  For  more  than  ten 
years  printers  and  proofreaders  in  the  job  offices  of  Pittsburgh  had 
been  getting  f  t6  a  week.  In  the  newspaper  composing  rooms, 
however,  there  was  constant  advance  through  the  strategic  ad- 
vantage the  typographical  union  had,  not  only  because  it  was 


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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

necessary  for  the  papers  to  appear  every  day,  but  because  of  their 
desire  to  build  up  large  circulation  among  the  working  people  of 
the  District.  The  brewing  industry  even  more  directly  appealed 
to  the  same  mass  of  consumers,  and,  while  it  requires  but  half 
the  time  to  leam  the  brewers'  trade  that  it  does  to  learn  that  of 
a  carpenter,  bricklayer,  or  electrician,  the  brewery  journeyman's 
union  had  been  able  to  secure  for  him  an  annual  income  equal  to 
that  of  the  building  trade  mechanic. 

Turning  to  the  great  industries  subsidiary  to  the  steel  mills 
we  see  the  workers  with  difficulty  maintaining  their  scales  of 
wages.  Skilled  machinists  and  molders  are  advanced  as  individ- 
uals, but  metal  trades  workers  as  a  class  have  gained  little  in 
wages  in  recent  years,  and  increases  have  been  secured  not  so 
much  by  reason  of  their  unions  as  because  specialization  has  left 
a  lack  of  first  class  mechanics.  Whenever  a  depression  has  come 
with  many  mechanics  out  of  work,  wages  have  been  reduced. 
The  mass  of  semi-skilled  machine  workers,  drill  press  hands,  milling 
machine  operators,  lathe  hands,  and  others  are  unorganized  and 
easily  replaceable  and  they  have  had  no  regularly  increasing  scales 
of  wages  during  a  decade  of  rising  cost  of  living.  They  are  paid 
in  accordance  with  the  employers'  estimate  of  each  man's  worth. 

In  the  building  trades,  on  the  other  hand,  there  have  been, 
on  the  whole,  strong  unions  and  steady  progress  with  increasing 
wages.  At  the  time  of  our  inquiry,  indications  of  a  movement 
similar  to  that  in  the  metal  trades  were  observable.  Some  unions 
were  weakening,  as  specialization,  new  inventions,  and  organiza- 
tions of  employers  were  removing  the  favorable  circumstances 
which  had  built  up  strong  building  trades  unions.  The  unusually 
extensive  building  operations  in  the  past  few  years  have  more  or 
less  stayed  or  cloaked  this  trend,  and  concert  of  action  among 
the  trades  themselves— where  single  unions  failed — has  strength- 
ened the  hold  of  the  entire  group.* 

*  The  crafts  which  lacked  stienjph  in  themselves  have  more  and  more  come 
to  act  through  the  Building  Trades  Council — quitting  work  in  unison  to  redress 
the  grievances  of  any  one  group,  and  bringing  pressuie  to  bear  on  any  one  group 
which  needlessly  threw  allied  trades  out  ofemployment.  The  smaller  employers, 
for  their  part,  have  turned  for  protection  against  sympathetic  strikes  and  juridic- 
lional  disputes  to  a  builders'  exchange  or  league,  in  the  summer  of  1913.  a  dis- 
pute over  the  unskilled  labor  used  in  erecting  a  new  department  store  threatened 
to  spread  to  all  crafts  and  operations  throughout  the  city,  and  to  stave  this  oft, 
an  agreement  was  entered  into  between  the  Building  Trades  Council  and  the 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

In  general,  the  same  causes  which  have  enabled  the  workers 
to  force  up  wages  have  enabled  them  to  reduce  working  hours. 
Common  laborers  have  worked  for  many  years  from  ten  to  twelve 
hours  a  day.  Ten  hours  was  in  1907  the  prevailing  day's  work  for 
most  laborers  in  the  city  except  where  unionism,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  building  laborers,  or  politics,  as  in  the  case  of  city  employes. 
fixed  the  hours  at  eight.  A  strong  organization  gave  the  retail  clerks 
a  regular  workday,  first  of  eleven  and  later  of  ten  hours.  But  after 
their  organization  disbanded,  the  state  legislature  had  to  step  in  to 
prevent  excessive  hours  for  young  girls  in  some  establishments. 

Among  the  organized  trade  groups  the  movement  toward  an 
eight-hour  day  has  been  only  in  part  successful.  Some  unions, 
though  able  to  secure  advances  in  wages,  have  not  been  able  to 
shorten  the  workday.  Thus,  although  railroad  employes  are 
unionized,  freight  crews  have  had  little  success  in  cutting  down 
hours.  In  contrast,  the  strong  union  enabled  street  railway  em- 
ployes to  bring  hours  down  30  to  40  per  cent  from  1902  to  1907. 
In  the  metal  trades  the  powerful  unions  of  the  90's  enabled  me- 
chanics to  establish  a  nine-hour  day,  but  they  have  never  since  suc- 
ceeded in  reducing  hours  below  that  figure.  Ojwn  book  and  job 
printing  offices  continue  to  work  nine  hours  while  the  better  organ- 
ized newspaper  workers  enjoy  a  seven  and  one-half  and  eight-hour 
day.  Up  to  1907  men  in  the  breweries  were  working  nine  hours  a 
day,  and  bottling  house  employes  eight  and  a  half  hours.  Since 
then  the  union  has  secured  eight  hours,  not  only  for  all  bottling 
and  brew-house  men,  but  also  for  engineers  and  firemen  who,  out- 
side of  breweries,  work  twelve  hours  per  day.  All  the  building 
trades  have  been  working  eight  hours  a  day  for  more  than  ten 
years;  and  the  more  strongly  organized  trades  now  have  a  Satur- 
day half-holiday  at  least  during  the  summer  months. 

PittriniTgh  Builders'  Exchange,  prohibiting  any  union  to  go  on  strike,  or  any  em- 
ployer to  lock  out  men,  while  the  dispute  was  being  adjusted.  This  worked  so  well 
that  without  any  formal  compact  between  the  two  associations,  committees  from 
the  two  bodies  settled  perhaps  one  hundred  clashes  in  the  following  year.  Steam- 
fitters,  lathers,  painten.  and  hoisting  engineers  were  at  different  times  ordered  back 
to  work;  and  on  the  side  of  the  employers,  certain  general  contractors  and  planing 
mill  operators,  who  had  ordered  lockouts,  were  ooli^  to  put  their  men  back. 
The  painters'  union  was  expelled  from  the  Building  Trades  Council  because  of  its 
refusal  to  keep  the  agreement;  and  the  hoisting  engineers  split  into  two  seclbns, 
one  abiding  by  the  decision:  the  other  rejecting  it,  the  latter  making  common  cause 
with  the  bricklayers,  plasterers  and  stone  masons  who  are  outside  the  coundl. 
This  led  (summer  of  1914)  to  the  breaking  up  of  the  arrangement. 
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WAGE-EARNERS  OF  PITTSBURGH 

Practically  all  the  building  trades  pay  regularly  time  and 
one-half  for  all  overtime  and  double  time  for  all  Sunday  and  holiday 
woric.  For  some  classes  of  repair  work  on  Sundays,  boiler  makers 
get  three  and  four  times  the  regular  rate.  Outside  of  the  building 
trades  only  blacksmiths,  molders,  pattern  makers,  and  printers 
are  paki  both  time  and  one-half  and  double  time. 

Such  a  recapitulation  makes  it  evident  that  the  trades  which 
have  come  to  pay  the  highest  wages  in  the  Pittsburgh  District 
and  in  which  working  hours  have  been  most  reduced  are  those 
which  have  had  the  strongest  labor  organizations.  The  increased 
earnings  which  the  workers  have  secured  have  depended  not  so 
much  on  their  skill  or  intelligence  or  on  increased  output,  as 
on  the  strength  of  their  organizations. 

In  the  years  under  review,  unorganized  workers  made  little 
progress  in  getting  better  terms  of  labor.  Employers  when  free 
of  the  power  of  unions  were  often  willing  enough  to  raise  individual 
workmen,  but  they  were  not  willing  to  keep  on  raising  the  minimum 
standard  for  all  employes.  When  a  union  was  destroyed  lower 
wages  and  increased  hours  did  not  always  follow,  but  invariably 
the  progressive  improvement  in  the  conditions  of  employment 
which  characterized  the  well  organized  trades  was  stopped. 

Moreover,  as  our  inquiry  covered  the  period  of  depression, 
it  brought  out  the  fact  that  the  influence  of  the  unions  in  hard 
times  in  preventing  or  lessening  wage-cuts  is  as  noteworthy  as 
their  influence  in  securing  advances  in  good  times.  Usually  it 
required  a  union  to  hold  the  advances  gained,  if  not  actually  to 
get  them  in  the  first  place.  Those  workers  who  had  secured 
advances  through  fortunate  circumstances  without  strong  or- 
ganizations, were  quick  to  lose  in  the  bad  years  what  they  had 
gained.  But  those  who  maintained  their  organizations  held  their 
ground,  and  subsequently  were  able  to  secure  even  higher  rates. 

There  was  unmistakable  evidence  also  that  labor  organiza- 
tions exercise  an  influence  far  greater  than  their  proportion  of 
numbers.  They  set  standards  which  employers  of  non-union 
labor  found  themselves  obliged  to  approach  in  order  to  ward  off 
organization  among  their  own  men.  The  results  of  a  strike  were 
found  to  be  shared  often  by  many  outside  the  ranks  who  took  part. 

Here  we  have  reached  a  point  where  a  second  generalization 
can  be  drawn  from  our  city-wide  study  of  employments.    We  have 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

seen  that  in  the  years  under  review,  taking  the  whole  expanse  of 
labor  conditions,  there  was  little  progress,  as  far  as  the  workers 
were  concerned,  in  the  vital  matters  of  hours  and  wages,  without 
organization  on  their  part.  In  reviewing  the  careers  of  the  or- 
ganizations, comparing  one  with  another,  it  seems  equally  clear 
that  it  was  not  superior  skill  or  intelligence  that  enabled  some 
wage-eamers  to  build  up  strong  unions  while  others  failed,  al- 
though skill  and  intelligence  have  helped.  Usually  it  was  some 
strategic  advantage  possessed  by  the  working  people.  Thus  we 
have  pointed  out  how  competition  among  the  coal  operators 
played  into  the  hands  of  the  mine  workers  and  enabled  them  to 
build  up  a  strong  union,  how  the  necessity  of  issuing  a  newspaper 
every  morning  gave  the  printers  an  advantage,  and  how  brewery 
workmen  built  up  a  strong  organization  by  union  label  and  boycott. 

The  greatest  advantage,  however,  was  to  have  employers 
small  and  many  and  competition  keen.  This  was  the  case  in  the 
building  trades,  and  here  were  the  strongest  unions  at  the  time  of 
our  inquiry.  Building  trade  workers  have  other  advantages. 
The  location  of  their  work  is  fixed  and  usually  it  has  to  be  finished 
at  a  specified  time.  The  employer  can  not  have  it  done  at  another 
place,  and  he  suffers  if  it  is  not  done  in  the  given  time. 

In  general,  the  stronger  the  union  the  more  nearly  the 
industry  in  which  it  existed  approached  the  local  and  compara- 
tively small-scale  production  of  the  building  trades.  Trade 
agreements  between  employers  and  workers  by  which  both  sides 
were  given  a  voice  in  determining  conditions  of  employment  were 
found  mainly  where  competing  employers  had  to  unite  against  a 
labor  organization.  Such  agreements  equalized  labor  cost  and 
other  competitive  conditions  for  the  employers.  It  was  in  no 
small  part  because  a  union  scale  was  able  to  accomplish  this  that 
the  workers  were  able  to  force  recognition  for  their  unions  from 
employers  and  to  compel  collective  dealing. 

When,  however,  an  industry  passed  under  the  control  of  a 
great  national  corporation  or  a  trust,  competition  was  eliminated 
or  competitive  conditions  could  be  equalized  by  the  dominant 
employer  without  the  aid  of  a  labor  organization;  and  most  of 
the  other  strategic  advantages  held  by  the  workers  were  removed. 
The  unions  therefore  went  down  before  the  growing  aggregations 
of  capital.    Typical  of  the  city  trades  in  general  is  the  fate  of  the 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNERS  OF   PITTSBURGH 

unions  of  bakery  workmen.  In  the  small  German  and  Jewish 
bakeshops  they  exercise  an  influence,  but  they  can  not  maintain  a 
foothold  in  the  shops  of  the  National  Biscuit  Company.  Even  in 
the  building  trades,  the  National  Erectors'  Association,  led  by  the 
American  Bridge  Company,  has  been  able  to  block  the  structural 
iron  workers.  The  machinists'  union  was  strong  when  employers 
^vere  represented  by  many  small  contract  shops.  Its  power  was 
broken  by  the  appearance  of  large  specialized  shops  manufacturing 
standard  products  that  could  be  duplicated  in  branch  factories 
outside  of  Pittsburgh.  Iron  and  steel  workers  wielded  a  great 
power  over  their  industry  as  long  as  there  were  many  competing 
mills.  Broken  in  the  days  of  the  great  steel  companies,  their 
union  was  buried  when  the  Steel  Corporation  absorbed  plant  after 
plant.  And  masons,  carpenters,  and  steamfitters  employed  in  the 
corporation  mills  long  since  suffered  the  fate  of  the  blast  furnace 
men  and  roll-hands.* 

There  were  many  signs  in  1907-08  that  the  more  intelligent 
workers  in  Pittsburgh  were  taking  to  heart  in  their  own  way  the 
points  made  in  the  generalizations  just  given.  They  had  seen  wages 
increase,  the  working  day  shorten,  and  conditions  of  employment 
generally  improve  because  of  the  unions'  stronger  bargaining  power. 
They  had  come  to  believe  that  their  welfare  depended  not  upon 
skill,  or  output,  or  upon  the  good  intentions  of  their  employers, 
but  upon  their  own  organizations.  They  directed  their  main 
efforts,  therefore,  to  building  up  their  unions  and  to  keeping 
them  intact.  Trade  union  policies  were  developed  to  these  ends. 
The  closed  shop,  the  limit  on  apprentices,  the  use  of  the  union 
label,  the  trade  federations  and  their  sympathetic  strikes — were  all 
intended  to  secure  advantages  which  would  strengthen  the  unions. 

These  had  in  turn  become  points  of  irritation  to  employers. 
Such  policies  the  latter  considered  attempts  to  interfere  with  the 
business  of  the  owners  and  not  legitimate  purposes  of  labor  or- 
ganizations. They  were  the  first  points  of  attack  in  most  disputes; 
and,  as  we  have  seen,  when  employers  began  to  combine  on  a 


*  At  its  Toronto  convention,  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  "declared 
war"  on  the  United  Statei  Steel  Corporation,  called  on  the  allied  trades  to  put 
or^niicn  in  the  district,  and  attempted  to  unionize  the  mills.  These  tactics  were 
fnittleu.  The  unions  claim  to  have  enlisted  10.000  men,  but  the  move  was  met 
by  etpionage,  "immediate  discharge,"  and  other  forms  of  coercion,  and  the  mem- 
bership dissipated. 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

national  scale  and  to  eliminate  competition,  they  usually  found 
themselves  able  to  overcome  those  disadvantages  which  had  form- 
erly permitted  the  workers  to  build  up  strong  organizations.  The 
pendulum  has  swung  the  other  way,  and  in  more  than  one  line — the 
great  fabricating  plants  following  the  lead  of  the  mills — the  cor- 
porations have  made  their  control  absolute  by  hiring  immigrants 
and  stamping  out  organization  wherever  it  showed  among  the  men. 

As  a  reaction  against  this  manifest  trend  there  are  indica- 
tions in  Pittsburgh  of  labor  activity  designed  to  contest  with  the 
great  national  corporations  their  control  over  the  terms  of  work. 

It  is  significant  that  in  the  steel  district  where  the  workers 
in  the  major  industries  have  been  defeated  in  the  economic  struggle, 
the  socialist  vote  has  greatly  increased  in  the  last  few  elections. 
Wage-Gamers  instinctively  assert  a  property  right  in  their  jobs. 
They  want  a  voice  in  the  management  of  industry  for  the  same 
reason  that  in  the  range  of  history,  wider  and  wider  groups  of  the 
common  people  have  wanted  a  voice  in  the  government.  They 
have  come  to  believe  that  their  lives  and  their  welfare  depend 
upon  it;  that  they  can  not  trust  these  to  any  class  of  employers, 
however  benevolent.  Their  unions  defeated,  they  turn  to  the 
government  to  help  them  control  the  conditions  of  employment. 

But  relief  from  this  direction  is  slow  in  coming  and  new 
forms  of  self-protection  in  the  economic  field  are  taking  head. 
Thus  has  come  the  spontaneous  strike — the  McKees  Rocks  strike 
of  1909,  in  which  unskilled  and  semi-skilled  men  of  seven  races 
participated;  and  again,  in  1914,  the  strike  of  over  10,000  men 
and  women  of  all  races  and  all  grades  of  skill  employed  in  the 
Westinghouse  plants  at  East  Pittsburgh,  in  which  the  mass  strength 
of  machine  hands,  themselves  the  product  of  open  shop  specializa- 
tion, was  tested  out  on  a  larger  scale. 

It  is  significant  that  in  these  strikes  a  bid  for  control  was  made 
by  the  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World,  an  organization  which 
proposes  to  substitute  for  the  old  craft  organizations  "industrial 
unions,"  to  include  all  the  employes  of  an  industry,  whatever 
their  occupation  or  wherever  they  may  be  located.  By  such  an 
oi^nization  it  is  proposed  to  present  a  solid  front  to  the  great 
national  corporations,  while  coupled  with  it  will  go  political 
activity  along  class  lines  to  gain  control  of  the  government. 


■d^yCoogle 


.d,GoogIe 


Boy  Holding  Moi 


<   Co..  Pilllburtk 


■d^yCoogle 


FACTORY  INSPECTION  IN  PITTSBURGH 

WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO  THE  CONDITIONS  OF  WORKING 

women  and  children 
Florence  Kelley 

TH  E  factory  inspector  has  seemed  to  most  Pennsylvania  em- 
ployers and  to  all  working  children  a  remote  and  inaccessible 
dignitary.  In  Pittsburgh,  center  of  thousands  of  industrial 
establishments,  there  was  during  the  year  of  the  Survey  no  office 
<^  the  state  government  charged  with  the  supervision  of  these 
industries,  and  the  number  of  inspectors  was  sadly  insufficient. 
It  was  difficult  to  lind  inspectors.  Had  the  Pennsylvania  statutes 
been  as  effectual  as  the  best  laws  of  any  state  and  had  the  chief 
inspector  been  inspired  by  modem  ideas  of  labor  legislation,  it 
would  still  be  true  that  his  staff  of  five  officers  assigned  to  the  Pitts- 
burgh District  could  not  by  reason  of  insufficient  numbers  cover 
the  ground.* 

There  was  in  the  city  no  local  collection  of  records,  of  cer- 
tificates of  inspection,  suits  pending,  work  done  by  individual 
deputies,  or  other  current  material  of  interest  to  citizens  whose 
work  closely  interlocks  with  that  of  the  department  of  factory  in- 
spection, such  as  local  boards  of  health  and  education,  and  co-oper- 
ating voluntary  agencies  which  have  to  do  with  working  people — 
settlements,  trade  unions,  consumers'  leagues.  Pittsburgh  was 
entitled  to  a  factory  inspection  headquarters  and  it  was  obvious 
that  the  work  in  the  District  could  never  be  satisfactorily  done 
until  one  was  established. 

The  Gvil  War  may  be  said  to  have  given  Pittsburgh  its 
great  impetus  as  a  producing  center.  For  fifty  years  thereafter, 
during  which  it  rapidly  became  an  industrial  district  of  the  first 


duded  Braddock,  Homeiiead.  and  McKcespon  with  their  highly  developed  and 
unusually  dangerous  industries. 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

magnitude,  its  scheme  of  government  for  industry  remained 
abortive  until  with  the  legislature  of  1913,  new  machinery  for  the 
public  control  and  supervision  of  labor  conditions  was  created  for 
the  whole  of  Pennsylvania. 

Two  methods  have  been  resorted  to  in  the  United  States  by 
powerful  employing  interests  of  the  type  that  brook  no  interfer- 
ence between  them  and  their  workers.  One  method,  as  in  Massa- 
chusetts, where  enforcement  can  be  looked  for  from  the  high 
type  of  public  administrator,  is  to  block  the  passage  oi  protective 
laws.  The  other,  as  in  Illinois,  where  the  public  has  been  quick  to 
support  labor  legislation,  is  to  cripple  and  undermine  enforcement. 
In  Pennsylvania,  both  methods  singly  and  in  unison  have  been 
employed  with  a  success  unapproached  in  any  state  in  the  Union. 
This  article  as  published  in  1909*  dealt  with  enforcement 
in  Pittsburgh  from  1903  to  1908, — and  as  it,  in  fact,  remained  until 
1913.  During  these  ten  years  Pennsylvania  afforded  the  low  water 
mark  of  public  efficiency  in  law  enforcement — a  danger  signal  warn- 
ing us  against  those  forces  which  strive  to  sap  whatever  reser- 
voirs of  public  control  may  be  contrived.  For  while  my  criticism 
was  directed  at  the  chief  official  (since  removed)  of  the  existing 
system  (since  changed),  his  inertia  and  maladministration  were  the 
chosen  instruments  of  industrial  interests  which  in  other  relations 
have  found  no  difficulty  in  getting  what  they  wanted  at  the 
state  capital. 

These  interests  did  not  have  to  be  told  that  the  central  point 
in  any  system  of  factory  inspection  is  the  factory  inspector. 
When  this  officer  is  able  and  devoted,  in  command  of  deputies  se- 
cure like  himself  in  their  tenure  of  office  under  civil  service  laws, 
the  development  of  effective  legislation  follows  as  surely  as  the 
vigorous  enforcement  of  the  existing  statute.  This  generalization 
was  especially  applicable  to  Pennsylvania  where  the  entire  ad- 
ministrative system  of  the  factory  inspection  department  was 
embraced  in  one  paragraph  of  an  act  of  1905  which  placed  the 
tory  laws  in  the  hands  of  a  chief  factory  in- 
ixpert  deputy  factory  inspectors  receiving 
annum.  To  them  was  entrusted  the  task 
ns  upon  working  hours,  and  safeguarding 

-aciory  Inspection  in  Pittsburgh.    Cbariliii  mid  Tbt 
(March  6,  1909). 

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FACTORY  INSPECTION   IN   PITTSBURGH 

machinery,  all  their  functions  being  described  in  the  vaguest  and 
most  general  language.  What  was  ordered  in  a  given  case  de- 
pended in  the  first  instance  upon  the  point  of  view  of  the  particular 
inspectors  serving,  like  their  chief,  without  protection  of  a  civil 
service  law. 

These  deputies  were  in  1907-08  and  always  had  been,  purely  political 
appointees.  Theirs  were  not  even  "labor"  appointments.  Faithful  inspec- 
tors who  insisted  that  the  law  should  be  obeyed,  might  be  removed  at  will 
in  the  interests  of  powerful  employers.  Such  insecurity  places  a  premium 
upon  making  friends  with  powerful  interests  throughout  the  state,  winking 
at  violations  of  law,  avoiding  prosecution,  publicity,  and  anything  that 
may  provoke  hostility  either  to  the  department  or  to  the  individual 
deputy.  Voting  fathers  who  wish  to  have  their  children  go  early  to  work, 
and  employers  who  desire  to  be  let  alone,  count  heavily  against  offi- 
cials who  may  desire  to  be  faithful  in  the  perfonnance  of  an  unpopular 
task.  Women  and  children,  however  subject  to  the  factory  law,  do  not 
count  in  behalf  of  such  officials.  Lacking  the  protection  of  a  civil  service 
law,  the  state  factory  inspectors  in  Pennsylvania  were  therefore  at  a  serious 
disadvantage  compared  with  their  colleagues  in  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
and  Massachusetts. 

To  countervail  this  pressure  after  appointment  as  well  as  to  obtain 
appointment  in  the  first  place,  inspectors  had  need  of  influential  connec- 
tions. Thus  in  1907  one  deputy  inspector  assigned  to  the  Pittsburgh 
District  was  a  cousin  of  a  leading  politician;  another  was  a  sister-in-law 
of  an  ex-governor  of  Pennsylvania;  one  found  his  backing  among  the 
German  voters;  a  second,  among  the  Irish.* 

THE  REPORT  TO  THE  PUBLIC 

The  effectiveness  of  a  department  may  be  justly  inferred 

from  the  degree  of  enlightening  publicity  which  it  achieves.    Under 

the  conditions  described  above,  therefore,  a  statesmanlike  chief 

might  seek  strength  in  the  goodwill  of  the  public,  informing  it  of 

*  The  power  at  incompetent  subordinates  under  this  system  of  appcHntment 
it  ihown  in  the  following  naive  ttatement  made  by  Chief  Delaney  in  his  report  for 
the  year  ending  December  31,  igoS,  reprding  an  inspector  who  was  removed  in 
Lmenie  County:  "  During  the  five  years  his  reports  were  compiled  by  me,  he  had 
machinery  ([uarded  in  only  eleven  establishments  as  a^inst  seventeen  establish- 
ments in  which  machinery  was  guarded  by  hii  successor  in  twelve  months  from  the 
time  of  his  appointment,  an  improved  system  of  inspection  that  has  materially 
lessened  thenumber  of  accidents  in  that  county."  It  was  a  scourge  for  the  workers 
and  a  disgrace  to  Pennsylvania  that  under  the  system  of  appointment  by  political 
influence,  an  inspector  of  such  ascertained  and  culpable  disqualifications  shouhl 
have  held  office  five  yean! 

191 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

his  work,  interpreting  the  laws,  appealing  to  the  courts  and  if  these 
failed  him,  appealing  from  the  courts  to  public  opinion.  To  every 
citizen  interested  in  the  problem  of  labor,  his  official  report  is  of 
profound  interest,  for  it  is  the  revelation  of  the  character  and 
methods  of  the  officer  entrusted  by  the  state  with  the  important 
duty  of  safeguarding  the  life,  limbs,  health,  and  intelligence  of 
future  wage^amers. 

In  a  series  of  lo  reports  J.  C.  Delaney,  the  state  factory  in- 
spertor  of  Pennsylvania  from  1903  to  1913,  exhibited  the  work 
■  of  the  department  of  factory  inspection  during  a  period  of  great 
industrial  activity. 

Official  reports  are  in  themselves  tests  of  efficiency.  If 
they  are  full  and  clear,  promptly  published  and  distributed,  the 
work  of  the  department  is  self-evidently  efficient.  If,  however, 
they  are  meager  or  muddled,  the  public  is  forced  to  infer  that  they 
are  a  faithful  interpretation  of  the  work  of  the  department. 

These  reports  of  the  department  of  factory  inspection  of  the 
state  of  Pennsylvania  were  meager  and  muddled.  This  depart- 
ment cost  the  state  of  Pennsylvania  many  tens  of  thousands  (^ 
dollars  every  year.  Yet  in  Pennsylvania,  alone  among  the  states, 
five  succeeding  reports  of  the  factory  inspection  department,  1903 
to  1907  inclusive,  had  with  one  exception  shrunk  from  year  to 
year.*  Such  was  the  contempt  of  its  chief  officer  for  the  people 
whose  servant  he  was,  that  each  was  briefer  and  less  valuable  than 
the  preceding. 

The  report  for  1907  was  the  most  recent  one  available  at  the 
time  the  findings  of  the  Pittsburgh  Survey  were  published,  and  it 
was  used  to  illustrate  the  points  made.  As  an  official  document 
issued  midway  of  the  ten  years  of  the  Delaney  administration,  it 
may  well  stand  as  an  exhibit  of  the  caliber  thereof.  It  contains 
no  index  and  no  table  of  contents  for  its  57  pages,  nor  is  the  text  of 
the  labor  law  to  be  found  in  it.  It  is  interesting  chiefly  for  its 
omissions. 

'The  follomng  liit  shows  the  number  of  pages  in  the  reports  for  the  years 
from  tgoi  to  1013  inclunve: 

For  1903,  190  pages  For  1908,  76  pages 

For  1904,    78  pages  For  1909,  s8  pages 

For  190;,    $8  pages  For  1910,  68  pagei 

For  1906,    64  pages  For  191 1,  66  pages 

For  1907,    ;7  pages  For  191a,  48  pages 

192 


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FACTORY   INSPECTION   IN    PITTSBURGH 

A  thoroughly  competent  report  must  answer  fully  and 
clearly  at  least  the  following  questions: 

1.  How  many  persons  were  found  at  woTk? 
3.  How  many  men  were  found  at  workF 

3.  How  many  women  were  found  at  work? 

4.  How  many  boys  and  how  many  girls? 

5.  In  what  specific  industries  and  in  what  processes  employed? 

6.  At  what  ages?    7.  In  what  localities? 

8-  Between  what  hours?    9.  How  many  at  night? 
10.  If  illegally,  how  many?    11.  In  what  fonn  of  illegality? 

13.  How  many  prosecutions  were  instituted? 
■  3.  How  many  were  successful? 

14.  Who  were  punished  for  the  illegalities? 

15.  What  was  the  punishment? 

(a)  Fines?    If  so,  what  amount? 

(b)  Imprisonment?    If  so,  to  what  extent? 

16.  What  are  the  details  of  the  unsuccessful  suits? 

17.  What  accidents  occurred? 

(a)  How  many  of  them  fatal?  (b)  How  many  befeli  chil- 
dren? (c)  Proportion  of  accidents  to  children  to 
accidents  to  adults?  (d)  Relation  of  accidents  to 
number  of  hours  since  beginning  work? 

18.  In  what  (a)  industries  were  these  accidents?  (b)  processes 

were  these  accidents? 

Counting  the  subdivisions,  here  are  29  questions.  The 
report  gives  some  answer  to  1 1  of  these;  in  regard  to  the  remain- 
ing 18  we  are  left  in  the  dark.  It  shows  the  employment  through- 
out the  state  by  counties,  but  nothing  more  definite  than  that. 
Except  Philadelphia,  which  is  identical  with  Philadelphia  County, 
not  a  city  is  given  separately.  No  statistics  show  the  number  of* 
w(xnen  or  children  at  work  in  each  of  the  important  industries — 
much  less  the  number  engaged  in  each  process.  Not  a  figure  ap- 
pears as  to  employment  at  night  or  as  to  hours  of  work.  A  tally, 
it  is  true,  is  given  as  to  the  number  of  children  found  illegally  at 

*  The  number  of  women  and  children  at  work  (for  the  state  as  a  whole) 
dassitied  according  to  the  same  trade  groupings  as  the  table  for  Allegheny  Couniy 
on  p.  194  was  included  in  Ihe  1903  report,  not  given  in  1904  or  190J,  given  in  1906, 
supplanted  by  percentages  in  1907,  given  in  1908,  1909,  1910,  loti  and  191a. 
The  report  for  1908,  issued  in  May,  1909.  following  the  original  publication  of  this 
review,  gave  supplemenlaiy  tables  for  textile  branches  and  sixteen  selected  indus- 
tries theretofore  lumped  under  "miscellaneous."  Omitted  in  1909,  1910  and  1911 
(certain  industries  given  in  the  text  in  1911)  and  given  for  textiles  and  twelve 
mploying  trades  in  1911. 

"93 


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WACE-EARNiNC  PITTSBURGH 

work  who  were  dismissed,  and  the  number  of  factory  inspection 
orders  complied  with;  but  not  a  word  as  to  prosecutions;  not  a 
figure  to  show  in  what  industries  the  accidents  which  are  reported 
occurred,  or  whether  the  injured  were  men,  women,  or  children. 

There  is  in  the  report  much  unprofitable  muddling  with  per- 
centages. The  people  of  this  country  can  do  their  own  examples 
in  percentage.  What  they  ask  of  inspection  departments  is  a  full 
and  clear  statement  of  women  and  children  found  at  work  in 
clearly  specified  industries. 

Turning  to  the  Pittsburgh  District,  the  following  table 
is  all  that  is  given  specifically  as  to  the  employment  of  women 
or  children  in  Allegheny  County  in  1907: 


MaUi 

FemOts 

Maltib,- 

tvetni4<md 

16  ytmi 

FemaUibt- 

Iron  and  products  . 
Leather  and  products    . 
Lumber  and  products    . 
Mercantile  industries     . 
MtKcllaneous  manufactures 
Textiles,  mills,  and  clothing 
Bakeshops 
Workshops      .       .       . 

4.050 

a,4oa 
"47 

'.715 

7 

24S 

11,051 

'Z 

7' 

1.688 
170 

::^ 

37 

94 

3 

i'3 

Total        .... 

180,910 

»6,ii8 

4.875 

..988' 

This  table  throws  no  light  on  the  employment  of  women  in  the  vast 
industries  related  to  electricity  or  to  any  metal  trade  except  iron.  Glass 
manufacture  does  not  appear  nor  does  any  form  of  food  production,  save 
only  bakeshops.  Yet  the  Pittsburgh  Survey  found  over  Soo  women  in  the 
packing  and  other  departments  of  the  glass  factories  of  the  city,  and  the 
metal  trades  calling  for  3.000  women  in  increasing  varieties  of  work.f 

'This  total  is  100  out  of  the  way.  All  the  figures  are,  however,  exact  copies 
of  those  in  the  report. 

t  Butler.  Elizabeth  Beardsley:  Women  and  the  Trades. 
194 


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FACTORY   INSPECTION   IN   PITTSBURGH 

The  numbers  of  women  and  girls  in  foundries,  and  in  nut  and  bolt  works, 
toiling  in  soot  and  grime,  were  well  known  to  be  growing  steadily.  One 
particularly  glaring  omission  is  that  of  the  laundresses,  of  whom  in  1900 
the  United  States  Census  reported  t,oo6  in  Pittsburgh  alone,  not  including 
Allegheny  City.  In  1908,  Miss  Butler  found  more  than  twice  that  num- 
ber in  the  Greater  City,  for  the  industry  had  grown  by  leaps  and  bounds 
during  the  intervening  years.  Presumably  all  these  branches  presented 
themselves  to  the  mind  of  the  state  factory  inspector  as  "miscellaneous 
manufactures"  employing  together  about  11,000  women. 

Equally  meager  and  muddled  are  the  data  concerning  the 
nature  of  the  industries  in  which  the  4,875  boys  and  1,988  girls  in 
Allegheny  County  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  years  of  age  were  em- 
ployed. These  6,863  children  comprised  more  than  one-seventh 
of  the  working  children  of  the  state. 

In  the  itemized  list,  as  shown,  glass  manufacture  does  not 
appear."  This  industry,  in  which  there  is  greater  popular  inter- 
est than  in  any  other  manufacturing  industry  employing  children 
in  Pennsylvania,  is  lumped  with  "  miscellaneous  manufactures." 
Under  this  comprehensive  title  1,768  boys  and  832  girls,  2,600 
children,  appear  to  have  been  found  at  work  between  their  four- 
teenth and  sixteenth  birthdays.  It  would  seem  well  worth  while 
to  itemize  somewhat  specifically  the  occupation  of  so  large  a  num- 
ber of  children,  more  than  one-third  of  the  whole.  The  glass  in- 
dustry is  sufficiently  powerful  to  obtain  year  after  year  exemption 
from  the  requirement  that  children  shall  not  work  at  night.  Boys 
on  reaching  their  fourteenth  birthday  were  in  1907  permitted  to 
work  at  night  in  making  glass  "if  the  usual  process  of  manufacture 
.  .  .  is  of  a  kind  that  customarily  necessitates  a  continuous 
day  and  night  employment."  The  exemption  still  holds  in  1914. 
Some  glass  worits  it  is  true  never  employ  children  at  night.  In 
others,  no  child  can  find  work  who  fails  to  be  on  hand  for  the 
night  shifts  which  occur  in  alternate  working  weeks.  In  still 
others,  while  night  labor  is  not  compulsory,  boys  are  preferred 
who  report  for  it  regularly  with  the  men  with  whom  they  work.f 

It  would  be  of  vital  interest  to  citizens  of  Pennsylvania, — 

*  The  1903  report  gave  ttatiitics  by  counties  and  by  tradei  in  detail,  shewing 
400  boy*  and  76  girls  from  thirteen  to  sixteen  yein  of  age  employed  in  the  glass 
industry  in  Alle^eny  County.    Thereafter  these  comprehensive  analyses  were 


tSee  Butler,  Elizabeth  Beardsley:  Sharpsburg:  A  Typical  Waste  of  Child- 
hood.    P.  aj9  of  this  volume. 

195 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

this  exemption  of  the  glass  industry  having  been  vainly  assailed  by 
the  friends  of  children,  during  the  legislative  sessions  of  1909,  1911, 
and  1913, — to  know  authoritatively  how  many  boys  and  girls 
in  Allegheny  County,  an  important  center  of  the  industry,  were 
employed  in  glass  works,  and  how  many  of  these  worked  at  ntght. 
These  things  can  not  be  learned  authoritatively  by  unofficial  in- 
vestigators. Why,  then,  were  they  not  for  these  crucial  years  a 
part  of  the  reports  of  the  officials  who  had  the  power  and  duty  to 
make  continuous  investigations  P 

Meager  and  unintelligent  though  these  annual  reports  are, 
they  nevertheless,  more  urgently  than  those  of  any  other  state 
factory  inspector,  demanded  the  scrutiny  of  the  public.  For  they 
recorded  a  larger  number  of  children  found  at  work  than  were 
recorded  for  any  other  state. 

TABLE  2. — CHILDREN   AT  WORK  IN    PENNSYLVANIA 
(Drawfi  rrom  the  Reports  of  the  State  Factory  liupector,  igoj-ia] 


Yt«T 

Bo,, 

Grfj 

Ta^a 

"90s 

1904    .                -     . 

\^  :   :   :  :  : 
;|S  :   :   :   ■.  : 

'909 

1910 

'9"i 

'9«a 

16.494 
31,117 
a4.7« 

•5.99I 

■S.448 

J0,03J 

i7.«8 

31.943 
41.140 
48.519- 

4<^)7' 
4a.J53 
33.  "9 
33.489 
34.)i3 
34.47* 
37.3*^ 

•  Includes  pUcei  of  employmeoi  other  than  industrial  aublblimeiib. 

The  Pittsburgh  District  itself  is  primarily  given  over  to 
men's  industries.  The  significant  point  of  the  table  published 
for  Allegheny  County  in  1907  is  the  immense  preponderance  of 
men  over  sixteen  years  of  age  (176,(^5)  as  compared  with  women 
(24,1)0)  and  children  (6.86)).  Heie,  if  anywhere,  had  states- 
manship ever  had  anything  to  do  with  factory  inspection  for 
the  Pittsburg  District,  effort  shoukl  have  been  directed  toward 
safeguarding  adult  males  in  those  onployments  which  involve 
special  stress  and  hazard  and  make  extraordinary  demands  upon 
straigth  and  life.    Th«c  should  have  been  adequate  reporting 

.96 


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FACTORY   INSPECTION   IN   PITTSBURGH 

and  registration  of  the  nature,  occurrence,  and  preventability  of 
accidents.  There  should  have  been  studies,  in  a  local  office  of 
factory  inspection,  of  the  difficult  conditions  peculiar  to  Pitts- 
burgh industries  and  of  the  experience  of  other  communities  and 
other  nations  which  might  throw  light  upon  them.  Many  hun- 
dreds of  lives  would  have  been  saved  and  many  thousands  of  minor 
accidents  prevented,  if,  since  the  beginning  of  factory  inspection 
in  Pennsylvania  in  1889,  experts  from  the  inspectors'  office  had 
promptly  visited  the  scene  of  every  important  accident  to  study 
it  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  a  recurrence  and  forestalling  sim- 
ilar injuries  elsewhere.  But  statesmanship  never  in  all  these  years 
had  anything  to  do  with  factory  inspection  in  Pennsylvania,  and  the 
consequences  thereof  were  written  large  in  the  tabulations  of  death 
and  injury  made  by  Miss  Eastman  for  the  Pittsburgh  Survey.* 

It  is  impossible  for  the  reader  of  the  report  under  consideration  to 
guess  how  many  of  the  39;  fatal  work-accidents  (mentioned  as  reported 
to  the  factory  inspector  in  1907)1  occurred  in  the  Pittsburgh  District. 
As  a  tally  for  the  entire  state  this  is  ridiculous.  In  the  twelve  months 
studied  by  the  Survey,  the  coroner's  records  of  Allegheny  County  alone 
showed  360  fatalities  from  work-accidents  in  and  around  industrial  estab- 
lishments. Mining,  railroading,  teaming,  and  so  forth,  brou^t  the 
aggregate  for  the  one  county  up  to  $36. 

In  reporting  industrial  accidents,  all  American  states  have  been 
remiss,  when  compared  with  European  countries  where  accurate  records 
are  demanded.  Minnesota  in  1909  adopted  the  first  effective  state-wide 
system  of  accident  reporting.  But  in  New  York,  in  preparation  for  the 
workmen's  c(»npensation  act  of  1910.  the  labor  department  had  for  several 
years  done  yeoman  service  by  publishing  in  detail  the  facts  as  to  acci- 
dents in  the  light  of  foreign  experience  and  legislation. 

The  chapters  on  accidents  in  the  series  of  five  Pennsylvania 

reports  discussed  end  in  1907  with  the  characteristic  statement  that: 

"Ninety  per  cent  of  the  total  and  serious  accidents  occur  in  or 

about  rolling  mills  and  blast  furnaces.    The  overhead  cranes  and  hoisting 

chains,  the  hasty  and  necessary  (sic)  unskilful  piling  up  of  steel  rails, 

*  Eastman,  Crystal:  Work-Accidents  and  the  Law. 

t  "^he  chief  factory  inspector'i  report  for  1907  states  that  of  the  agj  fatal 
acddenU  reponed  to  him,  only  w  fell  within  the  jurisdiction  of  his  department, 
and  titat  of  the  a.j&t  non-fatal  accidents  reponed  only  689  fell  within  his  jurisdiction. 

For  tabulation  of  accidents  recorded  1903-11,  see  Appendix  IX,  p.  44). 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

billets,  etc.,  the  spilling  of  mcdten  metal  from  conveyors,  buggies,  the 
scurry  of  locomotives  and  cars  through  the  yards  adjacent  to  the  inner 
works  of  the  mills  are  death  dealing  agencies  at  all  times.*  As  the  law 
for  safegHarding  macbitury  can  not  be  applied  to  prevent  accideiUt  of  Ibeabaof 
and  foregoing  nature,  and  as  it  is  practically  impossible  to  base  the  causes  ef 
such  accidents  properly  itwestigated.  the  necessity  for  a  litUe  more  brotherly 
loce  and  for  tbt  elimination  f^  much  of  the  hurry  and  scurry  in  our  iron  mUtt 
is  the  more  appareni."\ 

INSPECTION  AND  PREVENTION 

Industries  may  be  injurious  by  reason  of  the  nature  6i  the 
machinery  or  of  the  material  used  (lead,  sulphur,  acid)  or  because 
of  dust  produced  in  the  process  (steel,  brass,  cork)  or  of  strain  due 
to  heat,  cold,  glare,  darkness,  or  speed.  Finally,  an  industry  not 
intrinsically  injurious  may  become  so  in  a  high  degree  by  sheer 
lengthening  of  working  hours,  particularly  when  the  workers  are 
required  to  stand. 

The  wording  of  the  Pennsylvania  statute  was  so  vague  and 
broad  that  under  its  provisions  intelligent  and  zealous  inspectors 
might  greatly  have  reduced  all  forms  of  danger  except  those  arising 
from  cold,  glare,  darkness,  and  speed.  Visits  to  Pittsburgh  factories 
in  1907  and  1908  confirmed  the  impression  gained  from  the  of- 
ficial reports  that  there  was  no  comprehensive  attempt  to  do  this. 

The  factory  inspector  stated  that  $3  orders  issued  to  Allegheny 
County  employers  to  guard  machinery  were  complied  with  in  1907.  The 
safety  inspector  of  one  Pittsburgh  company  made  3,000  recommendations 
in  seven  months  of  the  same  year.t  During  the  twelve  months  studied 
by  the  Pittsburgh  Survey,  our  investigators  found  that  1 1  men  were  caught 
in  belts  and  killed,  one  was  struck  and  killed  by  the  belt  of  a  fly-wheel, 
one  killed  by  a  bursting  grindstone,  although  the  factory  law  specifically 
demanded  that  this  class  of  machinery  should  be  properly  guarded. 
These  figures  took  no  account  of  the  many  serious  injuries  (short  of 
death)  due  to  non-enforcement  of  the  same  section  of  the  statute.  Where 
a  machine  was  properly  guarded  the  circumstance  seemed  to  be  due  to 
a  previous  accident  in  the  same  plant. 

In  a  cork  factory  which  I  visited  with  a  deputy  inspector,  I  saw 
scores  of  insufficiently  guarded  saws  of  a  highly  dangerous  type.    The 

*  Of  $]6  wage-earaers  killed  in  work-accidents  in  the  year  covered  by  the 
Pittsburgh  Survey — July  i,  1906,  to  June  30,  1907 — 19s,  only  jj  per  cent,  were 
employed  in  the  manufacture  of  steei. 

fThe  itahcs  are  Ihe  writer's.  %  Eastman, op. dr.,  p.  ill. 


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FACTORY   INSPECTION   IN   PITTSBURGH 

deputy  inspector  had  no  eyes  for  these  sinister  objects,  but  confined  his 
observation  to  children  and  their  certificates.  We  passed  a  boy  working 
at  an  insuflicientiy  guarded  saw.  His  hand  was  bandaged  after  having 
been  hurt  at  that  same  saw.  When  I  called  attention  to  it,  the  deputy 
said  that  there  was  a  specialist  on  the  staff  who  devoted  himself  to  ma- 
chinery and  safeguards.  Persistent  inquiry  covering  a  month  failed  to 
identify  the  specialist.    He  appears  never  to  have  existed.* 

It  is  necessary  to  know  in  which  industries  children  ate 
exposed  to  special  danger  in  order  that  they  may  be  forbidden  to 
work  in  those  industries.  An  increasing  number  of  states  pro- 
hibit outright  the  employment  of  children  in  a  lengthening  list  of  ^ 
occupations;  and  no  other  basis  for  framing  such  a  list,  attainable 
in  this  country  at  this  time,  compares  in  value  with  an  accurate, 
minute,  specific  account  of  injuries  to  children  in  industry,  kept 
from  year  to  year  by  the  state  factory  inspectors.  The  reports  of 
the  Pennsylvania  state  factory  inspector  shed  no  light  upon  this 
highly  important  subject,  although  Miss  Eastman's  cwnprehensive 
study  revealed  the  occurrence  in  a  single  year  in  the  Pittsburgh 
region  of  several  fatal  accidents  of  which  the  victims  were  boys: 

A  fourteen-year-old  assistant  chemist  who  was  run  over  in  the  yards 
of  the  steel  mill. 

A  thirteen-year-old  boy  killed  on  a  freight  elevator. 

A  fifteen-year-old  pull-up  killed  by  a  blow  from  a  ladle  arm  while 
sleeping  in  a  wheelbarrow  (he  was  working  on  a  thirteen-hour  shift). 

A  fourteen-year-old  brewery  boy  caught  in  a  pulley  belt. 

A  thirteen-year-old  brick  yard  boy  who  slipped  and  fell  into  a 
tempering  machine. 

In  the  United  States — as  shown  particulaHy  in  Pennsylvania 
— there  has  been  greater  need  than  in  other  industrial  countries 
for  effective  factory  inspection,  because  the  courts  deprived  em- 
ployers of  the  usual  business  incentives  to  caution  and  efficiency 
in  the  saving  of  life.f    Under  the  protection  of  the  fellow-servant 

*  In  1908,  the  United  Sutes  Steel  Corporation  appointed  a  central  safety 
cominittee  to  promote  a  concerted  campaign  against  accidents  in  its  constituent 
companies,  and  greal  strides  in  improvements  have  been  made  in  its  mills  as  a  re- 
sult. (See  Porter,  H.  F.  J.,  op.  cit.  P.  34;  of  this  volume.)  But  this  revolutionary 
thange  was  not  due  to  the  factory  inspection  department  of  Pennsylvania,  nor  did 
the  latter  attempt  seriously  to  make  the  standards  set  by  these  and  other  progres- 
sive employee  general.  In  igioadepuiy  state  inspector  complained  to  a  company 
safety  expert  that  he  lacked  the  power  which  the  other  possessed  to  get  action  jpon 
his  recommendations! 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

and  assumption  of  risk  decisions,  and  casualty  insurance,  employ- 
ers became  so  largely  absolved  from  paying  damages  that  un- 
paralleled indifference  to  the  safety  of  employes  developed  *  The 
waste  of  life,  limb,  health,  and  nervous  energy  of  workingmen  in 
the  prime  of  life  was  so  conspicuous  in  factory  work  in  Pittsburgh 
in  [907-08  that  for  one  with  technical,  professional  acquaintance 
with  the  processes  of  industry,  the  abiding  impression  following 
visits  to  Pittsburgh  was  one  of  horror  and  depression. 

Relatively  little  of  this  waste  was  inevitable.  Shafting  can 
be  sheathed,  saws  can  be  guarded,  grinding  wheels  can  be  hooded 
and  their  dust  exhausted,  injury  arising  from  excessive  heat  can 
be  mitigated  by  piping  air  near  the  head  of  the  individual  worker, 
danger  spots  can  be  indicated  for  illiterate  foreign  employes  by 
the  use  of  red  lights  by  night,  such  as  railway  usage  has  made  a 
common  language  throughout  civilization,  and  vermilion  paint  by 
day.  One  of  the  surest  incentives  to  such  protection  is  to  make 
injuries  "come  higher"  to  the  employer.  Pennsylvania  remains 
in  1914  the  last  of  the  great  industrial  states  without  a  workmen's 
compensation  system.f 

There  was  nothing  to  indicate  that  the  improvements  in- 
stalled to  effect  good  atmospheric  conditions  in  work  places  in 
Allegheny  County  were  due  to  the  requirements  of  the  factory 
inspection  department. 

Thus  in  the  works  of  a  sanitary  appliance  company  the  writer  saw 
18  wheds  in  one  room  so  hooded  as  to  exhaust  brass,  steel,  and  nickel 
filings.  The  metal  dust  saved  by  these  devices  paid  the  interest  on  the 
money  invested  in  the  exhaust  system.  In  other  parts  of  the  building, 
however,  where  a  single  wheel  was  iscJated  and  the  saving  in  metal 
dust  would  presumably  not  pay  interest  on  the  investment,  the  law  was 

*  For  relief  policiej  of  certain  companies  in  1907-08  see  Eastman,  op.  dt., 
p.  1$);  for  advances  since,  see  Appendix  VI,  Eastnun.  See  also  Porter,  op.  cit., 
p.  36);  and  Appendices  I,  XVII,  and  XX,  this  volume. 

t  At  its  session  of  191 1,  the  Pennsylvania  le^ilature  killed  in  committee  a 
compensation  bill,  but  appointed  a  commission  to  investi^te  the  subject.  The 
legislature  of  191)  again  failed  to  pass  a  law.  It  is  to  be  said  for  Captain  Ddaney 
that  beginning  in  190;  he  urged  the  reform  of  the  employers'  liability  law,  and  in 
191:  argued  at  length  for  the  New  Jersey  compensation  system.  In  the  report 
for  1907  he  said:  "Were  the  great  body  of  employes  engaged  in  dangerous  or 
hazaraous  work  a  race  of  criminal  serfs,  the  non-action  of  legislative  bodies  and  the 
almost  brutal  but  necessary  frankness  of  judicial  decisions  directed  against  the 
appeal  of  the  injured  for  legal  redress,  could  not  have  been  surpassed." 

200 


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FACTORY    INSPECTION    IN    PITTSBURGH 

not  enforced.    The  exhaust  system  was  not  used,  and  workers  suffered. 

The  appointments  of  the  Reymer  Company's  candy  factory  in 
Pittsburgh  were  better  than  the  law  required.  In  one  room  in  which 
particularly  expensive  chocolates  were  dipped,  fresh  air  was  artificially 
supplied,  avowedly,  however,  for  the  good  of  the  chocolates.  It  was 
pumped  through  flowing  water.  A  similar  provision  will  undoubtedly 
be  required  for  the  health  of  employes  in  the  factories  of  all  cities  in  which, 
as  in  Pittsburgh  and  Chicago,  the  atmosphere  may  be  said  to  be  "normally 
foul."  This  company  set  a  standard  which  should  be  incorporated  in 
law. 

In  the  Heinz  bottle  works  in  Sharpsburg,  where  air  had  to  be 
pumped  into  each  machine  for  blowing  bottles,  additional  air  was  so  tubed 
as  to  form  a  fresh  current  over  the  head  of  each  worker.  This  was  a  life- 
saving,  health  prolonging  boon,  voluntary  in  its  inception,  but  sure  to  be* 
come  a  statutory  requirement.*  Similarly,  fans  and  tubes  have  been 
installed  next  their  "hot  jobs"  by  the  National  Tube  Company. 

How  remote  the  requiring  of  any  such  provision  was  from  the 
plans  of  the  existing  department  of  factory  inspection  may  be 
seen  from  the  following: 

I  found  Jennie  O'Hara,  living  in  Wood's  Run,  Allegheny,  working 
in  a  stogy  factory.  Jennie,  who  was  sixteen  years  of  age,  had  begun  to 
work  before  her  thirteenth  birthday,  even  at  that  time  the  lowest  legal 
limit.  She  had  never  been  employed  elsewhere.  She  was  conspicuously 
sallow  and  nervous.  Her  day  was  from  7  a.  m.  to  6  p.  m.,  with  a  scant 
half  hour  for  luncheon.  During  the  Christmas  rush  she  worked  over- 
time until  8  p.  m.  three  days  in  the  week,  for  several  consecutive  weeks. 
Said  Jennie:  "Somegirlshavetostopin  three  months,  just  when  they  are 
learning.  The  stuff  makes  'em  sick.  The  girls  often  faint.  In  the  win- 
ter when  the  windows  are  shut  it's  bad  when  you  go  in.  It  smells  so  bad. 
But  then  you  get  used  to  it." 

There  appeared  to  be  no  blowers  or  fans  in  this  stogy  factory, 
which  employs  girls  varying  in  number  from  100  to  i;o,  and  in  the  winter 
the  windows  are  said  to  have  been  kept  shut  regularly.  Yet  neither  the 
Allegheny  health  oi!)cials  nor  the  state  factory  inspectors  interfered  even 
by  way  of  criticism  in  their  ofTicial  reports.  On  still,  muggy,  autumn 
days  the  smell  of  tobacco  from  the  factory  was  observable  in  passing  along 
the  sidewalk,  and  the  giris'  clothes  and  hair  became  so  saturated  with  the 
smell  that  when  they  had  a  meeting  on  the  ground  floor  of  a  building,  the 
rooms  upstairs  were  filled  with  the  odor. 

Interesting  sidelights  upon  the  remoter  effects  of  this  complicated 

*See  Porter,  H.  F.  J.,  op.  cit.  Pp.  aa^  and  149  of  this  volume.  A  de- 
tailed act  passed  in  1913  calls  for  blowers  orsimilar  apparatus  in  all  grinding  rooms. 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

law-breaking  came  from  the  almoner  of  the  district  in  which  this  factory 
stands.  The  almoner's  observations  were  that  the  tobacco  dust  is  ex- 
cessively irritating  to  the  nose,  throat,  and  lungs;  that  girls  become  ac- 
customed to  this  irritation  as  they  do  to  nicotine  poison  and  continue  to 
work  while  unconsciously  developing  incipient  tuberculosis;  that  they 
work  up  to  the  time  of  leaving  the  factory  to  be  married,  after  which  they 
rapidly  develop  tuberculosis  and  become  recipients  of  benefits  from  tbe 
simoner.  Because  they  are  not  disabled  while  on  the  payroll,  and  some- 
times do  not  develop  the  symptoms  of  advanced  tuberculosis  until  after 
the  birth  of  the  first  child,  the  factory  does  not  get  the  discredit  due  to  it 
as  a  center  for  production  and  dissemination  of  infection.  A  physician 
who  practiced  in  the  neighborhood  described  being  called  to  the  homes  of 
a  number  of  the  girls  who  had  suffered  acute  attacks  of  "tobacco-heart." 
None  had  died  during  an  attack  but  their  vitality  was  being  progressively 
diminished- 
Young  girls  like  those  described  are  benefited  by  the  Wisconsin 
statute  which  forbids  children  to  work  in  the  manufacturing  of  tobacco 
before  their  sixteenth  birthday.*  The  Ohio  law,  too,  which  restricts  the 
work  in  all  trades  of  girls  below  the  age  of  eighteen  years  to  eight  hours 
in  one  day  and  forty-eight  hours  in  one  week,  and  sets  7  p-  m.  as  their 
closing  hour,  is  an  even  greater  boon  to  girls  in  the  tobacco  trade  than  to 
those  in  most  industries. 

One  of  the  most  important  of  the  factory  inspectors'  duties  is 
to  enforce  the  laws  reducing  the  hours  of  labor  for  women  and  chil- 
dren. Overtime  and  night  work,  where  practiced,  add  to  the 
seriousness  of  the  drains  which  establishments  like  this  tobacco 
factory  make  upon  physical  vitality.  The  reports  of  the  depart- 
ment, however,  showed  no  record  of  night  inspections  made  in 
Allegheny  County. 

Yet  without  such  inspections,  of  what  avail  was  the  provision  that 
women  and  children  shall  not  work  more  than  twelve  hours  in  twenty- 
four,  and  that  a  boy  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  who 
had  worked  by  day  should  not  work  after  9  p.  m?  Once  a  fortnight  the 
water  boys  in  the  steel  mills  were  working  twenty-four  consecutive  hours 
and  every  day  they  worked  twelve  hours.    Both  working  periods  were 

*  At  the  instance  of  Chief  Factory  Inspector  Delaney  an  amendment  was 
enacted  in  Pennsylvania  in  1909  providing  that  no  minon  under  sixteen  years 
might  be  employed  in  or  about  establishments  for  the  manufacture  or  stripping 
of  tobacco  "unless  it  it  proved  to  tbt  iatUfaction  of  tbe  Departmait  that  the  datt- 
gfr  to  tbt  bealtb  of  tbe  child  bat  been  remaned."  Such  provisions  open  wide  the 
doon  for  blackmail  and  defeat  the  intent  of  the  law. 
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FACTORY   INSPECTION   IN    PITTSBURGH 

ill^al,  but  it  would  have  required  inspections  after  the  close  of  the  ordinary 
hours  of  a  factory  inspector's  day  to  reveal  this  illegality.  Moreover, 
when  the  glass  blowers  go  home  at  midnight,  or  at  i  a.  m.,  the  boys 
who  work  with  them  must  also  go  out  into  the  early  morning,  no  matter 
what  the  winter  weather  or  what  the  heat  of  the  furnace.  With  the 
increasing  use  of  glass-blowing  machines,  the  continuous  tank  system 
has  replaced  the  smaller  pot  furnaces,  and  work  at  night  has  become  the 
rule  more  than  ever  for  men  and  boys  alike.  It  was  matter  of  common 
knowledge  in  Allegheny  County  in  1907-08  that  boys  who  worked  with 
men  thus  kept  the  same  hours  as  men.  Yet,  as  we  have  seen,  the  factory 
inspector  of  Pennsylvania  did  not  oppose  the  exception  which  the  glass 
manufacturers  have  kept  in  the  body  of  the  law  throughout  all  these 
years  and  which  has  made  this  practice  legal  for  glass-house  boys  between 
fourteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age. 

Under  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  as  interpreted 
by  the  supreme  court,  even  the  working  hours  of  adult  men  can  be 
restricted  by  statute  when  these  hours  can  be  shown  to  impair  the 
health.  Thus  the  daily  hours  of  labor  of  men  in  mines  and  smelters 
are  in  many  states  restricted  to  eight.  But  in  Pennsylvania  there 
was  and  is  no  restriction  whatever  for  men,  and  their  regular 
working  day  may  be  twelve  or  twenty-four  hours  without  viola- 
tion of  any  statute. 

For  women  the  labor  law  was  until  1913  unique  in  authoriz- 
ing a  regular  working  day  of  twelve  hours  in  a  week  ostensibly 
limited  to  sixty  hours.  The  restriction  was  illusory.  It  was  not 
enforceable  and  it  was  not  meant  to  be  enforced. 

For  example,  in  a  prosperous  drug  store  in  Pittsburgh,  women 
clerks  were  found  working  from  8  a.  m.  to  10  p.  m.  one  day  out  of 
every  week,  with  a  half-hour  each  for  luncheon  and  supper,  a  total 
of  thirteen  hours.  The  legal  daily  maximum,  as  has  been  said, 
was  twelve  hours.  In  a  candy  store  very  young  girls  were  seen  at 
work  after  11  p.  m.  Their  regular  working  time  was  from  11  a.  m. 
to  1 1 :  30  p.  m.  and  they  reached  home  at  midnight  and  after. 
They  worked  sixty-nine  hours  plus  per  week.  In  another  candy 
store,  from  8  a.  m.  to  6  p.  m.  was  the  nominal  regular  period.  In 
reality,  on  three  days  out  of  the  week  a  girl  worked  from  8  a.  m.  to 
1 1  p.  m.  Each  of  these  long  days  was  followed  by  a  so-called  "  short 
day,"  when  she  worked  from  12  noon  to  11  p.  m.  with  half  an  hour 
for  supper,  a  total  of  ten  and  a  half  hours  in  twenty-four  hours. 
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WAGE-EARN  INC   PITTSBURGH 

Although  these  were  all  flagrant  violations  of  the  law,  con- 
viction was  impossible,  because  the  defense  could  be  made  that  on 
any  particular  day  selected  by  the  inspector  for  making  a  charge 
of  violation,  a  rest  period  had  been  allowed.  Or  the  inspector 
would  have  had  to  be  present  to  prove  that  the  g^ris  found  working 
at  night  were  really  the  same  girls  who  had  worked  throughout  the 
time  alleged.  If,  however,  an  inspector  attempted  to  look  into 
a  factory  often  enough  in  a  day  to  prove  the  identity  of  a  girl  who 
worked  throughout  the  thirteen  hours,  that  girl  was  sent  home  for 
that  day.  Such  a  sham  law*  was  demoralizing  to  every  official 
charged  with  its  enforcement.! 

Incident  to  the  long  hours  to  which  young  ^rls  were  il- 
legally subjectedt  was  cruelly  prolonged  daily  standing. 

This  injury  is  no  longer  open  to  discussion;  it  is  universally  ad- 
mitted. In  several  factories  girls  just  fourteen  years  old — if  indeed  they 
were  really  so  old  as  that — rt^larly  stood  ten  hours  a  day,  and  often 
longer  on  five  days  a  week,  under  the  pretense  of  making  a  shmt  day  on 
Saturday.  Even  «iiere  the  children's  work  was  as  simple  as  wrapping 
caramels  or  packing  crackers,  the  long  hours  combined  with  enforced 
standing  made  a  hannless  process  highly  injurious. 

"Suitable  seats"  were  required  for  women  workers  by  the  Pennsyl- 
vania law.  But  in  no  case  during  any  of  the  visits  that  I  paid  with  a 
deputy  inspector  did  the  inspector  in  my  presence  make  an  inquiry  about 
seats.  The  mercantile  houses  were  the  greatest  offenders.  One  Pitts- 
burg store  in  1907  supplied  four  seats  to  every  counter.  In  contrast, 
the  provision  for  seats  on  the  first  floors  of  three  equally  wellknown  Pitts- 
burgh stores,  each  employing  several  hundred  giris,  was  as  follows:  { 

(i)  16  seats  to  400  girls,  or  1  seat  to  35  girls,  (3)  19  seats  to  500 
giris,  or  t  scat  to  36  giris,  (3)  33  seats  to  600  giris, «- 1  seat  to  19  girls. 

'Compare  this  Pennsylvania  law  with  the  New  York  child  labor  statute 
which,  as  experience  showi,  can  be  enforced.  A  child  may  not  work  before  8 
a.  m.  or  after  j  p.  m.,  and  miul  have  a  full  hour  free  al  noon.  These  provisioiis 
cannot  be  evadol,  except  thai  law-breaking  employers  can  nibble  a  few  minutes  at 
the  beginning  and  end  of  the  noon  hour. 

t  For  statements  of  working  prls  as  10  hours  actually  worked  in  191),  sec 
Appendix  XIX,  p.  493. 

t  For  statements  as  to  overtime  in  Pittsburah  empbyments,  see  Butler, 
Eli2abeth  Beards]  ey;  Women  and  the  Trades,  pp-)Si  n.  Friday,  to  dte  an  extreme 
example,  she  found  to  be  a  fifteen-hour  day  in  most  Pittsburgh  laundiies,  and  cases 
were  found  where  the  work  began  at  7  a,  m.  and  lasted  throui^ut  the  night  (p. 
j^a).  (  Butler.op.cil.,  pp.  joo-joi.  Thirteen  stores  met  the  Consumer's  League 
requirements  in  1914.  including  the  standard  of  one  seat  for  eveiy  three  women. 
204 


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FACTORY   INSPECTION   IN   PITTSBURGH 

ENFORCEMENT  AND  PROSECUTION  IN  PITTSBURGH 
Record  keeping  and  inspections  alone  do  not  enforce  factory 
laws.  They  may  secure  compliance  in  some  instances;  but  unless 
violations  are  prosecuted,  the  laws  become  dead  letters  in  those 
establishments  in  which  enforcement  is  most  needed.  On  this 
subject  the  state  factory  inspector  gave  the  following  data  for 
Allegheny  County  for  1907  under  his  "exhibit  by  grand  divisions 
of  industries  of  industrial  establishments  inspected": 

Children  dismissed  Compliance  with  orders  issued  to 

For  want  of  affidavits,  98  Guard  machinery,  $3 

For  illiteracy,  o  Guard  elevator,  8 

For  being  under  age,     1 1  Erect  fire-escapes,  3 

Provide  water-closets,        3 

Provide  dressing  rooms,    o 

For  better  sanitation,     33 

The  cases  of  neglect  brought  out  by  Mr.  Porter's  subsequent 
investigations  of  fire-escapes,  dressing  rooms,  and  toilets;*  the 
14  deaths  due  to  elevator  accidents,  tabulated  by  Miss  Eastman; 
and  the  facts  already  cited  in  this  paper  as  to  non-enforcement 
(rf  safety  laws,  all  indicate  the  trivial  value  to  the  state  and  its 
workers  of  orders  issued  by  the  department  of  factory  inspection. 

Conspicuous  is  the  absence  of  a  heading  "  Prosecutions  and 
CcHivictions"  in  the  "exhibit  by  grand  divisions  of  industries  of 
industrial  establishments  inspected."!  Current  publication  of  the 
exact  details  of  all  prosecutions  begun  for  violation  of  labor  laws 
has  a  twofold  value.  It  is  the  best  detenent,  for  employers  dislike 
to  have  the  community  know  that  they  are  accused  of  break- 
ing the  law.  Full  publicity  in  this  respect  is  also  the  best  assur- 
ance of  the  integrity  of  the  inspection  staff.  Every  prosecution  of 
an  employer  is  incidentally  a  trial  of  the  inspection  force.  For 
when  inspectors  must  constantly  appear  as  witnesses  in  court  and 

*  Porter,  H.  F.  J.,  op.  cii.    P.  117  of  this  volume. 

fThe  report  for  1908  (issued  May  ),  1909)  slated  that  there  were  three 
proseculKms  in  1907  that  resulted  in  penalties  imposed — one  for  employing  a 
child  illegally,  and  two  for  maintaining  insanitary  bakeshopsi  $aj  penally  col- 
lected in  each  case.  For  the  ten-year  period  the  reports  give  the  following  num- 
ben  (rf  prosecutions  brought:  190)  (number  not  given);  1904,66:  1905,77;  1906, 
100;  1907  (number  not  given);  1906,  )3;  1909  (number  not  given);  1910,16;  1911, 
11;  1911,  as. 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

endure  cross-examination  by  able  lawyers,  such  as  employers  com- 
monly retain,  this  in  itself  is  a  permanent  stimulus  to  careful,  ac- 
curate work  and  a  safeguard  against  temptation  to  blackmail  or  to 
accept  bribes.  Where,  however,  mystery  enshrouds  the  procedure 
of  a  department  in  relation  to  violations  of  the  labor  law,  an  in- 
quiring public  is  liable  to  make  sinister  inferences.  We  asked  these 
questions  in  our  published  review  of  the  service: 

Why  is  there  no  record  of  prosecutions  in  the  report  of  the  factory 
inspectors  of  Pennsylvania  in  1907? 

Were  there  no  prosecutionsP    Or  was  none  of  them  successful? 

Are  the  courts  so  clogged  that  suits  are  brought  with  difficulty? 

If  so,  why  had  not  the  department  made  known  this  extenuating 
circumstance?* 

What,  if  any,  is  the  relation  between  the  great  number  of  working 
children  in  Pennsylvania  and  this  secrecy  maintained  by  the  department 
as  to  the  identity  of  the  violators  of  the  law? 

If  malefactors  areprotected,  if  neither  publicity  nor  penalty  fcdiowed 
law-breaking,  why  should  any  one  respect  an  inconvenient  restriction  ? 

How  far  are  the  goieral  distrust  and  suspicion  which  attach  to  the 
dqMUtment  of  factory  inspection  in  Pennsylvania  due  to  this  secrecy? 

These  questions  were  never  satisfactorily  answered.f 

This  concealment  of  violations  of  the  factory  laws  is  fortu- 
nately unique  in  the  practice  oi  state  departments  of  factory  in- 
spection. Where  bona  fide  enforcement  of  the  laws  is  achieved. 
the  particulars  are  published,  and  publicity  helps  to  deter  other 
potential  (lenders.  The  omission  of  information  about  prosecu- 
tions was  perhaps  the  most  self-condemnatory  item  in  the  whole 
disgraceful  report  of  the  Pennsylvania  state  department  <^  fac- 
tory inspection  for  1907. 

*  With  these  questions  in  mind.  Ibe  assistant  director  of  the  Httsbargh 
Survey  on  April  33,  1908.  wrote  lo  the  chief  factofy  inspector  for  infonnadon 
as  to  the  number  of  prDSecutions  and  the  amount  cdlected  in  fines.  Mr.  Debney 
replied  as  follows:  "The  report  of  this  department  for  1907  coven  the  year's  work. 
It  was  made  to  the  governor,  and  should  he  desire  a  supplement  report,  one  will  be 
prepared.  We  cannot  discuss  the  contents  or  omissions  of  the  published  report 
with  the  nuny  persons  who  seek  to  open  correspoodence  thcreoa  with  vs." 

t  For  a  letter  puUislwd  as  a  reply  to  Mrs.  Kdlcy's  review,  see  Appendix 
X,  p.  444.  The  foUowing  was  oBtnd  in  eiplanatioa  in  a  subseqaent  state  factory 
inspectors  report: 

"The  laws  prior  to  those  recently  enacted,  so  far  as  they  apply  to  the  em- 
ptoymoii  of  children,  are  so  mttnia^ess  in  part  and  so  oncoostitutMOBl  in  part 
as  to  have  induced  Mr.  Caisoo,  then  attorney  geaetal,  to  advise  me  in  wiitisg  to 
withhold  further  prosecution." 

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FACTORY   INSPECTION   IN   PITTSBURGH 

LAWS.  LOCAL  AGENCIES.  AND  LAX  ENFORCEMENT 
In  the  enforcement  of  a  factory  law  there  are  at  least  three 
elements:  the  law  itself,  as  interpreted  by  the  courts;  the  en- 
forcing authority  representing  the  state;  and,  finally,  and  far  more 
important  than  at  first  appears,  local  authorities  whose  work  in- 
terlocks with  that  of  state  officers.  How  indispensable  are  all 
three  elements  is  illustrated  by  the  insufficient  protection  which 
has  been  afforded  the  working  children  of  the  Pittsburgh  District. 
In  the  matter  of  child  labor  and  compulsory  education  laws 
Pennsylvania  has  always  been  a  laggard.  The  fourteen-year  age 
limit  was  adopted  in  New  York  in  1887.  in  Massachusetts  in  1894, 
in  Pennsylvania  not  until  190;  for  factories  and  stores,  and  not 
until  1909  for  soft  coal  mines.  Compulsory  education  laws  were 
passed  in  Massachusetts  in  1852,  in  New  York  in  1874,  but  the 
first  compulsory  education  bill  in  Pennsylvania  was  passed  in 
189;.  Even  then  the  governor  who  signed  that  bill — after  having 
vetoed  a  similar  bill  two  years  before — stated  in  his  memorandum 
of  approval  that  he  doubted  its  wisdom  because  it  violated  the 
private  rights  of  citizens! 

At  the  time  of  the  Pittsburgh  Survey  the  child  labor  law  of 
190$  was  in  force,  but  in  its  most  important  feature,  the  issuance 
of  certificates,  that  law  in  a  test  case  had  been  held  unconstitu- 
tional on  a  technicality,  and  a  previous  law,  passed  in  1901,  had 
been  declared  by  the  attorney  general  to  have  been  revived. 
Thou^  the  fourteen-year  age  limit  was  set  up  for  work  in  fac- 
tories and  stores  in  1905  this  protection  was  rendered  illusory  by 
the  provision  that  parents'  affidavits  were  the  sole  proof  of  age 
needed.*  Moreover,  though  children  were  required  to  be  able  to 
read  and  write  the  English  language  intelligently  before  beginning 
to  work,  the  test  in  this  important  matter  was  to  be  given  by  those 
who  issued  the  affidavits;  namely,  notaries  public,  aldermen,  and 
similar  minor  magistrates.  Naturally  the  law  broke  down  at  both 
these  points.  The  affidavit,  whether  true  or  false,  protected  the 
employer  absolutely,  and  an  inspector's  work  was  exceedingly 
difficult,  for  on  him  was  placed  the  burden  of  proof  to  show  that 

•  The  following  illuminating  figure!  were  gathered  by  the  federal  govern- 
ment's agents  in  two  boroughs  in  easiern  Pennsylvania — Hazelton  and  Plymouth. 
(Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and  Child  Wage-earners  in  the  United  States, 
207 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

an  affidavit  was  false.  The  employment  of  an  illiterate  child, 
though  illegal,  was  very  common,  many  if  not  most  of  the  "  squires" 
or  notaries  either  giving  the  children  no  test  whatever  or  requiring 
only  that  they  sign  their  names.  For  part  of  the  year  1907,  the 
situation  was  made  still  more  chaotic  by  the  arbitrary  decision  of 
the  chief  factory  inspector  that  no  reading  and  writing  test  was  re- 
quired by  the  law.*  In  this  matter  he  was  overruled  by  the  at- 
torney genera],  but  affidavit  blanks  minus  the  reading  and  writing 
requirement  had  been  distributed  and  the  evil  could  not  be  undone. 
Until  1909 — long  after  the  other  great  industrial  states  had  limited 
the  working  day  of  children  under  the  age  of  sixteen  years  to  ten 
or  eight  hours — Pennsylvania  permitted  a  twelve-hour  working 
day  for  such  children. 

The  child  labor  law  being  a  state  law,  and  the  factory  in- 
spectors state  officials,  the  Pittsburgh  District  shared  its  disad- 
vantages with  the  rest  of  the  state.  But  under  amendments  to 
the  compulsory  education  law,  passed  in  1907,  had  the  school 

Volume  VII,  Children  Uaving  School  for  Work,  p.  i)i.  United  Sutes  Senate 
Document  No.  64  j.)  Tbe  ages  of  the  children  who  bad  left  school  for  work  during 
the  year  1907  were  u  follows: 


Jiff  at  Uaoini  SibcA 

Children  Leaving  School 
AT  Aces  Stecified 

Hoidton 

nr„cM 

a 
35 

^ 

'} 

7 

*  In  his  report  for  1906  this  ofKcial  ai^ed  against  any  educational  test  as 
follows: 

"  But  this  aside,  why  should  boys  and  ^rls  fourteen  yean  of  age  and  in  good 
physical  condition  be  withiield  from  learning  a  useful  trade  or  from  earning  a  neces- 
sary livelihood  simply  because  they  cannot  read  and  write,  or  cannot  explain  sums 
in  arithmetic,  or  tell  the  difference  between  a  Iiansitive  and  intransitive  vcrbp 
Though  I  am  a  warm  champion  of  school  education,  I  fail  to  see  the  connection  be- 
tween the  'three  R's'  and  the  necessity  for  seeking  employment  and  the  ability 
to  do  the  work." 

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FACTORY    INSPECTION    IN    PITTSBURGH 

principals,  attendance  ofTicers,  assessors,  and  squires  in  the  Pitts- 
but^  District  all  been  animated  by  well  directed  zeal  for  the  chil- 
dren, the  factory  inspectors  need  have  spent  virtually  no  time  or 
strength  upon  those  below  the  age  of  fourteen  except  during  school 
vacations.  By  their  joint  action  the  local  authorities  could  have 
determined  the  career  of  all  children  below  the  age  of  fourteen  and 
all  illiterate  children  below  the  age  of  sixteen  years.  The  amended 
cinnpulsory  education  law  fixed  the  age  of  compulsory  school  at- 
tendance at  fourteen  years,  and  thus  made  the  period  uniform  with 
that  of  the  child  labor  law  of  1905.  Power  was  also  conferred  upon 
local  attendance  officers  to  perform  tasks  formerly  left  chiefly  to 
state  officers  to  enter  stores,  factories,  and  other  places  where  chil- 
dren work,  and  to  return  to  school  those  found  working  in  defiance 
of  the  law. 

Moreover,  under  this  law  there  was  a  method  of  restraining 
parents  from  perjury,  which  while  principals  could  not  unaided 
have  availed  themselves  of  it,  they  might  have  employed  with 
the  help  oi  the  boards  of  education.  Had  these  local  city  depart- 
ments cared  to  keep  the  foieign-bom  children  in  school  to  the 
legal  age  of  fourteen  years,  they  could  in  nearly  all  cases  have  se- 
cured from  abroad  official  transcripts  of  the  children's  ages  or  their 
religious  records,  and  checkmated  the  false  oaths  in  the  squires' 
(^ces.  The  practicability  of  this  plan  is  proved  conclusively 
by  the  experience  of  the  New  York  City  department  of  health, 
which  regularly  gets  transcripts  of  birth  certificates  from  every 
European  country,  including  Turkey.  Of  Catholic  children  bom 
in  this  country  it  is  not  difficult  to  prove  the  age,  because  church 
records  are  complete  and  correct.  Of  Catholic  children  bom 
abroad  it  was  formeriy  thought  to  be  difficult  to  obtain  the  civil 
or  religious  record,  but  the  experience  of  New  York  City  shows 
this  to  be  an  imaginary  difficulty.  Except  in  the  case  of  Russia, 
virtually  complete  success  attends  the  effort  to  obtain  a  trans- 
cript of  the  birth  or  religious  record  when  the  letter  of  inquiry 
is  written  according  to  instmctions  from  the  consul  of  the  child's 
native  country.  Native  American  non-Catholic  children  bom 
outside  of  the  registration  area  and  children  bom  in  Russia  are  the 
only  ernes  whose  proof  of  age  presents  grave  difficulty. 

In  1907,  therefore,  the  children's  laws  of  Pennsylvania  should 
I*'  209 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

have  been  obeyed  to  a  d^ree  wholly  new.  No  concerted  zeal 
for  enforcement,  however,  on  the  part  of  the  local  authorities  was 
discernible  at  the  time  of  my  inquiries.  Local  pressure  seemed  all 
in  the  direction  of  inaction.  This  absence  of  zeal  to  enforce  the 
new  provisions  of  the  compulsory  education  law  was  perhaps  ex- 
plained by  the  experience  of  one  school  principal  in  dealing  with 
the  eariier  law.  His  school  was  the  nearest  to  the  Hamilton  glass 
factory  on  the  South  Side,  Pittsburgh.  One  day  he  found  an 
agent  of  the  glass  works  in  the  school  yard  soliciting  boys  to  work 
at  night  in  the  glass  works.  He  reported  that  fact  to  the  deputy 
factory  inspector  who  asked  a  colleague  for  assistance  in  the  case, 
and  the  principal  with  the  two  deputies  visited  the  factory  together. 
They  found  children  at  work  in  violation  of  the  law,  and  a  fine  of 
$iio  was  imposed  upon  the  firm.  This  sum  was  afterward  re- 
duced by  Chief  Factory  Inspector  Delaney  to  ¥275.  Two  months 
later  the  principal  was  dismissed. 

An  illustration  of  the  breakdown  in  the  work  of  both  local  authori- 
liei  and  itate  inspectors  was  afforded  by  a  seventeen-year-old  Wood's 
Kun  boy  who,  when  the  writer  met  him,  was  working  for  the  Pressed 
Slwl  CarCompany.  Whilestill  at  school  he  had  worked  as  a  caddy  and 
had  thus  become  irregular  in  his  school  attendance.  Before  his  thirteenth 
birthday  he  had  obtained  an  employment  certificate  and  was  employed 
at  a  grocer's  boy,  a  year  before  he  could  legally  be  at  work.  "Thesquire 
wai  a  friend  of  my  mother,"  said  the  boy,  "and  he  didn't  ask  for  pay. 
He  Juit  wrote  it."  On  reaching  his  thirteenth  birthday  (then  the  legal 
minimum  age)  he  began  to  work  in  a  box  factory.  By  the  time  he  was 
seventeen  he  had  already  worked  two  years  in  the  car  works,  exposed  to 
excessive  heat  and  to  incessant  danger  from  burns  due  to  the  dn^>ping 
of  red  hot  Hvets.    At  our  last  meeting  he  was  lame  from  such  a  bum. 

This  boy  was  undersized,  with  big  hands  and  feet,  pinched  features, 
and  the  carriage  of  a  little  old  man.  If  he  had  not  incipient  tuberculosis 
hii  appearance  belied  him.  He  was  a  pitiful  example  of  the  etTects  of  the 
failure  of  everybody  concerned  to  obey  and  enforce  the  factory  inspection, 
child  labor,  and  compulsory  education  laws. 

It  was  part  of  Miss  Butler's  field  work  for  the  Pittsburgh 
Survey  to  make  a  study  of  this  all-round  failure  of  local  authorities 
to  safeguard  the  child,  evidences  of  which  were  to  be  found  on 
every  hand.  Her  analysis  of  the  hodge-podge  scheme  of  school 
census  taking  which  left  the  truancy  departments  ignorant  of  the 
210 


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FACTORY   INSPECTION    IN   PITTSBURGH 

names  and  the  number  of  children  to  look  for;  of  the  lack  of  de- 
tention rooms  to  hold  children  if  found  by  the  truant  officers;  of 
the  inadequacy  of  the  truancy  staff;  of  the  unconcern  of  many 
school  authorities  whether  children  were  at  school  or  at  work;  and 
of  conditions  resulting  from  this  combination  of  lax  law  and  lax 
enforcement,  was  brought  out  locally*  by  the  Allegheny  child  labor 
committee  during  the  child  labor  campaign  of  1909, 

The  legislature  of  that  year  amended  the  child  labor  law  in 
important  particulars.  The  issuance  of  employment  certificates 
(involving  the  application  of  the  educational  test)  was  placed  en- 
tirely in  the  hands  of  school  officials,  and  proof  of  age  was  required 
before  a  certificate  should  be  issued.  When  the  law  took  effect, 
in  1910,  hundreds  of  children  who  would  have  been  able  to  get 
affidavits  under  the  old  law  were  unable  to  qualify  under  the  new, 
either  because  of  their  illiteracy,  or  because  the  records  of  age 
required  proved  them  to  be  under  the  age  of  fourteen  years. 
This  inability  to  get  certificates  was  incontestable  evidence  of  the 
worthiessness  of  the  old  law. 

The  child  labor  and  compulsory  education  laws  can  not  be 
broken  without  the  intelligent  co-operation  of  the  children.  They 
know  perfectly  why  they  dodge  truant  officers  and  factory 
inspectors  when  in  danger  of  being  found  illegally  at  work.  An 
unobserved  product,  therefore,  of  the  failure  of  state  factory  inspec- 
tors throughout  these  years  to  prosecute  law-breaking  employers, 
and  of  local  citizens  and  municipal  authorities  to  hold  children  in 
school,  was  the  resultant  moral  harm  to  the  latter.  In  the  Pitts- 
burgh District  were  growing  up  boys  and  girls  who  had  been 
trained  to  break  the  law  in  the  full  knowledge  that  their  em- 
ployers, whom  in  theory  they  should  respect  and  imitate,  profited 
by  their  law-breaking  and  wished  them  to  deceive  the  authorities. 
Every  time  a  child  was  ordered  by  a  state  factory  inspector  to  be 
dismissed  for  want  of  a  certificate  filed  with  the  employer,  yet  was 
not  summoned  into  court  as  a  witness,  he  learned  that  his  employer 
was  above  the  law  and  did  not  need  to  obey  it.  Otherwise  the 
employer  would  have  been  tried  and  fined  for  each  offense. 

The  former  manager  of  a  pickle  factory  stated  that  for  thir- 
teen years  he  had,  as  a  matter  of  course,  hired  school  children  as 

•The   Pittsburgh   Post. 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

soon  3S  th^  berry  season  began,  regardless  of  the  child  labor  law. 
The  letter  of  this  law  was  perhaps  observed — though  this  is  a  dis- 
puted point,  no  suit  having  been  brought  to  test  it — by  keeping 
the  little  children  in  sheds  adjacent  to  the  factory  and  calling  the 
work  "farm  labor, "  a  form  of  work  which  the  law  did  not  cover. 
Unfortunately,  also,  there  was  a  provision  in  the  school  law  that 
the  local  board  might  in  its  discretion  accept  attendance  at  school 
for  70  |>er  cent  of  the  school  year  in  lieu  of  the  full  school  year.* 
These  hair  splitting  distinctions  were  clear  neither  to  the  children 
nor  to  the  parents,  who  were  permanently  confused  by  their  ex- 
periences. In  a  self-governing  community  such  practices  are 
suicidal.  A  democratic  republic  composed  of  law  breakers  is 
unthinkable,  and  scarcely  more  workable  is  a  democracy  com- 
posed of  people  hopelessly  confused  as  to  the  meaning  of  laws 
and  their  own  relation  to  them. 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

In  order  to  afford  to  working  people  in  Pittsburgh  condi- 
tions as  good  as  were  then  required  in  the  most  enlightened  states, 
the  following  changes  were  recommended  in  this  report  when 
brought  out  early  in  1909: 

I.  The  head  of  the  department  of  factory  inspection  should  be 
superseded  by  a  chief  inspector  of  proved  integrity  and  administrative 
ability. 

J.  Tenure  of  office  should  be  assured  to  the  deputy  inspectors  under 
civil  service  laws. 

).  Local  headquarters  should  be  established  in  Pittsburgh. 

4.  The  present  requirements  with  regard  to  safeguarding  machinery 
should  be  rigidly  enforced  and  extended  to  give  the  inspectors  control  of 
temperature,  glare,  darkness,  and  speed. 

;.  Wherever  a  process  unavoidably  produces  extremes  of  tempera- 
ture, the  factory  inspection  departments  should  be  empowered  to  require 
that  air  of  healthful  temperature  be  piped  directly  to  the  place  where  it 
is  most  needed.  Tobacco  workrooms  should  be  treated  as  nuisances  and 
summarily  closed  when  unsuppiied  with  forced  ventilation. 

6.  The  working  day  should  be  fixed  at  nine  hours  for  women  and 
girls  over  the  age  of  eighteen  yean  with  6  p.  m.  as  closing  hour.    For  boys 

*  Under  the  new  school  code,  passed  in  1911,  this  abridging  of  time  is  al- 
lowed only  in  places  with  1  population  of  less  than  j,ooo. 
212 


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i 


'factory   inspection   in   PITTSBURGH 

below  the  age  of  sixteen  and  girls  under  eighteen  years  the  closing  hour 
should  be  5  p.  m.  with  a  maximum  of  eight  hours  of  work  in  twenty-four 
hours;  six  days  should  constitute  the  working  week. 

7.  Physicians  and  engineers  should  be  added  to  the  factory  in- 
spectbn  staff  to  study  injurious  occupations. 

8.  The  list  of  prohibited  occupations  for  children  below  the  age  of 
fifteen  years  now  in  force  in  Ohio,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  Nebraska,  and  Wis- 
consin should  be  adopted. 

9.  The  proof  of  age  for  children  about  to  leave  school  should  be 
made  uniform  with  that  now  required  in  New  York,  and  penalties  pre- 
scribed for  officials  who  vary  from  the  methods  prescribed  for  obtaining  it. 

10.  The  English  labor  laws  as  the  highest  and  most  applicable  type 
of  labor  laws  should  be  made  the  basis  of  a  code  adapted  to  the  present 
industrial  development  of  Pennsylvania. 

CHANGES  IN  FACTORY  LEGISLATION 

From  1908  to  1913,  advance  came  slowly  in  the  directions 
indicated. 

The  legislature  of  1909  reformed  the  system  of  issuing  certificates, 
placing  it  in  the  hands  of  the  school  authorities.  The  passage  of  the  school 
code*  of  1911  carried  this  reform  funher,  abolishing  the  old  method  of 
census  taking  by  assessors. 

Except  for  gaining  a  higher  age  under  which  boys  may  not  work  in 
coal  mines — the  minimum  was  raised  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  years — 
the  child  labor  campaign  of  1911  was  itself  unsuccessful.  As  already  noted, 
glass  manufacturers  from  the  Pittsburgh  District,  for  the  fourth  succes- 
sive session  of  the  legislature,  defeated  the  bill  to  abolish  the  "glass  ex- 
ception" which  permits  employment  of  boys  under  sixteen  at  ni^t  in 
"continuous"  industries.  An  unknown  political  influence  caused  the 
defeat  also  of  the  bill  to  restrict  messenger  work  at  night  to  boys  of  eighteen 
years  and  older.  This,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  comprehensive  study  of 
the  Pittsburgh  messenger  service  made  for  the  National  Child  Labor 
Committee,  revealed  all  those  temptations  to  immorality  which  accompany 
messengers'  work  at  night  which  have  been  found  in  other  cities. 

In  1913  the  law  applying  to  women  was  amended,  the  new  provi- 
sions including  every  woman  and  girl  in  Pennsylvania  who  works  for  wages 
in  every  kind  of  establishment  (except  hospitals,  private  homes,  and  on 
farms)  subject  to  certain  partial  exemptions. 

Under  the  law  as  amended  no  woman  or  girl  may  be  employed 

*  See  North,  Lila  Ver  Planck:  Pittsburgh  Schools.  The  Pittsburgh  District, 
p.  ai?. 

213 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

more  than  fifty-four  hours  in  a  week,  or  more  than  six  days  in  a  week,  in 
any  establishments,  except  fruit  and  vegetable  canneries. 

No  woman  or  giri  may  be  employed  more  than  ten  hours  in  one 
day  except  (i)  in  weeks  in  which  a  legal  holiday  occurs  [two  additional 
hours  of  work  may  be  required  on  three  of  the  remaining  days];  (3)  when 
machinery  breaks  down  for  more  than  thirty  minutes  [extra  work  to  make 
up  lost  time  may  be  required  never  exceeding  two  hours  in  one  day];  (3) 
in  fniit  and  vegetable  canneries. 

These  exceptions,  however,  do  not  permit  more  than  fifty-four 
hours  in  one  week,  or  work  after  the  legal  closing  hour. 

Work  at  night  for  girls  under  twenty-one  years  of  age,  after  9 
p.m.  or  before6a.m.,  is  prohibited  in  any  establishment  except  in  the  case 
of  telephone  operators  between  eighteen  and  twenty-one  years  old.  For 
purposes  of  enforcement  a  telephone  girl  working  after  9  p.  m.  who  ap- 
pears to  be  less  than  twenty-one  years  old  must  produce  proof  of  her  age. 

For  women  of  all  ages  a  closing  hour  is  provided.*  They  may  not 
work  in  any  manufacturing  establishment  after  lo  p.  m.  or  before  6  a.  m. 
except  as  managers,  superintendents,  clerks  and  stenographers. 

Intermissions  of  forty-five  minutes  for  rest  and  food  must  be 
given  at  noon  or  after  six  hours'  work  unless  the  working  day  is  less  than 
eight  hours,  when  the  pause  may  be  reduced  to  a  half  hour. 

If  the  work  being  done  gives  rise  to  dust,  lint,  gases  or  fumes,  a 
separate  lunch  room  must  be  provided,  and  no  woman  permitted  to  eat 
in  the  workroom. 

Clean,  pure  drinking  water  must  be  furnished,  and  free  ice. 

For  every  three  women  or  girls  one  seat  must  be  furnished  and  kept 
where  it  can  be  easily  used.  Wash  and  dressing  rooms  must  be  available 
for  all  women  and  girls. 

These  legislative  changes  of  1913  alter  materially  the  position 
of  Pennsylvania  in  the  scale  of  the  states  when  measured  by  its 
care  of  the  health  of  women  wage-eamers.  So  long  as  it  retained 
the  twelve-hour  day  and  sixty-four  hour  week  it  stood  twenty- 
sixth  in  the  list.  Now  it  is  excelled  only  by  four  states  and  the 
District  of  Columbia  which  have  established  by  law  the  eight- 
hour  day  for  women.  It  ranks  with  Massachusetts  and  New 
York  in  having  a  working  week  of  fifty-four  hours  and  a  fixed 
closing  hour  for  women  of  all  ages.  In  the  range  of  employments 
included  it  excels  both  these  neighbor  states.f 

'This  a  true  elsewhere  only  of  Masiachuseits,  New  York,  Indiana,  and 
Nebraska. 

t  The  amendments  adopted  in  1913  were  drafted  in  part,  and  their  enact- 
ment was  almost  wholly  accomplished  by  (he  etioris  of  the  Consumers'  League. 
214 


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FACTORY    INSPECTION    IN    PnTSBURGH 

CHANGES  IN  ADMINISTRATION 
Slowly,  therefore,  the  ponderous  machinery  of  the  state  was 
brought  to  the  service  of  its  wage-earning  women  and  children. 
But  the  enforcing  state  authority  remained  the  same  that  had 
blocked  these  gains,  aggravated  these  deficiencies,  and  served 
these  interests. 

Governor  Stuart  in  1909  reappointed  J.  C.  Etelaney  as  chief  factory 
inspector  over  protests  from  the  Pennsylvajiia  Child  Labor  Association 
and  many  citizens.  There  was  no  alternative  authority  who  could  make 
good  the  loss  when  the  factory  inspection  department  fell  below  the  highest 
standard  of  efficiency.  Had  Pennsylvania  adopted  an  effective  work- 
men's compensation  law  and  had  this  proved  directly  and  indirectly  a 
stimulus  to  employers  to  make  safe  the  conditions  surrounding  working 
people,  there  would  still  have  been  need  of  the  highest  efficiency  on  the 
part  of  the  state  officials  in  bringing  up  to  the  statutory  minimum  the 
least  intelligent,  prudent,  and  humane  employers.  Of  such  efficiency 
there  was  no  more  evidence  in  the  reports  published  subsequent  to  1907 
than  in  their  predecessors. 

Belated  in  coming,  the  administrative  changes  of  1913  were 
sweeping.  At  one  stroke.  Captain  Delaney  was  removed  as  head 
of  the  factory  inspection  department  by  Governor  Tener;  at  an- 
other, a  law  was  passed  which  incidentally  established  local  head- 
quarters at  Pittsburgh  with  a  supervising  inspector  in  charge. 
The  entire  administrative  service  of  the  state  was  reorganized  as 
a  department  of  labor  and  industries,  and  an  industrial  board 
was  created  empowered  to  fix  standards  for  particular  industries 
within  the  broad  limits  set  by  the  law.*  This  means  that  Penn- 
sylvania has  revolutionized  her  whole  theory  erf  both  labor 
laws  and  enforcement,  just  as  Wisconsin,  Massachusetts,  New 
York,  Ohio,  and  California  have  changed  theirs  in  the  interval 
since  the  field  work  for  this  investigation  was  performed. 

Where  there  had  been  two  wholly  unrelated  bureaus,  one  of 
industrial  statistics  and  the  other  of  factory  inspection,  both  weak 
and  inefficient,  there  was  created  a  well  rounded  department  in- 
cluding bureaus  of  statistics,  factory  inspection,  and  arbitration; 
and  in  the  bureau  of  inspection  a  division  of  industrial  hygiene. 
The  bureau  of  statistics,  enlarged  and  strengthened,  became  the 
*  For  text  of  law  and  appolnimenl*  kc  Appendix  XI,  p.  446. 
215 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

bureau  of  statistics  and  information,  designed  not  merely  to  ccHn- 
pile  tables  of  figures,  but  to  bring  out  the  facts  of  industrial  condi- 
tions, methods  of  improving  them,  and  the  experience  of  other 
states  and  countries  which  may  be  made  the  basis  for  regulation. 
Committed  to  the  same  end  of  expert  investigation  a  division  of 
industrial  hygiene  was  created  consisting  of  a  physician,  as  chief 
medical  inspector,  with  two  assistant  physicians,  a  mechanical 
engineer,  a  chemical  engineer,  and  a  civil  engineer.  The  duties 
of  this  division  involve  "  constructive  investigation  of  the  widest 
possible  scope,  and  the  ascertainment,  as  far  as  possible,  of  all  the 
more  important  risks  of  industry  and  the  means  and  devices  where- 
by these  risks  may  be  practically  eliminated,  to  the  mutual  ad- 
vantage of  employer  and  employe." 

More  important  even  than  the  establishment  of  the  divi- 
sion of  hygiene  was  the  creation  of  an  industrial  board  of  five 
members,  including  the  commissioner  of  labor  and  industries. 

To  quote  Jasper  Y.  Brinton,  of  Philadelphia,  assistant  United  States 
district  attorney  and  president  of  the  Pennsylvania  Child  Labor  Com- 
mittee which,  with  the  Consumers'  League,  was  instrumental  in  drafting 
the  legislation. 

"The  duty  of  this  board  is  twofold:  to  make  investigations  into  all 
matters  touching  the  enforcement  of  the  labor  laws  of  the  commonwealth, 
and  to  establish  rules  and  regulations  necessary  for  carrying  out  the  de- 
clared policy  of  the  state,  requiring  reasonable  and  adequate  protection 
of  the  health  and  safety  of  employes.  The  widest  powers  of  investiga- 
tions are  afforded  to  the  board,  with  further  power  to  subpoena  witnesses. 
.  .  .  This  board  is  not,  of  course,  in  any  way  a  law-making  body,  but 
merely  an  administrative  body  charged  with  the  duty  of  giving  voice  to 
the  expressed  declarations  of  the  legislature  in  the  light  of  its  expert  in- 
vestigation into  the  necessarily  changing  and  frequently  intricate  condi- 
tions of  different  industries." 

Industrial  board  and  department  are  in  the  midst  of  their 
first  year  as  this  volume  is  issued.  It  is  too  eariy  to  mix  judg- 
ment with  hope.  The  system  is  changed,  but  the  forces  that 
warped  to  their  ends  the  old  inspection  service  are  still  as  active  as 
ever,  succeeding  in  1913  in  killing  the  child  labor  bill  and  the  com- 
pensation measures  that  would  have  brought  Pennsylvania  to  the 
standard  of  the  other  great  manufacturing  states.  The  outcome 
of  the  new  machinery  is  yet  to  be  seen. 
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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  PITTSBURGH 

DISTRICT 

H.  F.  J.  Porter 

OTHER  things  being  equal,  the  success  of  an  enterprise  is 
in  direct  proportion  to  its  operating  efficiency.  That  is  a 
well  established  principle  of  industrial  management.  It  is 
equally  demonstrable  that  this  standard  of  efficiency  depends  more 
upon  the  character  of  the  working  force  and  the  system  of  its  man- 
agement than  upon  the  type  of  mechanical  equipment.  A  com- 
petent organization  can  produce  good  results  in  spite  of  a  poor 
equipment,  whereas  an  incompetent  organization  will  not  only  fail 
to  make  good  equipment  produce  good  work  but  will,  in  a  com- 
paratively short  time,  destroy  the  equipment  itself. 

The  first  requisite  then  on  the  part  of  a  modem  and  pro- 
gressive manager  is  to  obtain  the  proper  type  of  administrative 
organization;  the  next,  so  to  equip  and  manage  it  that  its  original 
efficiency  will  be  maintained  and  increased.  The  way  to  begin  is 
obviously  to  select  the  best  men  available.  Next,  the  very  best 
mechanical  devices  should  be  supplied  them  and  a  physical  envi- 
ronment provided  which  will  enable  the  individual  workman  to 
operate  those  devices  efficiently  and  which  will  protect  him  also 
from  vocational  wear  and  tear.  Finally,  methods  should  be  em- 
ployed to  develop  his  capacity  and  to  correlate  the  independent 
units  into  harmonious  team  play. 

These  general  principles  afforded  me  a  basis  of  analysis  and 
comparison  in  approaching  representative  manufacturing  establish- 
ments in  the  Pittsburgh  District  in  1910.  With  the  assistance  of 
an  official  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce,  38  companies  were  selected 
as  reflecting  the  general  range  of  working  conditions,  and  the 
managers  of  many  others  were  conferred  with.  The  tour  of  in- 
spection included  13  machine  shops  and  foundries,  seven  rolling 
mills,  four  food  products  factories,  two  laundries,  two  glass  works, 
one  printing  establishment,  one  clothing  factory,  one  cigar  factory, 
217 


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WAGE-EARNING    PtTTSBURGH 

one  white  lead  works,  and  one  cork  factory.  Miscellaneous  em- 
ployments included  a  street  railway,  a  telephone  exchange,  a 
department  store,  and  a  coal  mine.  Certain  developments  are  en- 
tered in  footnotes,  but  the  chief  significance  of  the  report  is  that 
it  gives  a  cross-section  of  shop  practice  in  one  American  industrial 
center  in  a  given  year. 

The  investigation  covered:  (i)  the  recruiting  of  employes; 
(2)  the  physical  environment  of  the  plant  in  and  through  which 
their  efficiency  must  produce  results;  (3)  safeguards  against  acci- 
dents, ill  health,  and  other  drains  upon  that  efficiency;  and  (4) 
the  development  of  the  working  force  as  a  whole. 

1 
RECRUITING  OF  EMPLOYES 

There  are  certain  attributes  the  possession  of  which  deter- 
mines a  man's  excellence  as  a  producer.  These  can  be  classified 
as  physical,  moral,  and  mental,  and  must  be  considered  in  the 
order  named.  First  in  importance  is  the  physical,  for  no  matter 
how  moral  or  intellectual  a  man  may  be,  if  he  is  a  weakling,  if  he 
has  not  health,  he  can  not  be  regular  in  attendance,  capable  <^ 
giving  a  normal  amount  of  strength  to  his  duties,  or  permanent  in 
service.  Second,  he  must  be  of  good  moral  character,  or  his 
habits  outside  of  working  hours  will  unfit  him  for  work.  And 
third,  he  must,  in  order  to  think  and  work  right,  be  of  good  mental 
caliber  and  have  had  training  and  possess  the  desired  skill. 

Selection.  One  would  naturally  suppose  that  in  the  effort 
to  obtain  an  efficient  working  force  special  endeavors  would  be 
made  to  attract  the  best  material  obtainable  in  the  market  from 
which  to  make  selections;  but  among  the  38  plants  visited  1  found 
very  few  were  making  such  an  effort. 

Although  all  of  them  either  were  closed  to  the  union  or  were 
open  shops  (except  in  the  pattern  andfoundry  departments,  which, 
generally  speaking,  were  unionized),  most  were  hiring  their  help 
indiscriminately,  through  their  foreman,  and  had  always  done  so. 
These  were  taking  chances  on  finding,  after  spending  consider- 
able time  and  money  in  training  men  for  some  required  service, 
that  many  were  either  physically  unfit,  were  loafers,  were  addicted 
to  drink  and  therefore  frequently  in  poor  condition  for  work, 
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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

or  were  stupid,  slovenly,  or  clumsy  in  their  methods — all  traits 
resulting  in  inability  to  do  the  specific  work  which  had  to  be  per- 
formed. In  any  one  of  these  cases  the  cost  of  supervision  would  be 
too  high  to  admit  of  its  being  maintained  continuously,  and  the 
unsatisfactory  candidate  would  either  leave  voluntarily  on  account 
of  low  wages  or  be  dropped  for  incompetence.  Then  the  process 
of  hiring  a  successor  would  have  to  be  repeated,  perhaps  many 
times,  before  in  the  hit-or-miss  process  a  really  satisfactory  employe 
would  be  obtained.  Or,  more  probably,  the  foreman  wearying  in 
the  hope  of  obtaining  a  satisfactory  employe  would  retain  one  he 
thought  "good  enough,"  and  so  a  working  force  of  a  low  standard 
of  efficiency  would  be  established. 

Now,  although  the  foreman  is  the  man  who  must  ultimately 
be  responsible  for  the  quality  and  quantity  of  work  performed  by 
the  men  under  him  and  should  therefore  be  the  judge  of  their  skill 
when  they  are  hired,  there  are,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  other 
characteristics  besides  skill  which  an  employe  should  possess.  These 
characteristics  foremen  are  not  in  a  position  to  pass  upon  offhand, 
nor  have  they  the  time  to  investigate  them.  To  this  duty  in  a 
large  plant  some  one  person  should  give  his  time  and  attention.* 

Among  Pittsburgh  employers  the  Westinghouse  Electric  and 
Manufacturing  Company  had  established  such  an  employment 
department  under  the  direct  charge  of  an  assistant  superintendent. 
This  company  had  in  1910  about  10,000  employes,  1,000  being 
women,  and  in  order  to  maintain  this  number  it  hired  through  the 
employment  department  about  13,000  new  operatives  each  year. 
The  blanks  used  showed  the  effective  detail  with  which  the  "hu- 
man resources"  were  made  the  subject  of  bookkeeping.! 

It  is  of  primary  importance  that  a  working  organization  be 
composed  of  men  in  fit  condition,  and  to  insure  this  each  appli- 
cant should  receive  a  physical  examination  before  being  engaged. 
The  plan  is  not  uncommon  in  industrial  establishments  elsewhere 
in  thb  country,  and  in  Europe,  but  in  none  of  the  )8  establishments  vis- 
ited in  the  Pittsburgh  District,  was  it  carried  out  as  a  fixed  policy,  pre- 
requisite to  employment.  The  H.J.  Heini  Company  altme  provided  exam- 
ination of  employes  by  doctors  of  their  own  sex,  and  it  was  not  obligatory. 

*  The  abiue  of  iminigrants  by  grafting  foremen  was  one  of  the  cauia  of  the 
pTMScd  Steel  Car  Strike  at  HcKees  Rocks  in  1909.  The  company  has  since  es- 
tablished an  employment  bureau,  with  an  intelligent  head,  and  interpreters. 

t  See  Appendix  XVI,  p.  461,  for  facsimiles. 


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WAGE-EARNING   PtTTSBURGH 

A  physical  examination  was  at  one  time  required  by  the  Westing- 
house  Company  but  was  afterward  given  up;  first,  because  men  objected 
to  being  subjected  to  the  unusual  proceeding,  and  second,  because  the 
supply  of  skilled  labor  was  customarily  low  in  the  Pittsburgh  District  and 
all  applicants  were  engaged  except  those  who  had  a  disease  of  an  objec- 
tionable or  dangerous  character.  Some  effort  has  been  made  to  ascertain 
in  a  general  way  whether  a  man  was  physically  fit,  but  the  only  physical 
examination  takes  place  after  the  employment  agreement  is  made,  and 
is  an  entirely  voluntary  matter  on  the  part  of  the  employe  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  sick  benefits  in  the  "relief  departments"  (Appendix 
XVII,  p.  468).     It  has  no  bearing  upon  his  continued  employment. 

I  found  no  instance  where  special  efforts  were  made  to  detect  tu- 
berculosis, such  as  have  been  inaugurated  in  New  England  shops  in  con- 
nection with  the  national  campaign  against  this  disease;  nor  to  provide 
against  the  possibility  of  a  contagious  disease  being  brought  into  an  es- 
tablishment by  any  employe;  nor  to  determine  whether  an  applicant 
was  an  alcoholic;  nor  to  determine  at  the  time  of  hiring  him  whether  a 
man  was  subject  to  epileptic  fits,  fainting  spells,  heart  failure,  or  any  other 
organic  weakness  which  would  make  him  physically  unfit  for  work  in  high 
temperatures  or  near  rapidly  moving  or  otherwise  dangerous  machinery.* 
Training.  The  rapid  growth  of  industry  has  for  many  years 
caused  a  constantly  increasing  demand  for  competent  workers 
which  has  kept  far  ahead  of  the  supply.  In  certain  lines,  like  that 
of  steam  railways,  where  the  work  is  considerably  diversified,  the 
old  apprenticeship  system,  somewhat  revised,  is  still  employed  to 
recruit  the  working  force,  but  in  factory  work  it  has  been  pretty 
generally  given  up. 

In  its  stead,  with  the  development  of  machinery  and  special- 
ization, the  unskilled  immigrants  have  been  taught  to  perform 
repeatedly  and  continuously  simple  machine  processes,  thus  be- 
coming gradually  efficient  at  their  assignment.  Time  studies  and 
bonus  systems  have  further  developed  routine  speed.  This  change 
in  the  character  of  the  work  performed  by  the  rank  and  file  has 

'The  surgical  organization  of  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company  has  in  1914 
entered  upon  the  experiment  of  physically  examining  not  only  all  appiicanli,  but 
all  employes.  In  (he  last  four  months  15,000  have  been  so  examined,  and  periodic 
examinations  are  planned  for  the  future.  Epileptics,  nearsighted  men,  and  the 
like,  are  to  be  kept  from  positions  where  they  are  a  danger  to  themselves  and  their 
fellows.  The  Camegie  Company  is  the  first  among  the  great  industrial  establish- 
ments employing  men  to  attempt  the  plan. 

The  lead,  however,  was  taken  by  a  women-employing  industry.    The 
Central  District  Telephone  Company  has  for  some  time  required  a  physical  exami- 
nation of  al!  applicants,  covering  eyes,  lungj,  heart,  skin,  and  so  forth,  which  is  so 
thorough  that  only  1  j  per  cent  are  accepted. 
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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE   OF  THE  DISTRICT 

caused  the  all-round  mechanic  to  disappear  and  has  evoked  a  body 
of  operatives  who  are  in  no  sense  mechanics  but  who  are  proficient 
in  the  one  task  to  which  they  have  been  trained. 

The  monotony  of  the  repetition  of  one  process,  however, 
wears  upon  the  mind,  and  as  there  is  little  opportunity  for  shop 
advancement  employes  are  inclined  to  give  up  one  position  in  the 
hope  of  securing  a  better  one  elsewhere. 

This  resulting  change  in  the  ranks  of  employes,  necessitat- 
ing as  it  does  the  constant  hiring  and  educating  of  new  ones,  en- 
tails great  waste,  not  only  on  account  of  the  break  in  the  routine  of 
shop  operations  but  because  the  imparting  of  knou^edge,  particu- 
larly to  the  uneducated,  is  an  art,  and  the  employment  of  one  set 
of  men  to  do  the  teaching  and  of  another  set  to  supervise  the  sub- 
sequent routine  operations  is  expensive.  The  problem  of  securing 
a  more  permanent  working  organization  is,  therefore,  one  of  the 
most  serious  before  the  manufacturers  of  the  country  for  solution. 
The  Westinghouse  Electric  and  Manufacturing  Company  had 
devised  a  new  form  of  apprenticeship  in  an  effort  to  meet  this  situa- 
tion. Their  plan  consisted  of  two  courses:  one,  "ordinary  appren- 
ticeship," open  to  non-technical  men,  and  the  other,  "engineering 
apprenticeship,"  open  only  to  graduates  of  technical  schools,  pre- 
ference and  precedence  being  given  to  the  sons  of  employes.  An 
applicant  for  entrance  to  either  of  these  courses  filled  out  a  blank 
in  his  own  handwriting,  giving  his  name  and  address  and  those  of 
his  father  and  mother,  or,  if  they  were  dead,  of  his  guardian;  also 
the  date  of  hb  birth  and  the  names  of  the  schools  he  had  attended, 
with  a  statement  about  the  nature  of  his  education.  The  latter 
course  was  very  complete  both  in  curriculum  and  in  practical  tasks, 
students  being  advanced  from  one  department  of  the  works  to 
another  so  that  they  eventually  obtained  experience  in  every 
branch.  When  they  had  completed  the  course  some  of  the  grad- 
uates became  connected  with  the  plant  as  subordinate  officials, 
others  went  out  into  the  commercial  offices  of  the  company  or  into 
the  field  engineering  corps,  or  left  to  be  employed  by  manufac- 
turers who  used  the  company's  products. 

S<Hnewhat  similar  methods  of  apprenticeship  were  also  found  to 
exist  in  the  only  railroad  shops  in  the  District  that  I  visited;  namely,  those 
of  the  Pittsburgh  and  Lake  Erie  Railroad,  a  subsidiary  of  the  New  York 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Central  lines,  and  in  the  locomotive  shops  of  the  H.  K.  Porter  Company. 
Apprenticeship  in  this  latter  company  lasted  four  years. 

The  Mesta  Machine  Company,  a  large  machine  shop  turning  out 
engines  of  all  kinds  as  well  as  large  mill  and  other  machinery,  sent  its  ap- 
prentices to  the  Carnegie  technical  schocJs,  where  practical  courses  in  the 
school  of  applied  industry  fitted  men  to  be  foremen  in  shops  and  the  like.* 

All  these  companies  took  in  boys  from  seventeen  to  twenty-one 
years  of  age,  required  a  medical  examination,  and  a  probationary  period 
of  six  months  during  which  time  the  candidate's  general  fitness  and  bent 
were  studied. 

A  weak  feature  in  these  apprenticeship  systems  was  the 
absence  of  effort  to  retain  the  employe  in  servicef  after  he  had  been 
trained  for  it  with  much  expenditure  of  time  and  money.  The 
result  was  the  annual  loss  and  hiring  of  over  lOO  per  cent  of 
the  total  working  organization.  This  constant  change  did  not 
apply  to  the  higher  officials  and  their  immediate  office  force,  which 
was  fairly  permanent;  but  farther  down  the  line  where  the  prin- 
ciples of  efficiency  had  not  been  instilled  in  the  minds  of  foremen 
and  lesser  subordinates,  changes  were  made  on  very  slight  provo- 
cation. The  percentage  of  change  was  about  the  same  that 
exists  in  shops  that  have  no  apprentices.  An  entire  organiza- 
tion did  not  change  completely  each  year,  for  a  very  con- 
siderable nucleus  of  permanent  men  remained;  but  people  to  the 
number  of  those  in  the  organization,  each  of  whom  received  a 
greater  or  less  amount  of  personal  attention,  supervision,  and 
training,  entered  and  left  it  during  the  course  of  a  year.  Professor 
Commons  describes  the  situation  as  it  affects  labor.^  Failure  to 
sift  the  raw  labor  material  that  came  to  them,  failure  to  develop 

'This  plan  has  been  pursued  in  recent  yean  both  by  employers  and  labor 
union).  More  generatly,  companies  co-operate  by  taking  students  into  their  shops. 
Induitrial  training  and  vocational  guidance  are  being  rapidly  developed  by  the 
centialized  board  of  education,  since  its  creation  in  tqr  i.  (See  Kennard.  Beulah: 
The  New  Pittsburgh  School  System.  The  Pittsburgh  District,  p.  476.)  Beginnings 
have  been  made  in  the  direction  of  part  time  work,  the  Westinghouse  Electric  and 
Manufacturing  Company,  for  example,  giving  four  houn'  class  work  a  week  on 
pay  time  to  boys  in  training. 

t  The  engineers  who  have  been  trained  as  apprentices  o(  the  Westinghouse 
Electric  and  Manufacturing  Company  arul  who  leave  its  employ  often  perform  a 
valuable  function  through  their  ability  to  install  its  products  in  different  parts  of 
the  country  and  the  world. 

JCommons.  John  R.r  Wage-earners  of  Pittsburgh.  P.  113  of  this  vol- 
ume. 

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INDUSTRIAL   HYGIENE  OF  THE  D15TRICT 

its  proficiency,  and  failure  to  hold  it  when  trained,  were  from 
the  managerial  standpoint  its  great  leakages. 

II 
PHYSICAL  EQUIPMENT  OF  PLANT  AS  IT  AFFECTS  THE 
COMFORT  AND  CONVENIENCE  OF  EMPLOYES 
It  seems  a  commonplace  to  say  that  more  and  better  work 
can  be  done  in  the  light  than  in  the  dark;  that  when  people  are 
comfortable  they  can  give  more  efficient  service  than  when  they 
feel  hot  or  cold  or  stupid  from  bad  air;  yet  few  industrial  man- 
agers with  whom  I  talked  in  Pittsburgh  in  1910  had  grasped  these 
self-evident  facts. 

Light.  Many  of  the  newer  Pittsburgh  plants,  especially 
those  built  in  the  suburbs,  have  adopted  a  type  of  construction 
in  which  the  framework  is  of  steel  and  the  sides  are  composed 
largely  of  glass.  The  roofs  are  either  of  the  saw-tooth,  depressed 
bay,  or  lantern  type  which  are  effective  in  making  the  shop  light, 
especially  if  the  plant  is  of  the  one-story  type  prevalent  in  the 
outlying  suburbs.  Light,  in  M  plants  and  in  the  many-storied 
buildings  found  in  congested  districts,  becomes  a  matter  of  up- 
keep as  well  as  of  structure.  The  results  in  Pittsburgh  were  far 
from  satisfactory. 

My  visits  were  made  in  June  and  July,  when  the  weather  was  very 
wann.  As  a  rule,  under  these  conditions  all  windows  and  doors  in  foun- 
dries, mills,  and  blacksmith  shops  were  open ;  in  some  cases  even  the  sides 
of  the  buildings  had  been  removed  to  allow  the  heat  from  the  furnaces  and 
other  processes  to  escape.  The  shops  were  therefore  fairly  light.  But  the 
glass  on  the  unopened  sashes  of  the  windows  was  black  with  soot,  and  in 
what  state  of  light  or  darkness  the  shops  would  be  in  the  winter  1  was  able 
only  to  sunnise. 

In  towns  where  little  soft  coal  is  burned  and  the  atmosphere  is 
clear,  dirty  windows  are  considered  prima  facie  evidence  of  poor  manage- 
ment, as  some  means  of  artificial  lighting  is  necessitated  by  such  a  condi- 
tkm.  In  Pittsburgh,  however,  as  the  smoky  atmosphere  outside  and  the 
dirt  from  the  operations  conducted  inside  very  quickly  blacken  the  win- 
dows, the  cost  of  keeping  them  clean  may  approximate  that  of  burning 
electric  light.  Many  factories  and  machine  shops  have  special  gangs  who 
clean  windows  and  whitewash  interior  walls,  but  not  nearly  enough  effort 
is  made  in  this  direction.  The  result  is  that  since  illumination  by  elec* 
tricity  is  costly,  very  little  general  lighting  is  attempted.  Instead,  in- 
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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

dividual  lamps  with  opaque  reflectors  are  placed  close  to  the  place  where 
the  light  is  needed.  Workrooms  consequently  are  as  a  rule  gloomy  and 
depressing.  The  contrast  between  the  intense  brilliancy  of  light  focused 
upon  the  work  and  the  darkness  of  the  shop  causes  frequent  contraction 
and  dilation  of  the  pupils  of  the  eyes,  inducing  eyestrain  with  accmn- 
panying  headache  and  qther  ills. 

The  preparation  of  foods  requires  good  light  in  order  that  dirt 
which  would  attract  flies  or  other  vennin  may  be  detected,  all  operations 
facilitated,  and  cuts  and  scratches  on  the  hands  of  the  operatives  fr<Nn 
which  infection  might  result  prevented.  At  the  factory  of  the  H.  J. 
Heinz  Company  both  the  natural  and  the  artificial  light  were  found  to  be 
excellent,  while  in  an  adjoining  factory  of  similar  character  they  were  not 
so  good,  and  in  a  large  milk  and  ice  cream  depot  nearby  both  were  very 
poor.  Incidentally,  the  nails  and  hands  of  the  Heinz  operatives  were  kept 
in  order  by  a  manicure,  each  receiving  treatment  at  least  twice  a  week. 

One  exceptionally  bright  plant  impressed  itself  on  the  vis- 
itor's attention.  This  was  the  "white  blacksmith  shop"  of  the 
Pittsburgh  and  Lake  Erie  Railroad,  the  walls,  ceilings,  and  me- 
chanical equipment  of  which  are  painted  white  and  are  kept  so. 
This  shop  is  as  unique  at  the  present  time  as  the  "white  power 
plant "  at  the  Chicago  World's  Fair  was  in  its  day,  and  it  is  worthy 
of  note  and  imitation.  After  seeing  this,  it  is  useless  to  say  that 
a  shop  can  not  be  kept  bright,  clean,  and  neat  in  Pittsburgh. 

Facilities  for  Controlling  Temperature.  Generally 
speaking,  the  factories  and  shops  visited  had  ample  heating  ar- 
rangements; foundries  were  the  exceptions.  As  much  could  not 
be  said  for  the  provision  of  means  to  control  excessive  tempera- 
tures; although  here  again  the  experience  of  different  managers 
in  plant  construction,  air  blasts,  electric  fans,  and  air  washing,  was 
of  a  sort  which  if  pooled  and  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  different 
industries  would  have  lifted  the  general  physical  comfort  of  work 
in  the  Pittsburgh  District  toa  new  level.  The  foundries  represented 
the  lowest  level  of  plant  practice  on  this  point.  Other  than  the 
two  mentioned  below  they  had  practically  no  provisions  for  heat- 
ing except  crude  open  braziers  in  which  charcoal  or  coke  burned 
on  Monday  mornings  before  the  foundry  operations  began.  At 
other  times  dependence  was  placed  on  the  heat  radiated  from  the 
molten  metal  and  the  castings.  Heat  from  such  sources  is  inter- 
mittent, and  as  a  rule  the  workmen  did  their  molding  work  in  the 
224 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

cold  and  got  thoroughly  heated  during  the  casting.  The  casting 
comes  just  before  they  go  home  and,  in  the  absence  of  facilities 
for  changing  their  moist  clothing,  they  are  made  susceptible  to 
colds  and  other  disorders  of  the  respiratory  system. 

In  the  Westinghouse  foundry  at  Traffcwd  City,  and  in  that  of  the 
Standard  Sanitary  Manufacturing  Company  in  Allegheny,  an  air  blast 
foimed  a  very  eflective  heating  system.  In  the  latter  plant  the  summer 
temperature  was  considerably  modified  by  running  this  blast  unhealed. 
The  skelp  furnaces  of  the  National  Tube  Company  at  McKeesport  had 
hollow  fronts  through  which  water  was  circulated,  thus  making  their 
proximity  comparatively  bearable  to  the  men  who  had  to  work  before  them 
continuously.  In  addition,  immediately  at  the  side  of  the  men  revolving 
fans  had  been  placed  to  blow  a  stream  of  air  upon  them  which  greatly 
ameliorated  their  working  conditions.* 

In  the  Reymer  candy  factory  an  air-washing,  temperature  regu- 
lating plant  which  cost  f  12,000  held  the  temperature  of  the  air  from  60 
to  70  degrees  Fahrenheit  in  all  seasons,  and  maintained  the  humidity  at 
JO  degrees,  so  that  the  preparation  and  packing  of  certain  confections 
should  be  carried  on  under  standard  conditions.  Work  in  these  rooms 
was  noticeably  comfortable  in  the  hot  weather.  A  similar  plant  had 
been  installed  in  the  building  of  the  Central  District  Telephone  (part 
of  the  Bell  system)  Company,  to  cool  the  rooms  of  the  "Long  Dis- 
tance" department.!  in  the  laundry  of  Brace  Brothers,  one  of  the 
lai^est  in  the  East  End,  the  heat  in  the  ironing  room,  directly  above  the 
washing  machines  in  the  basement,  was  very  high.t  An  air-washing  and 
cooling  system,  though  not  as  elaborate  as  those  mentioned,  had  been 
installed,  but  its  operation  had  been  discontinued  because  the  ironers  ob- 
jected to  the  cool  air  blowing  directly  upon  them  when  they  were  heated. 
The  Reymer  Company  had  experienced  this  same  difficulty  at  first  but 
met  it  by  deflecting  the  current  of  air  upward.  The  office  building  of 
the  H.  K.  Porter  Company  had  a  similar  installation  as  also  had  the  Mo 
Creery  department  store,  which  served  to  keep  the  merchandise  free 
from  a  great  deal  of  soot  and  incidentally  added  to  the  comfort  of  working 
force  and  patrons. 

'See  alto  Kelley,  Florence:  Factory  Inspection  in  Pittsburgh.  P.  300  of 
thu  volume. 

tThis  temperature  regulating  system  has  been  installed  by  the  telephone 
company  in  the  principal  long  distance  central  offices  all  over  the  country. 

t  Out  of  ja  steam  laundries.  Miss  Butler  found  one  in  which  the  heat-produc- 
ing wash  room  was  installed  on  the  top  floor,  radically  ameliorating  the  woilc 
conditions  in  ali  other  departments.  See  Butler,  Elizabeth  B.'.  Women  and  the 
Trades,  p.  167.    fThe  Pittsburgh  Survey.) 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Ventilation,  The  trend  toward  saw-tooth,  depressed  bay, 
and  lantern  roofs  in  the  steel  mills  and  other  heavy  works  of  the 
District  is,  of  course,  in  the  interest  of  coolness  and  freshness  as 
well  as  of  light  in  the  general  run  of  factories.  Except  for  the 
instances  mentioned  above  and  the  temporary  installation  of  por- 
table electric  fans  I  saw  no  evidences  of  artificial  ventilation. 

Pennsylvania  has  no  state  legislation  calling  for  definite  amounts 
of  cubic  feet  of  air  per  hour  to  be  supplied  to  each  operative.  Yet  it  is 
demonstrable  that  with  such  provisions  more  and  better  work  can  be 
accomplished,  often  more  than  enough  to  pay  for  the  installation,  main- 
tenance,  and  operation  of  such  a  supply  system.  But  the  initial  cost  and 
the  very  tangible  expense  of  running  the  plant,  in  comparison  with  the 
somewhat  intangible  returns  in  quality  and  quantity  of  work,  tend  to 
discourage  managers  from  introducing  this  very  important  adjunct  to 
factory  equipment  unless  they  are  compelled  by  legislation  to  do  so. 

The  absence  of  ventilation  may  have  been  due  to  the  amount  of 
soot  in  the  air  of  the  Pittsburgh  District.  Any  system  which  would  in- 
crease the  volume  of  air  in  a  factory  would  also  increase  the  soot,  and  thb 
would  necessitate  an  air-washing  device  and  further  expense.  Such  de- 
vices were  to  be  found  in  the  olfice  buildings  of  the  District.  An  excellent 
device  which  combines  a  heating  and  ventilating  system  and  by  which  the 
air  is  washed  was  installed  in  that  of  the  Pittsburgh  and  Lake  Erie  Rail- 
road. The  windows  were  intended  solely  for  the  admission  of  light  and 
did  not  open,  the  air  entering  and  finding  its  exit  by  special  ducts. 

Drinking  Water.  The  need  for  pure  air  as  a  basts  for 
healthy  and  effective  work  brings  us  back  to  the  consideration 
that  however  marvelous  has  been  the  development  of  machinery 
and  automatic  processes,  the  intelligence  which  controls  at  every 
point  in  manufacturing  operations  is  human.  It  has  both  the 
gift  and  the  limitations  associated  with  animal  organisms.  The 
worker  must  have  air  and  water.  He  can  not  go  from  morning  to 
night  without  food  or  respite.  The  waste  tissue  worn  out  in  the 
process  of  work  must  be  disposed  of.  And  when  we  mass  these 
needs  by  the  tens  and  hundreds  and  thousands  in  congregate  work 
places  it  is  not  enough  to  give  the  workers  merely  elbowroom  and 
shelter.  Creature  conveniences  must  be  planned  for  as  definitely 
as  coal  bins  or  steam  pipes  are  planned  for  in  the  boiler  room. 

In  the  Carnegie  mills,  the  United  Engineering  and  Foundry 
Company,  and  in  some  other  plants,  it  had  been  customary  for 
thirty  years,  within  my  own  memory,  for  an  extensive  bucket 
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Fountain  in  Mackink  Shop 
Waler  at  founlain  is  taken  directly  from  a  circulaiirg  line,  leaving  no  dead 
ends  where  water  can  stand.  The  line  is  i.^oo  feet  long.  Water  returning  to 
the  starling  point  is  not  over  7°  higher  in  temperature.  Before  this  system  was 
adopted,  the  men  often  had  cramps  from  drinking  water  improperly  cooled.  Now 
they  rarely  or  never  suffer  that  way.     One  fountain  to  every  10  men  is  provided 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE   DISTRICT 

brigade  of  men  and  boys  to  cany,  by  a  shoulder  yoke  and  wire 
hoop  attachment,  pails  of  water  from  springs  situated  in  some 
instances  at  a  considerable  distance  in  the  hills.  This  archaic 
institution  persisted  in  Pittsburgh  steel  mills  where  hydraulic 
engineering  had  reached  its  highest  achievements.  Although  the 
water  might  be  cool  and  pure  enough  at  the  spring,  it  became  warm 
in  the  carrying.  The  perspiration  from  the  water  carriers'  arms 
dropped  into  it  in  transit,  and  the  dirt  from  the  ice  which  the  mill 
men  handled  probably  offset  the  benefits.  If  the  companies 
had  piped  their  water  from  the  springs  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago 
they  would  have  saved  many  times  the  cost  of  the  present  method 
of  transportation  and  distribution,  and  would  have  delivered  water 
purer  and  at  a  temperature  much  more  healthful  than  that  which 
was  being  provided.  That  the  current  expense  of  this  system  had 
not  impressed  itself  upon  the  management  through  the  records  of 
the  cost  department  was  inexplicable.* 

In  contrast,  the  National  Tube  Company  had  filtered  city 
water  piped  into  their  plants  and  was  installing  systems  for  cool- 
ing and  distributing  it  through  sanitary  fountains.  The  system  as 
laid  out  had  no  dead  ends  where  the  water  could  lie  in  the  pipes  and 
become  heated  or  stagnant.  Similarly,  the  American  Steel  and 
Wire  Company's  general  superintendent  stated  that  in  plants 
where  buckets  and  tin  cups  were  used  the  company  was  arranging 
to  replace  them  with  automatic  drinking  fountains,  as  it  considered 
the  old  system  insanitary.  These  fountains  consist  of  a  small 
basin,  from  the  center  of  which  protrudes  a  vertical  pipe.  Out  of 
this  the  stream  spouts  an  inch  or  two  in  the  air.  so  that  a  drink 
can  be  obtained  without  touching  the  metal.  The  water  may  run 
continuously  or  be  controlled  by  a  valve.  These  fountains  if  pur- 
chased are  usually  elaborate;  if  home-made,  they  are  very  simple. 

For  twenty-five  years  prior  to  the  opening  of  the  filtration 
plant  in  190S  the  river  water  supplied  to  Pittsburgh  was  known  to 
contain  typhoid  germs,  and  no  one  who  could  avoid  doing  so  used 
it  for  other  than  washing  purposes.  In  consequence,  practically 
all  industrial  plants  put  in  their  own  driven  wells  or,  like  the 
Homestead  mills,  drew  their  drinking  water  from  adjacent  springs 


•  Theie  »  „.,.., 

Recently,  a  modem  water  supply  system  has  displaced  many  of  them  ana  the 
days  of  tbe  last  survivors  are  said  to  be  numbered.    See  footnote,  p.  3)3. 
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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

which  had  a  local  reputation  for  purity.  Although  managen 
usually  stated  that  they  had  their  wells  or  spring  water  analyzed 
frequently  by  the  boanj  of  health  or  local  chemists  to  test  its 
purity,  as  a  rule  no  records  of  analysis  could  be  found.  With  one 
or  two  exceptions,  those  produced  were  several  years  old.  Time 
passes  rapidly,  and  unless  it  is  the  specific  duty  of  some  one  per- 
son to  make  a  systematic  and  periodical  inspection  this  safeguard 
is  likely  to  be  forgotten  until  an  epidemic  occurs. 

In  most  of  the  factories  the  well  water  was  filtered,  but  bow 
often  the  filters  were  cleaned  was  an  open  question.  Usually  the 
supply  was  so  generous  that  it  ran  continuously  at  faucets  which 
were  distributed  throughout  the  plant.  In  the  rolling  mills  these 
faucets  were  placed  at  the  "boshes"  where  a  continuous  flow  was 
necessary  to  keep  the  water  cold  enough  to  cool  off  the  furnace 
tools.  Sometimes  a  cup  for  the  use  of  all  the  men  in  common  was 
attached  to  the  faucet.  Both  water  and  drinking  facilities  there- 
fore were  possible  centers  of  danger,  to  which  the  engineers  of 
the  District  were  only  beginning  to  give  attention.* 

Lunch  Facilities.  The  noon  hour  is  intended  to  allow 
time  for  the  midday  meal  and  for  relaxation  and  rest  from  the 
fatigueof  the  morning.  Many  companies  employing  girls  in  their 
factories  and  stores  in  the  city  had  a  room  with  tables  at  which 
the  giris  could  sit  down  and  eat  the  lunch  they  had  brought  with 
them,  the  company  providing  hot  coffee  or  tea  free  or  at  a  nomi- 
nal cost.    Two  flagrant  exceptions  to  this  practice  were  noted. 

The  Westinghouse  Electric  and  Manufacturing  Company  several 
years  ago  set  aside  a  space  in  one  of  Its  buildings  for  a  lunch  room  ftH' 
nearly  i  ,000  gids.  The  giris  brought  their  own  lunch,  and  coffee  was  fur- 
nished free  by  the  company.  Later,  when  there  was  a  demand  for  more 
room  in  which  to  install  some  machinery,  this  room  was  crowded  out  and 
since  then  the  girls  had  eaten  their  lunch  sitting  on  the  factory  floor  and 
leaning  against  their  machines  or  the  wall  of  the  building,  as  the  company 
did  not  even  provide  them  with  seats  which  had  backs.f 

*  The  Woman't  Act  of  July,  191),  requires  employen  to  provide  a  "sufBcient 
supply  (rf  clean  and  pure  dnnking-watcT-'  Department  itorei  are  reported  by 
the  donsumers  League  lo  be  observing  the  law,  but  this  is  not  true  in  general  M 
factories. 

t  Today  (1914)  the  company  hat  a  dining  room  (eating  400,  with  separate 
rest  Toonu,     See  also  footnote,  p.  Sjo. 

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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE   OF  THE  DISTRICT 

In  the  lunch  room  of  the  United  States  Glass  Company  were  s(»ie 
tables  and  chairs  and  a  large  cast  iron  stove  for  warmth  in  the  winter. 
On  this  stove  the  superintendent  said  the  girls  were  "permitted"  to  heat 
their  coffee  which  they  themselves  purchased  by  each  contributing  a  cent 
from  time  to  time.  On  the  day  that  I  called,  although  the  thermometer 
stood  in  the  90's,  the  stove  had  in  it  a  roaring  wood  fire.  I  have  no  idea 
how  high  the  temperature  stood  in  that  room,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
although  "permitted"  the  girls  did  not  that  day  take  advantage  of  the 
extended  courtesy  to  eat  their  lunch  there. 

The  new  plants  which  are  situated  outside  of  Pittsburgh  had 
provided  lunch  rooms  in  their  administrative  buildings  for  the 
accommodation  of  their  officials, — heads  of  departments  and  office 
force, — but  in  only  two  instances  that  came  to  my  attention  had 
they  similarly  provided  for  the  people  in  theirworks.  Such  a  lunch 
room  offers  a  change  of  environment  which  makes  a  pleasant  break 
in  the  routine  and  in  itself  has  a  relaxing  and  recuperative  effect. 
Coffee  and  tea  if  provided,  supply  warmth  to  an  otherwise  cold 
lunch.  The  effect  can  be  noticed  in  the  work  (^  the  first  hours  of 
the  afternoon  which  ordinarily  are  less  productive  than  those  of 
the  earlier  hours  of  the  day.  Progressive  manufacturers  maintain 
the  efficiency  of  their  working  people  throughout  the  day  by  pro- 
viding a  wholesome  meal  at  cost  in  comfortable  rooms. 

The  Mesta  Machine  Company  had  a  lunch  counter  where  75  men 
could  obtain  a  good  lunch  at  cost,  and  on  the  upper  floor  of  the  "Casino" 
at  (he  Westinghouse  Electric  and  Manufacturing  Company  there  was  a 
lunch  counter  for  men,  while  on  the  ground  floorwere  bowling  alleys,  bil- 
liard and  pool  rooms.  With  these  two  exceptions — and  the  H.  J.  Heinz 
Company — I  found  no  concern  in  1910  providing  lunch  rooms  for  men.* 
Yet  in  the  rough  work  of  a  mill,  where  the  heat  is  likely  to  be  excessive 
and  to  cause  profuse  perspiration,  the  men  become  very  much  exhausted 
and  in  the  absence  of  a  lunch  room  usually  repair  at  noon  to  nearby  saloons 
for  beer  or  a  stronger  stimulant.  As  the  effect  of  alcohol  quickly  wears 
off,  the  after  effect  is  evident  in  the  inefficiency  of  the  operatives  who  get 
"  dopey. "  The  American  Steel  and  Wire  Company  experienced  in  another 
city  the  beneficial  effects  of  local  option,  which  temporarily  removed  the 
saloon  from  the  vicinity  of  their  mill.  They  stated  that  the  number  of 
accidents  that  occurred  after  lunch  hour  was  reduced.  This  improve- 
ment in  working  conditions  was  subsequently  lost  by  a  change  in  politics 
which  restored  the  saloon. 

*  So  tar  a»  the  general  run  of  the  steel  mills  go,  the  sittiation  is  the  same  today, 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Rest,  Rest — especially  for  women  workers — is  not  merely 
a  question  (A  a  noon  stop  but  of  consideration,  at  every  point  in  the 
work,  of  what  will  ease  tension.  Standing  at  work  all  day  is  very 
fatiguing  and  progressive  managers  in  Pittsburgh  as  elsewhere 
recognized  and  acted  on  this  fact.  But  in  some  shops  where 
women  were  employed  there  were  no  seats.  When  the  superinten- 
dents of  the  factories  of  the  United  States  Glass  Company  and  the 
American  Sheet  and  Tin  Plate  Company  were  asked  whether  they 
did  not  allow  their  giris  to  sit  down  when  tired  their  replies  were 
fairiy  identical: 

"  Why  certainly,  we  have  no  objection  to  their  sitting  down." 

"Where?"  was  asked. 

"Well."  said  the  superintendents  as  they  looked  in  vain  for 
something  on  which  the  girls  could  sit,  "when  they  are  tired  they 
can  go  out  to  the  lunch  room."  But  these  girls  were  piece  workers 
who  would  dock  themselves  if  they  left  their  work.  Moreover, 
neither  lunch  room  had  any  facilities  for  "resting,"  so  that  the 
opportunity  offered  was,  I  imagine,  seldom  exercised. 

The  Pittsburgh  Railway  Company  permitted  their  motor- 
men  to  supply  their  own  stools  and  sit  on  them  while  at  work,  and 
many  men  took  advantage  of  this  privilege. 

Sitting  continuously  without  a  back-rest  is  as  much  of  a 
strain  on  the  nerves  and  muscles  of  the  back  as  standing.  In  the 
clothing  factory  of  Rauh  Brothers  and  in  the  Armstrong  Cork 
Works  the  giris  were  given  chairs  with  backs  to  them.  In  the 
Jenkinson  cigar  factory  and  the  Heinz  pickle  works  the  girls  had 
backless  stools.* 

1  asked  one  of  the  subordinate  officers  of  the  cigar  factory  why  he 
did  not  supply  chairs  with  backs  so  that  when  the  girls  were  tired  they 
could  lean  back  for  an  instant  and  relieve  the  strain  on  the  muscles  of  the 
back.  As  things  stood,  they  had  to  get  up  from  their  stools  and  leave  the 
room  ostensibly  to  visit  the  toilet  but  really  for  rest.  He  said  that  he 
had  spoken  to  the  proprietors  about  supplying  chairs  but  without  effect. 
He  knew  that  the  time  saved  by  supplying  seats  with  backs  has  always 
paid  employers  who  have  made  the  change.  A  similar  inquiry  made  to 
a  high  official  of  the  H.  J.  Heinz  Company  elicited  the  reply  that  the 
company  had  tried  chairs  and  the  girls  would  not  use  them.  Thechaiis 
tried  proved  to  have  been  made  of  wire  with  spring  backs  such  as  are  used 
'CKairs  with  backs  are  now  provided  at  the  Heinz  wdtIo. 
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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

by  typewriters.  This  chair  for  factory  use  is  absolutely  unserviceable. 
The  official  acknowledged  that  possibly  the  ordinary  chair  would  have 
been  acceptable.  McCieery's  department  store  had  seats  behind  the 
counter  which  the  sales  clerks  were  expected  to  use  whenever  they  felt  so 
inclined.* 

A  few  factories  where  women  were  employed  contained 
"rest  rooms"  where  an  employe  temporarily  indisposed  could  lie 
down.  These  were  usually  adjuncts  to  the  locker  or  dressing 
rooms,  with  washrooms  either  in  or  adjacent  to  them. 

Many  factories  had  elaborately  appointed  emergency  rooms  con- 
taining an  operating  table  for  supplying  first  aid  to  the  injured  men  or 
women,  but  this  hospital  equipment  is  no  substitute  for  the  service  sup- 
plied by  good  rest  rooms.  Frequently,  women  who  on  account  of  house- 
hold duties  hurry  away  from  home  in  the  morning  without  any  breakfast 
or,  what  is  worse,  with  a  hastily  eaten  one,  reach  the  factory  faint  or  with 
a  severe  headache.  There  are  periods  also  when  the  heat  of  the  work- 
room or  the  pain  from  slight  injury  will  cause  a  temporary  weakness 
which  an  hour's  rest  will  remove.  A  rest  room  in  charge  of  a  trained 
attendant  who  can  administer  simple  remedies  in  place  of  the  headache 
powders  and  other  nostrums  usually  employed  proves  to  be  an  actual 
saving  to  a  ctunpany,  as  otherwise  the  employe  may  go  home  for  the  day. 
The  presence  in  these  rooms  of  an  intelligent  person  who  at  times  of  oner- 
gency  may  get  into  close  touch  with  the  patient  and  bring  to  the  attention 
of  the  ONnpany  the  knowledge  of  any  pressing  needs,  also  tends  to  weld 
a  link  between  employer  and  employe. 

The  H.  J.  Heinz  Company,  McCreery  and  Company,  and  the 
Telephone  Company  had  commodiously  appointed  and  cheerful  rest  and 
emergency  rooms  fcff  wcmien.  Folding  cots  in  the  women's  wash  rooms 
of  the  Westinghouse  Electric  and  Manufacturing  Company,!  the  Ann- 
strong  Cork  Company,  and  the  Brace  Brothers'  Laundry  were  poor  at- 
tempts to  supply  this  need.  In  the  lunch  room  of  one  of  the  factories  of 
the  United  States  Glass  Company  stood  a  broken  down  lounge.  It  would 
have  required  so  much  exertion  to  keep  from  falling  off  that  little  rest 
could  have  been  obtained  by  using  it. 

Lockers.  Change  of  Clothing.  Managers  in  the  Pitts* 
burgh  District  seemed  to  have  confined  their  attention  in  the 

*  See  Kelley,  op.  cil.,  p.  304. 
t  See  footnote,  p.  sa8. 
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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

matter  of  clothes  rooms  largely  to  thetr  women  workers,  whom 
they  provided,  in  connection  with  washing  facilities,  with  rooms 
which  contained  partitioned  closets  with  pegs  or  hooks. 

Steel  lockers  are  preferable  to  wooden  lockers  and  closets,  as  they 
are  vermin  proof.  Such  lockers  were  provided  by  the  Armstrong  G>rk 
Company,  but  the  upper  tiers  were  practically  inaccessible  and  had  never 
been  used.  When  large  hats  became  the  fashion  the  lower  lockers  would 
not  hold  them,  so  that  shelves  and  pegs  had  to  be  substituted  until  a 
change  in  fashion  should  make  it  possible  to  return  to  the  lockers. 

Lockers  were  usually  provided  for  men  in  the  machine  shops,  but 
they  were  frequently  so  inconveniently  situated  and  so  open  to  the  ac- 
cumulation of  dust  that  the  men  usually  preferred  to  lock  their  clothes 
into  their  tool  chests,  thus  keeping  them  clean  and  convenient  of  access. 

In  the  best  arranged  shops  for  men  elsewhere  I  found  clothes 
rooms  which  contained  washing  facilities  in  the  care  of  an  attendant. 
These  rooms  are  ventilated  by  a  fan,  and  steam  pipes  run  through  the 
lockers.  Workmen  coming  to  work  in  wet  weather  can  change  clothing, 
shoes,  and  stockings  few  a  dry  outfit,  and  by  night  can  change  back  again 
to  their  now  dried  out  street  clothes.  Nothing  so  diverts  a  man's  thought 
from  his  work  as  cold  feet,  and  to  go  about  all  day  in  wet  clothing  lowers 
the  vitality  and  invites  cold  and  sickness,  thus  causing  irregular  attendance 
and  consequent  inefficiency. 

Cleanliness.  Washing  pAauTiEs.*  Except  in  the  machine 
shops,  the  mills  of  the  steel  industry  in  Pittsburgh  were  not  ade- 
quately supplied  with  washing  facilities  for  the  men.  When  you 
asked  why,  you  were  told  that "  mill  men  do  not  wash,"  When  you 
retorted  that  they  ought  to  be  encouraged  to  wash  and  that 
you  had  seen  them  do  it  in  the  boshes,  the  managers  usually 
said,  "  Yes,  those  who  want  to  wash  can  wash  there."  There  was 
a  general  complaint  that  the  men  in  the  machine  shops  did  not  use 

*  In  I9tl,  a  bureau  of  sifety,  relief,  sanilation,  and  welfare  was  created 
by  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  with  headquarters  in  New  York,  whkh 
has  entered  upon  a  program  of  sanitary  rehabilitation  that  gives  promise  of  equaiiing 
the  notable  advances  since  [908  in  safety  engineering.  (See  Appendix  XX,  p. 
494.)  The  investment  involved  is  staggenng — to  make  up  for  years  of  neglect; 
but  one  after  another,  wash  rooms  and  locker  rooms  are  being  placed  in  the 
mills;  drinking  fountains  and  filtered  water  are  superseding  the  bucket  brigades, 
lavatories  are  supplanting  rank  dry  vaults  and  the  insanitary  privies  which  overhung 
the  rivers;  shower  baths  are  becoming  part  of  blast  furnace  equipment,  and  in 
general  new  standards  are  being  set  for  the  Districl.  The  change  is  not  confined 
to  the  constituent  companies  of  the  Steel  Coiporation.  Yet  there  remains  a  large 
(ask  for  public  opinion  in  bringing  old  plants  and  laggard  establishments  into  line. 
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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

either  the  wash  basins  or  lockers.  My  experience  has  always  been, 
however,  that  when  men  do  not  take  advantage  of  facilities  ofTered 
it  is  because  there  is  something  wrong  with  the  facilities.  Self- 
respecting  people  (and  those  are  the  people  managers  should  en- 
deavor to  secure  and  encourage  to  stay  with  them)  like  to  appear 
well  on  the  street.  They  ought  not  to  be  compelled  to  go  home 
from  work  looking  like  hoboes  and  so  covered  with  dirt  and  grease 
that  they  soil  the  clothes  of  people  who  sit  next  to  them  in  the 
street  cars,  making  well  dressed  people  hesitate  to  ride  with  them. 

In  this  matter  the  Pittsburgh  mills  were  not  living  up  to 
their  obligations  to  their  employes  or  to  the  state  by  any  means, 
and  in  fact  were  actually  maintaining  nuisances  in  the  community. 
For  over  fifty  years  the  proprietors  of  these  mills  had  seldom  made 
the  slightest  effort  to  furnish  men  who  wanted  to  wash  any  facility 
for  doing  so  and  by  their  neglect  were  actually  educating  them 
to  go  dirty. 

The  steel  mills  of  the  Carnegie  and  the  Jones  and  Laughlin 
companies,  ai^  Brown  and  Company,  the  factories  of  the  United 
Glass  Company,  the  city  power  plant  of  the  Allegheny  County 
Light  Company,  and  the  A.  Garrison  Foundry  Company  had  no 
wash  nxHns  at  all.  The  men  got  their  hands  and  faces  black  from 
the  grime  of  the  work  and  when  they  wanted  to  clean  up  before 
eating  lunch  or  at  quitting  time,  had  either  to  resort  to  the  boshes, 
or  to  the  drinking  water  or  other  pails  which  they  themselves  sup- 
plied privately.    They  brought  soap  and  towels  from  home. 

In  contrast,  the  several  targe  works  of  the  Westinghouse 
interests  seemed  to  have  adopted  a  common  policy  in  regard  to 
wash  rooms,  of  which  they  had  a  number  in  each  plant.  These 
were  furnished  with  individual  basins  supplied  with  city  water 
caAd.  They  were  kept  in  order  by  an  attendant,  who  at  noon  and 
night  just  before  "whistle  blow"  distributed  roller  towels  (in- 
dividual towels  were  used  for  the  office  force)  and  cake  soap,  col- 
lecting them  afterward  and  putting  them  away.  In  its  new  plant, 
also.  The  National  Tube  Company  was  pioneering  an»ng  the  steel 
mills. 

Ifasb  Bowls. — A  wash  bowl  or  sin  k  seems  to  be  a  simple  and  common 
piece  of  furniture,  but  even  a  sink  must  be  of  the  proper  kind  and  con- 
veniently placed,  equipped,  and  kept  in  order.  If  the  individual  porcelain 
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WACe-EARNINC   PITTSBURGH 

bowl  is  considered  too  expensive,  a  very  good  substitute  is  an  iron  sink  on 
the  front  and  back  runs  of  which  tin  basins  can  rest.  Each  man  can  then 
have  his  individual  basin  which  he  empties  into  the  sink  when  be  has 
washed.  Such  an  arrangement  is  rapid  in  operation,  no  wails  having  to 
be  made  while  the  basin  is  being  emptied. 

It  is  better  to  have  a  number  of  these  sinks  scattered  throughout  the 
plant  than  grouped  in  one  place.  The  men  then  find  them  accessible  and 
do  not  lose  much  time  in  going  to  and  fro.  An  attendant  should  keep 
them  in  order  and  see  that  soap  is  provided  and  that  clean  towels  are  dis- 
tributed and  soiled  ones  collected.  There  should  be  plenty  of  hot  and 
cold  water  at  each  sink.  Hot  water  and  soap  are  both  necessary  to  soften 
the  grease  and  dirt  which  accompany  factory,  shop,  and  mill  work,  and 
towels  are  required  to  dry  the  hands  afterward.  In  their  absence,  oil 
and  cotton  waste  which  are  more  costly  will  be  the  regular  substitutes. 

In  order  to  show  how  carelessness  can  affect  the  usefulness  of  a 
wash  room,  let  me  describe  the  condition  of  some  basins  that  I  saw  at 
the  Armstrong  Cork  Works.  Almost  all  the  stoppers  had  become  de- 
tached and  lost.  As  there  were  plenty  of  corks  handy,  however,  these 
had  been  substituted;  but  there  is  a  difference  between  4>stopper  with  a 
chain  and  a  cork  without  one.  After  washing,  the  cork  was  usually 
left  in  the  outlet  and  the  next  person  to  use  the  bowl  had  to  plunge  his 
hand  into  the  dirty  water  to  empty  the  bowl.  When  1  saw  these  basins 
all  were  full  of  dirty  water  and  some  of  the  workers  were  going  hcnne 
without  washing  up  rather  than  dean  out  a  bowl.  Such  carelessness  on  the 
part  of  the  management,  not  only  in  the  upkeep  of  its  apparatus  but  in 
permitting  its  misuse,  could  not  have  anything  but  a  demoralizing  effect 
on  the  attitude  of  the  men  toward  other  forms  of  company  equipment. 
A  more  serious  charge  lies  against  them;  they  have  unquestionably — if 
unwittingly — spread  disease  and  caused  preventable  suffering. 

Towels  and  Soap. — In  the  works  where  the  men's  hands  and  faces 
are  very  dirty  and  are  apt  to  have  cuts  and  open  sores  upon  them,  some- 
times caused  by  blood  poisoning  or  by  venereal  diseases,  the  danger  of 
passing  these  disorders  along  is  increased  by  the  use  of  roller  towels. 
The  manager  of  a  towel  supply  company  which  furnished  and  washed 
towels  for  many  of  the  factories  in  Pittsburgh  as  well  as  doing  all  the  wash- 
ing for  the  Pullman  Company  in  this  District,  told  me  that  the  company 
was  fully  alive  to  this  danger  of  infection,  never  recommended  rcriler 
towels,  and  took  special  precautions  in  handling  them.  Professor  W.  T. 
Sedgwick,*  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Techndogy,  calls  them  a 
"sanitary  abomination."    Nevertheless,  in  Pittsburgh  factories,  wherever 

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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

any  towels  were  supplied  at  all,  roller  towels  seemed  to  be  the  rule. 

A  very  large  number  of  manufacturers  did  not  supply  either  towels 
or  soap;  they  said  that  the  men  who  washed  preferred  to  bring  their  own 
supplies.  Others  declared  that  they  tried  furnishing  soap,  but  that  the 
men  took  it  home;  that  even  when  they  tried  the  kind  which  is  chained  to 
the  faucet  or  basin  the  men  actually  cut  the  chain  and  took  the  soap  away. 
It  would  cost  less,  be  vastly  more  sanitary,  and  reduce  the  likelihood  of 
theft,  to  use  one  of  the  many  liquid  or  granulated  soaps  on  the  market 
which  are  supplied  from  a  "dispenser,"  and  which  allow  a  few  drops  or 
flakes  to  come  into  the  hand  at  a  time.  One  of  the  best  of  these  liquid 
soaps  will  give  i  ,000  washes  for  about  20  cents.  Their  use  is  no  longer  an 
experiment,  yet  I  failed  to  find  more  than  one  manager  who  had  a  soap  dis- 
penser, and  that  only  on  trial,  in  his  office  building.  It  is  hard  to  grasp  that 
captains  of  industry  should  acknowledge  themselves  vanquished  by  soap! 

In  1910  the  largest  electric  supply  manufacturing  company  in  the 
District  supplied  roller  towels,  cake  soap,  and  cotd  water.  In  the  shops 
of  their  competitor  in  an  eastern  city  there  was  a  washroom  on  a  mezza- 
nine floor  accessible  from  two  stories.  This  was  equipped  with  individual 
slate  basins  but  no  water,  no  soap,  no  towels.  Which  was  the  more  sani- 
taryp    No  doubt  the  latter. 

Shower  Baths.  Foundry  and  mill  men  who  get  very  dirty  and 
penpire  freely  should  be  given  facilities  for  taking  shower  baths  and  for 
changing  to  dry  clothes  before  going  home,  particulariy  in  winter  when 
they  are  liable  to  become  chilled  and  are  thus  made  subject  to  pulmonary 
trouble.*  Although  shower  baths  were  installed  in  several  plants,  in  but 
one  instance  did  I  find  evidence  of  their  having  been  used  recently.  This 
was  due  in  every  case,  in  my  judgment,  either  to  inconvenient  location 
and  poor  installation,  to  long  hours  of  work,  or  to  the  fact  that  the  cars  on 
which  men  depended  to  take  them  home  started  so  soon  after  the  whistle 
blew  that  there  was  scarcely  time  to  catch  them.  The  charge  that  work- 
ingroen  do  not  care  to  wash  was  not  substantiated  by  the  evidence.  They 
could  be  seen  at  quitting  time  washing  up  in  the  boshes  and  in  pails,  and 
the  Westinghouse  men  took  advantage  of  their  inadequate  washrooms. 

Poclt.    That  this  is  so,  is  evident  by  the  patronage  of  the  city 

natatoriums,  the  public  bathsf  in  the  recreation  parks,  and  the  other 

*A  law  of  :9ii  makes  wash  rooms  in  foundries  obligatory,  and  during 

recent  months  the  department  of  labor  and  industry  has  ordered  installations 

throughout  the  Pittsburgh  District. 

t  Among  general  social  agencies  in  Pittiburgh,  The  Civic  Club  of  Allegheny 
County  has  long  demonstrated  the  gospel  of  cleanliness  in  its  bath  houses.  At 
the  present  time,  Mrs.  Henry  W.  Oliver  and  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Rea,  are  erecting 
a  modem  bath  house  near  the  Oliver  works  on  the  South  Side,  to  be  given  to  the 
city  with  endowment  to  cover  operating  expenses. 


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WACE-EARNINO   PITTSBURGH 

swimming  pools  in  the  industrial  districts.  The  fallowing  record  shows 
both  the  popularity  of  these  institutions  and  the  danger  of  transmitting 
disease  through  them — a  danger  which  Pittsburgh  and  other  cities  have 
taken  few  if  any  steps  to  ward  off:  The  Carnegie  libraries  at  Htnnc- 
stead,  Duquesne.  and  Braddock,  each  with  ;o  to  loo  bathers  a  day, 
changed  the  water  in  their  tanks  twice  a  week;  the  Westinghouse  Air 
Brake  Company,  with  loo  to  200  daily  bathers,  usually  let  out  about  one- 
fourth  of  the  water  each  day;  the  Turkish  Bath  Natatorium,  with  300 
to  400  daily  bathers,  changed  the  water  three  times  weekly;  the  Law- 
rence Park  recreation  grounds,  with  soo  to  800  daily  bathers,  and  the 
H.  J.  Heinz  Company,  with  2$,  changed  every  night.  In  the  West 
Park  recreation  grounds,  Allegheny,  and  in  the  public  recreation  grounds 
at  McKeesport  the  water  was  running  constantly.* 

Water-closets.  Apparently  the  usual  method  of  handling 
water-closets  on  the  premises  of  industrial  plants  was  about  as 
follows:  First,  select  the  most  remote  part  of  the  shop,  a  place 
which  on  account  of  darkness  and  restricted  space  is  useless  for  any- 
thing else.  Then  put  in  the  cheapest  apparatus  and  one  that  will 
be  inconvenient  and  uncomfortable  so  that  the  men  will  not  be  in- 
clined to  come  often  or  stay  long.  Then  when  it  is  found  that  the 
men  take  home  the  toilet  paper,  stop  supplying  it.  The  men  will 
then  take  in  newspapers  and  read  them.  Remove  the  lights  to 
prevent  reading.  The  condition  of  the  place  will  then  become  in- 
sanitary because  the  men  can  not  see  the  condition  of  the  seats  and 
no  longer  use  them  as  intended.  When  the  odors  become  strong 
enough  to  be  observed  at  a  distance,  instead  of  recognizing  the 
fact  as  a  warning  of  the  insanitary  condition  and  remedying  it, 
install  "disinfectant  drips"  of  thymol  or  eucalyptus,  which  even 
the  managers  acknowledge  do  not  disinfect  and  really  do  little 
more  than  overcome  the  existing  odor  by  a  more  pungent  and 
powerful  one. 

Superintendents  of  factories  almost  universally  contended  that 
it  was  practically  impossible  to  keep  water-closets  in  order  for  the  class  of 

*  At  the  time  af  my  initial  Pittsburgh  report  there  was  nothing  in  any  Ui»> 
guage  on  this  subject.  Some  months  afterward  accounts  appeared  in  the  technical 
press  of  epidemics  of  throat  and  eye  trouble  at  colleees.  traceable  to  the  swimming 
pools.  See  article,  The  Menace  of  the  Swimming  Pools,  in  Tbt  Sumy,  July  27, 
191a,  describing  my  subsequent  investigations  into  the  sanitation  of  the  swimming 
pools  of  New  Vorli  City.     See  also  Manheimer,  W.  A.;  The  Survey,  April  18,  1914. 

236 


.d,Google 


Locker  and  Lunch   Room 
American  Steel  and  Wire  Company,  Donora.  Pennsylva 


D,„i,z,d,  Google 


Porcelain  Urinal 
Surrounded  by  sheet  steel  scieen.     Niiional  Tube  Company.     In  191),  Mf 
such  urinals  were  installed  by  the  United  States  Sleel  Corporation.     Its  present 
policy  is  to  place  them  at  convenient  points  in  every  works,  in  the  belief  that  ton- 
venienl  and  sanitary  urinals  make  not  only  for  health  but  efficiency 


■d^yCoogle 


INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE   DISTRICT 

people  they  employed.  They  were  unwilling  to  incur  the  expense  of  such 
an  attendant  as  keeps  a  hotel  lavatory  in  trim,  and  yet  they  would  have 
saved  more  than  his  salary  by  lessening  the  time  wasted  in  those  plants 
by  the  men,  reading,  smoking,  and  loafing  in  the  toilets,  which  ran  into  a 
very  large  sum  every  day. 

Take,  for  instance,  a  works  manned  by  1,300  men — a  small  force 
for  Pittsburgh.  Suppose  that  only  half  of  these  (a  low  estimate)  use  the 
water-closet  each  day,  during  "company  time,"  each  man  staying  there 
ten  minutes.  This  would  amount  to  6,000  minutes,  or  ten  days,  which 
at  an  average  wage  of  $3.00  per  day  would  mean  in  lost  time  to  men  and 
management  |30  per  day,  or  {6,000  per  year. 

Superintendents  and  directors  did  not  realize  how  much  their 
badly  managed  water-closets  were  costing  them.  If  this  item  of  expense 
had  been  embraced  in  their  cost  system  it  would  soon  have  come  to  their 
attrition.  The  experience  of  a  large  company  in  another  city  may  be 
dted.  The  management  found  considerable  loafing  in  the  toilet  room. 
The  company  had  the  room  attendant  take  the  check  number  of  each 
man  and  the  time  of  his  entrance  and  exit  and  this  record  was  sent  daily 
to  the  cost  accountant's  office.  The  men  were  admonished  if  they  spent 
too  much  time  in  the  toilet  rooms,  and  when  their  time  overran  a  definite 
maximum  they  were  actually  charged  for  it. 

The  superintendents  of  the  Carnegie  mills  and  the  H.  K.  Porter 
loa»notive  sht^  complained  that  the  men  spent  too  much  time  reading 
in  these  places;  yet  they  had  only  a  few  moments  before  told  me  that  the 
company  did  not  provide  toilet  paper  and  that  they  had  all  the  newspapers 
which  had  been  left  around  the  shops  during  the  day  collected  at  night 
and  put  into  the  water-closets  for  the  men  to  use,  thus  actually  furnishing 
them  reading  matter.  Moreover,  newspapers,  on  account  of  the  printer's 
ink,  are  not  healthful  for  toilet  use. 

In  the  machine  shops  of  the  Pittsburgh  and  Lake  Erie  Railroad  the 
water-closets  were  on  a  mezzanine  shelf  and  the  urinals  underneath  on  the 
ground.  A  large  sign  was  posted  on  the  shelf,  which  read  as  follows: 
"Use  nothing  but  toilet  paper  in  this  closet.  Smoking  and  reading  is 
also  prohibited."  Whatever  the  rhetoricians  might  say,  this  notice  is 
said  to  accomplish  its  purpose. 

The  amount  of  cotton  waste  which  the  men  use  when  toilet  paper 
is  not  supplied  will  surprise  any  manager  who  will  thoroughly  investigate 
the  subject.  This  waste  sooner  or  later  clogs  up  the  pipes  and  increases 
the  expense  of  keeping  the  plumbing  in  order.  Individual  bowls  are  not 
necessary  in  a  large  plant.  They  require  a  great  amount  of  wwk  to  keep 
them  clean  and  the  duplication  of  traps  increases  the  number  of  stoppages 
337 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

due  to  use  of  unsuitable  articles.  The  closets  of  shops  have  a  way  of  at- 
tracting two-foot  rules  from  the  rear  pockets  of  the  men.  These  open  in 
the  traps  and  act  as  very  effective  stoppers  in  closing  the  pipe. 

The  American  Steel  and  Wire  Company  appointed  a  committee  to 
make  a  special  study  of  wash  and  toilet  rooms  and  drinking  facilities.  As 
result  of  its  work,  well  appointed  toilet  rooms  were  being  installed  in  th«r 
different  plants.  The  concern  was  going  so  far  as  to  have  separate  ac- 
commodations for  boys  so  that  they  "would  not  become  acquainted  with 
the  filthy  habits  or  hear  the  profanity  and  obscenity  so  often  indulged  in 
by  men  in  places  of  this  kind."  This  is  a  refinement  which  seems  illogical. 
The  intercourse  of  the  men  should  be  kept  decent  by  the  presence  of  an 
attendant.  The  boys  and  men  associate  throughout  the  day  and  the 
segregation  of  boys  in  a  place  of  this  kind,  except  under  supervision,  is 
in  itself  pernicious.  In  one  of  the  mills  of  the  American  Sheet  and  Tin 
Plate  Company,  where  some  20  girls  worked,  a  small  one-room  frame 
cottage  had  been  built  and  set  aside  for  their  use  as  a  lunch  room.  In  one 
comer  was  the  water-closet.  Each  week  the  superintendent  assigned  the 
careof  the  room  to  two  of  the  girls,  whose  duty  it  was  to  see  that  the  place 
was  kept  in  order.  Here  was  at  least  an  attempt  to  preserve  cleanliness  and 
tidiness,  but  it  seemed  to  me  uncalled  for  to  make  the  girls  do  the  janitor 
work.  The  combination  of  lunch  room  and  water-closet  needs  no  comment. 

The  United  Engineering  and  Foundry  Company,  the  Pitts- 
burgh Valve  and  Construction  Company,  the  National  Tube 
Company,  the  Westinghouse  interests,  and  the  Mesta  Machine 
Company  were  conspicuous  among  those  who  in  1910  maintained 
sanitary  toilet  rooms  for  their  shops.  Each  of  these  companies 
had  a  man  in  attendance  whose  sole  duty  was  to  keep  the  toilets 
in  order.  The  toilets  had  cement  lined  floors,  syphon  flush  enamel 
range  closets  with  partitions  which  insured  a  semi-privacy  to  each 
man.  There  were  cuspidors  in  each  section.  The  closets  were 
light  so  that  the  condition  of  the  seatscould  be  distinctly  seen.  Hose 
attachments  were  installed  and  the  room  was  hosed  out  at  least 
once  and  sometimes  twice  a  day.  No  disinfectant  drips  were  used. 
The  attendant  saw  that  the  receptacles  were  filled  with  toilet 
paper  and  that  the  latter  was  not  unduly  wasted  or  carried  off; 
also  that  smoking,  reading,  and  loafing  were  not  indulged  in. 

In  contrast,  many  of  the  mills  of  the  large  steel  companies 
and  scmie  of  the  older  foundries  and  works, — such  as  the  brick 
works  which  are  situated  outside  the  sewage  system  of  the  dty, — 
238 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

had  placed  open  privies  adjacent  to  or  over  running  streams  of 
water.  These  places  were  left  practically  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves and  were  in  a  very  insanitary  condition. 

The  United  States  Glass  Company  in  its  South  Side  plant 
maintained  open  privy  vaults  that  were  disgracefully  filthy.  The 
girls'  closets  opened  directly  into  the  workroom,  i  was  escorted 
to  these  by  a  director  of  the  company  who  informed  me  that  he 
had  been  a  physician  but  had  retired  from  active  practice.  When 
I  asked  him  how,  knowing  the  insanitary  condition  of  these  places, 
he  could  allow  them  to  exist,  he  replied,  "When  I  was  a  physician 
I  gave  my  attention  to  my  profession.  Now  that  1  am  in  business 
I  ^ve  my  attention  to  helping  that  business  make  money.  We 
have  made  only  1 3  per  cent  profit  in  five  years  and  if  you  had  been 
in  the  directors'  meetings  during  this  time  you  would  have  found 
that  our  attention  was  directed  entirely  to  financial  matters;  we 
had  no  time  to  spend  on  sanitation." 

A  little  more  time  and  money  on  sanitation  would  have  gotten 
the  United  States  Glass  Gjmpany  a  class  of  work  people  more  self- 
respecting,  capable,  and  efficient  than  would  put  up  with  such  mare's 
nests;  a  little  more  efficiency  in  the  working  organization  might  have 
turned  the  balance  between  profit  and  deficit;  a  little  more  profes- 
sional conscience  on  the  subject  of  the  health  of  the  workers  might 
have  contributed  more  to  the  sum  of  things  than  the  increment  of 
business  acumen  which  this  doctor-director  put  into  his  investment. 

An  instance  of  how  easy  it  is  to  preach  and  not  practice  was 
shown  by  the  Standard  Sanitary  Manufacturing  Company,  one  of 
the  largest  manufacturers  of  bathtubs,  urinals,  and  water-closets 
in  the  country.     Its  advertisement  in  the  technical  press  read; 

"Are  the  toilet  rooms  of  your  factory  clean,  modem,  and  sanitary? 
Their  condition  is  a  daily  expression  of  your  attitude  toward  the  health 
and  physical  wdl-being  of  your  employes.  Large  employers  are  more 
than  ever  before  realiiing  their  moral  responsibility  for  the  environment 
with  which  they  surround  their  employes  and  surely  none  is  more  impor- 
tant than  the  toilet  rooms.  Would  it  not  be  worth  your  while  to  make  a 
personal  inspection  to  ascertain  the  true  condition  of  your  toilet  rooms? 
The  removal  of  insanitary  fixtures  and  the  installation  in  their  stead  of 
'Standard'  sanitary  closets  is  your  best  assurance  of  safe  sanitary  toilet 
rocxns,"    .    .    .    and  so  forth. 

239 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

When  1  asked  the  manager  what  kind  of  fixtures  the  OHnpany 
had  found  best  for  its  own  employes  he  replied:  "You  know  the 
saying  about  the  shoemakers'  children  going  barefoot." 

Their  closets  were  below  the  average  of  decency  in  the 
District.' 

Ill 

SAFEGUARDING    EMPLOYES    AGAINST   ACCIDENT 

AND  DISEASE 

Having  secured  the  working  force,  having  furnished  not  only 
the  tools  but  the  shop  facilities  which  will  enable  that  force  to  work 
to  the  best  advantage,  the  employer  should  see  to  it  that  its  mem- 
bers are  protected  from  accident  and  illness  within  his  control. 
There  is  moral  compunction  here,  but  there  is  also  an  adminis> 
trative  advantage,  for  there  is  great  waste  in  repeatedly  breaking 
new  men  in  and  in  making  good  the  gaps  caused  by  temporary 
absence.  This  waste  is  most  obvious  in  the  skilled  departments,  but 
it  is  present  wherever  accustomedness  gives  speed,  or  team  work 
gives  group  efficiency. 

Fire 

The  most  general  factory  hazard  is  fire,  but  for  one  great 
giDUp  of  industries  in  the  Pittsburgh  District  that  hazard  is  low. 
There  is  little  to  bum  in  any  of  the  buildings  connected  with  a  steel 
works  except  in  the  pattern  shop  and  the  pattern  storage  building. 
These  are  usually  built  so  as  to  be  proof  against  fire  from  both  out- 
side and  inside.  They  are  also  usually  protected  by  the  sprinkler 
system,  which  is  the  most  efficient  method  of  plant  protection  so 
far  devised,  and  are  further  equipped  with  fire-fighting  apparatus 
and  have  a  fire  brigade  instructed  in  its  use.  Fire  insurance  will 
cover  the  immediate  losses  on  this  property,  and  as  the  buildings 
are  one-story  structures,  or  have  few  people  in  them,  the  pos- 
sibility of  loss  of  life  is  remote. 

Factories  in  other  industries  present  a  different  problem. 
Several  stories  high  and  containing  inflammable  materials  and 
many  workers,  they  are  not  safe,  humanely  speaking,  unless  they 

'This  company  (1914)  <*  installing  two  three-story  comfort  stations,  with 
sbowen,  locker  rooms,  and  toilets,  for  the  service  erf  its  foundry  department  which 
comes  under  the  special  slate  law.  Its  Louisville  plant  has  installations  for  t)M 
entire  plant,  but  in  Pittsburgh  the  enameling  department,  where  toilets  and  bowls 
are  ^icd,  has  still  the  same  saniiaiy  equipment  as  in  1910I 
240 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE   DISTRICT 

can  insure  a  rapid  escape  of  the  occupants  from  the  building 
without  injury  from  smoke,  or  fire,  or  panic. 

It  is  usually  assumed  that  when  a  tire-extinguishing  apparatus 
has  been  installed  in  a  factory  and  tire-escapes  provided,  the  fire 
emergency  has  been  met;  that  if  a  fire  occurs  it  will  be  promptly  ex- 
tinguished or.  if  not,  the  occupants  will  get  out  without  difficulty  by 
the  fire-escapes.  Experience,  however.doesnotbearoutthisassump- 
tion.*  The  mere  installation  of  a  fire  extinguisher  does  not  make  the 
apparatus  effective  at  the  critical  moment.  Certain  persons  must  be 
instructed  how  to  use  it  and  this  duty  assigned  to  them.  Moreover, 
lire-escapes,  since  they  are  not  in  constant  use,  become  obstructed  or 
broken;  and  people,  not  being  accustomed  to  use  them,  are  either 
afraid  todosoorjam  them  and  are  injured  in  thecrush.  Theladders 
or  stairs  are  inadequate,  and  the  flames  and  smoke  issuing  from  the 
windows  underneath  make  them  fire  traps  rather  than  fire-escapes. 

The  time  is  rapidly  approaching,  if  indeed  it  has  not  already 
arrived  in  some  communities,  when  an  architect  who  puts  a  fire- 
escape  on  his  building  or  has  one  put  on  by  the  authorities,  will  be 
considered  incompetent  as  a  designer  of  safe  buildings. 

It  is  a  truism  that  equipment  to  be  kept  ready  for  effective 
service  must  be  used  occasionally.  Only  a  recurrent  fire  drill  will 
solve  the  problem  of  use.  That  such  a  drill  is  effective  in  spread- 
ing confidence  among  those  who  take  part  has  king  been  proved 
in  the  public  schools.  Here  is  all  the  difference  between  knowl- 
edge and  ignorance.  One  inspires  confidence,  the  other  terror; 
one  assures  an  orderly  escape,  and  the  other  breeds  a  panic.  I 
have  in  mind  a  New  York  candy  factory  which  until  a  fire  drill 
was  installed  was  all  tension  whenever  a  fire  engine  passed  on  the 
street.  More  often  than  not  some  nervous  woman  in  the  large 
force  fainted.  Incidentally,  anything  which  will  prevent  the  minds 
of  employes  from  being  diverted  from  their  work  will  increase  their 
efficiency  and  be  a  paying  investment  for  the  employer. 

I  found  but  one  Pittsburgh  factory  that  had  given  consider- 
ation to  this  subject.  The  others  said  they  had  fire  extinguishers 
and  drop-ladder  fire-escapes,  but  when  I  asked  to  whom  was 
assigned  the  duty  of  using  the  former  or  lowering  the  latter,  they 
gave  the  usual  reply  that  "anyone  would  attend  to  them." 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING   PI1TSBURCH 

In  one  factory  a  lot  of  rubbish  had  accumulated  in  the  basement. 
"Suppose  a  fire  should  occur  here,  right  now,  what  would  you  or  anyone 
else  doP"  I  asked.  There  was  no  reply.  The  building  contained  no  tire 
alarm  system  of  signals  and  someone  would  have  had  to  cry  "fire,"  with 
a  probable  resultant  panic.  I  examined  the  fire  extinguishers.  Some 
were  so  old  as  to  be  useless  and  others  so  corroded  at  the  nozzle  that  if 
they  could  be  got  to  work  it  is  doubtful  whether  anyone  would  have  been 
able  to  force  the  plug  of  corrosion  before  the  rubber  tube  had  burst.  In 
the  Rauh  clothing  factory  the  openings  leading  to  the  fire.«scape$  were 
obstructed,  and  when  we  looked  at  the  drop  ladder,  which  a  few  minutes 
before  the  proprietor  had  said  anyone  could  lower,  it  was  found  so  bent 
and  jammed  in  the  balcony  floor  that  when  I  left  fifteen  minutes  later  two 
men  were  still  engaged  in  trying  to  extricate  it.* 

Several  kinds  of  drop  ladders  are  used  in  Pittsburgh,  some  of  which 
are  counterbalanced  by  weights  hung  on  chains  or  wire  ropes.  These 
fust  and  get  out  of  order.  There  is  another  kind  of  ladder  which  is  re- 
quired by  law  in  Boston,  but  which  1  did  not  see  here  although  it  is  the 
best  so  far  devised.  This  is  a  stairway  with  hand  rails,  counterbalanced 
on  a  brass  axle  by  weights  hung  on  the  extended  stair  supports,  on  the 
cantilever  principle.  The  stairs  swing  down  gradually  from  the  second 
floor  landing  to  the  ground  when  a  person  walks  out  upon  them.  The 
stair  strings  are  so  shaped  that  they  bind  on  the  balcony  as  a  person  goes 
down  and  the  farther  down  he  goes  the  slower  they  move,  and  finally  they 
lock  when  he  reaches  the  ground. 

The  one  firm  which  had  given  serious  attenti<m  to  the  matter  of 
fire  egress  was  the  Armstrong  Cork  Company.  They  had  inaugurated  a 
fire  drill  which  they  repeated  once  a  month  and  which  they  executed  fn* 
my  benefit.  The  women  left  the  building  by  a  different  stairway  from 
that  used  by  the  men.  The  fire  brigade  unreeled  a  two-and-one-half  inch 
base  and  pointed  it  at  an  imaginary  fire.  The  drill  was  admirable;  the 
work  of  the  brigade,  I  fear,  was  impractical.  In  the  first  place,  fire  is  the 
most  fearful  antagonist  known  and  it  requires  long  training  to  learn  how 
to  attack  it  effectively.  In  the  second  place,  a  Iwo-and-one-half  inch  hose 
in  the  hands  of  inexperienced  men  would  damage  the  place  with  water 
faster  than  it  would  check  the  flames.  Fire  which  has  reach^  a  stage 
requiring  the  use  of  such  hose  needs  professional  fire  fighters. 

Well  placed  buckets,  water  barrels,  and  chemical  fire  extinguishers, 
which  a  fire-fighting  corps  can  handle  after  a  little  practice,  are  quicks 
and  more  effective  implements  for  factory  volunteers  in  checking  an 
incipient  blaze.     There  should  be  an  alarm  so  arranged  that  its  signal 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE   DISTRICT 

not  only  notifies  everybody  in  the  building  on  just  what  floor  the  fire  is 
located,  but  also  calls  the  city  fire  department. 

With  such  an  alarm  an  effective  fire  drill  will  get  the  occupants  of  a 
factory  out  of  the  building  before  the  fire  department  arrives,  so  that  the 
professionals  can  take  effective  charge  of  the  situation. 

The  Fire  Drill.  The  question  of  an  effective  fire  drill, 
however,  is  not  a  simple  one.  When,  in  1894. 1  took  charge  of  the 
Nemst-Lamp  Company,  a  Westinghouse  interest  in  Pittsburgh, 
I  found  the  factory  to  be  an  old  building  of  brick,  with  so-called 
interior  mill  construction.  It  possessed  only  one  stairway,  and 
housed  on  its  five  floors  somewhere  between  two  and  three  hundred 
people,  mostly  women.  As  the  building  itself  was  full  of  inflam- 
mable material,  and  as  it  was  surrounded  by  rolling  mills  and 
furniture  storage  warehouses,  it  was  considered  a  bad  risk,  and 
insurance  rates  upon  it  were  proportionately  high.  Realizing  my 
responsibility  for  the  safety  of  the  employes,  1  set  about  studying 
how  they  could  escape.  The  chief  of  the  fire  department,  after 
inspection,  agreed  with  me  that  the  building  was  a  fire  trap,  but 
could  offer  no  recommendations,  except  more  and  better  fire-escapes, 
precautions  against  fire,  and  methods  of  extinguishing  and  retard- 
ing its  spread  until  the  arrival  of  the  department. 

Not  being  satisfied,  however,  that  even  with  the  preventive 
measures  introduced,  the  occupants  of  the  building  would  be  safe 
if  a  fire  gained  headway,  I  appealed  to  the  managers  of  most  of 
the  progressive  manufacturing  establishments  of  the  region,  only 
to  find  that  not  a  single  concern  had  developed  a  scheme  of  rapid 
dismissal  similar  to  the  fire  drills  of  the  public  schools.  1  then 
wrote  to  some  of  the  largest  concerns  in  the  country  with  the  same 
result.  The  drill  master  of  the  local  board  of  education  was  ap- 
pealed to.  After  several  attempts  to  introduce  in  our  factory  a 
similar  drill,  he  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  building  was  so 
different  from  those  to  which  he  was  accustomed,  the  people  so 
much  older  and  less  subservient  to  discipline,  that  he  was  unable 
to  develop  a  fire  drill  which  he  felt  would  operate  in  an  emergency. 
71ie  crux  of  the  problem  was  a  defective  building  from  the 
standpoint  of  human  egress. 

Driven  back  on  my  own  resources,  1  proceeded  to  work  out 
a  solution  from  an  engineering  standpoint.    This  was  to  arrange 
243 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

for  what  amounted  to  practically  a  separate  stairway  from  each 
floor.  When  this  was  accomplished  we  installed  a  fire  drill  with- 
out difficulty  which  emptied  the  building  in  three  minutes. 

This  fire  drill,  actually  taking  the  employes  out  of  the  build- 
ing, was  the  first,  so  far  as  I  know,  ever  introduced  in  an  American 
factory.  Yet  ten  years  later  I  found  no  surviving  example  of  it 
in  the  Pittsburgh  District.*  At  the  time,  managers  from  all  over 
the  country  visited  our  plant  to  see  it  in  operation.  Those  who 
tried  to  introduce  similar  fire  drills  experienced  the  same  difficulties 
I  have  mentioned,  namely,  that  factory  buildings  are  usually 
deficient  in  stairways.  Small  factories  growing  into  larger  ones, 
add  lateral  extensions  to  their  buildings,  but  usually  provide  no 
additional  stairways.  This  doubles  or  trebles  the  number  c^ 
people  who  must  crowd  down  the  old  exits  when  the  shout  of  "  fire" 
goes  up.  The  same  thing  is  true  if  in  a  new  construction  additional 
floor  space  on  the  same  building  site  is  secured  not  by  wings  but 
by  building  higher.  To  serve  these  upper  stories  in  case  of  emer- 
gency, outside  fire-escapes,  originally  ropes  or  ladders,  have 
gradually  been  develop«i  into  a  permanent  feature  of  modem 
buildings.  But  because  of  their  contracted  space,  the  cut-off 
at  the  first  story,  and  their  tendency  to  get  jammed  in  the  case  of 
panic,  fire-escapes  have  proved  their  inadequacy  in  emergencies, 
with  frightful  loss  of  life. 

My  later  studies  for  the  New  York  State  Factory  Investi- 
gating Commission  developed  the  principle  that  people  should  not 
have  to  remain  in  a  burning  building  longer  than  three  minutes. 
Every  building  should  have  an  exit  test  which  should  empty  it  in 
this  time.  If  the  building  fails  to  meet  such  a  test  it  should  be 
altered  till  it  does,  or  condemned. 

The  Fire  WALL.t  Where  factory  buildings  are  too  tall  for 
separate  stairways  from  each  floor,  the  only  adequate  solution  is 
the  fire  wall  running  from  foundation  to  roof.  This  separates 
the  main  building  itself  into  two  great  compartments,  and  the 

*  An  act  requiring  fire  drilli  in  factoricj  and  industrial  establishments  wfaeie 
women  argirlsareentptayed  was  passed  by  Pennsvtvania  in  1911.  Many  Pittsburgh 
establish inents  carry  it  out,  but  the  law  has  yet  (igu)  to  be  universally  enforced, 
t  In  1911-ia  Mr.  Porter  was  the  fire  expert  of  the  New  York  State  Fac- 
tory Investigating  Commission,  appointed  after  the  Triangle  Fire,  when  14)  em- 
floyes  lost  ttieir  livH.  The  (ire  wail  was  his  major  constructive  recommendatUHi. 
t  is  now  read  into  the  New  York  law  and  is  being  adopted  by  architects  generally. 
244 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  *THE   DISTRICT 

employes  may  escape  laterally,  instead  of  vertically,  simply  by 
passing  through  and  closing  the  fire  doors  behind  them.  A  lire 
drill  will  empty  the  employes  from  the  danger  zone  within  a  min- 
ute, whereas  without  it,  the  employes  on  the  lower  stories  fill  the 
staircases,  and  those  on  upper  stories  are  held  back  while  smoke 
and  panic  cause  death  even  if  the  flames  never  reach  them.  Fire 
walls  are  now  required  on  new  construction  by  Pennsylvania  law. 
Safety  Appliances  and  Hospital  Care 

There  is  now  a  general  tendency  all  over  the  country  to 
guard  the  employe  against  accidents  due  to  dangerous  machinery 
by  installing  safety  appliances.  The  reader  is  referred  to  Mrs. 
Kelley's  report*  for  a  presentation  of  the  extent  to  which  un- 
guarded machinery  has  long  been  permitted  in  the  District,  and  to 
Miss  Eastman's!  for  a  reckoning  of  its  frightful  human  cost. 

In  the  absence  of  governmental  compulsion,  exceptional 
employers  had  done  pioneer  safety  work.  The  United  States 
Steel  Corporation,}  to  which  many  of  the  Pittsburgh  mills  are 
subskliary,  attacked  the  problem  of  accidents  in  a  very  practical 
manner  through  the  appointment  in  1908  of  a  committee  of  safety, 
— since  become  a  Bureau  of  Safety,  Sanitation,  Relief,  and  Wel- 
fare— whose  inspectors  examine  the  plants  of  the  corporation  and 
their  equipment  and  submit  reports  of  conditions  with  suggestions 
for  improvement.  The  constituent  companies  also  have  safety 
departments  and  many  of  the  subsidiary  plants  have  mill  com- 
mittees of  their  own.  The  procedure  in  the  National  Tube  Com- 
pany at  McKeesport  is  somewhat  as  follows: 

The  manager  of  the  plant  appoints  a  pennanent  chairman  who 
draws  up  a  schedule  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  assigning  two  superin- 
tendents of  departments  as  members  of  the  committee  for  each  month. 
In  this  way  the  superintendents  know  at  what  time  they  are  to  serve  and 
at  all  times  are  keeping  their  eyes  open  for  matters  they  wish  to  report. 
This  oxnmittee  makes  an  inspection  of  the  plant  semi-monthly.  Two 
reports  are  sent  to  the  manager  signed  by  all  the  members,  one  taking  up 
the  question  of  safety  to  employes,  and  the  other,  sanitary  conditions. 

*  KcUey,Fk>rence:  FaclMy  InipectioninPittsburgb.  P.  189  of  this  volume. 

t  Eastman,  Ciyjtal:    Work-Accidenli  and  the  Law.     (Pittsburgh  Survey.) 

t  Ibid.,  pp.  344-168.    Appendix  111,  Safely  Provisions  in  the  United  States 

Sted  CoTporatton,  by  David '^  ^ '- ^  '    " —  --'-' .-»•■.- 

National  Tube  Company,  wa: 
XX,  p.  494  of  this  volume. 


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\ 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Once  a  week  the  heads  of  the  various  departments  meet  for  lunch- 
eon, after  which  the  reports  are  taken  up  and  each  superintenduit  has  in- 
structions to  carry  out  the  recommendations  pertaining  to  his  department. 
He  is  required  to  make  a  report  at  the  next  meeting. 

The  co-operative  work  of  these  mill  committees  proved  so  effectual 
that  it  was  determined  to  appoint  departmental  committees  to  co-operate 
with  the  mill  committees  and  to  consist  of  three  workmen  for  the  day  and 
three  for  the  night  turns.  One  member  of  each  shift  is  changed  each 
month  so  that  in  the  course  of  time  a  great  many  men  in  the  mills  will 
have  an  opportunity  to  serve.  These  workmen  make  an  inspection  every 
week  and  report  direct  to  the  superintendents.  I  attended  one  of  the 
meetings  of  a  "mill  committee"  in  the  National  Tube  Company's  plant 
at  McKeesport  and  was  very  deeply  impressed  with  the  conscientious  way 
in  which  their  work  was  being  carried  out. 

The  rec(»nmendations  of  these  safety  committees,  once  they  have 
proved  their  worth,  are  compiled  in  a  code  of  standard  safety  specifica- 
tions, and  all  new  machinery  is  ordered  to  accord  therewith.  As  a  result 
of  this  system  the  number  of  accidents  has  been  materially  reduced.  The 
National  Tube  Company  has  compiled  figures  which  show  that  from  1909 
to  1914  there  was  a  marked  decrease  in  the  number  of  serious  and  fatal 
accidents  to  its  employes,  and  also  in  the  working  time  lost  by  reascm  of 
accidents-  Similar  figures  for  the  United  States  Steel  Coiporation  show 
a  decrease  in  serious  accidents,  and  an  increase  in  expenditure  for  ac- 
cident relief.    (See  charts,  pages  496  and  497.) 

This  system  of  preventing  accidents  is  supplemented  by  a 
more  and  more  adequate  system  of  care  of  injured  men.  Many 
minor  cases  which  heretofore  were  not  properly  treated  are  now 
given  the  utmost  attention  on  the  ground  that  infection  may  in- 
capacitate men  for  longer  periods  than  hurts.  A  speck  of  grit  or 
steel  used  to  be  removed  from  a  workman's  eye  by  a  fellow-work- 
man who  backed  him  up  against  a  wall  and  tried  to  get  it  out  with 
a  knife  or  a  piece  of  wood.  This  frequently  led  to  blood  poisoning. 
Today  it  is  the  intention  to  give  each  case  immediate,  anti- 
septic treatment.  The  Carnegie  Steel  Company  has  developed* 
since  1909  a  most  comprehensive  system  under  a  chief  surgeon. 
Fully  equipped  first  aid  to  the  injured  hospitals  are  established  at 
each  of  the  mills,  and  two  first  class  surgeons  are  in  charge,  one 
during  the  day  and  the  other  at  night.  A  trained  nurse  acts  as 
assistant  to  each  surgeon.  A  folding  stretcher  equipped  with  a 
*  For  a  comprehensive  statement  of  this  work  see  article  by  William  O'Neill 


Sherman.    Appendix  XV,  p.  45$. 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

tourniquet  is  placed  in  each  mill  building  and  there  are  electric 
wanning  pads  in  the  local  station  for  use  in  case  of  shock.  These 
local  emergency  hospitals,  however,  are  supplemented  by  company 
wards  in  one  of  the  largest  city  hospitals  to  which  each  case,  as 
soon  as  it  can  be  transported,  is  transferred  in  an  automobile 
ambulance.  Here  X-ray  apparatus  and  other  special  equipment 
are  available,  types  of  mill  injuries  are  made  the  subject  of  con- 
tinued and  expert  study,  and  the  leg  and  arm  which  in  years  past 
would  have  been  amputated  is  sav«]. 

Every  foreman  receives  instructions  regarding  the  operation 
ctf  the  system.  Every  employe  when  engaged  is  furnished  with  a 
copy  of  a  notice  which  is  printed  in  seven  languages  including 
English.  Under  the  old  system  men  frequently  went  back  to  work 
too  soon,  only  to  break  down  and  perhaps  become  permanently 
incapacitated.  Under  the  new,  the  foreman  gives  the  man  a  card 
to  the  surgeon,  and  the  man  can  not  go  on  the  payroll  again  with- 
out presenting  a  card  from  the  surgeon  that  he  is  physically  fit. 

The  accident  reli^  system  established  by  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation  in  1910  tides  the  workman  over  this  enforced 
lay-off.*  It  also  makes  it  to  the  interest  of  the  management  to 
get  him  quickly  and  permanently  well.  If  expert  m«lical  care 
can  cut  short  his  convalescence  it  reduces  the  charge  on  the  relief 
fund.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  guards  against  a  relapse  due  to 
premature  re-employment  it  may  save  a  second  and  perhaps 
greater  charge  against  the  fund.  The  system  c^  medical  super- 
visicHi  extends  over  the  men  after  they  are  again  at  work,  and  in 
case  the  patient  does  not  report  regularly  to  the  surgeon  his  fore- 
man is  at  once  notified  so  as  to  prevent  a  break  in  the  treatment. 

This  intelligent  and  skilled  handling  of  accident  cases  has 
materially  lowered  the  mortality  from  accidents  and  rendered  the 
results  of  casualties  less  serious.  In  contrast  to  this  system  de- 
vdoped  by  the  Carnegie  Company  many  of  the  machine  shops  and 
factories  had  arrangements  for  first  aid  to  the  injured  which  were 
absdutely  trivial.  A  bottle  of  antiseptic  wash  and  a  roll  of  band- 
age tucked  into  the  drawer  (rf  some  clerk  who  was  thought  to  have 
some  kmndedge  of  how  to  bind  up  a  wound  was  all  that  could  be 
found  in  seme  shops,  while  others  had  a  Red  Ooss  outfit  and  some- 
tne  about  the  place  supposed  to  be  best  qualified  was  assigned  the 
*  See  nidi,  op.  dt  Appendix  VU,  p.  330. 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

duty  of  applying  remedies.  At  the  Mesta  Machine  Company  the 
task  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  foreman  of  the  pattern  shop;  In  the  Jones 
and  Laughlin  mills — which  in  output  rank  well  up  with  the  Car- 
nefpe  Company — to  the  watchman  at  the  gate.* 

Protection  from  Occupational  Diseases 

Poisons,  Dangerous  Fumes,  and  so  Forth.  The  danger 
attendant  upon  some  factory  occupations  is  crften  of  a  different 
character  from  that  which  suddenly  maims  the  body  or  claims  the 
life.  It  may  be  unperceived,  insidious,  slowly  but  surely  affecting 
the  vital  organs.  It  is  just  as  essential  that  the  employer  protect 
the  employe  against  lead  poisoning  and  acid  fumes  as  against  ac- 
cident or  lire.  The  manager  who  controls  a  dangerous  process 
bears  a  moral  respcmsibility  for  the  health  of  employes,  and  the 
trend  among  industrial  nations  is  to  make  the  responsibility  legal. 

No  general  systematic  study  of  occupational  diseases  had 
been  made  in  the  Pittsburgh  District,  although  powerful  chemical 
reagents  enter  in  at  a  hundred  points  in  manufacture. 

Id  the  course  of  my  tour  of  inspection  I  gained  some  indications  of 
the  extent  of  the  problem.  Steps  had  been  taken  by  particular  cwnpanies 
to  ward  off  the  more  obvious  dangers.  Thus,  as  part  of  its  accident-pre- 
vention work  throughout  the  country,  the  American  Steel  and  Wire  Com- 
pany had  endeavored  to  control  the  fumes  from  its  wire  annealing  tanks. 

In  the  annealing  processes  elsewhere  I  found  no  special  provision 
other  than  that  of  a  high  and  open  room  for  carrying  off  the  acid  fumes 
from  vats  where  nickel  or  tin  plating  or  pickling  of  steel  was  carried  on. 
It  is  wellknown  that  these  fumes  occasion  acute  and  chronic  inflamma- 
tion of  the  mucous  membrane,  as  do  those  of  brass  foundries  where  pit 
furnaces  for  crucibles  were  installed.  Where  the  Schwartz  furnace  is 
used  a  hood  and  pipe  through  which  the  fumes  of  the  volatilized  metals 
escape  out  of  doors  is  part  of  the  installation. 

In  the  car  painting  shop  of  the  Pittsburg  and  Lake  Erie  Railroad 
the  paint  was  applied  by  mechanical  spraying  apparatus,  and  the  assistant 
superintendent  informed  me  that  they  had  had  no  cases  of  painter's  colic, 
due  to  lead  poisoning,  since  they  had  installed  an  effective  suction  draft 
system.    Previously  they  had  had  frequent  cases. 

•  The  Jones  and  Laughtin  Company  was  the  "tail-ender"  in  the  accident 
movement  among  the  great  companiei  of  the  Pittsburgh  District.  Subsequent  to 
191a,  L.  R.  Palmer,  an  electrical  engineer,  wu  put  in  charge  of  their  safety  work, 
and  inaugurated  radical  reforms.  Emergency  hospitals  and  sanitary  facilities  have 
been  introduced,  as  well  as  protective  devices,  in  the  first  year  the  company  re- 
ported a  marked  decrease  in  accidents. 

248 


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CONQUERING  DUST 

its  carpenter  sKops  has  been  cleared  by  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation 


View  of  Cahpenter  Shop 
Showing  piping  to  carry  off  dust  from  Ihc  dilTerenl  machines 


■d^yCoogle 


The  Outlet  where  the  Sawdlst  is  Bagged 


Digitized  .yCOOgle 


INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DIS-TRICT 

At  the  NatHHial  Lead  and  Oil  Company,  where  paints  are  manu- 
factured, and  at  the  Standard  Sanitary  Manufacturing  Company,  where 
lead  is  an  element  in  the  powdered  enamd  used  in  glazing  bathtubs,  high 
rarans  and  good  natural  ventilation  were  provided  and  respirators  sup- 
plied. The  men,  however,  complained  that  the  latter  were  inconvenient 
and  uncomfortable  and  many  were  not  wearing  them.  The  superin- 
tendents said  that  some  men  were  constitutionally  immune  to  the  disease 
while  others  caught  it  quickly.  The  latter,  they  claimed,  were  immedi- 
ately relieved  and  cared  for  by  the  companies  till  well,  and  then  given 
other  work  or  let  go.  A  more  reasonable  explanation  seemed  to  be  that 
certain  employes  had  exceptionally  rugged  constitutbns,  other;  kept  them- 
selves in  good  physical  condition  by  being  careful  in  their  diet,  in  their 
habits  of  bodily  cleanliness,  and  in  their  methods  of  work.  Under  these 
circumstances  lead  poisoning  might  not  assert  itself  for  years.  The  com- 
pany physician  stated  that  he  had  had  no  serious  case  of  lead  poisoning  in 
all  his  experience  in  the  bathtub  works,  but  neighboring  physicians  told 
another  story.  As  many  of  the  employes  were  non-En^ish-speaking 
foreigners,  a  dear  and  unmet  obligation  seemed  to  rest  on  the  company 
to  inf<Hin  its  men  as  to  the  dangers,  explain  how  to  guard  against  them, 
and  itself  make  a  scientific  investigation  of  a  problem  which  mayor  may 
not  mean  the  jeopardy  of  life  and  health  and  livelihood.* 

Dust.  The  ordinary  iron  and  steel  foundry  is  a  very  dusty 
place  at  certain  periods  of  the  day  and  night  during  the  sand- 
mixing  process  and  during  the  "shaking-out"  of  the  castings.  The 
grit  when  breathed  is  irritating  and  often  conducive  to  tuberculosis. 
With  two  exceptions,  no  efforts  were  made  to  improve  these 
ccoditioos  in  foundries: 

At  the  works  of  the  National  Tube  Company  a  suction  draft  sys- 
tem to  draw  out  the  dust  from  the  sand-mi:iing  room  had  been  installed. 
The  Sanitary  Manufacturing  Company  had  given  up  the  old  method  of 
tumbling  and  shaking  the  castings  to  get  rid  of  the  sand.  Many  of  their 
castings  are  thin  and  there  had  been  a  large  percentage  of  breakage. 
They  adopted  the  sandblast  method  and  operate  it  in  an  enclosed  room 
where  the  workman  is  supplied  with  a  hdmet  similar  to  that  used  by 
divers  and,  like  a  diver,  has  fresh  air  piped  to  him  from  outside. 

*  A  lead  poisoning  act  was  passed  by  the  Pennsylvania  legiilature  in  191] 
(see  Appendix  XII)  but  upio  Jaly,  1914,  no  attempt  had  been  made  to  enforce  it  in 
Pittsburgh.  The  Standard  Company  h»  added  a  trained  nurse,  who  gives 
medical  attention  and  advice;  but  in  Sour  yean  has  made  no  expert  study  of  trade 
disease  in  its  works,  nor  introduced  methods  for  cure  and  prevention  such  as  are 
employed  by  Engliih  enamelling  works.  Its  phyncian.  Dr.  Lansfitt,  now  states 
that  they  have  had  but  one  case  of  lead  poisoning  in  two  years;  and  sets  his  verdict 
as*i»t  the  world's  experience. 

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In  brass  and  metal  polishing  rooms,  grindstones,  emery  stones,  and 
buffing  wheels  were  as  a  rule  covered  by  a  hood  from  which  the  dust  was 
drawn  by  suction.*  In  a  few  cases,  however,  these  hoods  were  found  pushed 
so  far  back  by  the  operatives  in  order  to  get  better  light  that  they  were 
practically  ineffective.  In  Homestead,  where  fire  bricks  are  made,  the 
work  naturally  occasions  considerable  dust  and  there  were  no  provisions 
for  preventing  employes  from  inhaling  it. 

Work  which  involves  contact  with  poisons  and  dust  has  an 
obvious  bearing  on  the  health  of  those  employed;  there  are  other 
factory  conditions  in  which  the  connection  is  not  so  obvious  but 
which  clearly  aggravate  disease.  I  did  not  in  1910  find  any  in- 
stance of  a  company  taking  part  in  the  national  war  against  tuber- 
culosis in  ways  which  are  open  to  the  progressive  employer.  The 
state  board  of  health  had  for  some  time  been  inspecting  the  facto- 
ries of  Massachusetts  for  tuberculosis.  In  many  shops  the  ap- 
plicants for  positions  are  physically  examined.  In  the  Worcester 
district,  employes  who  develop  the  disease  in  service  are  sent  to 
the  state  sanatorium,  the  employer  paying  part  of  the  expenses 
of  the  employe  for  ninety  days,  the  state  the  remainder — a  period 
long  enough  to  make  a  start  for  recovery  in  incipient  cases  and  to 
inculcate  habits  in  the  use  of  sputum  cups  and  in  right  living  gen- 
erally. Throughout  New  England  notices  about  spitting  on  the 
floors  are  conspicuously  posted  and  cuspidors  are  distributed  about 
every  room  in  machine  shops,  one  being  placed  at  each  machine 
tool.  In  the  38  plants  visited  in  the  Pittsburgh  District  notices  of 
this  kind  were  seen  in  1910  in  the  Heinz  factory,  and  there  only. 

Alcoholism.  Managers  have  been  even  slower  to  keep 
abreast  of  the  physicians  in  another  field.  Those  who  seek  an 
efficient  working  organization  will  tell  you  that  they  hesitate  to 
accept  chronic  alcoholics,  because  although  they  may  be  excellent 
workmen  when  they  are  normal,  they  can  not  be  depended  upon  for 
regular  service.  Yet  I  found  no  system  of  selecting  employes  in 
Pittsburgh  which  would  have  discovered  these  alcoholics,  nor  did 
I  find  any  measure  of  relief  being  practiced  which  recognized  the 
drunkenness  which  disrupts  the  force  as  in  the  nature  of  a  disease. 

•  The  Annstrong  Cork  Company  his  an  exhaust  system  for  runovim  dust 
which  at  once  saves  valuable  cork  waste  and  is  a  boon  to  the  workers.  So  also 
with  metal  filings  in  the  main  grinding  room  of  the  Standard  Sanitary  Manufactur- 
ing Company.  A  "Blower  Act"  requiring  such  apparatus  in  all  grinding  rooms 
came  into  effect  January  t,  1914. 

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One  manager  complained  that  a  certain  bookkeeper  who  was  a  very 
ccHTipetent  accountant  never  could  be  depended  upon  when  any  special 
work  was  to  be  done;  as,  for  instance,  the  closing  of  the  books  for  the 
annual  directors'  meeting  at  the  end  of  the  fiscal  year.  This  man  would 
always  be  missing  at  that  time.  It  was  clearly  exasperating.  The  fact 
that  the  cause  had  not  been  associated  with  the  effect  seemed  to  me 
surprising.  Students  of  neurasthenia  state  that  overwork,  overstrain, 
and  work  in  high  temperatures,  all  tend  to  physical  exhaustion  from  which 
cenain  temperaments  seek  to  recuperate  by  the  use  of  stimulants.  A 
large  number  of  people  who  have  an  hereditary  organic  nervous  weakness 
cravealcobol,  and  indulgence  in  it  induces  a  physical  condition  in  which 
more  alcohol  is  demanded  until  the  body  becomes  saturated  with  the 
poison.  Then  a  revulsion  of  desire  takes  place  and  a  more  or  less  normal 
physical  state  is  gradually  attained.  This  cycle  is  so  recurrent  and  so  com- 
mon as  to  be  recognized  as  a  disease  and  is  given  the  name  "alcoholism." 
The  victim  becomes  incapacitated  for  work,  gradually  falls  lower  in  the 
social  scale,  andfinally  reaches  the  status  of  a  dependent. 

To  refer  to  a  minor  symptom:  The  representatives  of  more  than 
<»ie  company  told  me  that  among  the  greatest  banes  to  management  in 
Pittsburgh  were  tardiness  and  irregulanty.  The  usual  custom,  to  dock 
the  employe  for  an  hour's  time  when  he  turned  up  after  the  whistle  blew, 
or  lay  him  off  for  the  day,  only  served  in  many  cases  to  cost  the  manage- 
ment more  in  overhead  expense  which  went  on  in  the  man's  absence  than 
it  cost  the  offender  in  lost  wages.  I  have  known  manager;  to  get  better 
results  who,  instead  of  docking  the  late  man,  paid  a  bonus  to  all  who  were 
punctual  and  regular  in  attendance.  This  acted  as  a  deterrent  to  the 
drink  habit  and  increased  the  number  of  men  who  turned  up  in  good  con- 
dition after  pay  days  and  holidays.  The  problem  is  not  past  invention. 
A  blast  furnace  superintendent  in  McKeesport  cut  off  the  bulk  of  the 
drinking  among  his  men  between  heats  by  the  simple  device  of  having 
them  register  every  time  they  passed  through  the  mill  gate  to  the  row 
of  saloons  across  the  way. 

Just  as  it  is  illogical  to  punish  a  man  for  being  late  by  making  him 
later,  it  may  be  uneconomical  to  put  an  end  to  absenteeism  in  an  ex- 
perienced and  valuable  employe  by  discharging  him  without  trying  to 
help  him  master  his  fault.  In  Bellevue  Hospital,  New  York,  alcoholics 
are  grouped  in  a  special  ward  and  given  a  treatment,  employed  by  at  least 
one  Pittsburgh  physician,  which  in  the  majority  of  cases  staves  off  a 
recurrence  of  the  habit  unless  the  patient  deliberately  starts  in  again. 

Workmen  ought  to  be  willing  to  co-operate  in  eliminating 
this  menace  to  shop  organization  and  routine.  But  whether  they 
do  or  not,  managers  knowing  that  the  inefficiency  and  accidents 
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due  to  alcoholism  are  a  serious  source  of  loss,  should  not  remain 
supine  before  the  problem  and  chalk  off  to  human  nature  what  may 
in  large  measure  be  laid  to  slack  discipline*  or,  as  we  shall  see,  to 
degenerating  work  conditions. 

Alcoholism  in  the  case  of  mill  and  furnace  men,  where  great 
heat  and  long  hours  are  the  rule,  would  seem  almost  to  come  under 
the  category  of  "occupational  diseases." 

In  1910  the  Illinois  Occupational  Disease  Commission  examined 
340  employes  in  blast  furnace  departments  who  had  had  mild  cases  of 
"gassing."  These  men  had  occasionally  been  overcome  by  the  constant 
inhaling  of  carbon-monoxide.  They  were  ranoved  to  the  outer  air  where 
they  recovered,  and  then  returned  to  work.  An  excess  of  red  corpuscles 
was  found  in  every  case.  The  men  were  submitted  to  a  strength  test 
along  with  an  equal  number  of  workmen  not  exposed  to  "  gassing."  The 
blast  furnace  men  were  deficient  in  muscular  power;  the  majority  were 
below  the  average  mentality:  97  per  cent  admitted  using  alcoholic  liquor. 
and  70  per  cent  admitted  using  it  in  excessive  quantities.  Since  it  is  a 
recognized  fact  that  prolonged  exposure  to  carlxHi-monoxide  may  produce 
a  profound  impression  on  the  nervous  system,  it  was  difficult  to  make 
deductions  as  to  whether  the  sluggish  mentality  and  muscular  deficiency 
were  due  to  gas  or  to  alcoholism;  or  whether  the  alcoholism  was  itself  a 
result  and  itot  a  cause  growing  out  of  the  length  of  hours,  the  atmosphere 
in  which  they  performed  their  heavy  work,  and  the  natural  reaction  of 
human  nature  in  the  brief  leisure  left  them  to  turn  to  pleasures  that  are 
concentrated  and  seek  stimulants  raw  enough  to  goad  the  fagged  senses-t 

The  elimination  of  alcoholism,  then,  is  more  than  a  matter 
of  prohibition  during  working  hours  or  of  expelling  drunkards. 
It  may  hang  on  the  whole  scheme  of  work  and  call  for  remedial  re- 
adjustments in  hours  and  physical  conditions.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  may  hang  on  the  whole  scheme  of  recreation  outside  of  working 
hours,  or  on  a  combination  of  the  two  with  human  nature  thrown 
in.  The  president  of  a  Pittsburgh  mining  company,  who  had  tried 
to  shut  liquor  selling  out  of  one  of  the  company  towns  and  failed, 
was  executing  a  flank  movement  by  starting  a  club  with  billiard 
room  and  bowling  alleys.     In  a  region  such  as  this,  where  indus- 

•  The  restrictions  thrown  around  the  Westlnghouse  Relief  Funds — providing 
that  benefils  shall  not  be  paid  for  disability  due  to  alcoholism,  itimulints,  brawls, 
etc., — undoubtedly  have  a  bracing  elTccI  on  an  organiiation  as  a  whole.  See 
Appendix  XVII,  p.  468. 

t  Fitch,  John  A.:  The  Steel  Workers,  pp  57-58.  (The  Pittsburgh  Survey.) 
The  U.  S.  Steel  Corporation  has  introduced  oxygen  helmets  for  the  use  of  repair 
men  whose  work  takes  them  into  a  gas-laden  furnace.  See  Appendix  XV,  p.  455. 
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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

tries  have  grown  by  leaps  and  bounds  far  tn  advance  of  an 
adequate  setting  of  community  life,  the  situation  calls  for  civic 
leadership  as  wdl  as  trade  ability  from  the  forceful  men  who 
would  build  up  the  productive  efficiency  of  the  industries. 

Fatigue 

Human  fatigue,  mental  or  physical,  is  like  the  "fatigue 
of  metal."  Up  to  a  certain  point  stress  may  be  applied  re- 
peatedly and  recuperation  to  a  normal  condition  be  effected,  but 
beyond  this  "elastic  limit"  fatigue  is  cumulative  in  its  effect  and 
the  natural  processes  can  not  restore  the  injury  which  has  been 
produced  except  through  a  period  of  rest  and  specific  treatment.* 
Sometimes,  in  the  case  of  both  men  and  metals,  when  this  cumula- 
tive action  has  been  carried  too  far  the  effect  through  an  actual 
destruction  of  tissues  and  material  is  permanent  and  a  breakdown 
is  inevitable.  Engineers  recognize  this  fact  in  designing  machin- 
ery, and  the  latter  is  bou^t  under  a  guarantee  that  it  will  meet 
without  "fatigue"  the  service  to  which  it  will  be  subjected.  Nev- 
ertheless, care  is  taken  that  the  machine  should  not  be  overtaxed, 
and  frequent  inspection  is  made  to  ascertain  whether  through  ig- 
norance or  carelessness  it  is  being  maltreated.  When  there  is  any 
evidence  of  such  maltreatment  investigation  is  made,  the  person 
responsible  for  it  admonished,  and  its  recurrence  guarded  against. 
In  certain  cases  where  it  is  impossible  to  observe  the  effect  of 
repeated  stress,  as  in  hoisting  chains  and  hooks  of  cranes,  these 
are  periodically  subjected  to  the  annealing  process  to  restore 
their  physical  properties.  In  several  shops  in  Pittsburgh  chains 
have  been  discarded  altogether  and  wire  ropes  substituted,  which, 
when  subjected  to  overstrain,  break  one  strand  at  a  time  and  the 
first  one  getting  into  and  dogging  the  pulleys  serves  as  a  warning 
of  approaching  failure. 

With  these  illustrations  of  the  care  which  is  taken  of  machin- 
ery, the  lack  of  care  of  the  "  human  parts'  of  the  plant  as  a  going 
concern  stand  out  prominently  in  the  Pittsburgh  situation. 

The  length  of  working  day,  for  example,  is  an  elementary  consider- 
ation in  the  matter  of  nervous  and  physical  strain.  Yet  time  schedules 
have  not  been  modified  according  to  the  extent  to  which  a  given  kind  of 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

work  exhausts  a  man.  Wherever  pared  down,  it  has  been  due  to  a  very 
different  consideration — the  bargaining  power  of  particular  labor  unions. 
Thus,  we  had  in  Pittsburgh  the  eight-hour  day  in  the  building  trades  as 
against  the  twelve-hour  day  of  the  steel  mills;  a  whole  holiday  every  al- 
ternate Saturday  in  the  foundries  in  summer,  as  against  the  36$-day  year 
of  the  blast  furnaces,  which  did  not  stop  even  for  the  Fourth  of  July. 

The  growing  factory  practice  of  a  Saturday  half-holiday  in  summer, 
usually  made  good  by  a  shortened  noon  hour  the  rest  of  the  week,  and  the 
custom  of  using  spell  hands  in  hot  work  in  the  steel  mills,  perhaps  marked 
crude  beginnings  toward  easing  the  tension  where  heat  aggravates  fatigue. 
Apart  from  them  the  only  evidence  I  discovered  in  Pittsburgh  of  a  rea^- 
nition  on  the  part  of  a  management  of  the  severity  of  the  stress  to  which 
employes  are  subjected  was  in  certain  departments  in  the  telephone  ser- 
vice, where  a  respite  during  the  middle  of  the  morning  and  afternoon,  in 
one  case  of  fifteen  and  in  another  of  twenty  minutes,  was  granted  the 
giris,  who  were  meanwhile  relieved  by  others.* 

The  distance  we  have  still  to  go  in  determining  the  relative  euc* 
ti(Mis  of  different  forms  of  labor  is  suggested  by  the  findings  of  the  Toronto 
physicians  who  constituted  a  board  of  inquiry  into  the  physical  aspects  of 
a  telephone  exchange,  and  who  held  that  more  than  five  hours'  rapid  work 
a  day  at  the  switchboard  as  there  conducted  was  bound  to  use  up  the  girls. 

The  manager  of  a  factory  who  has  required  his  employes  to 
pass  a  physical  examination  knows  definitely  that  they  are  not 
equal  in  their  ability  to  undergo  stress.  Other  managers  ought  to 
know  in  a  general  way  that  all  people  are  not  equally  robust  any 
more  than  they  are  of  equal  height  or  mentality;  nor  is  the  same 
person  always  at  the  same  level  of  dynamic  efficiency.  Especially 
is  this  true  with  women  and  with  those  who  have  passed  their 
youth.  We  are  only  beginning  to  consider  the  adjustments  neces- 
sary, so  that  from  the  production  standpoint  the  curve  of  output 
may  be  kept  as  nearly  even  as  possible,  and  from  the  human  stand- 
point the  health  of  the  operatives  be  conserved. 

The  Shop  Clinic 
The  pioneers  in  scientilic  management  have  set  themselves 
the  task  of  laboratory  methods  to  study  variation  in  efficiency  as 
it  occurs  in  a  given  shop  or  department. 

The  "preventive  clinic,"  which  exceptional  works-managers 
*  See  Buller.op.  cit.,  pp.  a8a  ff.    See  also  Goldmuk,op.  dt.,  pp.  ji-^a. 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE   DISTRICT 

have  established  here  and  there  in  America — but  none  as  yet  in 
fittsburgh* — has  possibilities  as  an  instrument  for  the  study  of  the 
human  factor  in  such  equations. 

Here  entrance  physical  examinations  are  made  and  periodical 
visits  paid  by  a  physician  who  examines  all  employes  who  for  any  reason 
are  brought  to  his  attention.  Those  examined  are  either  treated  or  given 
a  diagnosis  of  their  case  and  advised  to  consult  their  own  physician.  At 
intervals,  talks  on  hygiene  are  given  by  the  doctor  to  the  assembled  work* 
ing  force.  Circulars  with  sanitary  information  are  distributed.  The 
subjects  to  which  attention  is  especially  given  in  a  plant  employing  large 
numbers  of  women  are:  Common  colds,  anemia,  immoderate  use  of  tea, 
coffee,  alcohol,  and  tobacco;  constipation,  neglected  teeth,  eyestrain,  skin 
diseases,  irregular  menstruation,  tuberculosis,  alcoholism. 

Such  clinics  help  ward  off  the  infectious  diseases  which  untn- 
fonned  workers  bring  into  the  factories.  They  detect  incipient 
cases  of  tuberculosis  and  can  be  made  the  means  of  instructing 
workers  how  to  guard  themselves  against  trade  dangers,  such  as 
poisons.  They  may  prove  in  time  valuable  sources  of  information 
as  to  occupational  disease,  and  like  the  chemical  laboratories  which 
test  every  heat  of  metal  turned  out  by  a  steel  mill,  may  watch  the 
processes  from  the  standpoint  of  fatigue  and  efficiency. 

IV 
DEVELOPMENT  AND  STABILITY  OF  EMPLOYES 

Traces  of  German  influence  and  the  beginnings  of  scientific 
management  are  to  be  found  in  Pittsburgh  plants,  more  or  less  at 
variance  with  the  methods  of  handling  labor  which  have  grown  up 
in  the  steel  industry.  Yet  the  local  methods  are  themselves 
typical,  even  when  extreme,  of  much  of  our  industrial  practice, 
and  will  be  better  understood  if  we  stop  to  consider  the  country- 
wide and  often  world-wide  developments  of  which  they  are  a  part. 

During  the  wonderful  expansion  in  industry  which  character- 
ized the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  our  technical  schools, 
following  the  example  set  by  leaders  in  technical  education  abroad, 

•  The  medical  service  of  the  H.  J.  Heini  Company  has  developed  notably 
in  this  direction.  A  demist  and  iwo  physicians  (a  man  and  a  woman)  are  regularly 
engaged  who  render  service  without  charge  to  employes.  Among  other  employers, 
the  Armstrong  Cork  Company  has  a  physician  and  dentist  in  attendance  and  the 
Telephone  Company  a  rounded  scheme  for  safeguarding  health — including  physical 
examination,  first  aid,  payment  of  board  outside  the  home  when  there  is  3  con- 
tagious disease  in  the  family,  sick  benefit  for  six  weeks,  disinfection  of  instni* 
ments,  and  so  forth. 

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devoted  their  curricula  exclusively  to  the  physical  sciences  and 
applied  their  knowledge  to  the  perfection  of  mechanical  equipment 
in  the  trades.  The  great  wealth  of  our  natural  resources,  which 
through  this  mechanical  development  suddenly  became  available, 
attracted  a  flood  of  immigrants  whose  labor  in  turn  produced  a 
material  prosperity  which  those  who  were  capable  and  alive  to  the 
situation  were  not  slow  to  grasp  and  develc^.  Many  thousands 
of  factories,  mills  and  industrial  establishments  of  all  kinds  sprang 
up  all  over  the  country,  each  requiring  one  or  more  men  to  manage 
its  working  organization.  As  there  were  no  schools  of  instraction 
in  labor  management,  each  of  these  men  was  obliged  to  evolve  a 
method  of  his  own  and  became  more  or  less  adept  according  to  his 
general  education,  tact,  temperament,  and  innate  ability  to  handle 
men.  Under  such  circumstances  there  were  many  instances  of 
bad  management,  and  some  of  its  effects  upon  its  victims  were 
shown  by  remonstrance,  strikes,  and  labor  troubles  generally. 

Some  of  these  mistakes  in  management  resulted  from  certain  in- 
grained habits  of  thought  which  are  slow  to  change.  For  example,  if  a 
man  were  to  lake  his  horse  out  in  the  street,  hitch  his  traces  to  a  post  or  a 
rock  and  then  proceed  to  lash  him  with  a  whip,  it  would  not  be  long  before 
bystanders  would  interfere  no  matter  whether  he  proclaimed  that  the 
horse  was  his  property  and  that  he  fed  and  housed  him  and  therefore 
could  do  what  he  chose  with  him,  or  that  he  thought  his  actions  would  not 
do  his  horse  any  harm.  Nevertheless,  if  the  man  should  loosen  the  post  or 
the  rock  from  the  ground  he  could  beat  the  horse  all  day  long  while  making 
him  drag  it  and  no  one  would  expostulate.  We  see  similar  occurrences 
in  our  streets  even  now.  In  other  words,  the  horse,  as  soon  as  he  is  used 
as  a  beast  of  burden,  loses  his  identity  as  an  animal  and  certain  treatment 
is  accorded  him  by  custom  as  an  agent  for  work,  and  is  admissible  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  it  tends  to  make  the  horse  less  capable  of 
performing  the  work  desired  of  him. 

So  in  the  field  of  industry,  when  it  came  to  pass  that  many  working 
people  had  to  be  yoked  to  a  single  task.  Suppose  a  man  were  to  place  a 
number  of  men  and  women  in  a  room,  make  some  of  them  stand  all  day 
long  without  allowing  them  to  sit  down  to  rest  and  require  others  to  sit 
all  day  on  stools  or  boxes  without  any  support  to  their  backs.  Suppose  he 
made  the  room  so  dark  that  they  could  with  difficulty  see  clearly;  and 
left  it  so  poorly  ventilated  that  they  would  become  poisoned  by  the  bad 
air.  Suppose  he  frequently  chided  and  threatened  them  because  they 
were  not  standing  right  or  sitting  as  he  had  told  them  to  do. 
2S6 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

Even  if  the  man  should  pay  these  people — let  us  assume  they  need 
the  money — It  would  not  be  long  before  there  would  be  such  a  protest  by 
the  public  that  he  would  have  to  stop  his  performance. 

But  let  this  man,  in  addition  to  the  above  exactions,  make  these 
people  do  continuous  hard  work  all  day  long,  work  perhaps  of  a  nature 
subjecting  them  to  hazard  of  health  and  limb,  and  at  once  their  identity 
as  human  beings  is  lost;  they  are  looked  upon  simply  as  "labor";  the 
fact  that  they  are  employed  in  productive  labor  and  that  productive  labor 
is  a  desirable  thing,  gives  the  performance  a  sanction  in  the  eyes  of  the 
performer  and  of  the  dowly  aroused  public. 

Welfare  Work 

We  in  America  were  not  quick  to  recognize  the  change  in  the 
character  of  the  work  brought  in  by  the  factory  system,  with  its 
repetitive  methods  of  manufacturing  duplicate  parts;  nor  the  in- 
tensification of  these  methods  by  "piece  work"  and  "  rate  cutting" 
in  the  era  of  severe  competition  among  manufacturers. 

Military  Germany,  on  the  other  hand,  with  every  citizen 
prized  first  of  all  as  a  man  of  war,  saw  the  disastrous  effects  of 
abnormal  competition  and  bad  management  upon  her  working 
classes  in  the  period  of  industrial  development  following  the 
Franco-German  War,  and  as  an  imperial  policy  sought  to  bring 
about  a  different  condition  of  affairs. 

HenccWohifahrts-Einrichtungen,  or"  welfareinstitutions,"  fostered 
wdl  lighted  rooms  cooled  in  summer  and  wanned  in  winter;  bri^t,  cheer- 
ful, and  ctMnfortable  lunch  rooms  where  the  working  force  could  obtain  a 
wholesome  and  substantial  meal  at  a  nominal  cost;  rest  rooms,  equipped 
to  supply  Unt  aid  to  the  injured;  complete  hospitals  for  the  more  seriously 
injured  or  for  those  who  were  ill;  reading  rooms  where  the  best  literature, 
both  technical  and  popular,  could  be  obtained  and  drawn  for  home  use; 
lectures  and  classes  for  the  instruction  of  those  who  desired  to  advance 
thonselves  in  their  work,  with  social  and  athletic  clubs,  gymnasia  and 
baths,  for  the  pleasure,  health,  and  physical  development  of  the  men  and 
their  families,  and  beneficial  organizations  and  pension  systems  for  sick, 
injured,  and  aged  workmen. 

American  manufacturers  who  traveled  abroad  to  learn  what  was 
being  done  in  foreign  establishments,  were  not  slow  to  observe  the  im- 
proved efficiency  of  the  operative  in  quantity  and  quality  of  output. 
They  forthwith  introduced  many  of  those  features  into  shops  in  this 
country  with  very  satisfactory  financial  results  and  exploited  their  intro- 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

duction  by  advertising  their  plants  as  "model  factories,"  and  the  innova- 
tions  as  "welfare  work."  Tliis  name,  an  incorrect  translation  of  the 
German,  was  taken  to  imply  that  the  new  features  were  solely  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  working  people  when  they  were  at  bottom  a  paying  investment. 
Welfare  workers  soon  began  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  part  of  the  employer's 
method  of  covering  up  his  own  shortcomings  or  his  exploitations  of  the 
employe.  In  some  instances  the  resentment  naturally  aroused  among 
American  employes,  who  objected  to  being  considered  objects  of  charity, 
killed  the  purpose  of  the  installation;  in  others  (as  in  the  Westin^ouse 
Air  Brake  Works)  the  name  has  been  or  is  being  dropped  as  inapprapnatc 

The  result  is  that  while  the  process  of  improvement  in  factory  ad> 
ministration  has  perhaps  not  been  delayed  by  the  welfare  movement,  it 
has  gone  forward  through  other  channels  as  part  of  the  regular  course  of 
management;  through  the  agency  of  outside  organizations,  like  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association;  through  the  demands  of  organized 
labor,  through  borough  and  city  governments;  and,  above  all,  through 
factory  legislation  and  enforcement.*  The  last  ten  years  have  seen  a 
demand  for  increased  efficiency  and  social  refonn  calling  for  the  introduc- 
tion of  many  of  the  features  referred  to,  especially  shorter  hours,  better 
lighted,  heated,  and  ventilated  workrooms,  better  washrooms  and  toilet 
accommodations,  and  protection  against  occupational  diseases  and  acci- 
dents. 

]  do  not  suppose  that  there  is  a  more  notable  example  in  this 
country  of  the  generous  adoption  of  the  German  welfare  system 
than  that  in  the  H.  j.  Heinz  Company  in  Allegheny  Gty,  reference 
to  which  has  already  been  made.  Mr.  Heinz,  a  German,  absorbed 
the  ideas  which  he  had  seen  worked  out  in  factories  in  Germany 
and  introduced  such  as  could  with  advantage  be  adapted  to  his 
business  here.  This  business  is  now  a  large  one  and  the  company 
claims  that  its  growth  from  small  beginnings  is  in  no  small  part 
attributable  to  the  efficiency  developed  by  these  features  and  the 
consequent  close  co-operation  between  employer  and  employe.  A 
free  circulating  library  is  situated  in  the  main  building  and  fre- 
quent lectures  and  entertainments  are  given  in  their  auditorium. 
There  are  a  gymnasium,  recreation  rooms,  and  a  roc^  garden  with 
a  conservatory  which  supplies  flowers  for  window  and  roof  boxes: 
there  are  classes  in  drawing,  cooking,  millinery,  and  dressmaking, 

*  For  nample,  sm  Appendix  III,  p.  414,  for  a  siatemeftt  of  Y,  M.  C  A. 
work  for  immigrants;  Appendix  XIII,  p.  4;j,  for  brief  Tfivmt  of  work  of  outside 
organizations  among  wage-earning  women;  Appendix  XIV,  p.  4^  for  sanitiiy 
standards  set  this  year  for  the  first  time  by  the  brewery  workers;  and  see  Keliey, 
p.  31)  of  this  volume  for  difcst  of  the  new  woman's  labor  law  of  1913. 

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Ball  Field 
Weslinghouse  ELecIric  and  Manufacluring  Company 


College  Room.  W  kstikchouse  Cllb 
hast  Pinsburgh 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

and  when  a  new  need  of  this  kind  is  discovered  it  is  cordially  met. 
Gatherings  bring  all  members  of  the  organization  into  close  touch.* 
But  notwithstanding  the  existence  of  this  object  lesson  for 
forty  years  in  the  heart  of  Pittsburgh,  I  found  that  it  had  been  very 
little  imitated  in  the  District.  This  was  largely  because  the  Heinz 
employes  are  mostly  women,  while  the  predominating  industry 
has  been  that  of  iron  and  steel,  which  requires  buildings,  machinery, 
and  operatives  of  so  different  a  type  that  the  lack  of  resemblance 
of  the  work  has  precluded  comparison  of  conditions.  Moreover, 
so  preponderating  has  been  the  influence  of  the  steel  industryf  that 
the  conditions  that  have  prevailed  in  its  plants  have  tended  to 
retard  sanitary  improvements  and  advances  in  other  lines  in  the 
District. 

Among  other  plants  employing  womenj  the  Armstrong  Cork  Com- 
pany  had  a  supervisor  whose  duty  it  was  to  see  that  their  needs  were  met. 
At  the  Rauh  clothing  factoiy,  where  Messrs.  Rauh  themselves  took  a 
persona]  interest  in  the  treatment  of  employes,  men  and  wcunen  were  sep- 
arated in  their  work.  This  was  also  the  case  at  Jenkinson's  stogy  factory. 
McCreery's  department  store  was  lending  tuition  to  employes  who 
desired  to  take  salesmanship  courses  in  a  correspondence  school.  These 
students  were  invariably  advanced  in  the  organization.  Qasses  in 
sewing,  dressmaking,  and  millinery  also  were  held  in  the  building,  and 
lectures  on  business  methods  and  thrift  were  frequently  given  by  the 
manager  and  others  whom  he  invited  for  the  purpo$e.§ 

*  Members  of  the  Heinz  family  are  erecting  a  spacious  social  building  to 
take  the  place  of  the  nei^boi^ood  house  which  has  long  been  maintained  near  the 
Alle^eny  canneries  (Covode  House).  It  is  for  the  service  of  the  people  of  the 
District. 

t  In  addition  to  safety  and  sanilary  refonn,  playgrounds  in  mill  neighbor- 
boodi,  viuting  nurses  in  a  few  of  the  mill  towns  and  resident  household  demon- 
straton  in  two  or  three  of  the  mining  communities  in  the  coke  region  are  today 
manifestations  of  a  new  order  in  the  master  industry  itself. 

t  In  its  lunch  rooms  and  rest  rooms,  its  kitchen  where  lea  and  coffee  are 
served  free  of  charge  and  odoHess  cooking  is  permitted;  its  fortnight  vacation  with 
pay,  its  sick  benefits,  pensions,  and  medical  service,  the  Central  District  Telephone 
Company  has  adopted  many  of  the  welfare  features  in  which  the  Heini  plant  led ; 
but  in  common  with  the  national  social  policy  of  the  Bell  system  it  has  introduced 
a  more  modem  note  in  its  physical  examinations,  its  scientific  study  of  workroom 
environment,  and  of  work  processes.  For  example,  it  devekiptd  a  one  day  of  rest 
in  seven  schedule  in  its  continuous  operations  years  in  advance  of  the  steel  com- 
panies. 

I  The  McCrecry  store  was  selected  for  inspection  in  igio  as  representing 
the  highest  standard  then  reached  in  Pittsburgh  mercantile  establishments. 
The  four  years  succeeding  have  been  yean  of  rebuilding,  new  buildings,  and  en- 
brgement  in  six  large  department  stores  in  Pittsburg,  and  social  work  among 


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wace-earninc  pittsburgh 

Mill  Towns 

Turning  to  plants  employing  men:  All  around  Pittsburgh 
are  small  towns  which  have  grown  up  either  as  the  result  of  the 
development  of  some  natural  product  found  there,  or  because  some 
enterprise  previously  located  in  Pittsburgh  outgrows  its  site,  and 
unable  to  acquire  adjacent  property,  has  been  compelled  to  move 
where  land  is  cheap  and  where  it  will  have  plenty  of  opportunity 
to  expand.  Such  a  town,  especially  if  composed  of  employes  of 
one  industrial  establishment  and  their  families,  presents  distinctive 
responsibilities  from  the  managerial  standpoint.  In  talking  with 
employers  some  of  them  stated  very  positively  that  they  did  not 
feel  that  they  had  any  business  to  interest  themselves  in  what  their 
employes  did  outside  of  working  hours.  Some  employes  also 
stated  with  equal  positiveness  that  it  was  none  of  the  employer's 
business  what  they  did  in  their  own  time.  When,  however,  what 
the  employe  does  in  his  own  time  has  a  very  decided  effect  upon 
what  he  does  in  his  employer's  time,  it  can  not  help  but  be  the 
employer's  business  to  interest  himself  in  it,  and  when  he  does  this 
in  a  proper  way  it  is  not  only  not  resented  but  is  welcomed  by  the 
employe.  The  suburban  plant  must  be  able  to  attract  and  hold  a 
labor  force  nearby;  and  living  conditions  and  recreational  facilities 
are  factors  which  help  or  hinder  in  doing  so.  The  Westinghouse 
interests  in  Pittsburgh  had  notably  recognized  these  respon- 
sibitities  in  their  two  manufacturing  centers. 

The  Electric  Club  in  a  building  belonging  to  the  Westinghouse 
Electric  and  Manufacturing  Company  at  Wilkinsburg,  is  a  dub  head- 
quarters for  the  engineers  of  the  various  Westinghouse  companies.  It 
contains  an  assembly  hall  where  social  gatherings  took  place  frequently 
and  where  lectures  of  a  popular  and  technical  character  were  given  twice 
a  week.  Some  of  these  latter  were  published  in  the  Electric  Journal, 
edited  and  managed  by  members  of  the  organization. 

At  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Company's  plant  at  Wilmerding, 

employes  has  actively  but  irregularly  entered  into  the  new  Kheme  of  thingi. 
Lunch  and  rest  rooms,  vacation  camps,  women  physicians,  social  clubs,  welfare 
workers,  S^itunl ay  closing  in  summer,  are  features  in  which  different  stores  have 
excelled.  At  the  same  time,  the  Consumen'  League  and  tabor  departmcot 
have  with  the  new  women's  taw  which  went  into  effect  November  i,  1913.  a  better 
instrument  than  ever  before  to  enforce  common  standards  of  hours,  comfort,  and 
sanitation  for  all  mercantile  workers,  a  group  which  Miss  Butler  found  to  be 
among  the  most  desperate  sufferers  from  lack  of  public  regutatkm.  See  also 
Appendices  XII  and  XtX. 

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MINING   TOWNS  OF    PITTSBURGH- BUFFALO  COMPANY 


John  ETTA 
In  the  Frecpoit  diitrkt  of  Pennsylva 


Mariakha 

The  coal  mining  business  can  not  draw  on  a  cily  full  of  workers. 

The  mining  operator  must  not  only  build  his  plant,  but  figure  out  how  his 
employes  are  to  live.  Not  a  little  of  the  labor  trouble  in  the  past  has  been  due  to 
consiiuction  of  inferior  houses,  rented  at  exorbitant  prices. 

The  Pittsburgh- Buffalo  Company,  under  the  leadership  of  John  H.  Jones, 
himself  a  practical  miner,  has  done  much  to  change  this  order  in  starting  a  number 
o(  mining  towns  from  the  ground  up,  ai  the  same  time  that  they  have  sunk  their 
shafts  from  the  ground  down.  The  advances  in  house  construction  and  community 
service  give  promise  of  similar  advances  in  street  layout  and  architecture  in  the 


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>1 


3a 


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MlNH.'5   DwtLLING 

The  rentals  in  ihese  mining  (owns  of  the  Pittsburgh -Buffalo  Company  are 
below  anything  thai  can  be  oblained  for  the  same  money  in  the  industtial  center. 
Brick  houses  rent  for  S1-7;  a  room:  frame,  St.fo.  The  maiority  of  the  houses 
are  furnished  with  electric  light  and  some  with  natural  gas,  hot  and  cold  water  and 
baths.  Wholesale  construction,  and  power  and  water  supplies  needed  to  run  the 
mine,  make  good  household  service  possible,  even  when  the  town  starts  in  an  out 
of  the  way  mountain  valley 


School  at  Mahiann* 
Al  revolution  over  the  early  days  in  the  mining  towns  of  western  Pennsylvania. 
In  bath  houses,  schools  .and  recreation  centers,  progressive  operators  are  recog- 
izing  the  social  element  entering  into  the  mining  operations 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

a  town  which  contains  practicany  but  this  one  industry,  the  company  had 
established  two  buildings,  one  for  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associatbn 
and  the  other  for  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Association,  and  here 
classes  were  held  in  stenography,  typewriting,  drawing,  woodworking, 
and  in  elementary  engineering.  There  were  also  classes  in  English  for 
Italians  and  Hungarians  and  similar  classes  were  being  started  in  another 
part  of  the  town  close  to  the  homes  of  these  people.  Aside  from  its 
humanitarian  aspect,  this  instruction  has  become  practically  desirable 
in  Pittsburgh  owing  to  the  large  number  of  foreigners  who  do  rough  work 
often  under  the  supervision  of  foremen  who  can  not  speak  their  language, 
with  resulting  waste,  injury,  and  expense.  * 

Classes  in  English  also  were  held  in  a  building  owned  by  the  Am> 
bridge  Works  of  American  Bridge  Company,  one  of  the  subsidiaries  of  the 
United  States  Steel  Corporation,  and  a  gymnasium  was  located  in  the 
administration  building  of  the  plant.  A  very  large  acreage  of  low  land, 
flooded  in  spring  by  the  Ohio  River,  on  the  banks  of  which  the  works  are 
situated,  had  been  turned  over  to  the  families  of  employes  as  a  vegetable 
farm,  and  a  large  number  raised  their  year's  supply  of  garden  truck  there. 

In  the  office  building  of  the  shops  of  the  Mesta  Machine  Com- 
pany, at  West  Homestead,  there  was  a  branch  of  the  Pittsburgh  Caraegie 
Library,  to  which  the  company  supplied  a  large  number  of  technical 
and  pc^ular  magajioes  and  trade  papen  for  the  employes,  who  had  the 
privilege  of  taking  them  home. 

The  most  commodious  social  centers  for  workingmen  in  the 
District  are  in  the  three  Camegie  towns  adjoining  the  Braddock, 
Duquesne,  and  Homestead  plants  of  the  Camegie  Steel  Cc»npany. 
Mr.  Camegie  built  very  large  and  attractive  buildings,  each  hous- 
ing not  only  a  Camegie  library,  but  class  rooms,  a  billiard 
room,  a  gymnasium,  and  a  swimming  pool.  These  are  patronized 
not  only  by  the  men,  but  by  the  women  and  children  of  the  com- 
munities. The  library  is  free,  but  for  the  educational  and  social 
features  small  fees  are  charged. 

Subsequent  to  my  Pittsburgh  visit,  the  Jones  and  Laughlin 
Steel  Company  at  its  new  plants  at  Woodlawn,  has  gone  into 
perhaps  the  most  extensive  company  house  enterprise  of  the  Dis- 
trict, and  the  Crucible  Steel  Company  has  plotted  a  town  at 
Midland  along  town  planning  lines.t  The  model  town  of  Vander- 
grift  built  by  the  Apollo  Iron  and  Steel  Company,  the  pioneer 
undertaking  of  this  sort  in  the  industry,  was  laid  out  on  modem 

'  See  Roberts.  Peter:  Wage-eamerj  of  Pittsburgh.    P.  )j  of  this  volume. 
See  also  Appendix  III,  p.  414.    f  See  Appendix  II,  p.  410. 
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WACB-EARNINC   PITTSBURGH 

lines,  but  unlike  Woodlawn  and  Midland  had  no  special  facilities 
for  the  unskilled  laborers  who  make  up  the  bulk  <^  the  force.  . 
It  had  remained,  therefore,  up  to  igro,  for  the  coal  industry, 
rather  than  for  steel  or  manufacturing,  to  attempt  a  rounded  com- 
munity experiment,  in  which  forethought  was  given  to  all  the 
common  factors  entering  into  the  day's  work  and  household  needs. 

This  was  Marianna,  started  in  the  open  loo  miles  from  Pitts- 
burgh, by  the  Pittsburgh-Buffalo  Coal  Company.  It  had  a 
thousand  men  on  the  payroll  at  the  outset. 

The  houses  are  built  of  brick  and  wood  and  contain  from  four  to 
five  nx>nis,  the  larger  of  them  having  baths.  They  were  rented  at  the 
rate  of  50  cents  per  room  per  week.  There  was,  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  a 
large  store,  which  although  not  run  by  the  company  was  owned  by  per- 
sons directly  connected  with  it.  The  men,  however,  were  not  c<»npelled 
to  trade  there  and  teamsters  from  neighboring  towns  might  bring  their 
wares  into  Marianna  and  solicit  competitive  business.  A  large,  well  ap- 
pointed brick  building,  with  billiard  and  pool  tables  and  bowling  alleys, 
an  auditorium  for  entertainments  and  lectures,  and  a  room  for  roller  skat- 
ing and  dancing,  formed  a  pleasant  social  center.  On  the  first  fkior  of 
this  building  there  were  also  a  drug  store  and  a  physician's  office. 

The  coal  tipple  in  Marianna  was  when  built  the  largest  tn  existence 
and  was  designed  on  tines  which  in  many  respects — not  the  least  of  them 
the  safety  features — were  original.  The  coal  mine  itsdf  was  entered  from 
a  "bath  house"  in  which  all  the  miners  changed  into  their  working  clothes 
on  arrival.  On  leaving  the  mine  they  again  entered  the  house  and  took  a 
shower  bath  before  putting  on  their  clean  clothes.  One  whde  floor  was 
given  up  to  these  showers,  and  another  floor  to  the  clothes  room.  In 
the  latter  were  separate  baskets  in  which  each  man's  clothes  were  packed 
and  locked  and  then  pulled  up  to  the  ceiling  by  ropes,  a  system  copied  from 
that  in  a  German  mine.  At  the  base  of  the  entrance  shaft  the  mine  was 
lined  for  a  considerable  distance  in  all  directions  with  white  brick  and  the 
ceiling  was  supported  by  iron  girders.  It  was  lighted  here  by  electric 
lights  so  that  the  appearance  was  not  unlike  the  subways  of  New  York 
and  Boston.  Ventilation  was  supplied  by  fans  driven  by  a  600  horse- 
power steam  engine  with  alternate  unit  of  smaller  size  for  use  in  case  of 
accident.    Precautions  to  prevent  accidents  were  taken  at  every  point. 

This  company  was  largely  a  family  affair  and  owned  mines  and 

brick  yards  in  other  industrial  towns,  each  one  embodying  improvements 

suggested  through  experience  gained  at  the  othera.    For  example,  John  H. 

Jones,  president  of  the  company,  himself  a  total  abstainer,  said  that  ex- 

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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

perience  had  led  him  to  prefer  a  bar  in  the  town,  run  on  the  canteen  prin- 
ciple, to  an  attempt  to  enforce  prohibition.  In  one  case  the  amount  of 
liquor  OHisumed  per  person  can  be  limited,  whereas  in  the  other  beer  and 
whiskey  are  brought  into  the  homes  in  quantities  in  kegs  and  cases. 

The  town  was  run  at  the  start  as  a  "borough"  under  the  laws  of 
Pennsylvania  by  various  men  of  the  Jones  family,  who  are  practical  miners 
and  know  personally  a  large  number  of  their  employes.  This  adaptation 
of  the  "borough"  system  in  launching  a  new  community  was  worked  out 
by  the  president  who,  althou^  rather  paternal  in  some  of  his  methods,  is 
broadminded  enough  to  know  that  the  men's  wishes  must  be  consulted. 
The  mines  are  strongly  unionized. 

Relief  and  Pensions 

The  mining  company  which  has  to  set  up  civilization  on  a 
mountain  side  along  with  its  hoisting  engines  and  ventilating  fans, 
appreciates  what  it  means  to  have  efficient  men  in  call.  The 
manufacturer  in  the  large  employing  center  does  not  feel  the  need 
so  keenly.  Yet  various  efforts  to  build  up  community  of  interests 
with  their  employes  are  observable,  based  on  the  employer's  desire 
to  maintain  a  corps  of  men  upon  whom  he  can  depend. 

The  question  presents  itself  to  the  manager  as  one  of  stabil- 
ity, to  the  workman  as  one  of  security.  What  is  to  become  of  my 
employes  after  their  efficiency  has  been  used  up  in  the  work  of  the 
shop  is  a  question  which  the  average  employer  has  not  asked  him- 
self. Much  less  has  he  come  to  the  point  of  securing  their  willing 
interest  and  sense  of  partnership  by  assuring  all  who  arrange  to 
serve  him  for  a  definite  term  of  years  a  year-round  income  or  at 
least  a  pro  rata  payment  which  would  enable  them  to  tide  over  a 
period  of  interrupted  service. 

Yet  employers  in  Pittsburgh  and  elsewhere  get  just  what  they 
pay  for,  and  a  study  of  results  obtained  where  high  standards  of 
management  are  established  tends  to  show  that  the  respective  bar- 
gains are  likely  to  be  in  essence  as  follows:  Cheap  and  Insecure 
wages:  Low  Efficiency,  Floating  Employes;  or.  High  and  Sure 
wages:  High  EfTiciency,  Pennanency  of  Service. 

Accident  and  Sickness  Relief.  Benefits  to  employes  who 
have  been  injured  or  have  become  ill  are  in  a  limited  sense  guaran- 
tees to  employes  that  those  who  are  dependent  upon  them  will  be 
cared  for  in  case  of  accident  while  at  work.  The  old  common  law 
of  master  and  servant,  little  modified,  has  been  the  rule  in  Penn- 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

sylvania.  At  one  time  it  was  customary  here  as  elsewhere  for  the 
manager  of  a  factory  to  insure  himself  in  an  employer's  liability 
company  against  the  danger  of  being  sued  by  an  injured  workman, 
and  as  soon  as  anyone  was  injured  this  company  was  notified  and 
immediately  made  the  cheapest  terms  of  settlement  it  could  with 
the  workman.  Pittsburgh  employers  came  to  believe,  however, 
that  their  employes  got  very  little  of  the  money  paid  to  the  in- 
surance company,  and  there  has  been  for  some  years  past  a  ten- 
dency among  the  larger  companies  to  deal  with  the  injured  person 
directly  and  during  disability  to  give  assistance  based  on  the  man's 
record  and  term  of  service,  and  his  family  responsibilities,  apart 
from  the  question  as  to  whether  or  not  the  company  was  legally 
responsible  for  the  injury.*  If,  however,  the  injured  person  sued 
the  company  for  damages  he  was  barred  out  from  all  the  automatic 
benefits  he  mi^t  otherwise  have  secured.  Some  benefit  plans  are 
supported  without  contributions  by  the  men,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
relief  plan  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation;  some  by  the 
company  and  employes  jointly,  as  the  relief  departments  of  the 
Westinghouse  companies,t  to  which  80  per  cent  of  their  employes 
belonged,  the  Pittsburgh  Coal  Company,  the  Pittsburgh  Railway 
Company;  and  some  by  employes  alone,  as  the  Standard  Manu- 
facturing Company  and  the  Heinz  Company. 

In  1914,  the  Pittsburgh  Railway  Oniipany  together  with  the  Du- 
quesne  Light  Company,  the  Beaver  Valley  Traction  Company,  Equitable 
Gas  Company,  and  other  public  service  corporations  affiliated  with  the 
Philadelphia  Company,  took  out  group  insurance  covering  all  employes 
in  their  service  for  one  year  or  over-  This  is  not  only  a  notable  departure 
for  the  Pittsburgh  District  in  the  method  employed,  but  is  described  by 
the  Equitable  Life  Insurance  Society  as,  to  the  best  of  their  knowledge,  in 
point  of  the  number  of  lives,  the  largest  aggregate  ever  insured.  The 
premiums  are  paid  by  the  employers;  and  individual  policies  distributed 
to  the  employes,  who  designate  the  beneficiaries.  Those  employed  two 
years  or  more  are  insured  for  an  amount  equal  to  one  year's  salary,  pay- 
able in  the  event  of  death  in  13  monthly  instalments;  those  employed  over 

*  For  an  analysis  of  adequacy  of  these  payments,  see  Eastman,  op.  dt.,  pp. 
1 19  S.  The  relief  departments  have  tended  to  prevent  friction  and  to  give  the 
employe  a  sense  of  sureness  in  case  of  accident;  but  until  new  standards  were 
set  by  the  relief  plan  of  the  U.  S,  Steel  Corporation  (see  Eastman,  Appendix  VI, 
p.  300)  had  in  no  sense  made  good  the  lost  earnings. 

t  For  the  new  relief  plan  of  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Company,  see 
Appendix  XVII,  p.  468  of  this  volume. 
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Double  Houses.     Four  rooms  and  barh.     Running  w 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

one  year,  but  less  than  two,  for  an  amount  equal  to  one-half  of  one  year's 
salary.  The  benefits  are  markedly  less  than  the  standard  set  by  modern 
compensation  laws,  but  cover  all  deaths,  those  from  natural  causes  as 
well  as  from  work-accidents. 

In  the  matter  of  service  pensions,  no  less  than  in  accident  re- 
lief, leadership  in  Pittsburgh  has  gone  to  Mr.  Carnegie  who,  when 
he  retired  from  business,  established  a  pension  fund  of  $4,000,000 
for  the  employes  of  his  12  constituent  companies.  Under  its 
provisions  any  employe  who  had  reached  the  age  of  sixty  years, 
had  been  at  least  fifteen  years  continuously  in  the  service  of  the 
company,  and  was  incapacitated,  might  be  pensioned.  An  em- 
ploye under  the  age  of  sixty  years  who  became  permanently  dis- 
abled from  sickness  or  from  injuries  received  while  not  on  duty, 
might  also,  provided  his  case  fulfilled  all  the  other  foregoing  re- 
quirements, be  placed  upon  the  pension  list. 

The  pension  allowance  authraized  was  upon  the  following  basis: 
For  each  year  of  service  1  per  cent  of  the  average  regular  monthly  pay  re- 
ceived for  the  entire  term  of  service;  thus  an  employe  who  had  been  thirty 
years  in  the  service  and  had  received  an  average  of  I70  per  month  would 
receives  pensionallowanceof  3oper  cent  of  l70,or  fai.  The  acceptance 
of  a  pension  allowance  should  not  debar  any  former  employe  from  engaging 
in  other  business,  but  such  person  must  retire  or  be  retired  from  and  can 
not  re-«nter  the  service  of  the  ccMnpany. 

TABLE    I. — BENEFITS    AND    PENSIONS   PAID    BY  CARNEGIE    RELIEF 
FUND.     1902-1910  INCLUSIVE* 


yiet 

ActHtnk 

Dtalb 
Bmefitt 

Attouanas 

ma 

■910 

lis 

1905 
1904 

■9(Q 
■903 

fi7,777.oo 
31,733.00 
30.307-70 
'7.MS-'S 
15,033.70 

^96.187*0 

106,6s  j!37 
19.700.90 

fe3.496-^S 
8^771-00 
109.033.00 
130,449.00 
'01.973.50 

J106.596.j5 
94.oS3.oo 
81.093.00 
68.769.90 
58.313.55 
46.853.35 
36.573.75 
37.173.80 
13.196.95 

«3 16.869.60 

300,545  00 
310,433.70 
3:6.764.05 

Tou 

U 

>443.39'-'9 

>783,043.75 

J53 1.510.65 

li.7S6.9SJ» 

■Froni  Ninth  Annual  Report,  ihowing  operations  for  1910. 
The  American  Steel  and  Wire  Company  at  about  the  same  time 
established  a  pension  department  for  the  employes  of  its  34  works  scat- 
tered throughout  the  country,  seven  of  thenj  in  the  Pittsburgh  District, 

36s 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

This  department,  like  the  Carnegie  Fund,  was  in  igio  taken  over  by  the 
United  States  Steel  Relief  and  Pension  Fund—devised  along  lines  com- 
parable  to  the  new  compensation  laws  now  enacted  in  33  states — which  it 
preceded  by  ten  years.* 

The  Pittsburgh  Coal  Company  established  a  pension  fund  to  which 
they  gave  fio.ooo  outright,  setting  aside  also  (3,500  worth  of  capital  stock 
to  be  paid  for  by  the  employes.  In  addition,  for  every  3  c«its  per  week 
paid  in  by  each  employe  the  company  contributed  an  equal  amount. 
This  fund  supplied  a  pension  of  $10  per  month  to  each  employe  who 
had  served  the  company  for  ten  years  continuously,  and  who  through  dd 
age,  accident,  or  sickness  was  permanently  unfitted  to  earn  a  living. 

Reymer's  Candy  Company  gave  to  faithful  employes  of  twenty- 
five  years'  standing  a  pension  varying  from  $3$  to  $$0  per  month. 

The  Armstrong  Cork  Company  paid  its  old  and  faithful  employes 
li.oo  a  day  for  life,  but  reserved  its  decision  as  to  who  should  fall  into  the 
category  of  old  and  faithful.  Many  of  the  companies  interviewed  had 
practically  pensioned  off  some  of  their  old  hands,  but  expected  them  to  do 
a  nominal  service  as  regularly  as  they  were  able.  This  method  of  treating 
employes  is  open  to  the  criticism  that  it  savors  too  much  of  chvity. 
They  feel  that  they  are  dependent  upon  the  caprice  of  the  management, 
which  they  can  not  rely  upon,  and  are  unable  to  look  forward  with  pleas- 
ure to  their  time  of  retirement  or  to  live  with  satisfaction  under  the  system. 

Profit  Sharing,  Initiative  and  Co-operation 
Profit  Sharing.  In  1903  the  United  States  Steel  Corpo- 
ration announced  its  policy  of  offering  25,000  shares  of  its  common 
stock  for  sale  to  the  employes  of  its  135  subsidiary  companies  at 
|83.;o  per  share,  and  each  year  since  then  such  amounts  of  either 
preferred  or  common  stock,  or  both,  as  employes  would  subscribe 
for,  have  been  sold  to  them  for  about  the  market  price. 

Conditions  of  the  sale  have  been  slightly  modified  from  time  to 
time  in  accordance  with  the  dictates  of  experience,  but  in  general  terms 
the  amounts  to  be  purchased  by  employes  have  been  limited  in  accordance 
with  the  salaries  received  by  them.     For  instance,  those  receiving  $3$o  or 

*  Eastman,  op.  cit,.  p.  joo.  The  most  comprehensive  pension  system 
inauguraied  in  the  Pittsburgh  District  since  ihat  of  the  Steel  Corporation  in  191a 
is  that  of  the  Weslinghouse  Air  Brake  Company  published  in  Appendix  XVI 11,  p. 


48;.  Generous  asare  their  terms,  they  both  induce  security — to  the  employe  ir 
old  age,  and  to  the  employer,  against  a  shifting  working  force — at  expense  of  anoi 
social  good;  namely,  liberty  to  strike  or  to  change  employment  without  sacrific- 


ing the  accrued  benefit.  In  this  respect  they  make  (or  stagnation  and  subservience. 
In  many  other  respects,  they  are  a  notable  adva 
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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE  DISTRICT 

less  are  not  allowed  to  subscribe  for  more  than  can  be  secured  by  about 
3o  per  cent  of  their  salary,  while  those  receiving  |6,7$o  arelimited  to  about 
10  per  cent.  Payment,  to  be  deducted  from  the  wages  of  subscribers, 
can  be  made  in  monthly  instalments  in  such  amounts  as  are  desired  with 
minimum  payments  of  I3.00  per  share.  Up  to  three  years,  as  much  time 
may  be  taken  to  pay  for  the  stock  as  desired,  but  interest  at  $  per  cent  per 
annum  is  charged  on  deferred  payments.  Dividends  are  credited  in  part 
payment.  If  the  stock  is  held  continuously  and  certificates  are  exhibited 
to  the  treasurer  every  five  years  with  evidence  that  the  holder  has  been 
continuously  in  the  employ  of  the  company  and  has  shown  a  proper  in- 
terest in  its  welfare  and  progress,  the  company  will  pay  a  bonus  of  )$.oo 
per  share,  and  in  addition  a  pro  rata  p<»'tion  of  the  fund  composed  of  all 
such  bonuses  which  have  accrued  on  stock  returned  by  the  employes. 

Employes  temporarily  suspended  from  employment  by  the  com- 
pany, as  for  instance  through  the  closing  down  of  the  plant,  are  not 
deprived  of  the  bonuses  above  menti(»ied  nor  will  payment  for  stock  be 
required  during  such  suspension,  nor  will  the  time  during  it  be  counted 
as  part  of  the  three  years  allowed  for  payment.  The  employes,  however, 
have  always  felt  that  there  is  a  string  tied  to  the  five-dcdlar  bonus  pay- 
ments  by  the  requirement  of  evidence  of  a  "proper  interest,"  and  they 
have  not  taken  stock  as  freely  as  they  otherwise  would. 

In  Reymer's  candy  factory  I  found  a  crude  system  of  profit  sharing 
extending  to  the  higher  officers,  foremen,  and  women.  The  only  other 
company  in  the  District  which  had  done  anything  in  the  direction  of  profit 
sharing  was  the  H.  K.  Porter  Company,  and  they  abandoned  the  plan 
seven  years  earlier  as  they  "found  that  the  men  showed  no  more  interest 
in  the  ctxnpany's  welfare  than  they  had  before." 

Initiative  and  Co-operation.  In  a  paper  read  before  the 
National  Civic  Federation  at  its  meeting  on  November  33,  1909, 
George  W.  Perkins,  a  director  of  the  Steel  Corporation,  said: 

"  If  profit  sharing  means  anything,  if  providing  for  old  age  means 
anything,  if  caring  for  those  who  become  ill  or  injured  while  in  the  service 
means  anything,  it  should  mean  the  fostering  of  the  interest  of  men  in  their 
work,  whether  that  work  be  sweeping  out  the  office,  shoveling  coal,  or 
presiding  over  a  great  commercial  company.  In  short  It  should  mean 
real  co-operation  between  stockholders,  managers,  and  employes.  In  all 
the  inventbns  and  ingenuity  that  have  been  brought  to  bear  on  business 
affurs  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  nothing  has  been  found  to  lake  the 
place  of  a  man's  ability  to  do, — with  a  proper  incentive  behind  that  abil- 
ity,— and  no  such  substitute  ever  will  be  found.  It  is,  therefore,  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  American  business  interests  of  today  and  tomorrow 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

that  every  man  in  any  given  concern  be  so  associated  with  that  concern 
that  he  will  ^ve  the  best  there  is  in  him  to  the  performance  of  theduties 
assigned  to  him." 

Our  discussion  of  these  various  social  schemes  affecting  the 
working  force  has  thus  brou^t  us  to  the  basic  problem  of  organiz- 
ing for  work.  It  will  be  possible  to  take  up  only  certain  phases 
which  especially  impress  the  observer  of  labor  administration  as 
it  is  practiced  in  the  Pittsburgh  District.  Dictation  is  of  course  at 
the  opposite  pole  to  the  co-operation  preached  by  Mr.  Perkins.  Yet 
immigration,  methods  in  vogue  in  handling  gangs  and  machine 
tenders,  and  the  anti-union  policies  of  the  large  plants  have  c<xn- 
bined  to  reduce  the  average  Pittsburgh  workman  to  a  small  o^ 
in  the  scheme  of  industry. 

Bonus  System.  Acute  labor  troubles  in  the  past  led  to 
determined  efforts  to  import  a  class  <^  tractable  but  inexperienced 
foreign  labor  which  was  subsequently  trained  to  do  the  work  re- 
quired. The  stream  of  immigration,  thus  accelerated,  has  become 
self-perpetuating,  and  has  supplanted  many  of  the  native  workers. 
Today  the  Pittsburgh  managers  complain  of  the  dearth  of  skilled 
men.  Although  they  say  they  would  be  glad  to  pay  higher  wages 
to  a  higher  class  of  labor,  so  far  as  I  could  ascertain  no  concerted 
effort  was  being  made  to  attract  such  a  class  to  Pittsburgh  or  to 
develop  one  there.  The  managers  seem  content  to  make  the 
best  of  the  class  of  help  which  automatically  presents  itself. 

To  meet  the  situation,  however,  a  few  machine  shops  had 
instituted  a  "  bonus  system,"  a  slight  modification  of  what  is  gener- 
ally called  the  premium  system  of  wage  payment,  devised  to  make 
it  worth  a  man's  while  to  increase  his  output. 

One  of  the  features  of  this  system  is  a  planning  and  rate-fixing  de- 
partment which  makes  a  time  study  of  the  various  operations  and  sets  the 
time  in  which  at  a  certain  definite  speed  of  machine  and  feed  and  depth  of 
cut  of  a  special  tool  the  task  should  be  accomplished.  This  task  system 
tends  to  destroy  a  workman's  initiative  in  his  work  and  he  becomes  prac- 
tically a  part  of  the  machine. 

Undoubtedly,  under  the  intelligent  study  of  the  trained  specialists 
in  the  planning  department  much  unnecessary  labor  has  been  eliminated, 
and  the  work  has  been  so  systematized  that  the  workman  accomplishes 
his  tasks  with  greater  facility  and  less  interruption  than  before,  while  his 
rate  of  wage  payment  is  much  fairer.    The  material  is  delivered  to  him. 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE   DISTRICT   ■ 

his  tools  are  sharpened  and  the  machine  is  set  for  him,  and  alt  he  has  to  do 
is  to  put  the  work  in  and  take  it  out. 

In  this  way  almost  any  young  man  can  be  made  a  "machinist"  in 
a  comparatively  short  time.  As  he  begins  to  pick  up  a  little  general 
knowledge  about  machinery,  however,  his  curiosity  becomes  aroused 
about  some  of  the  things  he  sees  about  him  and  he  volunteers  the  remark: 
"  1  should  think  that  you  would  do  this  this  way,"  which  is  too  often  met 
with  the  retort,  "Never  mind  thinking,  you  are  not  paid  to  think.  Do  as 
you  are  told,  we'll  do  the  thinking."  This  admonition,  the  slogan  of  the 
system,  is  about  as  modem  as  the  dictum  of  a  priest  of  the  dark  ages  or  a 
ukase  of  the  Czar  of  Russia.  As  the  planning  department  knows  that  the 
workmen  have  not  the  data  from  which  to  make  intelligent  comments 
such  an  answer  is  pertinent,  but  it  discourages  all  initiative  on  the  part  of 
the  men  and  the  company  does  not  get  the  benefit  of  whatever  intelli- 
gence they  possess. 

One  of  the  effects  of  this  system  also  is  to  discourage  young  men 
fran  entering  technical  schools.  Employers  having  developed  a  system 
which  does  not  require  skilled  operatives,  are  not  going  to  pay  for  skill. 
The  Carnegie  Institute  of  Technology  stated  that  the  graduates  of  the 
craftsman  classes  established  in  the  early  years  received  no  more  than  the 
ordinary  workman's  wage  and  he  therefore  encountered  considerable  dif- 
ficulty in  securing  students,  as  the  boys  consider  the  time  spent  at  school 
wasted.  The  Pittsburgh  employers  failed  to  see  the  advantage  in  hiring 
such  men  or  in  encouraging  their  training. 

This  arrangement  of  work  gives  fair  satisfaction  to  the  tnen 
until  one  loses  his  job  and  then  he  is  no  better  off  than  when  he 
went  to  work,  as  he  has  gained  nothing  which  will  help  him  else- 
where. When  hard  times  in  the  industry  come,  and  men  are  laid 
oS.  they  can  do  little  more  than  join  the  bread  line.*  Moreover, 
the  monotony  of  the  routine  causes  these  men  to  seek  other  work, 
and  the  percentage  of  loss  of  help  of  this  type  is  very  high.  A 
natural  consequence  of  this  monotony  is  that  men  who  find  their 
conditions  of  work  unattractive,  are  putting  their  children  into 
offices  to  learn  a  business  rather  than  a  trade.  Generally  speaking, 
Pittsburgh  managers  tacitly  acknowledged  that  in  respect  to 
building  up  their  organizations  they  were  simply  opportunists  and 
were  temporizing  with  existing  conditions. 

*  Efficiency  meihods  introduced  in  the  Westinghouse  Electric  and  Manu- 
facturing CoRipany  and  the  laying  off  of  t,ooo  employes  out  of  a  total  of  14,000 
in  the  coune  of  six  monlhi  (due  to  the  financial  depreuion)  were  two  (actors  in  the 
strike  of  June,  1914.  when  8,000  employes  were  out  for  a  month  under  the  lead 
of  industrial  unionists. 

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WAC&^eAKNINC   PtTTSBUICH 

The  Suggestion  System.  This  losmg-oot  of  the  individual 
in  the  matter  of  skill  and  volitioa  in  doing  thin^  is  only  one^utf 
the  story.  Every  man  has,  or  thinks  be  has,  certain  needs,  and 
ontfl  these  are  met  or  until  be  b  shown  that  Uwy  are  largely  im- 
a^nary  be  will  be  dissatisfied.  Under  the  dose  relationship  which 
used  tocust  when  shops  were  small,  the  employe  went  directly  to 
his  employer  with  his  grievance,  they  talked  over  the  situaticm 
face  to  face,  and  more  often  than  not  dtssatisfactirai  was  removed 
before  it  readied  the  acute  stage. 

Now,  however,  the  growth  of  industries  has  materially 
changed  ccmditions  so  that  in  such  modem  industrial  plantsas  those 
of  the  Pittsburgh  District  the  emfrioyercan  not  possibly  come  into 
sympathetic  contact  with  each  of  his  empk>yes.  There  was  evi- 
dent need  for  some  substitute  for  the  old  relationship  in  order  to 
supply  a  safety  valve  for  individual  grievances;  for  if  all  channels 
of  communicatun  are  cut  c^,  the  employes  naturally  fed  that  the 
employer  is  indifferent  to  their  needs  and  efficient  team-work  be- 
tween management  and  employes  is  lost. 

The  simplest  way  to  bring  out  needs  of  the  various  individuals 
in  a  large  organization  and  to  supply  a  vent  for  grievances  is 
through  the  establishment  of  the  suggestim  system. 

Where  such  a  system  is  in  use,  locked  boxes  with  a  slit  in  the  lid 
through  which  communicaticHis  may  be  dropped,  are  distributed  about 
the  works,  one  at  least  being  placed  in  each  department,  in  order  that 
suggestions  may  be  written  in  duplicate  and  on  the  same  size  paper  for 
easy  filing,  pads  with  numbered  leaves  in  duplicate,  carbon  sheet,  and 
poicil  are  attached  to  each  box,  the  writer  keeping  the  copy,  and  the  (»igi- 
nal  going  into  the  box.  All  suggestions  must  be  signed,  no  anonymous 
communications  being  given  consideration.  Collections  are  periodically 
made  and  the  person  whose  duty  it  is  to  attend  to  the  system  tabulates 
the  suggestions  in  the  order  received,  omitting  the  names  of  the  writers. 

The  second  stage  in  this  development  is  the  establishment  of  a 
works  committee,  ctnnposed  properiy  of  representatives  elected  by  the 
working  organization.  This  committee  meets  weekly  to  pass  upon  the 
suggestions.  As  these  are  submitted  to  the  committee  without  the 
authors'  names,  they  are  considered  purely  on  their  merits.  Such  a  cmn- 
mittee  is  likely  to  exercise  a  severe  censorship  over  the  suggestions,  as  they 
wish  the  management  to  feel  that  any  that  receive  their  endorsement  will 
be  a  credit  to  the  organization. 

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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE   DISTRICT 

A  list  of  the  suggestions,  with  the  action  which  the  works  committee 
takes  on  each  appended,  is  posted  on  bulletin  boards  placed  adjacent  to 
the  suggesticm  boxes.  This  publicity  ensures  careful  action  by  the  com- 
mittee, develops  discussion  and  a  public  opinion  on  the  value  of  each  to 
the  management.  A  copy  of  the  posted  list  goes  to  a  second  committee, 
composed  of  foremen  and  superintendent,  which  is  appointed  by  the  man- 
agement. When  this  committee  has  acted  on  the  suggestions  its  decisions 
are  also  posted  in  the  shop  and  the  whole  organization  thus  knows  exactly 
what  has  been  done  with  each  communication.  The  recommendations 
of  both  committees  go  to  the  management  for  final  action,  and  suitable 
remuneration  is  made  to  the  authors  of  all  adopted  suggestions.  Employes 
who  have  made  the  greatest  number  of  adopted  suggestions  each  quarter 
year  are  given  an  extra  payment,  and  the  foreman  from  whose  department 
the  greatest  number  of  adopted  suggestions  originate,  also  gets  financial 
rccc^ition  in  order  .that  he  shall  encourage  rather  than  oppose  the  system. 
When  properly  installed,  the  suggestion  system,  supple- 
mented by  the  committee  system,  is  essentially  an  educational 
measure.  At  first  an  employe  does  not  know  how  to  observe;  grad- 
ually as  his  vision  improves,  he  begins  to  think,  then  to  realize  how 
little  he  knows,  and  linally  to  read  and  study.  The  opportunity 
to  indulge  his  growing  desire  to  improve  must,  however,  be  sat- 
isfied by  giving  him  technical  and  other  literature  to  take  home. 
When  these  educational  measures  lead  employes  to  start  courses 
in  a  correspondence  school  or  to  attend  trade  schools,  a  very  im- 
portant step  has  been  reached  in  the  development  of  workmen 
who  would  otherwise  be  engrossed  in  the  monotonous  drudgery 
of  a  repetitive  process.  Later,  suggestions  of  real  value  begin 
to  come  and  empkiyes  are  gradually  inspired  by  an  ambition  to 
advance.  The  adoption  of  their  suggestions  encourages  them  to 
feel  that  they  are  important  factors  in  the  company,  and  a  sli^t 
payment  makes  them  understand  that  their  services  are  recognized. 
1  know  of  nothing  to  compare  with  these  means  for  stimulating 
internal  development  in  a  shop.  But  the  rationale  must  be  under- 
stood by  the  man  responsible  for  the  installation  of  the  system  and 
its  maintenance  or  it  will  wither  and  dry  up. 

I  found  a  suggestion  system  working  in  the  plant  of  the  American 

Bridge  CtMnpany.    The  superintendent  said  that  they  were  getting  a  great 

deal  of  benefit  from  it.    A  works'  lunch  room,  the  result  of  a  suggestion, 

was  then  being  planned.    The  National  Tube  Company,  like  the  Bridge 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Company,  a  subsidiary  of  the  Sted  Corporation,  had  some  time  earlier 
established  the  system  in  their  plants  both  at  Kewanee,  Illinois,  and  at 
Lorraine,  Ohio,  and  were  considering  its  introduction  at  their  plant  at  Mc- 
Keesport  along  lines  which  would  be  an  extension  of  the  worlu  committee 
instituted  as  part  of  their  safety  campaign.  In  the  H.  J.  Hdnz  Company 
the  suggestion  system  was  in  operation  throughout  the  plant  and  the 
manager  stated  that  they  continually  received  valuable  suggestions,  that 
the  employes  mdeavored  to  fit  themselves  to  make  suggesticms,  and  in 
this  way  the  whole  force  had  improved. 

Co-operative  Committees.  The  workmen's  committees  are 
an  important  factor  in  the  safety  campaign. 

David  S.  Beyer,  for  several  years  chief  safety  inspector  of 
the  American  Steel  and  Wire  Company,  with  headquarters  at 
Pittsburgh,  has  described  them  as  foUows: 

"Our  superintendent  makes  out  the  lists  of  workmen's  committees 
for  several  months  and  posts  them  in  the  mill  so  that  the  men  will  see  them 
and  know  some  time  ahead  that  they  are  to  serve  on  the  committee. 
They  (the  men)  like  to  see  their  names  used  in  this  way  and  'load  up  in 
advance  for  the  time  when  they  are  to  begin  their  service.'  The  men, 
pleased  of  course  to  meet  the  head  of  the  plant  (when  on  the  committee), 
take  considerable  pride  and  interest  in  the  safety  work  and  are  c<Hning  to 
realize  more  fully  its  importance." 

In  other  words,  they  begin  to  feel  that  they  are  an  integral 
part  of  the  business  and  proceed  to  assume  some  responsibility 
for  its  welfare. 

Any  system  is  at  fault  which  causes  its  participants  to  load 
up  and  hold  their  suggestions  for  several  months  waiting  till  they 
get  on  the  committee  to  deliver  the  goods.  Every  employe  should 
be  induced  by  a  prompt  payment  to  be  constantly  on  the  lookout 
for  improvements,  and  the  foreman  whose  men  do  not  make 
recommendations  should  be  admonished. 

Through  the  committee  system,  a  company  can  benefit  by 
the  activity  of  a  thousand  human  minds.  When  this  system  is 
properly  installed,  with  its  works  committee  elected  by  the  men, 
with  a  proper  arrangement  for  a  monthly  change  of  one  or  two 
members  so  that  many  employes  have  an  opportunity  to  serve, 
and  with  the  other  committee  or  advisory  board  competed  of  fore- 
men appointed  by  the  company  to  serve  by  the  year  in  operation, 
the  similarity  to  the  upper  and  lower  houses  <^  a  legislature  is 
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HOUSEKEEPING  CENTER 


Under  Preiident  Thomas  Lynch,  Ihe  H,  C.  Frick  Coke  Company— ore  of  Ihe 
subsidiary  companies  of  the  Untied  Stales  Steel  Corporation — is  today  developing 
a  system  of  leaching  practical  housekeeping  in  connection  wilh  visiting  and  districi 
nursing  in  Its  mining  communities  in  western  Pennsylvania.  The  nurse  tnakes  her 
home  in  one  of  the  regular  houses,  furnishes  it  at  a  cost  which  a  miner's  (amily 
could  stand,  and  by  classes  in  cooking,  sewing  and  housework  —  and  even  more 
especially  by  living  the  life — endeavors  to  build  up  household  siandards.  The 
furnishing  of  the  house  at  Lambert  Mine,  shown  in  this  and  the  succeeding  pictures, 
cost  Sa^9.  The  work  is  modeled  after  that  of  the  Association  of  Practical 
Housekeeping  Cenleis,  in  New  York,  and  was  taken  up  at  the  suggestion  of  Miss 
Ida  M.  Tarbell- 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE   DISTRICT 

apparent,  and  a  first  step  toward  industrial  democracy  taken.  In 
a  very  short  time  an  inert  body  of  uninterested  individuals  develops 
into  a  thinking,  vital  force  working  for  the  success  of  the  enterprise. 

When  we  look  back  over  the  history  of  political  government 
we  can  see  the  evolution  which  has  taken  place  from  the  patriarchal 
and  tribal  relation  through  absolute  monarchy  and  oligarchy  to 
democracy.  The  patriarchal  type  of  government  was  crude,  but 
it  served  its  purpose  while  the  tribe  was  small  and  all  the  members 
knew  one  another.  When,  however,  the  tribe  grew  to  be  a  nation 
the  leader  became  separated  from  his  people  and  lost  that  personal 
contact  which  gave  him  an  intimate  knowledge  of  their  require- 
ments. 

The  evolution  of  industrial  management  has,  as  it  were, 
paralleled  that  of  political  government.  The  small  shop  with  its 
proprietor,  a  practical  mechanic,  who  knows  all  his  men,  typified 
the  patriarchal,  tribal  stage.  This  form  of  government  in  many 
industries  gave  way  to  the  larger  industrial  establishment  in  which 
the  employer  was  a  stranger  to  his  employes;  his  contact  with  them 
was  through  subordinates,  jealous  of  their  temporary  power  and 
wielding  it  autocratically  until  managers  and  employes  became 
distinct  classes  between  which  there  was  no  longer  a  common  bond 
of  interest.  Instead  of  working  together  they  pulled  in  opposite 
directions;  and  instead  of  men  organized  for  work  solely  by  plants 
or  establishments,  we  have  had  the  organization  of  employers  on 
the  one  hand  and  of  workmen's  unions  on  the  other,  and  the  fight 
of  the  two  for  mastery.  That  is  the  economic  history  written 
large  in  the  Pittsburgh  District.  In  the  dominant  industry  the 
employers,  as  Mr.  Fitch  has  brought  out,"  are  in  the  saddle.  How 
far  the  unions  are  able  to  contest  or  share  in  that  control  in  other 
occupations  is  brou^t  out  by  Professor  Commons  and  Mr.  Leiser- 
son.t 

But  in  no  industry  in  the  Pittsburgh  District  did  I  find  an 
instance  of  such  a  co-operative  scheme  of  industrial  government  as 
that  since  worked  out  in  the  garment  trades  in  New  York,  by  which 
employer,  employe,  and  the  public  sit  on  a  joint  board  of  control, 

*  See  Fitch,  op.  cit.,  pp.  i}9  ff. 

tSee  Coinmons,  John  R.,  and  Leiserson,  Wm,  M.:  Wage-earners  of  Pitts- 
burgh.   P.  113  of  this  volume. 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

having  jurisdiction  in  sanitation,  safety,  and  shop  conditions  gen- 
erally, while  similar  boards  take  up  and  settle  grievances. 

V 

CONCLUSION 

Except  in  comparatively  few  plants  among  those  visited  in 
the  Pittsburgh  District  could  I  discover  that  employers  were  trying 
to  improve  the  condition  of  their  employes  or  to  elicit  their  co- 
operation with  the  expectation  of  developing  a  higher  type  of  organ- 
ization apd  in  consequence  a  better  and  greater  output.  On  the 
contrary,  their  efforts  seemed  to  be  directed  primarily  toward  a 
merely  mechanical  increase  in  the  quantity  and  quality  <tf  output ; 
though  of  course,  if  at  the  same  time  some  of  the  means  instalkd 
for  this  piApose  did  indirectly  improve  the  employe  the  employer 
was  all  the  more  pleased. 

In  defense  of  this  statement  i  can  point  to  the  conditims 
already  described.  All  managers  complained  of  the  dearth  ci 
skilled  labor.  But  this  dearth  was  caused  not  only  by  the  char- 
acter of  effort  demanded  by  tonnage  industries,  but  by  the  char- 
acter of  treatment  accorded  to  labor  generally  in  the  District. 
The  bonus  systems  with  their  planning  departments  and  the  nptt- 
itive  character  of  the  work  were  not  tending  to  develop  either  skill 
or  intelligence  in  the  working  organization.  Only  in  fragments  of 
the  industrial  area  was  thought  given  to  the  comfort  and  conven- 
ience of  employes  with  the  aim  of  enabling  them  to  do  more  and 
better  work. 

The  exceptions,  some  of  them  notable,  have  been  set  down, 
and  I  will  not  be  accused  of  overlooking  them  in  saying  that,  tak- 
ing the  District  as  a  whole  in  igio,  if  men  wanted  to  wash  they 
had  to  do  it  as  a  rule  in  the  cold  water  of  the  "bosh"  in  which  the 
furnace  tools  were  cooled.  Clothes  lockers  were  scarcely  known  in 
the  mills;  hot  water,  soap  and  towels  even  less  so.  If  men  wanted 
a  drink  they  were  obliged  to  get  it  from  a  pail  of  dirty  water.  No 
proper  place  was  provided  where  they  could  eat  their  lunch,  so 
they  went  generally  to  a  saloon  across  the  street  which  offered  a 
chair  to  sit  on  and  a  cheery  welcome.  Water-closets  were  in- 
sanitary and  loathsome.  There  was  practically  no  attempt  to 
select  healthy  employes  nor  any  solicitude  shown  to  keep  them 
healthy.  Little  thought  was  given  to  prevent  occupational  dis- 
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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE    DISTRICT 

ease.  No  attention  was  paid  to  tuberculosis  or  to  alcoholism,  for 
the  development  of  which  conditions  in  the  shop  are  often  largely 
responsible.  Yet  the  managers  complained  because  the  men  were 
addicted  to  drink,  were  tardy  and  irregular  in  attendance,  and 
careless  in  their  work. 

In  accidents,  however,  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation 
was  showing  the  worid  what  it  could  do  when  finally  pn>mpted 
by  interest ;  and  in  sanitation,  since  the  year  of  my  investigation, 
large  scale  improvements  have  been  entered  upon.  But  ten  years 
before  precedents  for  doing  these  very  things  were  not  wanting, 
and  precedents  exist  today  for  doing  many  other  things  which 
would  be  as  greatly  to  the  corporation's  interest.  What  has  been 
needed  has  been  to  overcome  the  inertia  (rf  managers  whose 
minds  were  molded  under  the  fierce  competition  that  in  the  90's 
existed  between  the  companies  that  now  compose  the  corporation. 

Every  locality  has  a  history  in  which  some  event,  or  series 
of  events,  have  prominently  figured  and  permanently  left  their 
impress.  And  it  does  not  take  long  to  discover,  in  reviewing  the 
record  of  the  Pittsburgh  E)istrict  for  the  past  half  century,  that  it 
is  largely  the  history  of  the  development  of  the  Carnegie  Steel 
CcMnpany,  "which,"  as  the  historian  states,  "started  in  1858  with 
a  value  of  |i4,8oo  and  was  sold  43  years  later  (1901)  for  nearly  one 
hundred  thousand  times  that  sum."  Such  a  remarkable  achieve- 
ment has  undoubtedly  had  a  very  powerful  effect  upon  the  District. 

What  in  fact  impressed  me  most  forcibly  in  revisiting  the 
field  as  an  old-time  steel  man  and  Pittsburgh  manager,  was  the 
number  (rf  old  and  dilapidated  mills  which  in  their  day  had  been 
important  plants.  A  little  inquiry  elicited  the  fact  that  these  were 
owned  largely  by  companies  which  were  building  new  and  up-to- 
date  establishments  outside  of  and  at  a  considerable  distance  from 
the  city  limits  and  were  allowing  the  old  plants  to  actually  work 
themselves  out.    This  is  only  part  of  the  change. 

In  the  eariy  years  each  enterprise  was  small,  the  owner  was 
a  practical  iron  worker  who  selected  his  fellow-workmen  according 
to  their  skill,  and  developed  an  organization  in  which  all  worked 
together  under  what  we  have  called  a  sort  of  tribal  and  patriarchal 
government  which  produced  mutual  effectiveness.  This  eariy 
owner  had  little  knowledge  of  bookkeeping  and  was  satisfied  with 
a  fair  profit  on  his  investment. 

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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

When  Mr.  Carnegie  entered  the  field  he  bnwght  with  him  a 
knowledge  of  railroad  organization  and  management  which  was  of 
a  much  higher  type  than  that  of  the  ordinary  mill  owner.  His 
natural  shrewdness  led  him  to  demand  that  his  investments  pay 
as  high  a  rate  of  interest  as  could  be  obtained.  He  was  the  first 
to  develop  cost  accounting,  so  that  he  knew  with  a  fair  degree  of 
accuracy  not  only  what  his  product  was  costing  him,  but  also,  by 
keeping  his  eye  on  his  competitors'  improvements,  what  their 
product  was  costing  them.  He  saw  that  by  having  better  equip- 
ment, a  greater  capacity,  and  a  more  energetic  organization,  he 
could  turn  out  more  product  than  his  competitors  in  the  same 
length  of  time  and  underbid  them  in  the  open  market.  So  he  built 
machinery  in  dull  times  and  raced  it  in  high  times,  and  a  pack  of 
competitors  followed  in  full  cry. 

It  was  the  pursuit  of  this  policy  that  set  a  pace  in  mill  ton- 
nage which  has  given  Pittsburgh  the  supremacy  of  the  world  in  the 
steel  industry.  But  it  has  been  at  a  fearful  human  cost.  Its 
treatment  of  labor  was  followed  by  an  equally  domineering  form 
of  trade  unionism,  which  was  in  turn  vanquished  in  the  Homestead 
riots  and  kept  under  thereafter  by  an  iniquitous  spy  system.  It 
fostered  railroad  rebates,  opposition  in  state  legislatures  to  the  pass- 
age of  laws  for  the  amelioration  of  labor  conditions,  and  support  in 
the  National  Congress  for  a  high  tariff.  It  promoted  "gentlemen's 
agreements"  which  were  only  to  be  broken.  It  wore  out  the  mills 
and  drove  the  less  aggressive  and  more  conscientious  managers  to 
the  verge  of  bankruptcy.  Finally,  no  longer  able  to  stand  the 
financial  strain,  the  unsuccessful  competitors  combined  and  bought 
out  the  aggressor  at  his  own  price  and  the  era  of  combinations  was 
started.  Then,  with  womout  mills,  each  combination  tried  to 
pay  dividends  on  the  enormous  capitalization  which  the  promoters 
had  saddled  on  to  it  in  order  to  recompense  themselves  for  their 
part  in  the  transaction.  In  the  effort  to  reduce  the  cost  of  manu- 
facture, the  new  management  cut  down  wage  rates,  raised  the  hours 
of  labor,  and  in  other  ways  developed  a  method  of  treating  the 
employe  which  drove  the  most  skilled,  intelligent,  and  self-respect- 
ing workmen  elsewhere.  Their  places  have  been  filled  by  foreigners 
whose  immigration  was  encouraged.  The  effect  (rf  unrestricted 
competition  was  never  better  demonstrated.  The  old  efficiency 
276 


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S   a.S  «■=  — 


■,^-3EE 


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i!|li}iifi 


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INDUSTRIAL  HYGIENE  OF  THE   DISTRICT 

which  came  from  Mr.  Carnegie's  original  co-operative  organization 
and  its  economic  management,  was  lost.  Since  those  strenuous 
days  Pittsburgh  has  borne  a  poor  reputation  in  the  labor  market. 
As  few  attractions  are  offered  it,  skilled  labor  does  not  come. 

Fortunately  for  the  industry,  the  "good  times"  which  fol- 
lowed this  period  of  combination  aided  the  payment  of  dividends 
and  allowed  the  accumulation  of  surplus  for  depreciation  and  re- 
newals. After  awhile,  when  the  time  arrived  in  which  it  became 
financially  possible  to  renovate  the  old  mills,  many  of  them  were 
so  far  gone  that  it  would  have  been  necessary  to  rebuild  and  re- 
equip  them.  When  it  was  seen  that  the  modem  machinery  was 
larger  than  the  old,  and  therefore  that  more  ground  area  would 
be  needed  for  its  installation,  that  the  price  of  real  estate  in  Pitts- 
burgh had  increased  and  therefore  taxes  would  be  inordinately 
high,  and  that  restrictions  against  the  smoke  and  ore  dust  and 
other  nuisances  were  becoming  severe,  it  seemed  best  to  build  out 
of  town  where  conditions  for  manufacture  would  be  more  favor- 
able. It  has  been  fortunate  just  at  this  epoch  that  the  new 
policies  for  accident  prevention,  ventilation,  and  comfort,  have 
taken  hold  of  the  younger  steel  managers  themselves.  How  far 
labor  conditions  will  be  bettered  in  the  new  industrial  towns, 
inwardly  as  well  as  outwardly,  will  depend  upon  just  how  far  these 
new  forces  in  mill  administration  win  out  against  the  old. 
It  wilt  depend  on  just  where  the  financial  heads  will  be  willing 
that  the  balance  shall  be  struck  between  profits  and  the  terms  of 
work. 

As  the  development  ct  Pittsburgh  has  been  due  largely  to 
the  steel  industry,  so  the  customs  and  methods  of  the  business 
have  in  the  main  imposed  themselves  on  the  various  other  indus- 
tries which  have  grown  up  in  the  city,  the  only  difference  being 
that  as  a  great  amount  of  ground  area  was  not  necessary  for  the 
accommodation  and  extension  of  these  latter,  they  have  not  been 
driven  out  of  town  but  have  expanded  upward  in  buildings  several 
stories  high. 

But  in  the  fierce  competition  of  the  last  few  years  these  in- 
dustries have  emulated  the  example  of  the  master  industry  and 
the  most  ambitious  manager  in  each  has  forged  ahead  and,  gather- 
ing around  him  the  ablest  minds  and  the  highest  skill  that  he  could 
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obtain,  has  built  up  a  fortune  for  his  company  Uttle  recking  of 
results  to  the  particular  industry  at  large  or  to  the  community. 

In  conclusion  tt  should  be  said  that  there  are  no  criticisms 
made  in  this  paper  which  were  not  made  to  the  people  who  showed 
me  their  plants.  The  spirit  with  which  those  criticisms  were 
received  leads  me  to  feel  that  there  is  a  desire  to  make  improve- 
ments, and  that  the  conditions  which  are  not  modem  are  so  not 
on  account  of  deliberate  purpose  but  in  some  instances  from  a 
lack  of  physical  ability  to  change  at  once  the  direction  of  the  great 
cosmic  forces  which  have  been  so  long  at  work,  and  in  other  in- 
stances from  a  lack  of  knowledge  as  to  how  to  make  the  change. 

Pittsburgh  manufacturers  are  probably  doing  vhat  they  can 
under  the  conditions  which  environ  and  hobble  them,  but  with  the 
aid  of  an  awakened  public  sentiment  and  an  ideal  of  enlightened 
management  they  should  emerge  from  the  serious  disorder  which 
has  tapped  Pittsburgh's  social  vitality  and  brutalized  her  labor  to 
a  recuperation  full  of  civic  and  industrial  virility.  If  they  stop 
short  in  this  endeavor  Pittsburgh  will  lose  her  industrial  suprem- 
acy altogether,  for  her  efficiency  of  operation  will  follow  the 
skilled  labor  which  has  already  left  her,  and  another  city  or  another 
community  offering  higher  inducements  to  labor  will  be  her  suc- 
cessor. 


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SHARPSBURG: 

A  TYPICAL  WASTE  OF  CHILDHOOD* 

Elizabeth  Beardsley  Butler 

WERE  a  child  of  Sharpsburg  to  wander  adventuring  about 
the  streets  he  would  find  his  way  sharply  cut  off  to  left 
and  right  by  the  Allegheny  River  and  the  sheer  wall  of 
hills  which  run  parallel  to  it  a  scant  quarter  of  a  mile  back  from  the 
water's  edge.  Starting  at  the  bridge  which  marks  the  boundary 
line  between  Sharpsburg  and  Etna  (the  industrial  suburb  next 
nearer  Pittsburgh  on  the  west),  he  could  journey  eastward  through 
a  narrow  rectangle  of  workaday  activities.  The  borough  is  not 
more  than  a  mile  and  a  quarter  in  its  corporate  length,  yet  within 
it  he  would  make  acquaintance  nevertheless  with  many  different 
races  and  occupations.  At  the  entrance  of  the  town  the  sordid 
slums  give  way  to  numerous  small  shops,  a  few  factories,  and 
characterless  lumber  yards,  all  leading  in  gradual  crescendo  to 
Moorhead's  Iron  Mill  and  the  one  rather  imposing  office  building 
situated  opposite  it  at  Tenth  and  Main  streets.  From  this  point 
on,  the  streets  grow  more  heterogeneous.  They  are  lined  by 
middle-class  homes,  fairly  prosperous  looking  shops,  slums,  a  few 
attractive  frame  houses  in  good  repair,  some  stone  houses,  once 
well-built  but  fallen  upon  degenerate  days,  and  still  farther  east- 
ward by  factories  once  more.  The  atmosphere  of  the  place,  from 
the  tube  works  at  the  Etna  bridge  to  Tibby's  glass-house  at  the 
upper  end  of  the  river  front,  is  one  of  dingy,  restless  utility. 

*  For  changes  in  child  labor  and  compulsory  education  lawi  subiequent  to 
tgoBsee  Kelley,  Florence:  Facloiy  Inspection  in  Pillsburgh.  P.  i89of  this  volume. 
Tlie  fourteen-year  age  limit  remains  unchanged,  but  was  made  real  in  1909  by  re- 
quiring proof  of  age,  placing  the  issuance  of  certificates  in  the  hands  of  the  school 
authonties.  For  three  legislatures  (1909,  1911,  and  191J)  all  attempts  have  failed 
to  repeal  the  exemption  of  glass-houses  from  the  night-work  prohibition  for  chil- 
dren under  sixteen  years  of  age.  The  description  of  the  town  is  of  1906. 
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Among  confused  impressions  of  narrow  boundaries  and  much 
doing  therein,  the  great  black  mill  would  inevitably  stand  out  in 
the  child's  mind.  It  dominates  eye  and  ear.  So  too  it  dominates 
the  commercial  life  of  the  town,  in  its  power  to  bring  prosperity 
or  ruin.  It  has  attracted  stove  foundries  and  kindred  industries 
and  with  them  molds  the  character  of  the  community.  About  it, 
too,  have  gathered  the  glass-houses  which,  as  we  shall  see,  even 
more  than  the  mill  itself,  set  meets  and  bounds  to  what  life  means 
to  the  young  people  of  the  community. 

Sharpsburg  bears  little  trace  of  ever  having  been  a  residential 
suburb,  and  the  few  wealthy  men  who  at  one  time  lived  here  have  moved 
away.  Workmen,  not  business  men,  are  now  in  the  majority, — unskilled 
laborers,  railroad  trackmen,  workers  in  iron  and  glass.  According  to  the 
census  of  1900,3  fifth  of  the  nearly  7,000  inhabitants  of  the  borough  were 
foreign  bom.  Sincethen  the  Italians,  for  example,  have  spread  from  lower 
and  upper  Twelfth  Street  to  Thirteenth  Street,  Benson  Alley,  and  along 
Penn  Street,  where  they  join  forces  with  the  Poles.  The  latter  have  in- 
creased in  number  to  the  point  of  building  a  church  and  opening  a  parochial 
school  for  their  own  children.  Mill  men  tell  you  that  Americans,  who 
long  since  refused  to  compete  with  "Hunkies"  for  day  laborers'  jobs,  are 
proportionately  fewer  now  among  the  glass  blowers  or  puddlers;  that 
Slavs  and  Italians  are  in  demand  not  only  as  laborers  but  even  as  appren- 
tices for  the  more  skilled  trades.  There  are  Greeks  and  Jews,  but  these 
are  still  few  in  number  compared  with  the  older  Irish  and  Germans,  The 
iron  mill,  and  occasionally  the  railroad,  employ  Negro  workmen,  but  the 
Negro  population  remains  practically  stationary,  crowding  its  three  or 
four  hundred  souls  into  a  few  squares  of  the  worst  slum  dwellings. 

These  were  the  most  obvious  factors  entering  into  the  physi- 
cal aspect  and  social  condition  of  the  town  when,  in  the  winter  of 
1908,  1  came  to  study  it  as  a  place  where  children  are  bom  and 
brought  up.  The  characteristic  industries  which  location  and  to- 
pography had  jointly  molded,  the  racial  groups  which  the  indus- 
tries called  together,  the  cheap,  inadequate  dwellings  congested 
because  of  the  very  prosperity  of  the  town — were  all  so  many 
elements  in  the  environment  of  Sharpsburg  children.  Cheap  fuel, 
abundant  raw  material,  transportation  facilities  by  river  and  rail 
had  brought  large  commercial  returns,  but  the  children,  by- 
products of  the  town's  unthinking  life,— what  care  was  being  taken 
of  this  yield?  How  far  had  the  community  assumed  responsibility 
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sharpsburg:  a  waste  of  childhood 

not  merely  for  perfunctory  school -teaching  for  them  but  for  their 
all-round  development? 

THE  HOMES  OF  CHILDREN 

I  n  Street  after  street  the  children,  largely  those  of  workmen's 
families,  knew  i  home  environment  of  two-story  frame  houses 
built  with  extreme  barrenness  of  outline,  weathered  and  smoke  be- 
grimed. Here  and  there  a  group  of  comfortably  built  frame 
houses  were  occupied  by  clerks  and  small  business  men  from 
the  city,  a  few  by  glass  blowers  and  other  skilled  craftsmen,  but 
of  the  380  squares  in  the  borough  181  contained  two-story  frame 
dwellings  of  the  class  described.  A  child  learns  early  the  sensa- 
tion, if  not  the  idea,  of  "  leveling  down"  which  manifests  itself  even 
in  the  outward  aspect  of  such  houses;  ambition  and  imagination 
are  alike  stifled  by  the  sense  of  subordination  to  industry  in  home 
and  neighborhood. 

The  United  States  Census  of  1900  gave  the  total  dwellings 
cS  the  borough  as  1,273  *nd  the  total  population  as  6,842.  The 
postal  census  taken  in  the  fall  of  1907  estimated  that  a  thousand 
newcomers  had  settled  there  during  the  intervening  seven  years.* 
Oearly,  the  town  could  not  grow  up  over  its  steep  hills  or  down 
into  the  river.  The  newcomers,  therefore,  had  been  obliged  to 
house  themselves  within  an  area  small  even  for  its  former  popu- 
lation. The  result  had  been  a  slight  increase  of  rear  shacks,  a 
great  increase  of  room  crowding  particulariy  among  Poles  and  Ital- 
ians. While  the  middle  class  element  had  possibly  held  its  own, 
the  demand  for  laborers  had  filled  whole  streets  with  boarding 
houses  oi  young  Italian  workmen. 

Thus,  sixteen-year-old  Theresa  Scorzafava  was  found  helping  at 
home  in  a  house  with  nine  boarders.  She  had  been  in  America  eight  months 
and  had  never  gone  to  school.  A  father,  mother,  daughter,  and  seven 
boarders  were  living  in  four  rooms  on  a  third  floor  for  which  the  rent  was 
$7.00.  The  rooms  were  to  be  reached  only  by  a  rickety  frame  staircase 
on  the  outside,  and  water  was  obtainable  only  from  a  hydrant  in  the  yard. 

This  family  lived  on  lower  Twelfth  Street,  a  muddy,  unpaved  region 

where  children  were  many.   The  river  overflowed  frequently  to  the  second 

floors  of  the  group  of  shacks  which  were  their  homes.    Qose  to  these 

shacks  were  two  rows  of  dwellings,  newly  built,  of  a  type  scorned  by  English 

*Th«ceiW»of  1910  gave  Sharpsburg  8,1$)  people. 

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housing  refoimers  in  the  40's.*  Each  had  a  door  front  and  rear.  Some 
were  divided  into  two  houses  built  back  to  back,  each  with  one  upstairs  and 
one  downstairs  room.  Before  each  front  window  stood  the  privy  vault. 
There  was  but  one  hydrant  for  an  entire  row.  "Glass  House  Row"  on 
Main  Street,  at  the  far  end  of  the  town,  was  of  the  same  type.  Each  of  its 
eight  bouses  was  divided  into  two  dwellings  of  two  rooms  each,  and  the 
tenants  who  lived  in  a  front  house  had  to  pass  through  their  nei^bor's 
living  room  or  walk  around  the  square  to  reach  the  vault  in  the  rear. 
There  were  four  vaults  (one  overfilled  and  out  of  use)  and  but  two  outside 
hydrants  for  the  18  families  in  this  row.  Waste  water  was  thrown  into 
the  street  sewers.  The  basements  of  the  houses  were  of  little  use  as  they 
were  flooded  when  the  river  was  high. 

It  would  seem  that  in  such  districts,  where  a  majority  of  the 
houses  had  no  proper  sewage  connection  and  no  water  save  from 
the  river,  imperfectly  filtered,  where  dwellings  on  Main  Street  and 
on  all  streets  south  of  it  were  affected  by  the  floods,  especial 
care  should  have  been  taken  by  the  community  to  safeguaitl  the 
health  of  the  people.  The  board  of  health  had  no  statistics  of 
causes  of  deaths  nor  complete  yearly  records  of  contagious  dis- 
eases. The  city  physician  made  no  report  to  the  board  and  al- 
though, theoretically,  when  medical  care  was  needed,  a  poor  family 
might  send  for  the  city  physician,  this  was  practically  never 
done.  When  a  case  of  illness  came  up  the  city  physician  turned 
the  matter  over  to  the  county  poor  relief  physician  who  had  in 
every  instance,  my  informants  stated,  refused  to  assist  the  borough 
in  either  medical  care  or  poor  relief.  One  case  cited  by  the  secre- 
tary of  the  board  of  health  had  occurred  during  a  smallpox  epidemic 
two  years  earlier.  A  boy  was  quarantined  in  a  frame  out-house. 
His  mother  was  bedridden  at  home,  his  father  worthless.  The 
family  had  no  means  of  support  nor  of  receiving  proper  care,  but 
when  the  case  was  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  officials,  relief 
was  flatly  refused.  Except  in  cases  of  smallpox,  scarlet  fever,  and 
diphtheria,  the  majority  of  the  people  were  apparently  doing  with- 
out a  physician,  and  even  in  those  diseases  they  called  one  only 
when  the  illness  was  acute.  Houses  were  fumigated  only  in  case 
a  patient  died.  As  the  families  lived  usually  in  one  or  two  rooms 
and  had  no  other  place  in  which  to  stay,  this  was  but  a  mock  per- 
formance.    Even  apart  from  the  danger  of  contagion,  the  continu- 

*  Engels,  Frederick:  The  Condition  of  the  Working  Clau  in  England  in  1844, 
pp.  Si,  56.     New  York,  John  W.  LoveH  Co.,  1887. 
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sharpsburg:  a  waste  of  childhood 

ance  of  lax  disinfection  and  inadequate  medical  care  made  a  high 
standard  of  health  and  physical  vitality  in  the  poorer  districts  of 
Sharpsburg  impossible.* 

THE  SCHOOL  PLANTS 

There  was  much  good  by  contrast  in  the  school  environment 
of  the  children,  although  here  too  there  were  serious  abatements. 
Public  Schools.  The  two  public  schools  enrolled  between  800 
and  900  pupils.  With  the  exception  of  200  italian-born  children,  five 
Poles,  and  three  Negroes,  they  were  American-born  whites.  The  build* 
ings  were  well  planned  and  kept  in  repair;  class  rooms  were  light  and  the 
arrangements  for  heating,  ventilation,  and  sanitation  were  good.  The 
school  board  included  two  former  school  principals,  a  former  teacher,  and 
a  physician;  it  was  perhaps  their  combined  influence  which  had  led  to  the 
establishing  of  a  high  school  class  from  which  students  were  admitted  to 
the  second  year  in  the  Pittsburgh  high  school.  No  high  school  existed 
ia  the  borough  itself.  School  hours  were  from  9  in  the  morning  to  y.jo 
in  the  afternoon,  after  which  period  the  responsibility  felt  by  the  school 
authorities  ceased  and  the  children  were  free  to  go  their  ways  in  the  only 
playground  they  knew,  the  street.  In  the  larger  of  the  two  public  school 
buildings  were  cement  basement  playgrounds,  6$  by  30  feet,  one  for  boys 
and  one  for  girb.  But  they  were  used  by  four  grades  only  and  during 
the  recess  period,  never  before  or  after  school.  The  large  grassy  yard  was 
kept,  not  for  play,  but  as  an  attractive  adjunct  to  the  building.  There 
was  no  gymnasium.  Medical  inspection  was  unknown.  The  board  of 
health  reported  cases  of  diphtheria,  scarlet  fever,  and  smallpox  in  families 
having  children  in  school  (when  the  family  had  called  in  a  physician),  and 
in  such  cases  the  other  children  attending  school  from  the  family  were 
kept  out  for  thirty  days.  One  child  died  of  diphtheria,  and  although  the 
door  was  placarded  the  principal  did  not  know  of  the  death  until  notified 
of  the  funeral.  Since  the  city  physician  was  one  only  in  name  and  many 
pec^le  were  doing  without  medical  care,  it  was  possible  for  contagious 
diseases  to  go  unreported.  The  principal  used  his  judgment  in  readmitting 
a  child  who  had  been  ill  with  a  contagious  disease,  or  in  excluding  one  with 

*  Not  only  child  labor  at  night,  but  lank  sanitaiy  conditions  have  been 
SulTered  by  the  Sliarpsburg  cammunity.  unchanged,  lo  judge  by  two  rows  of  double 
frame  boiiiei  visited  in  the  nei^boihood  of  the  river  in  July,  1914-  Two  yard 
hydrants  are  depended  upon  by  eight  houses  in  one  row,  ii  m  the  other.  A  double 
battery  of  ouukle  privies  divKJes  the  court,  fronting  the  doorsteps  of  each  bouse, 
M  that  privacy  is  unimaginable.  The  interiors  of  these  privies  were  scoured — a 
tribute  to  the  standards  of  the  immigrant  housekeepera:  but  they  could  not  scrub 
out  the  stench.  A  tile  drain  was  supposed  to  carry  the  excreta  to  the  river's  edge, 
but  for  a  week  it  had  been  clogged  and  the  vaults  were  full,  the  seepage  draining 
out  onto  the  court,  where  children  were  playing  and  a  milk  wagon  drove  up  with 
clanging  gong. — Editor. 

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evident  skin  disease.  Between  factory  inspectors  and  school  officiab, 
as  between  school  and  medical  authorities,  there  was  little  evidence  of 
co-operation.  The  principal  received  no  reports  from  factories  (as  re- 
quired by  law)  as  to  children  under  sixteen  working.  Although  ;o  or 
more  children  were  leaving  school  yearly  to  go  to  work,  he  did  not  know 
into  what  shops  or  factories  they  went. 

Parish  Schools.  Of  the  non-public  institutions,  the  Gennan 
Lutheran  school  had  only  a  small  number  of  children  and  no  classes  be- 
yond the  sixth  grade.  In  the  two  large  Catholic  parochial  schools,  Ger- 
man and  Irish,  the  combined  attendance  was  nearly  as  large  as  that  of  the 
public  schools.  The  same  laxity  as  in  the  case  of  the  public  schools  pre- 
vailed with  regard  to  keeping  track  of  the  children  from  year  to  year; 
the  same  lack  of  records  as  to  the  number  who  went  to  work  and  as  to 
where  they  were  working.  Moreover,  Polish  and  Italian  children  who 
were  attending  public  school  in  the  spring  of  1907  were  advised  not  to 
return  in  the  autumn  as  two  new  church  schools  were  in  course  of  con- 
struction; but  up  10  February,  1908,  the  new  buildings  were  still  uncom- 
pleted and  a  half  year's  school  attendance  was  thus  lost  to  children  who 
needed  it  badly. 

The  parochial  schocds  charged  a  tuition  fee  of  $a  cents  a  month, 
although  this  was  sometimes  remitted,  and  required  pupils  to  buy  their 
own  books.  The  buildings  were  far  superior  to  many  of  the  Pittsburgh 
parochial  schools,  but  they  were  not  well  ventilated  and  one  of  them  had  no 
washing  conveniences.  Playgrounds  were  conspicuously  absent.  One 
school  had  none;  the  other  had  a  brick  paved  playground  $0  by  60  feet  at 
the  side  of  the  building,  but  this  was  used  only  before  school  and  at  recess. 
Neither  school  had  a  gymnasium  nor  any  regular  physical  drill.  As  in 
the  public  schools,  there  was  no  medical  inspection.  In  one  school  the 
sister  in  charge  stated  that  she  received  no  reports  of  contagious  diseases 
from  the  board  of  health  but  simply  heard  of  cases  through  children  or 
neighbors.  She  said  that  a  child  with  skin  disease  was  "encouraged"  to 
stay  at  home,  but  she  evidently  did  not  consider  the  matter  serious.  The 
city  physician  the  year  before  had  been  at  the  school  and  had  vaccinated 
such  children  as  needed  it,  but  neither  city  physician  nor  health  officer 
had  visited  the  school  during  the  current  year,  which  was  half  com- 
pleted at  the  time  of  my  inquiry. 

No  eighth  grade  work  was  taught  in  either  of  the  parochial  schools. 
What  corresponded  to  the  seventh  grade  class  had  in  St.  Joseph's  (the 
Irish  parochial  school)  an  average  of  1;  pupils;  their  fellows  had  dropped 
out  during  the  fourth,  fifth,  or  sixth  grades,  at  the  age  of  twelve  or  thirteen. 
St.  Mary's,  the  German  parochial  school,  had  a  commercial  class,  a  two 
years' course,  for  which  a  tuition  fee  off  50  was  charged  (covering  also  the 
cost  of  books),  and  unless  a  child  entered  this  class  he  had  no  opportunity 


■d^yCoogle 


sharpsburg:  a  waste  of  childhood 

to  finish  seventh  or  eighth  grade  work.  About  one-half  the  children  left 
after  the  sixth  grade.  St.  Mary's  had  shown  itself  progressive  and  quick 
to  adopt  the  su^estions  of  Father  Devlin,  then  diocesan  supervisor  of 
scbocds,  for  the  improvement  of  the  courses  offered.  It  even  had  a  small 
library  for  the  use  of  pupils,  mainly  composed,  however,  of  children's 
books.  An  attempt  had  been  made  by  the  head  sister  to  secure  a  branch 
of  the  Pittsburgh  Carnegie  Library,  but  this  had  failed  as  books  were  not 
sent  out  of  the  city. 

In  spile  of  many  excellent  features,  the  two  parochial  schoob  in 
Sharpsburg  had  the  common  failing  that  the  majority  of  the  children 
considered  their  school  courses  finished,  no  matter  what  grade  they  had 
reached,  as  soon  as  they  had  made  their  first  communion.  At  the  age  of 
twelve  or  thirteen  years,  in  spite  of  compulsory  education  law  or  tru- 
ancy department,  they  either  went  to  work  or  stayed  at  home. 

LOST  CHILDREN 

Slack  record  keeping  in  the  schools,  public  and  parochial, 
slack  registration  outside,  thus  offered  many  a  loophole  for  the 
Sharpsburg  truant  to  escape  detection.  It  was  only  for  the  chil- 
dren actually  enrolled  that  the  schools  felt  responsible.  Of  these 
they  managed  to  keep  a  high  percentage  of  attendance, — 9;  per 
cent  in  the  public  schools, — and  the  parochial  schools  also  had  few 
cases  of  prolonged  and  unexplained  absence.  But  how  far  the 
children  of  the  District  were  enrolled,  the  educational  authorities 
did  not  know. 

The  register  assessor*  who  took  the  school  census  in  the  fall  of  1907 
reported  1 .099  children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  fifteen;  yet  the  total 
oinrilment  in  public  and  parochial  schools  at  the  time  was  i,6s4(8ss  in 
the  public  schools,  $49  in  St.  Mary's,  and  3;o  in  St.  Joseph's), — a  dis- 
crepancy of  over  ;oo  which  was  not  accounted  for  by  the  few  children  who 
came  in  from  Etna.  The  use  of  old  lists  in  lieu  of  a  house-to-house  canvass 
made  the  assessor's  report  of  little  value.  The  schools  depended  upon  the 
inclination  of  paraits  to  enroll  their  children  rather  than  upon  any  effec- 
tive  public  compulsion.  Moreover,  each  grade  teacher's  report  was  kept 
independently  after  her  own  fashion,  some  reporting  during  the  first 
month  in  the  fall  the  presence  or  absence  of  children  who  had  been  in 
their  grades  in  May.  This  lack  of  uniformity  in  record  keeping  made  it 
wellnigh  impossible  to  keep  track  of  the  attendance  of  the  individual 
child  from  year  to  year. 

•Act  July  1 1,  1901,  Section  4,  P.  L.,  page  661. 

28s 


.d,Google 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

The  fdlowing  table  is  made  up  from  data  furnished  by  the  public 
schools  and  St.  Joseph's  parochial  school  as  to  the  present  ages  of  children 
enrolled.  Assuming  as  we  fairly  may  that  approximately  the  same  num- 
ber of  children  had  entered  school  each  year  during  a  period  of  nine  yean, 
this  table  shows  that  many  a  child  had  made  use  of  the  opportunity  to 
drop  out  at  the  bidding  of  impulse  or  of  financial  need. 

TABLE  I. — AGES  OF  8o6  CHILDREN  IN  SHARPSBURC  SCHOOLS.     I908 


Att 

CUUrm 

136 

uTt : 

Ttn            

^ 

73 
47 

The  striking  fact  shown  by  this  table  is  that  although  there  was  a 
drop  of  ig  per  cent  in  attendance  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  when  a  child 
might  under  the  Pennsylvania  law  of  190;  legally  go  to  work,  there  was  a 
drop  of  3 1  per  cent  at  the  age  of  twelve. 

As  dsewhere  in  Pennsylvania  truancy  throve  through  defects  both 
in  the  law  and  in  its  enforcement.  The  borough  had  but  one  truant 
officer,  an  elderiy  man,  unfamiliar  with  foreign  languages  and  consequently 
unequal  to  the  difficult  task  of  searching  out  missing  foreign  children. 
He  made  some  use  of  the  assessor's  list,  the  inadequacy  of  which  has  al- 
ready been  pointed  out,  and  followed  up  children  reported  absent  by  public 
or  parochial  schods.  Beyond  this,  however,  he  made  no  attempt  to  find 
those  who  had  never  been  enrolled  or  to  keep  track  of  the  shifting  dement 
in  the  population.  Although  each  child  on  the  assessor's  book  should 
have  been  reported  either  as  in  school  (with  the  school  specified)  ch-  at 
work,  the  truant  officer  did  not  compare  this  registration  list  with  the 
school  record  in  order  to  detect  children  who  had  failed  to  report. 

The  actual  extent  of  truancy,  like  the  actual  child  population 
of  the  borough,  was  not  known.  Typical  cases  follow  which  sug- 
gest truancy  not  attributable  to  demand  for  child  laborers,  but 


■d^yCoogle 


SHARPSBURC:    A   WASTE   OF  CHILDHOOD 

resulting  from  carelessness  of  parents  and  lack  of  vigilance  among 
the  school  authorities: 

J.  S.,  Clay  St.;  ti  years  old.  Had  been  in  this  country 
four  years,  and  had  never  been  to  school. 

A.  Z.,  S.  Main  St.;  to  years  old,  and  J.  Z.,  S.  Main  St.; 
13  years  old.  Both  went  to  St.  Joseph's  until  1907.  Went  to  the 
public  school  until  the  Christmas  vacation  of  that  year  and  then 
left  10  wait  for  the  Pcdish  scbocd  to  open. 

M.  C  alley  back  of  7th  St.,  13  years  old.  Worked  at  h<Hne. 
Mother  had  rheumatism.  Father  a  laborer  at  Moorhead's.  Went 
to  St.  Joseph's  school  as  far  as  grade  4,  until  June,  1907. 

F.  M.,  I3th  St.;  15  years  old.  Had  never  been  to  school 
and  did  not  work. 

Once  out  of  school  most  of  the  girls  were  permanently  ap- 
prenticed  to  housework  and  the  care  of  children;  some  of  the 
boys  were  left  to  run  the  streets.  Eight-year-old  Theresa  was  fii^t 
kept  at  home  every  Monday  to  help  with  the  washing  for  the 
family  of  1 1 ;  such  an  intermittent  apprenticeship  usually  soon 
becc»nes  permanent.  Her  brother,  a  keen-eyed,  dark-skinned  little 
Italian,  drifted  away  from  the  streets  which  offered  no  genuine 
play  place,  to  a  factory  which  had  a  lure  for  ragged  lingerers  out- 
side. Any  day  that  one  chose  to  go  during  school  hours  to  the 
forlorn  alleys  of  lower  Twelfth  and  Thirteenth  streets  he  was  sure 
to  find  the  children  of  the  neighborhood  playing  as  best  they  could, 
— the  row  of  1 2  privy  vaults  in  front  of  them,  the  waste  land  behind. 
Some  of  them  went  to  school,  of  course,  but  there  was  no  regularity 
about  it.  The  street  and  the  factory  were  more  enticing  and  to 
the  factory  we  were  obliged  to  look  in  completing  our  roster. 

THE  WORKING  CHILDREN 

Data  concerning  177  Sharpsburg  children  who  were  at  work 
were  secured  and  compiled,  and  upon  these  data  the  following 
tables  are  based. 

Table  2,  on  the  following  page,  shows  the  ages  of  41  children 
under  fourteen  years  whom  we  found  working  at  the  time  of  our 
inquiry: 

287 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 


—AGES  OF  41    SHARP5BURG  CHILDREN   UNDER  FOURTEEN 
FOUND  AT  WORK  IN   I9O8 


-<*< 

a»«r«i 

Ten 

Tw«Ive 

35 

4> 

These  41  working  children  were  all  under  the  minimum  legal 
age  set  by  the  law  of  190;.  Along  with  them,  in  the  next  table, 
are  grouped  102  fourteen-  and  fifteen-year-old  children  whom  we 
found  at  work,  together  with  34  sixteen-year-old  boys  who  had 
begun  work  at  fourteen  or  before.  Grouped  by  the  ages  at  which 
they  started  in,  they  show  still  more  strikingly  the  tendency  to- 
ward early  employment. 

TABLE  3. — AGES  AT  TIME  OF  BEGINNING  WORK  OF  I77  SHARPSBURC 
CHILDREN  UNDER  SEVENTEEN  FOUND  AT  WORK  IN  I908 


Age  at  Btginning  Work 

Children 

Six 

Ten     .       .              .              .       . 

.1 

U 

17 

177 

Of  these  177  children  only  18,  as  may  be  seen,  had  when  they 
began  work  reached  fourteen  years,  the  age  which  was  recognized 
in  the  majority  of  northern  states  throughout  this  period  as  the 
earliest  at  which  work  was  pennissible.  Three  years  had  elapsed 
since  fourteen  had  been  made  the  legal  minimum  working  age  in 
Pennsylvania.  Seven  years  had  elapsed  since  thirteen  had  been 
made  the  minimum.  The  age  when  children  might  legally  go  to 
work  had  never  been  lower  than  twelve,  yet  every  fifth  child  had 
started  work  at  eleven  years  or  younger. 


■d^yCoogle 


SHARPSBURC:    A   WASTE  OF  CHILDHOOD 


Slatui  i4  Father 


Cbiidrtn 
Ifbotc 

Sp*tifitd 


Dead 

Doener  ot  incapacitated 

Living  with  (amily  and  occupied: 

As  day  laborer 

In  miscdlanHHU  work  (mainly  common  labor)  .  , 

In  miscellaneous  work  (partly  skilled  labor,  as  that  of  mixer, 
boiler  maker,  etc.) 

As  glass  bk>weT 

As  puddler 

As  »alcs  clerk 

Not  in  country,  or  status  unknomi 

Total 


"77 


Of  the  177  children,  nine  wholly  supported  their  widowed 
mothers  by  what  they  earned.  In  other  of  the  33  cases  where  the 
father  was  dead,  older  children  shared  the  burden  of  the  family 
needs. 

The  case  of  Chaiies  South  illustrates  the  confusion  of  sentiment 
in  enforcing  the  law  with  respect  to  such  children.  Mrs.  South  had  been 
three  years  a  widow,  and  Charles,  thirteen  yean  of  age,  was  the  older  of 
her  two  children.  The  year  before  the  date  when  his  case  was  investi- 
gated he  had  gone  to  work  in  the  Pleasant  Valley  post  office  for  I7.00  a 
RKHith,  from  7  a.  tn.  to  8:30  p.  m.  daily.  During  the  last  three  months 
he  had  held  a  position  in  the  special  delivery  department  of  the  Pittsburgh 
post  office,  working  alternate  weeks  on  day  and  night  turn,  and  earning 
usually  $2i  a  month.  The  day  turn  was  from  7  a.  m.  to  3  p.  m.  and  the 
night  turn  from  3  p.  m.  to  1 1  p.  m.  The  neighbors  spoke  of  this  position 
as  a  line  one.  When  the  boy  first  went  to  work  the  truant  officer  came  to 
inquire  about  him,  but  after  the  mother  had  explained  her  circumstances 
be  had  made  no  further  effort  to  have  the  child  relumed  to  school. 

Fmn  the  list  of  occupations  given,  it  is  evident  that  in  a 
majority  of  cases  where  the  father  was  living  he  earned  only  a  small 
wage,  ft  .60  to  $2.00  a  day,  and  that,  even  if  steadily  employed, 
ecoiKMnic  pressure  was  a  factor  in  leading  to  the  attempt  to  add  to 
the  family  income  through  the  child's  earnings.  In  49  of  these 
19*  389 


iH,zed.yGOOgIe 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

cases,  this  pressure  came  in  the  form  of  from  one  to  lo  younger 
children  still  in  school  or  even  below  school  age. 

WORK  PLACES 
The  list  of  places  of  employment  of  the  1 77  Sharpsburg  chil- 
dren who  had  gone  to  work  at  fourteen  or  before  stood  as  follows: 


Glass  factoiy     .... 
Pittsburgh  factory  or  store 

Tube  mill 

Mercantile  house  in  Sharpsburg 

Iron  mill 

^ovel  factoiy  .... 
Household  (domestic  servants) 
Etailroad  (water  boys) 
Stove  foundry  .... 
Bowling  alley  .... 
Milk  wagon       .... 


Total 


177 


It  should  be  noted  that  there  was  constant  interchange  of 
child  workers  between  Sharpsburg  and  Pittsburgh.  Many  of  the 
glass-house  boys  came  from  the  heights  across  the  river,  and  on  the 
other  hand  some  Sharpsburg  children  went  to  the  city  to  work. 
Only  28  girls  are  included  in  the  table.  As  the  demand  for  girls 
in  Sharpsburg  was  limited  to  the  laundry  and  a  few  stores,  they 
sought  employment  in  Pittsburgh  in  the  cork  and  pickle  factories, 
telephone  offices,  and  department  stores.  In  most  cases,  these 
suburban  girls  showed  a  tendency  to  irregularity  of  work,  changing 
from  one  store  to  another,  and  from  one  kind  of  employment  to 
another,  not  only  as  seasons  varied  and  slack  times  came  but  with 
the  constant  hopefulness  of  finding  work  a  little  easier  and  a  little 
better  paid.  Sometimes  apparently  the  change  was  made  from 
the  mere  desire  to  change.  One  case  is  illustrative  of  many, 
although  it  can  not  be  considered  typical: 

Emma  B.,  whose  age  the  school  record  gave  as  thirteen,  was  the 
only  daughter  in  a  German  family  living  "down  the  hollow"  on  Kit- 
290 


■d^yCoogle 


sharpsburg:  a  waste  of  childhood 

tanning  Pike.  Her  father,  2  tinner  by  trade,  had  been  out  of  work  for  six 
months.  Her  two  older  brothers  were  laborers,  and  her  younger  brother, 
Charley,  eleven  years  old,  had  been  with  her  in  the  ungraded  valley  school. 
One  of  the  older  boys  was  learning  mechanical  drawing  at  night  school, 
and  in  order  to  pay  for  this  course  and  at  the  same  time  help  the  family 
along  the  two  younger  children  were  put  to  work,  Charley  in  a  glass-house 
and  Emma  in  a  Pittsburgh  department  store  as  cash  girl  at  {2.3$  a  week. 
After  the  deduction  of  carfare  and  lunch  money  the  sum  that  remained 
was  so  small  that  Emma's  mother  overcame  the  pride  which  had  kept  her 
frcrni  sending  her  daughter  to  a  factory,  and  Emma  accordingly  went  to 
work  in  a  cork  factory  for  ten  hours  a  day  with  occasional  overtime,  at 
I4.00  a  week. 

The  boys  who  went  to  the  city  came  in  most  cases  from  the  pros- 
perous stratum  of  workingmen's  families,  and  could  afford  to  take  poorly 
paid  positions  as  office  or  errand  boys,  with  what  was  felt  to  be  the  pros- 
pect of  desirable  work  later  on. 

In  the  Metal  Trades 

It  was  in  the  iron  mill,  stove  foundry,  shovel  factory,  but 
especially  in  the  glass-houses  that  boys  were  to  be  found  at  work 
in  occupations  characteristic  of  the  Pittsburgh  District.  Big  and 
black  as  the  iron  mill  might  loom  in  the  imagination  of  little  Sharps- 
burg children,  powerful  factor  as  it  was  in  the  borough  life,  pro- 
moting railway  traffic  and  stimulating  trade,  it  was  the  glass-houses 
which  were  suzerain  over  childhood  in  the  town.  They  had  use 
for  over  half  the  children  at  wages  in  Sharpsburg. 

The  iron  industry,  on  the  contrary,  is  distinctly  men's  work. 
Three  or  four  himdred  men  were  employed  in  the  puddling  fur- 
naces, bar  mill,  plate  and  nail  mills  of  the  Moorhead  plant,  and 
even  the  score  of  "boy's  jobs"  about  the  place  were  s(»netimes 
held  by  men  too  old  to  work  at  the  furnaces.  The  pay  of  these 
positions  ranged  from  90  cents  to  $i.$o  per  day.  With  each  shift 
came  out  "pull-up"  boys  to  open  and  close  the  furnace  doors  for 
the  egress  of  the  white-hot  iron  ball  on  its  way  to  the  squeezer, 
"chain-boys,"  and  "shear-boys"  to  cut  the  cold  iron  into  strips, 
work  that  requires  more  physical  strength  than  is  ordinarily  p(»> 
sessed  by  a  child  of  twelve  or  thirteen  years.  The  management 
asserted  that  no  boys  under  sixteen  were  employed,  yet  of  seven 
whose  cases  we  investigated,  two  were  found  to  be  sixteen,  four 
fifteen  and  one  fourteen.  Two  of  these  seven  boys  had  gone  to 
291 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARN  tNG   PtTTSBURGH 

work  in  the  mill  at  thirteen  years  of  age,  and  the  others  at  eleven  or 
twelve. 

The  furnaces  did  not  run  Sundays  so  that  the  boys  woriied 
only  six  days  a  week,  but  these  days  were  of  twelve  hours  each. 
This  plant  still  continued  an  old  arrangement  of  shifts  which  bote 
especially  hard  on  its  child  workers:  2:30  a.  m.  to  2:30  p.  m.  day 
turn;  2:30  p.  m.  to  3:30  a.  m.  night  turn.  Whichever  turn  a  boy 
was  on,  he  could  not  have  a  normal  division  of  the  day  into  rest 
and  work.  He  either  came  to  or  went  from  the  mill  during  the 
chill  of  night.  Whatever  the  effect  on  a  mature  man,  it  can  hardly 
be  questioned  that  such  an  unnatural  extension  and  arrangement 
of  working  hours  is  harmful  to  a  growing  boy.  The  work  done  by 
the  boys  required  watchfulness  and  care,  no  skill.  In  itself  it  was 
not  dangerous,  but  the  mill  was  full  of  dangers — swinging  cranes, 
flying  bits  of  hot  iron  from  the  squeezer,  and  various  kinds  of  heavy 
machinery  which  sometimes  slips  from  the  operator's  control.  For 
nine  out  of  ten  boys,  moreover,  their  jobs  meant  not  a  first  step  in 
the  line  of  preferment,  a  point  nearer  apprenticeship  in  the  skilled 
positions  of  the  trade,  but  merely  one  of  a  series  of  laborers'  jobs, 
first  at  one  mill,  then  at  another,  at  approximately  the  same  wages. 

At  the  stove  foundry,  on  the  contrary,  boys  were  taken  only 
as  apprentices,  worked  altogether  "by  day,  and  had  an  opportunity 
to  become  skilled  workmen.  Of  the  three  boys  who  were  appren- 
ticed in  the  fall  of  1907,  one  was  nineteen,  one  sixteen,  and  one 
fourteen;  all  were  working  under  the  direction  of  their  fathers. 

Some  Sharpsburg  boys  found  work  in  Hubbard's  shovel 
factory  on  the  Pittsburgh  side  of  the  bridge.  When  all  the  de- 
partments were  running,  this  plant  employed  about  3^0  men  and 
boys,  operating  cutting  machines,  boring  holes  for  rivets,  straight- 
ening handles,  "cornering  shovels,"  and  doing  similar  work  of  a 
sort  which  requires  some  dexterity  but  little  skill. 

The  distinction  in  this  factory  between  men's  work  and 
boys'  lay  partly  in  the  differences  in  the  ware,  and  partly  in  the 
operation  of  light  or  heavy  machinery.  Here  too  the  manager 
stated  that  no  boys  under  sixteen  years,*  consequently  noneneed- 

*  The  Pennsylvania  laws  of  1005  provided  that  a  child  fourteen  yein  of  age. 
but  under  tiicteen,  could  be  employed  only  when  a  certificate  showing  ability  to  read 
and  write  English,  and  issued  by  a  person  empowered  to  lake  oaths,  was  on  file  m 
the  office  of  his  employer. 


■d^yCoogle 


sharpsburg:  a  waste  of  childhood 

ing  certificates,  were  employed.  Work  was  slack  at  the  time  of 
my  visit,  but  of  the  six  boys  seen  two  were  certainly  not  over 
fourteen  years  old.  Four  of  these  had  begun  work  in  the  factory 
at  thirteen  and  one  at  twelve.  One  thirteen-year-old  boy  who 
said  he  had  passed  for  fourteen  ever  since  he  had  gone  to  work  the 
year  before  at  75  cents  a  day.  described  the  work  at  the  punching 
machines :  "  On  a  three-hole  machine,  you  get  a  cent  a  dozen,  and 
can  make  as  much  as  you're  able.  1  made  $1.30  once.  Oh,  all 
the  boys  get  cut  or  burned.  Once  I  had  my  hand  cut  so  that  I  had 
to  lay  off  for  two  weeks.  And  then,  if  you  don't  look  out,  you're 
likely  to  run  the  scrap  into  your  foot."  One  boy  who  bored  holes 
in  shovd  handles  averaged  |i.$o  a  day.  Others  on  lighter  work 
made  $1.10  to  $1.30.  The  day  was  of  ten  hours  with  no  night 
work.  One  boy  of  fourteen  had  been  at  work  for  two  years.  He 
had  started  packing  hammers  for  }i  .00  a  day,  then  went  to  a  glass 
factory  as  "sticking-up"  boy  for  a  few  months,  and  returned  to 
the  shovel  works,  where  he  was  found  painting  picks — a  process 
that  delays  the  rusting  of  the  metal — for  }i.40  to  f  1.50  a  day. 
A  boy  who  was  quick  and  alert  could  advance  to  the  rate  of  wages 
paid  unskilled  men  in  a  shorter  time  than  he  could  in  most  of  the 
other  nearby  factories.  He  could  not,  however,  advance  much  be- 
yond this  point.  The  advantage  of  day  employment  was  bal- 
anced by  the  tendency  to  overtime,  and  although  the  boys  were  in 
little  danger  of  grave  injury,  they  ran  the  risk  of  frequent  cuts  and 
blisters.  Burned  fingers  were  of  daily  occurrence  in  the  depart- 
ment where  boys  heated  iron  for  the  bolt  makers.  Some  of  the 
work,  especially  the  punching  and  boring,  was  too  heavy  for  chil- 
dren, and  it  may  be  questioned  whether  all  under  sixteen  should 
not  be  prohibited  from  operating  a  machine  which  may  involve 
the  loss  of  a  finger  as  well  as  from  operating  one  which  may  in- 
volve the  loss  of  life.  It  is  to  the  interest  of  the  community  that 
its  children  reach  maturity  whole. 

Personal  dangers  to  minors  were  even  more  serious  in  the 
tube  mill  (Spang,  Chalfant  and  Company)  where  Sharpsburg  and 
Etna  meet.  When  all  departments  were  in  operation,  236  men 
and  boys  were  employed,  boys  as  well  as  men  working  day  turn  and 
night  turn: 

The  17  Sharpsburg  boys  whom  we  found  working  there  all 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

had  certificates,  and  only  two  were  under  fourteen.  Three  were 
sixteen,  and  the  others  between  fourteen  and  sixteen.  They  were 
earning  frtun  90  cents  to  ft  .35  a  day,  and  in  some  cases,  when  they 
could  do  heavy  work,  $1.50.    The  hours  were: 

Day  turn,  7  a.  m.  to  la  m. — 12:30  to  6  p.  m.  (loH  hours) 

Night  turn,  6  p.  m.  to  12  p.  m. — 12:30  a.  m.  to  6  a.  m.  (11^  hours) 

Here,  too,  the  boys  worked  day  turn  and  night  turn  alternate  weeks. 
Boys  were  employed  in  "belling"  or  "putting-on"  in  the  butt-weld 
process.  Before  the  pipe  left  the  furnace  a  boy  placed  at  the  fur- 
nace mouth  a  bell-shaped  ring.  As  the  skelp  passed  through  the 
funnel  of  the  ball,  its  sides  were  welded  together  into  a  pipe.  The 
"running-hook"  boys  attached  the  pipe  to  2  traveling  chain  which 
carried  it  from  the  furnace  door  to  a  table  where  it  cooled.  Boys 
handled  only  the  smaller  pipes,  three-quarters  of  an  inch  to  two 
inches  in  diameter.  Other  boys  "  tended  rack";  that  is,  operated 
the  lever  by  which  the  cooled  pipe  was  let  down  to  the  pile.  The 
boys  were  seldom  kept  steadily  at  one  kind  of  work. 

Probably  the  most  fatiguing  job  was  "  running  hook,"  for 
here  they  were  hurried  along  unceasingly  by  the  traveling  chain. 
"  It's  on  the  three-quarters  inch  pipe,"  said  a  mill  man,  "that  the 
boys  have  to  run.  You'd  wonder  that  anybody  could  run  so  fast. 
Men  aren't  agile  enough  to  do  the  boys'  work  well.  Besides,  if 
we  put  men  on,  we'd  have  to  pay  them  laborers'  wages.  We  get 
the  boys  for  a  good  bit  less.  We  never  have  any  shortage  of  boys; 
they  like  to  work  here." 

Both  belling  and  running  hook  are  dangerous,  as  more  than 
one  mill  boy  had  learned  to  his  cost.  An  Italian  boy,  thirteen 
years  old,  who  had  never  been  in  school,  worked  "on  the  hook"  at 
the  tube  mill  at  the  time  of  my  stay  in  Sharpsburg.  The  summer 
before  his  arm  had  been  so  badly  burned  f  nun  a  white-hot  pipe  that 
he  had  had  to  stop  work  for  several  days.  Whoever  was  at  fault 
for  the  accident,  the  child  had  received  no  pay  while  he  was  laid 
off.  One  boy  had  recently  lost  his  leg  while  doing  this  kind  of 
work,  and  another  had  had  his  foot  crushed.  Many  had  had 
fingers  cut  off  and  had  received  other  minor  injuries. 

"  Do  you  have  people  hurt  here  every  day?"  an  employe  of 
the  mill  was  asked.  "Every  day,"  he  answered.  "Sometimes 
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sharpsburg:  a  waste  of  childhood 

five  or  six.  Of  course  if  the  accident  is  a  bad  one  I  send  for  the 
doctor,  but  it's  many  a  doctor's  bill  I've  saved  the  company  by 
tending  the  men." 

The  Homestead  Messenger  for  September  12,  1907,  gave  the 
following: 

Joseph  Brosski.  307  Powers  Alley,  Sharpsburg;  aged  14; 

tube  mill;  disemboweled  September  11,  1907;  died  at  Allegheny 

General  Hospital.     He  was  worker  at  one  of  the  rolls;  in  some  way 

the  hook  turned  around,  the  point  catching  him  in  the  abdomen. 

A  witness  said  "You  never  can  tell  how  these  accidents 

happen — it  is  so  quick  that  nobody  knows."    This  was  the  second 

case  of  a  boy's  being  killed  "  running  hook"  within  the  memory 

of  boys  then  in  the  company's  employ.*    Was  it  an  equitable 

contract  between  tube  company  and  boy  of  fourteen  that  the  latter 

assumed  the  risk  of  permanent  injury  or  loss  of  life  as  a  condition 

of  earning  his  daily  wageF 

The  Glass-houses 

It  has  been  from  the  glass-houses  of  Pennsylvania  that  the 
greatest  demand  has  come  for  child  workers;  about  them  our  chief 
interest  centered  in  Sharpsburg.  From  glass  blowers  and  glass 
manufacturers  came  the  strongest  opposition  to  the  child  labor 
bill  proposed  in  the  legislature  of  1907,  and  through  their  influence 
was  inserted  the  clause  in  the  law  of  J905  (which  still  stands)  that 
boys  under  sixteen  might  work  at  night  when  necessary  to  prevent 
waste  or  destruction  of  material. 

At  the  extreme  end  of  the  town,  occupying  ground  from  Main 
Street  down  to  the  waste  land  at  the  edge  of  the  river,  was  Tibby  Brothers, 
one  of  the  few  glass  bottle  factories  where  the  "pot"  system  instead  of 
the  "continuous  tank"  was  still  in  use.  There  was  no  night  shift  here, 
butestimatinganaverageof  three  men  and  six  boys  to  a  "shop,"  the  plant 
called  for  300  hands  (iss  of  them  boys).  The  work  was  annually  inter- 
rupted not  only  by  summer  heat  but  by  floods  from  the  river.  In  con- 
trast, on  high  ground  and  with  a  tank  system  which  called  for  day  and 
night  shifts  to  run  it,  the  plant  of  the  H.  J.  Heinz  Class  Company  was  repre- 
sentative of  the  modem  plant  with  its  continuous  operation.  Moreover, 
as  the  same  kind  of  bottles  were  made  here  week  after  week,  the  workmen 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

devdoped  a  highly  specialized  skill  and  great  rapidity  in  manipalatioa, 
impossible  in  factories  in  which  orders  are  taken  for  many  varieties  of  ware. 
This  factory  had  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  best  equipped  in  (be 
state;  about  40  men  with  80  boys  to  help  them  were  employed  on  its 
double  shift.  At  Clenshaw,  three  miles  out  from  Sharpsburg,  a  third 
bottle  factory  employed  seven  Sharpsburg  boys. 

The  three  bottle  factories  at  the  time  of  this  investigation 
had  altogether  about  270  boys'  jobs.  Some  of  these  jobs  were  hdd 
by  young  men  waiting  for  a  chance  to  begin  their  apprenticeship, 
and  fully  half  by  boys  from  Etna  or  the  Pittsburgh  side.  From  a 
case  investigation  of  97  Sharpsburg  boys  employed  in  the  ^ass- 
houses  in  1908,  and  from  statements  made  by  glass  blowers  and 
oAictals  at  each  plant,  the  data  which  follaw  were  obtained.* 

Twenty-one  of  these  boys  were  sixteen  years  old;  but  four  of 
them  had  begun  work  in  the  glass-house  at  fourteen  years,  eight 
at  thirteen,  eight  at  twelve,  one  at  eleven.  Of  the  76  boys  under 
sixteen  years  of  age  who  were  at  work  in  the  glass-houses,  30  were 
under  fourteen;  and  of  these  30,  13  were  thirteen  years  of  age, 
eight  were  twelve,  eight  were  eleven,  one  was  ten.  Of  the  46 
remaining  boys  (those  fourteen  and  fifteen  years  of  age),  nearly  all 
had  begun  work  in  the  glass-houses  before  they  had  reached  the 
age  required  by  law.  Four  began  at  fourteen  years  of  age,  31  at 
thirteen,  1 1  at  twelve,  three  at  ten,  two  at  eight,  while  of  five  the 
age  at  beginning  work  could  not  be  ascertained. 

Certificates  for  minors  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  were 
on  the  whole  carelessly  kept  by  the  employers.  Their  registers  of 
boys'  addresses  were  incomplete,  sometimes  even  those  of  their 
names.  The  boys  were  known  in  a  general  way  to  the  men,  but  if 
one  was  absent  his  place  was  immediately  filled.  He  was  not  sent 
for  unless  the  supply  of  younger  brothers  and  loungers  about  the 
factory  failed.  The  boys  themselves  felt  no  stability  in  the  tenure 
of  their  positions,  but  had  a  marked  tendency  to  drift  from  one 
glass-house  to  another,  from  glass-house  to  mill,  back  to  glass- 
house, then  to  shovel  works  or  mill  again.  Some  did  not  work 
more  than  three  or  four  days  a  week,  and  children  still  in  school 
were  sent  by  their  mothers  to  the  glass-houses  Friday  nights  or 
Saturday  mornings  to  fill  the  places  of  absent  boys. 

•  In  each  case  stalemenis  of  parenis  and  neighbors  were  compared  with  the 
school  record  and  with  other  documentary  proof  where  obtainable. 

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Holding  Molds 
The  boy  al  th«  right  wai  iweke  years  old  and  had  not  been  to  school  for  two  years 


D,„i,z,d,  Google 


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SHARPSBURC:    A  WASTE  OF  CHILDHOOD 

Robert  B.,  for  instance,  eleven  years  old,  had  worked  nearly  every 
Friday  and  Saturday  for  a  year  past,  and  said  that  30  others  from  his  class 
were  doing  the  same.  None  of  these  boys  had  certificates.  One  Polish 
woman  from  the  Twelfth  Street  district  said  frankly  that  her  boy  was  ten 
years  old.  She  had  never  heard  of  a  certificate  or  legal  working  age.  She 
only  knew  that  "the  boss  from 's  came  after  him."  Chariie  L,  thir- 
teen, a  "sticking-up"  boy,  was  one  of  the  older  sons  in  a  family  of  nine; 
he  had  stopped  school  in  grade  one.  and  had  worked  seven  yeare.  John 
v..  twelve  years  old,  an  Italian  boy  who  lived  in  a  rear  house  in  Glass- 
House  Row,  had  been  working  in  the  adjoining  factory  for  a  year.  His 
mother  had  taken  him  to  the  squire  to  get  his  certificate,  which  the  squire 
refused,  saying,  "You  know  that  boy  isn't  fourteen.  Now  if  you  don't 
put  him  back  in  school,  I'll  prosecute  you."  The  result  was  that  John 
worked  without  a  certificate  instead  of  with  one. 

One  manager  said,  "Why,  you  talk  about  these  little  Italian 
chaps;  they're  the  brightest  fellows  I  have.  One  came  here  the 
other  day  who  couldn't  write  his  name,  and  1  told  him  he'd  have 
to  leam  how  or  the  factory  inspector  would  turn  him  out.  Well, 
if  he  didn't  go  home  and  practice  over  night,  and  the  next  morning 
he  could  write  his  name  well  enough  to  pass  anywhere." 

It  is  easy  to  understand  the  lure  of  glass  works,  the  unde- 
finable  magic  that  chains  to  the  «itrance-way  groups  of  small 
boys  who  have  failed  to  be  taken  on.  The  molten  wax-like  glass  in 
the  furnace,  the  skilful  twist  and  turn  which  prepares  the  embry- 
onic bottle  for  the  mold,  the  speed  with  which  the  wax  bubble  is 
made  a  thing  of  use,  the  white  light,  red  glare,  and  shifting  shadow, 
the  dexterity  of  the  bare-armed  men,  combine  to  cast  a  spell  over 
the  gaping  youngsters  and  to  arouse  a  compelling  belief  in  the 
efficiency  and  commercial  success  of  the  glass  blower. 

The  work  done  by  the  boys  is  monotonous  but  not  continually 
hard.  Six  boys  usually  belong  to  each  "shop,"  or  group  of  three 
men;  "cleaning-off"  boys  to  stand  by  the  gatherer  and  clean  the 
end  of  the  blow-pipe  after  the  bottle  has  been  left  in  the  mold;  a 
"mold"  boy  to  open  and  close  the  molds  for  the  blower;  "sticking- 
up"  boys  to  reheat  the  neck  of  the  bottle  before  it  is  finished;  and 
a  "  carry-in  "  boy  to  take  the  shaped  ware  to  the  lehr  for  tempering. 
The  only  heavy  work  is  done  by  carry-in  boys  who,  as  3  rule,  are 
(dder  than  the  others.  They  carry  trays  of  bottles  constantly 
from  finisher's  table  to  lehr.  The  other  boys  stand  or  sit  near  the 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

ovens.    One  factory  which  had  a  regular  system  erf  pTcmotkHi 
paid  its  boys  according  to  the  following  scale: 

Spare  boys  (doing  odd  job*) fojj  a  diy 

Slkking^p  boys  7S  a  day 

Oeaning-off  boys  90  I  day 

M6I6  boyi 9J  a  day 

Carry-in  boys i.)j  a  day 

This  scale  varied  slightly  in  the  other  factories,  oneof  which 
paid  its  cleaning-off  boys  only  7$  cents,  but  its  mold  boys  }i .  1 2,  and 
its  carry-in  boys|i.io  toli.75  a  day.  The  other  paid  its  carry-in 
boys  $1.00  to  $1.25  according  to  the  size  of  the  ware,  and  its  mold 
boys  8;  cents  to  |i.oo.  It  had  become  a  custom  to  pay  ;o  cents 
extra  every  two  weeks  to  boys  who  worked  well  and  missed  no 
time.  This  extra  money  was  put  into  a  separate  envelope,  so 
that  the  boys  did  not  need  to  hand  it  over  to  their  parents. 

As  the  three  glass-houses  were  union  shops,  the  hours  were 
essentially  the  same  in  all: 

Day  turn:  7  a.m.  to  10  a.  m.;  10:15  a.  m,  to  1 3  m. ;  1  p.  m.  to  s  p.m. 
Night  turn:   ;  p.  m.  to8  p.  m.;  8:1;  p.  m.  to  ii:)op.  m.;    isp.m-lo 
3:30  a.  m. 

In  the  two  continuous  tank  factories,  each  boy  had  day  and 
night  turn  alternate  weeks,  and  consequently  each  week  he  was 
obliged  to  make  a  change  in  his  habits  of  eating  and  sleeping- 
Here  where  the  average  age  was  so  much  lower  than  in  the  irwi 
mill,  the  requirement  of  day  and  night  work  was  even  more  in- 
jurious. The  change  from  the  heat  of  the  furnaces  to  the  chilly 
night  air  outside  was  almost  sure  to  affect  constitutions  which  had 
not  yet  developed  much  physical  resistance. 

In  July,  1907,  at  the  age  of  fourteen.  Willie  App  died  of  rheumatism 
of  the  heart.  He  had  worked  in  a  Sharpsburg  glass-house  on  alternate 
day  and  night  turns  for  a  year  and  a  half.  During  his  illness  of  several 
months  he  had  continued  to  work  intermittently  until  his  strength  utteriy 
failed.  While  his  death  may  not  have  been  due  wholly  to  the  conditiooi 
of  his  work,  his  physician  was  confident  that  it  was  hastened  by  them. 

Two  Sharpsburg  physicians  who  had  had  experience  with 
glass-house  boys  stated  that  all  of  them,  when  put  to  work  eariy> 
became  pale,  anemic,  undersized,  and  stunted  in  development. 
It  was  significant  that  only  five  of  the  97  boys  were  glass  blowers' 


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sharpsburg:  a  waste  of  childhood 

children.  The  evils  of  this  night  work  were  intensified  when  boys 
worked  double  turn,  as  they  sometimes  did  to  earn  more  money. 
"A  good  many  boys  hang  around  after  day  tum,"  said  one  of  the 
old  hands,  "and  will  do  night  tum  too  if  they  get  the  chance." 

It  is  curious  that  parents  should  have  considered  the  glass- 
house the  alternative  for  boys  who  for  different  reasons  were 
unable  to  go  to  school. 

Headaches  and  dim  sight  sufficed  to  take  Roy  H away  from 

his  studies  at  eleven  years  of  age,  and  the  family  council  had  put  him  into 
the  glass>house.  When  his  courage  gave  out  because  the  other  boys  tor- 
mented him,  he  tried  study  again  for  awhile  and  reached  grade  six.  Then 
he  left  altogether  and  for  an  entire  year  had  been  holding  molds.  He  had 
ceased  to  be  able  to  read,  but  bis  family  had  never  had  his  eyes  examined 
nor  done  anything  except  put  him  to  work. 

Ralph  and  Louis  Carracotta  were  two  slight  oval-faced  Italian 
boys,  thirteen  and  fourteen  years  of  age,  who  had  been  working  as  "stick- 
ing-up"  boys  for  two  years.  Both  were  feeble-minded.  Their  father 
was  a  laborer  of  rather  low  grade,  and  a  third  child  in  the  family  was  also 
defective.  The  parents  believed  that  as  the  boys  were  unable  to  learn 
anything  in  school  they  must  choose  the  glass-house. 

Frank  S.,  fifteen  years  old.  had  had  epilepsy  since  he  was  ten.  He 
was  working  as  a  mdd  boy.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  the  physician  had  or- 
dered him  to  leave  schod,  and  he  was  immediately  put  to  work.  When 
his  mother  was  questioned  as  to  possible  danger  to  the  boy  if  he  should 
have  seizures  while  at  work,  she  replied,  "Oh,  the  men  look  after  him  and 
see  that  he  doesn't  hurt  himsdf." 

Aside  from  the  fact  that  small  boys  are  demanded  by  the 
glass-houses,  the  most  serious  count  against  the  work  itself  is  the 
weekly  schedule  in  the  continuous  plants.  "  Is  it  good,  do  you 
think,  for  boys  to  have  alternate  day  and  night  turn?"  a  manager 
was  asked.  He  shrugged  his  shoulders,  "Well,  what  are  we  going 
to  do  about  it?  we  can't  waste  the  glass."  This  change  in  hours  is 
perhaps  in  part  responsible  for  the  restless,  unreliable  disposition 
of  many  of  the  glass-house  boys.  One  must  be  strong  to  stand 
extremes  of  heat  or  cold;  one  must  be  both  strong  and  mature  to 
stand  such  extremes  and  the  added  strain  of  interrupted  habits  of 
sleep.  For  two  months  in  the  summer  the  glass-houses  are  shut 
down  and  this  period  gives  a  further  impetus  to  the  boys'  tendency 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

to  drift.  Some  remain  idle,  and  are  more  irregular  in  their  work 
when  they  return  to  it,  others  find  positions  elsewhere,  and  the 
ability  to  do  this  increases  their  irresponsibility. 

One  boy  of  seventeen  had  worked  at  intervals  for  five  years  in  a 
glass-house.  He  had  gone  to  a  parochial  school  for  awhile,  but  had  never 
got  beyond  one  of  the  lower  grades,  and  at  seventeen  he  was  still  cleaning- 
off  boy  at  90  cents  a  day.  When  he  was  not  in  the  glass-house  or  loafing 
he  drove  a  wagon  for  his  uncle.  "  He'll  never  amount  to  anything,"  the 
men  said  of  him.     "  He's  no  good." 

John  C was  fifteen.     He  had  first  gone  to  the  parochial  school, 

then  to  the  public  school  as  far  as  grade  two.  At  the  age  of  eight  he  had 
gone  to  work  first  in  one  glass-house,  then  in  another;  then  in  a  shovel 
factory,  and  again  in  a  glass-house.  "He's  a  hard  one,"  the  clerk  said; 
"he's  learned  it  all  in  his  fifteen  years."  Then  generalizing,  "The  boys 
work  for  two  or  three  days,  then  loaf;  then  come  back  and  work  awhile. 
Friday  night  half  the  boys  don't  go  home  at  all;  they  hang  around  until 
the  next  morning.  What  becomes  of  them,  do  you  say,  by  the  time  they 
are  twenty-two  or  twenty-three?  The  workhouse.  They  are  no  good  to 
us  any  more.  Why,  I've  seen  some  boys  led  up  to  the  factory  door  by 
their  mothers,  who  wanted  the  money  most  likely,  and  as  soon  as  their 
mothers  had  gone,  out  they'd  go  by  the  other  door.  After  a  few  years  of 
this  they  don't  care  anything  about  their  homes.  They're  ready  to  tell 
their  people  to  go  to  hell." 

Beyond  all  this,  glass-house  work  offers  a  boy  slight  chance 
for  apprenticeship.  In  other  industries  the  prospect  of  a  trade 
is  often  enough  to  keep  a  boy  steady  and  reliable.  The  glass  bottle 
blowers'  union  allows  one  apprentice  to  10  journeymen;  but  in 
each  glass-house  there  are  two  boys  for  every  man.  Sometimes 
the  hope  of  learning  the  trade  is  held  out  to  keep  boys  at  work. 

One  boy  had  been  promised  the  next  vacancy  if  he  would  not  go 
out  on  strike  with  the  others.  He  was  eighteen  when  1  talked  with  him, 
still  a  carry-in  boy,  and  had  been  working  in  the  glass-house  nine  years. 
He  thought  that  he  might  become  an  apprentice  during  the  following 
year;  he  would  then  be  obliged  to  work  forty-five  months  on  half  pay 
before  he  would  be  allowed  to  become  a  glass-blower. 

A  young  man  had  worked  from  the  age  of  eight  to  twenty-six  before 
he  had  been  apprenticed.  Two  other  youths,  John  W.,  twenty-one  years 
old,  and  Prank  W.,  eighteen,  had  worked  for  nine  years  and  were  still 
earning  but  9$  cents  a  day. 

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sharpsburg:  a  waste  of  childhood 

Not  many  will  work  so  long  at  boys'  wages  when  they  might 
go  into  another  sort  of  factory  and  earn  men's.  When  the  pros- 
pect of  learning  the  trade,  the  one  thing  which  might  have  a  steady- 
ing effect,  is  so  slight,  clearly  unwholesome  influences  have  free 
rein. 

Thus,  not  only  the  physical  effect  of  child  labor,  but  its  de- 
flection of  the  years  of  mental  and  social  development  are  to  be 
considered.  Educational  opportunities  lost  are  far-reaching  and 
fundamental.  The  state  bases  its  educational  requirements  upon 
its  own  self-interest,  its  need  that  each  future  citizen  shall  be 
equipped  as  a  producer  of  values  for  the  community.  Only  the 
least  that  is  necessary  to  so  equip  a  citizen  does  the  state  guaran- 
tee. It  requires  all  children  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  four- 
teen to  be  in  school,  presumably  because  no  child  is  equipped  at  an 
earlier  age  to  do  his  share  in  the  world's  work.  Moreover,  it  re- 
quires all  children  who  go  to  work  between  the  ages  of  fourteen 
and  sixteen  to  have  employment  certificates  which  shall  state  their 
ages  and  which  are  not  to  be  issued  unless  they  have  met  the  edu- 
cational test;  that  is,  the  ability  to  read  and  write  in  the  En^ish 
language.  While  it  does  not  compel  further  schooling  in  the  case 
of  the  fourteen-year-old  boy  who  can  reach  this  standard  set  by 
the  state,  in  the  case  of  the  boy  between  fourteen  and  sixteen  who 
can  not,  it  commands  extension  of  the  training  period  until  his 
sixteenth  year.  A  native-bom  child  of  normal  mentality  would 
reach  the  seventh  or  eighth  grade  at  fourteen  years.  This  is  a 
difficult  attainment  for  a  foreign-bom  child,  whose  customs  and 
language  are  different.  Special  training  may  give  him  a  chance 
equal  to  that  of  the  native  child,  but  in  the  absence  of  it,  the  for- 
eign-bom child  lags  far  behind. 

Inquiry  as  to  the  grade  in  school  reached  by  the  177  Sharps- 
burg children  investigated  indicated  that  just  six  had  reached  the 
eighth  grade,  which  presumably  the  state  considers  as  a  reasonable 
education  with  which  to  start  life.  Forty-eight  others  had  reached 
the  sixth  or  seventh  grades  or  their  equivalents,  and  the  rest 
straggjed  along  with  varying  degrees  of  incomplete  training. 
Nineteen  had  never  been  to  school  at  all.  Three  could  neither 
read  nor  write  and  two  were  just  able  to  write  their  names.  Not 
one  had  had  industrial  training  of  any  sort.  Ill-equipped  and 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

prematurely  employed,  these  Sharpsburg  children  were  extrava- 
gant tools  for  the  manufacturers  in  the  community  to  be  u^ng. 
They  could  scarcely  become  either  intelligent  citizens  or  good 
workers,  and  they  failed  on  yet  another  count. 

OF  LErSURE  HOURS 

The  state  has  need  of  citizens,  not  for  ten  hours  or  twelve 
hours,  but  for  twenty-four.  It  is  in  the  use  made  of  leisure  hours 
that  the  community  is  most  defmitely  creative,  that  the  perma- 
nent content  of  its  life  is  most  enriched.  By  the  use  which  a 
group  of  workers  make  of  their  leisure,  may  their  training,  equip- 
ment, and  industrial  life  be  appraised. 

Sharpsburg  in  its  uneven  growth  has  emphasized  not  leisure 
but  work.  After  work  was  over  for  the  day — or  night — what  did 
the  town  offer  for  the  recreation  of  the  young  boys  and  girls  who 
were  contributing  to  its  prosperity? 

The  eight  Protestant  churches  depended  upon  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  as  a  social  center.  One  church  had  a 
club  room  of  its  own  for  purely  social  purposes,  and  all  members  of 
the  club  were  expected  to  attend  meetings  for  religious  instruction. 
G)urses  in  the  night  school  of  the  association — reading,  spelling, 
arithmetic,  stenography,  mechanical  drawing — were  open  to  pay 
members,*  but  cost  extra.  Non-members  were  admitted  to  the 
reading  room,  which  was  welt  stocked  with  periodicals,  but  not  to 
other  social  rooms  or  to  the  gymnasium.  The  majority  of  the 
younger  members  either  attended  school  or  were  employed  in 
offices  during  the  day.  The  street  boys  and  the  mill  boys  were  not 
reached.  Immigrants  had  been  kept  out  of  the  association  be- 
cause of  the  prejudice  of  members  and  directors  against  them. 
A  class  for  teaching  English  to  Italians  was,  however,  conducted  by 
one  of  the  Protestant  churches.  The  two  largest  Catholic  churches 
made  some  provision  for  the  young  men  of  their  parish;  one  con- 
ducted a  literary  society  in  a  small  frame  building,  the  other,  club 
rooms  in  the  basement  of  its  school.  In  both  cases  a  monthly  fee 
was  charged.     Both  had  reading  rooms  and  one  a  billiard  room 

*  Jkt  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  cl»rged  an  initiation  fee  of  ta.oo 
to  all,  and  annual  dues  of  }3.oo  to  juniors  (bovs  between  nine  and  fifteen).  In- 
termediates (boys  between  fifteen  and  eighteen)  and  seniois  (boys  above  eighteen) 
were  charged  f  t-oo  annual  dues. 


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a  Conditions.  Sharpsbukc 

streets.    Cetilral  privy  vaults  used  by  Tamilies  iti  both 


A  CLASS-MoiisE  Boy's  Home 
s  Polish,  thirteen  years  old,  1*0  yea 


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As  THE  Mill  Sees  the  Town 
H  from  interior  of  mill  yard,  upon  main  street 


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SHARPSBURC:     A    WASTE    OF   CHILDHOOD 

and  shower  baths;  but  in  neither  place  was  there  a  gymnasium 
nor  provision  for  wholesome  class  work.  In  the  autumn  of  1907 
the  public  school  had  opened  a  free  night  school  with  elementary 
courses,  but  it  was  so  poorly  attended  that  after  a  month  the 
attempt  was  given  up. 

Thus,  Sharpsburg  in  1908  had  no  club  life  dissociated  from 
religious  organizations,  no  free  night  schod,  no  public  library,  and 
no  playground.  "We  don't  need  any  library,"  said  a  prominent 
citizen,  "  the  people  all  have  libraries  in  their  own  homes.  They 
wouldn't  take  a  library  if  it  were  offered  to  them."  The  one  play- 
ground, formeriy  used  by  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
had  been  leased  for  business  purposes.  "The  children  do  not 
need  one,"  it  was  said.  "They  have  the  streets  and  the  side  of  the 
hill."  The  side  of  the  hill  was  often  too  muddy  for  use,  but  it  is 
true  that  they  had  the  streets,  and  on  the  streets  were  14  bar- 
rooms, four  poolrooms,  two  nickelodeons,  and  a  public  skating 
rink.  This  made  up  the  sum  of  the  town's  attractions.  In  one 
nickelodeon  the  performance  was  confined  to  a  rather  dreary  suc- 
cession of  moving  pictures,  shown  by  a  glaring  light.  In  the  other, 
the  pictures  were  varied  with  vaudeville  acts  and  dialogue  coarse 
almost  to  the  point  of  obscenity.  The  roller-skating  rink  afforded 
the  one  opportunity  for  meeting  together  in  pleasurable  activity, 
but  to  the  casual  observer  its  crowded  room  and  close  atmosphere 
seemed  to  offer  stimulation  to  nerves  already  excited,  rather  than 
to  give  relaxation  and  healthful  enjoyment. 

Child  labor  grows  in  significance  as  we  realize  that  this 
barren  life  is  its  connotation.  That  physical  development  should 
be  checked  is  bad.  Far  worse  is  the  waste  of  a  child's  faculties 
which  strips  him  to  mental  and  emotional  poverty.  After  un- 
schooled children  had  been  given  to  the  use  of  manufacturers,  and 
eight  or  ten  hours  of  furnace  flame  had  licked  dry  their  creative 
powers,  they  were  not  even  given  a  fair  choice  of  spending  their 
unoccupied  hours  well  or  ill.  For  the  town  to  leave  unrepaired 
its  broken-down  scheme  of  compulsory  schooling  was  scarcely  less 
destructive  than  for  it  to  fail  to  make  good  to  these  unschooled 
children  some  of  the  educational  opportunities  which  their  early 
working  age  had  denied  them;  or  to  fail  to  meet  the  need  for 
trade  training  in  ways  which  should  be  confined  not  to  the  children 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

who  already  had  had  a  common  school  education,  but  should  be 
thrown  open  to  children  whose  school  instruction  had  beoi  meager 
and  irregular,  and  who  from  unskilled  boys  would  grow  up  to  be 
unskilled  men.  To  reach  these  boys  there  was  need  too  of  a 
social  center  beyond  the  influences  of  the  streets,  unassociated 
with  vice  on  the  one  hand,  and  with  religious  instruction  on  the 
other,  which  should  aim  at  physical  and  mental  invigonttion 
through  congregate  work  and  play.  That  so  many  boys  had  alter- 
nate weeks  of  day  and  night  work  made  the  problem  of  meeting 
this  need  more  difficult  of  solution  but  not  impossible. 

The  leading  officials  of  Sharpsburg — magistrates,  members  of 
the  borough  council — were  well  satisfied  with  the  prosperity  of  the 
town.  They  saw  mills  and  factories  running,  new  churches  being 
built,  an  increasing  supply  of  labor.  They  did  not  feel,  nor  did  the 
churches  and  schools  feel,  that  the  problem  before  Sharpsburg,  as 
before  many  a  community  of  more  imposing  size,  was  whether  or 
not  it  was  willing  to  waste  its  children ;  waste  them  through  neglect 
as  manifested  in  miserable  homes,  lack  of  sanitary  and  medical 
care,  the  dead-ending  of  its  unenforced  educational  scheme  and 
its  dearth  of  free  and  wholesome  means  of  enjoyment;  or  waste 
them  deliberately,  by  requiring  of  its  children  unhealthful  and 
often  dangerous  work,  through  prolonged  and  irregular  hours,  in 
order  to  supply  the  cheap  labor  which  its  industries  demanded. 

For  as  we  have  pictured  Sharpsburg — its  narrow  rectangle  of 
flat  land,  seamed  and  blackened  by  successful  industries;  its  alleys 
crowded  with  hastily  erected,  cheap,  and  ill-planned  dwellings:  its 
children,  by-products,  asides,  of  a  life  intent  on  more  immediate 
returns — as  we  have  summarized  the  effects  of  ill-fitting  laws  and 
unused  opportunities,  this  fact  of  child  labor  stands  out  above  all 
other  facts.  Unto  this  duress  the  community  was  suffering  many 
of  its  little  children  to  come — to  child  labor  in  shop  and  factory, 
child  labor  in  mill  and  glass-house,  to  child  labor  terminating  in 
injury  to  life  or  limb,  or  terminating  in  injury  less  easily  seen  but 
more  terrible — in  a  thwarted  and  incomplete  maturity. 


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IV 

THE  REVERSE  SIDE 


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THE  REVERSE  SIDE 
James  Forbes 

UNDER  the  king's  hearthstone  are  many  cockroaches." 
So  runs  the  old  French  proverb.  The  good  people,  the 
well-to-do,  may  deprecate  the  existence  of  those  half 
outlawed  elements  in  our  American  life  which  compose  what  for 
lack  of  a  better  name  we  call  the  "  underworld  " ;  yet  these  elements 
endure  and  live  on,  like  the  king's  cockroaches,  under  the  reform 
administration  of  a  city  as  well  as  under  its  misrule. 

In  the  underworld  we  have  the  potential  forces  which  control 
and  manage  pool  rooms,  gambling  houses,  disorderly  saloons,  and 
brothels,  which  "fix"  juries,  corrupt  policemen  and  officials  of  the 
city  government,  and  which  repeat  at  city  elections,  voting  early 
and  often  against  "reforms"  of  any  kind. 

The  industrial,  no  less  than  the  civic  life  of  the  community 
is  levied  upon  from  the  same  quarter.  The  underworld  preys 
especially  upon  the  producing  classes.  It  filches  their  earnings 
from  the  wage-earners.  It  recruits  from  them  by  flaunting  the 
allurements  of  vice  and  excitement,  and  the  apparent  offer  of  easy 
money,  all  in  marked  contrast  to  the  heavy  round  of  factory  and 
mill. 

Thus  in  Pittsburgh  the  quick  riches  and  easy  spending  of  the 
successful  in  this  great  tapping  of  wealth  have  attracted  not  only 
the  anti-social,  the  unproductive,  and  the  parasitic,  but  have 
caused  a  constant  drift  of  the  weak  and  the  rebellious  away  from 
the  mills.  Moreover,  large  numbers  of  immigrants,  compelled  to 
submit  during  the  first  years  to  the  hardest  grub  stakes,  are  housed 
in  the  very  districts  relin  quished  to  the  underworid. 

Thus  we  have  a  reverse  side  to  the  picture  of  the  work  and 
prosperity  of  the  city.  For  not  alone  in  splendid  achievement  over 
raw  nature  do  we  read  the  story  of  steel,  and  after  their  kind,  of 
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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

the  lesser  industries.  The  harnessing  of  tremendous  forces  for 
mills  and  road  beds  reduced  the  human  unit  from  its  high  state, 
managers  and  men  alike  becoming  reckless  of  life  itself.  The  toll 
of  industrial  accidents  which  mounted  as  speed  grew  faster  and 
tools  more  huge,  has  shown  this  fact  in  its  most  brutal  fonn.  It 
is  not  surprising  then  that  in  the  community  outside  the  mills, 
where  those  subtler  elements  which  must  be  relied  upon  to  oppose 
frailty  and  wrongdoing  are  at  stake,  there  has  been  a  correspond- 
ing lack  of  appreciation  of  human  values,  of  what  social  waste 
this  undercurrent  of  evil  involves,  or  of  how  to  master  it  other 
than  to  keep  it  under. 

As  in  all  our  cities,  this  problem  of  social  control  has  been 
left  for  the  most  part  in  the  hands  of  the  police. 


I 
THE  POLICE,  AN  ORGANISM 
It  is  foreign  to  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  trace  the  develop- 
ment of  the  police  force  as  a  social  institution.  Its  work  lies  close 
to  crime  and  prostitution  and  violence,  to  political  allegiance,  and 
to  the  shady  practices  of  certain  of  the  so-called  respectable  ele- 
ments in  the  upperworld.  So  circumstanced,  it  has  evolved  a 
caste  which  wields  an  influence  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  numbers. 
Its  principal  manifestations  are  common  to  every  municipality; 
it  has  put  its  mark  on  many  social  and  non-social  usages  and  has 
built  up  a  code  and  traditions  of  its  own.  Its  potentialities  for 
good  or  evil  are  past  reckoning.  Made  up  of  a  fairiy  permanent 
rank  and  file,  it  has  in  each  of  our  cities  been  the  medium  called 
upon  by  changing  administrations  to  carry  out  absolutely  incon- 
sistent policies  of  social  control.  These  policies  have  reflected  the 
various  compromises  between  the  laws  which  state  and  commun- 
ity enact  in  the  open,  and  the  practices  which  they  tolerate  more 
or  less  secretly;  they  have  reflected  the  alternate  ascendancy  in 
political  life  of  types  as  different  as  Roundhead  and  Cavalier; 
they  have  been  bent  to  suit  the  exigencies  of  hypocrisy  and 
cosmopolitanism,  graft,  business,  and  politics.  It  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  the  police  has  found  difficulty  in  carrying  out 
these  divergent  policies  and  that  it  has  been  subject  to  criti- 


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THE  REVERSE  SIDE 

cism  and  suspicion  which  others  have  deserved;  nor  again,  that 
it  has  deserved  such  criticism.  The  political  charlatan  by  his 
extravagances,  his  pettiness,  his  general  lack  of  manliness,  has 
incidentally  done  much  to  crystallize  qualities  among  the  rank 
and  file,  which  in  many  of  our  cities  have  converted  the  men 
into  accessories  to  crime.  Nor  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  the 
police  body  has  contrived  various  forms  of  self-protection  for  its 
members,  or  that  the  men  have  themselves  essayed  at  times  to  play 
the  master.*  Under  an  exceptional  leader,  on  the  other  hand,  and 
when  in  a  reform  administration  they  are  assured  a  square  deal, 
the  better  element  asserts  itself  and  becomes  fairly  efficient.  The 
force  more  often,  however,  presents  a  "dead  wall"  against  reform 
from  without,  and  exhibits  a  certain  regrettable  cynicism  not  only 
toward  changes  in  organization  but  also  toward  efforts  to  remove 
the  sources  of  crime. 

The  traditional  duty  of  the  police  is  the  protection  of  prop- 
erty, and  herein  lies  the  first  test  of  any  police  department. 
In  whatever  city  habitual  offenders  with  deft  fingers  "work" 
unmolested  upon  street  or  railroad  cars,  at  circuses  or  fairs; 
with  nimble  cards  or  oily  tongues  in  bar  or  hotel;  tap  imaginary 
wires  from  race  track  or  pool  room;  "hoist"  goods  from  depart- 
ment stores,  or  with  jimmy  and  dark  lantern  force  entrance  to 
office,  vault,  or  dwelling,  the  premise  may  be  assumed  that  they 
work  upon  a  business  basis  with  the  local  police.  In  the  vernac- 
ular, such  operations  are  "percentage  jobs." 

The  regeneration  of  such  a  police  force  must  come  first  from 
the  top.  Otherwise  the  new  recruits,  though  of  good  quality,  are 
quickly  absorbed  into  the  "system."  It  may  be  remembered 
how  a  former  New  York  police  commissioner,  since  risen  to  high 
estate,  imported  2,000  "sturdy  yeomanry,"  irreverently  styled 
"bushwhackers"  by  the  unregenerate,  from  the  crossroads  and 
hills  of  his  state.  Fresh,  clean,  untainted,  native  bom,  they 
were  to  reform,  reinvigorate  a  police  debauched  by  metropolitan 
vices.    Unfortunately    the    keen    hucksters    of    the   crossroads 

*  It  should  be  stated  that  the  various  bcDclil  societid  which  are  features  of 
the  average  police  organiiation,  and  which  are  often  criticized  as  regrettable  ad- 
junctsof  the  ivitem,  furnish  a  measure  of  protection  to  their  members  at  once  against 
the  intolerable  abuse  imposed  by  scheming  politiciaos  and  the  galling  methods 
of  bureaucrats  posing  as    reformers." 


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WAGE-EASNINC    PITTSBURGH 

soon  demonstrated  that  while  Irishmen  and  Germans  might 
develop  greed,  they  themselves  were  possessed  of  insatiability 
and  of  superior  cunning  besides.  Had  the  department  con- 
tinued to  have  at  its  head  men  of  high  ideals,  the  result  might 
have  been  different. 

Pittsburgh  and  the  Pittsburgh  Force 
The  observance  of  outward  decency  has  always  been  favored 
in  Pittsburgh  and  has  been  brought  about  in  a  measure  through 
the  influence  of  the  strong  church  element  in  this  Scotch-Irish 
community.  For  example,  as  perhaps  in  no  other  American  city, 
Sunday  observance  laws  have  long  been  enforced  on  saloons  and 
hotels.  But  beneath  this  outward  observance  the  powers  that 
prey  early  found  in  Pittsburgh  a  valuable  mine,  to  be  worked  more 
especially  by  those  whose  weapons  were  of  cunning  rather  than  of 
violence.  How  many  "good  things"  were  "pulled  off"  in  the 
old  days,  how  many  "suckers"  were  "trimmed,"  how  many 
thousands  of  souls  ruined,  they  alone  knew.  Then  it  was  that  the 
brothels  paid  large  tribute;  that  a  convention  was  sufficient  excuse 
for  theflocking  to  the  city  of  numbersof  professional  criminals;  that 
gamblers  flourished;  that  Pittsburgh  was  headquarters  of  swindlers 
who  exercised  all  the  known  devices  for  robbing  workingmen. 

The  deep-seated  cravings  of  the  people  for  honesty  were  slow 
to  gather  headway  against  the  various  factions  of  the  Republican 
machine,  and  the  police  force  was  without  other  tenure  of  ofRce 
than  that  assured  by  subservience  to  the  faction  temporarily  in 
power.  The  successful  non-partisan  revolt  of  1905  finally  brought 
to  the  front  men  of  a  new  type  as  heads  not  only  of  the  police,  but 
of  the  other  city  departments,  under  the  leadership  of  an  inde- 
pendent mayor;  and  in  July,  1907,  for  the  first  time  a  stringent 
municipal  civil  service  law  was  adopted.*  Directors,  superintend- 
ents, and  chiefs  of  bureaus  knew  what  was  expected  of  them  and 
the  police  department  under  new  leadership  made  decided  strides 
toward  efficiency  and  self-respect. 

The  Pittsburgh  police  force  constitutes  one  of  the  bureaus  of  the 
city  department  of  public  safety.  In  1907-0811  had  on  its  roster  something 
less  than  a  thousand  men,  and  its  organization  did  not  differ  materially 

'The  character  of  the  municipal  Civil  Service  CommiHion  under  luc- 
cceding  adminiilrationi  has  militated  againti  the  effectivcnesi  of  this  law. 
310 


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THE  REVERSE   SIDE 

from  that  existing  in  cities  of  equal  size.*  The  pay  of  the  higher  officers 
was  less  than  that  received  in  New  York  and  Chicago  for  similar  service, 
and  less  than  men  with  equal  responsibilities  would  receive  in  business 
in  Pittsburgh.  The  pay  of  (3.00  per  day  for  patrolmen  was  less  than  the 
rates  paid  organized  labor  in  the  skilled  trades  in  Pittsburgh,  but  above 
the  average  for  the  larger  body  of  semi-skilled  men  in  the  mills. 

The  civil  service  law  of  1907  gave  to  the  new  administration,!  along 
with  the  good  men,  a  heritage  of  men  worthless  and  incompetent  save 
under  discipline.  A  number  of  the  most  incapable  were  eliminated  and 
the  remainder  felt  in  general  that  they  could  trust  the  administration  to 
do  the  fair  thing  by  them. 

Another  important  step  was  taken  when,  under  the  reform  adminis- 
tration, the  detective  bureau,  which  hitherto  had  been  independent  of  the 
superintendent  of  police,  was  brought  directly  under  his  control.  Scmie 
of  the  plain  clothes  officers  were  good  men  from  the  thief-taker's  stand- 
point; they  knew  a  "gun"  when  they  saw  one  and  would  bring  him  in; 
but  the  significance  of  the  change  was  illustrated  when  Mayor  Guthrie 
had  to  discharge  his  chief  of  detectives  because  he  could  not  or  would  not 
get  evidence  against  a  Sixth  Avenue  establishment  of  common  notoriety. 

Operating  in  the  same  territory  with  the  municipal  police  are  county 
detectives  under  the  direction  of  the  district  attorney's  office,  the  sheriff's 
deputies,  various  private  guards  and  detective  forces  in  the  pay  of  the 
railroad  companies  and  manufacturing  corporations,  and  constables  at- 
tached to  the  various  aldermen's  courts. 

Moreover,  the  local  police  authority  in  any  city  or  town  in  Pennsyi- 

*  In  June  and  July,  191),  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Municipal  Research  in- 
vestigated the  Pittsburgh  department  of  public  safety  as  part  of  its  general  com- 
misHon  (or  the  City  Council.  Iti  report  on  the  bureau  of  police  i)  a  iio-pag« 
document,  dealing  nhaustivelj^  with  the  work  from  the  administrative  standpoint. 
To  overcome  the  disorganization  and  inefiidency  disclosed,  it  recommended  the 
establishment  of  an  adequate  course  of  training  for  recruits  and  the  training  of 
the  present  members  of  the  force,  reorganization  of  the  detective  bureau,  the  in- 
stallation of  complaint,  record  and  filing  division,  a  complete  reorganization  of  the 
system  of  records,  introducing  concise  daily  reports  and  a  centratiiation  of  con- 
trol in  the  oflice  of  the  director.  The  creation  of  a  civilian  aide  to  the  director,  a 
ni^t  court  for  women,  the  elimination  of  children  from  the  magistrate's  courts  and 
the  radical  reform  of  llie  latier,  a  study  of  arrests  for  inebriety,  of  discharged  cases, 
and  of  police  station  lodgings  were  other  recommendations.  A  number  of  ordi- 
nances were  passed  by  Councils  in  line  with  the  report.  A  civilian  aide  appunted 
by  the  new  administration  incoming  toofficein  i9[4,  the  detective  bureau  changed 
into  a  "secret  service."  and  the  Emerson  Company  engaged  to  install  changes.  To 
date(July,  1914)  a  general  rehabilitation  of  training,  administration,  and  service,  is 
still  a  matter  of  the  future.  Excerpts  from  the  report  are  published  in  Appendix 
XXIV.  p.  S16, 

t  The  direct  management  of  the  force  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  man  of 
very  different  makeup  from  a  majority  of  his  predecessors — an  active,  forceful 
IriuinMn,  Thomas  McQuaide,  who  kept  step  with  the  reform  administration  so 
bng  as  it  was  in  power  and  showed  himself  not  incapable  of  appreciating  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  office  in  preventing  crime. 

3'I 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

vania  may  be  re-enforced  in  emergencies  by  state  police,*  and  this  in  turn 
by  the  militia.  The  state  p<^ice  is  made  up  of  four  companies  of  highly 
trained  men,  mounted  and  organized  on  military  lines.  Their  barracks 
are  situated  in  strategic  parts  of  the  state,  and  the  troopen  may  be  found 
patn^ling  the  country  roads  and  co-operating  with  forest,  game,  or  health 
officials.  They  follow  up  individual  offenders  and  are  on  call  as  a  body 
to  suppress  rioting  and  assist  tn  preserving  c»-der  during  labor  disturbances. 
It  is,  however,  with  the  municipal  pirfice  and  with  its  practical 
control  of  the  groups  in  the  social  order  whose  acts  lie  outside  the  conven- 
tions and  sanctions  of  the  times,  that  we  are  principally  concerned. 

Repression  Under  Reform 

In  Pittsburg,  under  the  reform  regime,  habitual  critninals 
were  handled  in  a  way  which  met  satisfactorily  what  we  have  de- 
scribed as  the  first  test  of  a  police  administration.  In  any  city 
the  practical  observer  within  a  few  hours  may  gauge  this  fact 
by  the  presence  or  absence  of  pickpockets  on  the  streets  and  street 
cars.  Not  pickpockets  alone  but  confidence  men,  "knock-out- 
drop"  and  "hold-up"  men,  and  other  professionals  understood, 
when  the  power  of  the  Guthrie  administration  was  at  its  height, 
that  there  was  no  buying  from  officials  protection  that  protected. 
The  amount  of  property  saved  to  residents  and  visitors  was  un- 
doubtedly great;  but  this  saving  was  not  to  be  compared  in  im- 
portance with  the  effect  for  good  upon  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
police  department,  particularly  upon  men  of  the  detective  bureau. 
How  strong  the  pressure  was  upon  the  police  authorities  to  relax, 
how  real  the  strength  of  the  threats,  cajolements,  and  entangling 
devices  of  the  underworld,  only  the  higher  officials  knew. 

The  stopping  of  liquor  selling  in  Pittsburgh  brothels  struck 
commercialized  vicea  blowharderthan  that  of  anynumberof  spec- 
tacular raids,  and  scores  were  closed.  "All  disorderly  houses  off 
the  car  tracks"  was  the  order  given  the  police,  and  these  were 
driven  from  the  streets  where  trolleys  passed  the  doors.  More- 
over, a  large  number  of  the  male  parasites  of  the  industry,  thieves 
themselves  more  often  than  not,  and  responsible  for  training  women 
in  theft  as  well  as  for  prostitution,  were  driven  from  the  city. 
Gambling  houses  and  pool  rooms  were  closed;  the  liquor  law  in 
general  was  strictly  enforced;  bunco  games  in  hotels  were  checked. 


■d^yCoogle 


THE    REVERSE    SIDE 

Systematic  grafting  by  the  police  was  stopped.  Individual  mem- 
bers of  the  force  might  take  their  chances,  but  even  to  the 
crooked  policeman  or  detective,  however  hungry  for  his  "  bit, " 
Pittsburgh  was  "no  good"  and  "dead."    The  town  was  closed. 

Such  was  the  police  situation  as  1  found  it  on  first  coming 
to  Pittsburgh  in  the  summer  of  1907.  The  more  or  less  complete 
elimination  of  graft  from  the  force  during  the  period  studied 
made  it  possible  to  set  off  certain  problems  of  social  control, 
partially  stripped  of  the  element  of  police  corruption  with  which 
they  are  often  confused.  These  problems  are  so  intricate  and 
human  that  it  was  felt  our  understanding  of  a  modem  industrial 
city  would  gain  something  from  fresh  scrutiny  of  the  strata  in 
which  they  lie  embedded.  Hard  and  fast  boundaries  the  under- 
world has  not,  but  different  groups  have  to  a  degree  set  their 
stamp  on  the  habitations  of  men;  on  the  haunts  where  the  sporting 
element  lives  by  its  wits;  on  the  hang-outs  where  the  craftsman  of 
violence  and  burglary  lies  by  or  plans  his  daring;  on  the  common 
lodging  houses  where  the  local  mendicants  and  the  "down  and 
outs"  drag  out  a  miserable  existence;  on  the  brothels  where  vice 
is  to  be  had  for  pay. 

II 

THE  UNDERWORLD 
To  mingle  among  the  "wise  people"  of  the  town, — those 
spurious  wise  with  pallid  or  bloated  faces,  drawn-down  mouths 
and  furtive  eyes;  those  wearers  of  loud  clothes  and  conspicu- 
ous jewelry, — was  to  hear  much  talk  of  "plungers,"  "tips," 
"ringers";  of  "suckers  trimmed,"  "good  things  pulled  off." 
"easy  money,"  "steering,"  "doping,"  and  the  like;  also  more 
confidential  talk  of  "fixing"  and  "politics,"  and  of  the  "sys- 
tem," which,  in  abeyance  for  the  moment,  was  to  come  into  its 
own  again  once  the  accursed  administration*  was  beaten.  With 
alt  this  talk  one  would  find  the  current  setting  continually  toward 

*  It  should  be  noted  that  Council]  remained  antagonistic  to  reform  through' 
out  the  Guthrie  administration;  and  that  the  district  attorney's  office  during  the 
same  period  was  in  the  hands  of  the  machine.  It  was  a  later  district  attorney's 
staff  which,  in  conjunction  with  the  Voters'  League,  exposed  the  wholesale  council* 
manic  graft  throughout  this  period. 

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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

certain  names  which  for  the  time  stood  in  somewhat  the  same 
relation  to  the  anti-social  forces  of  Pittsburgh  as  have  the  Sullivans 
in  Manhattan. 

Such  a  name  was  that  of  A ,  sUght  inquiry  as  to  whose 

antecedents  revealed  the  fact  that  he  was  not  always  "in  strong" 
at  the  district  attorney's  office,  nor  a  feared  and  controlling 
power.  Some  years  before  he  had  been  so  unfortunate  as  to  be 
caught  in  running  a  crooked  foot  race  and  had  served  his  sentence. 
His  photograph  and  measurements  were  taken  for  the  Rogue's 
Gallery,  but  photograph  and  negative  had  long  since  disappeared. 
A  gambling  house  of  his  in  a  suburb  of  Pittsburgh  had  been  closed 
under  the  reform  regime,  after  which  it  was  generally  understood 
that  he  was  convinced  that  a  change  of  administration  for  the  city 
was  essential. 

Associated  with  A  in  the  public  eye  was  B ,  also  an 

ex-convict  and  said  by  many  to  be  superior  to  him  in  brains  and 
cunning.  Both  men  had  long  since  discarded  the  clumsy  anti- 
social methods  which  earlier  had  brought  them  to  the  penitentiary. 
A  posed  as  a  real  estate  man;  B  operated  a  small  factory. 

Pittsburgh  papers  in  May,  1907,  were  full  of  an  alleged  "trimming" 
of  an  Ohb  banker  for  a  sum  amounting  to  about  fioo.ooo.    This  banker 

charged  that  B.C ,  and  D— -invci^ed  him  to  New  York  where  they 

induced  him  to  take  part  in  a  bunco  card  game,  of  the  type  in  which  the 
dealer  pretends  to  be  "sore"  at  the  syndicate  and  willing  to  manipulate 
the  cards  so  that  "suckers"  can  win  large  sums  from  his  associates.  Such 
operators  are  known  in  criminal  parlance  as  "sure  thing  men,"  as 
they  are  generally  assured  of  their  own  subsequent  immunity  from  arrest 
because  the  victims  are  disinclined  to  advertise  their  part  in  open  court. 

In  this  case  the  grand  jury  ignored  the  bill  charging  conspiracy  to 
defraud;  it  was  sent  back  by  the  district  attorney  and  a  second  time 
ignored;  important  witnesses  for  the  prosecution  were  not  heard  by  the 
jury  and  there  were  other  ear-marks  of  a  "fixed"  case.  Up  to  the  date 
of  our  study  no  action  had  been  taken  by  grand  juries. 

A  parallel  to  this  case  was  the  alleged  swindling  of  a  victim  described 

as  a  wealthy  oil  operator,  of  a  large  sum  by  the  same  gang  at  the  same 

game.     In  this   affair  also  they  escaped  justice.    Like  the  Marietta 

banker,  who  was  "trimmed"  in  a  Columbus  Avenue  establishment  in 

t,  the  oil  operator  was  taken  to  New  York,  which  has  long  been 

asthe"tuming  joint"  for  similar  swindles, — notably  the  type 

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THE   REVERSE   SIDE 

which  the  New  York  Sun  dubbed  "wireless  wire  tapping."  For  a  long 
time  the  cwnplaints  of  victims,  either  to  police  magistrates  or  to 
higher  officials,  were  in  vain.  The  master  criminals  in  New  York  had 
affiliations  that  could  secure  safety  for  the  out-of-town  operators.  It 
remained  for  District  Attorney  Jerome  to  secure  the  conviction  of "  Larry  " 
Summerfield  and  other  members  of  his  band  following  their  longtime 
operations  in  this  sphere.  That  no  attempt  was  made  to  "turn"  these 
"tricks"  in  Pittsburgh  is  significant.  The  fact  that  the  thing  was  done 
in  New  York  at  heavy  outlay  for  expenses,  and  that  further  division 
of  the  plunder  with  New  York  swindlers  was  considered  necessary  by 
the  Pittsburgh  conspirators,  shows  that  they  were  unable  to  do  busi- 
ness at  the  time  with  the  Pittsburgh  police. 

In  a  somewhat  different  category  than  A  and  B  should 

be  named  "Buck"  E ,  the  son  of  a  mill  worker,  who  was 

himself  in  boyhood  employed  in  the  mills,  was  later  "capper"  for 
gamblers,  then  saloon  keeper,  and  finally  business  agent  of  the 
underworld,  ready  to  negotiate  with  any  official  or  administration 
willing  to  make  a  deal. 

Prominent  also  among  the  many  organisers  of  anti-social 
forces  in  Pittsburgh,  and  operating  in  a  kindred  field,  may  be 

mentioned  two  ex-councilmen;  F of  the  old  seventh  ward, 

known  among  the  brothel  keepers  as  "King  of  Second  Avenue" 

or  "Maxey  the  Fixer,"  and  G ,  at  one  time  alderman  of  the 

eighth.  The  latter  was  generally  recognized  in  the  Pittsburgh 
tenderloin  as  the  principal  broker  in  a  certain  class  of  properties 
located  in  that  section,  as  a  go-between  in  cases  when  owners  or 
managers  ran  foul  of  the  law,  and  as  usurer  at  high  rates  of  interest 
in  the  not  uncommon  event  of  the  negotiation  of  loans  by  their 
keepers.  These  two  colleagues  were  indicted  in  1906  for  leasing 
properties  as  bawdy  houses.  F  was  Anally  declared  guilty,  fined 
$3^0  and  costs,  and  given  one  day  in  jail.  G  secured  a  "Scotch 
verdict,"  being  declared  not  guilty  but  at  the  same  time  ordered 
to  pay  costs. —  But  more  of  them  and  their  world  later. 

The  Camp-followers  of  Crime 
The  American  people  have  been  slow  to  team  that  it  is  dan- 
gerous to  allow  criminals  of  the  types  described  to  maintain  a 
footing  in  any  city. 

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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

It  was  to  G's  court  in  the  eighth  ward  that  B  succeeded  in 
having  the  case  against  him  transferred  when  the  information 
had  been  filed  before  another  alderman;  nor  did  the  influence 
of  the  master  criminals  stop  with  a  petty  magistrate  of  the  Hill 
District.  These  same  men  showed  an  influence  in  the  county 
court  house  sufficient  to  block  any  efforts  to  bring  them  to  book. 
Itisoneof  the  elementary  propositions  with  the  men  higher  up  in 
the  underworld  that  through  their  control  of  officials,  petty  or 
otherwise,  they  must  be  able  to  draw  such  juries  as  they  may  re- 
quire, for  their  own  ends  or  the  ends  of  those  they  serve.  Their 
highly  organized  following  is  often  sufficient  to  turn  the  tide  of 
local  elections. 

One  of  the  saloons  of  which  A  was  alleged  to  be  the 
owner  or  backer  was  the  so-called  "  Band-Box,"  on  Grant  Street. 
Its  bar  and  restaurant  occupied  the  ground  floor  of  two  small 
connected  buildings  which  were  formerly  private  dwelling  houses. 
Upstairs  behind  the  curtain  "wise"  people  were  reported  to  meet 
in  secret,  and  here  it  was  said  that  the  fixing  of  criminal  cases 
before  trial  was  long  attended  to.  To  forward  such  ends  the 
situation  of  the  Band-Box  was  particularly  convenient,  having 
the  court  house  on  one  side  and  police  headquarters  on  the  other. 

The  history  of  H ,  one  of  A's  henchmen,  showed  the  rise  of 

many  of  the  lesser  lights  in  the  underworld.  Down  and  out  when 
he  landed  in  Pittsburgh,  H  first  worked  as  porter  and  odd-job  man 
about  different  saloons,  then  peddled  bar  fixtures  for  the  proprie- 
tor of  a  notorious  place  on  the  "  Diamond, "  and  was  finally  taken 
up  by  A  as  a  man  suitable  for  his  purposes. 

Multiply  H's  history  by  a  thousand,  and  some  idea  may  be 
gained  of  the  recruiting  of  the  anti-social  forces  of  a  community. 
To  the  great  mass  of  such  followers,  honest  industry  has  ceased. 
They  will  live  by  crime,  or  starve  serving  crime, — crime  whose 
boast  it  is  that  it  "beats  the  game";  crime  sufficiently  subtle, 
cunningly  enough  contrived,  to  prey  upon  human  weaknesses; 
crime  fortified  by  venal  alliances  to  the  point  of  practical  immunity. 
In  New  York,  Chicago,  or  San  Francisco,  or  in  any  large  city 
where  even  an  embryo  "system"  has  taken  root,  behind  its  organ- 
izers troop  this  army  of  parasites  who  seek  only  a  living, — night 
bartenders  in  lawbreaking  saloons,  bouncers  in  cut-throat  dives, 
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THE   REVERSE   SIDE 

lookouts,  doormen,  dealers,  and  waiters.  Among  them  also  are 
the  boosters,  cappers,  and  steerers,  who  work  upon  percentages, 
today  the  false  bell-wethers  to  rustics  at  a  county  fair;  tomorrow 
the  fleecers  of  workmen,  coming  from  a  factory,  pay  envelope  in 
hand;  again,  the  inveiglers  of  "marks"  at  hotel,  train,  or  steamer, 
dealing  the  "big  mit,"  steering  the  sucker  to  the  "turning  joint." 
Then,  the  riffraff  of  the  race  track, — ^jockeys,  stable  boys,  book- 
makers, sheetwriters,  cashiers,  runners,  spongers,  and  touts.  Of 
the  pimps  and  procurers  who  carry  lechery  to  its  ultimate  levels 
we  shall  speak  later. 

All  these  men  are  patrons  of  liquor  and  vice  resorts,  and 
large  numbers  of  prostitutes  seek  concubinage  with  them  to  escape 
from  the  more  rigorous  service  of  the  brothel.  Invaluable  auxil- 
iaries to  the  forces  of  evil,  their  very  bread  dependent  upon  the 
ability  to  do  evil  unpunished,  no  city  seeking  redemption  can 
overlook  them.* 

The  Drift  from  Industry 

No  more  dramatic  study  could  be  made  than  that  of  the 
individuals  who  in  an  industrial  district  drift  into  this  so-called 
sporting  and  criminal  life.  Among  the  hangers-on  of  Newell's 
Hotel  on  lower  Fifth  Avenue  were  many  former  mill  workers. 

An  interesting  example  was  the  patriarchal  figure  of  a  Welshman, 

J ,  who  was  all  of  seventy  years  of  age.     For  many  years  a  hammerman 

in  the  days  when  skilled  mill  men  made  big  earnings,  he  was  said  to  have 
saved  sufficient  to  bring  him  in  a  small  income.  His  children  were  in 
clerical  callings,  but  when  gambling  had  been  last  openly  carried  on  in 
Pittsburgh,  the  father  got  employment  as  dealer  for  a  crooked  faro  game. 
There  was  still  even  then  something  of  the  skilled  workman's  dignity  about 
the  old  man,  and  white-haired  though  he  was,  he  looked  hale  and  hearty 
beside  the  pallid,  hollow-eyed  young  rascals  whose  companion  he  had 
so  late  in  life  become. 

*  In  setting  forth  the  parasitic  character  ot  these  elements,  it  is  not  my  pur- 
pox  to  under-estimale  the  loyalties  and  open-handed  traits  to  be  found  among 
certain  of  them.     The  down-and-out  who  may  have  met  only  indifference  and  the 

K*nd  of  existence  in  his  own  world,  finds  friendliness  and  welcome  at  their  hands. 
IT  do  I  want  to  ignore  the  exceptional  bartender  or  race-track  man  who  lives  a 

clean  life.     Perhaps   the   biggest   gambler  in    Pittsburgh,   I ,  a   man   wliose 

name  was  lumped  by  the  camp  followers  in  1907  with  those  of  A.  B,  aitd  C  as  the 
fourth  member  of  the  "  Big  Four,"  was  a  man  whose  personal  record  was  said  to 

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WACE-EARNINC   PITTSBURCH 

Another  mill  man  was  "Buster" ,  who  worked  for  "Paddy" 

L ,  a  wellknown  local  bookmaker.    One  evening  I  chanced  upiHi  a 

knot  of  people  at  the  Newell  Hotel  discussing  the  death  of  Buster, 
who  a  few  days  before  had  been  brought  back  from  Mt.  Gemens, 
whither  the  sporting  people  had  sent  him  as  a  last  resort.  Official  diag- 
nosisof  death — tuberculosis;  unofficial,  "hop,"  "booze,"  and  the  usual 
adjuncts.     A  subscription  was  being  taken  up  to  bury  the  man,  Paddy 

L and  an  uncle  of  Buster  being  counted  upon  to  make  good  any 

deficit.  Buster  was  a  Pittsburgh  product.  His  father,  a  saloon  keeper, 
had  been  killed  in  a  gun  play  there  some  years  before. 

An  interesting  character  among  the  employes  attached  to  one  of 
the  municipal  bureaus  was  a  former  prize  tighter  whom  we  will  call  "  Doc  " 
His  life  had  been  a  varied  one.  Of  German  extraction,  he  had  been  bora  on 
Pittsburgh's  South  Side.  As  a  boy  he  had  been  known  as  a  "scrapper" 
and  the  reputation  clung  to  him.  His  father  was  a  mill  man  and  Doc's 
first  job  was  as  helper  at  So  cents  a  day  in  a  hoop  mill.  Later  he  earned 
90  cents  taking  scrap  from  the  shears.  Still  later  he  became  a  helper  at 
li.io  a  day,  "catching  on."  But  he  had  several  narrow  escapes  from 
accidents  and  he  tired  of  the  steady  drive  of  mill  work.  He  secured  a  job 
at  making  boxes  in  a  bakery  at  $7.;o  per  week.  Meanwhile,  his  fighting 
had  begun  to  attract  attention  of  small  fry  "sports, "  policemen,  and  others, 
and  his  first  direct  enlistment  in  the  sporting  woHd  came  when  he  got  a  job 
as  bartender  at  fi;  a  week — more  than  double  his  old  wage.  This  was  in 
a  saloon  at  Fifth  Avenue  and  Smithfield  Street,  kept  by  an  ex-detective. 
A  few  weeks  later  the  place  was  closed  by  the  sherilT,  but  Doc  stuck  closely 
to  the  sporting  people  and  was  soon  at  the  training  quarters  in  Sheepshead 
Bay,  New  York.  He  claimed  to  have  done  some  prize  fighting  in  New 
York,  Bridgepon,  and  New  Haven,  and  his  knowledge  of  Chuck  Connors, 
Morris-t he- Handshaker,  and  other  characters  about  the  hop-joints  of 
Chinatown,  gave  credence  to  these  later  bits  of  personal  history. 

In  spite  of  his  varied  career,  however,  he  had  had  a  good  record  in 
the  city  service.  At  the  time  of  a  smallpox  epidemic  in-  Pittsburgh, 
"Doc,"  then  a  sanitary  policeman,  had  stuck  to  his  post  in  the  infected 
quarters,  nursing  and  caring  for  the  sick. 

Such  instances  of  the  drift  from  industry  into  the  small  office- 
holding  class  by  way  of  the  so-called  spotting  world  are  not  alto- 
gether rare.  The  mill  worker  turned  prize  fighter,  and  the  ex-prize 
lighter  turned  policeman,  is  a  sufficiently  well  defined  type,  closely 
afTiliated  with,  when  not  actually  of,  the  underworld. 
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Preying  Upon  Work  People 
in  an  altogether  different  sense,  this  underworld  drags  upon 
the  workaday  life  about  it.  The  confidence  gangs  that  fleece 
a  banker  out  of  $100,000  grade  down  to  the  "tin-horn"  gamblers 
who  long  were  familiar  figures  on  pay  days  at  the  mills  and  fac- 
tories in  and  about  Pittsburgh. 

The  operation  of  a  "chuck-a-luck"  machine  or  "wheel  of  fortune" 
was  for  many  years  a  favorite  means  for  separating  the  workman,  es- 
pecially the  foreigner,  from  his  pay.  Worthless  "prizes"  were  given  out 
to  keep  interest  alive,  and  clever  boosters  (confederates)  were  employed 
who  won  the  more  valuable  awards.  An  operator  who  did  not  clear  f  jo 
to  t6o  a  day  with  a  wheel  of  this  kind  was  doing  poorly.  After  fixing  the 
local  cop,  or  such  substitute  for  a  policeman  as  the  neighborhood  afforded, 
paying  his  boosters  and  the  rent  for  the  wheel,  a  comfortable  income  re- 
mained for  the  operator.  These  wheels  were  usually  stationed  at  "pays" 
in  the  smaller  boroughs,  where  the  police,  even  if  honest,  could  not  always 
give  proper  protection  to  the  workingman.  Such  gambling  devices  were 
popular  around  the  holidays,*  when  turkeys  or  chickens  were  used  as 
prizes. 

This  was  the  testimony  given  me  before  I  came  to  Pitts- 
burgh by  an  itinerant  crook  who  had  visited  the  district  five 
years  before: 

"Take  a  stroll  on  a  pleasant  afternoon  in  East  Pittsburgh,  Wil- 
Rierding,  or  Manchester,  for  example,  when  it  chances  to  be  pay  day. 
The  scene  around  some  of  the  big  mills  resembles  the  grounds  at  a  county 
fair  on  the  'big  day'  (Thursday),  when  the  fakers  and  grafters  have  every- 
thing their  own  way.  The  'strong  joint'  is  the  device  operated  most  ex- 
tensively and  the  one  that  'gets  the  money.'  " 

"By  actual  count,  on  one  occasion  1  found  14  men  with  stands,  six 
of  them  'working  the  hulls, ' — the  three  shells  and  little  ball,  termed  in 
England,  'thimble-ringer,' — around  the  steel  car  works  in  Manchester. 
The  pc^ice  of  the  mill  towns  descend  on  these  people  every  now  and  then 
and  have  exerted  themselves  to  exterminate  the  class,  bag  and  baggage; 
but  it  is  a  difficult  task.  Many  of  the  factories  are  situated  'out  in  the 
woods';  that  is,  in  a  wide  space  of  open  ground.    The  grafting  fraternity 

*At  Old  Home  Week  in  McKeesport  in  July,  1910,  there  were  fully  a  dozen 
such  wheels  turning  along  the  river  front.  Among  them  was  at  least  one  which 
made  no  pretense  of  distributing  prizes  other  than  in  money. 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

can  therefore  lake  their  stand  and  note  the  approach  of  the  enemy  with  a 
sweep  of  the  eye  in  time  to  make  a  'clean  getaway.'  " 

I  found  their  operations  had  become  less  and  less  frequent, 
not  merely  because  of  the  greater  efficiency  of  ofiiciais  but  because  the 
workers,  even  the  "Hunkies"  and  "Polacks,"  had  grown  "wise"  and  it 
was  necessary  to  reach  them  in  more  devious  ways. 

A  typical  and  cruel  imposture  practiced  to  a  considerable 
extent  in  the  Pittsburgh  District,  and  of  which  foreign^bom  work- 
ingmen  were  invariably  the  victims,  was  the  swindle  known  indiffer- 
ently as  the  tin-box,  handkerchief,  or  pocketbook  game. 

This  is  essential  I V  a  trick  of  substitution.  The  operators  were  Slavs 
or  Italians,  and  preyed  upon  men  of  their  own  race.  The  thief,  dressed  as  a 
workingman  and  accompanied  by  one  or  more  confederates,  frequented  the 
vicinity  of  railroad  stations  and  of  the  mills  on  pay  day.  As  a  possible  vic- 
tim approaches,  one  confederate  drops  a  pocketbook  in  his  path.  The  im- 
migrant starts  to  pick  it  up  but  is  outdistanced  in  so  doing  by  the  thief, 
who  eagerly  opens  the  pocketbook  and  finds  it  well  filled  with  bills.  The 
victim  asserts  his  right  to  a  portion  of  the  find,  or  if  he  is  backward  about 
doing  so  the  other  confederates  mix  in  and  advise  him  of  his  rights.  The 
matter  is  hotly  argued  for  a  time,  but  is  brought  to  an  end  by  the  thief 
who.  apparently  recognizing  the  justice  of  the  victim's  claim,  or  pretend- 
ing fear  of  the  confederates,  or  of  the  police,  proposes  an  equitable  divi- 
sion. AH  hands  adjourn  for  a  drink,  and  the  thief  makes  an  excuse  to  leave 
the  party. 

Another  argument  arises,  based  upon  a  confederate's  alleged  belief 
that  the  thief  intends  to  disappear  with  the  prize.  Finally  the  "found  " 
pocketbook,  containing  apparently  hundreds  of  dollars,  is  entrusted  to 
the  victim,  who  as  a  guarantee  of  good  faith  deposits  his  own  pocket- 
book,  pay  envelope,  or  watch  and  chain,  with  one  of  the  confederates. 
Somewhat  later  the  victim  discovers  himself  alone  with  an  old  pocket- 
book  stuffed  with  bills  which  he  learns  were  issued  years  before  by  a 
defunct  government,  the  Confederate  States  of  America. 

The  pocketbook  dropper  is  ready  to  content  himself  usually  with 
the  earnings  of  some  Slavic  workman  who  has  just  drawn  his  pay,  or  dis- 
played a  little  money  in  purchasing  a  railroad  ticket. 

The  handkerchief  and  tin-box  games  are  essentially  similar  in  opera- 
tion, but  are  more  often  the  result  of  systematic  and  detailed  planning. 
A  returning  immigrant,  usually  Italian,  whose  savings  are  concealed  about 
his  person,  is  induced  to  deposit  them  for  "safekeeping"  in  a  tin  box,  or 
perhaps  a  handkerchief,  belonging  to  one  of  the  band. 
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The  Pittsburgh  detectives  seemed  to  appreciate  the  social 
significance  of  the  type  of  swindle  referred  to,  but  as  much  could 
not  be  said  for  the  courts,  which  often  contented  themselves  with 
the  infliction  of  a  fine  on  the  guilty  party.  It  is  difficult  to  get 
witnesses  against  this  type  of  swindler,  for  oftentimes  when  an 
officer  appears  while  the  game  is  being  played,  the  prospective 
victim  will  slip  away  as  eagerly  as  the  thieves,  fearing  detention 
and  loss  of  time  from  his  work. 

Two  of  the  most  expert  swindlers  in  the  Pittsburgh  District  of  the 

class  described,  were  a  Pole,  J ,  and  his  "stall "  or  confederate,  K . 

A  Pennsylvania  Railroad  detective,  who  effectively  protected  the  Union 
Station,  Pittsburgh,  from  the  operations  of  such  criminals,  secured  J's 
conviction  at  Scranton,  where  he  was  sentenced  to  eighteen  months' 
imprisonment.  The  man  had  been  twice  arrested  in  Pittsburgh  previous 
to  this,  but  had  gotten  off  with  small  fines.  On  one  of  these  occasions, 
when  arraigned  in  court  as  a  suspicious  person,  he  had  not  denied  his 
record,  but  asserted  that  he  had  reformed  and  showed  that  he  had  (7,000 
in  bank.  A  woman  accompanying  him  was  a  prostitute  whom  he  was 
taking  to  Giicago  to  establish  in  business. 

Striking  Out  from  the  City 

Under  the  reform  administration,  such  lesser  fry,  and  the 
master  criminals  as  well,  were  not  allowed  to  work  to  any  extent 
in  Pittsburgh  itself.  But  even  when  a  town  is  closed,  local  men 
of  this  type  neither  starve  to  death  nor  do  they  abandon  their 
criminal  ways.  They  are  simply  put  to  it  more  hardly  to  make 
both  ends  meet.  They  may  "dig  up  suckers"  (inveigle  persons 
of  means)  who  are  to  be  "framed  up  against"  (introduced  to) 
some  sort  of  a  crooked  game  to  be  pulled  off  in  another  city  by 
out-of-town  crooks  or  by  themselves,  and  for  which,  when  the  trick 
is  turned,  they  are  to  get  their  share,  or  "bit." 

Again,  they  may  extend  their  operations  into  neighboring 
territory,  managing  a  fake  prize  fight  here  or  a  crooked  foot  race 
there,  secure  gambling  privileges  in  a  nearby  mill  town  on  pay 
day,  or  operate  a  pool  room  across  the  West  Virginia  line;  or  they 
may  work  with  "  gun  mobs"  from  other  cities. 

Take,  for  example,  McKeesport,  the  largest  mill  town  in 
the  Pittsburgh  District.    This  was  in  1907-08  commonly  reported 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

to  be  a  "percentage  burg";  namely,  a  town  where  the  local  police 
department,  for  a  consideration,  tolerated  raids  by  outside  gun 
mobs  on  pay  day  at  the  mills.  The  time  for  the  gun  mob  to 
work  was  strictly  limited.  It  had  to  be  a  case  of  getting  in  to  town, 
"tearin'  'er  wide  open,"  and  "blowin'  on  a  rattler,"  all  in  the  same 
day.  This  to  "  cover"  the  "  coppers. "  Here  the  locally  informed 
criminal  had  value  to  give  the  outsider.  He  sent  the  "dope"  to 
the  outside  "guns,"  and  thus  prepared  they  utilized  every  mo- 
ment of  their  working  time.  Such  a  mill  paid  at  a  certain  hour, 
for  example,  or  the  workmen  had  to  ride  on  a  certain  car  under 
conditions  favorable  for  "dips"  (pickpockets).  Another  mill 
had  a  saloon  in  its  immediate  vicinity,  the  proprietor  of  which 
could  be  "reached"  to  the  extent  of  standing  for  "strong  arm" 
work  (hold-ups)  or  an  occasional "  peter"  (use  of  knock-out  dn^). 
In  another  town  a  certain  class  of  workmen  was  not  wise  to  con- 
federate money. 

Outside  Invaders 

Under  a  reform  regime,  also,  however  well  the  local  forces 
may  be  held  in  leash,  we  have  drifting  into  the  city  a  class  of 
"take-a-chance"  people,  socalled  because  they  hope  by  occasional 
and  inconspicuous  foray  to  carry  off  plunder  which,  to  their  way  of 
thinking,  "it's  a  shame  to  let  go  lyin'  around  loose." 

Let  us  tell  of  them  in  words  of  their  own  cult : 

Detectives  the  country  over  will  recognize  at  first  glance  the  por- 
trait of  "Chappie  Moran."  When  arrested  in  Pittsburgh  in  March,  1907, 
Chappie  described  himself  as  a  "race-track  worker";  there  is  a  certain 
naive  ingenuousness  about  an  occupation  so  described.  As  a  "wireless 
wire-tapper"  Mr.  Moran  was  well  posted  in  all  race-track  vemacular;  his 
opportunities  were  found  also  in  the  city  crowds  hurrying  to  the  race 
track  by  car,  ferry,  and  train.  He  had  had  a  career  of  highly  varied 
externals  but  withal,  just  the  daily  hopeless  grind  of  a  common  thief. 
Drugs,  liquor,  and  painted  women,  plus  the  weight  of  a  thiefs  soul,  had 
reduced  him  from  such  high  criminal  estate  as  he  may  have  superficially 
assumed,  and  we  found  him  here  one  of  the  "take-a-chance"  people, 
picked  up  on  suspicion  by  the  Pittsburgh  police  "with  a  record,  judge,  as 
long  as  your  arm,"  Without  even  an  opportunity  to  "break  even  on 
expenses,"  he  was  obliged  to  "dig  down"  for  fine  money  and  "copper" 
a  fine  of  "3$  bucks";  "three  hours  to  leave  town"  was  the  order;  and 
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THE   REVERSE  SIDE 

"bulls"  (policemen)  "hoisted"  him  "aboard  the  rattler,"  back  to  New 
York. 

Another  wellknown  American  was  sure  that  Pittsburgh  needed  a 
change  of  administration,  and  that  badly.  "Big  Sam"  Strosnider, 
"salesman, "  floating  into  town,  found  an  unpretentious  hotel  handy  to  the 
railroad  station.  Unfortunately  for  Big  Sam  his  "mug"  was  known  to 
most  detectives  and  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  was  prejudiced  against 
his  inviting  strangers  into  a  "friendly  game"  in  the  coaches.  So  Sam  was 
obliged  to  "  frame  up  the  marks. "  while  his  partner  rode  the  "  rattlers"  and 
"turned  the  tricks."  But  "bulls,"  "suspicious  persons,"and  "hours"  all 
came  to  Sam,  and  he  also  left  the  city  in  disgust  and  not  unattended. 
In  May  of  the  same  year,  along  came  "Little  Dan,"  also  known  as  Mr. 
Daniel  Gross,  Mr.  Daniel  Weber,  Mr.  Daniel  Taud,  and  describing  himself 
as  a  "salesman."  But  the  "bulls"  got  him,  had  no  hesitation  in  aflfirming 
that  he  lived  by  the  "dip,"  and  out  and  away  went  Little  Dan.  In 
"York"  the  "interests"  could  "spring  a  guy"  (secure  a  prisoner's  release) 
as  "easy  as  taking  candy  from  a  kid";  but  in  Pittsburgh  the  "bulls" 
declined  to  take  chances,  and  the  "good  people"  (wellknown  members  of 
the  underworid)  were  under  cover.    A  deplorable  state  of  things. 

Messrs.  James  Monroe  and  Philip  Lamont  paid  a  social  visit. 
These  were  gentlemen  "on  the  dip"  (pocket -picking),  and  understood 
admirably  all  the  operatbns  of  "stalling,"  "bumping,"  "ringing  a 
thimble,"  and  "getting  a  rock  or  a  front"  (a  watch  or  scarf  pin).  Their 
business  took  them  a  great  deal  on  street  cars,  on  busy  lines,  especially 
during  rush  hours.  They  were  extremely  courteous,  so  much  so  as  to 
decline  to  occupy  seats  to  the  exclusion  of  ladies,  and  they  sought  the 
fresher  air  of  the  crowded  rear  platforms  in  preference  to  that  of  the 
vitiated  interior  of  the  cars.  Altogether,  they  were  very  wise  gentlemen 
of  remarkable  vocabularies,  and  possessed  decided  affinities  for  "bulls" 
(plain  clothes  detectives).  Some  they  found  good  fellows,  "willing  to 
live  and  let  live";  others  were  unspeakable  "gougers"  who  "wanted  it 
all,"  inclined  finally  lo  "double  cross  a  guy  at  that."  The  Pittsburgh 
bulls  had  no  use  for  the  gentlemen,  and  arrest,  fine,  and  hours  in  turn 
became  their  portion.  Once  clear  of  the  city  they  would  probably  have 
told  you  in  the  back  room  of  the  proper  joint  in  the  tenderloins  of  New 
York,  Chicago,  or  St.  Louis,  that  the  Pittsburgh  bulls  were  "hostile," 
which  is  another  way  of  saying  "square. "  And  probably  both  gentlemen 
had  sufficient  public  spirit  at  the  time  of  the  next  Pittsburgh  city  election 
to  go  back  to  register  a  protest  at  the  polls  against  a  police  administration 
which  was  "unwilling  even  to  let  a  guy  break  even." 


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wage-earning  pittsburgh 

National  Aspects 

The  difficulties  experienced  by  these  gentlemen  showed 
what  a  change  for  the  better  had  come  in  Pittsburgh.  The 
country-wide  front  of  crime  which  challenges  an  honest  police 
administration  in  any  city  is,  however,  not  limited  to  such  chance 
comers.  We  have  seen  how  the  criminal  element  in  Pittsburgh 
had  passed  beyond  the  stage  of  the  individual  gang  to  loose,  elastic, 
but  effective  confederacies  of  interests;  how  it  had  affiliations 
which  count  for  immunity;  and  how  it  struck  out  from  the  industrial 
center  over  a  comparatively  wide  area.  As  the  Marietta  banker 
duped  by  Pittsburgh  sharpers  in  New  York  learned  to  his  cost, 
these  more  or  less  coherent  local  groups  were  in  alliance  (equally 
loose  but  equally  eifective)  with  similar  ganglia  in  other  great 
cities. 

In  a  more  overt  way,  the  members  of  the  underworld  erf  a 
hundred  cities  touch  elbows  through  a  national  organization, 
sufficiently  embracing  in  its  membership  to  take  a  place  among  the 
fraternal  societies  of  the  country;  that  is,  through  the  "American 
Order  of  Eagles." 

This  order  was  founded  at  Seattle  in  the  So's  by  John  Considine, 
proprietor  of  the  original  "Honka-Tonk,"  a  place  so  notorious  as  to  have 
given  its  name  generally  to  tough  dance  halls  and  joints  on  the  Coast. 
Considine  was  active  in  local  politics,  and  saw  the  value  of  organization. 
In  the  crowd  that  frequented  his  place  he  found  material  for  the  first 
"aerie,"  as  the  lodges  are  called.  Soon  many  of  the  guns,  fixers,  joint 
keepers,  and  sporting  men  generally  of  the  Coast  had  gotten  together 
in  the  new  order  which  began  to  extend  itself  eastward  through  the 
mining  states.  Considine  and  his  brother  moved  to  Detroit  where  they 
secured  the  handbook  privileges  on  the  local  race  tracks  and  became,  with 
the  added  prestige  of  the  Order  of  Eagles  behind  them,  more  influential 
figures  than  they  had  been  in  the  west.  The  free  masonry  of  their  kind 
brought  the  Considines  into  touch  with  the  New  York  Sullivans,  and 
Timothy  D.,  the  "Big  Feller,"  was  quick  to  grasp  the  possibilities  of  a 
nationalorganiiation  which  would  include  not  only  "guns"but  the  riffraff 
who  live  by  and  upon  crime  while  ostensibly  race-track  followers  or 
bartenders;  also  the  so-called  sporting  element  in  general,  together  with 
slum  politicians  of  all  degrees  and  parties,  the  heelers  and  parasites  of 
politics  and  a  few  prominent  office  holders  as  make-weights.  Of  recent 
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THE   REVERSE   SIDE 

years,  to  offset  in  part  the  malodorousness  of  the  organization,  many  bona 
fide  bartenders,  policemen,  small  saloon  keepers  and  middlemen  de- 
pendent for  a  living  upon  the  liquor  traffic  or  local  political  machines, 
have  been  brought  into  the  order.  In  spite  of  this  last  element,  the  order 
always  has  been  and  continues  to  be  ihe  one  example  in  our  American 
national  life  of  organized  anti-social  forces.  A  Pittsburgh  police  official 
expressed  himself  as  tired  of  pulling  off  Eagle  buttons  at  the  Central 
Station  before  "mugging"  their  wearers — an  act  of  courtesy  generally 
extended  by  police  depanments  to  the  fraternal  orders. 

When  a  branch  of  the  orderwas  started  in  Pittsburgh  in  1900, 
it  absorbed  an  old  local  organization  made  up  of  toughs.  Its 
aerie  stood  appropriately  enough  in  the  center  of  the  city  flanked 
on  either  side  by  brothels.  In  the  fall  of  1907  distinguished  rep- 
resentatives of  the  order  from  New  York  met  the  Pittsburgh 
representatives  in  friendly  conclave,  and  at  a  meeting  in  Central 
Turner  Hall  on  Forbes  Street  the  silver-tongued  Grady  spoke  for 
the  "  Big  Feller"  unavoidably  detained  in  New  York.  The  wait- 
ing cabs  lined  Grant  Street  for  several  blocks,  while  within  the 
Band-Box  good  fellowship  was  pledged  in  unstinted  champagne 
to  the  joys  of  easy  money,  and  to  the  common  sentiment,  "  to  hell 
with  reform."* 

An  army  of  persons,  free  spending,  free  living,  debauched 
and  debauching,  is  at  once  the  right  hand  of  professional  crime  and 
the  left  hand  of  political  corruption  in  every  large  city.  We  have 
seen  in  Pittsburgh  how  they  can  not  be  driven  from  a  city  over- 
night; how  their  evil  operations  were  merely  curtailed  by  a 
rigorous  administration,  not  done  away  with  altogether.  We 
have  seen  that  the  floating  body  of  crooks  are  quick  to  learn  the 
temper  of  such  an  administration  and  will  give  that  city  a  wide 
berth  which  sets  its  face  against  their  ways.  But  we  have  caught 
gjimpses  of  the  inter-municipal  alliances  of  the  resident  under- 
world, predatory,  resourceful,  biding  its  lean  years. 

Under  a  clean  municipal  administration,  Pittsburgh  was  no 
longer  a  wide  open  city,  and  with  the  merging  of  Allegheny  City, 
the  District  as  a  whole  was  becoming  hostile  to  professional  crim- 

*J.  M.  Morin,  director  of  the  department  of  public  safety  under  the  suc- 
ceeding administration,  was  given  as  president  of  (be  local  aerie  in  the  Pittsburgh 
Under  of  Maich  6,  tgro. 

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WACE-EARMING   PITTSBURGH 

inals.  The  effect  of  this  change  on  the  community  mi^t  indeed 
have  been  far-reaching,  except  that  the  situation  was  after  all  one 
of  abeyance; — the  "master  thieves"  lying  low,  waiting,  nursing 
relations  with  certain  factions  in  local  politics;  a  rim  (^  gambling 
hells  encircling  Pittsburgh;  good  government  people  here  as  else- 
where, failing  to  understand  the  power  of  professional  criminal 
"confederation,"  or  to  credit  the  prophecy  among  "wise"  people 
as  to  the  end  of  reform. 

HI 
YEGGS 
There  is  another  group  of  offenders,  to  which  as  yet  no  id- 
erence  has  been  made,  distinct  enough  to  be  treated  more  or  less 
by  themselves  in  the  discussion  of  the  police  problem  of  such  an  in- 
dustrial city  as  Pittsburgh.  The  yeggs  are  national  characters 
in  the  life  of  the  underworld,  covering  even  more  territory  in  their 
wanderings  and  criminal  activities  than  the  professional  pick- 
pockets. Distinctly  an  American  product,*  half  tramp  and  half 
criminal,  they  are  desperate  and  daring  safe  blowers,  hold-up  men, 
and  burglars.    They  operate  generally  in  small  communities, 

*  The  PinkertDTis  thus  describe  the  yeggs: 

"Nine-tenths  of  this  class  are  made  up  of  so-calted  driftwood  of  humanity 
in  this  country,  composed  of  about  one-half  natives,  one-quarter  foreign  descent, 
and  one-quarter  foreign  birth.  Most  of  these  are  mechaoics  or  have  i>wn  railroad 
men,  iron  workers,  or  originally  in  some  trade;  have  lost  their  places  of  employment 
through  \ibor  troubles;  and  in  stealing  rides  on  cars,  or  tramping  from  one  dty  to 
another,  they  have  formed  the  acquaintance  of  criminals,  gradually  becoming  crim- 
inals themselves. 

"A  mechanic  who  loses  his  employment  through  a  strike  or  otiier  labor 
troubles  leaves  his  native  town  for  larger  cities  in  search  of  employment,  intending 
at  first  to  find  work  and  continue  at  it.  But  being  unsuccessful  he  gradually  drifts 
to  lodging  houses  or  to  the  cheaper  dass  of  saloons,  until,  his  money  being  ex- 
hausted, he  through  pure  desperation  starts  out  with  some  other  mechanic  similarly 
situated  'on  theroad.'  tramping,  beating  his  way  from  one  city  to  another,  begging 
his  meals.  And  it  is  while  doing  this  tliat  he  forms  the  acquaintance,  in  camps, 
of  the  yegg,  who  proceeds  to  take  him  in  hand  to  determine  what  his  ability 
consists  of.  If  a  mechanic  explains  that  he  is  a  machinist  or  has  been  an  iron 
worker,  especially  in  building  construction,  he  is  gradually  introduced  to  other 
yeggmen  and  ftnally  becomes  a  member  of  some  yegg  tribe.  They  may  also  be 
recruited  from  ordinary  tramps  who  are  possessed  of  exceptional  personal  courage 
and  resource.  The  yeggs  may  be  said  to  have  formed  themselves  into  a  loose 
confederacy,  since  they  have  a  strong  sense  of  comradeship  which  is  superior  to  the 
boundaries  of  the  several  states  and  is  re-enforced  by  a  vocabulary  sufficiently 
distinct  to  provide  the  equivalent  of  signs  and  pass  words  made  use  of  in  theonlinary 


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THE   REVERSE   SIDE 

especially  on  country  post  offices  and  banks;  but  they  are  to  be 
found  between  times,  and  after  they  have  grown  old  in  the  life, 
begging  on  the  main  streets  of  the  larger  cities,  usually  practicing 
certain  types  of  imposture  peculiar  to  themselves.  Occasionally 
they  are  real  cripples,  having  lost  an  arm  or  a  leg  while  "beating 
the  freights,"  but  more  often  they  simulate  partial  paralysis  or  the 
loss  of  speech  and  hearing. 

The  continued  presence  of  yeggs  in  considerable  numbers  in 
any  large  city  is  generally  proof  positive  of  the  existence  there 
of  a  well  established  hang-out.  This  is  usually  a  saloon  or  fur- 
nished room  house  maintained  by  a  veteran  of  their  class  who  has 
settled  down  and  acquired  sufficient  local  political  influence  to 
gain  for  his  former  comrades  on  the  road  a  certain  amount  of 
security  at  least  in  carrying  on  their  begging  operations.  The 
proprietor  acts  too  as  "fence,"  or  go-between  in  disposing  of 
postage  stamps  stolen  from  country  post  offices,  or  of  other  loot. 
In  the  go's,  according  to  Josiah  Flint,  Allegheny  City  itself  had  the 
nickname  in  the  underworld  of  "The  Fence,"  and  was  on  a  par 
with  Toledo  as  a  harboring  place  for  criminals  who  "worked"  in 
other  cities.  These  were  unmolested  in  1907-08  by  the  Allegheny 
officials;  and,  in  turn,  did  not  carry  on  depredations  there. 

Working  the  Factories 
It  was  my  good  fortune  to  secure  some  expert  testimony  as 
to  the  extent  to  which  the  manufacturing  sites  and  industrial 
towns  about  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny  were  to  the  begging  yeggs 
of  the  middle  states,  what  the  shoe  shop  district  of  the  New  Eng- 
land states  was  to  the  Eastern  tramp.  The  Baldwin  Locomotive 
Works  in  Philadelphia,  the  Union  Iron  Works  in  San  Francisco, 
the  Pullman  Car  Shops  in  Chicago,  and  the  Westinghouse  plants 
in  East  Pittsburgh,  were  looked  upon  by  the  "street  men"  of  the 
land  as  the  "  best  works  in  the  country  in  which  to  make  a  pitch. " 
The  following  statement  was  written  for  me  by  a  man  who  was  an 
ex-newsboy,  tramp  kid,  thief,  and  street  faker,  and  whose  ac- 
quaintance with  Pittsburgh  conditions  dated  back  to  190;  and 
before.* 

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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

"There  was  a  prevailing  custom  in  Pittsburgh  among  business 
houses,  particularly  in  saloons,  restaurants,  shoe  and  cJothing  stores,  etc, 
of  giving  away  small  advertising  cards  with  the  finii's  name  printed  on  one 
side,  and  on  the  other,  a  complete  list  of  all  the  most  important  manufac- 
turing concerns  in  and  around  the  city  for  a  radius  of  ten  miles,  together 
with  the  days  on  which  they  pay  their  employes.  Visiting  beggars, 
thieves,  and  street  fakirs  knew  this  custom  and  would  provide  themselves 
with  these  lists  before  starting  to  'pling"  the  district. 

"Since  in  recent  years  ablcbodied  begging  had  largely  become  a 
thingof  the  past,  along-sufTeringpu  blic  refusing  to 'give  up' toast  rong  man, 
able  to  work,  the  profession  was  obliged  more  and  more  to  depend  upon 
special  devices.  Every  tramp  of  any  note  sought  to  'double  up  with  a 
boy,'  and  when  it  became  difficult  even  for  a  'kid'  'to  produce,'  the  beggars 
were  driven  to  another  expedient.  They  found  that  the  only  ones  who 
could  bring  in  the  pennies  were  the  crippled  boys.  If  a  kid  had  an  arm  or 
a  leg  off,  or  was  lucky  enough  to  have  any  other  physical  deformity,  he 
was  sure  to  be  a  particularly  successful  mendicant.  Several  years  ago 
every  'jocker'*  in  the  country  had  his  eye  on  'snaring  a  kid  with  anatural 
bug'  (a  boy  suffering  from  a  real  deformity).  Now  when  a  jocker  has  such 
a  boy  it  is  customary,  in  making  a  tour  of  the  country,  for  the  lad  on  their 
arrival  at  each  productive  town  to  simplify  matters  by  first  getting  a 
permit  from  someone  in  authority  to '  beg  the  burg.'  Ostensibly,  of  course, 
his  mission  is  to  raise  enough  money  to  buy  his  ticket  home  to  his  widowed 
mother, — always  a  long  distance  off.  This  is  part  of  the  system.  A 
permit  once  obtained,  the  rest  is  easy.  He  simply  proceeds  from  one 
store,  office,  or  residence  to  another. 

"  In  begging  from  the  employes  of  a  factory,  a  similar  method  is  in 
vogue;  the  beggar  who  first  goes  to  the  superintendent  or  manager  on 
pay  day  with  a  long  pathetic  tale  may  succeed  in  getting  permission  to  go 
through  the  works;  the  rest  is  merely  a  matter  of  collecting.  It  isn't 
every  mendicant,  however,  that  is  clever  enough  to  get  this  permission; 
and  not  a  few  factories  refuse  to  allow  any  one  to  bother  their  work  people 
under  any  circumstances.  On  one  occasion  a  jocker  and  kid,  wellknown 
in  yeggdom,  made  a  complete  tour  of  the  district  surrounding  Pittsburgh 
and  Allegheny  and  they  reaped  a  rich  harvest.  The  boy,  although  young 
in  years,  was  well  trained,  and  peculiarly  fitted  to  successfully  separate 
money  from  the  pockets  of  the  working  people.  'Chi  Slater*  and  the  'Star 
Kid'  were  the  'monikers'  (nicknames)  of  this  pair.    The  jocker,  himself  a 

*  A  "jocker"  is  a  hobo  who  takes  with  him  a  vagrant  boy  to  do  his  running 
and  various  menial  tasks,  and  to  beg.  The  boy  is  usually  made  by  his  older  male 
companion  to  submit  to  sexual  abuse. 

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cripple  with  one  leg  missing,  was  an  old  timer  around  these  parts,  having 
worked  the  factories  for  eveiy  dollar  he  could  get,  and  had  returned  after 
an  absence  of  six  months  with  a  kid  to  complete  the  job.  The  boy,  a  fine 
looking,  neatly  dressed  lad  of  American  parentage,  about  sixteen  years 
old,  had  the  thumb  of  his  left  hand  missing.  Ordinarily  this  deformity 
would  have  excited  little  or  no  sympathy  and  would  have  resulted  in  small 
gain  for  a  beggar  out  for  'big  earnings';  but  previous  to  visiting  the  factories, 
the  stump  of  the  boy's  thumb  was  burned  with  vitriol,  the  flesh  was  then 
pennitted  to  become  ragged  and  festered,  and  vaseline  was  applied  and 
allowed  to  remain  without  further  application.  The  mere  exhibiting  of 
this  sore  was  enough  to  make  any  one  'give  up.'  The  pair  then  started  to 
work  the  shops,  and  in  two  months  they  got  over  $^oo.  Every  penny  was 
afterward  spent  on  the  New  York  Bowery  for  'slops'  (liquor)." 

On  the  "Main  Stem" 

My  introduction  to  the  yegg  element  in  Pittsburgh  occurred 
at  nine  o'clock  on  the  first  night  of  my  stay  there.  It  was  a  sum- 
mer evening  and  the  Salvation  Army  was  holding  an  open  air 
meeting  at  the  comer  of  Smithfield  and  Diamond  streets.  The 
usual  crowd  was  grouped  about  the  uniformed  men,  street  trafTic 
was  rwrmal,  and  nothing  of  particular  interest  seemed  af(X}t.  I 
turned  to  pass  on.  As  1  did  so  two  men  came  up  Diamond  Street 
on  different  sides,  and  began  to  beg  among  the  bystanders.  The 
first  "plunge"  was  made  by  a  short,  clean-cut  yegg,  who  wore  a 
high  Stetson  hat,  striped  black  and  white  shirt,  and  polka  dot  tie. 
His  face  was  clean  shaven  and  he  had  a  springy  walk.  This 
fellow  made  a  successful  "speil"  to  a  number  of  men,  finally 
entering  into  conversation  with  those  whom  in  the  vernacular 
he  set  out  to  "slug"  with  argument.  By  a  touch  of  humor,  rather 
characteristic  of  the  yegg,  he  described  himself  as  an  undertaker. 
"Not  a  common  beggar,  sir,"  he  reiterated  (after  meeting  a  pre- 
liminary rebuff),  "I  simply  need  carfare  to  Allegheny."  He 
gleaned  perhaps  40  cents  in  the  first  ten  minutes. 

Thinking  he  could  be  easily  picked  up  again,  I  turned  my 
attention  to  his  comrade,  a  bulky  man  of  middle  age  with  grizzled 
mustache,  who  limped  and  carried  a  crutch.  He  stood  outside 
of  a  clothing  store,  partially  hidden  by  a  show  case,  waiting  for  a 
likely  "mark."  A  few  years  earlier  only  force  could  probably 
have  made  such  a  typical  yegg  eschew  the  tall  Stetson  hat  and 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

other  habiliments  of  the  caste  of  "John  Yeggdom";  but  with  age 
had  come  an  enforced  moderation  in  his  way  of  living,  and  he  now 
wore  a  derby  and  permitted  himself  a  mustache.  Between  the 
younger  "shorty"  and  this  riper  "caneman,"  I  chose  the  latter 
as  more  likely  to  be  infonning  if  started  right.  After  a  few  more 
plunges,  "  Shorty"  quit,  waving  a  farewell  to  "  Sticks, "  and  walked 
swiftly  away.  Sticks  finally  found  the  lights  of  the  "main  stem" 
too  public,  and  as  he  had  had  fair  success,  started  down  Fourth 
Avenue  to  Wood  Street  to  solace  himself  with  a  couple  of  whiskies. 

Cross-country  "Jumps" 
Later,  in  a  saloon  on  Diamond  Street,  I  hailed  Sticks  with 
a  yegg  password.  A  little  fencing  on  both  sides,  a  "try-out" 
or  two  on  "monikers"  and  "records,"  and  Sticks  was  ready 
to  tell  his  story.  It  brought  out  some  common  phases  of  typical 
yegg  life  in  its  national  aspects  which  must  be  grasped  by  any 
city  which  would  counter  them. 

Slicks  was  bom  in  a  country  town  in  Ohio,  where  his  brother  still 
kept  a  saloon,  and  as  a  young  man  he  had  lived  for  some  time  in  the  city 
of  Qeveland.  With  a  touch  of  pride,  he  said  that  when  he  had  traveled 
with  the  "  Peter  men  "  or  "  hard-boiled  "  people  (safe  blowers),  he  had  been 
known  as  "Cleveland  Jim."  He  claimed  to  have  served  at  least  one 
five-year  "bit"  in  a  "factory"  (penitentiary)  for  "Peter"  work  himself. 
Now  that  he  was  getting  old  he  did  "straight  plunging"  (begging)  only, 
and  was  known  as  "Baldy  Callahan."  Removing  his  hat  he  exposed  a 
head  that  was  quite  bald.  He  had  just  come  in  from  Youngstown,  Ohio, 
having  picked  up  Shorty  in  the  railroad  yards.  Both  intended  to  quit 
Pittsburgh  at  once  as  they  knew  the  town  was  "hostile,"  and  if  they  had 
not  been  well  "steamed  up"  they  would  not  have  taken  a  chance  at 
"plunging"  on  the  "main  stem." 

Shorty,  he  continued,  was  a  "dope,"  and  had  hurried  away  to 
find  a  drug  store  where  he  could  get  some  "white  stuff"  (cocaine)  and 
"shoot"  himself  full  enough  to  muster  nerve  to  "make  a  train"  and  goon 
east.  Baldy,  too,  was  bound  for  the  Bowery,  after  some  years  of  rather 
successful  exploits.  All  through  the  southwest,  he  would  have  me  believe, 
even  in  the  smaller  towns,  a  "four-bit  tip"  was  esteemed  the  proper  thing 
to  hand  to  a  beggar,  and  the  yeggs  were  making  all  kinds  of  money.  Not  a 
passenger  train  west  of  the  Mississippi  nor  south  of  the  Missouri  but 
carried  "high  heels"  and  jockers,  and  train  crews  connived  at  their 
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presence.*  "Hard-boiled"  people,  too,  said  Baldy,  were  "going  good" 
from  the  zinc  district  right  down  to  the  city  of  Mexico,  notwithstanding 
the  "tapping"  (hanging)  of  "Tea"  West  and  his  partner  for  "plugging" 
(shooting)  a  deputy  sheriff  in  Arkansas.  According  to  Baldy,  it  had  not 
been  Tea  but  another  yegg  whose  "gatling"  (gun)  had  made  a  "stiff"  of 
the  "bull."  Tea,  loyal  to  his  code,  had  gone  to  his  death  without  a 
"squeal,"  So  had  "Denver  Shine,"  a  Negro;  but  on  the  other  hand, 
Baldy  told  of  the  iniquities  of  "Riverside  Slim"  (another  wellknown 
Negro  tramp),  who  had  ceased  to  respect  some  of  the  obligations  of  his 
kind  and  had  been  punished  by  a  "kangaroo"  court  (tramp's  court)  and 
banished  from  the  roads  of  the  southwest.  "Leadville  Jimmy,"  who  with 
"Texas  Red"  had  killed  "Swedish  Qara"  in  "York,"  had  been  cornered 
in  San  Quentin  prison. f 

When  the  talk,  by  way  of  reciprocity,  turned  to  affairs  in  New  York, 

Baldy  was  eq>edal)y  interested  to  learn  of  the  fortunes  of  Mickey  G , 

Tom  Lee's  bartender  on  the  Bowery,  and  he  recalled  with  some  enthusiasm 
Mickey's  former  exploits, — how  when  on  the  road  he  was  famous  for 
recitations  and  improvisation  songs  given  around  the  tramp  camp  fires 
in  the  "jungle."  That  he  now  had  a  flat  and  a  woman  was  a  concession 
to  domesticity  which  seemed  to  amuse  Baldy  immensely.  He  commented 
without  bitterness  upon  the  mushroom  prosperity  of  "Los  Slim,"  "  Illinois 
Jimmy,"  "New  Orleans  Ray,"  "K.  C.  Red,"  and  other  yeggs  who  had 
gone  to  "keeping  place"  (running  saloons). 

The  old  yeggs  were,  to  Baldy's  mind,  going  fast.  "Harrigan," 
who  for  years  with  "Billy  Kid"  had  held  down  the  Chicago,  Burlington 
and  Quincy  and  the  Rock  Island  railroads,  had  been  "done  away  with" 
(died);  and  "Old  Baldy,"  whom  the  yeggs  used  to  term  the  "best  known 
citizen  of  Indiana,"  had  also  made  the  "big  jump." 

*A  "high  heel"  is  a  woman  companion  of  professionat  yeggs,  so  named 
from  the  practice  of  wearing  high  false  shoes  which  enable  ber  to  pretend  that  the 
suffers  from  hip  trouble. 

fThis  incident  wdl  illustrate*  the  national  ramifications  of  the  craft. 
Swedish  Qara  was  killed  in  a  yegg  rendezvous,  a  fumiihed  room  house  at  7^ 
Ddancey  Street,  New  York.  Justice  later  overlook  the  men  who  emptied  their 
revolveis  into  the  body  of  this  woman  and  then  calmly  walked  out  of  the  house 
and  escaped.  While  undergoing  sentence  in  the  Nashville  penitentiary  for  safe 
blowing  dynamite  was  smuggled  in  to  Texas,  and  he  with  his  companions  blew  up 
an  entire  comer  of  the  priton  and  escaped.  They  were,  however,  tracked  by  blood 
hounds  to  a  neighboring  swamp  and  there  he  was  shot  down  and  killed.  Lead- 
ville Jimmy  was  brought  from  San  Quentin  to  New  York  on  the  old  charge  of 
murdering  Swedish  Clara,  and  was  committed  to  Matteawan  (the  state  institution 
for  criminal  insane).  Powerful  political  friends  in  New  York  would  have  effected 
his  rdease  through  a  legal  trick,  had  it  not  been  for  the  strong  stand  taken  by  the 
state  medical  authorities  who  asserted  that  the  man  was  a  criminal  degenerate. 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Baldy  himself  had  been  traveling  in  rather  hard  luck  since  leaving 
the  southwest.  The  pdice  had  shooed  him  away  from  Oeveland  and  he 
had  gone  to  Youngstown  where,  when  a  druggist  refused  him  even  a 
couple  of  "Indians"  (cc^pers),  he  had  knocked  him  out  with  his  "sap" 
(crutch).  He  had  been  arrested  and  sentenced  to  f  lo  fine  or  ten  days  tn 
jail,  but  on  giving  a  good  "con"  as  to  his  crippled  condition — he  affected 
paralysis — the  judge  had  remitted  the  fine  and  a  policeman  had  seen  him 
to  the  railroad  yards.  Baldy  was,  of  course,  not  lame,  and  used  the 
crutch  for  a  "stall"  (pretense).  He  hoped  for  better  luck  in  the  east, 
claiming  old  acquaintanceship  with  "Chi"  Tom  Lee,  famous  in  yeggdom 
as  a  friend  of  the  New  York  Sullivans,  and  he  did  not  expect  to  be 
"bothered"  at  the  beaches. 

Sitting  with  Baldy  in  a  Pittsburgh  saloon,  I  could  not  but 
recognize  how  a  chance  meeting  brought  one  at  once  in  touch 
with  almost  every  phase  of  the  yegg  world,  its  ups  and  downs  as 
violent  as  its  "jumps"  back  and  forth  across  the  continent. 
Today  John  Yegg  "snuffs  a  dram"  (cracks  a  safe)  and  "blows" 
into  a  "hang-out,"  weighed  down  with  "junk"  or  "flimsy" 
(coin  or  bills),  able  to  match  coins  with  double  eagles  or  to  throw  a 
note  on  the  bar  with  instructions  to  keep  the  crowd  drunk  until  it 
is  gone;  tomorrow  his  luck  changes  and  he  may  think  himself 
lucky  if  he  is  able  to  "make  a  sit  down"  (beg  on  the  sidewalk)  or 
even  to  receive  a  "  hand  out. " 

Shorty  was  the  type  of  young  desperado  who  with  youth 
in  his  favor  is  able  to  despise  and  to  defy  an  oftentimes  impotent 
local  police.  In  due  time  he  would  in  his  turn  degenerate  in  the 
estimation  of  the  brotherhood  into  a  mere  "fatty,"  just  as  Oeve- 
land Jim,  companion  of  the  hard-boiled  people  in  former  days, 
had  now  become  plain  Baldy  Callahan.  How  much  evil  already 
has  been  and  will  be  done  by  this  type  of  criminal  can  not  be  known, 
for  the  yegg  road  is  long  and  devious  and  tens  of  thousands  travel 
it. 

Pittsburgh  a  "  Hostile  Town" 
Four  years  had  intervened,  but  it  still  was  a  topic  of  discus- 
sion in  yeggdom  how  Scranton  Jimmy,  in  the  fall  of  1904,  emulous, 
no  doubt,  of  his  fellows  in  other  places  who  had  developed  into 
successful  saloon  keepers,  had  "jumped"  into  the  Smoky  City  and 
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THE   REVERSE   SIDE 

opened  a  bar  room  in  the  vicinity  of  Diamond  market;  how 
the  word  was  passed  along  the  line;  and  how  yeggs  and  "pan 
handlers"  (tramp  beggars)  flocked  into  the  place  and  celebrated 
with  good  measure  the  opening  of  a  new  headquarters.  The 
history  of  Scranton  Jimmy's  place,  however,  was  brief.  During 
the  first  six  weeks  the  police  raided  it  twelve  times;  twice  a  week 
they  "backed  the  wagon"  to  the  saloon  door  and  took  one  or 
more  loads  of  prisoners  to  the  station  house.  Scranton  Jimmy 
finally  gave  up. 

Since  then  no  similar  hang-out  had  been  established  in 
Pittsburgh  proper;  and  yeggs  in  transit  like  Baldy  Callahan 
made  only  temporary  stops. 

There  were,  however,  some  exceptions  to  this  rule. 

In  the  winter  of  igo8, 1  found  a  wellknown  yegg,  one  M ,  posing 

as  a  cripple,  canying  a  crutch,  and  throwing  out  "dockets"  (printed  beg- 
ging appeal  slips)  in  saloons  on  Smithfield  Street.  This  man  had  served 
two  years  for  bursary  in  the  Western  penitentiary  at  Allegheny  City.  He 
had  been  arrested  a  number  of  times  in  Pittsburgh  and  Altoona  since  1904, 
and  on  at  least  three  occasions  had  served  thirty  days  in  the  workhouse 
at  Claimiont.  Working  local  Pennsylvania  Railroad  trains  was  also  in  his 
line.  Only  a  few  weeks  previous  to  my  interview  he  had  been  brought 
into  the  Pittsburgh  police  headquarters  and  had  been  released  upon 
promise  that  he  would  leave  the  city.  For  a  time  he  had  a  furnished  room 
on  Wylie  Avenue  where  he  lived  with  his  high  heel,  who  carried  out  an 
imposture  with  a  crutch  and  a  false  shoe,  handing  out  dockets. 

Another  exception  to  the  general  rule  was  "Burly"  N whom 

the  writer  found  occasionally  stationed  on  the  bridge  spanning  the  PennsyU 
vania  Railroad  tracks  from  Washington  Street  to  the  Union  Station 
approach.  This  fellow  was  a  genuine  cripple,  or,  in  yegg  parlance,  he  had 
a  "natural  leg,"  having  lost  his  limb  a  few  years  before  while  beating  his 
way  on  freight  trains  through  the  Cumberland  valley.  However,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  statement,  he  had  long  been  a  "burly"  (ablebodied  beggar 
and  tramp)  before  meeting  with  this  accident.  A  native  of  Philadelphia 
and  now  only  about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  he  had  been  on  the  road  since 
boyhood,  and  had  served  time  in  various  jails  and  workhouses.  He  was 
proud  to  claim  acquaintanceship  with  noted  yeggs  whom  i  knew  or  had 
heard  of.  At  one  time,  sick  of  the  road,  he  had  found  work  at  window 
cleaning  in  Pittsburgh  through  the  local  police,  but  he  had  later  obeyed  the 
call  back  to  trampdom  and  was  now  probably  permanently  settled  in  this 
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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

life.  N  found  that  the  Pittsburgh  District  agreed  with  him,  "nobody 
bothered  him,"  he  could  keep  "half  soused"  all  the  time,  and  need  only 
remain  sufficiently  alert  to  "  throw  his  hat "  (beg).  The  "  sucker  "  did  the 
rest.  He  was  well  pleased  with  his  "earnings"  on  pay  days  at  the  Pressed 
Steel  Car  Works  in  Allegheny  City. 

More  lately,  however,  having  in  good  nature  taken  two  buriys 
down  to  "break  them  into  a  good  thing,"  they  all  grew  tired  of  keeping 
one  foot  or  arm  tucked  away  as  though  injured  and  sought  a  quicker 
means  of  getting  rich.  Under  a  convenient  railway  bridge  they  "held  up 
Hunkies"  for  their  entire  pay.  The  bulls  got  "sore"  because  of  the 
"hollers"  (complaints  of  victims).  Suspicion  pointed  to  N  as  sponswfor 
the  buriys,  and  the  Steel  Car  Company  was  as  good  as  closed  to  biro 
untir'Whitey"  O could  fix  things  up. 

The  Fence 

In  contrast  to  Pittsburgh's  freedom  from  hang-outs,  Whitey 
Cs  headquarters  at  105  Grantham  Street,  Allegheny  Qty,  had 
long  been  a  yegg  rendezvous.  Until  1908,  the  Pittsburgh  pcJice 
were  not  in  a  position  to  rout  them  out  of  the  District.  So 
long  as  Allegheny  City  existed  as  a  separate  municipality,  not  only 
were  these  hang-outs  allowed  to  flourish  there,  but  the  town  was 
also  a  resort  for  other  professional  thieves  from  all  over  the  country 
and  to  a  certain  extent  Pittsburgh  itself  furnished  a  convenient 
field  for  their  operations. 

Whitey  was  one  of  the  hard-boiled  people  who  was  "in 
right"  with  the  Allegheny  bulls,  and  could  and  would  fix  anything 
within  reason  for  suitable  compensation.  His  picture  was  in  the 
Rogues'  Gallery  in  Pittsburgh,  and  his  furnished  room  house  was  a 
center  for  fake  cripples  like  the  docket-thrower,  M.  According 
to  a  police  authority,  this  was  a  real  "cripple  factory"  where 
young  men  brought  in  from  other  cities  were  "fixed  up," — 
furnished  with  crutches,  and  their  arms  or  hands  bandaged  in 
order  to  carry  out  the  pretense  that  they  were  bona  fide  workmen 
who  had  been  injured  in  the  mills. 

The  leader  of  one  gang,  P by  name,  who  had  ppcvkMisly 

operated  in  Wheeling,  West  Virginia,  and  Buffalo,  sent  out  members  to  ply 

their  trade  throughout  the  steel  district  and  even  on  the  main  streets  of 

Pittsburgh's  business  section.    For  example,  a  "hand-out  stiff"  would  be 

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posted  on  the  sidewalk  outside  the  Duquesne  Club  to  solicit  alms.  Along 
with  the  mendicant  would  be  sent  boosters,  men  who  would  pass  in  front 
of  the  supposed  cripple  and  with  some  show  drc^  a  quarter  into  his  hat. 
The  booster  was  poorly  dressed,  and  the  game  was  that  more  wealthy 
passersby  would  note  the  coin  and  go  him  one  better. 

Such  fake  cripples  are  closely  akin  to  the  yeggs  in  their 
begging  operations.  While  for  the  most  part  they  differ  from  the 
latter  in  that  they  do  not  resort  to  burglary  and  safe-blowing, 
being  content  to  commit  lesser  offenses,  they  sometimes  become 
recruits;  and  they  are  not  to  be  considered  as  working  only  in  the 
pursuit  of  their  calling.  Their  headquarters  in  saloons  or  fur- 
nished room  houses  are  places  of  rendezvous  for  the  more  desper- 
ate yeggs  as  well  as  for  men  of  their  own  class. 

Thus  Whitey  O's  was  a  sort  of  post  office  where  tran- 
sients called  for  their  mail  and  planned  their  operations.  It  flour- 
ished unmolested  until,  with  the  consolidation  of  Allegheny  City 
and  Pittsburgh  in  1908,  Director  Lang  and  Superintendent  Mc- 
Quaide  of  Pittsburgh  took  summary  action.  Within  a  few  weeks' 
time  the  furnished  room  house  on  Grantham  Street  was  raided  on 
three  different  occasions.  O  was  twice  lined  $50  in  the  central 
police  court  and  the  third  time  f  too,  sums  which  he  readily  paid 
rather  than  go  to  jail. 

In  addition  to  this  headquarters,  there  were  several  other 
"sub-stations"  in  Allegheny  City  which  fake  cripples  and  yeggs 
used  for  meeting  places.  Six  members  of  a  gang  were  arrested 
at  206  Anderson  Street,  in  Allegheny,  and  revolvers,  cartridges, 
and  steel  saws  were  found  when  their  quarters  were  searched. 

The  belated  Allegheny  raids  went  to  prove  what  Pittsburgh 
had  already  halfway  demonstrated, — that  the  closing  up  of 
establbhed  yegg  hang-outs  by  the  police  of  an  industrial  city  is 
not  only  a  practicable  measure,  but  will  result  in  the  virtual  dis- 
appearance of  these  criminals  from  the  neighborhood.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  yegg  hang-out  if  tolerated  in  any  city  is  bound  to 
infect  it  with  evils. 


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WAGE-EARNING  PITTSBURGH 

IV 
BEGGARS 

Not  only  was  Pittsburgh  in  1907-08  "hostile"  to  be^ng 
yeggs,  but  considering  the  city's  size  and  wealth  there  was  com- 
paratively  little  street  begging  by  semi-professionals,  such  as 
"down  and  outs"  or  lodging-house  frequenters.  As  in  other 
industrial  cities  where  there  is  a  more  or  less  steady  demand  for 
labor  in  mills  and  factories,  ablebodied  begging  is  looked  upon 
with  disfavor.  Even  the  cold  of  the  winter  brought  no  consider- 
able increase. 

There  was  the  usual  number  of  licensed  street  peddlers 
operating  as  petty  tradesmen,  but  few  were  in  reality  beggars, 
and  very  few  who  were  unlicensed  used  their  wares  as  a  cover  for 
begging.  There  were  only  a  few  blind  street  mendicants  and  no 
"black  hoods,"  wrinkled  old  women  dressed  in  shabby  black, 
such  as  go  about  begging  in  downtown  office  buildings  in  New 
York,  or  at  the  servants'  doors  of  private  houses,  i  made  no 
personal  investigation,  but  was  told  that  house  to  house  begging 
by  women  with  large  families  and  long  stories  was  common.  There 
was  also  some  begging  at  the  doors  of  churches.  But  the  petite 
who  did  this  were  of  a  type  that  showed  the  need  of  a  strong  asso- 
ciated charities  rather  than  of  police  repression. 

Such  local  parasites  as  existed,  however,  were  not  so  vigor- 
ously dealt  with  as  the  visiting  swindlers  and  pickpockets,  who,  as 
we  have  seen,  upon  their  arrival  in  the  city  were  promptly  gathered 
into  the  police  net  and  given  "hours"  to  leave  town.  One  place 
at  least  in  the  city  was  evidently  known  as  a  safe  and  presumably 
profitable  "pitch."  This  was  the  bridge  spanning  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad  tracks  from  Washington  Street  to  the  Union  Station 
approach.  It  was  here  that  1  first  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Buriy  N,  whose  story  has  already  been  given,  and  during  the 
summer  and  fall  of  1907,  1  observed  (at  different  times)  no  less 
than  15  mendicants,  some  of  them  apparently  yeggs.  There 
were  a  few  semi-professionals  also  to  be  found  begging  around  the 
Diamond  and  in  Pittsburgh's  business  section,  of  whom  the  fol- 
lowing were  representative  types: 

336 


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"Thuowini 


IHMOWINC  His  Hat 

Mendicant  imposlor  of  Ihe  "John  Yegg"  type  who  (lopped  on  Washington  Street 
bridge  above  the  Union  Depot 

D,„i,z,d,  Google 


1 


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THE  REVERSE   SIDE 

A  "down  and  out"  was  observed  for  several  weeks  begging  on 
the  streets  at  night.  The  man  was  stoop-shouldered,  hollow-eyed,  and 
toothless,  and  his  beard  was  mixed  with  grey.  His  clothes  were  noitde* 
script  and  he  wore  a  battered  derby  hat.  Although  it  was  winter,  he  had 
DO  overcoat.  According  to  the  man's  story,  he  was  a  widower,  sixty-two 
years  of  age;  his  wife  had  been  dead  a  number  of  years  and  his  two  children 
were  also  deceased.  His  great  grandfather,  he  claimed,  had  come  from 
Germany  to  America  and  had  been  one  of  the  first  glass  manufacturers  in 
the  country.  He  was  a  glass  worker  himself,  he  claimed,  and  formerly 
carried  a  card  of  the  Amalgamated  Association  of  Class  Workers.  Lat- 
terly, he  had  bummed  about,  working  for  a  few  days  or  weeks  from  time  to 
time  in  the  kitchens  of  cheap  restaurants.  He  slept  at  the  Salvation  Army 
lod^ng  house  paying  lo  cents  a  night.  He  had  been  arrested  a  number  of 
times  for  drunkenness  and  had  served  short  terms  in  the  local  jail. 

A  genuine  cripple — a  colored  man  partly  paralyzed — was  fre- 
quently to  be  seen  begging  on  Wylie  Avenue  in  the  Hill  District,  appar- 
ently unnudested  by  the  police. 

An  Irish  "widow"  was  found  visiting  the  downtown  office  build- 
ings.  She  was  dressed  in  mourning  and  claimed  that  her  husband  had  been 
a  blast  furnace  helper  for  several  years  previous  to  his  death.  She  had 
been  begging  for  a  few  days  only,  she  informed  me,  but  had  realized  from 
^3.00  to  {2.$o  each  day.  A  local  charitable  society  had  occasionally 
supplied  her  with  coal.  The  story  she  told  was  that  her  family  consisted 
of  seven  children,  the  oldest  being  fourteen  years  of  age. 

Investigations  made  by  the  Pittsburgh  Survey  into  industrial 
accidents  showed  that,  in  the  absence  of  any  enforced  system 
of  workingmen's  compensation,  many  widows  were  undoubt- 
edly thrown  upon  their  own  resources,  and  among  the  cases  studied 
some  took  to  begging,  but  it  was  usually  among  their  own  people 
and  at  church  doors.  Such  a  situation  of  course  plays  into  the 
hands  <^  impostors,  and  at  the  same  time  tends  to  break  down  the 
self-respect  of  bona  fide  widows. 

Of  blind  mendicants,  there  were  perhaps  a  half  dozen  local 
characters  who  were  tolerated  by  the  police,  each  (rf  whom  con- 
fined his  (^rations  to  a  separate  locality. 

A  blind  couple,  a  young  man  and  woman,  were  occasionally  to  be 
seen  promenading  the  streets  in  the  financial  and  shopping  districts.    The 
man  wore  suspended  from  his  neck  a  framed  photograph  of  the  two,  pre- 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

sumably  taken  earlier  in  life,  and  called  out  shrilly  at  short  intervals, "  Buy 
a  pencil,  five  cents. "  This  couple  formerly  sold  newspapers  on  the  streets 
and,  according  to  one  police  official,  owned  a  farm  in  Ohio.  No  effort  was 
made,  apparently,  either  to  warn  them  against  begging  or  to  learn  other 
facts  in  connection  with  their  history. 

Another  couple,  a  blind  girl  about  twenty  years  of  age  and  a  girl 
companion  who  acted  as  guide,  played  and  sang  in  saloons.  The  guide 
sang  and  the  blind  girl  accompanied  her  on  a  mouth  organ.  One  Saturday 
night,  during  which  this  couple  operated  unmolested  at  the  Union  Station, 
they  collected  about  fij.  The  blind  girl  was  a  native  of  Shenandoah, 
Pennsylvania,  but  was  living  at  the  time  in  McKeesport.  She  had  en- 
tered the  school  for  the  blind  at  Overbrook,  and  had  learned  chair  caning 
and  bead  work,  but  had  not  had  the  ambition  to  follow  these  trades  in  the 
face  of  the  easier  income  to  be  gained  from  street  begging.  Another 
Overbrook  pupil  played  a  flute  on  a  street  comer. 

The  need  was  apparent  for  some  system  of  placement  and 
supervision,  such  as  that  carried  out  by  the  association  for  the 
blind  in  New  England,  which  would  neither  let  the  adult  blind 
drift  into  mendicancy,  nor  expect  them  to  be  able  to  gain  a  liveli- 
hood unassisted  in  the  intense  life  of  an  industrial  center.* 

At  the  comer  of  Wood  Street  and  Oliver  Avenue,  a  blind  man  was 
to  be  seen  through  the  day  selling  newspapers.  According  to  the  writer's 
informant,  he  had  been  a  hard  working  man, — a  miner, — and  had  lost  his 
sight  in  a  mine  explosion.  He  was  in  effect  a  small  merchant  and  the 
accurate  way  he  identified  the  different  papers  he  handled  and  made  his 
change,  presented  a  striking  contrast  to  the  begging  letters  and  whimper- 
ing tales  of  some  of  his  boy  competitors.  These  boys  were  part  of  the 
sales  force  employed  by  the  publisher  of  a  fake  newsboys'  journal,  per- 
haps the  most  perverting  type  of  street  imposture  which  operated  un- 
checked in  the  city,  and  one  which  could  have  had  no  other  effect  than  to 
teach  the  children  habits  of  getting  money  by  other  means  than  that  of 
eaming  it.     It  was  no  less  than  a  school  of  beggary. 

These  instances  are  sufficient  to  show  the  opportunity  in 
Pittsburgh  for  such  social  police  work  as  that  which  was  carried 
on  for  several  years  by  the  New  York  Mendicancy  Squad.    This 

■The  Rttsburgh  Ajsociation  for  the  Blind  was  organized  in  1910  "to 
prevent  unnecessary  blindness,  to  help  the  blind  help  themsdvei,  and  (o  ameliorate 
the  condition  of  the  blind." 

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THE   REVERSE   SIDE 


was  at  once  repressive  in  clearing  the  streets  of  professional  beg- 
gars, fake  cripples,  and  of  yeggs,  by  immediate  arrest  and  such 
record  keeping  as  meant  the  full  term  of  imprisonment  for  old 
offenders.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was  constructive  in  bringing 
real  unfortunates  into  touch  with  natural  sources  of  help. 


LODGING  HOUSES 

From  the  gambler  and  yeggman  "higher  up"  in  the  scale, 
we  have  seen  how  the  underworld  grades  down  with  age  and  vice 
and  disability  to  a  dreg-like  stratum.  Here  we  have  not  only  the 
foot-loose  and  parasitic  of  the  criminal  world,  but  those  others 
vho  through  misfortune  or  drink  or  flagrant  economic  injustice 
have  dropped  through  from  their  place  in  the  industrial  world. 
This  brings  us  to  the  problem  of  shelter  in  its  lowest  terms;  of 
the  sort  of  accommodations  Pittsburgh  afforded  the  unskilled 
laborer  who  is  irregularly  employed  on  the  river  or  in  the  markets; 
the  man  who  is  down  and  out,  but  who  formerly  lived  in  better 
circumstances;  the  friendless  workman  crippled  or  advanced  in 
years,  as  well  as  the  so-called  homeless  man  or  vagrant  who  works 
now  and  then  at  whatever  job  he  can  pick  up,  who  sometimes 
obtains  an  odd  penny  by  begging  or  even  commits  an  occasional 
petty  theft. 

A  partial  answer  to  these  questions  was  to  be  found  in  a 
series  of  inspections  I  made  of  the  cheap  lodging-house  section  in 
the  summer  of  1907  when,  if  ever,  the  industrial  life  of  the  District 
was  in  full  tide.  I  was  struck  with  the  comparatively  small 
number  of  such  establishments,  accounted  for  largely  by  the  fact 
that  the  alien  laborers  from  southern  Europe,  who  have  become 
the  chief  factor  in  the  manual  labor  of  the  city,  are  not  to  be  found 
in  the  common  lodging  houses;  they  live  with  their  families  or 
herd  with  boarding  bosses  in  their  own  sections  of  the  city. 

The  lodging  house  population  had  its  roots  rather  in  the 
English-speaking  population.  It  could  be  traced  in  part  to  the 
break-up  of  families  of  English-speaking  mill  and  mine  workers 
that  occurred  during  the  great  strikes  in  the  coal,  coke,  and  iron 
regions  in  the  So's  and  90's  and  in  the  succeeding  industrial  up- 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

heavak.*  The  exploiting,  displacing,  and  disabling  processes  of  a 
new  and  increasingly  specialized  industry,  as  well  as  the  strain  of 
machine  production,  have  left  a  residue  of  physically  weakened, 
discouraged,  and  permanently  declassed  men.  The  active  agen- 
cies of  prostitution  and  of  the  abuse  of  liquor  and  drugs  all  tend  to 
augment  the  number  of  industrially  unfit  and  semi-employed. 

The  cynic  would  have  found  meat  and  drink  to  his  taste  in 
the  fact  that  among  the  lodging  houses  frequented  by  such  dere- 
licts, the  "mission"  with  its  call  to  salvation  combined  with  a 
cheap  bed  for  the  night,  was  much  in  evidence.  For  the  municipal 
authorities  had  taken  little  thought  of  the  homeless  men,  ofTering 
them  only  a  cell  in  a  police  station  or  the  board  and  lodging  afforded 
by  a  sentence  to  the  local  workhouse.  Beyond  this,  they  left  the 
matter  to  commercial  enterprise  and  the  sporadic  efforts  of  mis- 
sion philanthropy.  Half  a  dozen  mission  lodging  houses  were  to 
be  found  in  the  downtown  district. 

No  more  pathetic  figure  may  be  seen  than  the  homeless  man 
or  vagrant,  who  is  especially  attracted  to  the  mission  lodging  house. 
As  he  advances  in  years  he  tends  to  sink  lower  and  lower  in  the 
social  scale.  Looked  at  askance  by  city  charitable  organizations, 
he  is  told  to  go  to  the  country,  and  there  he  is  warned  under  pain 
of  sentence  in  jail  or  the  workhouse  to  leave  and  "go  back  to  the 
city  where  he  belongs."  The  only  place  where  he  is  sure  of  wel- 
come is  the  mission.  Faced  with  the  problem  of  shelter  for  these 
cast-offs,  it  has  been  but  natural  for  mission  leaders  to  conduct 
lodging  houses,  and  it  has  been  but  natural  for  many  drifters  to 
exploit  the  indiscriminate  help  given,  and  become  mission  bums 
or  loafers  who  profess  conversion  in  lively  anticipation  of  benefits 
to  be  received.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  perhaps  equally  JnevitaMe 
that  insincere  men  should  have  paralleled  these  genuine  under- 
takings with  others  devised  to  make  money  out  of  the  meager 
pockets  of  their  patrons. 

Of  the  good  intentions  of  mission  laborers;  of  both  the  weak- 
nesses and  the  personal  successes  which  have  characterized  the 
movement  in  this  country,  a  whole  literature  has  been  written. 

*  As  expert  leslimony  on  this  point,  i  have  already  quoted  the  Pinkertoas, 
who  themtelves  played  a  prominent  part  in  the  Homestead  strike  of  1893.  See 
page  336. 


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THE   REVERSE  SIDE 

With  their  spiritual  endeavors  I  am  not  concerned;  but  how  far 
in  Pittsburg  they  maintained  a  proper  standard  of  physical  shel- 
ter for  the  homeless  men  who  came  to  them,  lay  clearly  within  my 
field. 

In  1902,  the  Pittsburgh  bureau  of  health  issued  21  licenses 
to  establish  and  conduct  common  lodging  houses;  in  1903,  11;  in 
1904,  one;  in  1905,  two;  in  1906,  three;  and  in  1907  prior  to 
July,  one.  These  diminishing  figures  did  not  mean  that  lodging 
houses  had  ceased  to  exist  in  Pittsburgh,  or  that  the  license  fee 
(f3.oo)  had  been  raised,  or  inspection  standards  unreasonably  in- 
creased. The  lodging-house  keepers  had  simply  ceased  to  trouble 
themselves  to  license. 

A  Five-  to  Twenty-five-cent  House.  Of  the  score  of  common 
lodging  houses  in  the  section  bounded  by  Second  Avenue,  Market,  Ross, 
and  Water  streets,  the  lowest  level  reached  was  that  of  the  one  conducted 

by  0 ■  wlio  ***  sometimes  referred  to  by  the  local  newspapers  as  a  man 

of  means  and  a  philanthropist.  This  lodging  house  was  situated  at 
Nos.  405-407  Second  Avenue,  and  consisted  of  two  brick  houses,  each  com- 
prising three  stories  and  a  cellar,  which  had  been  used  as  brothels  until  the 
reform  administration  drove  such  establishments  otF  the  streets  containing 
car  lines.  The  main  floor  was  occupied  by  the  Providence  Mission. 
In  the  cellar  section  directly  beneath,  the  writer  on  the  evening  of  his  visit 
counted  28  Negroes  occupying  double-decker  cots  (cots  slung  on  iron 
frames,  one  over  the  other).  A  meeting  was  in  progress  in  the  room  over- 
head and  the  shufRing  of  feet,  the  clanging  of  brass,  and  every  word  of 
exhortation  could  be  distinctly  heard.  Sleep  for  the  lodgers  was  impossible 
until  after  the  meeting  should  adjourn;  nor  did  the  sterile  emotionalism 
going  on  above  send  down  any  practical  help  for  them.  A  single  small 
window  at  one  end  of  the  room  offered  the  only  means  of  ventilation,  and 
this  was  closed.  Gasping  upon  an  upper  bunk  and  spitting  blood  upon  the 
dirt  floor,  lay  a  Negro,  far  gone  with  tuberculosis.  In  the  farther  cellar 
slept  30  Negroes,  every  bunk  being  occupied;  while  in  a  coal  hole  at  the 
rear,  a  cot  beside  the  water-closet  was  the  sleepmg  place  of  a  Negro  em- 
ploye. He  was  engaged  at  the  moment  in  cooking  supper  over  an  oil 
stove  for  the  watchman. 

On  the  two  upper  floors  of  the  establishment,  the  superior  whites 
rolled  upon  verminous  cots,  or  lay  in  weary  sleep,  or  in  the  stupor  of  alco- 
hol or  drugs.  N^roes  and  whites  alike  were  all  most  miserable  and  de- 
jected looking.  As  the  place  had  never  been  constructed  for  lodging-house 
purposes,  the  two  upper  floors  were  divided  into  a  number  of  small  rooms. 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Two  were  filled  with  sin^c  cots,  each  renting  for  as  cents  per  night;  the  re- 
maining rooms  with  double-deckers  renting  at  i  $  cents  per  night  for  each 
bed.  Both  cots  and  double-deckers  ranged  so  close  together  that  it  was 
difTicult  to  make  our  way  between  them  and  from  one  room  to  another. 
On  the  two  floors  there  was  accommodation — so  called — for  ijo  men; 
but  as  it  was  summer.thebedswerenot  entirely  full,  there  being  possibly 
a  score  of  vacant  places  on  the  double-deckers.  In  the  winter  time,  ac- 
cording to  a  statement  made  by  the  lodging-house  clerk,  the  place  was 
crowded  to  suffocation. 

As  we  entered  one  of  the  double-decker  rooms,  an  inmate  dressed 
himself  and  started  to  leave  hurriedly  as  though  fearing  arrest.  He  was 
a  hard-faced  youth,  who  slipped  into  a  new  suit  which  he  explained  was 
purchased  from  money  given  him  by  a  market  man.  A  room-mate  was 
described  as  a  former  collar  and  cufF  salesman  who  had  once  earned  a 
salary  of  |3,;oo  a  year.  He  had  lost  his  position  two  years  since  through 
drink  and  drugs,  and  had  become  a  regular  inmate  of  Q's.  A  former 
city  policeman  and  a  former  official  of  Allegheny  were  also  pointed  out  to 
us  in  this  room. 

On  the  ground  floor  at  the  back,  the  old  yard  of  one  of  the  houses 
had  been  roofed  over,  probably  while  it  was  occupied  as  a  brothel,  and 
in  this  additional  room  men  were  allowed  to  sleep  on  benches  or  on 
the  floor  for  5  cents  each  per  night.  Even  on  this  stifling  summer  night, 
the  place  was  well  filled.  In  winter,  prospective  guests  were  obliged  lo 
reserve  accommodations  early  in  the  day.  Toilet  and  ventilation  facili- 
ties throughout  were  of  the  scantiest  and  the  worst. 

The  expenses  for  help  in  this  establishment  were  as  follows:  A 
clerk  at  S13,  a  watchman  at  ^7.00,  and  five  bed  makers  and  cleaners  at 
J3.S0  each  per  week.  The  mission  paid  li.oo  per  night  for  the  main  floor 
room.  With  170  double-decker  cots  at  1;  cents  each,  and  about  35  single 
cots  at  2S  cents  each,  plus  the  rental  paid  by  the  mission,  some  idea  may 
be  obtained  as  to  the  profits  above  any  probable  rental  to  be  realized 
by  this  business.  We  may  understand  too  why  the  proprietor  did  not 
confine  his  operations  to  this  place  alone,  but  had  opened  another  plant 
on  Second  Avenue  on  the  two  upper  floors  of  an  old  loft  building. 

MissroN  Houses.  A  little  farther  along  Second  Avenue,  a  similar 
combination  of  mission  and  lodging  house  caught  the  eye.  Here  the 
Volunteers  of  America  conducted  a  common  lodging  house,  of  a  grade 
above  the  double-decker  and  dormitory  type,  fitted  up  with  cubicles  at 
2;  cents  each  per  night.  While  toilet  and  bathing  facilities  were  poor, 
the  place  was  considerably  superior  to  Q's;  yet  as  a  common  lodging 
house,  it  had  nothing  especially  to  commend  it  so  far  as  the  physical 

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THE   REVERSE  SIDE 

comforts  of  its  inmates  were  concemed;  nor,  save  as  the  city  failed  to 
provide  decent  quarters,  to  justify  its  operation  by  a  professedly  religious 
organization. 

On  the  Diamond,  the  Salvation  Army  was  similarly  engaged  in 
the  common  lodging-house  business.  An  old  brothel  property  was 
occupied  and  shamelessly  crowded  with  men.  Every  cubby  hole  of  a 
room — and  the  building  bad  been  constructed  with  a  view  to  furnishing  a 
large  number  of  separate  rooms — was  jammed  full  of  cots.  One  upper 
floor  was  crowded  with  double-deckers  leaving  scarcely  room  to  pass; 
upon  these  for  lo  cents  a  night  men  slept  in  their  clothing,  no  bed  clothing 
being  furnished.  The  lower  hall  was  crowded  with  doubled eckers,  and 
both  the  office  and  the  entrance  hall  were  equipped  with  convenient  tables 
and  benches  upon  which  "drunks"  were  stretched.  The  man  in  charge 
stated  that  in  the  winter  time  lodgers  paid  ;  cents  each  per  night  for  the 
privilege  of  sleeping  upon  these  benches  and  tables.  Many  of  the  lodgers, 
he  said,  begged  their  bed  money  nearby  on  the  Diamond. 

At  330  Liberty  Avenue  was  found  the  Liberty  Avenue  Mission. 
This  place  boasted  a  gospel  wagon  nicely  enameled,  and  in  the  meeting 
room  a  group  photograph  of  "workers"  and  wagon  was  exhibited.  In  a 
rear  room  on  the  main  floor,  where  the  wagon  was  housed,  were  found 
triple-deckers  adjoining  a  filthy  toilet.  A  cellar  beneath  this  building 
contained  more  triple-deckers  and  was  littered  with  scraps  of  a  bread  and 
coffee  dole. 

Triple-deckers  and  Sanctimony.  An  even  more  pretentious 
example  than  Qs  of  "  lodgings  for  charity  and  100  per  cent "  was 
found  at  Eighth  Street  and  Duquesne  Way.  Here,  at  the  time  of  my 
visit,  stood  a  hotel  kept  by  the  "Rev."  R .  An  alley  led  to  a  sub- 
sidiary enterprise  labeled  "  Bethel  Home. "  This  consisted  in  the  main  of 
a  large  back  room  or  store  room  of  the  hotel,  and  was  equipped  with  triple- 
deckers  and  numerous  cots. 

The  triple-deckers,  we  were  informed,  each  furnished  three  men 
with  a  place  to  lie  at  ;  cents  a  head.  No  bed  clothes  were  provided. 
There  was  also  a  cellar  filled  with  cots.  These  were  in  demand  the  year 
round  at  lo  cents  each  per  night.  The  proprietor,  it  may  be  noted  in 
passing,  stated  that  he  did  not  believe  in  organized  charity;  that  he  did 
"practical"  work  instead;  and  atone  public  meeting,  at  least,  actively 
opposed  the  proposition  to  establish  such  an  associated  charities  in  Pitts- 
burgh as  had  been  bothersome  to  business  men  in  other  cities.  He  had 
been  able  to  get  his  hotel  recommended  as  a  safe  and  proper  place  for 
req>ectable  young  men  coming  to  Pittsburgh;  and  he  escaped  paying 
taxes  on  his  lodging-house  property  because  of  its  charitable  pretentions. 
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A  city  fireman,  at  an  adjoining  fire  house,  said,  that  following  a 
flood,  the  Bethel  management  had  been  so  anxious  to  resume  its  activities 
that  cots  were  installed  and  occupied  almost  before  the  firemen  had  taken 
out  their  pumps,  the  mud  and  slime  remaining  in  the  cdlar. 

A  Poor-man's  Tavern.  At  iij  Second  Avenuewas  found  thecmc 
lodging-house  keeper  who  had  thought  it  worth  while  to  bother  with  a 
license.  "Clem"  Hackenberger  kept  at  that  address  a  lodging  house 
which  served  a  quite  different  class  of  men  from  those  already  described. 
Itiver  men  and  market  men  were  his  patrons.  The  M  brick  dwelling 
house  had  cots  in  every  room,  each  with  a  number  in  large  figures  on  the 
wall  above  the  bed.  Placards  bearing  advice  regarding  the  disposition  of 
valuables,  and  warnings  addressed  to  lodgers  against  causing  trouble, 
were  posted  on  the  walls.  Fresh  paint  and  whitewash  made  the  place 
fairiy  clean  and  attractive  within.  Each  bed  cost  as  ""ts  per  night. 
Water  was  lacking  save  in  the  yard,  and  each  floor  was  provided  only  with 
a  common  bucket;  but  the  general  appearance  completely  differentiated 
this  place  from  the  ordinary  common  lodging  house,  whether  run  as  a 
mission  or  as  a  sanctimonious  counterfeit  of  one.  One  felt  that  the  tran- 
sients who  lodged  there  patronized  a  kind  of  tavern  which  was  justified  by 
their  necessities,  and  that  it  was  designed  for  just  such  travelers  as  they; 
that  having  paid  a  reasonable  price  for  its  use,  they  went  on  their  way. 
Crude,  coarse,  and  comfortless  enough  as  were  too  often  the  lives  of  its 
patrons,  still  here  they  might  come  and  go  escaping  the  vitiating  atmos- 
phere of  the  common  lodging  house  or  the  complications  of  soul  and  body 
injected  into  the  hiring  of  a  bed  for  the  night  at  a  mission. 

River  M  en's  Houses.  Very  different  in  type,  sinister  and  squalid, 
was  another  type,  a  "river  man's  house,"  described  by  the  police  official 
who  accompanied  the  writer  as  "Jennie  S's  old  place."  This  house  was 
still  standing  in  the  heart  of  the  old  noisome  river  section,  where  a  trunk 
line  railroad  had  pushed  its  way  into  the  center  of  the  market  district. 
Many  old  rookeries,  historic  buildings,  brothels,  saloons,  and  lodging 
houses  had  been  removed  to  make  room  for  the  railroad's  elevated  track 
and  had  been  replaced  by  strong  clean  spans  of  steel  and  concrete.  Such 
rookeries  as  survived  looked  by  comparison  the  more  hopeless  and 
degraded.  This  part  of  Pittsburgh,  the  first  ward,  is  the  oldest  secticm 
of  the  city.  A  little  lower  down,  the  famous  "block  house"  still  stands 
on  its  old  site,  now  forming  the  comer  of  a  freight  yard.  The  street  had  a 
character  all  Its  own,  resembling  the  waterfront  of  any  large  city.  Here 
all  the  hard,  sordid  life  of  the  river  centered,  and  to  Jennie  S's  brothel 
came  riv«'  men,  hucksters,  and  truck  farmers,  as  in  former  days  came 
the  "Rogue  Riderhoods"  of  the  waterfront. 

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V  Second  Avenue  Lodging  House  and  Mis 


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THE   REVERSE  SIDE 

Lodging-house  Resort.  At  104  Fourth  Avenue  was  still  another 
type  of  house,  kept  by  a  Roumelian  Greek  who  ran  a  coffee  room  on  the 
ground  floor.  The  building  was  of  brick,  fonnerly  a  mansion,  and  an  unusu- 
ally high  ceilinged  room  on  the  second  floor  was  divided  into  cubicles  by 
rough  wooden  partitions  about  7  feet  in  height.  Over  a  number  of  these 
cubicles  wire  netting  was  stretched — a  suggestive  precaution.  At  the 
time  of  our  visit  not  only  men,  but  women  with  their  transient  guests,  were 
going  in  and  out  of  this  building.  A  faded  woman  seated  at  a  table  in  the 
hall,  with  a  grimy  register  before  her,  supplied  a  sufficient  index  to  the 
character  of  such  couples  as  sought  accommodations. 

As  direct  result  of  this  tour  of  inspection,  made  in  company 
with  the  chief  executive  ofHcer  of  the  bureau  of  health.  Dr.  James 
F.  Edwards,  and  members  of  his  staff  of  sanitary  police,  the  bureau 
of  health  closed  the  Q  and  R  lodging  houses.  The  Salvation  Army 
and  the  Liberty  Mission  were  likewise  enjoined.  New  rules  were 
drafted.  Q's  place  was  not  permitted  to  re-open  until  the  double- 
deckers  had  been  ripped  out,  the  cellar  lodgings  done  away  with, 
shower  baths  installed,  and  adequate  toilet  facilities  provided. 
Abandoning  its  location  on  the  Diamond,  the  Salvation  Army 
rented  an  old  church  at  Thirty-seventh  and  Charlotte  Streets.* 

*  in  1909  a  further  in  vest  igatton  of  Piltsburgh's  lodging  houses  was  made  by 
a  local  committee  whose  object  was  to  secure  the  establish menl  of  a  municipal 
lod^g  bouse,  work  test,  and  empbyment  bureau. 

At  the  lodging  house  conducted  by  the  Volunteers  of  America  at  343  SecMid 
Avenue,  they  found  accommodations  for  70  men  at  aj  cents  each  per  night.  As  the 
btriiding  was  narrow  and  shut  in  on  both  sides  by  adjoining  buildings,  artificial 
li^t  was  used  on  each  floor  day  and  night.  The  sleeping  rooms  were  6  by  9  feet 
in  size,  and  the  investigating  committee  was  divided  in  opinion  as  to  whether  these 
rooms  were  as  sanitary  and  well  ventilated  as  open  dormitories.  The  Volunteers 
also  conducted  two  industrial  homes  in  the  city  where  men  were  sheltered  and  cared 
for  in  Tclum  for  work  done.  One  of  these,  situated  on  Beaver  Street,  was  dirty, 
in  bad  repair,  and  the  accommodations  were  poor. 

At  the  Salvation  Army  Shelter,  3;  Diamond  Street,  the  rooms  were  well 
ventilated  and  lighted,  the  balding  clean,  and  there  were  no  bad  odors.  130  men 
could  be  accommodated  here  at  it  and  a;  cents  per  night.  The  Industrial  home 
on  Beaver  Avenue  conducted  by  the  Salvation  Army,  one  of  three,  was  clean,  sani- 
tary and  homelike. 

Q's  place  in  Second  Avenue  was  also  visited.  The  Providence  Mission  was 
still  housed  here  and  there  were  accommodations  for  7$  men  at  1;  and  aj  cents 
each  per  night.  The  establishment  was  filthy  throuritout.  There  was  a  very  bad 
odor  in  the  wash  room,  and  the  bed  clothing  was  full  of  vermin.  The  place  again 
required  immediate  action  by  the  board  of  Health  and  showed  the  need  for  unre- 
laud  sanitary  inspection.  At  ma  Forbes  Street,  a  hotel,  conducted  by  the 
same  management,  accommodated  400  men  at  aj  to  7;  cents  per  night.  The  buikl- 
ing  was  clean,  sanitary,  and  fireproof.  The  restaurant  run  in  connection  with 
the  hold  was  clean  and  attractive. 

At  the  Rescue  Mission,  Wiley  Avenue,  aj  men  were  allowed  to  sleep  all  night 
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wage-earning  pittsburgh 

Lodging-house  Types 

Even  such  flagrantly  needed  reforms  can  not  be  carried  out 
without  human  consequences  sometimes  least  anticipated.  Apart 
from  the  financial  loss  to  the  proprietors,  the  closing  of  these  lodg- 
ing houses  fell  heavily  upon  their  employes.  Often  perhaps 
only  the  last  promptings  of  energy  induce  men  to  accept  the  poorly 
paid  work,  bad  food,  wretched  sleeping  quarters,  and  long  hours 
of  employes  in  the  kinds  of  places  described.  One  may  see  in 
their  lives  how  a  workman  grown  old  and  cast  aside,  or  a  busi- 
ness man  who  has  failed  in  middle  life  and  never  regained  a 
footing,  seeks  to  earn  the  semblance  of  a  livelihood  in  such 
an  environment,  and  to  maintain  a  small  degree  of  indepen- 
dence. Far  down  as  they  are  in  the  social  scale,  such  men  are 
yet  removed  by  a  great  gulf  from  the  completely  devitalized 
drifters  who  live  on  the  doles  of  missions  or  by  street  begging. 

Thus  at  0*5  in  the  tiny  "office"  set  in  the  narrow  entrance  hall  was 
found  an  old  railroad  yardmaster,  a  widower,  hb  children  grown  and 
engrossed  in  their  own  households.  There  he  sat  at  his  desk,  thrown  in 
among  the  cast-offs  of  humanity,  few  of  whom  at  their  best  had  ever  risen 
above  unskilled  labor.  The  satisfaction  of  toil  well  accomplished;  the 
camaraderie  with  men  skilled  and  usually  reckless  of  danger  to  them- 
selves, and  full  of  the  uplift  and  confidence  which  come  to  masters  of 
enginery;  the  habits  and  vocabulary,  the  very  dress  ordained  by  the  code 
of  an  established  order  had  been  his, — and  then  the  ambitious  young 
yardmaster  appearing  on  the  scene  pushing  and  driving,  and  finally,  the 
older  man  "let  go."  And  now,  after  the  years  spent  at  his  post  in  all 
weathers,  but  always  out  in  the  free  air  of  the  railroad  yards,  to  be  penned 
in  a  common  lodging  house  to  keep  track  of  the  greasy  pennies  got  from 
the  hands.  Even  though  Q's  establishment  had  not  been  a  credit  to 
the  city,  and  though  his  occupation  was  a  distasteful  one,  1  was  ^ad  for 
the  old  railroader's  sake  when  the  place  was  running  again. 

Another  employe  displaced  when  Q's  closed  temporarily  was  of  a 
type  more  common  to  the  mission  lodging  house.    This  man  was  younger 

on  chain  in  the  miuion  room.  A  building  on  an  adjoining  corner  was  in  process 
of  reconstruction  by  this  mission,  to  be  used  for  the  joint  puipoK  of  mission  and 
lodging  house,  which,  according  to  subse<fuent  information,  wis  well  run. 

As  result  of  the  investigation  by  this  committee,  covering  also  the  conditions 
under  which  the  eight  police  stations  of  the  city  lodged  an  average  of  loo  men  each 
nighl  in  the  year,  an  ordinance  was  passed  by  Council  providing  tio.ooo  for  a 
firstyear'soperationofamunicipallodginghouse,  but  was  vetoed  by  Mayor  Magee. 
No  radical  change  of  the  lodging-house  situation  has  been  reported  since. 
346 


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THE   REVERSE   SIDE 

in  years  and  served  as  watchman.  A  shifty  individual,  he  had  drifted 
from  one  knew  not  what  evil  antecedents,  had  been  capper  for  thieves  at  a 
county  fair,  "barker"  for  a  catch-penny  show  at  Coney  Island,  a  "scab" 
in  labor  troubles,  a  giver  of  false  names  and  addresses  to  charitable  socie- 
ties, but  one  who  had  always  found  temporary  success  whether  recur- 
rently playing  the  role  of  mission-stiff,  hanger-on,  or  impostor.  WithQ's 
closed  he  dropped  out  into  the  streets,  which  saw  him  for  a  little  time  a 
peddler  of  paper  parasols,  soon  to  drift  on  to  new  enterprises  perhaps,  but 
on  a  plane  perfectly  well  defined  and  delineated;  a  poor  thing,  morally 
bankrupt,  yet  still  with  desires  keen  enough  and  teeth  sharp  enough  to  pit 
his  weasel  skill  against  society  for  a  little  while  longer. 

Municipal  Provision 

As  already  stated,  there  was  no  municipal  lodging  house  in 
the  city  like  those  of  New  York  and  Chicago,  nor  like  the  wayfarer's 
lodges  conducted  by  the  society  for  organizing  charity  in  Phila- 
delphia. In  these  shelters  men  may  earn  their  night's  lodginp  by 
work,  and  the  staff  undertakes  to  help  them  in  ways  that  will  lead 
somewhere.  At  the  central  police  station  in  the  department  of 
public  safety  building,  certain  cells  on  the  ground  floor  were  set 
aside  for  applicants.  These  cells  were  of  the  ordinary  sort  con- 
taining only  a  plank  bench  large  enough  for  one  man  to  lie  down 
upon,  and  a  toilet.  In  them  the  men  who  could  not  crowd  upon 
the  bench,  lay  upon  the  floor.  They  were  admitted  at  the  dis- 
cretion of  the  desk  sergeant,  and  no  record  was  made  of  their 
name  or  of  other  details.  An  applicant  was  not  expected  to  ask 
accommodations  more  than  once  a  week,  but  as  similar  lodgings 
were  provided  in  each  of  the  eight  police  stations  there  was  little 
to  prevent  a  man  from  making  the  rounds  of  them  if  he  chose. 
At  the  central  police  station,  it  was  stated  that  but  few  arrests 
were  made  for  "repeating,"  The  men  performed  no  work  in 
exchange  for  their  lodging  or  breakfast,  and  no  efforts  were  made 
to  put  them  in  touch  with  employment  upon  their  release.  During 
1908,  17,569  such  lodgings  were  given. 

At  the  time  of  my  visit,  1  was  told  of  the  pathetic  case  of  a 
boy  of  eleven  who  had  sought  shelter  for  the  past  two  or  three  nights 
at  the  central  station.    Acco 
who  had  been  placed  out  on  a 
His  hands  were  heavily  calk 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

of  the  hard  work.  His  presence  illustrated  the  underiying  evil 
of  such  police  lodgings;  for  young"  and  old,  the  hardened  (lenders 
and  those  who  had  nothing  but  ignorance  or  hard  luck  against 
them,  the  sick  and  the  healthy,  rubbed  elbows,  and  by  just  so  much 
mingling  did  the  city  help  to  swell  the  fate  of  offenders. 

Worse  than  no  provision  by  the  city  itself,  sporadic  and 
ineffective  oversight  of  private  establishments,  summed  up  the 
public  policy  toward  homeless  men  in  this  city  to  which  thousands 
come  annually.  They  were  left  to  become  bed-fellows  to  disease 
and  cell-mates  to  crime. 


VI 
PROSTITUTION 
A  great  money-making  and  money-spending  community, 
Pittsburgh  at  the  present  stage  of  our  social  development  inevit- 
ably became  a  center  for  commercialized  prostitution.  Its  sur- 
plus of  males  is  only  less  than  that  of  a  barracks  town  or  mining 
camp.  Managers  and  laborers  are  alike  engaged  in  the  harder 
physical  processes  of  production.  They  are  quartered  as  tem- 
porary sojourners  where  conventional  restraints  lose  their  accus- 
tomed force,  and  where  vents  for  recreation  such  as  more  leisured 
communities  provide  are  lacking.  Link  the  promptings  inherent 
in  such  a  situation,  on  the  one  hand  to  the  undisciplined  spendings 
of  sudden  fortune  makers,  and  on  the  other  to  the  earnings  of  young 
salaried  men  and  day  laborers,  both  often  insufficient  for  family 
life  according  to  their  standards,  and  you  have  a  social  order 


over  night  at  a  police  station  may  be  held  for  the  juvenile  court,  or  if  he  is  o' 
teen  the  authonties  of  the  county  poorhouse  at  Manhalsea  may  be  notified  and  be 
be  given  shelter  there.  For  a  description  of  the  persistence  in  1913  of  police  lodg- 
ing evils  see  Appendix  XXiV,  p.  516. 

A  newsboy  lodging  house  had  in  earlier  days  done  distinctive  work,  but  in 
1908  was  temporarily  housed  in  an  old  church  building.  Here  conditions  were  not 
sufficiently  bettei^-double-decker  beds  and  insufficient  bedding— to  make  the  plate 
an  altogether  desirable  alternative  to  the  police  stations.  This  was  due  in  put  to 
the  fad  that  while  a  new  building  was  being  planned,  the  state  subsidy  was  cut  off 
and  the  management  worked  against  great  odds.  The  place  became  in  time  a 
han|t«ut  for  young  kiafers  and  out-of-town  boy  criminals.  Witb  the  new  building 
opened,  and  an  experienced  boys'-club  director  in  charge,  the  development  of  the 
work  along  different  lines  was  begun  in  1910. 

348 


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THE   REVERSE    SIDE 

in  which  the  mistress  (or  kept-woman)  and  the  prostitute  (or 
woman  in  whom  many  share)  play  their  part  despite  the  strict 
moral  canons  of  an  uncompromising  church  element  in  the  com- 
munity. 

Not  in  Pittsburgh  alone,  but  in  all  the  nearby  industrial 
towns  of  western  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  West  Virginia,  there  is 
an  unnatural  proportion  of  single  men  in  mills  and  mines.  Hun- 
dreds of  footloose  wage-earners  from  all  parts  of  the  industrial  dis- 
trict look  to  the  city  when  bent  on  having  a  "good  time,"  making 
it,  in  the  phrase  of  an  old  sporting  man,  "one  big  Saturday  night 
town."  Yet  there  can  hardly  be  a  sadder  picture  than  the 
"  parlor"  in  a  disorderly  house  where  sit  the  daughters  of  working 
people  soliciting  debauch  at  the  hands  of  youths  of  their  class. 
My  belief  is  that  labor  unions  are  delinquent  in  not  engaging 
aggressively  in  efforts  to  educate  in  their  members  a  class  con- 
sciousness without  offense.  A  broader,  a  more  inspiring  propa- 
ganda, linked  to  that  for  higher  wages,  should  be  possible  to  such 
organizati(His  as  the  United  Mine  Workers,  the  Amalgamated 
Association  of  Steel,  Iron,  and  Tin  Workers,  and  the  various 
railroad  brotherhoods.  It  is  surely  time  for  us  to  hear  the  last  of 
"mill  men's  houses,"  "railroaders'  houses,"  and  so  on,  in  Pitts- 
burgh and  elsewhere. 

The  situation  which  thus  provokes  illicit  intercourse  has 
been  aggravated  and  exploited  to  the  full  by  the  business  managers 
of  vice.  While  prostitution  has  been  covertly  carried  on  in  many 
parts  of  the  city  in  flats  or  furnished  rooms,  there  are  two  large 
districts  which  from  time  out  of  mind  have  been  the  markets  for 
this  traffic  in  women's  bodies,  by  the  women  themselves  and  those 
who  control  them;  and  while  the  refonn  regime  attempted  to 
root  out  houses  of  prostitution  from  other  parts  of  the  city  and  to 
cut  off  the  revenues  of  those  which  remained,  the  houses  were 
officially  tolerated  within  these  areas. 

How  centrally  situated  is  the  chief  of  these  districts  may  be 
appreciated  from  the  fact  that  the  Pittsburg  general  post  office 
has  been  in  the  heart  of  it.  A  step  to  the  right  or  left  from  the 
southern  half  of  Smithfield  Street,  the  main  business  thoroughfare 
of  the  city,  and  one  is  surrounded  by  officially  tolerated  vice. 
Business  buildings,  fire  company  houses,  hospitals,  missions, 
349 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

railroad  depots,  the  markets,  the  steamboat  landings,  and  some 
of  the  hotels  all  rub  shoulders  with  prostitution. 

This  is  the  section  in  and  about  lower  Second  Avenue  in  Pittsburgh 
proper.  It  lies  in  the  territory  between  the  heart  of  the  business  district 
and  the  Monongahela  River,  extending  to  Liberty  Avenue  at  its  lower  end, 
and  at  its  upper  spreading  through  a  nest  of  alleys  lined  with  squalid 
dwellings  which  run  up  the  Hill  past  Fifth  to  Wylie  Avenue.  Here  the 
section  flanks  the  tenement  quarters  where  Jewish,  Italian,  and  Negro 
households  rear  their  children. 

Prior  to  an  expansion  of  the  business  section  of  the  city  and  the 
establishment  by  the  Wabash  Railroad  of  a  terminal  midway  to  the 
Point,  a  large  part  of  the  entire  area  lying  between  lower  Third  Avenue 
and  the  Monongahela  River  was  occupied  by  houses  of  ill-fame.  Lower 
Second  Avenue  continued  thereafter  to  be  the  main  thoroughfare  for  these 
establishments,  but  commercial  encroachment  tended  to  spread  them  up 
both  rivers  along  the  line  of  Penn  and  Fifth  avenues,  and  scatter  them 
in  certain  sections  of  the  East  End.  In  the  Second  Avenue  section  alone 
there  existed  in  the  summer  of  1907  over  300  brothels,  a  number  consider- 
ably less  than  before  the  restrictive  measures  were  enforced  against  them.* 

The  second  vice  district  of  long  standing  is  situated  across  the 
river,  adjacent  to  the  workingmen's  quarter  in  the  former  city  of 
Allegheny.  This  district  occupies  a  large  area  which  may  be  said  to  be 
bounded  by  the  railroad  yards  and  the  Allegheny  River,  and  of  which  the 
principal  thoroughfare  is  East  Robinson  Street.f 

One  beneficial  result  of  the  more  rigid  restriction  of  vice  to  these 
districts  under  the  reform  administration  was  the  almost  entire  absence  of 
"massage"  or  "manicure"  parlors  such  as  afford  a  cloak  for  prostitution 
in  other  large  cities.  At  the  more  expensive  restaurants,  however,  the 
kept-women  of  business  men  and  politicians  displayed  themselves,  expen- 
sively gowned,  and  they  were  often  to  be  seen  riding  about  in  motor  can 
through  the  principal  thoroughfares.  At  night,  among  the  crowds  at  the 
downtown  cafes  and  resorts  were  well  dressed  women  who,  in  the  residen- 
tial sections  where  they  lived,  preserved  more  or  less  secrecy  as  to  thdr 
mode  of  livelihood.  Street  walkers  were  very  few,  but  there  were  indications 
that  numbers  of  shop  girls,  office  employes,  and  factory  workers  added  to 
their  incomes  by  occasional  prostitution.  All  of  these  formed  a  fringe  to 
the  main  body  of  the  inmates  of  disorderly  houses. 

*  The  once  notorious  "  Yellow  Row"  stood  idle  and  condemned  at  (he  time 
of  the  writer's  visit,  housing  only  an  occasional  squatter.    This  si 
down  during  Mayor  Guthrie's  administration. 

t  Closed  in  May,  191],  by  the  Morals  Efficiency  Commission. 
3  SO 


■d^yCoogle 


the  reverse  side 

Types  of  Houses 

The  brothel,  housed  in  an  oldtime  residence,  is  the  typical 
vice  resort  in  Pittsburgh.  The  colored  glass  doors  inside  the  vesti- 
bule and  big  numbers  are  trade  marks  that  by  day  escape  the  notice 
of  the  uninitiated.  But  in  the  evening  the  outer  doors  stand  open 
and  a  light  shines  through  the  red  or  green  glass  panels  of  the  inner 
door,  offering  a  ready  welcome  for  the  young  stranger  whose  work 
brings  him  to  Pittsburgh  and  who  may  spend  half  a  year  without 
inclusion  in  any  other  gay  company  of  youth. 

In  such  establishments  social  lines  are  none  the  less  closely 
drawn. 

At  the  tofi  of  the  scale  in  Pittsburgh  were  to  be  found  a  few  houses 
known  as  ten-  and  fifteen-dollar  houses.  Here  some  of  the  inmates  were 
French,  the  remainder  being  American-bom  women. 

The  five-dollar  houses  came  next.  They  were  recruited  from  Amer- 
ican-bom and  German  girls.  The  patrons  of  these  places  were  mainly 
salaried  office  men  and  the  higher  class  of  mill  men. 

On  a  lower  level  were  the  two-  and  one-dollar  houses.  These  were 
by  far  the  most  numerous  and  were  considered  the  more  profitable.  They 
were  filled  with  young  Jewesses,  many  of  them  American  bom,  with  Penn- 
sylvania Dutch,  with  Irish  and  German,  Canadians,  and  a  few  "drifters" 
from  womout  American  stock.  These  houses  were  supported  in  the  main 
by  clerks,  salesmen,  mechanics,  and  railroad  men.  Each  of  the  above 
contained  from  five  to  30  girls  who  paid  from  $10  to  $2^  per  week  for 
board  and  room  and  received  $0  per  cent  commission  on  all  earnings.  A 
few  places,  however,  boarded  the  women  free,  relying  on  the  large  expendi- 
ture made  by  their  visitors  to  offset  this  cost. 

The  fifty-cent  houses  were  conducted  for  the  most  part  by  Jewesses 
of  Russian  or  Polish  birth,  and  by  Italians,  and  the  inmates  were  mainly 
of  these  nationalities.  In  addition,  there  were  a  few  "Hungarian  houses" 
filled  with  immigrant  girls  from  Austria-Hungary.  Their  guests  were,  as 
might  be  expected,  of  a  mixed  class,  largely  the  rougher  sort  of  rail- 
road employes,  and  foreigners,  Italian  and  Slavic,  able  to  speak  a  little 
English,  and  at  work  in  the  mills  and  mines  throughout  the  Pittsburgh 
District. 

Last  of  all  in  the  scale  were  (he  twenty-five-cent  houses,  patronized 
by  Negroes, — mostly  hovels  hidden  in  the  alleys  of  the  Hill  District,  and 
each  housing  perhaps  half  a  dozen  inmates.  So  far  as  the  writer  could 
leam,  these  usually  contained  Negresses  only,  but  there  was  a  sprink- 
ling of  broken  down,  diseased  white  prostitutes. 
35" 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARN[NC   PCTTSBURGH 

At  the  higher  priced  houses,  with  parlors  lighted  by  electric 
bulbs  and  showily  furnished,  and  the  young  women  in  evening 
gowns,  a  certain  refinement  in  the  methods  of  entertainment  was 
practiced.  Their  appointments,  and  the  routine  of  singing,  danc- 
ing, and  refreshments  bore  somewhat  the  same  relation  to  those  of 
low-grade  establishments  that  an  expensive  restaurant  does  to  a 
cheap  lunch  counter.  As  one  went  down  in  the  scale,  the  fur- 
nishings became  less  comfortable  and  more  crude,  conventions 
more  businesslike,  the  dress  of  the  inmates  more  tawdry  and  sug- 
gestive. Slot  machines  took  the  place  of  musicians;  the  drinks 
became  cheaper  but  more  insistent.  Active  efforts  were  made  to 
increase  profits  by  such  devices  as  lewd  dances,  exposure  of  the 
person,  nude  acrobatics  involving  the  genital  organs,  and  other 
methods  to  stimulate  the  sexual  passion. 

Women  of  the  Underworld 

Let  us  look  more  closely  at  the  kinds  <A  women  who  follow 
the  calling  in  a  city  like  Pittsburgh.* 

World-wide  Aspects.  While  organized  vice  lays  tribute 
on  the  youth  of  both  sexes  in  every  community,  the  prostitute, 
like  the  pickpocket  and  the  yegg,  is  not  confined  to  any  city.  The 
trade  can  be  thrust  out  of  any  locality;  but  its  sources  are  inter- 
national. 

[t  is  a  far  cry,  for  example,  from  the  "  Big  Number"  houses  of  Pitts- 
burgh to  the  dives  of  Hong  Kong.  In  the  fall  of  1907  Pittsburgh  brothel- 
dom  of  the  prosperous  class  was  full  of  excitement  over  reports  of  the 
murder  at  Hong  Kongof  a  woman  we  will  call  Gertrude  Ware  by  a  former 
United  States  sergeant  of  marines.  The  motive  of  the  crime  was  robbery 
evidently,  as  the  murderer  soon  afterward  opened  a  dive  at  Chefoo  with 
the  proceeds.  The  story  of  this  girl,  who  was  from  Youngstown,  was  not 
without  its  human  appeal.  She  had  some  ability  as  a  singer,  and  had  be- 
come a  favorite  with  such  rich  men  as  these  girts  are  able  to  win.  She  was 
a  "boarder"  in  a  Second  Avenue  house  when  in  190$  Beattie  S.  had  come 
to  Pittsburgh  to  recruit  girts  for  "American  houses"  in  Manila,  Shanghai, 
Chefoo,  and  Yokohama.  Beattie  S  had  herself  once  t>een  one  of  Oeo 
T's  tKurders,  but  now  had  wonderful  stories  to  tetl,  wore  bizarre  costumes, 
was  waited  upon  by  a  Japanese  maid,  and  had  a  number  of  small  pet 


«  Appendix  XXI  t.  p.  J07. 


■d^yCoogle 


THE   REVERSE   SIDE 

Japanese  dogs.  She  called  herself  the  Countess  Plavako  and  said  her 
husband  was  a  Russian  count  who  had  escaped  from  Siberia.  So  much 
of  a  sensation  had  she  created  in  the  Pittsburgh  sporting  district  that 
Gertrude  Ware  consented  to  go  back  with  her.  The  car  in  which  she  had 
left  Pittsburgh  for  San  Francisco  was  festooned  with  roses,  the  reputed 
gift  of  a  coal  operator,  and  champagne  had  flowed  freely  in  her  honor  for 
days  and  nights  before.  The  night  previous  to  leaving  shehad  won  fSo  on 
the  wheel  in  a  Penn  Avenue  gambling  house  and  was  sure  she  would  have 
luck  in  her  travels.  Two  years  later  her  body  was  found  jammed  into  a 
trunk  after  strangulation.  The  sergeant  of  marines  was  later  hanged  for 
his  deed.  No  wonder  Second  Avenue  buzzed  with  comment  on  such  dis- 
torted bits  of  fact  as  the  newspapers  published! 

The  story  gives  us  a  glimpse  of  the  way  in  which  the  scales 
of  the  trade  balance, — French  prostitutes  in  Pittsburgh's  Second 
Avenue  section,  the  export  of  white  prostitutes  to  the  Orient  in 
such  numbers  that  Judge  Wilfley  at  Shan^ai  found  the  term 
"American  girl"  synonymous  with  the  lowest  forms  of  vice.  The 
Federal  Immigration  Commission  of  1910  brought  out  authorita- 
tively the  international  aspects  of  the  white  slave  traffic,  and  the 
prosecutions  under  the  Mann  act  have  since  shown  its  interstate 
ramifications. 

The  Drift  from  Workaday  Life.  It  is,  however,  the 
local  aspects  of  the  traffic  that  most  deeply  concern  a  given  com- 
munity, the  less  spectacular  drift  from  the  ordinary  walks  of  life 
to  this  underworld.  The  country  girl  and  the  low-wage  city 
employe  are  alike  victims.  The  girl  whose  heredity  is  a  pre- 
disposing factor,  the  half-idiots  whose  sexual  impulses  are  exag- 
gerated by  the  taint  which  robs  them  of  mental  balance,  are  quick 
to  be  gathered  into  the  web.  Young  girls  who  come  from  house- 
holds that  are  barren  of  affection,  or  squalid,  or  monotonous,  too 
often  fall  easy  victims  of  the  lure  of  ease  and  excitement  which 
the  life  seems  to  offer.  Many  prostitutes  are,  we  know,  them- 
selves working  girls  or  the  daughters  of  working  people,  and  vari- 
ous attempts  have  been  made  to  gauge  how  far  economic  pressure 
is  behind  their  downfall.  That  it  is  an  important  factor  in  many 
cases,  both  with  them  and  with  their  brothers,  is  clear. 

Over  one  of  the  Second  Avenue  houses  of  the  medium  grade  pre- 
sided a  woman  still  in  the  early  thirties.    She  conducted  a  two-dollar 

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house,  frequented  largely  by  railroad  men.  Possibly  it  was  chance  that 
first  sent  these  visiton  to  her  establishment  some  years  bef<»T,  but  sheim- 
proved  her  opportunities  and  it  paid  her  to  be  known  as  keq>cr  of  a  rail- 
roader's bouse. 

This  wiHnan  could  not,  like  so  many  of  her  class,  boast  of  having 
come  of  a  "good  family, "  but  she  supported  her  mother  who  was  living  in 
a  neighboring  town  and  visited  her  regularly.  Early  in  life  she  had  learned 
that  little  girls  who  begged  pennies  on  the  streets  and  chanty  at  the 
servants'  doors  of  the  prosperous  might  find  ways  to  supplement  the 
rather  scanty  gains  of  mendicancy.  Later,  as  cash  girl  and  saleswoman  in 
a  local  department  store,  she  had  learned  that  security  of  position  and 
advancement  on  the  payroll  could  be  hers  as  long  as  she  proved  accnnmo- 
dating  to  certain  superiors.  She  next  found  it  easy  to  become  the  mistress 
of  a  professional  gambler,  himself  the  black  sheep  of  an  old  Pittsburgh 
family.  This  connection  lasted  nine  years,  or  until  the  man  left  her. 
Then,  her  education  in  vicious  living  completed,  she  bought  the  goodwill 
of  her  present  establishment.  A  number  of  inmates  in  the  bouse  were 
also  former  department  store  clerks  or  saleswomen. 

Miss  Butler  in  her  study  of  the  working  women  of  Pittsburgh* 
cites  the  following  illustrative  cases  of  girls  who  had  succumbed 
to  the  moral  jeopardy  of  the  shops: 

Rose  was  employed  at  the  ribbon  counter.  She  had  a  mother 
and  two  sisters  dependent  upon  her,  and  her  mother  was  always  urging  her 
for  more  money.  She  began  while  still  in  the  store  to  "make  money  on 
the  side."  The  management  discovered  this  and  dismissed  her.  She 
left  for  a  city  in  CHilo;  went  into  a  house  of  prostitution  there  from 
which  she  sends  her  mother  money.  Her  wages  at  the  ribbon  counter 
were  |6.oo  a  week. 

Vera  is  twenty  years  old.  Four  years  ago  she  was  employed  as  a 
salesgirlat  $3.$oa  week.  After  a  year  she  left  for  another  store  where  she 
was  employed  as  a  cashier  at  a  salary  of  |io  a  week,  for  making  concessions 
to  her  emptoyer.  After  two  years  she  left  the  store  for  a  house  of 
prostitution. 

Jennie  came  to  Pittsburgh  from  Akron,  Ohio.  She  had  no  friends 
in  the  city  and  was  obliged  to  be  self-supporting.  She  obtained  a  position 
at  |6.oo  a  week  as  a  saleswoman.  After  five  months  in  the  store,  she 
consented  to  be  kept  in  an  apartment  in  the  East  End.  She  still  keeps  her 
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Colored  Girls  from  the  South.  Nearly  every  house  of 
prostitution  in  Pittsburgh  carried  a  staff  of  Negresses  engaged  as 
maids,  cooks,  or  laundresses.  These  young  women,  coming  from 
the  South,  eagerly  accept  the  comparatively  high  wages  offered 
and  often  take  service  ignorant  at  least  in  part  of  the  real  char- 
acter of  their  employers.  It  is  perhaps  unnecessary  to  state  that 
they  generally  become  corrupted  and  publicly  or  secretly  form  irreg- 
ular relations  with  men  of  their  race  who  live  upon  them.  This 
is  one  and  not  the  least  source  of  Negro  prostitution  in  the  North. 

The  largest  number  living  as  prostitutes  in  Pittsburgh  found 
places  in  the  alley  houses  of  the  Hill  District,  whose  patrons  were 
men  of  their  own  race  or  Italian  and  Slav  laborers.  In  addition, 
prostitution  was  widespread  among  large  numbers  ci  indigent 
Negresses  on  the  Hill.  Their  earnings  were  wretched,  they  were 
the  "body  snatchers"  of  their  color,  and  the  men  they  decoyed 
into  alleys  and  robbed  were  usually  as  outcast  as  themselves. 

For  every  Negro  woman  of  this  type  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
there  is  a  Negro  man  who  lives  upon  her  gains  supplemented  by 
such  petty  thefts  as  he  may  be  able  to  commit.  G>caine  and 
vile  liquor,  a  complete  lack  of  proper  hygienic  precautions,  bad 
food  and  wretched  housing,  all  combine  to  use  up  the  Negro 
woman  of  this  class  more  quickly  than  the  white  prostitute. 

One  July  night  with  a  police  official  as  companion,  1  made  a  tour 
through  this  section  of  the  Hill  District.  In  one  alley,  a  rather  hand- 
some Southern  Negress,  with  jewels  in  her  ears,  stood  outside  her  empty 
house  and  watched  with  envy  her  neighbors  in  evil  who  made  money 
while  her  own  house  remained  "dark."  A  transgression  of  the  police 
rules  regarding  the  sale  of  liquor  in  her  establishment  had  brought  this 
punishment  upon  her. 

In  sharp  contrast,  a  young  Negress  wasted  by  tuberculosis  was  seen 
in  the  vile  tenement  building  then  standing,  known  indifferently  as  the 
"Stockade"  and  "Tammany  Hall."  With  a  mixture  of  Greeks,  Syrians, 
Arabs,  Poles,  Italians,  and  Russian  Jews  as  her  neighbors,  she  was  the 
only  one  of  her  color  in  the  building.  She  occupied  two  tiny  rooms 
opening  on  an  interior  court,  and  although  the  night  was  stifling  her  bed- 
room window  was  nailed  tight, — for  protection,  as  she  hersdf  explained. 
She  sat  in  the  other  room  playing  with  her  dog  "Rags,"  a  Skye  terrier, 
and  listened  while  an  Italian  neighbor  ran  a  gramophone  belonging  to 
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her.  She  had  some  "real  nice  times,"  she  said.  She  "took  two  kinds  of 
medicine."  A  cuspidor  on  the  floor  and  a  row  of  patent  medicine  botdes 
on  the  shelf  told  the  story.  Glad  to  talk  with  someone,  she  explained  that 
coming  from  the  South  where  she  had  left  a  child  with  her  parents,  she  had 
answered  an  advertisement  for  a  domestic  and  had  teamed  later  that  the 
placeof  employment  was  a  "sporting  house."  That  was  seven  years  ago; 
now  she  was  twenty-five,  and  cooked  for  the  day  shift  in  a  house  on  Sachem 
Alley  for  |6.oo  weekly  and  meals.  Fonnerly  she  had  cooked  for  the  night 
shift  at  $8.00  weekly  and  meals,  but  she  was  no  longer  strong  enough  for 
this  night  work.  Not  being  able  to  afford  any  better  rooms,  she  had  come 
to  the  "Stockade,"  where  she  paid  {7.00  a  month  rent. 

The  Woman  IN  THE  Alley.  On  this  same  stifling  night, 
when  to  protect  her  own  body  this  Negress  employe  of  a  brothel 
deprived  herself  of  even  the  little  air  that  could  find  its  way  into 
Tammany  Hall,  another  tragedy  was  being  enacted  a  few  blocks 
away. 

In  a  noisomealley  whose  shacks  were  tenanted  now  by  famOiesof 
Italian  workirig  people  and  nowby  Negroes,  a  young  white  woman  lay  on 
a  doorstep  gasping  for  air,  choking  down  a  little  water  from  time  to  time, 
and  then  spitting  blood  into  the  gutter.  Fourteen  years  of  the  life  of 
Pittsburgh's  brothels  had  brought  her  to  this;  but  though  she  was  the 
wife  of  a  N^ro,  and  was  now  deserted  and  dying,  awaiting  only  the 
ambulance  and  Marshalsea  (the  city  pothouse),  she  could  say  with 
pride  "my  father  was  twenty-seven  years  a  yard  master  on  the  B.  and  O." 
Fdlowing  betrayal,  she  had  come  from  a  West  Virginia  railroad  and 
manufacturing  city  to  Pittsburgh,  and  this  was  the  end. 

The  Negro  madame  had  been  very  kind  to  her.  She  had  trusted 
her  for  four  months'  board,  had  given  her  eggs,  milk,  and  best  of  all, 
whbkey.  Insurance!*  "Oh,  well,  the  madame  deserves  ^1  the  insurance 
she  will  get." 

The  madame,  as  she  sat  on  her  door  steps,  looked  every  inch  a 
business  woman.  The  ready  clinking  handbag  at  the  belt,  the  keys  by 
her  side,  and  a  certain  avidity  of  gesture  all  gave  the  impression  that  per- 
haps the  dying  woman  was  not  such  a  "dead  loss"  after  all.  Just  then  an 
attractive  young  mulatto  woman  wearing  a  flowered  silk  kimono,  red  satin 
slippers  on  her  feet,  and  red  roses  in  her  hair,  came  up  the  alley  followed  by 
a  young  Negro  with  a  guitar.  They  were,  it  appeared,  daughter  and  son- 
in-law  of  the  madame  of  the  house.  Soon  they  were  making  music  to 
the  delight  of  a  score  of  Italian  children  who  with  their  parents  jostled 

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prostitution  for  living  room  in  the  alley.  The  yard  master's  daughter, 
declining  to  call  for  an  ambulance  "till  tomorrow,"  thought  she  "certainly 
would  enjoy  the  concert. "  From  time  to  time,  the  children  crowding 
eagerly  about  the  players  shut  off  the  little  aJr  about  the  sick  woman. 
Then  the  madame,  shaking  her  big  bunch  of  keys  would  bid  "them 
Dagoes"  keep  back  a  little  and  not  "step  on  the  lady." 

At  short  intervals  prospective  patrons  received  an  encouraging 
word  or  gesture  from  the  madame,  her  pocketbook  open  to  receive  fees 
and  make  change.  From  time  to  time  one  of  the  Negresses  sitting  on  the 
stoop  would  get  up  and  stroll  inside  with  a  guest.  Soon  the  couple  would 
come  out  again.  The  man  would  walk  away  and  the  girl  would  take  her 
place  again  on  the  stoop  and  resume  the  thread  of  gossip  she  had  dropped. 

The  Street  Walker.  There  remain  few  further  stages  in 
the  span  of  a  woman's  life  in  the  underworld.  The  reproach  of 
street  soliciting  in  Pittsburgh  did  not  exist  so  far  as  the  principal 
thoroughfares  were  concerned,  but  along  Ross  Street  in  the  appro- 
priate shadows  of  court  house,  jail,  Bridge  of  Sighs,  and  morgue, 
the  most  wretched  of  the  outcasts  "  played  dice  with  the  work- 
house." 

On  a  night  as  hot  as  the  one  just  described  the  bodies  of  three 
women,  sdf-slain,  lay  on  the  slabs  beneath  the  glass-topped  cases  of  the 
All^heny  County  morgue. 

Rose,  a  young  white  prostitute,  had  drunk  carbolic  acid  after  a 
quarrel  with  her  "lover." 

Madeline,  a  young  mulatto  prostitute,  had  drunk  carbolic  acid 
after  a  quarrel  with  her  "lover." 

X,  weary  of  the  life  of  an  actress  in  one-night  stand  companies,  had 
cut  her  throat  in  a  shabby  hotel. 

Weary  with  fruitless  sauntering,  two  prostitutes  came  into  the 
morgue  to  satiate  a  curiosity  which  it  was  said  had  kept  a  constant  stream 
of  their  kind  in  and  out  all  day.  It  was  the  only  building  in  the  street 
open  at  that  late  hour,  entrance  to  which  involved  no  expenditure.  To 
those  not  knowing  its  character  the  place  looked  rather  cheerful,  too.  It 
was  at  least  brilliantly  lighted  and  white  and  clean. 

The  younger  prostitute,  a  Scotch-Irish  girl,  drew  the  police  inspec- 
tor's attention  to  her  hair,  lately  dyed  chestnut.  It  had  been  black,  she 
said,  but  Mack  was  "too  common."  The  girl  and  her  history  happened 
to  be  familiar  to  my  informant,  who  had  known  her  as  a  domestic,  as  an 
unmarried  mother  betrayed  by  an  employer's  son.  as  a  kept  mistress  of  the 
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SODS  of  wealthy  mm,  as  an  inmate  of  a  brothel,  and  finally  as  too  vile  and 
drunken  to  be  of  value,  reduced  to  the  street  and  the  cotnpanionsliip  of  the 
Jewess  who  came  in  with  her.  This  latter,  a  fleshy  "body  snatchcr" 
in  pdice  slang,  was  too  gross  to  inflame  even  a  drunkard;  so  she  acted 
as  a  sort  of  scout  for  "Chestnut,"sharing  her  wretched  gains. 

Gertrude  Ware,  the  "  top  notcher,"  and  at  the  bottom  of  the 
scale  the  body  snatcher  under  the  Bridge  of  Sighs; — these  were 
buoys  which  marked  the  course  to  which  this  undercurrent  in 
the  life  of  the  community  was  setting. 

Profits" 
Under  the  glamor  <^  the  life,  the  ribs  of  a  hungry  business 
showed  through.  Its  details  are  prosaic  and  sordid  enough  were 
it  not  for  the  lure  of  mystery  with  which  the  silence  of  respect- 
able people  invest  it,  and  for  the  tinsel  and  conviviality  which 
its  promoters  skilfully  throw  about  it,  while  they  batten  on  what 
ignorance,  need,  and  one  of  the  strongest  animal  impulses  throw 
into  their  net,  and  what  the  whole  force  of  convention  tends  to 
hold  there.  The  landlords  who  own  the  houses,  and  rent  them  at 
figures  which  could  not  be  paid  by  ordinary  tenants,  pocket  the 
profits  from  these  women's  bodies  as  surely  as  do  the  madames. 
Certain  plumbers,  house  furnishers,  grocers,  and  marketmen,  find 
here  good  customers.  The  fl6rists,  druggists,  and  physicians  who 
serve  them,  the  telephone  and  telegraph  companies,  are  paid  from 
the  same  pocketbooks;  the  brewers  and  whiskey  dealers  grow 
fat  with  the  proceeds. 

The  very  existence  of  many  of  the  Pittsburgh  houses  was  undennined 
by  the  p<dice  order  of  the  Guthrie  administration,  prohibiting  the  sale  in 
them  of  intoxicating  drinks.  A  number  of  Second  Avenue  women 
informed  me  that  they  had  for  months  been  running  behind  from  ^50  to 
}3$o  weekly.  Take,  for  example,  one  establishment  the  character  of 
whose  business  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  |i6,ooo  was  paid  within 
recent  years  for  its  goodwill  and  fixtures  alone.  Notwithstanding  the 
high  fee  charged,  the  proprietress  asserted  that  the  running  expenses 
ordinarily  ate  up  every  dollar  of  "legitimate"  intake.  The  profits  came 
almost  entirely  from  the  sale  of  alleged  champagne  to  its  patrons,  sons  of 

*  For  estimates  of  Morals  Efficiency  Commission  s«e  Appendix  XXII,  p. 
508. 

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rich  families,  or  from  the  sale  of  "wine"  bought  ostentatiously  by  the 
financial  "sharks"  and  "pikers"  of  Pittsburgh's  bucket  shop  and  "sport- 
ing" contingent. 

Every  first  class  brothel  visited  had  stories  of  wealthy  patrons  who 
on  occasion  had  lain  intoxicated  in  the  place  for  a  weekat  a  time,  obediently 
signing  checks  when  presented  with  a  bill;  as,  for  example,  "Seventy-five 
bottles  of  wine  at  $10.00,  fyjo.oo."  And  if  the  victim  objected  to  the 
amount  of  the  bill,  7$  "dead  soldiers"  would  be  brought  up  by  the  maid 
from  a  stock  receptacle  in  the  cellar.  Under  the  new  order  of  things,  this 
class  of  business  was  all  but  impossible. 

An  indication  of  the  business  ramificalions  back  of  prostitution  is  the 
fact  that "  Maxey  the  Mixer, "  indicted  for  trafficking  in  houses  of  ill-fame, 
was  the  Pittsburgh  agent  for  one  of  the  best  known  brands  of  champagne. 

The  Purveyors 

With  such  secondary  interests  at  stake,  prostitution  be- 
comes, at  the  hands  of  its  primary  purveyors,  not  the  supply  erf  a 
demand  as  old  as  human  nature,  but  a  business,  artificially  stimu- 
lated for  business  ends,  reaching  out  for  the  girls  it  shall  hire  out, 
reaching  out  for  the  men  who  shall  use  them,  that  it  may  make  its 
own  gains. 

When  to  such  a  situation  is  added  the  customary  divorce 
between  municipal  enforcement  and  the  statute  laws  which  penal- 
ize prostitution  and  make  it  a  crime  to  rent  property  for  such  pur- 
poses, the  way  is  open  for  police  blackmail,  from  the  patrolman 
to  the  man  "higher  up,"  for  the  political  fixer,  the  bail  giver,  and 
the  money  lender, — all  capitalizing  the  law-breaking  element  in 
the  community  and  selling  protection  for  sums  which  come  from 
but  the  one  source. 

In  Pittsburgh,  the  taxes  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  build- 
ings used  for  purposes  of  prostitution  were  paid  under  names 
which  were  seldom  to  be  found  in  the  city  directory.  How  far 
these  names  represented  the  actual  ownership,  or  to  what  rank  of 
life  the  men  bek>nged,  was  a  matter  of  surmise  and  speculation. 

The  go-betweens  and  active  promoters  in  the  business 
were  of  a  stock  which,  by  one  of  those  vivid  contrasts  as  old 
as  written  history,  has  contributed  some  oi  the  most  fearless  and 
self-forgetful  leaders  to  the  religious  and  civic  life  oi  our  cities. 

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In  a  majority  of  the  brothels  not  operated  by  Negresses, 
the  proprietresses  were  Jewesses,  and  the  men  who  financed  them 
were  of  the  same  race.  And  of  the  same  race  were  a  majority  of  the 
pimps  or  cadets  who  lived  wholly  or  in  part  on  the  earnings  of  the 
women, — these  last  the  meanest  in  the  whole  coterie  of  those  who 
take  their  dues  from  prostitution.  The  payment  the  pimp  takes 
is  easy  living;  but  he  becomes  not  merely  a  drone  but  an  active 
agent  of  evil,  by  seducing  girls  and  by  swelling  the  ranks  of  voters 
who  owe  allegiance  to  the  political  leaders  of  the  underworid. 
In  the  higher  grade  houses  in  Pittsburgh  men  of  this  class  were 
not  allowed  to  collect  a  girl's  earnings,  and  their  presence  was 
discouraged  as  far  as  possible.  Proprietresses  knew  from  experi- 
ence that  the  influence  of  these  men  made  a  "parior"  girl  discon- 
tented, and  desirous  to  try  the  more  independent  life  in  a  flat  or 
furnished  room  house.  But  in  the  meaner  places,  where  giris  are 
used  as  remorselessly  as  are  men  in  some  of  the  legitimate  indus- 
tries, the  proprietresses  were  compelled  to  defer  more  largely  to 
the  cadet  class,  whose  chief  business  it  was  to  entangle  "new" 
girls  and  to  hold  them  through  the  "protection"  they  offered  when 
the  girls  got  tn  trouble  in  these  houses  or  at  the  hands  of  the  police. 
Though  the  authorities  were  unwilling  to  admit  that  the  number  of 
such  men  had  reached  proportions  which  approximated  that  in 
the  cities  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Chicago,  their  evil  faces 
were  only  too  frequent  a  sight  in  the  cheap  lunch  rooms  and  pool 
pariors  on  Third  or  Penn  Avenue;  and  from  her  "furnished 
room"  on  Federal  or  Tunnel  Street  in  the  Hill  District  the  white 
slave,  colloquially  a  "sweater,"  was  led  to  "work"  daily  to  some 
squalid  den. 

In  these  dens,  ^en  the  brass  check  system  prevailed,  the 
inmates  often  did  not  receive  any  money,  the  men  whom  they 
maintained  collecting  their  wages.  The  girls  worked  in  two  shifts, 
a  ni^t  shift  and  a  day  shift,  but  thou^  those  in  the  latter  re- 
turned home,  their  day's  slavery  was  not  necessarily  over.  These 
unfortunate  women  could  seldom  get  a  dollar  for  themselves,  as 
the  class  of  patrons  they  attracted  were  not  able  to  give  much 
"stocking  money, "  and  the  cadets  habitually  searched  them  to  pre- 
vent their  hoarding  money  and  escaping  their  life  of  temporary 
servitude. 

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the  reverse  side 

Restriction 

Prior  to  the  advent  of  Pittsburgh's  reform  administration, 
the  police,  and  especially  those  "higher  up,"  gained  no  inconsider- 
able spoils  from  this  evil.  However,  as  officers  and  men  had  not 
been  woiiiing  under  civil  service  rules,  they  lacked  the  necessary 
permanence  in  ofRce  and  the  identity  of  interest  to  make  the  or- 
ganization, like  the  police  in  many  large  cities,  a  single  active, 
dominant  power.  They  had,  therefore,  been  obliged  to  take  the 
"smaller  end"  of  the  graft  and  the  larger  prizes  "got  past"  to 
the  politicians. 

On  the  coming  in  of  the  reform  administration.  Mayor 
Guthrie  and  his  advisers  recognized  the  menace  to  their  adminis- 
tration d  so  fruitful  a  field  for  public  scandal  as  this  large  area 
devoted  to  prostitution,  and  the  inconsistencies  involved  in  allow- 
ing its  promoters  free  play.  Their  policy  was  not  to  suppress  the 
traffic,  but  to  cut  down  its  amount,  its  profits,  and  its  graft.  The 
city  in  effect  tolerated  it  in  the  two  districts  already  indicated 
and  under  the  following  regulations: 

I.  No  intoxicating  liquors  to  be  sold. 

3.  No  soliciting  on  streets  or  from  windows. 

3,  No  disorder  in  houses;  music  to  be  confined  to  rear  rooms. 

4.  No  robberies  of  guests. 
$.  No  abuse  of  minors. 

6.  No  cadets  to  live  in  the  houses. 

7.  No  house  to  front  on  streets  having  car  lines. 

8.  Houses  to  be  open  to  police  inspection. 

By  thus  practically  licensing  vice  in  the  districts  indicated,  the 
power  of  the  dishonest  elements  in  the  police  department  and  in  other 
branches  of  the  city  government  as  well,  to  levy  extortion  and  black- 
mail on  keepers  of  disorderly  houses,  was  considerably  curtailed. 

The  first  regulation,  that  prohibiting  the  sale  of  intoxicat- 
ing liquor,  was  looked  upon,  even  more  than  the  restricting  police 
boundaries,  as  a  measure  that  would  cut  down  the  amount  of 
prostitution  by  striking  at  one  of  the  vital  sources  of  profit  of 
the  resorts  that  remained. 


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The  cheaper  establishments  were  the  hardest  hit.  Inmates  and 
proprietresses  alike  tacked  the  acquaintance  of  wealthy  men  from  whrni 
they  could  borrow  money;  and  as  most  of  the  houses  of  this  class  were  in- 
dividual enterprises,  the  political  weight  of  a  "chain  of  houses  "  was  lacking 
and  money  was  not  to  be  had  readily  from  "fixers"  to  tide  them  over 
the  period.  Moreover,  the  clientele  was  larger  and  less  wellknown,  and 
doorkeepers  of  necessity  much  less  particular  than  in  the  better  class  of 
houses,  thus  making  it  easier  for  police  stool  pigeons  on  the  lookout  for 
evidence  to  gain  entrance.  In  such  cases  the  chief  burden  fell  upcm  the 
wretched  inmates,  who  were  obliged  to  accommodate  more  men  and  to  eat 
poorer  food  in  return  for  their  exorbitant  board  money. 

Police  detectives  and  stool  pigeons  were  alert  to  detect  evidence  of 
liquor  selling,  and  as  the  fixers  were  unable  to  act,  "take-a-chance" 
proprietresses  and  inmates  ran  serious  risks  of  being  dragged  to  court, 
fined,  and  having  their  houses  closed  for  a  time.  One  woman  who  had 
grown  rich  in  the  traffic  c(»nplained  bitterly  that  after  twenty-two 
years  in  the  business  and  after  never  having  been  arrested  before,  she  and 
her  girls  had  been  c(»npelled  to  ride  in  a  patrol  wagon.  They  had  not 
even  been  allowed  to  take  carriages  t 

The  director  of  public  safety  estimated  that  40  per  cent  of  the 
houses  went  out  of  business  because  of  the  liquor  order. 

Of  equal  moment  were  the  steps  taken  to  rid  Pittsburgh  of 
the  large  number  of  pimps  by  arresting  them  on  the  charge  of 
vagrancy.  When  they  could  not  show  a  legitimate  basis  of  liveli- 
hood, they  were  given  workhouse  sentences;  and  by  this  means 
the  bulk  of  them  were  driven  from  the  city.  They  did  not  go  far 
away,  however,  and  were  kept  in  funds  by  prostitutes  through 
the  Pittsburgh  post  office.  The  majority  of  these  orders  were 
payable  at  Youngstown,  Ohio,  and  Wheeling,  West  Virginia, 
neighboring  cities  which  afforded  temporary  quarters  until  the  men 
were  able  to  return  to  Pittsburgh  in  safety. 

Their  action  was  one  reflected  in  many  ways  within  the 
whole  quarter.  As  we  have  seen,  throughout  the  underworld 
the  period  was  one  d  abeyance,*  and  as  election  time  approached 
there  were  not  wanting  signs  of  the  police  getting  more  out  of 

■  Under  the  incoming  ad miniit ration,  that  of  Mayor  William  A.  Maget, 
outward  decorum  wis  preierved  in  the  diitricti,  houses  were  kept  off  the  or 
tracks,  but  liquor  selling  was  resumed  in  the  brothels,  new  houses  were  pe^ 
milted  to  open  in  tenement  neighborhoods  of  the  Kill  Disirict,  and  gambling 
houses  re-opened.  In  191a  the  city  administration  was  made  the  object  of  ittack 
for  conniving  ii  these  conditions,  by  a  citizens'  committee,  under  the  leadership 

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hand,  and  of  the  purveyors  of  vice  seeking  alliances  that  through 
a  change  of  administration  would  put  an  end  to  these  policies  of 
semi-repression. 

Commercialized  Recreation 

Throughout  the  reform  administration  the  social  observer 
could  not  fail  to  note  how  little  promise  mere  police  repression  gave 
of  satisfying  the  community's  need  for  an  adequate  policy  toward 
the  social  evil.  While,  as  a  rule,  outward  decorum  prevailed,  upon 
Saturday  nights  the  demoralizing  influence  of  an  officially  defined 
district  could  be  witnessed  in  the  bands  of  youths  who  passed 
through  the  streets  in  the  downtown  section  visiting  the  "sporting 
houses" — the  name  by  which  houses  of  prostitution  are  generally 
termed  in  Pittsburgh  as  in  other  cities.  This  term  is  part  erf  the 
pitiful  hoUowness  of  the  life;  the  inmates  are  "sporting  girls,"  and 
visitors  of  the  callow  type  prefer  to  be  described  as  "sports." 
For  it  is  boyhood  as  well  as  girlhood  that  commercialized  prosti- 
tution must  win  if  the  business  is  to  be  profitable.  The  conversa- 
tion, gestures,  and  general  deportment  of  these  bands  who  passed 
from  one  house  to  the  next  "jollying  the  girls"  differentiated  them 
from  the  vicious  or  confirmed  visitors. 

Saloon  keepers  who  know  the  value  of  plate  mirrors  and 
bright  lights,  in  contrast  to  the  gkxnn  of  office  and  shop  and  the 
dinginess  of  cheap  lodgings,  are  no  less  good  psychologists  than  are 
the  business  managers  of  prostitution.  Those  who  would  supply 
counter  social  attractions  could  learn  something  from  both  and 
especially  from  the  latter  who,  even  in  catering  to  the  sexual  im- 
pulse, think  it  worth  while  to  appeal  to  the  esthetic  sense. 

Another  Saturday  night  scene  in  the  market  section  of  the 

of  William  H.  Matthews  of  Kingsley  House,  based  on  investigations  carried  out  for 
this  committee  by  a  staff  working  under  Robert  Wilson,  the  Scrantan  detective  who 
ran  down  councilmanic  graft  in  Pittsburgh,  In  1913,  a  second  agitation  led  by  the 
Voters'  L.eague  was  successful;  and  throughout  1  he  remainder  of  his  administration 
Mayor  Magee  carried  out  policies  formulated  by  an  aggressive  Morals  Efficiency 
Commission;  leading  in  [913  to  an  act  of  legislature  creating  a  Morals  Bureau. 
The  Armstrong  administration  had  the  support  of  a  strong  church  element  in  the 
elections  of  191],  but  on  assuming  office  some  of  his  minor  appointments  were  so 
flagrantly  of  the  "underworld"  that  Ihey  were  recalled  when  their  records  became 
known.  Six  months  had  all  but  elapsed  before  he  was  practically  forced  to  make 
appointments  to  the  Morals  Bureau.  These  commanded  respect  but  did  not  in- 
clude any  one  of  the  three  most  active  members  of  the  former  Commission.  It  is 
not  safe  to  prophesy  which  of  the  contending  elements  in  the  community  will  fix 
or  hold  the  policy  of  the  administration  toward  the  underworld.  See  Appendices 
XXI  and  XXII,  pp.  ;oi~j09. 

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town  was  the  turning  out  of  doors  at  a  few  minutes  b^ore  mid- 
night, in  accordance  with  local  saloon  regulati(Mis,  of  the  crowd 
of  young  men  and  women  gathered  to  eat,  drink,  and  "see  life" 
in  a  rathskeller  known  as  the  "Oub."  It  was  a  type  of  cafe 
which,  under  various  previous  administrations,  had  been  a  most 
potent  element  for  evil. 

These  scenes  well  illustrated  the  failure  of  this  city  of  a 
thousand  churches  to  provide  clean  centers  of  recreation  which 
could  successfully  attract  the  crowds  of  young  people  in  search 
of  a  good  time;  the  failure  also  of  our  bulky  budgets  of  laws, 
which  protect  property  so  well,  to  safeguard  the  subtler  human 
values. 

The  pimp,  as  we  have  seen,  is  a  professional  recruiter  of 
young  giris;  but  in  his  revesting  craft  he  no  more  than  personi- 
fies the  destructive  forces  in  society,  some  as  old  as  the  serpent 
in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  some  as  new  as  the  department  store,  as 
factory  wages  below  the  standard  of  self-support,  as  public  dance 
halls  adjoining  barrooms — forces  which  break  down  the  moral 
fiber  of  a  generation.  They  turn  the  years  of  adolescence  when 
the  creative  faculties  of  youth  normally  seek  refreshment  and 
gaiety  and  companionship,  into  years  of  tragedy.  Season  after 
season  the  story  is  repeated  in  stupid  round.  If  every  pimp  in 
Pittsburgh  were  hanged  on  the  court  house  "hump,"  it  will  still 
go  forward  as  long  as  the  influential  people  in  the  community  fail 
to  provide  ampler  and  less  commercialized  outlets  for  the  spirit  of 
youth,  as  long  as  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  of  the  country 
pay  many  giris  wages  which  are  not  enough  for  subsistence,  much 
less  for  normal  amusements,  and  as  long  as  young  men's  earnings 
are  not  enough  to  establish  a  home  and  family.  Until  then  we 
are  dealing,  not  with  the  old  problem  of  the  sexes — which  will  re- 
main— but  with  a  problem  aggravated  and  distorted  not  merely 
by  the  promoters  of  vice,  but  by  stockholders,  proprietors,  and 
complacent  church  people. 

Vice  and  Disease 

The  outcome  is  not  merely  the  toll  of  broken  women,  but 

disease  of  body  and  mind.     For  the  modem  brothel  is  more  than 

an  unconventional  channel  through  which  the  simpler  forms  of 

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natural  intercourse  can  be  obtained  by  those  who  will.  The  city 
which  harbors  it  is  harboring  an  educational  center  in  the  unnatural 
vices  which  even  the  stoutest  advocate  of  personal  liberty  must 
admit  betoken  degeneracy.  Abnonnal  practices  of  course  crop 
out  sporadically  in  all  communities,  and  moral  perverts  have 
long  been  a  recognized  type  among  institutions  for  defectives. 
But  within  the  last  twenty-five  years,  especially  since  the  coming 
of  the  French  prostitute,  new  and  degrading  levels  for  both  sexes 
have  been  reached  by  commercialized  prostitution  in  the  United 
States,  To  the  oriental  methods  so  introduced  American  bom 
wwnen  have  been  obli^  more  and  more  to  conform  as  a  matter 
of  "  business"  in  the  high  class  resorts.  As  already  noted,  Frendi 
prostitutes  were  an  important  feature  of  the  f  lo  houses  in  Pitts- 
burgh. On  Second  Avenue  were  three  houses  having  exclusively 
French  girls  as  inmates.  At  the  other  end  of  the  social  scale, 
post  cards  and  pictures  were  at  different  times  circulated  among 
the  gangs  of  Italians  and  other  immigrant  laborers  in  the  Pitts- 
burgh District,  advertising  these  abnormal  forms  <rf  interccurse 
in  the  grossest  detail. 

On  the  final  social  aspect  of  prostitution,  1  can  do  no  better 
than  cite  a  Pittsburgh  physician  of  standing: 

"Only  the  family  physician  who  has  learned  to  recognize 
the  protean  manifestations  of  venereal  diseases  among  his  patients 
has  had  an  idea  of  the  ever  increasing  extent  of  this  curse  of 
civilization.  I  need  only  mention  the  brides  who  go  to  the  gyne- 
cologist's table  during  the  first  years  of  their  married  life,  the 
chronic  invalids,  the  childless  homes,  the  blind  and  deaf  and  dumb 
asylums,  and  the  hosts  of  tabetics,  h«niplegics,  paretics,  hepatics, 
and  mental  and  physical  cripples  who  owe  their  afRiction  directly 
or  indirectly  to  venereal  diseases.  .  .  If  a  young  man  practices 
sextial  intercourse  for  ten  years  before  marriage  in  a  lar^  city, 
the  chances  are  that  he  will  have  had  gonorrhea  two  or  three  times 
and  the  chances  are  about  one  to  four  that  be  will  have  had  syphilis 
.  .  .  The  danger  <rf  any  individual  contracting  a  venereal  dis- 
ease increases  with  the  number  of  different  persons  with  whom 
the  individual  has  sexual  relations;  therefore  the  prostitute  is  the 
principal  source,  the  chief  factor  in  the  spread,  in  ever  increasing 
circles,  of  disease  and  disaster  throughout  the  body  politic." 

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VII.  SOCIAL  POLICE 

Only  a  large  investment  of  time  and  means,  coupled  with 
complete  police  and  institutional  records,  could  enable  us  to  judge 
how  far,  in  such  an  industrial  community  as  Pittsburgh,  its 
reverse  currents  can  be  traced  to  sources  elsewhere  than  in  dvic 
environinent  and  individual  character.  Crime  and  vice  are  older 
than  cities,  and  cities  older  than  factory  production:  it  would  be 
stupid  to  attempt  to  consider  them  the  special  offspring  of  indus- 
trialism. Yet  the  preceding  sketches  would  be  incomplete  did 
they  fail  to  bring  out  how,  at  many  points,  economic  forces 
enter  in  to  sustain,  or  exaggerate,  or  thwart  untoward  tendencies 
in  the  social  life. 

It  is  usual  to  recognize  that  a  great  industrial  center  at- 
tracts the  professional  criminal.  The  great  mass  (rf  property 
assembled  there  calls  him  as  carrion  the  buzzard,  but  between 
him  and  his  prey  stand  the  police,  and,  according  as  the  police 
may  or  may  not  be  ctHnplaisant,  he  may  or  may  not  prey  uptm 
any  given  community.  Therein,  we  have  seen,  lies  our  first  test 
of  the  machinery  of  law  and  order. 

It  is  less  usual  to  recognize  that  a  great  industrial  center 
generates  its  own  social  renegades ;  that  a  seeping-off  process  swells 
and  perpetuates  the  groups  of  the  underworld  that  have  been  des- 
cribed. Therein  lies  a  more  formidable  test  of  the  machinery  of 
law  and  order,  and,  beyond  that,  of  social  statesmanship. 

The  early  settlement  in  the  Pittsburgh  District  of  a  tena- 
cious, hard-driving  race,  Scotch-Irish,  at  once  aided  the  material 
development  of  the  region  and  determined  the  local  standards  of 
morality.  Their  rapid  accession  to  wealth  (competence  or  pub- 
lic office  absorbing  a  large  portion  of  the  original  population) 
prompted  successive  waves  of  immigration  by  those  content  to 
begin  at  the  bottom  of  the  industrial  order.  Scotch,  Welsh, 
English,  and  German  came,  and,  filling  for  a  generation  or  two 
the  posts  of  labor,  sought  for  their  children  employments  easier  or 
more  remunerative.  Latin  and  Slavic  peoples  poured  in  to  (ill  their 
places,  and  industry,  leaping  forward,  demanded  larger  and  ever 
larger  draughts  of  laborers.  The  result  has  been  to  establish  a 
cosmopolitan  city  of  which  the  rulers  are  English  speaking,  their 
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racial  dependents  filling  the  thousands  of  minor  positions, — bank 
teller  and  policeman,  city  magistrate  and  prison  keeper,  clerk  and 
labor  boss.  A  non-English-speaking  population  performs  the 
crudest  manual  labor  and  crowds  the  industries. 

Thus,  at  first  glance,  the  early  coming  races  seem  to  have 
made  good  their  escape  from  the  yoke  of  hard  labor;  but  we  must 
take  into  consideration  the  more  subtle  processes  ctf  nature  and 
admit  that  success  in  arriving  at  softer  and  better  paid  employ- 
ment may  in  itself  provoke  more  acute  forms  of  discontent. 
The  pressure  of  competition,  acquired  tastes,  and  the  natural  call 
of  instincts  all  tend  to  deflect  a  certain  percentage  of  the  original 
racial  community  from  business,  office  holdings,  and  salaried  posi- 
tions into  another  groove — that  of  the  so<aIled  sporting  worid. 
The  dues  of  apparent  freedom  from  productive  effort  are  being 
exacted  from  these  refugees  from  labor,  in  so  far  as  their  children 
lack  the  robust  qualities  which  the  fathers  have  forfeited.  How- 
ever the  resident  stock  may  affect  to  place  the  burden  of  lawless- 
ness and  crime  in  the  community  upon  alien  newcomers,  an 
honest  search  will  show  too  clearly  that  the  American  bom  bear 
here,  as  elsewhere  throuf^out  the  United  States,  a  distressing 
relation  to  those  features  of  our  civilization  at  once  the  most 
hopeless  and  shocking.  Whether  it  is  justifiable  to  attempt  to 
connect  their  personal  derelictions  with  the  general  social  discon- 
tent of  the  times  1  leave  to  more  ambitious  judges.  I  believe, 
however,  that  there  is  warrant  for  study  and  research  with  a  view 
to  reconciling  the  American-bom  child  to  labor. 

In  a  community  where,  without  money,  life  is  intolerable  to 
most  of  the  helot  type,  we  find  numerous  "crimes"  against  prop- 
erty, cc»nmitted  not  by  habitual  outlaws  and  recidivists,  but  by 
older  men  bankrupted  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  and  by  younger 
men  who  lack  the  virility  either  to  struggle  or  to  renounce.  Such 
a  crime  is  nearly  always  sporadic  in  execution,  fatuous  in  concep- 
tKHi.  and  depending  on  the  good  or  ill  will  of  those  mulcted,  their 
caprice,  the  pressure  at  the  offender's  disposal,  and  a  thousand 
other  chances,  all  remote  from  justice,  result  tn  his  going  unpun- 
ished or  not.  How  many  forged  checks  for  small  amounts  turn 
up  in  Pittsburgh  annually?  By  their  number  we  might  measure 
(Hie  of  the  by-products  of  a  material  civilization.    What  is  the 

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value  of  goods  annually  purioined  from  the  Pittsbui^  department 
stores  by  the  daughters  of  "somebodies'7  The  back  rooms  of 
police  stations  and  private  detective  agencies,  the  inner  rooms  of 
lawyers,  could  tell  some  of  the  story.  Drawn  by  the  magnetism 
erf  accumulated  riches  and  the  relative  prosperity  of  many  of  the 
doorkeepers  of  wealth,  we  find  the  native  bom,  guilty  of  occasional 
attempts  at  plunder  «4)ether  by  graft  or  swindle,  lapsing  into  the 
predatory  class. 

Lower  in  the  social  scale,  and  more  often  found  in  the  cruel 
light  of  police  courts  or  the  isolation  of  jails,  are  those  who  fed 
the  same  impulse,  but,  lacking  means,  tradition,  or  imagination, 
express  themselves  in  cruder  anti-social,  anti-moral  forms.  The 
camp  followers  of  saloon  and  brothel  and  gambling  joint,  the 
petty  office  holder,  small  ward  grafter,  and  the  managers  of  lean 
and  little  business  enterprises  defrauding  those  a  stage  more  ig- 
norant than  themselves — make  up  a  penumbra  to  the  groups  of 
the  underworld  we  have  described. 

It  is,  no  doubt,  the  startling  features  of  the  crimes  of  aliens 
that,  in  American  cities,  fix  so  much  popular  attention  upon  them; 
that,  and  our  natural  tendency  to  punish  those  of  the  lowest  social 
order  who  infringe.  The  former  Mafios  gains  notoriety  by  his 
importation  of  threat  and  knife,  spectacular  forms  of  lawlessness. 
The  Slav  drinks,  batters,  and  sometimes  slays.  The  Jewish  pai^ 
asite  of  eastern  Europe  reasserts  his  old  work  relation  of  panderer. 
usurer,  and  liquor  seller.  Thus  foreign  convict  types,  no  less 
than  native  yeggs  and  pickpockets,  add  their  quota  to  the 
resident  criminals  of  any  American  city.  But  the  great  bulk  of 
those  whose  strange  names  find  a  place  on  the  police  dockets  or 
are  haled  to  court  by  constables  are  recruited  from  a  different  sort. 
They  are  the  inarticulate  rank  and  file;  whose  burdens,  being  the 
heaviest,  are  naturally  held  to  the  strictest  accounting.  Ignorant, 
uncouth,  illiterate,  compelled  to  adapt  themselves  mercilessly  to 
entirely  new  conditions  of  life,  labor,  speech,  and  conventions, 
they  blunder  into  the  pdice  net,  and  receive  almost  inevitaUy 
the  meed  of  their  helplessness.  Southern  Negroes,  Italians,  Slavs — 
they  clog  the  courts,  crowd  the  jails,  rot  and  choke  in  the  upper 
tiers  of  our  prisons,  go  to  the  gallows  or  the  electric  chair,  crazed, 
screaming,  but  always  inarticulate.    The  tragedy  of  the  foreign- 

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THE  REVERSE  SIDE 

bom  worker  in  America  has  never  been  told;  the  fraction  of  it  will 
never  be  told. 

In  the  giris  from  farm  and  small  town  who  drift  into  a  life 
oi  pfXKtitution  by  way  of  factory,  housework,  and  department 
store  we  catch  a  ^impse  of  still  another  human  current — for  the 
brothel  itself  rears  no  children,  and  draws  on  the  homes  of  the 
plain  people  for  its  recruits. 

Native  bom,  foreign  bom,  dty  bred,  country  bred,  changed 
conditions  brought  in  by  modem  industry,  have  thus  given  new 
persHiality  and  volume  to  the  back-set  currents  of  our  cities. 
These  currents  reach  far  into  the  social  order;  and  for  any  perma- 
nent change  in  them  we  must  kx>k  to  forces  in  education,  in  law, 
and  in  the  economic  life.  None  the  less,  in  such  a  period  of  change, 
the  part  played  by  the  police  must  become  a  force  for  reaction  or 
for  progress.  In  so  far  as  its  members  are  or  are  not  alive  to  the 
awakened  social  conscience  of  the  times. 

Tme,  they  are  charged  with  onerous  and  widely  differing 
functions,  some  of  which  have  at  most  been  but  referred  to  in 
these  pages.  We  look  to  them  to  protect  dwellings  and  business 
houses  from  depredations;  to  regulate  traffic;  to  enforce  theliquor 
law  and  the  city  ordinances;  to  put  down  riot;  to  prevent  resort 
to  personal  vengeance;  to  see  that  the  law  has  its  course — yet, 
inevitably,  in  the  course  of  these  duties,  they  are  obliged  to  deal 
with  individual  cases  which  in  the  mass  present  what  we  call  social 
problems.  Moreover,  in  this  enforced  service,  methods  have 
been  demanded  of  them  other  than  those  of  the  big  onlooker,  with 
a  stick  to  preserve  fair  play.  Whether  they  have  wanted  it  or 
not,  they  have  become  part  of  society's  machinery  for  dealing 
with  misfortune,  maladjustment,  disease,  and  vice — part  of  the 
machinery  of  local  government  over  which  the  municipal  struggles 
<rf  our  generation  have  been  carried  on. 

The  sphere  of  social  action  which  opens  up  before  the  police 
will  be  simplified  for  us  if  we  begin  by  noting  certain  relations  it 
bears  to  the  general  community  life. 

POLITICAL  REFORM  AND  THE  POLICE 
First,  every  movement  toward  clean  government  makes  the 
police  problem  simpler  by  stripping  it  of  that  element  of  cormp- 
tion  with  which  it  is  generally  confused. 
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WACE-EARMING  PITTSBURGH 

To  begin  at  the  bottom,  through  the  semi-outlaw  groups 
which  comprise  the  underworld,  a  formidable  number  of  votes  can 
be  mustered  by  the  political  machine  which  wishes  to  contnd  the 
municipality  for  its  own  advantage  and  that  of  privileged  inter- 
ests.* No  element  can  be  swung  at  the  polls  so  successfully  as  that 
which  is  promised  protection  against  the  enforcement  of  the  law. 
When  hangers-on  of  saloon  and  brothel,  race  track,  gambling 
house,  and  pool  room  are  granted  immunities,  the  police  must, 
perforce,  recognize  in  the  grantees  an  authority  higher  than  the 
law;t  the  fixer  outranks  the  judge.  More  sinister,  there  arises  in 
the  police  mind  the  feeling  that  semi-outlaw  groups  are  to  be 
taken  for  granted,  its  own  monile  is  destroyed,  and  the  way  open 
to  corruption.  Yet  we  have  seen  how,  under  a  reform  adminis- 
tration in  Pittsburgh,  police  graft  was  reduced  to  a  minimum  and 
it  was  possible  to  set  off  various  problems  of  social  control  as 
things  by  themselves. 

The  matter  reaches  both  ways:  only  as  the  political  move- 
ments for  reform  reach  such  a  stage  as  to  wrest  the  police  dq»rt- 
ment  from  its  traditional  alliances  can  we  give  a  fair  trial  to  the 
possibilities  of  a  social  police. 

Only,  on  the  other  hand,  as  reform  administrations  realize 
the  crucial  importance  of  the  police  department  can  reform  be  for 
any  length  of  time  secure. 

PUBLIC  POLICY  AND  THE  POLICE 
In  the  second  place,  the  police,  as  now  constituted,  is  not  a 
legislature,  and  can  not  work  to  advantage  so  long  as  we  fait  to 
clear  up  responsibility  for  formulating  the  social  policies  it  is  ex- 
pected to  execute.  When  laws  for  a  city  are  written  on  the  statute 
books  by  up-state  legislators,  and  when  it  remains  within  the 
power  of  the  local  mayor  and  council  to  disregard  those  laws  and 
stand,  as  they  choose,  for  a  "wide  open"  town  or  a  "closed"  wie, 
we  have  a  situation  which  usually  leaves  it  to  the  police  depart- 
ment, actuated  by  such  influences  as  are  in  control,  to  decide  when 
and  where  it  shall  proceed  against  offenders. 

'This  proccK  wiis  visualized  in  the  PitlsbuTgh  election  of  191J,  when  tbe 
superintendent  of  the  city  almihouse  at  Marshilsea  delivered  *t  1  polling  place 
30  inlinn  vaten  to  iwell  the  count  of  one  faction. 

fSee  Appendix  XXIV,  p.  jaa,  Sesuons  of  Trial  Board  Secret. 

370 


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TUB  REVERSE  SIDE 

We  have  seen  how  this  double  standard  of  law  and  enforce- 
ment long  demoralized  the  police  arm  under  corrupt  r^mes;at  all 
times  it  is  a  deplorable  makeshift  for  open  and  sustained  public 
p<dicy  on  the  part  of  the  people  as  a  whole.  With  respect  to  the 
difficult  question  whether  commercialized  prostitution  shall  be 
regulated  or  abolished  in  a  city  the  size  of  Pittsburgh,  the  police 
is  faced  with  the  still  greater  crevice  between  outward  taboo  and 
secret  toleration.  Moreover,  it  is  dealing  with  a  resourceful  and 
entrenched  offender.  Yet  prior  to  the  movement  which  started 
with  the  Chicago  Vice  Commission  of  191 1,  the  efforts  of  American 
cities  to  cope  with  commercial  prostitution  were  sporadic  and 
lacking  in  coordination  of  purpose  among  the  different  agencies 
concerned,  public  and  private. 

The  social  evil  may  well  be  taken,  therefore,  to  illustrate 
the  necessity  (in  each  field  of  social  control)  of  a  rounded  city 
program,  embracing  the  police  and  other  community  forces  reached. 

We  have  seen  how  the  business  of  established  houses  was  under- 
mined by  the  Guthrie  policies,  which  prohibited  the  sale  of  liquor,  stepped 
soliciting  from  windows,  and  restricted  the  use  of  musical  instruments  as 
a  means  of  attracting  custom;  how  the  brothel  was  relegated  from  all 
streets  carrying  car  tracks;  how  the  street-walker  was  banished  from  the 
main  thoroughfares  and  the  pimp  was  hounded  out  of  the  city.  From 
such  a  situation,  the  standards  of  enforcement  could  either  have  fallen 
back  or  gone  forward  to  a  point  where  the  city  would  no  longer  oRicially 
federate  this  deplorable  traffic.  With  the  retirement  of  Mayor  Guthrie 
they  fell  backward;  and  it  remained  for  the  Morals  Efficiency  Commission 
in  1912-13*  to  retrieve  the  lost  ground  and  cany  refonn  to  a  point  beyond 
that  in  1907-08.  These  developments  tend  to  confinn,  rather  than  weaken, 
the  following  conclusions  then  reached  by  the  writer: 

"  By  closing  permanently,  say  ten  brothels,  each  week, 

upon  each  side  of  the  river,  a  militant  police  department, 

hdd  to  results  as  rigorously  as  public  opinion  now  holds  the 

*  For  an  interpretation  of  this  work  by  a  member  of  the  commiiiion   see 

Appendix  XXI.    Asapennanent  instrument  fordealingwith  the  problem,  it  secured 

Icgjilatian  creating  a  Bureau  of  Public  Morals  in  the  Department  of  Public  Safety, 

to  be  governed  bf  a  board  of  seven  members  appointed  by  the  majfor.     A  half  year 

elapsed  before  Mayor  Armstrong,  under  pressure,  made  the  appointments,  arid  as 

thb  volume  nes  to  press  Uuly,  >9>4)  the  new  board  has  still  to  organize  its  work. 

Its  personnerhM  commanded  public  respect;  it  can  employ  a  superintendent  but 

it  largely  de        "     "  -      .. 

responsible  I 


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police  to  accountzbility  for  house  bursary,  could  in  a  year 
rid  the  city  of  every  known  brothel.  That  there  would  bean 
accompanying  increase  of  the  present  number  of  prostitutes 
living  more  or  less  secretly  in  flats  and  furnished  rooms  is  to 
be  apprehended.  The  pdice  could  deal  effectively  with  any 
such  increase  by  giving  prostitutes  the  option  of  going  else* 
where  or  living  in  the  workhouse. 

"The  change,  however,  could  not  be  effected  perma* 
nently  or  humanely  merely  by  such  a  pdicy  of  repression. 
Emergent  funds,  either  public  or  from  private  charitable 
agencies,  would  be  needed  to  bridge  the  way  back  to  the 
ordinary  walks  of  life  for  such  as  could  be  reclaimed  in  this 
way.  Sick  and  worn-out  prostitutes  as  well  as  those  who  had 
fallen  from  inexperience  should  be  properly  cared  for  and 
furnished  with  transportation,  in  some  cases,  after  due  in* 
vestigation  has  shown  that  parents  or  other  proper  guardians 
will  receive  them.  A  residue  of  professional  prostitutes, 
thoroughly  confirmed  in  their  mode  of  life,  would  remain. 
The  permanent  segrqation,  not  only  of  idiots  and  imbeciles, 
but  of  recidivists  or  confirmed  felons  in  Indiana  and  other 
progressive  states,  points  the  way  for  dealing  with  this 
residue.  Farm  colonies  for  male  vagrants  under  compara- 
tively long  commitments  (such  as  are  carried  on  in  Belgium, 
Holland,  Germany,  and  Switzerland)  could  be  established 
for  females." 

The  city  which  made  such  an  attempt  with  energy,  courage  and 
persistence  could  become  the  first  clean  city  in  the  country.  Courage 
in  plenty  would  be  needed  by  Pittsburgh  or  any  other  city  possessing 
the  hardihood  so  to  grapple  with  this  evil.  The  sinister  influence  behind 
the  business  would  find  many  mediums  by  which  to  mislead  the  public 
Professional  policemen  or  others  whose  opinions  are  in  many  cases  worth- 
less or  open  to  impeachment  would  be  quoted  as  alleging  the  evil  to  be 
a  necessary  one.  Liquor  dealers  and  other  tradesmen  would  protest 
openly  or  secretly,  and  the  politicians  would  do  all  in  their  power  to 
render  the  cleansing  movement  abortive  and  temporary.* 

It  will  be  seen  that  in  such  a  program  by  a  city  administra- 
tion  pledged  to  high  ideals,  two  govemmetital  powers  are  invt^ved, 
the  one  executive,  vested  in  the  police,  which,  if  capable  atid  deter- 
mined, can,  in  my  belief,  eliminate  commercialized  prostitution 
'See  Appendix  XXII.  p.  J07,  Eicerpts  from  Report  of  Morals  EWkitncf 


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from  any  American  city;  the  other,  legislative,  involving  not  only 
what  the  state  enacts,  but  what  the  community  wants.  Efforts 
to  correlate  these  two  powers  have  resulted,  on  the  one  haitd,  in 
experinnents  in  state  controlled  police,  especially  in  liquor  law 
enforcement;  on  the  other,  in  the  home-rule  movements,  vesting 
greater  legislative  authority  in  councils  or  city  commissions.  A 
further  trend — in  education,  health,  and  factory  inspection — is 
toward  administrative  boards  given  wide  latitude  in  applying  to 
local  conditions  the  broad  tenns  of  a  statute. 

What  is  very  dear  is  that  we  need  to  bridge  the  gaps  if  the 
police  is  to  do  its  work.  No  matter  what  laws  may  be  upon  the 
statute  books  affecting'prostitution,  not  until  a  community  unitedly 
and  openly  voices  its  desire  is  the  police  likely  to  be  aaxad&i 
the  power  necessary  to  carry  them  out  in  any  consecutive  way. 
And  only  when  the  extent  of  prostitution  and  the  diseases  which 
have  their  roots  in  it  become  common  knowledge  by  campaigns 
of  outspoken  public  education,  similar  to  that  in  the  case  of  tuber- 
culosis, is  the  electorate,  and  the  men  and  women  whose  choices 
make  up  public  opinion,  in  a  position  to  voice  a  constructive 
policy  (far  broader  than  police  action)  with  respect  to  sexual 
intercourse. 

PUBLICITY  AND  THE  POLICE 
In  other  words,  our  third  consideration  is  that  the  problems 
faced  by  the  police  department  should  not  be  locked  up  in  rogues' 
galleries,  but  should  become  part  of  the  sober  understanding  and 
knowledge  of  the  community.  The  Pittsburgh  public  had  no 
means,  in  1907-08 — nor  now — for  knowing  who  own  the  brothels 
in  which  its  daughters  are  ruined  and  its  sons  infected,  yet  that 
is  only  the  beginning  of  what  it  needs  to  know — what  conditions 
of  city  life  and  wages  postpone  marriage  and  draw  the  young  men 
of  the  working  population  to  the  brothel  for  their  pleasures,  what 
brings  the  daughters  of  workingmen  to  the  same  houses  and 
thence  to  the  police  courts.  The  man  on  the  beat  has  not  the 
least  significant  testimony  to  offer  as  to  why  the  streets  are 
crowded  afternoons  and  evenings  with  young  giris  idling  about 
cheap  theaters,  moving  picture  exhibits,  and  the  like,  all  potential 
victims  of  the  seducer. 

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The  standards  of  the  police  themselves  would  be  the  first  to 
undergo  a  change  for  the  better  through  a  process  of  publicity  and 
education. 

While  in  the  civil  government  of  English-speaking  peoples 
our  peace  officers  may  be  traced  back  to  the  old  Saxon  Watch  and 
Wand,  the  city  policeman,  unlike  his  country  cousin,  the  coo- 
stable,  may  be  traced  also  to  recruits  from  the  galleys.  Turn  to 
Balzac,  Hugo,  Dickens,  LeSage,  and  the  other  writers  of  the 
picaresque  school,  from  the  days  when  Guzman  de  Alemon  wrote 
his  tale  of  Lazarillo  de  Tonnes,  and  we  find  the  ex-criminal  who 
sells  himself  to  society  as  a  man-hunter,  who  speaks  the  argo  of 
the  criminal  and  thinks  in  his  terms.  Many  of  the  features 
which  now  characterize  the  police  department  are  the  natural 
effects  of  this  process  of  evolution. 

It  has  been  this  detective  element  which  has  tended  to  give  tone 
to  police  work  as  a  whole.  (An  ex-pimp  and  an  ex-thief  were  two  pro- 
fessional "guns"  on  the  Pittsburgh  staff  in  1907--08.)  The  tendency  to 
crystallize  the  work  of  the  department  in  the  phrase  "set  a  thief  to  catch 
2  thief"  is  one  which  has  inhibited  the  natural  development  of  the  police 
department  into  a  modern  and  scientific  agency  of  society.  The  stool- 
pigeon*  should  no  more  set  his  stamp  on  the  whole  force  than  tbe 
bragging  cop  in  the  station  house.  Already  the  better  class  of  officers 
fail  to  enthuse  over  the  policeman  who  boasts  of  regularly  breaking  so 
many  night -sticks  a  month  on  the  heads  of  his  prisoners,  or  who  takes  to 
himself  credit  for  having  "nailed  to  the  cross"  a  particular  offender  who 
has  been  sentenced  to  2  long  term  of  imprisonment,  and  who,  perhaps, 
in  the  process,  has  awakened  his  captor's  strong  personal  resentment. 

With  such  a  radical  change  in  viewpoint,  the  language  of  the 
underworld,  the  criminal  jargon  employed  alike  by  pdice  oflicen  and 
thieves,  would  no  longer  impose  its  trade  terms,  its  savageries  and  ob- 
scenities upon  the  police.  Upon  the  new  order,  a  thief  would  be  no 
longer  a  "gun"  or  a  "dip,"  nor  his  female  companion  a  "moll,"  a  "bun- 
dle," or  a  "hoister."  The  unfortunate  woman  of  the  street  would  no 
longer  be  termed  a  "cruiser,"  a  "hustler,"  or  a  "body  snatcher,"  nor 
the  victim  of  thieves  or  swindlen  be  contemptuously  referrwl  to  as 
"mark"  or  "sucker."  Moreover,  by  the  restriction  of  this  jargon  to 
the  thief  world,  one  common  bond  of  comradeship  between  the  police 
officer  and  the  thief  would  be  destroyed.    Too  long  has  the  policeman 

*See  Appendix  XXiV,  p.  53;. 

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THE  REVERSE   SIDE 

gone  to  school  with  the  thief  in  order  to  team  his  code.  In  doing  so  he 
has  not  only  adopted  the  thieTs  vocabulary,  but  often  his  moral  standards 
as  well. 

By  the  breaking  down  of  the  bonds  between  the  police  and 
the  underworld,  of  which  this  vocabulary  is  the  symbol,  and  by 
creating  new  and  common  ties  between  the  police  and  dynamic 
public  intelligence,  the  cynical  attitude  taken  by  the  latter  as  a 
class  toward  the  existence  of  evil — which  is  the  result  of  their 
intimate  association  with  it  and  its  dangerous  toleration  by  the 
public — could  be  successfully  combated.  The  point  of  view 
which  sees  in  the  professional  thief  simply  a  justification  of  the 
maintenance  of  a  police  caste  dominated  to  a  considerable  extent 
by  an  approximation  in  mind  and  purpose  to  that  of  the  criminal 
would  lose  its  power.  With  a  p<^ice  actuated  by  these  new  ideals, 
it  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  blackmail  and  extortion  by 
members  of  the  force  would,  in  time,  be  curtailed. 

The  physical  examination  of  applicants  for  police  appoint- 
ment has  served  to  raise  the  efficiency  of  the  police  force  in  our 
cities;  the  extension  of  the  civil  service  has  given  it  backbone;  the 
inclusion  of  courses  not  only  on  laws  and  rights,  but  on  elemental 
social  ethics  and  social  needs,  in  the  schools  of  police  instruction — 
in  addition  to  the  facts  of  local  geography,  traffic  rules  and  the 
like— would  give  impetus  to  such  a  movement.* 

THE  COURTS  AND  THE  POLICE 
This  socialization  of  pdice  outlook  and  service  is  but  part 
of  a  general  tendency  to  readjust  the  processes  of  courts  and  cor- 
rectional institutions  to  new  theories  oS  penology  and  life.  Those 
who  are  interested  in  analogies  would  find  in  the  extreme  indi- 
vidualism of  industrial  Pittsburgh,  coupled  with  the  Calvinistic 
tenets  of  some  of  its  strongest  elements,  a  reason  for  the  tena- 
cious emphasis  locally  upon  repressive  and  retributory  methods 
in  the  treatment  of  (lenders.  For  ,the  police  problem,  intimate 
and  intensely  human  as  it  is,  reaches  far.  It  opens  up  the  old 
conflict  between  personal  liberty  and  governmental  control.    It 

*  noDeer  work  has  been  done  by  Major  SylveiteT,  chief  o(  police  of  Wash- 
ington, through  the  Interoatioaal  Assodation  of  Police  Chiefs,  io  raising  the 
sUndiiFds  of  police  procedure. 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

is  part  of  the  newer  battleground  between  the  semi-reli^us 
ideas  of  punishment  and  the  modem  theories  of  refoimation  and 
prevention.  A  theoretical  discussion  of  these  contrasts  would 
carry  us  beyond  the  bounds  of  police  administration,  but  their 
bearing  on  certain  practical  phases  of  the  latter  can  be  brou^t 
out. 

The  reproach  of  the  old-time  police  officer  was  that,  like 
Poo-Bah,  in  the  "Mikado,"  he  sometimes  attempted  to  serve 
both  as  judge  and  as  executioner;  ran  his  man  up  an  alley,  made 
him  pay  hush  money,  and  let  him  off.  In  the  development  of 
centralized  police  systems  the  tendency  was  to  eliminate  not  only 
this  personal  graft,  but  all  discretionary  action  as  well,  on  the  part 
of  the  patrolman,  and  thus  to  limit  the  duties  of  the  police  to  mak- 
ing arrests  and  gathering  evidence  for  the  courts  to  act  upon  ac- 
cording to  the  law.  But  while  the  law  has  laid  down  in  black  and 
white  what  penalties  the  courts  shall  impose  and  for  what  offenses, 
the  plain  fact  remains  that  the  judges  have  been  faced  not  with 
crimes  and  misdemeanors,  but  with  offenders,  with  the  men  whom 
the  police  have  arrested. 

The  outcome  has  shown  that  the  three  options  of  discharge, 
fine,  and  imprisonment,  long  the  only  recourse  of  the  courts, 
founded  as  they  were  on  a  retributory  idea  of  justice,  are  poor  and 
insufficient  means  with  which  to  prevent  wrongdoing.  In  various 
progressive  states,  therefore,  both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  a 
new  agent  of  the  courts  has  been  created  in  the  person  of  the  pro- 
bation officer,  to  whom  offenders  are  paroled  instead  of  being 
sent  to  prison.  They  return  to  their  homes  subject  to  good  con- 
duct. Vested  with  much  of  the  discretionary  power  which  has 
been  taken  from  the  police  officer,  the  probation  agent  supplies  a 
flexible  relationship  between  court  and  offenders  which  keeps  the 
latter  under  supervision  until  they  have  proved  themsdves  fit  for 
entire  freedom.  The  probation  officer  is  not  a  limb  of  vengeance: 
he  is  a  friend,  responsible  to  a  judge. 

Under  such  a  system  the  minor  court,  from  the  legal  view- 
point of  punishment,  becomes  a  major  court  from  the  social 
standpoint  of  prevention,  because  it  first  has  contact  with  poten- 
tial lawbreakers — with  the  rank  and  file  at  a  stage  when  they  are 
open  to  constructive  work. 

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THE   REVERSE  SIDE 

These  minor  courts,  reaching  back  to  the  earliest  Anglo- 
Saxon  precedents,  have  been  the  slowest  to  feel  the  more  acute 
social  conscience  of  the  times.  Their  attitude  has  been  analogous 
to  that  of  police  circles.  In  Pittsburgh  the  magistracies  are 
in  fact  agents  of  the  police  department.* 

The  eight  magistrates  are  appointed  by  the  mayor,  removable  by 
him,  assigned  by  the  director  of  public  safety,  and  hdd  court  in  the  police 
stations.  They  have  but  one  session  of  court  each  day  in  the  week,  con- 
vening at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  adjourning,  usually,  two  hours 
later.  During  sessions  the  outer  room  of  the  statbn  house  is  transfonned 
for  the  time  being  into  a  court  room,  the  magistrate  taking  the  place  of  the 
police  sergeant  at  the  desk  and  the  prisoners  in  turn  are  brought  out  from 
the  cells.  Spectators  stand  outside  of  the  rail.  Children  are  held  for 
the  juvenile  court,  alleged  felons  for  the  grand  jury,  and  the  great 
number  of  petty  offenders  and  misdemeanants  disposed  of  summarily  by 
the  old  unsocial  routine  of  line  or  short  term  commitments  to  the  county 
jail  or  workhouse.    There  is  no  alternative  of  probation. 

It  is  an  axiom  in  these  courts  that  the  police  magistrate  will  ludd 
any  prisoner  whom  the  department  of  public  safety  desires  held,' and 
this  fact  is  proof  positive  that  the  police  dominates  the  bench.  As  a 
result,  the  fine  points  in  a  particular  case  for  lawyers  and  "fixers"  have 
to  be  developed  later  on,  when  the  case  is  tried  before  the  higher  courts; 
this  tending  to  one  good  result,  the  cutting  out,  to  a  large  extent,  of  the 
shyster  lawyer,  so  familiar  a  figure  in  the  police  courts  of  other  large  cities. 
Thb  absence,  however,  is  compensated  for  by  petty  political  leaders  who 
perform  for  voters  friendly  to  their  interests  the  usual  offices  which  are 
required  of  them. 

Legal  training  is  not  a  prerequisite  to  holding  office.  In  Pittsburgh, 
some  magistrates  have  been  painstaking  and  common-sense  men;  but,  as 
a  whde,  the  application  of  law  to  the  everyday  offender  has  been  at  the 
hands  of  a  succession  of  appointees,  in  cahoots,  not  infrequently,  with  the 
underworld,  whose  malpractice  has  been  an  outrage  and  the  subject  of 
repeated  scandal,  t 

Nor  do  the  magistrate  courts  represent  the  lowest  ebb  of 
maladministration.  They  are  comparatively  new,  coming  in  with 
the  development  of  the  centralized  police  system.  The  old  minor 
seats  of  justice  are  the  squires  (known  as  aldermen  in  the  cities), 

'See  AppcDdii  XXIV,  Police  MagUtraies'  Courts,  p  }i8. 

t  See  BlaxtcT.  H.  V..  and  Kerr,  Allen  H.:  The  AldenneD  and  Their  Owns. 
The  Pittsburg  District,  p.  1)9. 

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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

one  for  each  ward,  borough,  and  township,  without  records  or 
supervision,  dependent  upon  a  fee  system  which  puts  a  premium 
on  litigation  and  lends  itself  to  all  manner  of  petty  persecutions. 
The  creation  of  a  county  court  in  191 1  offered  the  option  of  a 
clean  channel  in  minor  civil  cases,  but  in  criminal  matters,  where 
a  preiiminaiy  hearing  is  required,  the  alderman's  jurisdiction 
remains  intact,  their  practices  and  those  of  their  constables,  un- 
regulated* 

The  latter  serve  as  peace  officers,  but  with  considerably 
wider  powers  than  those  of  a  city  policeman.  The  alderman  is 
allowed  a  fee  of  ;o  cents  for  every  witness  sworn  the  first  time,  and 
a  lesser  amount  for  each  successive  swearing  of  a  witness.  The 
manner  of  paying  for  the  services  of  these  officials  shows  how 
their  powers  are  likely  to  be  exercised  in  all  parts  of  the  field 
legally  open  to  them  in  direct  proportion  to  the  personal  monetary 
yield. 

The  constables  are  altogether  too  frequently  of  the  ward 
heeler  type  known  to  every  resident  of  doubtful  character  in  the 
neighborhood,  "wise"  to  every  possible  petty  dicker  and  deal, 
and  thoroughly  alert  to  the  opportunities  of  their  position. 

For  years,  constables  on  the  Hill  and  in  the  tenderloin  dis- 
tricts regulariy  reported,  along  with  their  fellows,  that  there  were 
no  houses  of  prostitution  and  no  establishments  selling  liquor  ille- 
gally within  their  precincts.  Among  the  initiated  the  ceremony  (tf 
this  reporting  is  known  generally  as  the  "Blind  Man's  Parade." 
The  constables  have  been  less  nearsighted  of  recent  years,  but  the 
phrase  is  crammed  with  the  general  contempt  in  which  the  whole 
procedure  of  the  law  has  been  brought  in  the  working  people's 
districts. 

The  aldennen  among  (he  large,  fcveign-bom  populatk>n  of  mill 
workers  on  the  North  and  South  sides,  those  among  the  immigrant  and 
Negro  populations  on  the  Hill  and  in  the  tenderloin,  may  be  said  to 
secure  the  "cream"  of  criminal  cases  of  minor  importance  for  the  whole 
city.  Petty  offenders  against  municipal  ordinances,  "drunks,"  "vags," 
and  so  forth,  do  not  come  before  them,  but  are  tried  in  the  police  magis- 
trates' courts,  as  the  handling  of  these  cases  is  comparatively  unprotitaMe 

*  See  Koukol,  op.  cit.,  p.  61,  and  Roberts,  op.  cit.,  p.  33,  of  this  volume. 
Sec  also  B1axt«r  and  Ken-,  op.  cit.  Tbe  Pittsbtvgh  District,  p.  im- 

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THE  REVERSE  SIDE 

from  the  standpoint  of  the  fee  system.  The  aldeimen  generally  engaged  in 
the  real  estate  business  act  as  notaries  or  insurance  agents,  sell  steam- 
ship tickets,  or  collect  rents  and  accounts.  This  sort  of  brokerage  con- 
stitutes the  private  business  and  unofficial  life  of  the  "judge"  orsquire. 
But  let  a  constable  enter  with  his  prisoner  or  a  possible  litigant:  the 
usually  dingy  quarters  takes  on  a  changed  appearance.  The  squire 
drops  his  character  of  broker,  and  the  place  is  forthwith  a  court  of  justice. 
To  suit  the  convenience  of  the  judge,  cases  are  heard  at  all  limes  of  the 
day  or  night,  even  on  Sundays,  and  in  the  evening  the  offices  in  these 
districts  are  frequently  crowded  to  the  doors  with  litigants  and  their 
friends,  or  "hangers-on." 

In  1907-08  two  justices'  "shops"  in  the  Hill  District  were  char- 
acterized at  certain  hours  of  the  day  by  the  presence  of  notorious  Negro 
and  Jewish  bullies,  pimps,  and  steerers,  who  were  "in  right"  with  the 
local  politicians.  They  lounged  about  and  paraded  before  the  door, 
waiting  for  business  to  turn  up,  holding  whispered  conferences  with  each 
other,  or  bustling  into  the  shops  in  company  with  prisoners  or  com- 
plainants whose  value  to  them  in  "coin"  for  services  to  be  rendered  they 
had  already  discounted  to  the  last  dollar.  One  of  these  shops  in  par- 
ticular was  made  the  political  headquarters  of  the  Negro  element  in  the 
quarter  by  a  swaggering  crowd  of  "bucks"  who  dressed  in  flashy  clothes 
and  wore  imitation  diamonds.  The  leading  local  politician  of  color  used 
to  appear  in  his  motor  car  and  be  greeted  with  due  deference  by  the  evil- 
looking  Negro  constable  attached  to  this  particular  office,  who  thus 
showed  his  superiority  over  the  ordinary  kuterer  and  hanger-on  about 
the  office  door. 

Still,  even  such  a  paradise  of  petty  graft  seemed  to  some  to  indi- 
cate but  a  passing  of  the  good  old  times.  A  Polish  constaMe  on  the 
South  Side  who  for  years  had  been  a  "runner,"  as  he  phrased  it,  for  one 
of  the  busiest  justice  shc^  in  the  city,  tdd  the  writer  that  the  Polaks 
and  Hunkies  and  Dagoes  alike  were  "getting  too  civilized."  He  said 
that  the  wholesale  drinking  bouts  which  often  characterize  important 
domestic  events  among  the  foreign-bom  workers,  and,  through  mis- 
demeanors and  breaches  of  the  peace  which  usually  accompany  them, 
fumbh  rich  harvests  for  the  justices'  shops,  were  no  longer  so  universally 
indulged  in  as  was  fornieriy  the  case.  Thb  change  had  occasioned  a  sad 
shrinkage  in  revenue  for  the  worthy  constable  and  his  master. 

The  situation  possesses  particular  significance,  because  the 
victims  of  this  judicial  abuse  are  in  the  main  working  people, 
toilers  in  the  mills  and  glass-houses,  alien  in  birth  and  speech,  and 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

until  recent  years,  at  least,  totally  helpless  and  inarticutate.*  We 
can  sympathize  with  the  exploited  prostitute,  the  thief,  and  the 
population  fringing  the  underwoiid  which  yield  their  own  rev- 
enue for  the  aldermen's  courts,  but  the  injustice  committed 
against  them  is  of  small  moment  in  comparison  with  that  to  which 
the  foreign-bom  working  population  has  been  subject  in  these 
institutions  of  the  law  in  Pennsylvania.  The  conditions  obtain 
not  only  in  working  class  districts  in  the  city,  bQt  generally 
throughout  the  coal  regions  of  Pennsylvania,  as  well  as  in  the  mil. 
towns  outside  of  Pittsburgh. 

BECrNNINGS  OF  PROBATION 

Whatever  promptings  toward  modem  constmctive  methods 
may  have  come  in  the  courts  of  higher  jurisdiction,  they  have  not 
beea  vital  enough  to  pervade  these  lower  chambers  which  are  in 
closest  contact  with  the  people.  Moreover,  at  the  time  this  inves- 
tigation was  made  Pittsburgh,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  Penn- 
sylvania, had  no  probation  for  adults  whatever.  A  beginning 
toward  this  broader  social  equipment  was  to  be  noted  in  the  juve- 
nile court  and  in  reformatory  institutions  for  boys  and  girls 
Marked  advances  have  come  in  the  higher  courts  as  result  of  laws 
passed  in  1909  and  191 1 . 

Without  change  in  powers  and  jurisdiction,  the  four  courts  of 
common  pleas  of  Allegheny  County  have  been  consolidated  under  a  presi- 
dent judge.  Three  of  his  eleven  associates  are  assigned  each  month  to  sit  in    ' 
Quarter  Sessions  and  the  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer,  before  which  crim- 
inal cases  are  carried  for  jury  trial  after  indictment  by  the  grand  jury. 

Under  the  adult  parole  law  of  191 1,  whenever  any  person  is  sen- 
tenced to  the  penitentiary,  the  court,  instead  of  pronouncing  a  fixed  lerai 
of  imprisonment,  ts  required  to  pronounce  an  tndetenninate  sentence, 
stating  the  minimum  and  maximum  limits;  the  latter  never  to  exceed  the 
maximum  penalty  for  the  offense.  Upon  recommendation  of  the  board 
of  inspectors  of  the  penitentiary  the  state  pardon  board  may  release  such 
convicts  after  their  minimum  sentence  is  served. 

With  exception  of  murder,  incest,  and  certain  other  major  crimes, 

*  The  reaction  of  such  conditions  on  the  general  attitude  of  foreign  worken 
10  the  forcH  of  government  was  llluitrated  in  the  Westinghouse  strike  in  1914. 
when  the  feeling  toward  the  deputy  sheriffs  and  police  at  East  Pittsbuigh  was 
colored  by  past  experiences  of  lodging  houses  raided  and  foreigners  "shaken  down" 
in  the  squires'  courts. 

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THE   REVERSE  SIDE 

the  judge  may,  in  the  case  of  first  offenders,  suspend  sentence  and  place 
them  on  probation  for  a  definite  period. 

Under  these  laws  the  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions  of  Allegheny 
County  appointed  an  adult  probation  officer  in  the  latter  part  of  1910; 
3j;  offenders  were  placed  on  probation  in  1911,  446  in  1913.  and  539  in 
1913.  To  him,  also,  were  paroled  from  jail  and  workhouse  16  prisoners 
in  1911,63  in  1912,  and  112  in  1913.  A  card  index  system  has  been  estab- 
lished upon  which  a  history  of  the  probationer  is  kept;  monthly  reports 
are  received  from  them,  and  a  ledger  account  kept  with  any  who  are  re- 
quired to  pay  in  money  to  the  county  for  costs  and  restitution.  These 
payments  can  be  made  in  instalments,  thus  minimizing  the  old  system 
where,  when  a  fine  could  not  be  paid  in  full,  the  man  served  hb  sentence, 
not  unlike  the  old-time  prisoner  for  debt. 

In  other  words,  an  effective  beginning  has  been  made  in  breaking 
away  from  the  rigid  notions  of  making  the  punishment  fit  the  crime,  in 
the  direction  of  treating  the  criminal  in  the  prisoners'  dock  as  a  man  who 
is  capable  of  rehabilitation  in  the  community. 

Under  a  new  county  court  created  in  Allegheny  County  in  191 1  ad- 
vances have  been  made  in  the  direction  of  imposing  social  control  over  a 
class  of  offenders  who  theretofore  had  largely  gone  without  effective 
restraint.  A  non-support  law  was  passed  in  1913,  under  which  a  colony 
of  from  30  to  ;o  deserting  husbands  and  fathers  have  been  kept  at  the 
workhouse,  the  county  paying  each  family  6;  cents  a  day.  This  provision 
is  applied  where  disciplinary  means  are  needed,  or  in  default  of  bond,  but 
the  vast  bulk  of  non-support  cases  are  handled  on  probation  by  the 
probation  officer  of  the  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions.  Four  hundred  and 
ninety-three  such  cases  were  so  handled  in  1913,  and  ^38,249.68  turned 
over  to  the  families  by  the  probation  officer;  604  cases  in  1913,  and 
173,024.38  so  turned  over. 

W^ith  these  advances  in  mind,  the  basic  need  in  Pittsburgh 
b  seen  to  be  a  thorough  rehabilitation  of  the  scheme  of  minor 
courts  with  which  the  offender  first  comes  in  contact.  This  calls 
for  eliminating  the  aldermen  and  replacing  the  crude  magistrates' 
benches  with  a  municipal  or  county  system,  as  competent  in 
criminal  procedure  as  the  new  county  court  is  in  civil.* 

*  With  the  latter  advance  should  go  fresh  scrutiny  of  the  laws  to  which  the 
obtuirc  wagc-oirner  and  householder  roust  look  for  hi»  dvil  richts.  Many  of  the 
loan  shirk  abuies  have  been  stopped  in  the  city  of  Pittsburgh,  out  the  laws  which 
b  practice  require  a  lessee  to  waive  exemptions  on  his  hoiueliold  belongings,  which 
cubic  (be  bmdbrd  to  seize  thero  for  »  full  month's  rent  in  advance  if  his  tenancy 
TODS  over  i  day,  which  leave  him  without  equity  in  goods  purchased  on  the  in- 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

A  second  great  need  in  treating  delinquents  is  the  need  for 
greater  coherence  in  the  scheme  of  court  administration.  The 
common  pleas  judges  are  assigned  in  rotation  to  the  Court  of 
Quarter  Sessions,  and  none  gives  up  his  entire  time  to  the  exact- 
ing problems  of  the  criminal  branch.  There  are  no  lines  of  admin- 
istrative responsibility  running  down  through  county  judge,  magis- 
trate and  alderman,  which  would  bind  the  system  into  a  fabric  of 
fair  play  and  consistent  treatment  of  all  offenders.  Even  in  the 
juvenile  court  this  dislocation  of  machinery  too  largely  negatives 
the  work  of  probation  officers.  Children  are  held  in  police  stations* 
overnight  and  haled  before  the  magistrates  in  the  morning,  in- 
stead of  being  taken  immediately  to  the  house  of  detention  for 
juveniles  and  thence  to  the  juvenile  court.  The  latter  sits  but 
once  a  week,  and  the  judge  often  serves  no  longer  than  a  month — 
four  sessions  and  then  a  new  judge  to  gather  up  the  strands  of  dis- 
traught young  lives.  There  is  need  to  take  to  heart  the  marked 
advances  in  systematization  of  the  Chicago  municipal  courts,  which 
not  only  cover  the  city  get^raphically,  but  are  developing  func- 
tional tribunals,  such  as  the  court  of  domestic  relations. 

In  the  third  place,  there  is  need  for  making  the  probation 
work  for  adults  in  the  higher  courts  really  that.  As  yet,  the 
single  probation  officer,  with  his  two  clerks,  can  carry  on  little 
more  than  high  class  parole  work  with  the  large  number  c^  cases 
assigned  to  him.  The  men  and  women  report  at  his  office.  His 
report  for  191  ^  was  a  plea  for  assistance  which  would  enable  him  to 
carry  probation  out  into  the  community.  The  constructive  case 
work  of  the  juvenile  court  probation  crfficers,  in  helping  young 
offenders  to  make  good,  affords  an  example  of  what  should  be 
done  for  adults  in  home  and  workshop  and  neighborhood.  Pro- 
bation should  be  made  applicable  also  to  others  than  first  offenders. 

In  the  fourth  place,  once  the  minor  courts  are  rehabilitated, 
probation  work  for  adults  should  be  entered  upon  directly  with 
the  group  of  greatest  promise — the  minor  offenders.  Pending 
such  rehabilitation,  the  law  seems  to  give  ample  warrant  for  the 

sUlment  plan  if  he  has  not  made  the  last  payment,  and  which  leave  him  the  common 
prey  of  ambulance  chaser  and  company  claim  agent,  need  re-examination  as  to 
their  suitability  to  modem  conditions. 

'See  Appendix  XXIV,  Juvenile  Delinquents,  p.  510. 
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THE  REVERSE  SIDE 

higher  courts  to  apply  their  probationary  powers  extensively  to 
offenders  who  are  summarily  sentenced  to  jail  or  workhouse  by 
magistrates  and  aldermen. 

A  ROUNDED  PROGRAM 

In  general,  the  need  in  Pittsburgh  is  for  a  constructive  social 
program  to  prevent  and  eliminate  crime — a  program  in  which  the 
courts  and  penal  institutions,  prosecuting  officials,  probation 
officers,  and  police  all  have  important  parts  to  play. 

In  such  a  program  there  is  difference  of  opinion  as  to  how  far 
police  activity  should  be  stretched.  The  development  of  aggressive 
detective  work  on  the  part  of  district  attorneys  apparently  ovedaps  the 
new  field  before  the  police.  We  have  not  yet  worked  out  a  technique  for 
apprehending  grand  as  well  as  petty  social  crimes.  When  there  was 
notorious  grafting  in  the  old  city  councils  of  Pittsburgh  nobody  thought 
of  turning  in  a  police  alarm.  The  policeman  on  his  beat  is  the  first  to 
collar  a  hungry  snatch-thief  who  makes  away  with  a  loaf  of  bread;  but 
not  until  municipalities  have  developed  bureaus  of  weights  and  measures 
do  we  find  any  checking  of  the  wholesale  stealing  by  bakers  who  sdl 
underweight.  The  regulation  of  lodging  houses,  which  have  been  de- 
scribed, fell  in  Pittsburgh  under  the  health  authority.  The  police 
station  was  in  the  same  building  as  the  health  bureau,  and  itself  fur- 
nished hundreds  of  lodgings  as  bad  as  any  condemned  by  the  health 
officers.  Obviously,  without  close  co-operation  between  these  two  agencies 
no  satisfactory  control  over  the  lodging  house  evil  could  be  effected.  To 
turn  to  another  field,  the  report  of  the  Chicago  vice  commission,  made 
since  this  Pittsburgh  investigation,  recmnmended  no  less  than  three 
new  agencies  to  deal  with  prostitution:  (i)  The  creation  of  a  morals 
commission;  (3)  the  vesting  in  the  health  department  of  the  power  to 
dose  brothds  on  the  ground  that  they  are  centers  of  infection;  (3)  a 
county  committee  on  child  protection.  Pittsburgh  has,  in  1914,  set  up  a 
niOTals  bureau  within  the  department  of  public  safety  more  or  less  co- 
ordinate with  the  bureau  of  police.  Opinion  thus  differa  as  to  whether 
success  in  social  control  will  lie  in  the  multiplicaticm  of  specialized  agencies 
or  in  extending  the  responsibilities  of  those  already  existing.  In  the 
former  case,  we  can  hold  that  the  police  department  must  develop  a 
broad  social  program  to  meet  the  needs  which  the  congestion  of  our  cities 
demands,  and  in  the  latter  that,  if  it  is  rd^ated  to  the  position  of  pre- 
serving outward  law  and  order,  its  work  must  be  closdy  corrdated  with 
the  other  agencies  to  which  this  specialized  work  is  entrusted. 

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WAGE-EARNINO   PITTSBURGH 

To  the  mind  of  the  writer,  it  is  time  to  reverse  the  ingrowing 
tendency  of  the  police  department.  Its  positive  development, 
more  than  that  of  any  other  department  of  municipal  government, 
has  been  neglected.  The  police  themselves  do  not  realize  their 
potentialities.  Their  energies,  hitherto  consumed  in  defensive 
measures,  can  be  released  for  aggressive  social  work.  In  numbers 
they  are  the  second  largest  force  throu^  which  the  city  has  to  act. 
They  are  enlisted  for  life.  In  discipline  they  are  one  of  the  few 
forms  of  absolutism  at  the  service  of  a  democracy.  Before  dis- 
carding this  instrument  of  local  government  as  negative  and  anti- 
social, its  constructive  capacities  should  be  tried  out. 

The  fields  before  police  and  probation  officer  are  in  many 
respects  distinct:  they  represent  two  arms  of  the  law;  but  in  the 
one  case,  as  in  the  other,  a  new  rapproachment  to  the  problon  of 
crime  is  needed;  and  to  this  the  modem  police  officer,  no  less  than 
the  modem  court  probation  officer,  can  give  eicpression  in  his 
work.  Such  a  program  calls  for  more  than  his  standing  guard 
over  what  is  valuable  or  patroling  an  unstable  suzerainty  over 
such  groups  in  the  community  as  those  described  in  the  eariier 
sections  of  this  study. 

In  exploring  the  possibilities  for  social  service  on  the  part  of 
the  police,  let  us  distinguish  between  individual  offense  and  organ- 
ized forms  of  depredation.  Organized  law  breaking  dates  back  to 
antiquity,  but  the  modem  city  has  added  new  forms  to  the  old. 

ELIMINATION  OF  ORGANIZED  CRIME 
The  first  duty  of  the  police  should  be  to  eliminate  organized 
and  professional  depredation  and  to  strike  at  those  interests 
which  profit  by  it.  We  have  shown  that,  at  least  as  far  as  offenses 
against  property  are  concerned,  the  sum  total  of  depredati(ms 
committed  by  individual  law-breakers  or  "lone  wolves"  is  small 
in  comparison  with  the  actual  money  loss  suffered  at  the  hands  (rf 
professional  criminals  who  associate  together  under  loose  but 
effective  confederacies,  extending  in  some  instances  throughout 
the  country. 

Among  the  first  measures  to  be  enforced  would  be  those  making 
for  the  pennanent  elimination  from  our  municipal  life  of  the  more  or  less 
loosely  organized  professional  criminals,  such  as  pickpockets  and  confi- 

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dence  men.  If  they  could  be  banished  from  Pittsburgh  under  the  re- 
fonn  administration,  they  can  be  banished  from  all  cities.  An  honest 
police  department,  unhampered  by  political  interference,  would  have 
little  difficulty  in  restraining  the  criminal  activities  of  local  thieves  and 
gamblers.  The  mandate  of  an  efficient  police  head,  "No  tricks  to  be 
turned  in  this  town,"  would  be  sufficient,  for  the  most  part,  to  bdd  these 
in  check  and  to  regulate  or  completely  break  up  "joints"  and  "hang- 
outs. "  Yeggs  could  be  controlled  by  a  police  governed  by  the  idea  of  the 
prevention  of  crime,  no  less  than  by  one  set  upon  the  punishment  of 
criminals.  Their  wdl  established  headquarters  would  be  broken  up.  As 
tbe  yegg  spends  much  of  his  time  on  the  railroads  beating  the  freights, 
co-operation  with  railroad  police  departments  would  be  important.  With 
the  establishment  of  work  colonies,  after  the  European  models,  it  would 
no  longer  be  tolerable  to  turn  out-of-town  vagrants  loose  at  the  city 
limits;  their  place  of  residence  could  be  held  responsible  for  their  seques- 
tration.  The  work  of  the  state  constabulary  in  suppressing  gambling 
joints  and  black-hand  headquarters  in  the  remote  districts  of  Pennsylva- 
nia illustrates  what  a  thoroughly  equipped  force  could  do  in  running  out 
kindred  hang-outs  in  the  mill  districts.  Further,  an  effective  social  police 
would  keep  a  watchful  eye  upon  those  parasites  who  prey  especially  upon 
the  workingmen, — (he  instalment  and  loan  sharks,  bogus  employment 
agents,  the  real  estate  swindler  offering  to  sell  house  sites  which  he  does 
not  own,  and  the  small-fry  confidence  man  who  hopes  to  catch  the  work- 
tngman's  savings  by  the  inducement  of  a  supposedly  quick  return  on 
small  investments.  It  would  regulate  strictly  the  sale  of  drugs,  the  use 
of  which  weakens  the  moral  fiber  and  leads  to  crime,  prostitution,  or 
pauperism.  A  case  in  point  was  the  prevalent  sale  of  cocaine  in  Pitts- 
burgh in  1907-08,  especially  to  Negroes.* 

A  social  police  then  would  eatly  recognize  the  dilTerence  be- 
tween the  agencies  which  organize,  aggravate,  and  profit  by  crime 
and  anti-social  living,  and  the  individual  offender.  It  would  seek 
to  stamp  out  the  fonner.  It  would  seek  to  deal  with  the  latter 
with  greater  constructive  imagination  and  de^wr  understanding 
of  human  nature. 

*  How  far  and  by  what  means  dninkennes)  may  be  eliminated  from  »uch  an 
industrial  community,  both  because  it  is  an  economic  evil  and  a  contributing  cause 
of  Clime  and  vice,  an  questions  demanding  exhaustive  scrutiny  in  themselves.  No 
attempt  was  made  in  this  study  to  investigate  the  sale  of  liquor  or  ihc  machinery 
for  repeating  it  ill  Pittiburgh. 


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BUREAU  OF  PREVENTION 

To  Strike  at  the  business  end  and  organized  forms  of  vice  and 
depredation  may  be  considered  both  a  means  to  protect  society 
against  criminal  operations  and  to  restrict  the  recruiting  of  crim- 
inals. It  would  seem  that  the  time  is  opportune  to  create  a  bureau 
of  prevention  which  would  balance  the  detective  bureaus  and  give 
tone  to  the  work  not  only  of  patrolmen,  but  of  detectives  alike. 

To  such  a  police  force  the  enforcement  of  a  statute  prohibiting  the 
night  empk>yment  of  boys  as  messengers  would  be  of  as  direct  concern 
as  to  the  factory  inspector.  By  eliminating  the  procurer,  by  rigorously 
enforcing  the  law  with  respect  to  the  age  of  consent,  and  by  ejecting  all 
minors  from  disorderly  houses,  a  social  police  would  strike  at  the  sources 
of  supply  of  commercial  prostitution,  just  as  the  Guthrie  administra- 
tion struck  at  its  sources  of  financial  support.  In  a  city  like  Pitts- 
burgh, to  which  immigrants,  ignorant  of  the  language  and  unacquainted 
with  the  district,  come  in  great  numbers,  a  squad  of  uniformed  inter- 
preters could  be  at  the  stations  to  meet  and  direct  these  newcomers.  If 
they  were  a  different  sort  from  the  average  functionary  of  the  petty  court, 
who  is  a  crook  with  a  double  if  fluent  tongue,  their  function  would  be  as 
serviceable  as  that  of  the  traffic  squad.  Handbooks  interprtting  the 
laws  in  the  different  languages,  such  as  those  that  mill  and  mining  com- 
panies get  out  with  respect  to  the  precautions  against  accidents,  would 
put  the  newcomer  in  touch  with  American  institutions  and  ways  of  justice, 
reduce  personal  violence,  and  prevent  a  great  mass  of  fraud.  The  service 
could  be  extended  further  to  include  an  office  of  information  and  l^al 
advice. 

Such  methods  as  are  here  suggested  are,  after  all,  details, 
experiments  which  would  have  to  be  tried  out  and  modified,  no 
doubt;  but  basic  is  the  requiremmt  c4  a  regenerative  spirit  in  the 
force  manifesting  itself  alike  in  thought  and  act  in  its  relatioas 
to  everyday  people.  There  is  prime  need  of  a  police  wliich  shall 
act  as  good  neighbor  and  friend,  and  irtiich  shall  temper,  rather 
than  accentuate,  its  representation  of  the  law  imposed  upon  an 
alien  people  by  the  dominant  English-speaking  race. 

More  immediate,  however,  even  than  its  respcmsibility 
toward  the  prevention  6[  law-breaking  would  be  the  resptmsi- 
biiity  of  a  social  police  toward  those  vho  come  in  coUisifm  with 
the  force  of  the  law. 

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THE  REVERSE  SIDE 

FIRST  OFFENDERS  AND  ROUNDERS 

First  of  all  should  be  noted  the  possibility  of  lessening  the 
number  of  first  offenders,  such  as  "drunks"  and  "disorderlies," 
by  allowing  the  policemen  a  somewhat  wider  but  more  specific 
latitude  in  the  making  of  arrests,  and  by  convincing  them  that 
the  preservation  of  order  rather  than  a  high  number  of  indiscrim- 
inate lock-ups  is  the  proper  basis  upon  which  to  build  up  an  indi- 
vidual's record. 

The  work  done  by  Chief  Kohler  in  Oeveland  and  under  Mayor 
Whitlock  in  Toledo  in  reducing  the  number  of  arrests  of  occasional 
offenders,  the  majority  of  them  of  foreign  parentage,  are  cases  in  point. 
Following  English  methods,  at  instigation  of  the  late  Mayor  Gaynor,  each 
New  York  policeman  is  supplied  with  a  pad  of  summons  blanks  on  which 
he  takes  the  name  and  address  of  the  offender,  and  which,  at  his  discre- 
tion, he  can  use  instead  of  making  street  arrests.  This  method  is  capable 
of  wide  application  in  dealing  with  every  one  but  the  professional  crim- 
inal. From  the  point  of  view  of  criminal  procedure,  the  greatest  advan- 
tage coming  from  this  lessening  of  the  number  of  arrests  lies  in  the  fact 
that  the  workingmen  who  form  the  great  bulk  of  first  offenders  are  thus 
kept  from  intimate  association  with  professional  criminals  in  police 
court  and  jail,  and  (Tom  the  debasing  influences  which  pervade  the  atmos- 
phere of  such  places. 

In  the  Pittsburgh  police  station  first  offenders  and  old  are 
locked  into  the  station  houses  together.  Neither  should  be  there 
in  numbers.  The  cutting  down  of  arrests  would  keep  out  many  a 
young  man  in  his  twenties;*  a  more  rational  treatment  of  rounders 
would  cut  the  visits  of  the  latter. 

Wise  as  might  be  some  of  the  magistrates  in  dealing  with 
human  nature,  if  left  to  their  official  devices  their  treatment 
was  largely  limited  to  fines  and  imprisonments.  The  utter  in- 
adequacy of  the  fine  in  dealing  with  houses  of  ill  fame  illustrates 
the  weakness  of  the  first  method.    A  fine  is  a  small  deterrent  to  a 

•  The  report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Rctcarch  in  1913  pCHiited  out  that 
so  kmg  » the  magulralei'  courts  were  not  kept  open  during  the  entire  day  1  penoo 
arrested  after  1 1  a.  m.,  and  in  some  scciions  of  the  dty  even  earlier,  was  required  to 
remain  in  a  cell  for  the  night  or  procure  bail.  More  important,  it  showed  thai  41 
per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  arrests  were  for  drunkenness,  as  against  less  than  so 
per  cent  in  New  York,  and  that  more  than  4$  per  cent  of  arrests  resulted  in  dis- 
cbarge;  indicating  among  other  things  a  great  bulk  of  fruitless  arrests  and  need- 
less incarceration).    See  Appendix  XXIV,  p.  518. 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

"madam" — it  merely  acts  in  place  of  a  license;  but  it  places  a  girt 
more  fully  in  the  toils  of  her  keeper  who  puts  up  the  money.  As 
to  the  second  method,  a  study  made  for  the  Pittsburgh  Survey 
by  Frederick  A.  King*  of  a  number  of  recidivists  on  the  records 
of  the  Allegheny  County  workhouse  at  Qaremont,  the  jail  and 
the  police  courts  brought  out  the  footlessness  of  the  short  tenn 
sentence. 

SCIENTIFIC  TREATMENT 

The  dimination  of  the  repealer  by  the  cumulative  sentence 
would  both  reduce  the  number  of  ineffective  arrests  and  release 
the  energies  of  the  police  department  for  other  work.  1  n  the  case 
designated  as  that  of  "Red  McHugh,"  who  was  committed  19 
times  to  the  county  jail  in  three  years,  once  to  the  penitentiary, 
and  92  times  to  the  workhouse  in  a  period  of  forty  years,  there  were 
under  the  present  endless  methods  1 22  police  problems,  when  there 
should  have  been  but  a  fraction  of  that  number.  With  the  lessened 
number  of  cases  coming  before  the  courts  we  should  look  for  new 
and  scientific  standards  of  treatment  for  those  that  did  come.  The 
sending  of  persons  charged  with  intoxication  to  the  hospital  ntha 
than  the  jail  is  indicative  of  a  trend  of  method  and  enlightened 
opinion  which  had  not  yet.  in  1907-08,  been  reached  in  Pittsburgh. 
The  establishment  in  New  York  of  psychopathic  pavilionsf  to 
which  attempted  suicides  as  well  as  persons  charged  with  intoxica- 
tion, or  the  excessive  use  of  drugs,  or  who  manifest  any  other 
aberrations,  are  committed  by  the  courts  for  examination  by  ex- 
pert alienists,  carries  the  method  forward  by  another  stage.  The 
system  of  farm  colony  and  hospital  care  of  drunkards  by  Massa- 
chusetts,  as  diseased  persons  rather  than  as  offenders,  and  the 
recommendation  by  the  Chicago  vice  commission  that  women  be 
permitted  to  voluntarily  place  themselves  in  hospitals  for  the 
cure  of  venereal  disease  are  other  illustrations  of  the  common  field 
of  work  of  physicians,  alienists,  policemen,  and  courts. 

Such  a  program  of  enlightened  standards  with  respect  to 

■See  AppendUXXIll.  p.  jio. 

t  FoT  description  of  antiquated  padded  cell  in  PittsbuTgh's  centnl  staiiot 
house,  see  Appendix  XXIV,  pp.  jao-pi. 


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THE   REVERSE   SIDE 

misdemeanants  and  felons  would,  through  probation,— and  If  that 
failed  through  reformatories  and  the  indeterminate  sentence- 
give  those  who  are  not  confirmed  law-breakers  a  chance  to  re-estab- 
lish themselves  in  ordinary  life.  It  would  employ  every  means 
of  industrial  education,  physical  rehabilitation,  surveillance,  and 
institutional  discipline  to  forward  this  end;  where  these  failed,  it 
would  altogether  abandon  the  repeated  short-term  sentence  for 
recidivists,  and  would  permanently  quarantine  them  from  the 
community  by  means  of  the  indeterminate  sentence.  It  would, 
through  systems  of  prison  employment  and  payment  of  prisoners, 
save  the  families  of  convicted  men  from  suffering  and  disintegration. 
Equally  important,  it  would,  through  systems  <rf  probation  and 
parole,  return  to  the  community  to  be  producers  those  men  whose 
continued  incarceration  is  worthless  for  themselves  and  sodety. 
Here  we  have  a  clear  line  of  demarcation  between  the  old  and  the 
new  views  of  treating  the  convicted  man.  The  detective  bureau 
of  the  present  system  keeps  track  of  the  professional  criminal- 
knows  when  he  is  to  be  released,  meets  him  outside  the  walls,  and 
maintains  over  him  such  close  surveillance  as,  while  usually  not 
effective  to  prevent  his  subsequent  lawbreaking,  crftentimes  pre- 
vents his  earning  an  honest  livelihood.  Even  more  tragic  is 
the  fact  that  such  policies  are  extended  to  the  man  who  has  only 
once  offended.  It  is  with  the  latter  that,  first  of  all,  the  probation 
and  parole  officer  should  direct  their  energies,  not  as  with  potential 
lawbreakers,  but  as  with  potential  citizens,  who  can  be  helped  into 
renewed  self-confidence,  self-conquest,  and  self-dependence. 

CASE  WORK 

The  social  police  officer  is  in  a  sense  in  a  more  strategic  posi- 
tion than  the  probation  officer,  for  the  first  deals  with  the  man 
before  he  has  been  brought  to  court;  he  has  in  reserve  the  services 
of  the  latter. 

Let  me  illustrate  by  the  mendicancy  squad  which  under  the  Low 
administration  in  New  York  dealt  with  a  special  class  of  offenders.  On  its 
repressive  side,  the  work  included  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  knavish  im- 
postors with  whom  all  other  means  had  failed,  and  with  whom  discipline  was 
the  only  alternative;  on  its  constructive  side,  it  emphasized  the  necessity  for 
finding  or  creating  employment  for  those  physically  incapacitated  from 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

nonnal  employment  who,  without  such  help,  inevitably  lapsed  into  the 
chronic  mendicant.  The  work  called  for  active  co-operation  upon  the 
part  of  the  police  at  large,  from  magistrates,  probation  officers,  hospitals, 
charity  organization  societies,  and  employers.  For  instance,  a  Greek  boy 
who  had  lost  the  use  of  an  ami  in  a  woolen  mill  and  who  had  been  a  beggar 
and  companion  of  thieves  since  he  was  twelve,  was  sent  for  seventeen 
weeks  to  the  Polyclinic  Hospital,  and  there  his  deformity  was  cured.  A 
boy  picked  up  in  Union  Square,  emaciated,  hungry,  a  bit  out  of  his  head, 
could  speak  no  English.  Police  interpreters  failed  to  make  themsdves 
understood;  language  after  language  was  tried,  until  it  was  found  that 
he  was  a  Dane  who  had  fallen  from  the  foreyard  of  a  Norwegian  bark- 
entine  off  Cape  Hatteras,  sustaining  a  concussion  of  the  brain.  Eicpert 
medical  advice  was  secured,  a  brother  found  in  this  country,  and  after  an 
operation  which  removed  the  pressure  upon  the  brain,  he  was  sent  back 
to  Copenhagen  to  his  parents  for  a  new  start.  These  cases,  out  of  bun* 
dreds,  are  typical  of  the  constructive  social  work  which  opens  before  the 
police  department. 

In  conclusion,  we  may  compare  the  social  responsibOity  of 
the  police  department  with  that  of  an  equally  rudimentary  agency 
— the  almshouse.  The  almshouse  was  formerly  the  economic  waste 
bin  of  the  community,  just  as  the  jail  was  the  catch  basin  of  its 
disorders.  In  the  early  days  there  was  no  discrimination  whatso- 
ever—idiots, children,  prostitutes,  the  insane,  the  aged,  the  dis- 
abled, even  the  misdemeanant  all  were  herded  together.  The 
effect  was  to  reduce  all  to  the  same  level.  One  by  one  the  special 
classes  are  being  excluded  from  the  almshouse,  and  more  effective 
provisions  made  for  them  elsewhere.  Thus  we  have  hospitals  for 
the  insane,  colonies  for  the  epileptic  and  feeble-minded,  schools  for 
the  blind.  In  some  states  the  almshouse,  so  far  as  name  goes,  has 
dropped  out  altogether.  In  reality,  it  has  become  a  hospital  home 
for  the  aged. 

Similarly,  to  a  certain  degree,  the  jail  has  been  raided  (rf 
conglomerate  inmates.  In  Pittsburgh,  in  1910,  the  children  were 
at  last  removed  from  the  jail  to  a  separate  detention  building. 
In  the  most  enlightened  states — though  not  as  yet  in  Pennsyl- 
vania— all  convicted  men  are  removed  to  special  institutions, 
leaving  the  jail  merely  a  house  of  detention  for  accused  men 
awaiting  trial. 

The  present  work  of  the  police  is  analogous  to  the  work  of 
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almshouse  and  jail  before  their  modern  reform.  The  people  dealt 
with  by  the  police,  so  far  as  method  goes,  have  remained  largely 
an  undifferentiated  mass.  Our  scrutiny  ctf  the  wide  gamut  of  hu- 
man capacity  and  offense  which  these  men  and  women  represent 
Jays  bare  the  need  for  a  new  squaring  with  responsibilities  by  the 
police  authority — and  by  the  public  for  which  it  acts. 

Only  so  can  we  hc^  to  apprehend  and  thwart  not  merely 
offenders  of  the  widely  variant  groups  but  the  causes,  social  and 
economic,  which  prompt,  sustain,  and  exaggerate  offense. 


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APPENDICES 


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APPENDIX  I 

REPORT  ON    L\BOR    CONDITIONS,    STOCKHOLDERS' 
COMMITTEE  UNITED  STATES  STEEL  CORPORA- 
TION, APRIL  15,  1913 

REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE 
At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  stockholders  of  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation  held  April   17,   191 1,  the  following  resolution  was 
adopted: 


Resolved,  That  the  chairman  shall  forthwith  appoint  a  committee  of  not 
more  than  live  persons  from  the  officerj,  or  stockholders,  of  this  Corporation,  to 
investigate  and  report  to  the  Finance  Committee,  as  soon  as  may  be,  but  not  later 
than  October  1,  igrr.  as  to  the  truth  of  the  statements  contained  in  a  certain 
article  appearing  in  the  March  number  of  the  AiurkaH  Maga^iu,  under  the  title  , 
Old  Age  at  Forty,  and  that  such  report,  together  with  such  comment  as  said  Finance 
Committee  may  desire  to  add  thereto,  shall  thereupon  be  printed  and  mailed  to  the 
stockholders  of  this  Corporation. 

Pursuant  to  such  resolutions,  Hon.  E.  H.  Gary,  chairman  of  the 
Board  of  Directors,  appointed  the  following  committee: 

Thomas  DeWitt  Cuyler,  of  Philadelphia, 
Stuyvesant  Fish,  of  New  York, 
Darius  Miller,  of  Chicaeo, 
Charles  A.  Painter,  of  Pittsburgh, 
Charles  L.  Taylor,  of  Pittsburg. 

The  absence  of  several  members  of  the  committee,  immediately 
following  its  appointment,  prevented  a  full  meeting  until  October  31, 
1911,  on  which  date  the  committee  met  for  organization,  electing  Mr. 
Fish  as  chairman.  Between  that  date  and  January  13,  1913,  several 
meetings  were  held,  at  one  of  which  Charles  M.  Cabot,  the  author  of  the 
resolution,  and  John  A.  Fitch,  the  writer  of  the  article — Old  Age  at  Forty — 
were  present.  They,  with  three  members  of  the  committee,  held  an  alt- 
day  conference. 

At  the  meeting  held  on  January  13,  [913,  William  H.  Matthews 

was  chosen  to  act  as  secretary  of  the  committee.    Since  that  date  he  has 

devoted  his  entire  time  to  visiting  many  plants  of  the  Corporation,  has 

interviewed  workmen,  superintendents,  and  ofTicials,  business  and  pro- 

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fessional  men  in  the  mill  towns,  and  has  been  in  conference  constantly 
with  one  or  more  members  of  the  committee. 

From  the  data  gathered  by  our  secretary,  together  with  that  ob- 
tained by  the  members  of  the  committee,  who,  accompanied  by  Mr. 
Cabot  on  the  committee's  invitation,  visited  many  of  the  works  in  the 
Chicago,  Cleveland,  and  Pittsburgh  districts — giving  to  such  inspectioo 
all  their  time  from  April  )  to  April  13 — the  facts  and  recominendatioDS 
which  fdlow  are  submitted. 

As  a  result  of  the  several  meetings  held  by  the  committee  for  the 
study  of  the  article  under  discussion,  as  also  through  conference  with 
Messrs.  Cabot  and  Fitch,  it  seemed  that  the  main  questions  calling  for 
consideration  were: 

(4)  The  seven-day  week,  ind  long  turn, 
(b)  The  twelve-hour  day, 
(r)  The  speeding  of  the  workmen, 
(d)  The  repression  of  the  men. 

Before  taking  up  these  questions  sin^y.  we  believe  we  but  state 
the  facts  in  saying  that  no  one  of  these  practices  was  inaugurated  by  the 
United  States  Steel  Corporation.  Rather  were  they  in  vogue,  to  a  greater 
'  or  less  degree,  in  the  various  companies  which  were  brought  into  one  when 
the  Steel  Corporation  was  organized. 

(,a)  The  Seven-day  Week  and  Long  Turn 
Until  recent  years  the  seven-day  week  has  been  the  general  rule  and 
practice  followed  in  all  the  operations  which  are  necessarily  continuous, 
particularly  in  that  of  blast  furnace  work.  Nor  was  it  always  confined  to 
departments  where  such  continuous  operation  was  a  metallurgical  neces- 
sity. Recc^iiing  the  harmful  effects  of  such  a  schedule  of  work,  the 
Finance  Committee  of  the  Corporation,  on  April  aj,  1907,  adopted  and 
transmitted  to  the  presidents  of  all  subsidiary  plants  of  the  Corporation 
the  following  resolution: 

On  motion,  it  was  voted  to  recommend  to  ail  subsidiary  companies  that 
Sunday  labor  be  reduced  to  the  minimum;  that  all  work  (e:ueptiDg  such  repair 
work  as  can  not  be  donewhite  operating)  be  suspended  on  Sunday  at  all  steel  works, 
rolling  mills,  shops,  quarries,  and  docks;  that  there  shall  be  no  constructioD  work, 
loading  or  unloading  of  materials. 

It  Is  understood  that  it  is  not  at  present  practicable  to  apply  the  recom- 
mendation to  all  departments,  notably  the  blast  furnaces,  but  it  is  desirable  that 
the  spirit  of  the  recommendation  be  observed  to  the  fullest  extent  within  reason. 

While  the  efforts  made  by  individual  officials  to  cany  out  the 
recommendation  of  the  finance  committee  resulted  in  some  progress  being 
made  toward  compliance  with  the  same,  in  many  plants  it  was  disregarded 

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in  whole  or  in  part.  The  explanation  of  this  failure  to  detach  from  the 
steel  industry  the  seven-day  schedule  of  work  may  be  best  found,  we  be- 
lieve, in  that  zeal  of  operating  officials  for  output,  exclusive  of  all  other 
considerations.  This  being  contrary  to  the  pdicy  of  the  board,  and  at 
variance  with  the  resolution  of  its  Finance  Committee,  a  telegraphic  order 
of  a  peremptory  character  was  issued  by  Judge  Gary  on  March  i8,  1910, 
to  the  presidents  of  all  constituent  companies,  reading  as  follows: 

Mr.  Corey,  Mr.  Dickson,  and  I  have  lately  {pven  much  seriou*  thought  to 
the  subject-matter  of  reaolutioD  pasted  by  the  Finance  Committee  April  aj,  1907, 
concerning  Sunday  or  seventh  day  labor.  Mr.  Corey  has  written  you  on  the  sub- 
ject within  a  day  or  two.  The  object  of  this  telegram  is  lo  say  that  all  of  us  expect 
and  iosst  that  hereafter  the  spirit  of  the  resolution  will  be  observed  and  carried  into 
effect.  There  should  and  must  be  no  unnecessary  deviation  without  first  taking  up 
the  quesrion  with  our  Finance  Committee  and  asking  for  a  change  of  the  views  of 
the  committee,  which  probably  will  not  under  any  circumstances  be  secured.  I 
emphasize  the  fact  that  there  should  be  at  least  twenty-four  continuous  hours' 
interval  during  each  week  in  the  production  of  ingots. 

(Signed)  E.  H.  Garv. 

Whether  viewed  from  a  physical,  social,  or  moral  point  of  view, 
we  believe  the  seven-day  week  is  detrimental  to  those  engaged  in  it. 
While  not  wishing  to  imply  that  the  method  adopted  by  any  individual 
official  or  any  combination  of  two  or  more  methods  would  be  the  best  to 
meet  requirements  in  all  mills,  we  are  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  no 
matter  what  alleged  difficulties  in  operation  may  seem  to  hinder  the 
abandonment  of  the  seven-day  week,  they  must  be  met. 

The  records  of  today  indicate  that  with  the  exception  of  two  or 
three  plants,  the  seven-day  week  has  been  relegated  to  the  past. 

The  resolution  of  the  Finance  Committee,  as  subsequently  em- 
phasized by  Judge  Gary,  was  strictly  mandatory  in  character  and  should, 
in  our  judgment,  be  absolutely  enforced  at  all  times,  in  all  mines,  mills, 
shops,  railways,  docks,  and  works  of  the  Steel  Corporation.  Any  tendency 
on  the  part  of  anyone  to  disregard  the  spirit  or  the  letter  of  such  order 
should  be  sufficient  cause  for  removal  from  service. 

Closely  allied  with  the  questicm  of  the  seven-day  week  is  that  of 
the  excessive  hours  of  labor  involved  in  continuous  processes,  caused  by 
the  changing  of  the  working  shifts  from  day  turn  to  night  turn  and  vice 
versa.  An  examination  of  the  time  sheets  of  many  of  the  mills  shows 
that  this  practice  has  been  entirely  abolished  in  many  of  the  departments 
and  not  in  others.  We  recognize  that  at  rare  intervals  there  may  come 
emergencies  and  unusual  conditions  that  would  make  absolute  enforce- 
ment of  any  exact  schedule  of  work  hours  impracticable,  a  fact  equally 
true  in  any  fidd  of  industry  and  commerce.  Our  investigation,  however, 
leads  us  to  believe  that  it  is  feasible  and  practicable  to  eliminate  the  long 
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turn  formerly  followed  in  the  changing  of  shifts  in  continuous  process 
work,  and  that  it  should  be  done.  Further,  that  conscientious  effort 
should  be  made  by  all  to  reduce  to  a  positive  minimum  any  undue  length 
in  work  hours  that  emergencies  and  unforeseen  conditicnis  may  sometimts 
demand. 

(h)  The  Twelve-hour  Day 

To  ascertain  the  number  of  employes  of  the  Steel  Corporatioa 
working  on  a  twelve-hour  schedule  (exclusive  of  officers,  managers  and 
clerical  forces),  we  have  examined  the  records  of  175.715  tnen.  Of  this 
number  we  find  45.248,  or  35K  per  cent,  are  at  present  working  twdve 
hours  per  day.  Generally  speaking,  this  schedule  of  work  finds  its  larg- 
est proportion  in  those  departments  which  are  more  or  less  continuous, 
such  as  rolling  mills,  open  hearths  and  blast  furnaces,  where  the  percentage 
working  twelve  hours  varies  from  50  to  6a  The  explanation  of  such  fact 
may  be  found,  partly,  at  least,  in  the  introduction  of  a  large  number  of 
mechanical  improvements  which  have  steadily  cut  down  the  exhausting 
drudgery  and  the  severe  physical  labor  that  was  characteristic  of  many  of 
the  processes  in  the  earlier  years  of  the  iron  and  steel  industry.  The 
actual  physical  labor  invdved  in  many  of  the  positions  is,  today,  much 
less  than  in  former  years,  this  being  especially  true  of  the  open  hearth  and 
blast  furnaces,  where  the  intermittent  character  of  the  work  is  such  that 
there  is  less  call  for  actual  expenditure  of  physical  energy  than  in  many  of 
the  eight-  and  ten-hour  positions. 

Notwithstanding  this  fact,  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  a  twdve- 
hour  day  of  labor,  followed  continuously  by  any  group  of  men  for  any 
considerable  number  of  years  means  a  decreasing  of  the  efficiency  and 
lessening  of  the  vigor  and  virility  of  such  men. 

The  question  should  be  considered  from  a  social  as  well  as  a  phys- 
ical point  of  view.  When  it  is  remembered  that  the  twelve  hours  a  day 
to  the  man  in  the  mills  means  approximately  thirteen  hours  away  from 
his  home  and  family — not  for  one  day,  but  for  all  working  days — it  leaves 
but  scant  time  for  self-improvement,  for  c(»npanionship  with  his  family, 
for  recreation  and  leisure.  It  is  important  that  any  industry  be  considered 
in  its  relation  to  the  home  life  of  those  engaged  in  it,  as  to  whether  it  tends 
to  weaken  or  strengthen  the  normalness  and  stability  of  family  ]if&  By  a 
reasonable  conserving  of  the  strength  of  the  working  population  of  today 
may  we  be  best  assured  of  a  healthy,  intelligent,  productive  citizenship  in 
the  future. 

We  are  not  unmindful  of  the  fact  that  the  twelve-hour  day  has,  by 
its  general  acceptance  and  practice  over  a  considerable  period  of  years, 
become  firmly  entrenched,  and  that  any  sudden  or  arbitrary  change 

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would  involve  a  revolution  in  mill  operations.  Nor  are  we  at  all  sure 
that  it  would  be  possible  for  any  one  employer,  or  any  number  of  em- 
pk^ers,  to  inaugurate  a  shorter  hour  system,  unless  a  similar  policy  should 
be  adc^ted  by  all  employers  engaged  in  the  same  industry. 

We  do  bdieve  that  following  in  the  wake  of  other  betterment  of 
conditions  in  the  steel  industry,  there  will  naturally  come  a  shortening  of 
the  hours  of  labor  and  the  eventual  abolishment  of  the  twelve-hour  day, 
which  will  tend  toward  increasing  the  efficiency  and  resourcefulness  of  the 
winking  population  and  for  that  reason  bring  benefit  to  both  employer 
and  employed. 

That  stq>s  should  be  taken  now  that  shall  have  for  their  purpose 
and  end  a  reasonable  and  just  arrangement,  to  all  concerned,  of  the  prob- 
lems involved  in  this  question — that  of  reducing  the  long  hours  of  laboi^ 
we  would  respectfully  recommend  to  the  intdligent  and  thoughtful  con- 
sideration of  the  proper  officers  of  the  Corporation. 

(c)  The  Speeding  of  thb  Workmen 
In  the  article  which  is  under  discussion,  considerable  criticism  is 
made  against  the  system  of  payment  of  wages  by  piece  work.  We  do  not 
believe  that  there  has  been  evolved  any  fairer  or  more  generally  accepted 
method  of  payment  for  labor.  Likewise,  what  is  known  as  the  "bonus" 
system  which  has  been  largely  employed  by  the  Steel  Corporation  as  an 
incentive  to  increase  in  output  and  efficiency,  is  objected  to  as  tending  to 
result  in  a  system  of  speeding  harmful  to  the  men. 

That  there  is  possibility  of  abuse  in  these  systems  is  true.  Have 
there  ever  been  devised  rules  of  procedure  in  any  field  of  industry  free 
from  such  possibility?  Our  observation  of  labor  conditions  in  the  mills 
of  the  Steel  Corporation  does  not  lead  us  to  bdieve  that  there  is  either 
desire  or  tendency  on  the  part  of  foremen  and  superintendents  to  pursue 
these  policies  to  a  point  that  would  mean  harm  or  injury  to  the  men  under 
their  charge.  It  is,  of  course,  within  the  province  of  the  Board  of  Directors, 
and  they  should  employ  the  necessary  means  whereby  they  would  always 
be  conversant  with  and  able  to  promptly  check  any  ofliciai,  who  in  his 
anxiety  for  output,  becomes  disregardful  of  the  possible  injury  to  his  men 
by  overspeeding  and  excessive  strain. 

As  general  operating  policies,  we  believe  the  "bonus"  system  and 
the  payment  of  wages  by  piece  work  to  be  of  advantage  both  to  employer 
and  employe,  guarding  as  they  do  against  that  dead  level  of  wages  re- 
gardless of  the  ambition,  the  resourcefulness,  the  efHciency  of  the  indi- 
vidual concerned.  They  are  the  exemplification  of  that  tsprit  dt  corpt 
that  is  essential  to  the  success  of  all  enterprises;  they  are  but  a  part  of 
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that  spirit  of  contest  and  competition  that  is  characteristic  of  all  Amencan 
life,  whether  it  finds  expression  in  the  school  romn,  on  the  athletic  fieU. 
in  the  target  contests  of  anny  and  navy,  or  in  the  legitimate  striving  tor 
"place"  amongworkmen,  foremen,  superintendents,  managers. and  higber 
officials  in  any  field  of  commerce  and  industry.  Through  their  operation, 
the  qualities  of  perseverance,  ingenuity,  and  grit  have  opportunity  for 
e]q>ression,  development,  and  reward. 

As  stated  above,  these  special  bonuses  are  offered  as  an  incentive 
for  increase  in  output  and  efficiency.  That  they  should  find  fair  and  just 
distribution  among  all  whose  efforts  and  labor  contribute  to  any  resultant 
increase  in  production,  or  economies,  would  seem  to  be  a  subject  calling 
for  consideration  and  action. 

(lO  The  Repression  of  the  Men 

The  Steel  Corporation  has  made  efficiency  the  one  standard  by 
which  continuance  of  employment  in  its  plants  is  determined.  If  we  are  to 
understand  the  term  "repression  of  workmen"  as  a  criticism  of  and  ob- 
jection to  this  defined  policy,  then  the  implied  charge  is  true.  If,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  involves  the  question  as  to  what  measures  the  officat  of 
the  Corporation  should  adopt  for  the  suppression  of  organizations  that  in 
the  past  have,  at  times,  proved  irresponsible  and  incapable  of  self-control, 
that  have  advocated  and  ofttimes  insisted  upon  what  are  bdieved  by 
many  to  be  fallacious  theories  and  practices,  then,  at  least,  the  charge 
may  well  be  open  to  discussion. 

As  a  committee  of  stockholders,  we  do  not  believe  the  final  sdution 
of  the  problems  involved  in  this  question  has  been  reached.  We  do  believe 
the  present  methods  are  preferable  to  the  old  for  all  concerned,  and  that 
the  Steel  Corporation,  in  view  of  the  practices  often  pursued  by  labor 
organizations  in  steel  mills  in  past  years,  is  justified  in  the  position  it  has 
taken. 

That  the  method  of  employment  of  today  must  prove  to  be  the 
best  for  the  future  is  a  question  on  which  there  may  well  be  a  difference 
of  opinion.  The  interests  of  society  and  the  community  at  lai^  will  not 
best  be  served  by  that  type  of  mind,  whether  it  be  employer  or  emi^ye, 
which  bases  action  on  the  assumption  that  might  makes  right.  On  the 
contrary,  the  adjustment  of  the  relations  between  employer  and  employe 
is  a  task  for  men  oF  sound  minds,  reciprocal  natures,  tm>ad  sympathies 
and  courage,  men  who  believe  that  the  future  may  be  made  better  thaa 
the  present.  May  it  not  be  reasonably  hoped  that  such  men,  whether 
they  be  officials  or  wage-earners,  may  more  and  more  be  found  working 
together  to  bring  forward  the  day  when  employer  and  employe  shall  enter 
into  a  common  administration  of  industrial  interests? 
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In  the  article  under  discussion,  Old  A^e  at  Forty,  mention  is  made 
of  the  general  social  welfare  policies  inaugurated  at  different  times  by  the 
Sted  Corporation.  It  would  seem  to  be  in  the  province  of  this  report  to 
briefly  outline  those  policies,  and  to  consider  their  value  as  affecting  the 
relationship  of  employer  to  employe. 

Safety  Department 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  trace  the  growth  of  the  earlier  efforts 
made  by  different  subsidiary  companies  toward  the  prevention  of  acci- 
dents, to  the  time  when  they  found  their  culmination  in  the  organization 
of  a  central  committee  of  safety  early  in  the  year  190S,  which  committee 
was  given  the  power  to  examine  all  the  various  plants  of  the  Corporation, 
and  as  rapidly  as  possible  to  bring  every  mill  to  the  highest  possible  point 
of  effectiveness  in  accident  prevention. 

That  committee  has  and  is  carrying  on  a  determined  and  effective 
campaign  for  safety  all  along  the  line.  Its  work  is  considered  as  important 
a  subject  as  any  that  the  Corporation  has  to  contend  with  in  the  manu- 
facture of  its  products.  From  the  start  it  has  worked  on  a  sound,  vigorous 
and  scientific  system  of  accident  prevention. 

The  central  ofRce  of  the  Safety  Department  is  in  New  York,  in 
charge  of  an  acknowledged  expert,  with  several  assistants,  and  supple- 
mented  by  local  safety  committees  in  each  of  the  subsidiary  companies, 
which,  in  turn,  are  supplemented  by  sub-committees  of  foremen  and 
workmen  all  striving  to  study  and  safeguard  the  lives  and  welfare  of 
employes. 

During  the  years  igio  and  igii,  there  was  expended  {1,750,000 
for  safety,  and  large  appropriations  have  already  been  granted  for  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  work.  Gratifying  results  have  been  accomplished,  as 
evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the  percentage  of  serious  and  fatal  accidents 
throughout  all  the  plants  of  the  Corporation  shows  a  decrease  of  43  per 
cent  since  1906.  This  reducticm  of  serious  and  fatal  accidents,  based  on 
the  nonn^  number  of  onployes  (300,000),  means  3,  joo  less  in  191 1  than 
1906. 

Prevention  is  but  the  first  step  in  the  system  of  accident  and 
relief  work  as  carried  on  by  the  Corporation.  Neariy  every  plant  has 
its  emergency  hospital  equipped  to  render  first  aid  to  any  workmen 
injured.  Each  mill  has  its  surgeon  and  nurse  to  administer  promptly 
the  necessary  assistance  in  case  of  accident,  and  the  company  provides 
efficient  hospital  treatment,  either  in  its  own  hospitals  or  those  of  the  com- 
munity. 


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Voluntary  Accident  Relief  Plan 

In  spite  of  all  precautions  taken  and  all  effons  toward  prevention, 
there  will  occur  many  accidents  in  any  large  industry,  involving  temporary 
or  permanent  disability,  and  sometimes  death. 

To  Andrew  Carnegie,  the  steel  industry  is  indebted  for  the  first 
voluntary  relief  measures,  in  1901.  he  created  a  trust  of  |l4,ooo,ooo, 
the  income  of  which  was  devoted,  within  the  Carnegie  interests,  to  the 
relief  of  families  from  whom  the  breadwinner  had  been  removed  by 
accidental  death,  to  the  temporary  relief  of  those  employes  meeting  with 
work-accidents,  and  to  the  pensioning  of  superannuated  employes,  and 
those  permanently  disabled.  From  this  fund,  there  was  disbursed  in 
nine  years  the  sum  of  $i,7$6,9j$.$9  among  9,746  employes. 

Wtat  has  been  the  pdicy  of  the  Corporation  in  this  matter  of 
ameliorating  the  conditbns  which  accidents  often  bring  to  the  homes  of 
its  employes!" 

in  May,  1910,  it  established  a  plan  of  relief  whereby  it  made 
voluntary  provision  for  the  care  and  benefit  of  all  employes  injured,  and 
for  the  families  of  those  killed,  in  a  report  of  this  nature,  we  can  not 
discuss  the  considerable  detail  of  such  a  system.  During  the  years  1910 
and  191  [,  |),l3),O00  was  paid  in  aid  of  workmen  who  were  injured  in 
the  mills,  and  to  the  families  of  those  men  who  were  killed  in  service. 

In  addition  to  this  voluntary  relief  on  the  part  of  the  Corporatioii, 
there  exist  in  some  of  the  subsidiary  ccnnpany  plants  employes'  bene- 
(icial  associations  for  insurance  against  sickness  and  death  from  causes 
other  than  mill  accidents.  To  the  funds  of  these,  both  the  men  and  the 
company  contribute,  and  in  their  administration  there  is  a  simDar  partner- 
ship. That  there  should  be  an  extension  of  this  form  of  insurance  would 
seem  to  us  desirable. 

Pensions 

in  addition  to  voluntary  accident  relief,  the  United  States  Sted 
Corporation  appropriated  in  January,  1911,3  fund  of  ^000,000  for  pen- 
sion  purposes,  which  was  combined  with  the  fund  of  $4,000,000  which  had 
been  established  in  1901  by  Andrew  Carnegie,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
employes  of  the  Carnegie  plants.  The  income  from  the  aggregate 
amount  is  now  being  used  for  the  benefit  of  all  employes  of  all  the  sub- 
sidiary companies  of  the  Corporation.  The  pension  obligations  of  those 
subsidiary  companies,  which  had  put  into  operation  pension  provisions 
prior  to  191 1,  were  assumed  by  and  merged  into  the  new  fund. 

The  record  of  operations  of  this  fund  for  the  year  191 1  were  as 
fdlows: 

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REPORT  OF  STOCKHOLDERS    COMMITTEE 

Totilnumberofpensiaiwn  December  31,  1911 1,606 

Number  of  pennons  granted  during  191 1 )6j 

Total  disbursements  during  191 1 ^348,480.37 

Average  pensions  granted  per  month #>o-73 

Avenge  age  of  employe)  pensioned 66  3-3  yeiis 

Average  l^gtb  of  service  of  pensioners 30  4-ro  " 

Sanitation  and  Welfare 

We  have  found  that  much  attention  has  been  given  to  the  matter 
of  sanitation  in  many  of  the  mills.  Pure  drinking-water  systems,  sanitary 
lavatories,  locker  rooms,  shower  baths,  and  other  like  provisions  are  being 
established  in  many  of  the  plants.  Not  all  have  traveled  as  far  nor  as 
diligently  along  this  line  of  improvement  as  we  think  they  might. 

Along  the  line  of  general  welfare  work,  scattering  efforts  arc  being 
made  in  the  way  of  providing  places  of  recreation,  such  as  club  rootns, 
playgrounds  and  other  agencies  for  the  families  of  employes.  District 
nurses  have  been  employed  by  some  of  the  companies;  sanitary  engineers 
by  others.  Specialists  have  been  employed  to  investigate  and  report  on 
all  questions  affecting  social  welfare.  An  educational  movement  along 
these  lines  is  now  being  inaugurated,  and  when  that  same  energy  and 
uniformity  of  practice  that  is  characteristic  of  the  safety  department  ^al] 
have  been  brought  to  bear  on  the  question  of  welfare,  either  directly  or  by 
co-operation  with  agencies  already  at  work  in  the  towns,  much  of  penna- 
nent  value  can  and,  we  believe,  will  be  accomplished.  With  the  question 
of  shorter  hours  of  labor  is  closely  allied  this  one  of  providing  means  and 
places  by  and  in  which  the  leisure  hours  gained  may  be  profitably  spent. 
It  is  not  a  question  for  the  Steel  Corporation  alone.  Rather  is  it  one  to 
which  society  as  a  whole  may  well  address  itself. 

During  the  year  1911  the  Corporation  expended  $i,3so,ooo  for 
this  general  betterment  work. 

Stock  Distribution 

In  the  year  1903.  a  plan  was  inaugurated,  under  which  shares  of 
preferred  stock  were  offered  to  all  employes  and  which  practice  has  con- 
tinued yearly  since.  A  premium  of  $;  per  annum  for  five  years  is  paid  on 
each  share  of  preferred  stock  purchased  by  employes  under  this  plan. 

As  of  December  31,  191 1,  34,588  employes  were  stockholdera  under 
this  plan;  their  aggregate  holdings  amounting  to  103,24$  shares  of  stock. 

In  response  to  the  1913  circular  concerning  employes' stock  dis- 
tribution, the  following  table  shows  the  subscriptions  thereunder: 

NuwduT  0/  Em-      Nimibtr  e^  Sbarn 

tiojts  StAseribint  0}  Slick 

Emi^oyes  receiving  leu  than  t8oo  per  year      .     i$,349  ly^ajS 

Employes  receiving  fSoo  to  (3,500  per  year  30.096  3  ji3$f 

Employes  receiving  over  (3,300  per  year    .       .       i.joi  8,666 

Total y6,^6  6i>)J4 

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WAGE-EARNING  PITTSBURGH 

While  in  the  mills,  we  have  made  special  point  to  ascertain  fnoi 
the  workmen  themselves  their  attitude  toward  this  plan,  and  we  have 
found  most  of  them  well  infonned  as  to  its  provisions.  Many  with  whom 
we  have  talked  were  holders  of  one  or  more  shares  of  the  stock.  Our 
belief  that  the  plan  has  encouraged  thrift  and  stimulated  the  men  to  save 
was  but  strengthened  by  the  remark  vdunteered  by  several  of  the  men 
with  whom  we  talked — that  they  "had  never  saved  any  money  until  they 
began  this  way." 

An  impartial  examination  of  all  the  facts  presented  in  this  report 
will  show  that  much  work  has  already  been  done  by  the  United  Sutcs 
Steel  Corporation  for  the  betterment  of  conditicms  under  which  thdr 
employes  live  and  work. 

We  believe  there  is  evinced  a  widening  sense  of  social  responsi- 
bility: an  increased  willingness  to  accept  the  heavier  burdens  and  obli- 
gations which  have  come  with  the  development  of  modem  industry.  Yet, 
not  less  evident  is  the  fact  that  there  is  necessity  for  still  larger  acoxnplish- 
ment  in  the  future.  Elsewhere  in  our  report  we  have  suggested  some  of 
the  lines  along  which  that  should  be  wrought. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  say  that  the  resolution  passed  by  our  fdkw 
stockholders  imposed  a  task  upon  this  committee  requiring  much  labor, 
careful  investigation,  and  conscientious  consideration.  To  approach 
the  questions  raised  by  the  article  under  discussion  with  fair  and  open 
minds;  to  ascertain  and  present  the  real  facts;  to  search  for  the  practical, 
rather  than  the  theoretical;  to  reach  conclusions  that  should  not  be 
affected  in  any  way  by  opinions  gleaned  from  this  or  that  possibly  pre* 
judiced  source,  whether  of  employer  or  employe — in  that  spirit  have  we 
endeavored  to  do  the  work  entrusted  to  us.  To  that  high  tribunal,  that 
final  court  of  appeal — public  opinion — we  submit  our  conclusions  and 
recommendations.  The  dissatisfaction  and  unrest  which  plainly  exist  in 
the  industrial  world  today  will  not  be  lessened  or  removed  by  a  policy  that 
limits  itself  to  a  fault-finding,  destructive  line  of  action,  but  rather  by 
one  that  will  in  tangible,  definite  fashion  recognize  and  follow  that  con- 
structive and  conserving  leadership  of  which  we  believe  there  is  evidence, 
both  in  the  ranks  of  employers  and  employes. 

There  may  be  those,  perhaps,  who  will  accuse  us  of  unwarranted 
optimism  in  expressing  the  hope  that  the  men  who,  in  the  manufacture  of 
iron  and  steel  have  been  so  successful  in  the  invention  and  application  of 
wonderful  mechanical  appliances,  who  have  won  success  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  immense  enterprises — that  these  same  men  will  lead  and  achieve 
in  the  just  solving  of  the  social  and  human  problems  that  in  this  same 
industry  press  for  answer. 

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REPORT  OF  STOCKHOLDERS    COMMITTEE 

The  publicity  accorded  by  the  Steel  Corporation  quarterly  in  Us 
financial  statements,  and  monthly  in  its  tonnage  statements,  has  placed 
it  in  this  respect  far  in  advance  of  other  corporations,  and  by  doing  so 
has  gained  for  it  the  confidence  and  trust  of  the  public. 

In  conclusion,  we  respectfully  recommend  to  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  Steel  Corporation  that  hereafter,  and  at  stated  periods,  a  statement 
shall  be  submitted  to  the  stockholders,  dealing  with  the  questions  dis- 
cussed in  this  report,  so  that  correct  and  reliable  first-hand  information 
may  be  available  as  to  the  advancement  and  betterments  being  effected 
in  these  equally  vital  and  important  fields  of  endeavor. 
Respectfully  submitted, 

Stuyvesant  Fish, 
Thomas  DeWitt  Cuyler, 
Darius  Miller, 
Charles  A.  Painter, 
Charles  L.  Taylor, 

Committee  of  Stockholders. 
New  York.  N.  Y.,  AprU  i},  1913. 


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APPENDIX  II 

COMMUNITY  CONTRASTS  OF  1914  IN  THE  HOUSING 
OF  MILL  WORKERS 

1.   A  SOHO  HILLSIDE 

THE  PERSISTENCE  OF  SANITARY  NEGLECT  IN  CENTRAL 
PITTSBURGH 

Abraham  Oseroff* 

Within  ten  minutes'  walk  of  the  "Schenley  Farms,"  where  some  of 
Pittsburgh's  finest  and  richest  homes  are  grouped;  within  view  of  tbe 
University  of  Pittsburgh  and  the  Carnegie  Institute  of  Techncdogy;  and 
as  a  next-door  neighbor  to  several  rich  and  influential  churches.  lies  a 
sectionoftheSohoDistrict  which  is  burdened  with  nearly  every  one  of  the 
long  list  of  housing  evils  to  be  found  in  our  large  cities. 

Fifth  Avenue  and  Forbes  Street  are  the  main  arteries  along  which 
well-to-do  Pittsburghers  are  carried  downtown  to  their  work  in  office  or 
store.  Above  the  Twenty-second  Street  bridge.  Rook's  Hill  bends  these 
streets  almost  to  the  edge  of  the  bluff  that  overhangs  the  Monongahela 
Riverand  the  huge  furnaces  of  the  Jones  and  Laughlin  steel  mills,  tbe  ex- 
tensive plant  of  the  National  Tube  Company,  and  Hussey  and  Company's 
copper  works.  Qinging  to  the  hillside  of  the  narrow  belt  between,  desig- 
nated in  its  various  parts  as  Rock  Alley,  Rock  Street,  Maurice  Street,  and 
Comet  Street,  in  an  area  of  something  less  than  33  acres,  are  14  tene- 
ments, 15  two-family  dwellings  and  36  one-family  dwellings;  65  houses 
in  all. 

•  The  results  of  investigations  carried  on  by  Mr.  Oseroff  in  March  and  April. 
1914.  His  findings  fairly  duplicate  the  conditions  found  by  the  E*JttsbuTgh  Survey 
in  the  Soho  District  in  1907-08.  Adequate  housing  laws  and  ordinances  have  b««a 
passed  in  the  inlerval  as  result  of  local  movements  for  reform.  This  Soho  District, 
which  is  not  wholly  unrepresentative  of  tenement  conditions  throughout  the  dty, 
shows  the  crying  and  unmet  need  throughout  all  this  period  for  enforcement  of 
those  laws  and  ordinances. 

It  indicates  the  bulk  of  neglect  which  faces  the  new  director  of  the  depart* 


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n  Forbes  Slreel  and  live  storks  in  the  rear.     No  fire-escapes. 


lofatnilies,     A  photograph  of  this  building  w 
n  Ihe  Bureau  of  Health  Report  for  1907.     It 


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COMMUNITY  CONTRASTS  OF   I914 

They  are  workingmen's  homes,  if  homes  they  may  be  called,  pro- 
viding living  quarters  for  136  families,  40  of  whom  in  turn  give  shelter 
to  I30  boarders:  a  total  of  619  persons  in  all. 

A  dismal,  unkept,  uncared  for  rut,  running  into  the  hillside,  bears 
the  designation  of  Rock  Alley.  It  is  lined  on  both  sides  by  a  variety  of 
houses  built  at  an  almost  equal  variety  of  angles.  One  bouse  here  takes 
care  of  five  families,  and  on  the  cold  March  morning  of  one  of  my  visits  its 
tiny  attic  room  was  doing  its  best  to  provide  space  for  six  sleeping  mill 
workers  with  the  two  windows  and  the  only  door  tightly  closed.    Another 


SoHO  Hillside 
The  district  covered  by  housing  icudy  is  shown  by  heavy  shading 

house  has,  as  an  appendage,  a  little  frame  shack  which  does  service  as  a 
kitchen.  On  this  same  March  morning,  with  the  thermometer  hovering 
about  the  freezing  point,  a  family  group  was  eagerly  crowding  about  a 
little  stove  in  one  comer  of  the  room.  John,  the  oldest  of  the  children, 
spoke  up  and  said:  "Gee,  mister,  the  stove  is  the  only  warm  spot  in  this 
house."  And  he  was  right,  for  the  wind  and  the  snow  found  no  difficulty 
in  crossing  the  fragile  barriers  of  doors  and  windows  and  took  full  advantage 
of  the  many  crevices  between  decayed  boards. 

The  population  of  Rock  Alley  is  even  more  diverse  than  are  its 
houses.    Unassorted  there  are  living  side  by  side,  a  mixture  of  American, 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Welsh,  Irish.  Hungarian,  and  Polish  famSies,  and,  indeed,  a  Gennan 
boarder  in  the  crowd. 

Rock  Alley,  in  spite  of  its  many  other  afflictions,  has  not  escaped 
the  pnvy  vault  nuisance.  It  has  full  share  of  insaniiary,  disease  breeding 
vaults  without  sewer  connection,  ever  ready  to  spread  contamination  and 
endanger  the  health  of  the  neighborhood.  Down  Rock  Street  runs  a 
long,  open  wooden  sewer  drain  carrying  sewage  from  both  alley  and  street 
toward  Maurice  Street  below.  Rock  Street  residents  are  not  wd) 
versed  in  the  best  standards  of  sanitation  and  the  drain  becomes  the  rest- 
ing place  for  innumerable  empty  tin  cans,  worn-out  brooms,  aid  shoes, 
and  other  articles  equally  foreign  to  the  lap  of  a  respectable  sewer.  As  a 
result,  during  rain  or  when  its  sluggish  way  is  otherwise  forced  to  capacity, 
it  overflows  into  cellars  and  basement  kitchens. 

The  tenement  shown  in  the  foreground  of  the  picture  of  Rock 
Street  redeems  itself,  in  part  at  least,  for  it  is  one  of  the  very  few  houses 
of  the  district  affording  inside  water-closets  for  its  families.  Their  neigh- 
bors across  the  way  are  less  fortunate,  two  families  depending  for  toilet 
accommodations  on  a  dry  privy  vault  placed  under  a  side  porch  adjacent 
to  the  kitchen. 

Maurice  Street,  one  of  the  main  thoroughfares  of  the  district,  forms 
a  connecting  link  between  Forbes  Street  and  the  plants  bordering  the 
district.  Here  for  the  first  time  a  tenement  court  is  to  be  encountered, 
consisting  of  an  old  frame  shack  at  the  rear,  occupied  by  four  families; 
a  brick  hovel  in  the  front  by  one;  and  a  brick  house  by  four.  For  these 
nine  families  and  boarders  the  sole  water  supply  is  one  hydrant  adjacent 
to  a  pnvy  vault. 

On  Cornet  Street  are  houses  in  the  last  stage  of  dilapidation,  but 
still  occupied,  and  still  a  source  of  income  to  the  landlord.  Basement 
rooms  are  plentiful  and  foul,  insanitary  privy  vaults  open  to  the  sight  of 
all  passersby. 

The  worst  housing  conditions  of  the  district,  however,  are  to  be 
found  on  Forbes  Street.  Here,  in  a  long  row  of  houses  and  tenements, 
almost  every  one  in  utter  dilapidation,  is  a  total  neglect  of  most  of  the 
essentials  of  sanitation.  The  houses  are  breeding  places  of  filth  and 
disease,  and  some  are  veritable  fire  traps.  One  of  the  larger  of  the  tene- 
ments, typical  in  most  respects  of  the  rest,  is  a  dilapidated  frame  structure 
fronting  two  stories  on  Forbes  Street  and  four  stories  in  the  rear.  In  aj 
rooms,  1 7  of  which  are  betow  the  street  level,  and  four  of  which  are  totally 
dark,  it  houses,  in  dark,  damp,  poorly  ventilated,  overcrowded  quarters, 
62  persons,  besides  providing  stable  quarters  for  a  huckster's  horse. 
The  apartments  consist  of  either  two  or  three  rooms  and  the  rentals  vary 

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ill 

ill 

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COMMUNITY  CONTKASTS  OF   1914 

from  S4-00  to  f8.oo  per  month.  The  total  monthly  rental  of  this  tene- 
ment reaches  the  sum  of  $71. 

The  privy-vault  nuisance  in  this  section  is  pernicious  in  the  highest 
degree.  In  an  area  extending  over  no  more  than  three  city  squares  there 
are  37  unsewered  vaults  over  which  are  73  compartments.  They  are 
arranged  usually  in  battery  style,  their  seepage  running  down  the  hillside. 
Back  of  Forbes  Street,  in  many  cases,  the  ground  to  the  very  houses, 
and  often  even  under  the  houses,  is  thoroughly  permeated  with  sewage, 
foulness,  and  dampness.  Wherever  one  turns  the  foul  odors  pervade  the 
atmosphere  like  the  very  essence  of  civic  neglect.  What  an  anomaly  we 
have  herel  The  Schenley  Farms  district,  with  its  wonderful  semi-public 
buildings  and  magnificent  homes,  produced  by  Pittsburgh's  millions,  and 
these  squalid  hovels  and  dilapidated  tenements — they,  too,  a  product  of 
the  same  process.  The  people  who  live  in  them  are  fairly  representative 
of  the  unskilled  working  population  of  the  district. 

The  nationalities  represented  are  as  follows: 

AmericaD 77 

Irish 93 

WeUh 3S 

Slav lai 

Austrian 19 

Magyar 9 

Russian 35 

Polish 119 

English 6 

Hungarian 6; 

Gcnnan 13 

Scotch 4 

Total 619 

The  adutt  male  population  is  dependent  for  employment  chiefly 
on  the  industrial  plants  mentioned.  Two  hundred  and  twenty-one  out 
of  the  34$  male  workers  are  living  on  budgets  ranging  from  (1.35  to 
|3.$o  per  day.  Besides  the  boarding  system,  37  women  and  eight  children 
help  by  getting  employment  outside  the  home. 

The  average  rents  they  pay  from  these  incomes  are  shown  in  the 
following  table: 


Uoop 
6.19  P 


. 9  per  month 

3  rooros 7.43  per  month 

4iioonu 9.41  per  month 

Six  of  the  families  live  in  one-room  apartments,  45  families  living 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

in  two-room  apartments,  41  in  three-room  apartments,  36  in  foor-nxmi 
apartments,  and  the  others  in  live  or  more  rooms. 

Altogether  out  of  ^giS  living  rooms  8;  are  below  street  levd,  and  iS 
totally  dark. 

Yet  we  must  not  get  the  impression  that  the  situation  b  wboUy 
dark.  A  re>awakening,  due  to  the  recogniticHi  of  bad  housing  amdhioas 
in  Pittsburgh,  has  shown  itself  in  legislation  refonns  ai  the  hands  of  dvk 
organizations-  The  Chamber  of  Commerce  Housing  Ctmimittee  has  de- 
veloped a  plan  for  the  building  of  small,  sanitary  dwellings  fat  wn-king- 
men  which  seems  practical,  as  well  for  the  investors  as  for  the  prospective 
dweller.  Why  is  not  this  district  a  Ic^cal  one  for  the  inauguratioo  of 
the  committee's  plan?  Perhaps  then,  too,  prophecy  may  become  fact, 
and  "  Instead  of  the  thorn  shill  crane  up  the  fir  tree,  and  instead  of  the 
brier  shall  come  up  the  mynle  tree.  And  they  shall  build  houses  and  in- 
habit them,  and  they  shall  plant  vineyards  and  eat  the  fruit  of  tbetn." 


A   FORERUNNER  OF    MODERN    HOUSING    DEVELOPMENT 
FOR  INDUSTRIAL  SECTIONS 

W.  C.  Rice 
Midhnd  Intproveroent  Company 

Midland,  one  of  the  new  industrial  towns  of  the  Pittsburgh  District, 
is  located  j?  miles  southwest  of  the  city  on  the  Ohio  River.  Its  site  is 
60  feet  above  high  water  mark,  r,3oo  acres  of  practically  level  land, 
having  sufficient  slope  to  insure  good  drainage. 

The  town  was  founded  by  the  Midland  Steel  Company  in  1906  when 
it  erected  a  blast  furnace  and  coke  oven  plant  at  this  point,  and  laid  oat 
a  community  in  the  usual  checker>board  fashion.  All  lots  were  made 
rectangular,  fmn  3;  10  50  feet  in  width,  and  from  lao  to  ijj  feet  in 
depth.  The  policy  was  to  erect  fairly  good  buildings,  and  certain  re- 
strictions were  enforced  as  10  the  distance  from  the  street,  and  the  cost. 
Such  shacks  as  were  necessary  during  the  construction  period  were  raicd 
on  the  completion  of  the  blast  furnace  plant.  No  alleys  were  permitted, 
except  in  the  rear  of  the  main  business  street,  fw  alleys  invariably 
become  a  dumping  ground  for  refuse  and  are  always  the  last  to  be 
paved. 

The  original  plant  site  was  taken  over  by  the  Pittsburgh  CrudUe 
Steel  Company,  a  subsidiary  of  the  Crucible  Steel  Ccmipany  of  America. 
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COMMUNITY  CONTRASTS  OF    I914 

in  191 1,  and  the  unsold  portion  of  the  town  site  comprising  600  acres 
was  afterwards  acquired  by  the  Midland  Improvement  Company,  also  a 
subsidiary  of  the  Steel  Company. 

The  curved  and  winding  streets  and  many  small  parks  which  make 
up  the  new  plan  is  the  work  of  those  who  thus  acquired  the  property. 
In  this  residential  section  all  dwellings  must  be  brick,  concrete,  stone,  or 
other  fireproof  material.  No  small  out-buildings  are  permitted  other  than 
a  neat  garage,  lots  averaging  $oby  13$  feet,  and  but  one  building  on  a  lot. 
Every  construction  must  cost  not  less  than  $3,500,  and  be  at  least  30 
feet  from  the  property  line.  However,  frame  or  stucco  houses  are  per- 
mitted  provided  they  cost  not  less  than  $3,000  if  erected  on  lots  where 
restrictions  are  less  rigorous. 

The  policy  of  the  Improvement  Company  has  been  to  encourage 
in  every  way  civic  improvements  and  the  general  good  of  its  people. 
During  the  last  year,  the  company  has  built  several  hundred  houses  and 
employed  a  firm  of  architects  of  national  standing  to  design  houses  very 
different  from  the  store-box  type  so  common  in  industrial  towns.  The 
picturesoppositepage4ijshow  jo  houses,  sin^e,  double,  and  triple  type, 
designed  and  patterned  after  houses  in  Essen,  Germany.  Notice  the 
window-box  effect.  The  company  provided  the  plants  for  these  window 
bones,  graded  and  sowed  the  lawns,  provided  window  shades  to  insure 
uniformity  of  color,  and  provided  screens.  These  houses  are  occupied  by 
foremen,  mechanics,  and  clerks,  and  have  been  given  the  sobriquet,  "Toy- 
land."  Other  pictures  show  stucco  and  clapboard  houses  all  separate,  with 
gas,  electric  light,  furnace,  bath,  and  other  conveniences;  separate  houses  of 
brick  construction,  two  or  three  of  each  design  scattered  throughout  the 
plan,  also  modem  in  every  way;  and  xAid  concrete-poured  houses  con- 
sisting of  four  large  rooms  with  gas,  electric  lights,  inside  toilet,  and  running 
water.  This  last  construction  is  indestructible  and  germ-proof,  as  the 
walls,  floor,  and  roof  are  solid  concrete. 

The  original  layout  provided  for  the  segregation  of  foreigners 
(mostly  Italian,  Croatians,  Lithuanians,  and  Poles,  together  with  Jewish 
shopkeepers)  to  the  extreme  west  end  of  the  town.  This  rule  has  been 
followed  in  the  larger  development  of  the  town.  These  houses  are  built 
in  pairs  with  10  feet  space  between  them;  contain  five  large  rooms, 
equipped  with  gas,  electric  light,  running  water,  and  toilets,  fireplaces, 
mantels,  and  porches.  They  rent  up  to  $13  per  month,  30  percent  less  than 
inferior  houses  in  other  industrial  towns  in  the  western  end  of  the  state. 
The  Negro  population,  which  is  not  large,  has  a  nearby  section  in 
the  same  end  of  the  borough  near  where  the  foreigners  live,  and  have 
been  given  the  same  careful  attention. 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

The  company  believes  that  the  conveniences  offered  produce  an 
environment  doing  much  toward  the  education  of  the  next  goKration, 
if  not  the  present,  in  household  standards.  Meanwhile,  restrictitMiS  as  to 
the  number  of  men  sleeping  in  one  room  are  insisted  upon. 

Owing  to  the  lack  of  houses  in  Midland,  those  contttdled  by  the 
Crucible  Company  are  in  preference  given  to  their  employes.  However, 
houses  are  being  erected  by  individuals  at  many  points. 

Upon  acquiring  the  town  site,  the  Crucible  Company  found  but 
<Hie  paved  street.  A  number  of  streets  have  since  been  paved,  trees 
planted,  and  storm  and  sanitary  sewers  laid.  A  number  of  the  residents 
along  sections  of  the  town  where  the  streets  are  running  east  and  west, 
and  where  traffic  is  light,  have  petitioned  the  borough  council  to  have  the 
cart-way,  or  between  curbs,  reduced  to  34  feet,  leaving  a  grass  plot  eight 
feet  wide  between  sidewalk  and  curb.  This  adds  much  to  the  general 
appearance  and  reduces  the  cost  of  paving.  Streets  running  north  and 
south  are  50  feet  wide  with  lo-foot  sidewalks.  The  main  business  street. 
Midland  Avenue,  is  6;  feet  wide;  Park  Place,  east  and  west,  are  both  6$ 
feet  wide.  These  streets  bound  Lincoln  Park,  which  consists  of  six  acres 
of  almost  level  land  given  to  the  borough  by  the  parent  company  for  a 
public  park.  In  the  center  of  this  park  a  lake  is  projected  which  will  be 
used  for  bathing  in  the  summer  and  skating  in  the  winter. 

The  Cleveland  and  Pittsburgh  division  of  the  Pennsylvania  lines, 
west,  has  recently  purchased  at  Midland  considerable  grounds  to  be  used 
for  yard  facilities.  There  will  be  no  grade  crossings  from  the  town  to  the 
steel  plant,  as  subways  are  to  be  provided  for  such  purpose. 

To  encourage  garden  improvements,  the  parent  company  appn^ri- 
ates  each  year  a  considerable  sum  of  money  which  is  divided  among  the 
different  sections  as  prizes  for  the  best  lawns,  floral  designs,  porch  boxes, 
window  boxes,  vegetable  production,  and  grounds  as  a  whole.  It  also 
offers  garden  patches  for  cultivation,  free  of  charge  to  those  who  apply. 

Judges  are  selected  from  the  various  industries  of  the  town  who 
award  prizes,  each  fall,  to  those  who  show  the  best  results.  All  residents 
are  permitted  to  enter  the  contest,  only  one  prize  being  given,  however, 
to  a  single  individual.  Condition  of  the  ground  is  considered  and  also 
the  time  the  contestant  has  had  for  its  cultivation.  The  foreigners  enter 
these  contests  and  frequently  carry  off  the  prizes,  which  is  eminent  proof 
that  the  company's  policy  of  education  on  this  point  is  well  taken,  and 
the  money  thus  spent  is  well  spent. 

The  company  has  also  donated  a  band-stand  in  one  of  the  parks 
and  the  local  band  has  been  fortunate  in  finding  members  who  have  played 
in  some  of  the  best  bands  in  Europe.    Opposite  a  group  of  30  houses  on 

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Poured  Conckete  Houses.  Midland 
The  Midland  Improvement  Company  has  tried  out  Mr.  Edison's  invention. 
The  concrete  is  poured  into  frames,  and  practically  no  wood  enters  into  Ihe  con- 
struction. TKe  tenants  are  foreign  mechanics  of  a  high  order;  rent  S14  per  month: 
selling  price  ti.900.  The  experimeni  of  the  poured  house  is  still  in  process,  these 
Midland  houses  being  pioneers  of  Ihe  lype,  and  attracting  visitors  from  all  parts 
of  the  industrial  district 


TfcNANTEU    BY    OwNERS 

Not  all  Ihe  homes  in  Midland   are   company  houses   by  any  means. 

The  dwellings  on  this  street  are  biick  and  frame,  seven  lo  ten  rooms:  owned 
by  high  grade  mechanics,  clerks  holding  responsible  positions,  and  professional 
people  in  the  community 


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Triple  Houst.     Tovland 


Hollow  Tile  and  Cement 
To)'land  is  Ihe  name  given  lo  a  row  of  liie  and  cemeni  houses  buili  ifler 
German  models,  making  perhaps  the  most  atlraclive  industrial  street  in  Weslem 
Perrsylvania,  The  houses  still  have  to  win  their  way  wiih  American  lenanis. 
Mechaniijs,  clerks  and  department  foremen  rent  Ihem  al  Irom  $ii  lo  $37  pei  monih. 
five  lo  seven  rooms.  Selling  price  For  double  houses  $5,400  lo  §6,000.  lo  per  cent 
down,  one  per  cent  per  month  with  interest 


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COMMUNITY  CONTRASTS  OP    1914 

Rice  Avenue,  the  parent  company  has  provided  a  playground  i^ich  is 
maintained  by  the  residents  in  that  vicinity. 

The  water  furnished  Midland  is  filtered,  and  is  furnished  at  low 
rates.  No  charge  has  been  made  the  borough  so  far  for  fire  hydrants 
or  other  water  consumed.  Neither  is  any  tax  charged  to  the  board  of 
education  for  water  furnished  any  of  the  school  buildings. 

To  keep  up  with  the  increasing  population,  the  board  of  education 
is  endeavoring  to  provide  sufficient  school  buildings  in  different  parts  of 
the  town.  Two  are  now  completed,  and  a  third  is  about  to  be  erected. 
Schofds  are  graded,  with  high  school  facilities.  The  board  is  at  present 
negotiating  with  the  Improvement  Company  for  two  and  one-half  acres 
of  additional  ground  surrounding  the  central  school  for  a  playground  and 
breathing  spot.  The  Carnegie  Corporation  of  New  York  recently  ap- 
propriated $30,000  to  the  borough  for  a  free  public  library,  which  is  to  be 
erected  in  the  vicinity  of  Lincoln  Park  on  a  plot  of  ground  donated  by  the 
Improvement  Company. 

The  borough  council  recently  let  a  contract  for  a  new  municipal 
building  with  white  tile  front,  to  cost  about  $30,000.  One-half  is  to  be 
used  for  administrative  purposes  and  the  other  for  the  town's  fire  appar- 
atus. The  assembly  hall  in  this  building  will  be  placed  at  the  disposal 
of  the  people  for  all  social  center  work. 

When  dam  No.  7  crossing  the  Ohio  River  at  Midland  is  completed 
in  September  of  this  year,  it  will  enable  the  Crucible  Fuel  Company  to 
ship  coal  from  their  mines  in  Greene  County  to  the  Midland  plant  at  all 
times  of  the  year,  thus  enabling  them  to  operate  their  present  coke  ovens 
continuously.  The  steel  plant  is  a  modem  one  in  which  safety  engineering 
matches  the  town  planning  of  the  village. 

Other  industries  are  locating  at  Midland,  notably  a  foundry  and 
construction  company.  Although  the  borough  was  only  incorporated  in 
1907,  the  present  population  is  5,000,  and  in  the  next  few  yean  will  be 
more  than  doubled.  Two  churches  and  two  missions  have  been  erected. 
Midland  is  a  prohibition  district,  and  its  town  site  lies  so  high  that 
malaria  is  unknown  and  the  mosquito  finds  no  breeding  spots.  The  tax 
rate  is  the  lowest  of  any  borough  in  Beaver  County.  Altogether  with 
Steel  Company  and  citizens  working  in  harmony  it  is  hoped  to  solve  here 
many  of  the  difficult  problems  of  the  modem  industrial  town. 


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APPENDIX  III 

Y.  M.  C.  A.  WORK  FOR   IMMIGRANTS  IN  THE  PITTS- 
BURGH DISTRICT 

H.   A.    McCONNAUGKEY 

Immigratioo  SccrelaTy  Y.  M.  C  A..  Pittsburgh 

Beginning  in  1909  the  Pittsburgh  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion has  been  carrying  on  active  work  in  the  interests  of  coming  Americans 
or,  in  other  words,  of  the  immigrant  population  of  Pittsbui^.  Up 
to  that  time  the  association  work  of  this  industrial  center  had  been  con- 
ducted <Hi  strictly  conventional  lines.  The  new  work  was  made  possible 
by  the  coming  of  Lyman  L.  Pierce  as  general  secretary  of  the  Y.  M.  C  A. 
of  Pittsburgh,  under  whose  administration  the  association  has  made 
remarkable  progress  in  other  lines  than  its  outreach  among  immigrants. 
In  less  than  five  years,  three  equipped  buildings  have  been  opened  in 
various  parts  of  Pittsburgh  and,  more  important,  a  new  and  more  dem- 
ocratic spirit  has  found  expression. 

In  developing  its  Y.  M,  C  A.  work  for  wage-earners  the  Pitts- 
burgh District  drew  on  the  national  movement  in  the  same  fidd.  It 
secured  two  of  the  six  young  men  who  under  Dr.  E.  A.  Steiner  went 
to  Europe  to  study  and  live  in  those  sections  of  southeastern  Europe 
that  furnish  the  bulk  of  our  present  immigration.  At  the  end  of  fourteoi 
months  they  returned  to  this  country  to  work  in  behalf  of  immigrants 
under  association  auspices.  E.  E.  Bohner  was  in  1910  engaged  by  the 
Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Company  to  conduct  the  work  for  foreigners  at 
Wilmerding,  the  industrial  town  where  the  Y.  M.C  A.  has  taken  strongest 
root.  In  the  fall  of  1909,  the  writer  had  begun  the  organization  of  im- 
migration work  under  the  city  association.  Dr.  Peter  Roberts,  sec- 
retary for  immigration  of  the  International  Committee  of  the  Y.  M.  C  A., 
who  had  made  earlier  surveys  of  Pittsburgh  and  Wilmerding  was  called 
in  to  look  over  the  ground  and  help  plan  and  place  the  work. 

From  the  start  the  system  of  instruction  devised  by  him  has  been 
used  in  the  classes  for  beginners. 

The  first  emphasis  was  upon  English  classes.  Every  year  up  to 
1914  an  average  of  about  $00  men  have  studied  under  the  direction  of 
414 


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Teaching  English  with  a  Hatchet 

By  object  and  action,  an  American  without  knowledge  of  foreign  tongues,  can, 

under  the  Roberts  system,  imparl  i  working  knowledge  of  English  to  a  class  of 

mixed  nationalities.     Italians,  Slovaks,  and  Magyars  are  in  Ihis  group  being  taught 

by  Mr.  McConnaughey  {who  is  shown  with  the  tool  in  his  hand,  as  an  object  lesson) 


Bovs  OF  A  Mill  Section 
Reached  through  the  community  centers.     Over-nighl  and  week-end  c 
within  a  radius  of  five  miles  of  Pittsburgh,  give  ihem  a  tasle  of  outdoor  life  ai 
acquaintance  with  Ihe  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

the  association.  The  public  schools  under  the  new  central  board  are 
now  ready  to  undertake  English  instruction  wherever  it  is  needed  in  the 
city,  and  the  present  policy  for  the  Y,  M.  C  A.  is  to  co-operate  with  them 
and  to  conduct  classes  in  out>of-the-way  places  that  can  not  be  covered  by 
the  public  schods. 

To  cover  the  summer  months,  extensicm  work  has  been  developed. 
Vacant  lots  are  secured  wherever  possible  in  the  foreign  sectitms  oS  the 
city.  Where  there  is  no  vacant  lot,  permission  is  obtained  of  the  dty 
to  use  3  block  of  a  public  street  for  certain  hours  of  the  evening.  Here 
a  stereopticon  lantern  or  moving  picture  machine  is  operated  nightly.  The 
subjects  of  the  lectures  include:  Prevention  of  Tuberculosis;  Prevention 
of  Infectious  Diseases;  Life  of  Lincoln;  Life  of  Washington;  Yellowstone 
National  Park;  Discovery  and  Early  History  of  America,  and  so  forth. 
Last  year  we  tried  out  for  the  first  time  preparing  the  lecture  material 
in  brief,  having  it  translated  into  eight  languages  and  photographed 
on  lantern  slides.  In  this  way  the  explanatory  slides  alternate  with  the 
pictures  and  people  of  many  languages  enjoy  the  entertainments  and  get 
the  benefit  of  the  instruction.  Last  summer  the  attendance  was  300,00a 
The  number  of  lectures  has  been  greatly  increased  through  the  coopera- 
tion of  the  Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution  Society.  Through  the 
efforts  of  Mrs.  Samuel  Ammon  of  Pittsburgh,  chairman  of  Patriotic  Edu> 
cation,  their  collection  of  historic  lectures  has  been  made  available  and 
prepared  in  seven  languages.  * 

Another  phase  of  the  work  has  been  co-operation  from  Pittsburgh 
with  the  Y.  M.  C.  A-  secretaries  at  port  cities  in  caring  for  arriving  im- 
migrants, and  plans  for  receiving  and  safeguarding  all  arriving  immi- 
grants are  in  process  of  arrangement. 

In  civics,  a  number  of  young  lawyers  have  instructed  the  men  who 
have  applied  for  their  citizenship  papers.  The  names  are  secured  frun 
the  court  register  and  notices  of  these  meetings  sent  to  all  men  who  have 
applied  for  citizenship.  We  are  conservative  enough  to  fear  that  we 
might  do  some  harm  by  a  widespread  effort  to  induce  the  mass  of  foreign 
men  to  take  out  their  citizenship  papers.  We  believe  that  the  moct 
ambitious  as  a  rule  are  the  ones  who  seek  to  do  it  on  their  own  initiative. 
Moreover,  the  result  can  be  only  good  of  helping  these  who  would  become 
citizens  at  any  rate  and  by  influencing  them  during  the  period  in  which 
they  are  most  concerned  about  this  phase  of  their  Americanizatimi. 
This  year  we  have  had  3$o  of  these  men  comprising  1 1  nationalities  in 
citizenship  classes. 

After  coming  three  evenings  a  fine-looking  Lithuanian  turned  up 
at  the  next  sessitm  full  of  jubilation.    He  said  "  I  have  just  secured  my 

416 


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Croatian  Chorus  Ja' 


Russian  SiNcrNC  Circ 


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y.   M.  C.   A.   WORK   FOR  IMMIGRANTS 

papers.  I  tried  twice  before  and  1  failed.  One  time  1  paid  a  lawyer  $;o. 
Now  you  helped  me  and  I  have  them."  Another  man  from  an  outlying 
borough,  attacked  by  rheumatism  in  the  middle  of  the  course,  dragged 
himself  to  the  class  on  crutches.  Another,  a  Pole,  was  saved  from  serious 
troubles  regarding  his  witnesses  because  of  his  connection  with  the  classes. 

Each  summer  we  use  the  contact  afforded  by  the  outdoor  educa- 
tional lectures  to  get  in  touch  with  groups  of  boys  in  the  industrial  sections. 
At  points  outside  of  the  city  and  beyond  the  scope  of  the  Pittsburgh 
Playground  Association,  playground  work  is  conducted  during  the  day- 
time with  such  success  that  two  equipped  playground  centera  have  been 
made  permanent.  Groups  of  boys  ranging  from  twelve  to  sixteen  years  of 
age  are  taken  on  hiking,  over-night  and  week-end  camping  trips.  In  this 
way  large  numbers  who  can  not  get  away  for  an  extended  vacation  really 
get  a  taste  of  the  joy  of  outdoors.  Eight  centers  for  this  work  are  cmi- 
ducted  this  summer.  The  boys  have  the  unusual  pleasure  of  cooking  over 
an  open  fire  where  the  smoke  blows  in  the  eyes,  and  of  sleeping  under  the 
open  sky  where  the  song  of  the  katydids  is  not  drowned  by  the  roar  of 
passing  trucks  and  street  cars.  Around  the  camp  fire  before  bedtime 
the  last  ten  minutes  is  given  over  to  the  discussion  of  some  scheme  that 
will  reach  the  heart  and  quicken  the  aspiration. 

Recently  the  Pittsburgh  association  has  inaugurated  a  plan  of 
community  boys'  work  in  remote  parts  of  the  city.  The  first  place  in 
which  it  is  being  adopted  is  in  the  Homewood  district. 

An  attempt  has  also  been  made  to  bring  out  before  the  public  the 
racial  values  and  the  picturesque  and  artistic  features  of  the  foreign  nation- 
alities. To  do  this  we  have  conducted  for  three  successive  seasons  an  AH 
Natbns  Singing  Contest  at  which  various  groups  of  men  and  women 
sing  in  their  native  language.  Six  nationalities  have  provided  men's 
choruses,  some  furnishing  more  than  one  chorus.  At  these  meetings 
we  arrange  for  an  interpretive  and  patriotic  address.  Two  years  ago 
Dr.  Steiner  spoke  and  last  year  Jacob  Riis.  This  has  been  worth  while 
and  has  done  much  to  popularize  the  singing  of  these  different  national 
groups.  They  are  now  called  on  for  public  occasions  and  have  a  new 
recognition  in  the  community. 

There  has  been  development  outside  of  Pittsburgh  in  the  Western 
Pennsylvania  field.  The  Wilmerding  foreign  branch  association  has 
grown  to  more  than  400  members  of  17  different  nationalities. 

The  foreign  Y.  M.  C.  A.  (Airbrake  Welfare  Club)  is  fitted  up  with 
game  rooms,  educational  and  social  rooms  and  eight  first  class  shower 
baths,  all  features  popular  with  the  men. 

One  piece  of  work  of  this  association  under  Mr.  Bohner  has  been 

a?"  417 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

to  interest  children  and  adults  in  cleaning  up  a  patch  of  ground  that  was 
used  as  a  dump  for  tin  cans  and  transfonning  it  into  a  first  class  pliy- 
ground. 

The  Pittsburgh  association  has  for  five  years  co-operated  in  edu- 
cational and  social  work  mth  the  Pressed  Steel  Car  Company.  This 
company  employs  about  5,  joo  men  when  it  is  working  fully,  a  very  Itiff 
per  cent  being  immigrants.  Each  year  the  foreign  people  themsdvts 
have  taken  a  larger  part  in  the  activities.  The  result  is  that  the  pcc^ 
who  live  in  "Presiton"  feel  a  local  pride  of  which  they  knew  nothing 
live  years  ago. 

The  state  committee  of  the  Y.  M.  C  A.  has  during  this  fiv^ 
year  period  carried  on  work  in  conneaion  with  mining  commuoitits. 
First  aid  to  the  injured  work  has  played  a  large  part  and  mining  insti- 
tutes have  been  a  leading  feature.  For  the  past  year,  owing  toachuip 
in  the  plan  of  organization  of  the  state  committee,  some  of  this  work 
has  been  discontinued.  It  is  hoped  that  local  associations  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  mining  distrias  will  undenake  the  work. 

Recently  (1914)  the  Harbison  and  Walker  Brick  Refractories  Can- 
pany  of  Pittsburgh  have  secured  Ira  D.  Shaw,  formerly  engaged  in  the 
mining  work  of  the  international  cimimittee,  to  devdop  welfare  work 
under  association  auspices  in  their  various  plants  in  Pennsylvania. 


418 


.d,GoogIe 


MANUFACTURING  A  PLAYGROUND 
,s  Done  at  Wilmerdihg.  bv  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Associsi 
Brake  Company 


Site  in  foreign  section  of  U'ilmetding  proposed  for  playground.  Full  of  mud- 
covered  with  stones.  (In  cans,  broken  boriles,  and  so  forih.  Ai  leasl  loo  small 
children  lived  within  joo  yards  and  they  had  no  place  lo  play 


66,000  tin  cans  were  gathered;  750  children  collected  them.  Twenty  volun- 
teers— foreign-speaking  men— helped  count  the  tin  cans  and  pay  the  boys  and  girls 
one  cent  per  doj;en 


■izPdnyCOOgle 


Y.  M.  C.  A.  Community  Wo 


Thirty  boys  and  girls  : 


■d^yCoogle 


APPENDIX  IV 

THE  JEWISH   IMMIGRANTS  OF  TWO 

PITTSBURGH   BLOCKS 

[19081' 

Anna  Reed 

The  greater  part  of  the  Jewish  community  of  Pittsburgh  is  situated 
in  what  is  known  as  the  Hill  District.  This  immigration  brings  with  it 
characteristics  so  entirely  its  own  that  much  that  is  significant  of  the  com- 
mon life  was  found  summed  up  in  a  study  of  the  families  of  two  blocks  in 
the  heart  of  this  district.  A  census  of  them  proved  more  surely  than 
even  those  of  us  who  had  long  been  residents  in  the  neighborhood  would 
have  anticipated,  the  permanence  and  stability  of  this  new  dement  in  the 
populaticH].  The  two  blocks  reflected  the  sort  of  foothold  which  is  open 
to  this  distinctive  people  in  what  is  for  most  purposes  a  purely  industrial 
center;  what  relation  their  new  occupatitms  bear  to  their  training  and 
experience  in  the  old  countries  of  Europe,  and  what,  as  measured  in  terms 
of  livdihood  and  accomplishment,  comes  to  them  in  this  new  setting. 

T^e  blocks  selected  were  two  adjoining  Center  Avenue  at  different 
points  on  the  incline  of  the  hill.  Pittsburgh  has  no  really  large  tenement 
houses.  These  homes  were  originally  built  for  two  families,  and  while 
some  still  contain  but  two,  many  have  been  converted  so  as  to  house  a 
great  many  mwe.  In  the  process  of  rebuilding,  downstairs  front  rooms 
have  been  changed  into  small  stores  where  grocers,  butchers,  and  tailors 
supply  the  needs  of  the  neighborhood.  The  houses  are  of  brick,  and 
many  are  garnished  by  a  government  license  sign,  which  indicates  that 
somewhere  in  these  already  crowded  quarters,  a  small  stogy  factory  is 
located  which  sells  in  the  larger  market.  The  many  synagogues  where  the 
men  still  wear  the  dd-time  praying  shawls,  and  each  repeats  for  himself 
in  monotonous,  low,  musical  tones  the  ancient  Hebrew  prayers,  bring  into 
this  capital  of  the  steel  district  the  wonderful  and  fascinating  spirit  of  the 
East.  The  Cheders,  where  the  Hebrew  language,  which  every  hard- 
working father  and  mother,  no  matter  what  else  is  sacrificed,  feels  must  be 
*  PabUtbcd  in  Cbarititi  Mtd  Tht  Commatu,  January  j,  1909. 
419 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING  PITTSBURGH 

taught  to  the  boys,  and  the  Kosher  butcher  shops,  where  the  dietary  Inn 
are  still  observed,  are  all  distinctive  of  a  people  which,  though  it  adopts 
American  customs,  still  keeps  many  of  the  traditions  in  its  own  communil 
life. 

There  were  1,080  people  in  these  blocks,  817  of  whom  were  Jewish. 
Of  the  143  Jewish  families,  1  to  were  from  Russia,  27  from  Roomania,  five 
from  Austria-Hungary,  and  one  from  Germany, — all  largely  from  small 
towns.  Among  them  there  were  very  nearly  three  hundred  children  of 
school  age  or  younger. 

A  third  of  these  families  had  been  in  America  over  ten  years  and 
two-thirds  over  Ave  years.  Of  course,  the  fact  that  the  census  was  taken 
in  a  year  of  industrial  depressicm  may  have  Had  a  large  influence  on  the 
comparatively  small  number  of  more  recent  immigrants  in  residrace  in 
the  neighborhood,  for  these  would  have  less  resources  to  keep  them  in 
Pittsburgh  during  a  period  of  hard  times.  But  the  actual  number  of 
stable  family  groups  was  very  considerable,  as  shown  in  the  fcdlowing 
classification: 


Umd^a 

ttoB 

SlolO 

totom 

90ioJfl 

Years  in  America 
Yean  in  Piltsburgh  . 

:: 

g 

5« 
49 

39 

18 
17 

This  permanence  as  an  element  in  the  citizenship  of  Pittsburgh  is 
in  contrast  to  an  uninterrupted  shifting  among  them  as  tenants.  On  the 
one  band,  the  latter  is  merely  a  reflex  of  the  success  of  particular  families 
in  making  their  way  and  raising  their  standard  of  life;  but  the  greater 
part  of  it  is  due  to  the  lack  of  proper  houses  at  a  fair  rental  in  Pittsburgh. 
It  is  a  common  occurrence  for  a  family  to  move  from  place  to  place  in  an 
effort  to  secure  more  livable  quarters.  One  family  went  through  the  tor- 
ture of  moving  six  times  in  one  year.  Two  have  lived  from  ten  to  twenty 
years  in  the  same  place,  eight  from  five  to  ten,  46  over  two,  while  87  hid 
been  living  in  their  present  homes  less  than  two  years. 

Unsuspected  by  the  casual  visitor,  there  is  a  background  of  tragedy 
and  national  crises  to  such  a  neighborhood.  Among  the  great  nations  of 
Europe,  Russia  and  Roumanta  have  absdutely  refused  political  and  in* 
dustrial  freedom  to  their  Jewish  subjects.  TTie  concrete  forms  which 
oppression  and  restriction  assume  are  very  real:  prohibitions  against 
their  owning  land,  their  exclusion  in  one  part  of  Russia  from  the  learned 
professions,  in  another  from  taking  part  in  a  government  contract,  and  in 
430 


■d^yCoogle 


JEWISH   IMMIGRANTS  OF  TWO  BLOCKS 

whole  districts  from  owning  their  own  homes.  Here  in  these  blocks  there 
are  many  families  who  have  lived  and  traded  in  daily  terror  of  an  out- 
break or  of  the  tyranny  of  an  unscrupulous  governor;  who  have  been 
deprived  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizens  and  yet  subjected  to  the 
full  strain  of  military  law  and  the  brunt  of  religious  persecution.  You 
chance  to  meet  a  man  in  the  comer  grocery — he  is  tall  and  gaunt;  his  long 
beard  is  well  sprinkled  with  gray.  On  talking  with  him  you  find  he  has 
served  in  the  Russo-Turkish  War,  that  his  only  son  served  for  four  years 
in  the  Russian  army,  and  that  a  "pogrom"  finally  drove  him  to  leave 
everything  behind  and  flee  to  these  shores.  One  man  was  robbed  and  his 
family  outraged, — a  son  and  brother-in-law  killed  in  a  recent  massacre; 
another  man,  already  past  forty,  had  to  take  up  his  burden,  and,  like  the 
pilgrims  of  old,  go  forth  and  search  for  a  new  tunne,  because  the  edict  had 
been  ^vcn  in  Moscow. 

It  was  found  that  41  of  the  families  had  come  for  purely  religious 
and  political  reasons,  93  to  better  thdr  economic  condition,  and  34  had 
followed  relatives,  friends,  and  townsmen  who  either  sent  for  them  or 
urged  them  to  make  the  journey.  Indeed,  this  persona!  relationship  is  on 
many  counts  the  most  important  factor  in  swelling  the  population  of  a 
Jewish  neighborhood.  As  a  rule,  no  matter  how  poor  the  immigrant  may 
be,  he  saves,  often  by  the  most  drastic  measures,  to  send  for  some  loved 
ones.  Such  was  the  experience  of  a  young  man,  educated  in  the  public 
schools  of  Roumania,  who  had  suffered  in  the  uprisings  there.  His  first 
employment  in  Pittsburgh  was  with  a  local  druggist.  He  went  through 
the  usual  apprenticeship,  and  soon  another  brother  had  come  over  and  was 
wwking  as  a  barber.  They  saved  and  sent  part  of  their  earnings  to  their 
parents  in  the  old  country,  while  the  first,  by  work  and  study,  prepared 
himself  for  entrance  into  the  local  college  of  pharmacy,  was  graduated  and 
his  earning  capacity  thereby  increased.  Then,  the  parents,  a  sister  and 
two  brothers  were  brought  over  and,  when  an  opportunity  for  buying  a 
drug  store  offered  itself  to  him,  the  combined  forces  of  the  family  made  the 
purchase  possible.  Today,  after  eight  years  of  hard  work,  he  owns  a 
well  established  business,  is  married,  and  the  entire  family  seems  welt 
started  on  the  road  to  success. 

The  question  of  what  a  man  does,  when  he  comes  here  an  uninter- 
preted stranger,  is  interestinf^y  reflected  in  these  two  blocks.  The  stogy 
industry  and  peddling  are  dominant;  of  those  who  have  become  st<^ 
makers,  four  were  students,  two  grocers,  one  was  a  peddler,  one  a  tailor, 
one  a  lumber  trader,  one  a  merchant,  and  another  a  butcher. 

The  peddlers  represent  an  even  larger  variety  of  skilled  trades  and 
other  occupations.    A  jewelry  peddler  and  a  rag  peddler  were  printers; 

421 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

a  weaver,  two  lumber  dealers,  a  gardener,  and  a  grocer  have  become 
peddlers  of  clothing;  a  carpenter  sells  pictures;  two  blacksmiths,  a  tailor, 
and  a  fanner  are  peddling  rags.  Of  those  who  were  skilled,  a  gddsmith 
has  become  a  presser,  a  shoemaker  is  working  at  iron  beds,  an  umbrdli 
maker  runs  a  pool  mom,  and  a  Hebrew  teacher  is  now  an  egg-candler. 

In  contrast,  and  much  more  encouraging,  are  the  six  blacksmiths, 
II  tailors,  three  barbers,  two  bakers,  three  shoemakers,  two  printen, 
a  locksmith,  a  machinist,  a  plumber,  and  a  glazier,  who  started  and  coo* 
tinue  to  use  the  trades  ihey  learned  in  the  old  country. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  facts  brought  out  was  that  the  number 
of  peddlers  grew  from  lo  in  the  old  country  to  38  on  their  arrival  in  Anier* 
ica,  and  to  33  as  the  first  work  in  Pittsburgh,  dropping  again  to  17  who  are 
peddling  at  the  present  time. 

The  following  table  compares  occupations  in  the  old  country  with 
those  practiced  in  the  new: 


Old 

Ntm 
Cmmtr, 

Store  kee 

J7 
10 

3 

7 

'i 

Fictory  workers 

Factory  owners 

Restaurant  keepers 

Lumber  dealers 

Gardeners,  farmen,  etc 

9 
i 

4 

4 

3 

7 

Traveling  talesmen 

Miscellaneous 

■  Under  miaceilaneous  were  classed  a  foreman,  maniger,  agent,  cootnctor, 
collector. 

The  meaning  of  this  table  will  be  made  clearer  by  telling  two  stories: 
one  of  a  man  who  is  succeeding,  and  one  of  a  man  who  has  known  the  ke«n 
anguish  that  to  the  great  masses  of  men  is  involved  in  the  words  "hard 
times."  For  the  results  of  an  industrial  depression  show  themselves  with 
promptness  in  such  an  immigrant  neighborhood.  One  man,  married  and 
the  father  of  three  children,  was  employed  as  a  porter  in  a  downtown  store. 
He  was  thrown  out  of  work,  and  to  the  terrors  of  rent  was  added  the  fact 
that  his  wife  was  soon  to  give  birth  to  another  child.  Four  weeks  after- 
ward, the  landlord  levied  on  the  furniture  for  the  unpaid  rent,  and  the 
433 


■d^yCoogle 


JEWISH   IMMIGRANTS  OF  TWO   BLOCKS 

weak,  under-nourished  mother  became  temporarily  insane.  She  was 
placed  in  a  sanatorium,  two  of  the  children  were  sent  to  a  day  nursery,  and 
the  youngest  child — too  young  to  be  taken  by  the  nursery — was  sent  to  a 
private  family.  And  then,  for  the  man,  b^an  the  stnig^e  to  get  work. 
He  bought  a  small  quantity  of  fniit  and  peddled  it  in  a  basket  from  house 
to  bouse.  He  was  arrested  one  moming  in  a  freight  yard,  where  he  was 
charged  by  the  yard  pcJiceman  with  stealing.  He  was  acquitted  at  the 
trial  and  the  police  sergeant  claimed  that  cases  of  injustice  of  this  kind 
were  not  infrequent.  Next,  he  secured  work  as  janitor  in  a  hospital  at 
fj.oo  a  week,  and  after  a  time  his  wife's  condition  improved  and  he  was 
able  to  reunite  his  family.  Thereupon,  he  borrowed  }io  and  bought  a 
second-hand  pushcart  with  a  license,  and  now  he  is  once  more  trading  in 
fruits  and  vegetables  in  his  strug^e  against  odds  to  care  for  them.  An- 
other man,  forty-eight  years  old  and  the  father  of  1 1  children,  had  spent 
his  early  life  in  a  small  town.  His  first  job  on  coming  to  New  York  was 
that  of  a  ckithing  operator.  The  overstrain  of  the  sweatshop  caused  the 
only  too  frequent  breakdown  in  health.  Two  years  later  he  came  to  the 
Pittsburgh  District,  where,  as  a  peddler  in  the  country  towns,  he  gradually 
reined  his  strength.  Today,  he  owns  his  home  and  has  a  paying  grocery 
business. 

Of  the  363  non-Jews  in  these  blocks,  nine  out  of  ten  were  Negroes; 
and  among  them  four  questionable  houses  were  found.  Such  an  en- 
vironment, with  the  change  frcmi  former  sunoundings  and  c(»diti<ms, 
does  not  always  work  out  satisfactorily;  the  higher  cost  of  living,  the 
severe  strug^e  for  existence,  the  sudden  transition  from  oppression  to 
freedmn,  often  have  a  deteriorating  influence.  They  result  in  cases  of 
wife-desertion,  in  laxity  of  religious  observances,  in  gambling  sessions  at 
the  coffee-houses,  in  occasional  moral  lapses,  and  in  contempt  for  the 
ideals,  customs,  and  beauties  of  the  traditional  family  and  religious  life 
of  the  old  country.  Yet,  as  a  whole,  we  know  the  people  of  these  bk>cks, 
and  (rf  the  hill,  as  immigrants  who  have  suffered  oppression  and  borne 
ridicule;  who  in  the  face  of  insult  and  abuse  have  remained  silent,  but 
who  have  stamped  on  their  countenances  a  look  of  stubborn  patience  and 
hope — always  hope — and  of  capacity  to  overcome. 


■d^yCoogle 


APPENDIX  V 

THE  NEGROES  OF  PITTSBURGH 
[1907-08]* 

Helen  A.  Tucker 

Today  it  is  the  young  norttt>bound  Negro  with  whom  we  reckon 
in  Pittsburgh.  Seldom  is  a  white-headed  N^ro  seen  on  the  street;  but 
rather  the  man  on  the  sand  cart  hard  at  work.  That  with  every  year 
there  is  an  increasing  migration  from  the  South  to  our  northern  cities  is 
known  in  a  general  way;  but  if  our  estimate  of  these  newcomers  is  to  be 
worth  anything,  it  should  be  based  upon  something  more  than  impressions 
gained  from  those  we  notice  on  the  street  cars  (the  best  are  too  well  be- 
haved to  be  conspicuous),  from  loafers  at  saloon  doors,  and  frcmi  news- 
paper accounts  of  Negro  crime.  Here,  too  often,  the  knowledge  of  white 
people  ends.  Of  the  industrious,  ambitious  Negroes,  they  know  little; 
and  of  the  home  life  of  those  who  are  refined,  nothing  at  all.  As  a  man 
who  officially  comes  into  daily  contact  with  the  criminal  N^ro  said  to  me, 
"All  must  bear  the  reproach  for  the  doings  of  this  police  court  10  per  cent-" 
Anyone  who  is  sufficiently  interested  to  desire  more  accurate  infonnation 
as  to  Pittsburgh's  Negroes  than  may  be  gained  by  a  walk  down  Wylie 
Avenue  wilt  readily  find  signs  enough  of  the  differentiation  that  is  rapidly 
taking  place  among  the  members  of  thb  race.  White  with  the  increasing 
influx  a  class  of  idle,  shiftless  Negroes  is  coming,  who  create  problems  and 
increase  prejudice,  a  far  larger  number  are  taking  advantage  of  the  abund- 
ance of  work  and  of  the  good  wages,  and  are  rapidly  bettering  themselves. 
There  is  here  a  chance,  such  as  perhaps  few  northern  cities  give,  for  the 
industrious  Negro  to  succeed,  and  he  is  improving  his  opportunity. 

There  was  a  considerable  Negro  population  in  Allegheny  County 
before  the  Civil  War.  Both  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny  were  important 
stations  of  the  underground  railroad,  and  many  a  man  and  woman  sought 
refuge  here  from  the  nearby  slave  states.  In  Allegheny  a  school  was 
founded  for  them  before  the  end  of  the  half  century.  The  growth  of  the 
Negro  population  is  shown  by  the  f<dlowing  table: 

*  Published  in  Cbttrilits  and  Tbt  Commons,  January  j,  1909. 
424 


■d^yCoogle 


THE   NEGROES  OF   PITTSBURGH 


l-MT 

Nltmb€r 

r^ 

Nnmbn 

iSio   . 

iSSo 

■890 

'900 

7376 

Isfc  :    :   :   :    ;   : 

■870 

4^59 

37.8J}' 

■  1910,  34^17- 

These  figures  show  a  steady  increase  except  from  iSjo  to  i860, 
gradually  reaching  the  point  where  the  N^o  population  doubled  in  a 
decade.  The  marked  increases  from  1870  to  1880  and  1890  to  1900  are 
probably  due  to  the  fact  that  in  those  periods  more  Negroes  were  able 
to  get  work  in  the  sted  mills.  The  percentage  of  Negroes  in  the  total 
population  of  the  county  was  3.3  per  cent  in  1880,  34  per  cent  in  1890, 
and  3.6  per  cent  in  1900.  Three^uarters  of  the  Negroes  in  the  county 
live  in  Pittsburgh*    ....    (and)  more  than  half  of  these  are  males.! 

The  principal  Negro  street  is  Wylie  Avenue.  This  leads  up  to  the 
Hill  District  which,  forty  years  ago,  was  a  well  conditioned  section.  Now 
it  b  given  over  largely  to  Negroes  and  European  immigrants.  FOTty- 
ei^t  per  cent  of  the  Negroes  in  Pittsburgh  live  in  wards  seven,  eight, 
eleven,  aitd  thirteen.  [Old  numbering.]  How  fast  this  movement  is 
taking  place  is  indicated  by  what  a  cdored  woman  told  me  who  keeps  a 
grocery  store  on  Wylie  Avenue  near  Francis  Street.  When  she  opened 
there  three  years  ago,  there  was  scarcely  a  colored  famfly  in  the  district. 
Now  there  is  another  grocery  ston,  a  shoe  store,  and  two  confectionery 
stores,  kept  by  cdored  pecq>le.  Horton  Street  nearby  is  filled  with  colored 
people  who  have  recently  come  from  the  South.  There  is  a  tendency  on 
the  part  of  the  Negroes,  however,  to  get  out  from  the  center  of  the  city, 
and  fully  a  quarter  of  them  live  farther  out  in  wards  nineteen,  twenty,  and 
twenty-one.     In  all,  63  per  cent  of  the  Negroes  lived  in  1900  in  six  wards. 

In  these  wards  there  is  a  large  foreign  element.  In  the  seventh, 
eighth,  and  eleventh  wards  there  are  many  Russian  Jews.  A  Negro 
church  in  the  eighth  ward  was  stM  last  fall  for  a  Jewish  synagogue,  and 
the  Negro  ctmgregation  is  building  in  the  thirteenth  ward.  In  the  twdfth 
ward,  where  many  of  the  Negroes  live  who  work  in  the  mills,  they  have  for 
neighbors  the  Poles  and  Slavs.  The  wdl-to-do  Negroes  of  the  city  are 
moving  out  toward  the  East  End. 

Two  or  three  apartment  houses  have  been  built  especially  for 
Negroes,  but  in  general,  though  living  in  certain  localities,  they  are  not 
segregated.    This  does  not  mean  thai  there  are  not  some  Negro  streets, 

*  I9ii>,  aj,63j.  t  ■9>o>  ■(>$.}  malet  to  loo  females. 

425 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

but  very  often  a  row  of  from  three  to  seven  houses  will  be  found  in  which 
Negroes  are  living,  while  the  rest  of  the  street  is  filled  with  white  peopl^ 
Again,  a  single  Negro  family  may  live  between  two  white  families.  Whts 
Negroes  gain  a  footbdd  in  a  new  street  in  any  numbers,  the  Americam 
move  away;  but  the  Jewish  immigrants  do  not  seem  to  object  to  living 
near  them,  sometimes  in  the  same  house.  And  this  is  true  of  more  than  the 
poorest  of  them. 

In  a  way  the  Jews  have  been  a  help  to  the  Negroes,  for  they  will 
rent  houses  to  them  in  localities  where  they  could  not  otherwise  ga  le 
many  cases  the  Jews  have  bought  or  built  houses,  filled  them  with  N^ti 
tenants  at  high  rents,  and  thus  paid  for  them.  But  the  Negroes  have 
learned  from  these  experiences,  and  many  of  them  have  started  to  buy 
homes.  They  have  decided  that  they  might  as  well  buy  houses  for  them- 
selves as  for  the  Jews. 

The  poorer  Negroes  live  in  a  network  of  alleys  on  either  side  (rf 
Wylie  Avenue  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  wards.  For  years  the  conditiwis 
here  have  been  very  bad  from  every  point  of  view.  There  are  respectable 
people  living  here,  but  the  population  consists  chiefly  of  poor  Negroes 
and  a  low  class  of  whites.  As  a  result,  there  is  much  immorality  in  thb 
section — speak  easies,  Cocaine  joints,  and  disorderiy  houses  abound.  I 
think  1  never  saw  such  wretched  conditions  as  in  three  shanties  on  Poplar 
Alley.  Until  a  year  ago  many  of  the  landlords  had  not  complied  with  the 
law  requiring  flush  closets,  and  1  found  old-fashioned  vaults  full  of  filth. 
Where  the  flush  closets  had  been  put  in  they  were  in  many  cases  out  of 
repair.  In  some  alleys  there  were  stables  next  to  the  houses  and  while 
the  odor  was  bad  at  any  time,  after  a  rain  the  stench  from  these  and  from 
the  dirt  in  the  streets  was  almost  unendurable. 

The  interiors  of  very  many  of  the  houses  in  which  the  Negroes  live 
were  out  of  repair — paper  torn  off,  plastering  coming  down,  and  windows 
broken.  The  tenants  told  me  they  had  complained  to  the  landlords  and 
had  tried  to  get  stmiething  done,  but  without  success. 

The  twelfth  ward  near  the  mills  also  has  some  bad  conditions.  In 
Parke  Row  and  Spruce  Alley,  on  the  day  of  my  visit,  the  rubbish,  which  is 
removed  only  every  two  weeks,  was  piled  high.  On  top  of  one  pile  was  an 
old  dirty  mattress.  The  houses  1  visited  in  Parke  Row  were  so  dark  that 
it  was  necessary  to  use  a  lamp  even  at  midday.  There  were  also  depress- 
ing conditions  among  the  Negro  homes  on  Rose,  Charles,  and  Soho  streets. 
While  some  of  the  more  ambitious  are  moving  out  from  these  unhealthy 
localities,  many  who  would  like  to  move  have  not  the  opportunity.  One 
of  these  said  to  me,  "The  only  place  where  there  is  plenty  of  room  for 
Negroes  is  in  the  alleys." 

426 


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THE  NEGROES  OP   PITTSBURGH 

Yet  even  the  very  poorest  Negro  homes  are  usually  clean  inside 
and  have  a  homelike  air.  It  would  surprise  one  who  has  never  visited 
such  homes  to  see  with  what  good  taste  they  are  furnished.  There  is 
always  some  attempt  at  ornamentation,  oftenest  expressed  by  a  fancy 
lamp,  which  is  probably  never  lighted.  Almost  every  family  except  the 
very  poorest  has  a  piana  The  best  Negro  houses — usually  not  in  Negro 
districts — are  what  people  of  the  same  means  have  everywhere.  I  was 
fortunate  enough  to  visit  at  least  a  dozen  of  these  comfortabte,  well  fur- 
nished, anractive  homes  and  in  them  I  met  courteous,  gracious,  and  re- 
fined wcrnien.  Only  in  Spruce  Alley  and  Parke  Row  did  1  find  disorder  and 
a  general  indifference  to  dirt,  and  there  were  some  exceptions  even  there. 
The  hopelessness  of  keeping  clean  in  such  a  location  may  have  had  som^ 
thing  to  do  with  these  conditions. 

Compared  with  certain  of  the  foreigners,  the  Negroes  do  not  over- 
crowd their  houses,  but  they  do  often  shelter  too  many  people  for  comfort 
or  decency.  I  visited  a  house  of  three  rooms  where  a  man  and  a  wife,  live 
diildren,  and  a  boarder  were  living.  I  n  another  house,  also  of  three  rooms, 
there  were  a  man  and  his  wife,  her  mother,  two  children  and  a  lodger. 
These  I  think  are  not  unusual  cases.  I  also  found  a  family  of  ten  in  four 
i«xns,  and  another  family  of  seven  and  a  boarder  in  three  rooms.  Where 
a  house  of  four  rooms  is  taken  by  two  families,  they  do  not  often  take 
lodgers,  but  if  one  family  takes  such  a  house  it  usually  can  not  meet  the 
expense  alone.  What  is  more  serious  than  the  number  of  people  in  a  house 
is  the  carelessness  in  allowing  young  girts  to  sleep  in  the  same  room  with 
men  lodgers.  Such  a  case  was  that  reported  by  a  probation  officer  of  the 
juvenile  court,  of  a  girl  of  fifteen  who  slept  in  the  same  room  with  her 
father,  two  brothers,  and  a  lodger.  It  was  "nothing,"  she  told  the  court; 
the  man  was  "an  old  friend  of  the  family."  The  suggestion  that  she 
occupy  the  vacant  room  in  the  house  plainly  surprised  her. 

The  low  ebb  of  living  conditions  in  a  Negro  neighborhood  is  illus- 
trated by  Jack's  Run,  a  narrow  deep  ravine  leading  down  to  the  Ohio 
River  between  Bellevue  and  Allegheny."  Here,  during  the  past  six  or 
seven  years,  about  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  colored  people  from  the 
rural  districts  of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  have  found  lodgment. 
Engaged  chiefly  in  domestic  s^vice  and  common  labor,  they  have  settled 
here  because  the  rents  are  cheap.  Mixed  in  with  them  is  a  class  of  low 
whites,  and  the  standards  of  civilization  are  sucked  down  by  immorality 
and  ne^ect,  for  the  run  is  practically  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  world. 
A  missitm  Sunday  school  connected  with  the  white  Presbyterf '■ — *■  ■" 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Bdlevue  has  been  held  there  for  about  five  years.  The  superinteiKlent  of 
this  mission,  who  is  a  colored  man,  has  endeavored  to  reach  the  children 
of  the  run.  As  he  feels  the  Sunday  school  alone  can  not  do  this,  be  is 
working  to  get  a  day  school  there.  To  be  sure,  the  children  are  enrolled 
in  Bdlevue  or  Allegheny,  but  he  says  they  really  do  not  attend.  A  long 
climb  up  the  hills  shuts  them  off,  and  the  white  children  pester  them  when 
they  show  themselves.  It  is  hard  to  know  what  could  be  done  to  better 
the  conditions  in  a  place  like  Jack's  Run,  but  up  to  the  present  time,  with 
the  exceptioi  of  this  one  man,  few  people  have  tried  to  find  out.  The  run 
has  few  visitors,  and  these  are  not  altruists.  "  I  have  seen  a  polttidan 
here,"  the  superintendent  told  me,  "and  an  insurance  collector;  but 
never  a  preacher." 

Twenty  per  cent  of  the  men  follow  manufacturing  and  mechanical 
pursuits.  Because  of  the  abundance  of  work  good  N^ro  mechanics  have 
no  difficulty  in  keeping  busy,  though  they  have  made  little  headway  in 
the  unions.  An  occasional  Negro  is  a  union  member,  as,  for  instance, 
four  or  five  carpenters,  a  few  stone  masons,  and  a  few  plasterers.*  Here 
as  elsewhere,  they  gain  admission  easily  only  to  the  hardest  kinds  of  work. 
The  Negro  hod  carriers  indeed  make  up  the  greater  part  of  the  hod  car* 
Hen'  union.  In  McKeesport  there  are  but  two  white  hod  carriers.  In 
Pittsburgh  and  the  vicinity  there  are  over  a  thousand  colored  hod  carriers. 
The  colored  stationary  engineers  and  firemen  have  a  unitMi  of  their  own, 
the  National  Association  of  Afro-American  Steam  and  Gas  Engineers  and 
Skilled  Laborers,  incorporated  June,  1903.  It  was  once  a  part  of  a  white 
organization.  It  has  three  locals  in  Pittsburgh  and  it  has  been  allied  with 
other  labor  organizations  and  represented  in  central  labor  bodies,  but  it 
is  yet  rather  weak.  Three  or  four  colored  contractors  hire  plasterers  and 
masons. 

Early  in  the  70's  a  few  colored  men  found  work  in  some  of  the  mills. 
One  of  the  first  to  employ  Negroes  was  the  Black  Diamond  Mill  on  Thirti- 
eth Street.  There  were  a  few  here  before  1878.  In  that  year,  throu^  t 
strike,  Negro  puddlers  were  put  in,  and  since  then  the  force  of  puddlers  has 
been  made  up  largely  of  Negroes.  About  the  same  time  Negroes  were 
taken  into  the  MoOThead  Mill  at  Sharpsburg,  and  also,  through  a  strike, 
Negroes  got  into  the  Clark  Mills  on  Thirty-fifth  Street.  Since  1893,  there 
have  been  Negroes  in  the  Carnegie  Mills  at  Homestead.  It  is  the  pit- 
vailing  impression  that  numbers  of  Negro  strike  breakers  were  imported 
at  the  time  of  the  "big  strike,"  but  I  have  been  told  by  an  ofTicial  of  the 
Carnegie  company,  by  a  leading  colored  resident  (rf  Homestead,  and  by  a 


428 


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THE  NEGROES  OF   PITTSBURGH 

Negro  who  went  to  work  in  the  Homestead  Mills  in  1893,  that  this  was 
not  so.  Word  was  given  out  that  anyone  could  tind  work  who  would 
come,  the  Negroes  with  the  rest.  N^roes  were  brought  up  from  the 
South  at  this  time  to  take  the  place  of  strikers  in  the  Clark  Mills.  .  .  * 
Unquestionably  Negro  strike  breakers  have  been  brought  to  Pittsburg 
but  I  judge  not  in  any  large  numben.  When  the  mills  were  last  running 
full  there  were  about  lao  Negroes  at  the  Qark  Mills,  136  at  Homestead, 
and  about  too  in  the  other  mills  of  the  Carnegie  company,  making  in  all 
the  Carnegie  works  346  colored  men.  A  conservative  estimate  would 
put  those  at  the  Black  Diamond  and  Moorhead  mills  as  at  least  300 
more.  Many  of  these  mill  men  are  unskilled,  but  at  the  Oark  Mills  two- 
thirds,  and  at  Homestead  nearly  half  are  skilled  or  semi-skilled.  It  is 
possible  for  a  man  of  ability  to  work  up  to  a  good  position. 

A  small  but  increasing  number  of  N^roes  are  on  the  city's  payroll. 
On  the  date  of  my  inquiry  there  were  in  the  employ  of  the  city  of  Pitts- 
burgh, 137  persons  of  Afro-American  descent,  or  one  out  of  every  3)7  of 
the  Negro  population,  while  a  total  of  63$  directly  profited  by  the  991,943 
paid  annually  in  salaries  to  colored  persons.  These  city  employes  include 
laborers,  messengers,  janitors,  pd icemen,  detectives,  firemen,  letter 
carriers,  and  postal  clerks,  and  their  salaries  range  from  }j$o  to  f  i.joo  a 
year. 

The  first  Negroes  to  set  up  establishments  of  their  own,  dating 
back  twenty  years  and  more,  were  the  barbers  and  hairdressers.  For- 
merly these  had  much  of  the  white  patronage,  but  they  are  gradually 
losing  it.  With  a  few  exceptions,  notably  the  Negro  barber  in  the  Union 
Station,  their  shops  are  now  found  on  Wylie  Avenue  and  in  other  Negro 
localities,  and  are  patronized  by  Negroes. 

The  eight  business  enterprises  listed  under  "  miscellaneous"  include 
an  insurance  company,  a  stationery  and  bookstore,  a  men's  furnishing  store, 
a  photographer's  gallery,  a  real  estate  company,  a  loan  company,  a  shoe 
store  and  repairing  shop,  and  a  manufactory  of  a  hair-growing  preparation, 
which  has  sent  out  6;  agents.  The  insurance  company  has  aS  agents, 
all  of  whom  are  ccAored.  Several  of  the  barbers  have  laundry  agencies 
and  bo<M>blacking  stands,  and  some  have  baths.  There  are  at  least  a 
dozen  men  who  own  their  horses  and  wagons  and  take  contracts  for  hauling 
and  excavating.  One  of  the  largest  of  these  Negro  contractors  was  em- 
phiying  13$  men.  Another  employs  30  men  for  hauling,  and  also  works 
too  to  300  men  on  asphalt  paving.    There  are  many  more  men  who  own 


Pittsburgh  Survey.) 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

a  horse  or  two  and  do  general  expressing.  One  of  these  told  me  that  he 
spent  his  lirst  ^ijo  saved  after  coining  to  Pittsburgh  for  a  horse,  which 
left  him  with  a  capital  of  75  cents.  He  now  owns  four  horses.  A  Negro 
has  had  one  of  the  stalls  in  the  Allegheny  market  for  many  years,  and 
there  is  another  in  the  Diamond  market. 

A  partial  list  of  Negro  business  enterprises,*  with  the  number  em- 
ployed is  as  follows: 


No.  of 
Firms 

PtTunt 

Barbers 

Rcstaunnis  and  hotels 

Grocerio,  poultry,  etc 

30 

'a 

1 

3 
4 
3 
3 

1 

9 

1 

Hauling  and  excavating 

Saloons  aod  cafes  . 

Printers 

170 
1 

Confectioners  and  bakeries 

Cateren 

Miscellaneous 

M 
6lo4 

lO} 

ss 

5'7^J4« 

One  of  the  niost  successful  Negro  business  men  lives  in  Homestead. 
As  a  small  boy  he  moved  from  Virginia  to  Ohio,  and  came  to  Homestead 
in  1879.  Up  to  1890  he  was  an  engineer  on  the  river,  the  only  Negro  to 
hold  a  chief  engineer's  license.  Then  he  went  into  boat  building  and  built 
3 1  river  steamboats.  Five  years  ago  he  organized  the  Diamond  Coke  and 
Coal  Company,  in  which  he  is  now  master  of  transportation.  There  are 
10  men  in  this  company;  the  others  arc  white.  They  own  a  mine,  docks, 
and  steamboats,  and  employ  about  a  thousand  men.  This  cdored  man 
owns  considerable  property.  He  lives  in  a  large  comfortable  bouse  and 
owns  one  on  either  side  which  he  rents.  His  older  son  entered  Penn  Med- 
ical School  last  fall.  His  younger  son  was  captain  of  the  Homestead  Hi^ 
School  football  team.  His  daughter,  who  graduated  from  the  high  school 
and  had  an  additional  three  years  at  the  California  Normal  School,  is 
teaching  in  the  South.    She  could  not  get  a  school  in  Homestead. 


n  Pennsylvania,  for  the  Carrtegie 


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THE  NEGROES  OF   PITTSBURGH 

It  is  noticeable  that  the  Pittsburgh  Negroes  show  an  encouraging 
variety  in  their  independent  business  enterprises  as  well  as  in  their  general 
occupations.  Of  course,  they  have  usually  been  able  to  go  into  only  those 
that  require  small  capital.  The  Negro  who  comes  to  Pittsburgh  or  any 
northern  city  with  no  capital,  no  business  experience,  and  no  business 
traditions,  and  succeeds  even  in  a  small  way  in  the  midst  of  such  competi- 
tion as  he  must  face,  is  doing  remarkably  well. 

But  the  mass  of  the  Negroes  in  Pittsburgh  are  found  in  the  same 
occupations  that  are  t^n  to  them  in  most  northern  cities,  with  perhaps 
fewer  men  ($8  per  cent)  and  rather  more  wcmien  (90  per  cent)  in  domestic 
and  penonal  service,  and  more  men  in  manufaauring  and  mechanical 
pursuits  than  is  usual.  This  shifting  of  the  men's  activities  is  due  to  the 
nature  of  the  industries  in  Pittsburgh,  to  the  fact  that  the  city  is  rapidly 
growing,  and  consequently  that  there  is  much  building  going  on  in  which 
labor  can  be  utilized,  and  to  the  fact  that  Negroes  gained  a  foothold  in 
some  of  the  mills  during  the  strike  periods.  While  the  largest  and  best 
hotels  no  longer  have  colored  waiters,  many  are  still  employed  in  hotels, 
restaurants,  and  cafes.  Comparatively  few  Negroes  are  employed  as 
poners  and  helpers  in  stores,  while  large  numbers  are  employed  as  team- 
sten,  probably  more  now  than  in  1900,  as  most  of  the  sand  wagons  and 
other  hauling  carts  are  driven  by  them.  There  are  also  many  coachmen 
and  chauffeurs. 

While  the  Negro  men  find  a  varied  field  for  their  labor,  compara- 
tively few  occupations  are  open  to  colored  women.  There  is  one  woman 
who  has  conducted  a  very  successful  hairdressing  establishment  for  twenty 
years,  and  a  half  dozen  others  have  opened  little  shops.  A  dozen  or  so 
find  work  as  clerks  and  stenographers  in  offices  and  stores  of  colored  men, 
but  most  are  working  as  maids  or  laundresses.  There  are  about  a  hun- 
dred dressmakers  and  seamstresses.  That  there  is  not  a  greater  variety 
of  openings  for  colored  W(»nen  works  a  great  hardship. 

In  1900  the  Negroes  of  Allegheny  County  paid  taxes  on  property 
valued  at  ^),ooo.  Since  that  time  wage-earning  Negroes  have  com- 
menced to  buy  homes  in  still  larger  numbers.  They  usually  pay  some- 
thing down  and  the  rest  as  rent  until  the  entire  sum  is  paid.  In 
Beltzhoover  there  is  a  settlement  of  a  hundred  or  more  families  more  than 
half  of  whom  are  buying  homes.  To  buy  a  house  of  any  kind  on  small 
wages  means  industry  and  many  little  sacrifices.  One  couple  whom  1 
visited  in  Beltzhoover  were  buying  a  house  of  five  rooms  with  a  piazza 
and  a  generous  sized  frcHit  yard.  The  husband,  when  he  was  married,  had 
saved  ^00,  which  went  for  the  first  payment.  In  the  four  years  since 
then  they  had  paid  $800  and  they  had  |i,ooo  more  to  pay.    He  was  a 

43" 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

janitor  getting  (48  a  month,  while  his  wife  made  f6.oo  a  week  as  a  seam- 
stress. To  increase  their  income,  they  rented  out  a  room  to  a  man  and 
his  wire  who  paid  them  }io  a  month.  They  also  raised  and  sold  chickens 
which  brought  in  additional  money.  Most  of  the  houses  which  colored 
people  of  this  class  are  buying  are  valued  at  from  fa,;oo  to  $3,300.  On 
Francb  Street,  near  Wylie  Avenue,  there  is  a  group  of  five  stx-room 
houses  occupied  by  Negroes.  Three  of  these  families  were  buying  their 
houses.  One  of  the  men  was  a  waiter,  one  a  porter  in  a  bank,  and  one 
owned  a  horse  and  wagon  and  did  expressing. 

The  following  experience,  told  me  by  a  Tuskegee  graduate,  u  an 
eiumple  of  what  may  be  done  in  Pittsburgh  by  an  industrious  Negro  who 
is  ambitious  to  establish  a  home:  "I  came  to  Pittsburgh  in  March,  1900," 
he  said,  "on  a  freight  train,  arriving  about  3  a.  m.  I  asked  for  the  police 
station,  but  they  wouldn't  let  me  stay  there  when  they  found  1  had  jo 
cents  in  my  pocket.  1  was  turned  up  Wylie  Avenue  and  finally  came  to  a 
colored  lodging  house.  All  the  beds  were  full,  but  they  said  that  I  could 
sit  in  the  rocking  chair  for  the  balance  of  the  night  for  a  quarter.  The 
next  morning  I  started  out  to  look  for  work  and  found  it  in  a  brick  yard 
where  I  worked  until  August.  Meanwhile  1  sent  for  my  wife  and  child. 
My  wife,  who  is  a  dressmaker,  soon  found  work.  She  happened  to  sew 
for  the  wife  of  the  manager  of  one  of  the  steel  mills.  He  asked  about  me 
and  said  he  thou^t  he  could  give  me  something  good  in  the  mill.  I  went 
there  in  August  and  have  been  there  ever  since.  Now  I  am  a  heater.  All 
you  see  here  was  gotten  tc^ether  in  the  last  seven  years. "  This  man  and 
his  wife  have  paid  $4400  for  a  six-room  house  and  have  furnished  it 
attractively. 

The  churches  have  the  same  prominent  place  in  Negro  life  in  Pitts- 
burgh as  elsewhere.  They  include  one  Presbyterian,  one  Protestant 
Episcopal,  one  Congregational,  one  Roman  Catholic  church,  ten  Methodist 
churches  and  between  thirty  and  thirty-five  Baptist  churches  and  missions. 
The  largest  is  the  Bethel  A.  M.  E.  church  on  Wylie  Avenue,  which  has 
recently  been  built  at  a  cost  of  $50,000.  Colored  slaters  and  roofers, 
colored  plasterers,  and  three  colored  carpenters  were  employed  in  the 
building  of  it.  The  interior  decorations  were  in  charge  of  a  Negro  firm. 
The  building,  together  with  the  land,  is  valued  at  not  less  than  $1  io,ooa 
The  people  give  liberally  to  the  churches;  Bethd  raised  over  |io,ooo  in 
ten  months  toward  paying  off  its  mortgage. 

But  there  is  a  large  number  not  reached  by  the  church  in  any  real 
sense.  Though  the  new  Bethel  church  is  in  a  district  where  the  alleys  and 
all  the  bad  conditions  they  imply  are  numerous,  the  pastor's  plans  for 
the  year  as  he  outlined  th«n  were:  first,  to  pay  the  debt  on  the  church, 

432 


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THE  NEGROES  OF   PITTSBURGH 

second,  to  have  a  revival  to  fill  it  up.  Not  a  word  was  said  of  the  great 
need  for  active  social  work  at  its  very  doors.  The  rank  and  file  of  the 
forty  or  fifty  Negro  ministers  in  Pittsburgh  and  Allegheny  have  not  a  very 
high  order  of  equipment  or  ethics.  There  are  notable  enceptions.  I  met 
one  minister  who  seemed  filled  with  the  desire  to  work  for  the  betterment 
of  the  Negroes  of  his  neighborhood.  In  connection  with  the  new  church 
which  he  was  building  he  was  planning  to  have  a  day  nursery  and  kinder- 
garten and,  if  possible,  a  gymnasium.  He  hoped  to  have  a  deaconess  to 
visit  the  homes  and  was  also  trying  to  organize  a  colored  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association.  At  a  meeting  last  fall  in  his  church,  the  fcJlowing 
subjects  were  discussed: 

"What  is  the  influence  of  the  Sunday  school  on  the  children?" 

"  Is  the  church  acc<Hnplishing  the  desired  end  toward  the  masses?" 

"Practical  education  and  character  making  for  the  masses." 

Some  of  the  laymen  among  the  colored  people,  especially  the 

women,  are  working  in  similar  directions.     In  1880,  in  a  small  six-room 

house,  a  group  of  these  started  a  Hrane  for  Aged  and  Infirm  Colored 

Women.    The  present  beautiful  home  on  Lexington  Avenue  was  built 

in  1900  at  a  cost  of  $42,ioa.    It  contains  31  rooms,  six  bathrooms,  and  a 

hospital  room.    The  furnishings  cost  about  yaS.ooo.    Several  rooms  were 

furnished  by  the  different  Negro  women's  social  clubs.    The  home  is 

attractive,  cheery,  clean,  and  well  managed.    The  WtH-king  Girls'  Home 

was  similariy  started  three  years  ago  by  some  colored  wnnen  who  realized 

how  much  it  was  needed.    Girls  coming  to  the  city  not  only  found  it 

difficult  to  get  boarding  places,  but  they  were  sometimes  directed  to 

undesirable  bouses. 

The  State  Federation  of  Odored  Women's  Oubs,  formed  five  years 
ago,  is  raising  money  to  establbh  a  colored  orphan's  home  in  New  Castle, 

Pennsylvania A  colored  auxiliary  to  the  Juvenile  Court 

Association  was  formed  in  1906  to  care  for  colored  boys  and  girls  between 
nine  and  twelve  years  of  age  who  are  brought  to  the  court.  The  auxiliary 
also  pays  board  for  a  group  of  cdored  children  who  are  in  institutions  out- 
side the  state.  One  member  is  a  faithful  vcdunteer  at  the  juvenile  court. 
More  than  twenty-five  social  clubs  are  formed  of  ccdored  women. 
The  leading  social  organization  for  men  is  the  Loendi  Qub.  Besides  this 
and  other  private  associations  there  are  many  such  orders  as  the  Odd 
Fellows,  Masons,  Elks,  Knights  of  Pythias,  and  True  Reformers. 

Since  1874,  when  separate  schools  for  Negroes  were  abolished,  the 
adored  children  have  attended  the  public  schools  with  the  white  children, 
and  all  the  educational  agencies  of  the  city  are  open  to  them.  I  was  told 
that  while  a  few  stood  well  in  their  classes,  the  majority  lacked  concen- 

»»'  433 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

tration.  One  principal  attributed  this  to  the  impoverished  hone  con- 
ditions, Uck  of  food  and  housing;  while  another  principal  to  whose  school 
came  many  of  the  children  from  the  alleys,  laid  their  backwardness  largdy 
to  their  irregular  attendance  and  immoral  tendencies.  It  was  agreed 
that  the  average  colored  child  required  about  two  years  Iraiger  than  the 
white  child  to  finish  the  grammar  grades 

In  writing  of  the  Negroes  of  Chicago,  Mr.  Wright  says  "Wlul 
Chicago  Negroes  need  is  a  great  industrial  school  to  teach  Negroes  do- 
mestic science  and  the  skilled  trades."  Greater  Pittsburgh  has  a  school 
that  should  do  this  work.  As  early  as  1849,  Charles  Avery,  a  Methodid 
minister  of  Quaker  descent,  who  was  much  interested  in  the  colored  people 
established  for  them  in  Allegheny  the  Avery  College  Trade  School.  M 
his  death  he  left  the  institution  an  endowment  of  96o,ooo  which  has  since 
increased  in  value,  and  it  has  also  received  a  yearly  appropriation  from  the 
state.  The  school  is  controlled  by  a  board  of  trustees,  of  whom  six  are 
colored,  three  white.  The  principal  and  teachers  are  colored.  The 
courses  which  have  been  offered  include  millinery,  dressmaking,  uiloring, 
music,  some  English  courses,  and  s<Hne  domestic  science.  Last  spring, 
a  hospital  department  was  organized  under  separate  charter  and  offen  a 
training  course. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Avery  schocd  is  not  fulfilling  the  purpose 
for  which  it  was  founded.  It  is  inferior  in  equipment  and  in  methods  and 
does  not  employ  trained  teachers.  It  is  not  reaching  the  colored  boys  and 
giris  of  Pittsburgh  and  giving  them  the  up-to-date  training  which  they  so 
sorely  need  in  those  trades  in  which  they  can  earn  a  livelihood.  It  shouM 
be  crowded  and  would  be  if  it  were  offering  what  the  people  want.  In- 
stead, the  enrollment  at  the  end  of  the  school  year  is  about  one-third 
what  it  was  at  the  beginning.  There  is  no  difficulty  in  placing  respoon- 
bility  for  success  or  failure,  for  the  superintendent  is  also  secretary  and 
treasurer.  The  colored  people  have  brought  many  complaints  to  the 
trustees  in  regard  to  the  management  of  Avery  but  no  action  has  been 
taken.    Here  is  a  clear  cut  illustration  of  a  badly  managed  trust  fund.* 

*  The  lituatioo  hisnot  materially  changed  in  five  years.  In  191),  thele^ 
lature  discontinued  in  appropriation.  Lait  September,  the  institution  begu 
its  school  year  with  an  enrollment  of  140.  It  closed  the  year  with  a  daily  tvengi 
of  til  during  the  month  of  June.  The  same  superintendent  continues  u  secitti:; 
and  treasurer  of  the  board,  which  is  composed  of  nine  directors,  six  of  vbom  lit 
colored  and  three  white.  Conditions  In  the  dormitories  were  reported  to  be  de- 
plorable by  an  investigator  who  visited  the  school  in  July,  1914.  There  are  41 
separate  twdrooms  in  the  dormitory,  each  containing  a  little  more  than  enoojli 
Space  for  a  bed  and  a  chair.  In  30  of  these  rooms  entered,  only  one  had  a  window. 
The  general  condition  of  the  whole  institution,  dormitories,  class  rooms,  and  hos- 
pital, was  reported  insanitary. — Editor. 

434 


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THE  NEGROES  OF   PITTSBURGH 

Of  the  1,134  cases  brought  before  the  juvenile  court  in  1906,  168 
(14.9  per  cent)  dealt  with  ccdored  chfldren.  The  court  records  show 
most  miserable  conditions  in  the  home&  from  which  such  children  corner 
Usually  both  mother  and  father  are  working  away  from  bc«ne  all  day,  $0 
that  out  of  school  hours  there  is  no  one  to  look  after  the  diildren.  They 
stop  going  to  school  and  begin  to  stay  out  late  at  night,  and  the  descent 
to  petty  thieving  and  other  offenses  is  swift  and  easy. 

The  percentage  of  commitments  among  the  adult  Negroes  (14  per 
cent)  is  all  out  of  proportion  to  their  percentage  in  the  population  (j.fi). 
Women  are  most  commonly  arrested  for  disorderly  conduct;*  men  for 
fighting  and  cutting,  petit  larceny,  and  for  gambling,  of  which  craps  is  the 
favorite  form.  There  is  much  drunkenness.  For  some  time  the  police 
department  of  Pittsburgh  has  been  warring  against  the  sale  of  cocaine. 
To  the  mind  of  the  warden  of  the  Allegheny  County  jail  the  greatest 
sin^e  cause  of  crime  committed  by  Negro  men  and  women  is  the  use  of 
this  drug. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Negroes  of  Pittsburgh  are  making  commend- 
able pn^rcss  along  industrial  lines.  Some  few  have  been  conspicuously 
successful,  while  many  more  arc  earning  a  comfortable  living  and  attain- 
ing pn^rty.  N^roes  of  this  class  present  no  special  problems,  for  they 
are  usually  good  citizens  and  are  educating  and  training  their  children  to 
be  good  citizens  likewise.  Their  needs  are  the  needs  of  the  rest  of  the 
community.  They  would  be  benefited  by  better  housing,  better  schools, 
better  sanitation,  and  a  clearer  atmosphere.  But  the  problems  in  con- 
nection with  the  poor,  ignorant,  incompetent,  or  vicious  Negroes  are  many 
and  pressing. 

We  have  seen  the  need  for  eradicating  the  sale  of  cocaine,  which 
drags  men  under;  and  we  have  seen  the  need  for  rousing  and  equipping 
the  ambitious  among  them  through  industrial  training,  comparable  to 
that  offered  the  southern  Negro  by  Tuskegee  and  Hampton.  A  few  of  the 
more  obvious  needs  of  the  people  who  live  in  the  alleys  are  day  nurseries 
to  care  for  the  babies  of  mothers  who  must  go  out  to  work;  some  sort  of 
supervised  play  after  school  hours,  either  in  connection  with  the  schools  or 
at  playgrounds;  for  the  older  children  of  these  same  families,  settlements; 
and  most  pressing  of  all,  a  building  on  lower  Wylie  Avenue  for  social 
purposes  with  free  baths,  club  rooms,  a  gymnasium,  and  other  amuse- 
ments as  a  counteracting  influence  to  the  saloons  and  pool  rooms  that 
abound  in  this  neighborhood.  There  ts  now  no  place  in  Pittsburgh  where 
a  young  colored  man,  ccmiing  a  stranger  to  the  city,  as  so  many  are  coming 

*  See  Forbes,  James:  The  Reverse  Side.    P.  35$  of  this  volume. 
435 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

cveiy  year,  may  find  innocent  diversion  and  helpful  companionship.*  It 
is  beccming  increasingly  clear  that  these  needs  must  be  met  by  the  N^toes 
themselves.  A  few,  singly  or  in  small  groups,  are  already  working  fn 
social  bettennent,  but  so  far  there  has  been  no  concerted,  organized  action. 
Left  to  themselves  the  Negroes  are  slow  or  unable  to  organize,  but  until 
they  do.  much  of  their  efforts  as  individuals  will  be  wasted  and  but  little 
definite  good  can  be  accomplished.  If  the  white  people  who  have  had 
greater  experience  in  dealing  with  civic  and  social  needs  realized  this  and 
extended  to  them  their  co-operation,  the  community  as  a  whc^e,  no  kss 
than  the  Negroes,  would  be  richly  repaid. 

*  A  colored  branch  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A,  has  been  opened  in  the  Hill  District. 
In  ^mnasium  and  other  facilities  it  ii  ai  yet  inadequate,  but  the  resktcnce  bidU- 
ing  in  which  it  is  housed  affords  the  nucleus  of  a  promising  social  center.— Editor. 


436 


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APPENDIX  VI 

THE  COST  OF  LIVING  IN  PITTSBURGH  AND  IN  OTHER 
AMERICAN  CITIES  COMPARED,  1909 

In  Pittsburgh  the  cost  of  living  is  high,  not  only  as  compared  with 
the  wages  received  by  the  workers,  but  as  compared  with  the  cost  of 
living  in  other  American  cities.  A  study  of  rents  and  retail  food  prices 
in  certain  cities  in  the  eastern,  central  and  southern  parts  of  the  United 
States  was  made,  in  1909,  by  representatives  of  the  British  Board  of 
Trade.*  The  point  of  view  from  which  rents  and  prices  were  considered 
was  that  of  typical  workingmen's  families.  In  presenting  the  results  of 
this  inquiry  the  Board  of  Trade  compared  the  returns  for  different  cities 
by  means  of  index  numbers.  These  index  numbers  show  rents  or  retail 
food  prices  for  each  city  as  percentages  of  rents  or  retail  prices  in  the 
city  of  New  York.  In  the  tabulation  which  follows  the  series  of  index 
numbers  for  rents  is  given: 


City 

IndtxNum- 

CHj 

liid*xNum- 

htrijot  Am(i 

bertforRaUs 

St.  Louis.       .       .       . 

101 

New  Orieans        .       . 

7> 

Savannah     . 

7' 

NewVofk       .       .       . 

100 

Louisville 
akago  . 

T 
70 

Pimbucgh      .      .      . 

94 

Milwaukee 
Lawrence 

66 
64 

Memphis       .      .      . 

9) 

Oeveiaiid 

6^ 

Oncinnati 

if 

Patenon 

63 

BrocktM        .       .       . 

§ 

BMton     .... 

8^ 

Augusta  . 

Binniiwbam    .       .       . 
Philadapbia   .              . 

81 

Detroit    . 
Fall  River 

J7 

Newark   .... 

Baltimore 

M 

77 

Uwell     . 

$3 

Attanu    .... 

76 

Munde   .            .       . 

44 

*  Cost  of  living  in  American  towns.  Repent  of  an  inquiry  by  the  Board 
of  Trade  into  working  da»  rents,  housing  and  retail  F^ces,  together  with  the  rates 
of  wages  in  certain  occupations  in  the  principal  industrial  towns  of  the  United  States 
of  America. 


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WAGE-EARNING  PITTSBURGH 

It  will  be  noted  that  rents  were  higher  in  Pittsburgh  than  in  any 
of  the  other  cities  included  in  the  Board  of  Trade's  study  except  New 
York  and  St.  Loub. 

The  index  numbers  for  retail  food  prices  are  given  in  the  table 
which  follows: 


Imdtx 

Itidtx 

cay 

N»mb*rt 
FoodPrie4t 

at. 

Nmmitri 

AiUdu    .... 

IS 

New  York      .       .       . 

100 

Newark   .... 

Paterwn 

100 

Brockton 

106 

Oevdand       .       .       . 

99 

BoMon     .... 

IO{ 

Louisville       .       .       . 

H 

Lawrence 

lOJ 

MuDde   .... 

Savannah 

104 

St.  Louis        .       .       . 

97 

AugusU  .... 

lOJ 

Providence     .       .       . 

97 

Baltimore       .       .       . 

% 

Philadelphia  . 

Duluth    .... 

96 

MioneapoIi^I  Paul     . 

95 

UweU     .... 

Chicago  .... 

94 

Fall  River       .       .       . 

Mih^kee     .       .       . 

9) 

N^^uns  '. 

101 

andnnati      .       .       . 

93 

100 

Detroit    .... 

91 

In  but  seven  of  the  38  cities  for  which  statistics  are  presented  in 
the  table  were  retail  prices  higher  than  in  Piltsbureji.  The  hi{^est 
figure  for  any  city,  that  for  Atlanta,  is  109  and  the  lowest,  that  for  Detroit, 
is  91.  The  relative  figure  for  Pittsburgh  is  102.  This  figure  is  higher 
than  the  figures  for  the  large  cities  New  York,  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  St. 
Louis,  Qeveland,  Baltimore,  Cincinnati,  Detroit,  and  Milwaukee.  Of 
the  cities  for  which  the  relative  figure  is  higher  than  for  Pittsburgh  thne, 
Atlanta,  Savannah,  and  Augusta,  are  southern  cities. 

The  index  numbers  of  the  table  on  the  following  page  represent 
rents  and  retail  food  prices  combined. 


438 


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COST  OF   LIVING  COMPARED 


ImUx 

/•tdM 

NuwAtftjM 

Nuwhtrifor 

ca. 

RtiOiand 

cay 

RMUand 

Rami  Food 

RtUttlFooi 

PriasCom- 

Priai  Com- 

Hmtd 

bintd 

Atlanta    .... 

101 

ancinnati      .       .       . 

91 

Brockton 

Uuisville       .       .       . 

9> 

New  York       .       .       . 

100 

Augusta  .... 
Philadelphia  .       .       . 

9» 

91 

91 

Pittibtirgh      .       .       . 

Pateraon 

9' 

Cleveland        .        .        . 

90 

Boaton     .... 

99 

Fall  River      .       .       . 

9° 

MemphU.       .       .       . 

99 

Lowell     .... 

S 

Newark   .... 

P 

S3fc,  :   : 

St.  Louis.       .       .       . 

88 

% 

86 

Savannah        .       .       . 

Milwaukee     .       .       . 

86 

Lawrence 

9S 

Muncie    .... 

8} 

NewOrleaoi  .       .       , 

» 

Detroit    .... 

Si 

Of  the  37  cities  included  in  this  table  only  one,  Atlanta,  has  a 
higher  index  for  rents  and  food  prices  than  has  Pittsburgh.  The  figures 
for  Brockton  and  New  York  are  the  same  as  the  figure  for  Pittsburgh. 


■d^yCoogle 


APPENDIX  VII 

ADVANCE    IN  THE   COST  OF   LIVING    IN  WORKING- 
MEN'S  FAMILIES  SINCE  1907 

Wages  in  a  number  of  trades  in  Pittsburgh  have  risen  since  1907. 
The  amount  of  the  advance  in  the  money  wages  of  common  labor  in  the 
steel  milbfrom  190710  1913  has  been  shown.*  In  judging  what  these 
changes  in  wages  have  meant  to  the  wage^imers  it  b  necessary  to  allow 
for  changes  in  the  cost  of  living. 

Retail  prices  are  much  hi^er  today  than  in  1907.  The  course 
(rf  the  retail  prices  of  foods  of  the  sort  consumed  in  workingmen's  families 
is  shown  by  "index  numbers"  compiled  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics.f  An  index  number  is  a  device  for  presenting  statistics  in 
relative  figures:  thus,  prices  for  a  series  of  years  may  be  represented  as 
percentages  of  prices  in  some  one  year  or  of  average  prices  far  a  group  of 
years.  Index  numbers  for  retail  food  prices  are  published  by  the  Bureau 
of  Labor  Statistics  for  the  United  States  as  a  whole  and  for  each  of  the 
principal  geographical  divisions.  The  figures  for  the  United  States, 
for  the  north  Atlantic  states  and  for  the  north  central  states,  for  the 
years  1907-13,  inclusive,  are  given  in  the  following  table: 


Index  numbers  for  the 

UntitdStaUi 

North  AOatOk 
SiaUi 

North  CMtrd 
SUu 

Avenge  for  the  years 
.890-99.  inclurive 

100.0 

,«.. 

loao 

:^ 

1909 

1910 
1911 
1913 
19IJ 

I3J.9 

IJO-I 
137.3 
144.1 
•4).o 

IS:? 

iji.a 
I3S.3 

iji.j 
IJ9-I 
1470 

iil 

'SeeCommoiu,  John  R.:Wage-eamen  of  Pittsburgh.  P.  119  of  this  volume, 
t  Bulletins  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.    Retail  Piico 
and  OM  of  Living  Series;  No.  13,  pp.  11  and  if. 
440 


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THE  ADVANCE  IN  COST  OF   LIVING 

The  relative  figures  of  each  senes  presented  in  the  table  show 
retail  food  prices  in  the  years  1907-1 3  inclusive,  as  percentages  of  average 
prices  for  the  years  1890-99  inclusive,  in  the  territory  to  which  the  series 
relates.  It  will  be  seen  that,  from  1907  to  1913,  prices  advanced  in  the 
country  as  a  whole  from  [3$.9  to  163-4,  ■><  ^^^  north  Atlantic  states  from 
123.9  to  156.3,  and  in  the  north  central  states  from  136.0  to  167.8. 
These  figures  indicate  an  advance  in  prices,  during  the  period  of  six  years, 
of  30  per  cent  for  the  United  States  as  a  whole,  of  36  per  cent  for  the  north 
Atlantic  states,  and  of  33  per  cent  for  the  north  central  states. 

While  Pennsylvania  is  counted,  in  most  statistical  classifications, 
as  one  of  the  north  Atlantic  states,  the  city  of  Pittsburgh  has,  in  its  loca- 
tion  with  respect  to  markets  and  sources  of  food  supply,  more  points  of 
resemblance  to  the  cities  of  the  middle  west  than  to  those  of  the  north 
Atlantic  seaboard.  This  is  significant  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  rate  of 
increase  in  retail  food  prices  has  been  appreciably  higher  in  the  north 
central  states  than  in  the  north  Atlantic  states. 

The  cost  of  food  is  but  one  of  the  factors  that  determine  the  cost  of 
living.  In  workingmen's  families  it  is,  however,  the  most  important 
factor.  A  larger  proportion  of  the  total  income  is  spent  for  food  by 
families  having  small  incomes  than  by  families  more  comfortably  situated. 


■d^yCoogle 


APPENDIX  VIII 

STATISTICS  FROM  PITTSBURGH  INDUSTRIAL  DEVEL- 
OPMENT COMMISSION 

Using  the  census  of  1910  as  a  basis,  the  Pittsburgh  Industrial  De- 
velopment Commission  has  put  out  a  series  of  pamphlets  setting  forth 
the  claims  of  Pittsburgh  as  an  industrial  center.  The  census  bureau  re- 
compiled its  1910  figures  to  show  the  peculation  and  manufactures  for  a 
temtoty  with  a  ten  miles'  radius  for  each  of  the  larger  industrial  centers. 
This  recapitulatbn  gives  the  population  of  the  Pittsburgh  metroptditaa 
distria  as  1,042,85;,  the  fifth  such  district  in  point  of  numbers  in  the 
country.  New  York,  Chicago,  Philadelphia,  and  Boston  only  outranking  it. 
The  following  table  from  the  same  source  shows  the  number  of  establish- 
ments,  capital,  wage-earners,  wages,  and  value  of  products  of  the  industries 
employing  5,000  men  or  over  within  the  Pittsburgh  metropolitan  district: 


Induilrm 

menis 

Capibd 

Avtragi 
Nnmin 

ToLdpaid 
in  lfif» 

ProJmtts 

District  total   ,       . 

Can    and    general 
shop  construction 
and    repain    by 
steam       railroad 
companies    . 

16 

»64>.Sa7.<M6 
8,684,83a 

9.4J8 

»90.nS.843 
6.6os,68i 

JS78.8 15.493 
16.804^ 

Electrical     machin- 

ery,      apparatui 
and  supplies.       . 

.8 

48.184,808 

8,030 

4.760,067 

20,a6o,i6j 

Foundry    and    ma- 
chine-shop   prod- 

ai8 

70.s8j.1a8 

18.454 

13,780,153 

53,4  ".013 

Glass        .       .       . 

37 

ao.79S.<M3 

6.943 

3,648.95" 

8,765,900 

Iron  and  steel  blast 
furnaces 

'} 

100.116,10$ 

S.0S 

4.317.097 

8S.584JJS 

Iron  and  steel,  steel 
works  and  rolling 

$4 

aj4.689.014 

JMS6 

35.935^8 

337.i8fto77 

.d,Google 


APPENDIX  IX 

INDUSTRIAL  ACCIDENTS  IN  PENNSYLVANIA 

Figures  drawn  from  annual  reports  Department  of  Factory  Inspection* 
State  of  Pennsylvania,  1903-12 

Faltil  Acciitnlt  Nott-faitU 

1903 160  8j6 

(367)  (3,406) 

1904 "58  4"7 

190} 161  oaj 

1906 60  844 

(M7)  (3.136) 

'*^ (4?)  A 

1908 114  i,3;6 

1909 147  3,34S 

igio 188  1,494 

1911 176  a,70i 

1913 ao]  a,866 

Statistics  for  accidents  are  presented  in  such  different  ways  in  the 
different  reports  that  these  figures  may  or  may  not  be  comparable.  Fig- 
ures for  1903  are  for  those  "which  ordinary  prudence  and  a  proper  concern 
for  the  safety  of  employes  might  have  prevented."  Those  for  1906  and 
1907  are  entered  only  as  accidents  "over  which  this  department  has 
jurisdiction."  The  figures  in  parentheses  for  these  years  include  all 
accidents  reported  to  the  department;  whether  the  figures  for  other  years 
are  or  are  not  inclusive  does  not  appear. 

The  classification  as  to  seriousness  of  injury  varies  in  different 
reports,  and  in  the  above  all  non-fatal  accidents  are  lumped  together  as 
such.  For  the  first  time,  the  1910  report  carried  a  table  of  accidents 
classified  by  cause  and  nature  of  injury;  but  not  by  industries  or  counties, 
nor  whether  they  befell  men,  women, or  childreniin  igii  there  was  another 
and  more  meager  classification;  in  1913  a  third  kind.f 

An  act  of  July,  1913,  requires  (under  penally  of  |ioo)  all  employers  to 
make  report  of  accidents  to  employes  to  the  new  Department  of  Labor 
and  Industry,  settmg  forth  "the  name,  address,  and  nature  of  the  business 
of  the  employer;  name,  address,  sex,  age,  nationality,  and  occupation  of 
the  employe;  date,  day  of  week,  hour,  place,  and  character  of  the  accident, 
and  the  nature  of  the  injury,  and  the  duration  (rf  the  disability,  or  prob- 
able disability,  as  far  as  the  same  can  be  ascertained.  Such  employer 
shall,  also,  upon  request  of  the  Department  of  Labor  and  Industry,  make 
such  further  report  as  may  reasonably  be  required  by  it. " 

*  Kelley,  Florence:  Factory  Inspection  in  Pittsburgh.  P.  197  of  this  volume. 

tSee  Eastman,  Crystal:  Work-Accidents  and  the  Law,  p.  in.  (The 
Pittsburgh  Survey.) 

443 


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APPENDIX   X 

PUBLIC  REPLY  FROM  THE   STATE  FACTORY 
INSPECTOR 

A  large  part  of  the  material  incorporated  in  Mrs.  Kdley's 
report  was  published  in  Charities  and  The  Commons,  March  6, 1909. 
As  a  public  reply  the  following  letter  was  given  to  the  press  nine 
months  later  by  the  chief  factory  inspector: 

Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  Dec  1;,  1909. 
Mr.  J.  C  Ddaney, 
Chief  Factory  Inspector, 
Harrisburg,  Pa. 
Dear  Sir: — 

Having  carefully  audited  my  report  cards  and  reviewed  "Re- 
marks" on  same,  I  would  respectfully  submit  for  your  consideratim  the 
ftdlowing  observations  and  deductions.  I  find  in  the  464  factories  and 
mills  visited  an  average  of  90  per  cent  good  as  against  a  perfect  plant 
The  general  conditions  throughout  were  very  satisfactory.  Safety  ap- 
pliances were  carefully  looked  after  and  the  sanitary  conditions  as  regards 
ventilation,  toilets,  dressing  rooms,  and  dining  rooms  were  especially  good 
in  our  larger  factories  and  mills.  The  employes,  both  females  and  minots, 
arenot  oppressed  and  seem  very  contented  with  their  duties.  In  the^ass 
factories,  and  where  the  greatest  number  of  children  are  employed,  the 
firms  are  careful  as  to  securing  affidavits  and  conform  to  the  requirement! 
of  the  law  as  to  hours,  literacy,  and  so  forth.  In  the  reports  where  no 
affidavits  have  been  found  fifteen  were  employed  to  deliver  papers  and  cir- 
culars after  schod  hours,  others  had  been  recently  employed,  claiming  their 
afRdavits  were  with  former  employers,  some  few  through  carelessness  hid 
not  been  asked  to  supply  them.  In  176  bakeries  the  average  was  7$  per 
cent  good.  Of  course,  the  larger  and  more  modem  shops  are  practically 
perfect,  the  low  percentage  applying  mainly  to  the  foreign  shops  and  those 
conducted  in  cellars  where  light  and  ventilation  are  usually  poor.  In  some 
of  these  places  I  have  found  some  very  objectionable  features.  In  places 
where  permits  were  not  found  some  had  been  issued,  but  through  cardess- 


■d^yCoogle 


REPLY   FROM   STATE   FACTORY   INSPECTOR 

ness  or  lack  of  knowledge  as  to  the  importance  of  them  had  been  mislaid 
or  lost  entirely. 

The  larger  and  higher  class  factories  manufacturing  cigars  are  very 
good.  Some  in  old  buildings  manufacturing  cheap  grade  are  not  up  to 
the  standard.  E>epartment  stores,  hospitals,  and  homes  are  very  good  as 
far  as  I  have  inspected,  also  the  laundries  and  dairies;  one  of  the  latter 
when  improvements  are  completed  along  hygienic  lines  will  be  ideal  of  its 
kind. 

I  have  found  the  blanks  overlooked  in  many  cases,  in  some  places 
no  instructions  as  to  the  printed  matter  required  by  factory  law  having 
been  given.  1  would  particularly  mention  the  accident  card,  and  the 
poster  for  employes  under  sixteen  years  of  age;  more  attention  should  be 
given  to  its  revision.  I  trust  this  will  prove  a  satisfactory  summaiy  of 
my  six  months'  services. 

Very  truly  yours, 

(Signed)  Margaret  A.  Winans. 


APPOINTMENTS  UNDER  THE  ACT  CREATING  A  DEPARTMENT  OF 
LABOR  AND  INDUSTRY,  191).    See  P.  +16 

Governor  Tener  appcuntecl  is  cominiMioiier  John  Price  Jicluon,  dean  of 
the  engineering  school  of  the  state  college.  Dr.  Jackson  selected  as  chief  factoiy 
inspector  L.  R.  Palmer,  an  electrical  engineer  in  charge  of  the  new  safety  work  of 
the  Jones  and  Laii^lin  Steel  Company,  and  originator  of  the  National  Council  of 
Indiislrial  Safety. 

In  January,  1914,  Governor  Tener  appointed  to  the  industrial  board,  with 
Commissioner  Jacluon  as  chairman,  Mrs.  Samuel  Semple.  president  of  the  State 
Federation  of  Pennsylvania  Women;  George  S.  Comstock,  past  president  of  the 
Engineers  Society  of  Pennsylvania;  Frank  S.  Cronin,  president  of  the  Philadelphia 
Central  Labor  Union,  and  George  W.  McCandless.  Mr.  McCandless  retired  and 
Major  John  P.  Wood,  wool  manufacturer  and  vice-president  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Manufacturer'  Association,  was  put  in  his  place— to  make  good,  it  is  stated,  the 

Sveraor's  promise  that  one  member  of  the  board  would  represent  the  association, 
r.  Wood  IS  identified  with  the  interests  which  defeated  the  child  labor  law  before 


It  of  District  No.  5,  United  Mine  Workers 
of  America,  was  appointed  supervising  inspector,  with  headquarters  at  Httiburrii, 
in  the  fall  of  1913.  OtTices  were  opened,  but  under  the  appropriation  available, 
the  inspection  force  has  to  date  Qaly,  1914)  been  limited  to  Sve  men  and  two 
women,  without  laboratory  equipment  or  adequate  clerical  force.  In  addition  to 
routine  inspections,  five  industries  have  been  made  the  subject  of  special  Investi- 
gation*— bakeries,  the  tobacco  workrooms,  foundries,  hotels,  and  mattress  fac- 
tories. Eighty  prosecutions  were  entered  in  the  first  three  months  and  orders 
issued  to  every  foundry  in  the  District  to  install  washrooms  and  toilets  uiuler  an 
act  of  191 1,  hitherto  unenforced. 

445 


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APPENDIX   XI 

AN  ACT  CREATING  A  DEPARTMENT  OF  LABOR  AND 
INDUSTRY.  1913' 

CfMtinf  a  DtfatUfunl  of  Labor  ami  Industry:     ....    titaKitbing  an  Inita- 

trial  Board;    .    .    trtmsftrrint  tb*  partrs  and  dtUits  of  tbt  Departmtnt  «f 

Factory  InipMtion  to  lit  Dtpartmtnt  of  Labor  ond  Iniuttry,  and  ahoUibmt 

lb*  Dtpartmml  of  Factory  Insptdion;     .     .     .     .     Oc. 

Section  i.  Be  ii  enacted,  &c.,  That  there  if  hereby  established  a  Depart* 
ment  of  Ijbor  and  Industry,  the  head  of  which  shall  be  a  Commissioner  of  Labor 
and  Industry,  who  shall  be  appointed  by  the  Governor,  by  and  with  the  OHueiit 
of  the  Senate,  and  who  shall  hold  office  for  the  term  of  four  years  from  the  date  of 
his  appointment,  appoint,  and  may  at  pleasure  remove,  all  officers,  clerks  and  other 
employees  of  the  Department  of  Labor  and  Industry,  except  at  berdn  otherwise 
provided. 

Section  3.  The  Ciinmissioner  of  Labor  and  Industry  shall  forthwith  ap- 
point, upon  enterina  upon  thedutiesofhiloflice,  one  Chief  Inspector  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  and  industry,  and  who  shall,  during  the  absence  or  disability  (rf  the 
Commissioner  of  Labor  and  industry,  possess  all  the  powers  and  perform  all  the 
duties  of  the  said  commissioner,  except  the  power  to  make  appointments,  and  who, 
in  addition  to  his  duties  prescribed  by  this  act,  shall  perform  such  other  duties  and 
possess  such  other  powers  as  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  and  Industry  sitall  pre- 
scribe. 

Section  3.  The  office  force  of  the  department,  excluding  that  (rf  the  difTeicnt 
bureaus  shall  be  a  chief  clerk,  two  copying  clerks,  a  sten(^Tapher  who  shall  be  a 
typewriter,  and  a  messenger. 

Section  4.  The  Department  of  L.abor  and  Industry  shall  be  divided  into 
three  bureaus,  as  follows: — 

I.  Bureau  of  Inspection; 

a.  Bureau  of  Statistics  and  information; 

3.  Bureau  of  Arbitration, — 
together  with  such  other  bureaus  as  the  Commiuioner  of  Labor  and  Induatiy  may 
deem  necessary,  and  shall,  with  the  consent  of  the  Governor,  from  time  to  time, 
establbh. 

Section  j.  The  Commissioner  of  Labor  and  Industry  shall  establish  and 
maintain  branch  offices  in  the  cities  of  Philadelphia  and  Pittsburgh,  and  in  such 
other  cities  of  the  Commonwealth  as  he  may  deem  advisable.  Such  branch  offices 
■hall,  subject  to  the  supervision  and  direction  of  the  Commisskmer  of  Labor  and 
Industry,  be  in  immediate  charge  of  such  officers  or  employees  as  the  said  com- 
missioner may  designate;  and  the  reasonable  and  necessary  expeniei  of  such  offices 
shall  be  paid  as  are  the  other  expenses  of  the  said  Department  of  Labor  and  In- 
dustry. 

Section  6.  The  Attorney  General  shall  have  authority  to  employ,  and  may 
at  pleasure  remove,  an  attomev  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  who  shall 
represent  the  Department  of  Labor  and  Industry,  and  shall  take  charge  of  and 
assist  in  the  prosecution  of  actions  and  proceedings  brought  by  or  on  behalf  of  the 
said  Commissioner,  or  of  the  said  Department,  and  who  shall  act,  geneiajly,  as 
legal  adviser  to  the  said  commissioner.  The  Commissioner  of  L.abor  and  Indusby 
^all  have  further  power  to  employ  attorneys  and  counsellors  at  law,  to  be  desig- 
nated by  the  Attorney  General,  to  assist  the  counsel  in  special  actions  or  pfo> 
ceedinn,  or  generally  m  performance  of  his  duties. 

The  said  Commissioner  of  Labor  and  Industry  may  purchase  such  suppliei 
and  materials  as  may  be  necessary  in  carrying  on  the  work  of  his  department. 
*  For  appointments  under  the  act,  see  preceding  page. 
446 


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DEPARTMENT  OF  LABOR  ACT  OF    I913 

Section  7.  The  Bureau  of  Iiupectioii,  subject  to  the  supervUion  of  the 
ONnmbnooer  of  Labor  and  industry,  shall  have  charge  of  all  iiupcctioiu  made 
punuant  to  the  provUions  of  this  act,  and  thai!  perfonn  nich  other  duties  as  may 
M  assigned  to  it  by  the  Comniissioner  of  Labor  and  Induitty.  The  said  bureau 
shall  be  UDder  tbe  charge  of  the  Chief  Inspector,  hereinabove  provided  for,  subject 

■  ■       -  ■    -        r  and  Industry. 

,      ^.         ,  I,  divided  into   four 

grades,  as  follows:— 

1.  Inspectors  of  the  first  grade, — of  whom  there  may  be  fift)^  in  number, 
and  not  less  than  five  of  whom  shall  be  women,  and  such  additional  inspectors  as 
tiie  commissioner  may  deem  necessary  and  proper  to  appoint,  from  time  to  time. 

a.  Inipectors  of  the  second  grade, — of  whom  there  shall  be  two  in  number, 
and  who  shall  act  as  Supervising  Inspectars,  with  offices  at  the  cities  of  E%ila- 
ddphia  and  Pittsburgh,  respectively. 

3.  inspecloisof  the  third  grade, — of  whom  there  shall  be  two,  one  of  whom 
shall  be  a  woman,  and  both  of  whom  shall  be  physicians,  duly  licensed  to  practice 
medicine  in  Pennsylvania,  and  who  shall  act  as  Medical  Inspectors. 

4.  Inspectors  of  the  fourth  grade, — ofwhom  there  shall  be  four,  one  of  wliom 
shall  be  a  physician,  duly  licensed  to  practice  medicine  in  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  who  shall  be  Chief  Medical  Inspector;  one  of  whom  shall  be  a  mechanical 
enpneer,  and  expert  in  ventilation  and  accident  prevention;  one  of  whom  shall  be 
a  chemical  en^necr;  and  one  of  whom  shall  be  a  civil  engineer,  and  expert  in  lire 
prevention  and  building  construction. 

Section  8.'  The  Commbsioner  of  Labor  and  Industry  shall,  from  time  to 
time,  divide  the  State  into  dbtticts,  and  shall  assign  to  such  districts  such  inspectors 
and  supervising  inspector  as  may,  in  his  judgment,  appear  expedient;  and  shall, 
from  time  to  lime,  assign  and  transfer  such  inspectors  from  one  district  to  any  other 
district,  or  to  special  duty  in  any  bureau  of  the  said  department;  and  may  assign 
an  inspector  to  inspect  any  special  class  of  factories  or  establishments,  and  may 
assign  one  or  more  of  Ihem  to  act  as  clerks  in  any  office  of  the  department. 

The  Commissioner  of  Labor  and  Industry  shall  visit  and  inspect,  or  cause  to 
be  visited  and  inspected,  during  reasonable  hours  and  as  often  as  practicable,  evei^ 
room,  building,  or  place,  where  and  when  any  labor  is  being  performed  which  is 
affected  by  the  provisions  of  any  law  of  this  Commonwealth  or  of  this  act,  and 
sliall  cause  to  be  enforced  therein  the  provisions  of  all  such  existing  laws  and  of  this 
act,  attd  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  Industrial  Board  hereinafter  provided  for. 

The  Commissioner  (rf  Labor  and  Industry  and  all  inspectors  may,  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duties,  enter  any  such  place,  building,  or  Toma,  whenever  tbey 
have  reasonable  cause  to  believe  that  any  such  labor  is  bdog  or  will  be  performed 
therein. 

Section  9.  The  inspectors  of  the  third  grade  shall,  together  with  the  Chief 
Medical  Inspector,  hcreinaDovc  provided  for,  inspect  all  rooms,  buildings,  and  other 
l^accs  subject  to  the  provisiDas  of  this  act,  throughout  the  State,  with  respect  to 
the  conditMns  of  woili  affecting  the  health  of  persoi»  employed  therein,  and  shall 

Glam  such  other  duties  and  render  such  other  service  as  the  Commissioner  of 
bor  and  Industry  shall  direct. 

Section  id.  The  inspectors  of  the  fourth  grade  shall  constitute  a  divisimt 
of  industrial  hygiene,  which  shall  be  under  the  immediate  charge  of  the  Comoiis- 
tioner  of  Labor  and  Industry.  The  members  of  the  division  of  industrial  hygiene 
shall  nuke  special  inspections  of  factories  and  mercantile  establishments,  and  all 
rooms,  buildmgs  or  other  places  subject  to  the  provisions  of  this  act;  and  shall 
caadtKt  special  investigations,  throughout  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania, 
rriative  to  industrial  processes  and  conditions.  The  members  of  such  divisioo 
■hall  prepare  material  (or  leaflets  and  bulletins,  calling  attention  to  dangers  in 
particular  industries  and  the  precautions  to  be  observed  to  avoid  them,  and  shall 
perform  such  other  duties  and  render  such  other  services  as  may  be  required  by  tbe 
" '    '     :r  of  Labor  and  Industry.    Each  member  of  said  divinoa  shall  make 

447 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 


BUREAU  OF  STATISTICS  AND  INFORMATION 
Section  1 1.  The  Bureau  of  Suiutics  *nd  Infonnatioii  ihall  be  andet  tbc 
immediate  char^  o(  a  chief  of  the  bureau,  subject  to  the  direction  and  rapnvijioa 
of  the  Commisnoner  of  Labor  and  Industiy.  There  shall  also  be  in  the  idice  of 
said  bureau  an  auistant;  one  itatiitician;  one  filing  clerk  and  one  copying  clerfc; 
and  three  collectors  of  statistics.  It  shall  be  the  duty  ol  said  bureau  to  Iwep  in 
touch  with  labor  in  the  Commonwealth,  especially  in  relation  to  conunercia],  in- 
duttrial,  physical,  educational,  social,  moral,  and  sanitaiy  conditions  of  wage- 
eamers  of  the  Commonwealth  and  to  the  productive  industries  thereof:  alio  to 
collect,  assort,  publish,  and  sjrstematiie  the  details  and  ifintrH  information  re- 
garding industrial  accidents  and  occupational  diseases,  their  causes  and  (fleets, 
and  the  methods  of  preventing  and  remedying  the  same,  and  of  providing  axa- 
penution  therefor;  also,  to  make  inquirv  and  inveiti^tion  into  the  condition, 
welfare,  and  industrial  opportunities  of  all  aliens  arriving  and  bdng  within  tbc 
State,  and  to  gather  information  with  respect  to  the  sup^y  of  labor  afforded  by 
such  aliens,  and  ascertain  the  occupations  for  which  aliens  may  be  best  adapted, 
and  to  biing  about  communication  between  the  aliens  and  the  several  industris 
requiring  labor;  and  to  collect,  assort,  and  publish  statistical  details  and  general 
information  relative  thereto. 


The  chief,  or  duly  authorized  deputy,  shall  have  power  to  issue  subpoenas, 
administer  oaths,  and  take  testimony  in  all  matters  relating  to  the  duties  herdn 
required  of  said  bureau.  Any  corporation,  firm,  or  individualdoing  business  within 
the  Commonwealth,  who  shall  ne^ect  or  refuse  for  thirty  days  to  answer  questions 
by  circular  or  upon  personal  application,  or  who  shall  refuse  to  ob^  the  subpoena 
and  ^ve  testimony  according  to  the  provisions  of  this  act.  shall  be  liable  to  a  penalty 
of  one  hundred  dollars,  to  be  collected  by  order  of  the  Commissioner  of  Statistics  in 
an  action  of  debt,  in  which  the  Commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania  shall  be  plaintiff. 
This  Bureau  shall  also  be  required  to  collect,  compile,  and  publish  annually,  tbe 
productive  statistics  of  manufacturing,  commercial,  and  other  business  interests 
of  the  State. 

INDUSTRIAL  BOARD 

Section  la.  There  is  hereby  created  and  established  in  the  Department  of 
Labor  and  Industry  an  Industrial  Board,  to  consist  of  the  Commisnoner  of  Labor 
and  Industry,  and  four  additional  members,  to  be  appointed  by  the  Govetnor,  by 
and  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate, — one  of  whom  shall  be  an  employer  of  tabor, 
one  a  wage-earner,  and  one  a  woman.  The  said  additional  memlicrs  shall  be 
designated  by  the  Governor  to  serve  until  the  first  da^  of  Januaiy  in  the  years  one 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  fifteen,  one  thousand  nme  hundred  and  sixteen,  one 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  seventeen,  and  one  thousand  nine  hundred  and  dghteen, 
respectively.  Upon  the  expiration  of  each  of  the  said  terms,  the  term  of  office  of 
each  associate  member  thereafter  appointed  shall  be  four  years,  from  the  first  of 
January.  The  Commissioner  of  Labor  and  Industry  shall  be  the  chairman  of  tbc 
said  board.  Vacancies  shall  be  filled  by  appointment,  for  an  unexpired  term,  is 
the  same  manner  as  provided  for  the  appointments  of  the  previous  iM^cn  of  the 
office  in  which  said  vacancy  occurs. 

The  Commissioner  of  Labor  and  Industry  shall  receive  no  additional  com- 
pensation for  services  as  member  of  tbe  said  board.  The  four  associate  memben 
shall  each  receive  a  compensation  of  ten  dollars  (fio.oo)  per  day,  and  expense* 
actually  and  necessarily  incurred  while  engaged  in  the  pei^ormance  of  their  duties. 

The  board  shall  appoint,  and  may  remove,  a  secretary,  who  shall  receive  i 
salary  to  be  fixed  by  the  board.     The  Commissioner  of  Labor  and  Industry  shall 

44S 


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DEPARTMENT  OF  LABOR  ACT  OF  1913 

detail,  fmm  time  to  time,  to  the  assbUnce  of  *aid  board,  luch  employee)  of  the 
Department  of  Labor  and  lndtutry  a*  the  board  may  require  in  aid  of  its  work, 
and  laid  board  is  empowered  to  employ  experts  for  spedal  and  occasional  services. 
The  counsel  to  the  [jepartmeat  of  Labor  and  Industry  shall  act  as  counsel  to  the 
board,  without  additional  compensation. 

The  board  shall  hold  stated  meetings,  which  shall  be  open  to  the  public, 
at  least  once  a  month  during  the  year,  and  shall  hold  other  meetings  at  such  times 


and  places  as  may  be  ncccuaTV.     Such  meetings  shall  be  called  by  the  chairman  o: 
'Ty  of  the  board.    The  board  shall  keep  minutes  of  its  proceedings,  showi 
:e  of  each  member  upon  every  question,  and  records  of  its  examination  ai 


other  official  action. 

Section  I  j.  The  Industrial  Board  shall  have  the  power  to  make  investiga* 
tioni  concerning,  and  report  upon,  all  matters  touching  the  enforcement  and  effect 
of  the  piovisions  of  all  laws  of  the  Commonwealth,  the  enforcement  of  which  shall 
DOW  and  hereafter  be  imposed  upon  the  Department  of  Labor  and  Industry,  and 
the  rules  and  regulations  made  by  the  Industrial  Board  in  connection  therewith; 
and  to  subpoena  and  require  the  attendance  in  this  Commonwealth  of  all  witnesses, 
and  the  pioduction  of  books  and  papers  pertinent  10  the  said  investigation,  and  to 
examine  Ihem  and  such  public  records  as  it  may  require  in  relation  to  any  matter 
which  it  has  power  to  investigate.  Any  witness  who  refuses  to  obey  a  subpoena  at 
the  said  board,  as  hereinabove  provided  for,  or  who  refuses  to  be  sworn  or  to  testify, 
or  who  fails  or  refuses  to  produce  any  books,  papers,  or  documents  touching  any 
matter  under  investigation  or  eiamination  by  the  said  board,  or  who  is  guilty  m 
any  contempt  after  l>nng  summoned  to  appear  before  the  said  board  as  above  pro- 
vided, maybe  punished  as  for  contempt  o(  court;  aitd,  for  this  purpose,  application 
may  be  made  to  any  court  within  whose  territorial  jurisdiclion  the  said  contempt 
took  place,  and  for  which  purpose  the  courts  of  the  common  pleas  of  this  Common- 
wealth are  hereby  given  jurisdiction.  In  the  course  of  siich  investigation  each 
member  of  said  board  shall  have  power  lo  administer  oaths.  Each  member  shall 
have  the  further  power  to  make  personal  investigations  of  all  establishments  in 
this  Commonwealth  where  labor  is  employed. 

Section  14.  All  rooms,  buildings,  and  places  in  this  Commonwealth  where 
labor  is  employed,  or  shall  hereafter  be  employed,  shall  be  so  constructed,  equipped, 
and  arianf^,  operated  and  conducted,  in  all  respects,  as  to  provide  reasonable 
and  adequate  protection  for  the  life,  health,  safety,  and  morals  of  all  persons  em- 
ploynl  therein.  For  the  carrying  into  effect  of  this  provision,  and  the  provisions 
of  alt  the  laws  of  this  Commonwealth,  the  enforcement  of  which  is  now  or  shall 
hereafter  be  entrusted  to  or  imposed  upon  the  commisiiofMr  or  Department  of 
Labor  and  Industry,  the  Industrial  Eloard  shall  have  power  to  make,  alter,  amend, 
and  repeal  general  rules  and  regulations  necessary  for  applying  such  proviaons  to 
specify  conlitions,  and  to  prescribe  means,  methods,  and  practices  to  carry  into 
dfect  and  enforce  such  provisions. 

Section  ij.  The  rules  and  regulations  of  the  Industrial  Board,  and  the 
amendments  and  alterations  thereof,  may  embrace  all  matters  and  subjects  to 
which  power  and  authority  of  the  Department  of  Labor  and  Industry  extends, 
and  ^all  be  distributed  to  all  applicants.  Every  rule  or  regulation  adopted  by  the 
board  shall  be  promptly  published  in  bulletins  of  the  Department  ol  Labor  and 
Industry,  and  in  such  daily  newspapers  as  the  board  may  prescribe,  and  no  such 
rule  or  regulation  shall  take  effect  until  thirty  days  after  such  publication.  Any 
employer,  employee,  or  other  person  interested,  either  because  of  owneiship  in  or 
occupation  of  any  property  affected  by  any  such  order  or  regulation,  or  otherwise, 
may  petition  for  a  hearing  on  the  reasonableness  of  a  rule  or  regulation.  Such 
petition  for  hearing  shall  be  by  verified  petition,  filed  with  the  said  Industrial  Board, 
setting  out  specifically  and  in  full  detail  the  rule  or  regulation  upon  which  a  hearing 
is  desired,  an«l  the  reasons  why  such  rule  or  regulation  is  deemed  to  be  unreasonable. 
All  hearings  of  (he  board  shall  be  open  to  the  public.  Upon  receipt  of  such  petition, 
if  the  issues  raised  in  such  petition  have  theretofore  been  adequately  considered, 

*9'  449 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

the  Industrial  Board  shall  determine  the  same  by  confinning,  without  hearing  its 
previous  detennination;  or,  if  such  hearing  is  necessary  to  dctennine  the  oat 
laised,  the  Industrial  Board  shall  order  a  hearing  thereon,  and  consider  and  de- 
termine the  matter  or  matters  in  question  at  such  time  as  shall  be  prcscribtd. 
Notice  of  the  time  and  place  of  such  hearing  shall  be  given  to  the  petitioner,  and  to 
such  other  persons  as  the  Industrial  Board  may  find  directly  interested  in  sock 
decision- 
Section  i6.  Every  person  who  violates  any  of  the  provisions  of  this  ict. 
or  any  of  the  rales  or  regulations  of  the  Industrial  Board,  or  who  resists  or  inter- 
feres with  any  officer  or  agent  of  the  Department  of  Labor  and  Industry  in  the  per- 
formance of  his  duties  in  accordance  with  the  said  rules  and  regulations,  shaH  be 
deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor;  and  shall,  upon  conviction  thereof,  be  punitbcd 
by  a  fine  of  not  more  than  one  hundred  dollars  (f  loo.oo),  or  by  imprisoniDenl  not 
exceeding  one  month,  or  both,  at  the  discretion  of  the  court. 

SKtion  17.  There  shall  be  created  in  the  Department  of  Labor  and  In- 
dustry a  Bureau  of  Mediation  and  Arbitration,  the  head  of  which  shall  be  a  cbid 
of  bureau. 

Section  18-  Whenever  a  difference  arises  between  an  emplc^er  and  lu) 
employees,  which  cannot  be  readily  adjusted,  the  chief  of  the  bureau  shall  proceed 
promptly  to  the  locality  thereof,  and  endeavor  by  mediation  to  effect  an  amicable 
settlement  of  the  controversy.  If  such  settlement  cannot  be  effected,  the  dispute 
may  be  arbitrated  by  a  board  composed  of  one  person  selected  by  employer,  and 
one  person  selected  by  employees,  and  a  third  who  shall  be  selected  by  the  lepre- 
sentativesof  the  employer  and  the  employees;  and  such  third  member  of  the  bcanl 
shall  be  selected  and  appointed  within  a  period  of  five  days  after  the  matter  bu 
been  submitted  (or  arbitration,  and,  in  the  event  of  any  such  appuntment  or 
selection  not  being  made  within  a  period  of  five  days,  then  the  Chief  of  the  Bureag 
of  Mediation  and  Arbitration  shall  constitute  the  third  member  of  the  board,  and 
be  the  chairman  of  the  board;  and  if  such  third  representative  is  chosen,  by  the 
two  representatives  of  the  employer  and  employee,  within  five  days,  then  a  chiimMn 
of  the  board  shall  be  established  by  the  boaid  itself.  A  submission  to  the  boud 
shall  be  made  in  writing,  and  the  parties  thereto  shall  agree  to  abide  by  the  deter- 
mination of  the  board.  Said  boanl  shall  render  a  written  decision  within  ten  days 
after  the  completion  of  the  investigation,  one  copy  thereof  to  be  filed  in  the  buicaa. 
and  a  copy  to  be  furnished  each  party  to  the  controversy.  The  chief  of  the  hutean 
shall  make  an  annual  report  of  his  work,  containing  such  information  as  the  Com- 
missioner of  Labor  and  Industry  may  request. 

Section  19.  The  Commissioner  of  Labor  and  Industry  may  anign  to  this 
bureau,  from  his  department,  such  clerical  assistance  as,  from  time  to  time,  he  may 
think  necessary. 

Section  3i.  Upon  requisition  of  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  and  Indusliy. 
the  Board  of  Public  Grounds  and  Buildings  shall  furnish  suitable  accommodatkoi 
in  the  State  Capiid  building  for  the  use  of  this  department. 

Section  a j.  All  of  the  powers  and  duties  now  by  law  vested  in  and  imposed 
upon  the  Department  of  Factory  Inspection,  which  is  hereby  abolished,  ire  no' 
hereby  vested  in  the  Department  of  Labor  and  Industry. 

Section  34.  This  act  shall  take  effect  on  and  after  the  first  day  o(  June,  out 
thousand  nine  hurulred  and  thirteen. 

Section  aj.  All  acts  or  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  herewith  be  and  the  sane 
are  hereby  repealed. 

The  ad  day  of  June,  A.  D.  1913. 

JOHN  K.  TENER. 


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APPENDIX  XII 

OCCUPATIONAL  DISEASES  ACT 

SUBSTANCE  OF  ACT  PASSED  BV  PENNSYLVANIA  LEGISLATURE. 
191J 

For  the  protection  of  employes  exposed  to  lead  dusts,  lead  fumes, 
or  lead  solutions,  while  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  lead  products, 
the  employer  shall  provide  properly  ventilated  and  lighted  rooms,  sepa- 
rated from  other  rooms,  with  floors  that  may  be  washed. 

All  floors  shall  be  cleaned  daily  by  wet  methods  or  by  vacuum 
cleaner. 

Where  there  are  fumes  or  dust  arising  from  machinery  or  handling, 
the  employer  shall  furnish  proper  hoods  and  covers  for  machines,  connects! 
with  dust  collecting  system. 

Employer  shall  provide  washrooms,  separate  from  workrooms, 
equipped  with  lavatory  basins,  at  least  one  basin  for  each  five  employes. 
Employer  shall  furnish  nail  brushes,  soap,  and  at  least  three  clean  towels 
a  week  for  each  employe,  free  of  cost;  he  shall  also  allow  at  least  ten  min- 
utes before  lunch  hour  and  before  closing  time  and  must  furnish  a  shower 
bath  for  each  ten  employes  and  shall  furnish  soap  and  two  clean  towds 
a  week  for  each  employe  for  use  in  connection  with  shower  bath.  Time 
allowance  of  at  least  ten  minutes  twice  a  week  shall  be  allowed  for  bath, 
and  record  shall  be  kept  of  each  time  bath  is  taken,  which  record  shall 
be  open  to  state  inspection. 

Employer  shall  provide  dressing  room  with  double  sanitary  locker 
for  each  employe  and  shall  provide  separate  eating  room.  No  employe 
must  be  allowed  to  take  food  or  drink  into  workroom. 

Employer  shall  furnish  suflicient  drinking  fountains. 

The  employer  shall  furnish  a  clean  suit  of  overalls  and  pair  of 
jumpers  each  week,  and  shall  furnish  at  all  times  an  effective  respirator 
for  each  employe. 

Each  employe  must  use  the  washing  facilities  as  often  as  time  is 

granted ;  must  use  eating  room,  and  must  wear  at  all  times  while  engaged 

at  work  a  suit  of  clothes  provided,  and  remove  same  before  leaving,  at 

close  of  day,  keeping  his  street  clothes  and  work  clothes  in  separate 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

lockers.  Employes  must  also  keep  respirators  clean  and  use  same  wboi 
at  work. 

Employer  shall  post  in  all  rooms  a  notice  of  the  known  dangmof 
occupation,  as  provided  by  Department  of  Labor  and  Industiy. 

Employer  shall  cause  examination  once  a  month  by  a  physician, 
of  each  employe,  for  symptoms  of  lead  poisoning,  time  allowance  being 
made  for  each  employe  at  employer's  expense. 

Physician  shall  keep  record  of  all  cases  of  lead  poisoning  in  employ- 
er's office,  which  record  shall  always  be  open  to  state  inspection,  and 
within  48  hours  must  send  duplicate  of  report  to  the  State  Department 
of  Health,  Harrisburg,  and  Department  of  Labor  and  Industry,  blanks 
for  which  shall  be  furnished  by  Department  of  Health.  Employer  must 
within  five  days  discontinue  such  employe  from  employment  where  he 
is  exposed  to  lead  fumes,  dust,  or  solutions. — Digest  by  Department  of 
Labor  and  Industry,  Harrisburg. 


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APPENDIX  XIII 
WOMEN  WORKERS  AND  SOCIAL  AGENCIES 

Miss  Butter's  Women  and  the  Trades,*  presents  a  review  of  the 
social  work  carried  on  among  wage-earning  women,  inside  and  outside 
their  places  of  employment  in  1907-08.  It  remains  true  in  1914  that 
only  a  small  fraction  of  them  are  reached  by  outside  agencies  aside  from 
the  churches-  Gains,  however,  are  to  be  recorded.  In  its  new  and  well 
equipped  central  building  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Associatbn  carries 
on  evening  classes  in  sewing,  millinery,  gymnastics,  and  so  forth;  reli^ous 
meetings  at  noon  time  in  factories;  a  stamp  savings  system  in  the  same; 
and  a  vacation  camp.  The  association  has  yet  to  reach  the  rank  and 
file  of  girl  wage-earners,  especially  factory  employes.  The  Council  of 
Jewish  Women  carries  on  a  vacation  camp  at  Bradford  Heights,  where 
100  working  girls  go  in  a  season,  those  earning  more  than  l7.oo  a  week 
paying  I3.00  a  week;  those  earning  less,  free.  The  various  settlements 
have  working  girls'  clubs,  and  in  summer  they  join  in  the  parties  which 
go  out  to  Lillian  Home,  the  country  place  of  Kingsley  House.  The 
Council  of  Jewish  Women  and,  more  recently,  the  Catholic  Woman's 
League  are  active  in  securing  employment,  and  as  result  of  investigations 
conducted  by  Miss  Annie  E.  McCord,  vocational  guidance  work  is  carried 
on  under  the  Central  Board  of  Education.  The  Western  Pennsylvania 
Association  of  the  National  League  for  Women  Workers,  started  in  1910, 
has  built  up  a  membership  of  300  in  nine  evening  clubs  for  girls.  These 
are  setf-goveming  and  aim  at  self-support.  The  association  has  conducted 
a  vacation  house  at  Pennsville  for  three  years. 

The  Wnnen's  Trade  Union  League  has  not  been  able  to  get  a 
foothold  in  Pittsburgh,  although  an  unsuccessful  effort  was  made  at  the 
Oliver  works. 

The  Child  Labor  Committee  and  the  Consumers'  League  of 
Western  Pennsylvania  are  the  channels  through  which  the  ebb  and  flow 
of  public  interest  in  factory  legislation  and  enforcement,  affecting  women's 
and  children's  labor,  expresses  itself.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  there  is  no 
corresponding  public  organization  whatever  actively  interested  in  the 
conditions  of  men's  labor. 

Only  those  retail  houses  which  comply  with  the  following  con- 
ditrans  in  regard  to  their  women  and  minor  employes  are  eligible  to  the 
White  List  of  The  Consumers'  League: 

*  Butler,  Elizabeth  Beardsley:  Women  and  the  Trades.  (The  Pittsburgh 
Survey.) 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

A  minimum  wage  of  f6.oa  a  wMk  must  be  paid  to  adult  laleswofflen 
with  one  year's  experience.  A  weekly  half-holiday  must  be  given  dutint 
two  summer  months.  Hourj  of  work  must  not  exceed  ten.  Overtime  must  b« 
compensated.  The  requirements  of  the  Pennsylvania  state  laws  governing 
women  and  minor  employes  must  be  observed,  and  one  week  vacation  with  pay 
after  one  year*!  employment. 

WHITE  LIST 

The  Consumers'  League  recommends  the  selling  conditions  in  the 
following  retail  houses: 

McCreery  and  Company,  W.  W.  Wattles  and  Sons, 

Joseph  Home  and  Company,  Hardy  and  Hayes  Company, 

Boggs  and  Buhl,  Geo.  K.  Stevenson  and  Co., 

Meyer  Jonasson  and  Company,  The  Presbyterian  Book  Store, 

Paulson  Bros.,  United  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication, 

J.  G.  Bennett  and  Company,  Kurtz,  Langbein  and  Swarti. 
The  Malley  Company, 

APPENDIX  XIV 

LABOR  UNION  HYGIENE  FOR  BREWERY  WORKERS 

(Hygienic  provisions  embodied  in  contract  signed  April  i,  1914, 
between  the  brewery  workers'  unions  of  Pittsburgh, 
and  the  breweries  of  the  District.) 
Following  precautions  shall  be  taken  for  sanitary  and  healthful 
protection: 

(a)  A  lunchroom  with  seating  capacity  for  every  employe;  same 
shall  be  properly  heated  and  ventilated. 

(b)  A  separate  wash-stand  for  every  ten  (10)  employes,  soap  and 
towels  to  be  furnished  by  employer  at  necessary  intervals. 

(c)  A  separate  locker  shall  be  provided  for  every  employe. 

(d)  Toilets  shall  be  sanitary  and  separated  from  the  lunchroom. 

(e)  Drinking  water  shall  be  provided  for,  under  sanitary  con- 
dition. 

(0  Every  shop  shall  contain  the  necessary  emergency  supplies 
for  accidents,  etc. 

In  addition,  local  No.  32  inserted  this  provision:  "No  empb)ye 
shall  be  forced  or  required  to  work  at  varnishing  without  the  necessary 
safety  appliance  and  precautions  being  furnished  and  utilized." 

And  local  No.  144  (Bottling  House  Employes):  "Men  employed 
at  the  bottling  machines  and  Pasteurizers  shall  be  provided  with  goggles. 
to  be  furnished  by  the  employer." 

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APPENDIX  XV 

SURGICAL  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CARNEGIE  STEEL 
COMPANY 

Wm.  CNeill  Sherman,  M.  D. 
Surgeon-in-chief,  Carnegie  Steel  Company 

The  primary  object  of  first  aid  is  to  furnish  an  aseptic  dressing 
that  will  prevent  infection  of  the  wound;  its  further  activities  are  to 
supervise  the  removal  of  the  injured  to  the  home  or  hospital  and  to  render 
appropriate  assistance  in  cases  of  shock,  heat  prostration,  gas  poisoning, 
freezing,  and  so  forth.  The  perfection  of  a  surgical  organization  of  a 
large  corporation  is  dependent  upon  three  factors:  First,  properly  equipped 
and  organized  emergency.  Second,  the  intelligent  co-operation  of  all  em- 
ployes.   Third,  education  of  the  individual. 

Surgeons  and  assistant  surgeons  are  appointed  by  the  Carnegie 
Steel  Company  in  the  towns  in  which  the  works  are  located.  Their  work 
was  in  1909  brought  under  a  chief  surgeon.  It  is  the  aim  of  the  company 
to  secure  the  services  of  the  best  men  in  their  respective  communities.  A 
yearly  salary  is  paid  which  is  commensurate  with  services  rendered.  In 
works  employing  t,3oo  men  or  more,  the  surgeon  has  an  assistant  whose 
duty  is  to  respond  at  such  time  as  the  surgeon  in  charge  should  request. 
The  doctors  are  subject  to  call  at  any  time,  the  company  having  an 
option  upon  their  services.  They  are  constantly  within  telephone  com- 
munication. It  is  the  duty  of  the  plant  doctor  to  give  first-aid  lectures 
and  instructions,  to  make  visits  to  the  injured  in  their  homes,  and  to 
render  the  surgical  attention  necessary. 

The  Standard  Emergency  Hospital  is  a  building  40  by  60  feet  in 
size,  divided  into  the  following  rooms:  waiting  room,  redressing  room, 
operating  room,  ward  room,  bathroom,  nurses'  room,  laboratory,  and 
X-ray  room.  The  Standard  hospital  is  the  type  used  in  all  plants  em- 
ploying 1,800  men  or  more.  For  the  smaller  plants,  units  of  the  large 
hospital  are  used,  as  the  case  may  require.  These  hospitals  have  the  same 
equipment  found  in  the  most  modem  hospitals.  The  redressing  room  is 
used  to  treat  the  cases  as  they  report.  Dressing  hours  are  set  apart  on 
three  days  of  the  week,  at  which  time  the  cases  for  redressing  report  for 
treatment.  The  operating  room  is  used  to  perform  minor  operations  and 
45  S 


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WAGE-EARN[NG  PITTSBURGH 

to  treat  the  more  serious  accidents.  A  ward  room  of  three  beds  is  used 
only  for  emergency  purposes,  that  is,  shock,  hemorrhage,  heat  strdic, 
cramps,  or  illness  of  any  kind  in  which  the  patient  should  be  kept  at  rest 
before  being  moved.  The  bathroom  contains  a  specially  designed  bathtub, 
so  that  the  patients  can  be  entirely  immersed  in  either  hot  or  cold  water, 
as  the  case  may  necessitate.  The  nurses'  room  is  so  arranged  as  to  afford 
the  greatest  comfort  and  privacy  to  the  nurses  on  duty.  The  laboratory 
consists  of  a  complete  X-ray  apparatus,  microsct^,  and  other  necessary 
equipment  for  scientific  examination  of  blood,  secretions,  and  so  forth. 

The  surgeons  at  the  emergency  hospital  are  assisted  by  graduate 
nurses  (female)  who  are  constantly  in  attendance.  These  nurses  are 
selected  according  to  their  special  fitness  and  ability.  It  is  their  duty  to 
render  treatment  in  the  minor  injuries  (small  scratches,  bums,  and  so 
forth),  to  assist  the  doctor,  and  to  supervise  in  the  general  cleanliness  and 
operation  of  the  hospital,  under  the  doctor's  directions. 

The  co-operation  of  employes  is  essential  if  best  results  are  to  be 
secured.    A  circular  letter  is  given  to  each  employe  as  follows: 

TO  THE  EMPLOYES  OF  THE  CARNEGIE  STEEL  COMPANY 

It  is  the  earnest  with  and  desire  of  the  company  that  every  man  injured  re- 
port at  once  to  hi»  foreman,  whowill  issue  an  order  on  thecompany  doctor.  Eveiy 
case,  no  matter  how  slight  the  injury,  should  be  pven  thon>u|^  surgical  treatment. 

In  the  past,  many  cam  of  a  serious  nature  have  resulted  frarn  the  failure  to 
report  to  the  company  surgeon,  by  whom  every  etTon  is  bdng  made  to  render  the 
most  efficient  treatment  and  remove  many  of  the  complications  which  have  oc- 
curred from  Ihe  failure  of  patients  to  comply  with  the  rules. 

Do  not  make  any  attempt  to  put  anything  on  injured  parts,  or  to  treat  them 
in  any  way;  go  to  the  doctor  at  once,  follow  his  directions  to  the  word;  never 
remove  a  dressing,  and  report  to  the  hospital  only  when  told  to  by  Ibe  company 
surgeon. 

The  application  of  poultices,  ointments,  and  greases  to  the  wound  often  mult 
in  blood  poisoning. 

Always  remember  that  slight  injuries  often  cause  the  most  serious  compli- 
cations, even  to  Ihe  loss  of  limbs  and  life. 

Finally,  be  guided  by  the  instructions  of  the  surgeon  in  charge.  Failure  to 
comply  with  these  rules  will  be  dealt  with  by  the  superintendent  or  general  super- 
intendent. 

The  following  letter  was  issued  to  the  foremen  relative  to  the  use  of 
a  "foreman's  card,"  which  is  self-explanatory. 

TO  THE  FOREMAN^- 

The  enclosed  new  form  is  to  be  used  in  issuing  an  order  on  the  company 
surgeon  in  all  future  accident  cases. 

Every  man  before  he  can  be  treated  at  the  Emergency  Hosfutal  must  re- 
ceive this  form,  signed  and  filled  out  by  the  foreman.  Before  becan  return  to  «ork 
it  must  be  signed  oy  the  attending  surgeon.  This  will  prevent  many  cases  of  bkxtd 
456 


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EMERGENCY  HOSPITAL  EQUIPMENl 
Carnegie  Sleel  Company 


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iU 


1° 

i  il 

9    i^ 


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SURGICAL  ORGANIZATION 

poisaaing  aod  serious  complkatioiu  which  have  occurred  in  the  put  from  in- 
jurict  which  were  not  promptly  »nd  properly  attended  to. 

Under  no  canditioiu  shall  theforemanaHow  the  return  to  duty  of  the  injured 
cnploye  iritbout  the  usnature  of  the  company  surgeon. 

Any  violation  of  the  above  rules  shall  be  dealt  with  by  the  general  super- 
intendent. 

The  "foreman's  card"  is  an  ofTicial  order  on  the  doctor  to  render 
surgical  attention.  Should  the  case  be  of  a  trivial  character,  the  card  is 
signed  and  handed  to  the  foreman,  allowing  the  man  to  return  to  work. 
Should  the  injury  be  of  such  a  nature  as  to  necessitate  the  patient  being 
taken  to  the  hospital  or  his  home,  the  card  is  held  until  such  a  time  as  the 
attending  surgeon  thinks  is  safe  for  the  injured  man  to  resume  work. 
Instructions  written  in  seven  languages  are  printed  on  the  back  of  the 
card,  so  that  employes  shall  have  a  perfect  understanding.  Should  the 
men  be  unable  to  read,  the  system  is  explained  to  them  by  the  foreman  or 
an  interpreter. 


FOREMAN'S  CARD: 


Plant Dale 

Hour A.  M 

To  Company  Surgeon: 

P.  M 

Check  No 

Address  Witness 

Foreman. 

Date 

Company  Surgeon. 


juries  arc  to  be  attended  to  by  the  company  surgeon  and  his  directions 
folkiwed. 

This  order  must  be  ugned  by  the  sui^eon  before  the  injured  man  can 
return  to  work.  Any  bills  incurred  for  doctors  atliet  than  company 
doctors  will  not  be  piid  by  the  company. 

Any  violation  of  the  above  rules  will  be  taken  up  for  consideration  by 
the  general  superintendent.    Approved  by  General  Superintendent. 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

Upon  the  arrival  of  the  patient  at  the  Emergency  Ho^ttal  the 
case  is  attended  by  the  company  surgeon.  An  immediate  report  of  the 
accident  is  made  out,  four  copies  being  made,  one  of  which  is  sent  to 
each  of  the  following:  company  surgeon,  general  superintendent  of  works, 
casualty  department,  and  chief  surgeon.  A  report  is  made  out  in  every 
case,  regardless  of  the  character  of  the  accident.  Upon  the  recovery  of  the 
patient,  a  final  report  giving  necessary  data  is  filled  out,  the  same  pro- 
cedure being  fallowed  as  in  the  preliminary  report.  This  gives  a  brief 
history  of  the  case  and  gives  all  the  information  necessary.  Records  are 
kept  and  notes  made  upon  the  back  of  the  immediate  accident  report  by 
the  plant  surgeon,  giving  the  date  of  surgical  attention  and  notes  as  to  the 
progress  of  the  case. 

The  education  of  the  employe  in  first  aid  is  accomplished  by  the 
organization  of  first-aid  squads  throughout  the  works.  The  revised 
American  Red  Cross  Text  Book  on  first  aid  is  used  as  a  standard  work. 
Each  class  is  given  twelve  lectures  and  demonstrations.  Competitive 
meets,  at  which  prizes  are  given  to  winning  crews,  are  held  to  stimulate 
and  maintain  interest  in  first  aid. 

The  system,  as  at  present  organized,  can  be  best  illustrated  by 
following  the  different  steps  in  the  treatment  and  care  rendered  injured 
employes.  If  an  Injury  occurs  it  is  immediately  reported  to  the  foreman 
in  charge,  who  makes  a  written  request  to  the  works  doctor  to  render 
treatment.  If  the  injury  is  a  minor  one,  the  patient  is  taken  to  a  con- 
veniently located  stretcher  box,  where  a  first-aid  package  (sealed  and 
aseptic)  is  kept.  This  package  contains  one  ampule  of  aromatic  spirits  of 
ammonia,  one  triangular  bandage,  one  roll  gauze  bandage,  and  one  gauze 
compress.  The  necessary  dressings  are  applied  by  the  captain  of  the 
first-aid  squad,  and  the  patient  is  directed  to  the  Emergency  Hospital  for 
treatment.  Should  the  injury  be  of  such  a  character  as  to  render  the 
patient  unable  to  walk,  a  Reeves  stretcher  is  obtained  from  a  stretcher 
box,  and  the  patient  is  wrapped  in  a  blanket  and  taken  to  the  Emergency 
Hospital  by  the  first-aid  squad.  The  patient  is  given  the  necessary 
treatment  by  the  attending  doctors  and  nurses,  after  which  he  is  either 
sent  to  his  home  or  to  a  general  hospital,  where  the  case  is  placed  under 
the  care  of  the  chief  surgeon.  Special  arrangements  are  made  whereby 
private  accommodations  are  provided  for  all  cases.  Operating  room 
nurses,  ward  nurses,  surgeons,  and  a  special  trained  anesthetist  are  in 
charge  of  the  patient,  thereby  assuring  the  best  of  attention  and  ultimate 
results.  When  the  patient  recovers  suflUciently  to  be  discharged,  he  is 
referred  to  the  works  doctor.    Automobile  ambulances  are  used  to  trans- 


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SURGICAL  ORGANIZATION 

port  patients  from  places  of  injury  to  the  hospitals,  and  from  the  hospitals 
to  their  homes. 

The  advantages  of  a  surgical  organization  must  be  obvious  to  all 
those  familiar  with  large  industrial  corporations.  This  will  be  readily 
observed  by  a  comparison  of  antiquated  methods  formerly  in  use  with 
those  of  the  present  day.  Employes  have  been  educated  so  that  they  now 
willingly  go  to  the  Emergency  Hospital  to  have  their  minor  injuries 
treated.  Many  of  the  serious  complications  in  the  past  have  had  their 
b^innings  in  minor  injuries  which  were  not  scientifically  treated,  the 
consequence  being  infection  (blood  poisoning)  of  the  part,  resulting  in 
permanent  disability,  loss  of  the  injured  part,  or  death.  An  investiga- 
tion of  the  records  during  the  past  four  years,  1910-14,  shows  that  there 
should  be  but  one  infection  in  a  thousand  cases,  providing  the  injuries 
are  promptly  treated.  Under  conditions  which  existed  in  the  past,  it  was 
not  uncommon  to  have  from  ;  to  60  per  cent  of  the  cases  infected.  At 
the  present  time,  practically  all  the  infections  are  due  to  carelessness  on 
the  part  of  the  injured  and  failure  to  report  promptly  for  treatment.  The 
advantage  of  having  the  injuries  heal  without  infection  can  be  readily 
seen  when  we  remember  that  it  takes  three  and  a  half  times  as  long  for  an 
infected  wound  to  heal  as  it  does  a  non-infected  wound.  Serious  eye  com- 
plications frequently  result  from  the  crude  attempts  of  unskilled  fellow- 
employes  to  remove  foreign  bodies  from  the  eye.  As  a  result  of  the  strict 
enforcement  of  a  rule  prohibiting  this  practice,  the  number  of  foreign- 
body  cases  has  greatly  increased  because  alt  the  cases  are  now  reported 
for  treatment ;  however,  in  a  series  of  6,800  cases  there  was  not  one  with 
serious  complications. 

While  the  "safety  organization"  is  playing  an  important  part  in 
the  general  uplift  of  working  conditions  on  railroad  and  in  other  hazardous 
employments,  and  will,  doubtless,  materially  reduce  the  number  of  acci- 
dents, we  may  not  even  hope  to  reach  a  point  where  the  heavy  machinery 
and  equipment  of  today  can  be  made  proof  against  bodily  injury,  or  as 
someone  has  rather  tersely  expressed  it — "fool-proof."  From  the  present 
outlook,  we  feel  constrained  to  believe  that  there  will  always  occur  a 
certain  number  of  accidents  resulting  from  ignorance,  carelessness,  and 
other  conditions  over  which  the  employer  can  exercise  no  reasonable 
control. 

Where  the  safety  and  preventive  measures  have  not  been  entirely 
efTective,  the  physician  or  surgeon  steps  in;  he  has  heretofore  been  re- 
garded with  almost  negligible  consideration  in  most  industrial  organiza- 
tions— to  be  consulted  only  where  extreme  conditions  demanded  the 
employment  of  his  services.    But  now  the  econtHnic  value  of  safety  appli- 

459 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

ances,  which  is  becoming  so  apparent  to  everyone,  is  exerting  an  educa- 
tional influence  upon  employers,  many  of  whom  have  already  seen  the 
further  advantage  that  may  be  attained  by  the  addition  of  a  surgical 
force  to  their  organizations.  My  own  opinicm  is  that  every  large  indus- 
trial enterprise  should  have  a  properly  equipped  emergency  hospital, 
together  with  such  surgeons,  nurses,  and  other  attendants  as  conditions 
may  seem  to  warrant. 

While  the  surroundings  and  the  character  of  the  employment  will 
always,  to  a  certain  extent,  determine  the  number  of  injuries,  the  results 
of  these  injuries  can  be  greatly  reduced  in  seriousness  by  prompt  and 
skilful  treatment.  The  failure  to  properly  administer  first  aid,  and  the 
subsequent  lack  of  efficient  surgical  attention,  has  in  the  past  added  to  the 
death  list  many  whose  lives  might  have  been  saved,  and  has  steadily 
recruited  the  anny  of  the  maimed  and  crippled,  with  which  the  streets  of 
our  large  cities  are  so  familiar. 

1  might  emphasize  here  that  efTiciency  in  surgical  attention  is  the 
keynote — the  fate  of  the  injured  man  frequently  depending  wbcdly  upon 
the  intelligence  and  skill  of  the  individual  who  applies  the  first  dressing 
It  will  thus  be  seen  that  to  get  the  best  results  there  should  be  a  complete 
surgical  organization;  and  this  organization  should  work  in  harmony 
with  officers  and  subordinates,  as  the  co-operation  of  all  is  essential  to 
the  success  of  the  movement.  Where  the  number  of  accidents  is  large,  a 
chief  surgeon  should  be  in  responsible  charge  of  the  work;  and  in  surreal 
matters  he  should  not  be  subjected  to  the  handicap  of  the  restrictions  of 
well  meaning  lay  officials,  who  sometimes  have  decided  opinions  of  tbor 
own  upon  subjects  entirely  foreign  to  them. 

The  pioneering  in  this  field  for  the  present  is  being  left  to  swne  of 
the  larger  corporations,  but  the  stupendous  benefit  that  is  already  ap- 
parent from  their  operations  is  beginning  to  act  as  a  leaven  among  the 
smaller  manufacturing  interests,  and  in  the  near  future  a  general  improve- 
ment may  be  expected  in  the  present  conditions. 


460 


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Visiting  Nurse.    Homestead 
In  six  mill  towns  the  Carnegie  Company  has  added  nursel  to  Ihe  regular  works 
organization.     The  nurse  visits  the  homes  and  gives  advice  in  nursing,  care  of  chil- 
dren, housekeeping,  and  saniiatbn 


West  Penn  Gymnasium 
Since  1909  the  Carnegie  Steel  Company  has  centralized  lis  major  surgical  work 
in  special  private  wards  at  the  West  Penn  Hospital  Pittsburgh  where  modern 
equipment  is  installed.  Exercising  machines  are  shown  here  for  Ihe  relief  ot 
injuries  to  joints,  bones,  and  muscles,  thereby  reducing  Ihe  con\alescenl  time  of 
mill  patients 


Google 


OXVCEN     HtUMET 

Repair  man  equipped  against  gas  poison- 
ing ready  lo  enter  a  blast  fuinace.  The  equip- 
ment used  is  that  developed  in  mining,  applied 
to  furnace  work  by  Ihe  Carnegie  Steel  Com- 
pany since  1911 


Vanadium  SiEtL  Bone  Plate  and  Si-«t»> 
Employed  to  hold  badly  displaced  bona 
in  Ihe  serious  fractures  which  occur  in  Iht  ton- 
nage induslries.  In  iSi  cases  ihis  method  hit 
been  successfully  employed.  This  pioceJu" 
has  materially  reduced  the  extent  of  perniinfii 
disability 


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APPENDIX  XVI 

APPLICATION  BLANKS  AND  FORMS.  WESTINGHOUSE 
ELECTRIC  AND  MANUFACTURING  COMPANY 


Fotm  P-IMI— Bsv.  I 

WetiiiiihonteElectric&Maiinfactnriiig  Company 
Eut  Pitblnrii,  Pi. 

APPLICATION 


Application  for  position  a 


Address*) 


Name 

Age 

Nationality Married  or  single 

Height Weight 

General  Education 

Technical  Education Where Years  attended... .Degree..,. 

Special  Education 

Special  Experience 

Can  begin Minimum  salary  expected 


PKAcnCAL  EX- 
PEBIENCE  WITH 

PLACE 

<?«SSI' 

n,o^"5o 

SALARY 

References 

Reasons  for  desiring  new 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 


To  it  filled  out  in  applicant's  own  handioriting  and  returned  to.... 

Westinghouse  Electric  &  Manufacturii^  Company 
Pittsburgh,  Pa. 


...191... 


Address  \ 


Application  for  position  as Dau... 

Name 

^p 

Country  of  birth When  naturalised,  tf  of  foreign  birth 

General  education 

Technical  education 

Line  of  special  study 

Date  of  graduation  from  technical  school. 

Note  employed? Could  begin  work days  of ter  engagement. 

Reason  for  wishingto  make  a  change 

Salary  expected 


podtloa  Qln  a  itatMiiMit  ot  c 

Reference  as  to  ability  and  characUr  asfollotcs: 


'hkh  th*  ■ppikuii 


on  th*  otbM  lida) 


■d^yCoogle 


WESTINCHOUSE   BLANKS  AND  FORMS 


Westraghonse  Electric  &  Mannf  actoring  Company 


Gentlemen: — 

M has  applied  to  this  Company 

for  a  position  as ,  stating  that   l„  was  employed 

by  you  as  a under  the  supervision  of 

M during  a  period  of. 

from to 

In  orio  thai  ihi  WociiuhsaK  Ettctik  k  Hit.  Co.  m*  Im  IMj  infcttDed  u  ta  bt 
pcnoail  dunenr  lai  qualiicHuiu  br  the  pofitioii  be  which  I  h»i  nxle  mSaaon,  I 
nfeutKhof  inrbtmcrcmpkiTEniBd  nqutKud  uiheriitncbof  the  tud  drnpuiaof 
cmplarcn  ■«  wheiB  I  hive  Anwrij  worked  (s  lin  to  the  ibevc  umcd  Coapuv  all  inior- 
madon  thtj  mty  hive  in  their  ponenoa,  whether  ihown  by  my  pencAil  recwv,  or  othe^ 
wiee,  u  CD  nv  pertoaij  chukcnr  ud  ibo  nr  quililkatHot  for  the  paatioD  for  which  I  hive 
hemn  ippbed,  ind  the  reuoa  why  1  wu  diKhuved  at  anil  lerrict,  upon  ut  iBquity  thai 
nwT  he  made  of  theia.  or  dlher  of  them,  by  nid  WcMID^WUK  Electric  ll  Muiir>CIIlria| 

^ Empkiyoicat  Af«Bt 


Yours  truly, 

(Signature).... 
CTitl*) 


The  above  named  applicant  was  employed  as  a 

from to ,  the  cause  for 

leaving  being 

While  in  our  employ  . '^  services sadsfautory  and  we 

re-employ    .  "".     gl* a    member 

of  labor  ot^anizations 

Remarics: — 


Date Signature  .. 

Title 


463 


■d^yCoogle 


WAGE-EARNING   PITrSBURGH 


RECORD  OF  EMPLOYMENT 


NAME 


ivs)mik' 


'ITrthCrty 


ifSff 


CMbo' 
Birth 


Hava  you  avw  w«rti«d 

S;?»;w.'e'i.T8a  departments  i,.s;xs'^i:ui 


Commanoad  Work — 


Forni  UIB— Rm.  1 
ADVICE  OF  WORKMEN   REQUIRED 

To  the  Employment  Dept.  Date 191 

Help  ae  follows  is  rehired  in  Sec Dej4. 


Ocrapatlo 


Cued  all  prevlolM  reqncMa  for  > 

Pleaee  send  for ,  v>ko»e 

addreaa  is  No Street City 

State Night  Tvm—Day  Tvm 

Vnle«8  the  address  is  given  the  man  triS  caU  at  the  Emphjf' 
ment  Department. 

In  eaee  the  above-named  fails  to  report  within  three  dajft 
subatHute  another  name. 


464 


■d^yCoogle 


WESTINGHOUSE   BLANKS  AND   TORMS 


ADVICE  OF  WORKMEN  SUPPLIED 


Mr... 
Mr... 


Dept... 


has  been 

engaged  as  a at 

per  hour,  to  fin  yottr  order  (^. 


n  Mb  to  Kip«t  fw  Wnk,  lUi  Slip  Hot  U  l*luMi  to  EBpl>T««t  D<9l. 


ADV 

FUL 

ICE  OF  E 

NAME 

Nfiii 

fiEH 

EN1 

AH 

HOURL 
IkM. 
(Mh. 

1* 

VPAYR 

ME  OF 

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HPLOYE 

[8 

taiMlw»*MrtMi^«i*rt 

OCCUPATION 

DATE 

I..T, 

^ 

r«M 

<^ 

r«Mi 

<b. 

r*ik 

i.ir 

lu. 

" 

F«b. 

A«s. 

Ftb. 

-m^r 

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" 

" 

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Apf. 

Apr. 

Hay 

N... 

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KITHOUT  NOTICE 

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46s 


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WAGE-EARNING  PITTSBURGH 

FoHi  sn  Bn.  I 

MWIGE  OF  EMPLOTES  IIUIT  DR  DBCHUGEI 

RUSH 

NOTICE  filVEH I«1 

WORKMH SEC. CHECK  HO.. _ 


QUIT  WITH-WTTHOUT  NOTICL    OISCHARSED.  COLLECT  CHECK-rES-HO 

DATE 191 f- J-     REASON 

WOULD  <HOT>  BE>EHPLOY.    (H0>  OBJECTION  TO  RE.EIIPL0riM6  IH  AHOTHER  OErT. 


CHIEF  COBT  CLIRK  aCNrRAL   FOHMAN 


HAS  (NO)  TOOL  ACCOUNT.           VALUE  OF  TOOLS  NOT  ACC'TD  FORS.  .. 
(DHAIL  IH  INK  ON  BACK.)  


IS  <NOT)  MEMBER  OF  RELIEF.  R.  0.  NO 


BUPT.  RKLIKF  DCPT. 


Digitized  .yCOOgle 


WESTINGHOUSE   BLANKS  AND  FORMS 


ABVICK  OF  TRANBFKR 

Form  l»»U-ReT.  B 
3P  WORKS  BMPLOYKU 

IVif  No. 

T....„.„=,«.. 

T....™...oro 

SIC                     OEPT. 

«e. 

OHtCK  NO.                                  RATE 

CHECK  MO,                             RATE 

OCOUMTION                                   CLASS 

OCCUPAT.0N                                         CLASS 

FOREMAN 

FOREMAN 

UN.  FOREMAN                            ^^^^p 

1  NelHl 
OEN.   FOREMAN                         L     .„     . 

T»l.«ounl«]ju.t.d 
T«l  Dft. 

DiMolTnniftr 

Pay  Roll  Di., 

Employ  Otpt. 

F«nnMUihiwlM)ntrM(«rlim«tt  iiMiit  iHt  icc* 

pt  thil  card  «*tM  t»ol  KCMjirt  hM  h*e»  adfuilHl.  1 

467 


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APPENDIX  XVII 

RELIEF  DEPARTMENT,*  WESTINGHOUSE  AIR  BRAKE 
COMPANY 

GENERAL 

I.  The  "Relief  Department"  is  a  department  of  the  Company's  service  in 
the  executive  charge  of  a  Superintendent,  whose  directions  in  carrying  out  its 
Regulations  are  to  be  complied  with  subject  (o  the  control  of  the  General  Maiugcr, 
except  in  tuch  maiten  as  are  under  the  control  of  the  Relief  Committee  or  the 
Treasurer  of  the  Company. 

3.  Wherever  in  these  Regulations  the  following  words  occur  without  qiuli- 
flcations,  they  will  have  the  meaning  defined  as  follows:  "Company"  wilt  mean 
The  Westinghouie  Air  Brake  Company;  "General  Manager,"  "Board  of  Dine- 
ton,"  "Treasurer,"  and  "Relief  Department"  or  "Department,"  will  mean  the 
General  Manager,  Board  of  Directon,  Treasurer  and  Relief  Elepartntent.  n- 
speclively,  of  said  Company;  "  Relief  Fund, "  "  Workmen's  Compensation  FuTid." 
"Relief  Committee"  or  "Committee,"  "Superintendent,"  "Medical  Enminer" 
and  "Actuary"  will  mean  the  Relief  Fund,  Workmen's  Compensation  Fund,  Re- 
lief Committee,  Superintendent,  Medical  Examiner  and  Actuaiy  respectively  of 
said  Relief  Department. 

).  The  object  of  the  Department  is  the  continuation  of  a  trust  fund  knmn 
as  "The  Relief  Fund,"farthepavment  of  benefits  to  employees  contributing  tbtre- 
to,  who  are  to  be  known  as  members  of  the  Relief  Department,  when  uikder  these 
Regulations  such  benefits  are  awarded  for  total  disability  due  to  causes  other  thaii 
accident  arising  out  of  and  in  the  course  of  their  employment  by  the  Company  and 
for  the  payment  of  benefits  to  their  dependents,  next  of  kin  or  benelidaries  designat- 
ed by  them  with  the  approval  of  the  Superintendent  when  under  the  Regulations 
such  benefits  are  awarded  on  account  of  death  due  to  causes  other  than  such  acci- 
dent; and  the  creation  of  a  further  trust  fund  to  be  known  as  "The  Workmen's 
Compensation  Fund,"  to  consist  solely  of  contributions  made  by  the  Company  and 
the  earnings  by  investment  thereof,  for  the  payment  of  compensation  to  employees 
of  the  Company  when  under  these  Regulations  such  compensation  is  awarded  tot 
total  or  partial  disability  due  to  accident  arising  out  of  and  in  the  course  of  theit 
employment  by  (he  Company  and  for  the  payment  of  compensation  to  their  de- 
pendents or  next  of  kin  when  under  these  Regulations  such  compensation  is  awarded 
on  account  of  death  due  to  such  accident. 

*  Established  May  ist,  190);  effective  June  ist,  190);  amended  regulatioDi 
effective  January  ist,  1914. 


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WESTINGHOUSE   RELIEF  DEPARTMENT 

Also  to  perform  luch  ocher  duties  and  functions  as  are  ptescribed  in  these 
Regulations  or  may  be  imposed  by  the  Board  of  Directors. 

4.  The  Company  shall  have  general  charge  of  the  Department;  guarantee 
the  fulfillment  of  its  obligations:  have  the  custody  of  all  moneys  atkd  assets  belong- 
ing to  the  Relief  Fund  and  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Fund  and  be  responsible 
for  their  safekeeping  and  investment;  pay  into  the  respective  fund  interest  at  the 
rate  of  (our  per  cent  per  annum  on  monthly  balances  in  its  hands  and  all  interest 
or  other  earnings  derived  frominvestmcntsof  moneys  of  the  fund;  supply  the  nee* 
essary  facilities  for  conducting  the  business  of  the  Department;  and  pay  all  <q>erat- 
ing  expenses  thereof. 

J.  The  Superintendent  shall  have  charge  of  all  business  pertaining  to  the 
Department.  He  shall  employ  such  clerks  and  other  assistants  as  may  be  necessary, 
prescribe  the  fonns  and  blanks  to  be  used,  certify  all  bills  and  pay-rolls  of  the 
Department,  sign  all  orders  for  payment  of  benefits,  furnish  to  the  Committee  such 
reporu  as  they  may  require,  decide  all  quesiioni  properly  referred  to  him,  and 
exercise  such  other  authority  as  may  be  conferred  upon  him  by  the  General  Manager 
or  the  Committee. 

6.  There  shall  be  one  or  more  Medical  Examinen.  appointed  by  the  General 
Manager  who  shall,  subject  to  the  c<Hitn>l  and  approval  of  the  Superinieodeni,  have 
general  supervision  of  the  Medical  affairs  of  the  Department. 

7.  The  Medical  Examiner  shall  make  the  required  physical  examination  ol 
applicants  for  membership  in  the  Relief  Department;  prepare  applications;  re- 
port the  condition  of  sick  or  injured  members;  pass  upon  when  members  are  dis- 
abled and  the  cause  and  extent  of  disability  and  upon  when  they  are  able  to  work; 
pass  upon  proofs  of  the  fact  and  cause  of  death;  certify  bills  for  medical  and  surpcal 
treatment,  medicines,  hospital  charges  and  appliances;  and  perform  such  profes- 
sional and  other  duties  as  may  be  required  by  the  Superintendent. 

8.  Medical  Examiners  shall  not  personally  give  surgical  or  medical  attend- 
ance except  as  prescribed  by  rules  of  the  Company  and  shall  not  accept  fees  for 
such  service. 

9.  ThefiscalyearoftheDepartmentshallbepn  with  the  first  day  of  January 
of  each  year. 

THE  RELIEF  FUND 

10.  The  "  Relief  Fund"  will  consist  of  contributions  from  members  of  the 
Rdicf  Department,  income  deiived  from  investments  and  from  interest  paid  by  the 
Company  and  of  appropriations  by  the  Company,  when  necessary  to  make  good 


1 1.  The  moneys  received  for  the  Relief  Fund  shall  be  held  by  the  Company 
in  trust  for  the  members  of  the  Department  and  their  dependents,  next  of  kin  or 
other  beneficiaries,  to  whom  benefits  have  been  or  shall  be  awarded  against  such 
luitd.  The  Committee  shall  provide  for  the  investment,  and  any  changes  therein, 
of  money  which  is  not  required  for  immediate  use.  All  checks  must  be  counter- 
signed by  the  Treasurer.  All  compensation  awarded  against  the  Relief  Fund  is 
hereby  declared  to  be  a  Spendthrift  or  AlimenlaTy  Trust  for  the  support  of  the 
cestuis  que  trtisteni.  No  assignment,  mortpge,  pledge  or  anticipation  of  the  same 
469 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

or  of  any  payments  to  become  due  thereunder  will  be  recogniied  or  bind  the  Foad 
or  be  valid  thereagainit. 

15.  The  Company  being  the  Tniitee  and  Guarantor  of  the  Relief  Fund,  the 
investments  shall  be  in  such  securities  as  shall  have  been  approved  by  the  Compuy 
and  shall  be  in  the  name  of  the  Company  "in  trust  for  the  Relief  Fund." 

[).  If  the  amount  contributed  by  members  of  the  Relief  Fund  with  inlenst 
and  other  income  shall  not  be  sufficient  to  provide  the  benefit  awarded,  and  ample 
to  secure  their  prompt  payment  in  full  as  they  become  due,  the  Company  shall 
advance  from  its  own  funds  whatever  sums  may  be  necessary  for  this  purpne. 
reimbursing  itself  out  of  surplus  only  when  the  contributions  of  members  with  in- 
terest and  other  income  are  more  than  sufficient  therefor. 

14.  If  at  any  time  there  shall  be  a  surplus  after  making  due  allowance  for 
liabilities  over  and  above  what  is  required  to  provide  for  the  full  and  prompt  pay- 
ment of  all  benefits  and  a  reasonable  contingent  fund,  such  surplus  may  be  applied 
to  increase  the  benefits  to  members  in  such  manner  as  may  be  determined,  upon 
advice  of  the  Actuary,  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the  Committee,  approved  by  the 
Company. 

I ;.  The  condition  of  the  Relief  Fund  at  the  close  of  each  fiscal  year  shall  be 
audited  and  reported  on  by  a  competent  person  or  persons  selected  for  that  purpose 
by  the  members  of  the  Committee  who  represent  the  members  of  the  Relief  De- 
partment and  all  payments  due  or  to  become  due,  upon  death  and  disability  bene- 
fits awarded  by  or  claimed  from  the  Relief  Department,  shall  be  valued  by  the 
Actuary. 

THE  WORKMEN'S  COMPENSATION  FUND 

16.  The  "Workmen's  Compensation  Fund"  will  consist  of  contribntioas 
made  solely  by  the  Company  out  of  its  own  funds,  income  derived  from  investments 
■nd  from  interest  paid  by  the  Company,  and  special,  further  appropriations  by  the 
Company,  when  necessary,  to  make  good  deficiencies. 

17.  The  moneys  paid  into  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Fund  shall  be  hdd 
by  the  Company  in  trust  for  the  employees  of  the  Comjiany  and  their  dependents, 
next  of  kin  or  other  beneficiaries  to  whom  compensation  ^all  be  awarded  apinsi 
such  fund.  The  committee  shall  provide  for  the  investment,  and  any  changEi 
therein,  of  money  which  is  not  required  for  immediate  use.  All  checks  must  be 
countersigned  by  the  Treasurer.  All  compensation  awarded  against  the  Work- 
men's Compensation  Fund  is  hereby  declared  to  be  a  Spendthrift  or  Alimentary 
Trust  for  the  support  of  the  cestuis  que  Irustenl.  No  assignment,  mortgap. 
pledge,  or  anticipation  of  the  same  or  of  any  payments  to  become  due  thereunder 
will  be  recognized  or  bind  the  Fund  or  be  valid  thereagainst. 

18.  The  Company  being  the  Trustee  and  Guarantor  of  the  Workmen's 
Compensation  Fund,  the  investments  shall  be  in  such  securities  as  shall  have  been 
approved  by  the  Company,  and  shall  be  in  the  name  of  the  Company  "in  trust  for 
the  Workmen's  Compensation  Fund." 

19.  The  Company  shall  contribute  each  year  to  the  Workmen's  Compensa- 
tion Fund  sufficient  to  provide  the  benefits  awarded  and  to  secure  their  prompt 
payment  in  full  as  they  become  due  and  to  make  good  all  deficiencies  of  such  Fund. 

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30.  The  condition  of  th«  Woriunen's  CoDipenutkm  Food  >t  the  close  of 
each  fiscal  year  thall  be  audited  and  reponed  on  by  a  competent  person  or  persons 
selected  for  that  purpose  by  the  G>mmittee  and  all  payments  due  or  to  become  due, 
upon  death  and  disability  compensation  awarded  by  or  claimed  from  the  Work- 
men's Compensation  Fund,  shall  be  valued  by  the  Actuary. 

31.  TheCompany  reserves  the  right  to  withdraw  the  Workmen's  Compensa- 
tion Fund  from  the  Rdlef  Department,  to  set  it  up  in  a  new  Department  or  to 
discontinue  the  same  eicept  as  to  compensation  theretofore  aivarded. 

RELIEF  COMMITTEE 
II.  There  shall  be  a  Committee  composed  of  eight  members  and  aChainnan 
to  be  known  as  the  Relief  Committee  constituted  as  fdlows: 

(a)  The  General  Manager  of  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Company  shall  be 
ex-officio  a  member  and  Chairman  of  the  Committee. 

(b)  The  other  memben  of  the  Committee  shall  be  chosen  annually  in  De- 
cember, to  tnve  one  year  from  the  fint  day  of  January  next  stuxccding,  or  until 
their  successors  are  chosen  and  shall  qualify,  as  follows: 

(c)  One-half  shall  be  chosen  by  the  Company  and  one-half  by  the  employees 
who  are  members  of  the  Relief  Department  from  among  themselves  on  basis  of 
membenhip  in  the  different  districts  as  provided  in  the  following  section. 

33.  The  members  of  the  Committee  chosen  by  the  members  of  the  Relief 
Department  shall  be  elected  by  ballot,  one  member  to  be  elected  by  the  members 
employed  in  the  iron  and  brass  foundries,  to  be  designated  "  District  No.  i ;"  one  by 
the  members  emph>y«l  in  the  store-keeping,  account  and  drafting  departments  to 
be  designated  "District  No.  a;"  and  two  by  the  members  employed  in  all  other 
departments,  to  be  designated  "E)istrict  No.  3."  the  vote  being  taken  and  certified 
under  oath  by  tellers  selected  by  the  Committee.  The  member  receiving  the  high- 
est number  of  votes  so  cast  in  each  district  shall  be  declared  elected. 

3).  In  balloting  for  members  of  the  Committee  each  member  of  the  Relief 
Department  shall  be  entitled  to  cast  one  vole. 

34.  For  the  Committee  to  serve  during  the  fiscal  year,  1914,  the  members 
elected  in  May,  1913,  shall  continue  in  office  until  January  1,  191;. 

aj .  In  the  event  of  termination  of  the  service  of  any  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee, or  of  hb  withdrawal  or  loss  of  membership  in  the  Relief  Depanment,  his 
membenhip  on  the  Committee  shall  thereupon  terminate. 

36.  Any  vacancy  among  the  members  elected  by  the  contributing  employees 
shall  be  filled  by  the  succession  to  the  position  of  the  employee  who  received  the 
next  highest  number  of  voles  of  members  of  the  same  district  from  which  the  re- 
tiring member  was  elected. 

37.  Any  vacancy  among  the  members  chosen  by  Ihe  Company  shall  be  filled 
by  appointment  by  the  General  Manager. 

38.  The  Superintendent  shall  be  Secrelaiy  to  the  Committee. 

39.  The  Commitlce  shall  have  general  supervisbn  of  the  operalionsof  the 
Department  and  see  that  they  are  conducted  in  accordance  with  these  Regulations. 

30.  The  Committee  shall  hoM  stated  meetings  once  in  three  months,  at  such 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

time  and  place  at  they  shall  detemuDC,  and  thall  roeet  at  other  times  at  the  call  of 
the  Chairman. 

31.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Chairman  to  call  special  meetings  of  the  Ghd- 
mittee  upon  the  written  request  of  three  of  its  members. 

3a.  Amendments  to  the  Regulations  of  the  Department  may  be  proposed 
to  the  Committee  at  any  stated  meeting,  by  any  member  of  the  Conunittec. 
Amendments  so  proposed  may  be  acted  upon  only  at  a  subsequent  stated  or  spedd 
meeting;  but  no  amendment  shall  be  operative  unless  adopted  by  a  vote  in  the 
affirmative  of  a  majority  of  the  whole  Committee,  approved  by  the  Board  of  Direc- 
tors, and  duty  promulgated  by  the  Superintendent;  and  any  amendment  so  adopted, 
approved  and  promulgated  shall  be  binding  upon  the  Company  and  the  memben 
of  the  Relief  Department  and  all  persons  claiming  through  them  from  the  date 
specified  in  the  promulgation  of  the  same,  except  as  regards  benefits  awarded  prior 

APPLICATIONS 
3).  Membership  in  the  Relief  Department  shall  be  based  apoa  an  applica- 
tion in  the  following  form; 

APPLICATION  FOR  MEMBERSHIP  IN  THE  RELIEF  DEPARTMENT  OF 


To  the  Superintendent  of  the  Relief  Department: 

I,  of  in   the  County  of 

and  State  of  ,  now  empik^ 

by  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Company,  do  hereby  apply  for  membership  in  the 
Relief  Department  of  said  Company,  and  consent  ana  agree  to  be  boiittd  by  the 
Regulations  of  said  Relief  Department  and  by  any  other  Regulations  of  said  De- 
partment hereafter  adopted  and  in  force  during  my  membership. 

1  ALSO  AGREE,  That  the  said  Company,  by  its  proper  agents,  and  in  the 
manner  provided  in  said  Regulations,  shall  apply  as  a  voluntary  contribution,  and 
I  hereby  authorize  it,  so  to  deduct  and  apply,  from  any  wages  or  salary  earned  by 
me  under  said  employment  the  sum  provided  in  the  Regulations  of  the  RelieF 
Department  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  benefits  provided  in  the  RegulitioDS 
for  a  member  of  the  Relief  Department,  in  receipt  cil  my  then  regular  salaiy  or 
wages. 

Unless  1  shall  hereafter  otherwise  designate  in  writing,  with  the  approval  at 
the  Superintendent  of  the  Relief  Department,  death  benefit  or  compensatton  after 
providmg  for  my  burial  at  an  expense  not  exceeding  (100.00,  shall  be  payable  10 
my  wife,  if  1  am  married  at  the  time  of  my  death,  or,  if  I  have  no  wife  living,  then 
to  my  children  collectively,  each  to  be  entitled  to  an  equal  share  or,  if  there  be  no 
such  children  living,  then  to  ,  if  living,  and  if  not  living 

then  to  my  father  and  mother  jointly,  or  to  the  survivor,  or,  if  neither  be  living 
then  to  my  next  of  kin,  payment  in  behalf  of  such  next  of  kin  to  be  made  to  my  1^1 
representative  or  if  there  be  no  such  next  of  kin  the  death  benefit  or  compensalioa 
shall  lapse,  and  the  amount  thereof  shall  remain  as  a  part  of  the  Relief  Fund  or  ibe 
Workmen's  Compensation  Fund,  as  the  case  may  be,  without  claim  for  the  sane. 
I  expressly  stipulate  that  my  marriage  shall  at  any  time,  ipso  facto,  have  the  dfcci 
to  substitute  my  wife  in  the  place  and  stead  of  any  beneficiary  theretofore  designated 
to  receive  said  death  benefits  or  compensation  in  the  event  0!  my  death,  if  she  be 
then  living. 

Any  funeral  or  other  expenses  incident  to  my  death,  which  shall  have  been 
raid  by  the  Superintendent  of  the  Relief  Department  in  accordance  with  Ihe 
Regulations,  shall  be  held  to  be  in  part  payment  of  said  death  beiKfii  or  compensi- 
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WESTINGHOUSE   RELIEF  DEPARTMENT 

tioB  and  shall  be  deducted  fram  the  total  amount  thereof  before  payment  to  the 
person  or  penons  entitled  to  receive  the  same. 

I  FURTHER  AGREE  that  in  consideration  of  the  contributions  of  uid 
Company  to  the  Relief  Department,  and  of  the  guarantee  by  it  of  the  payment  of 
the  bendiis  aforesaid,  the  acceptance  of  benefits  from  such  Relief  Feature,  for 
injury  or  death,  shall  operate  as  a  release  of  all  claims  against  said  Company  for 
damages  by  reason  of  such  injury  or  death  which  could  be  made  by  or  through  me, 
or  by  any  beneficiary  or  beneficiaries  (except  a  right,  if  any,  to  claim  under  the 
Regulations  of  the  Pension  Department  of  the  Company)  and  that  the  Superin- 
tei^nt  may  require  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  payment  of  such  benefits,  that 
all  acts  by  him  deemed  appropriate  or  necessary  to  effect  the  full  release  and  dis- 
chai^e  of  the  said  Company  from  all  such  claims,  be  done  by  those  who  might  bring 
suit  for  damages  by  reason  of  said  injury  or  death;  and  also  that  the  bnnging  oT 
such  a  suit  by  me,  my  beneficiaty  or  legal  representative,  for  the  use  of  my  bene- 
ficiary alone,  or  with  others,  shall  operate  as  a  release  in  full  to  the  Relief  Depart' 
ment  of  all  claims  by  reason  of  my  membership  therein. 

I  ALSO  AGREE,  That  this  application,  upon  approval  by  the  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Relief  Department,  shall  make  me  a  member  of  such  Department 
on  and  from  the  date  specified  in  luch  approval  and  constitute  a  contract  between 
myself  and  the  said  Company,  governed  in  its  construction  and  effect  by  the  laws 
of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania,  and  that  the  same  shall  not  be  avoided  by  any  change 
in  the  character  of  my  service,  or  locality  where  rendered,  while  in  the  employment 
of  said  Company,  not  by  any  change  in  the  amounts  applicable  fram  my  wages  or 
salary  to  the  Relief  Fund,  and  that  the  agreement  that  the  above-named  amounts 
shall  be  appropriated  from  my  wages  or  salaiy  shall  apply  also  to  any  other  amounts 


n  appropriation  and  asrignment  in  advance  of  such  portions  of  my  wages  or  salary 
to  the  said  Company  in  trust  for  the  Relief  Fund,  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining 
my  membership  in  the  Relief  Department,  which  assignment  shall  have  prece- 
dence over  any  other  assignment  by  me  of  my  wages  or  salary  or  of  any  claim  upon 
them  on  account  of  liabilities  incurred  by  me. 

I  ALSO  AGREE,  For  myself  and  those  claiming  throu^  me,  and  for  my 
beneficiary  or  beneficiaries,  to  be  especially  bound  by  Regulations  Nos.  109  and 
1 10  providing  for  final  and  conclusive  settlement  of  all  claims  for  benefits  or  contro- 
versies of  whatsoever  nature  by  reference  to  the  Superintendent  of  the  Relief 
Department  and  an  appeal  from  his  decision  to  the  Committee,  with  the  privilege  of 
retort  to  the  Courts  only  when  these  remedies  shall  have  been  exhausted  and  as 
set  forth  in  Regulation  No.  1 10. 

I  ALSO  AGREE,  That  any  untrue  or  fraudulent  statement  made  by  me  to 
the  Medical  Examiner,  or  any  concealment  of  facts  in  this  application,  or  any  at- 
tempt on  my  part  to  defraud  or  impose  upon  said  Relief  Department,  or  my  re- 
signing from  or  leaving  the  services  of  the  said  Company,  or  my  being  relieved  or 
discharged  therefrom,  shall  forfeit  my  membership  in  said  Department  and  all 
benefits,  rights  or  equities  arising  therefrom  except  that  such  termination  of  my 
employment  shall  not  (in  the  absence  of  any  of  the  other  foregoing  causes  of  for- 
feiture) deprive  me  of  any  benefit  or  compensation  to  which  I  may  be  entitled  by 
reason  of  disability  beginning  and  reported  before  and  continuing  without  inter- 
ruption to  and  after  such  termination  of  my  employment,  as  provided  in  said 
Regulations. 

I  CERTIFY  that  I  am  years  of  age,  am  correct  and  temperate  in 

my  habits  and  that,  so  far  as  1  am  aware,  I  am  now  in  good  health,  and  have  no 
injury  or  sickness,  constitutioiul  or  otherwise,  except  as  shown  on  the  accompany- 
ing statement  made  by  me  to  the  Medical  Examiner,  which  statement  shall  con- 
stitute a  part  of  this  application. 

IN  WITNESS  WHEREOF,  I  have  signed  these  presents  at  in 

the  County  of  ,  State  of  ,  this  day  of 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

A.  D.  ig    .  this  ipplication  to  take  effect  A.  D.  lo  . 

or  on  such  subsequent  date  as  may  be  designated  by  taid  Superintendeot;  pnvidtd, 
however,  that  if  I  becorae  disabled  before  said  dale  and  continue  disabled  beyond 
said  date  this  application  shall  not  take  effect  until  the  first  day  after  my  recovcfy. 
The  following  changes  were  made  bdore  executioo. 


Signature  of  ApplicanL 


The  foregoing  application  is  approved  at  the  oflice  of  the  Supetintendent  tt 
the  Relief  Department  at  in  the  Gwnty  of 

,  State  of  this  day  of  , 

A.  D.  19    .  to  take  effect  the  day  of  A.  D.  19    . 


Superintendent  of  the  Relief  DepaTtmenL 


}4.  The  last  application  in  the  foregoing  form  which  shall  have  been  made 
by  an  employee,  shall  be  known  as  his  principal  application. 

3j.  Upon  the  approval  of  the  principal  application  by  the  Superinienduii, 
he  shall  be  a  member  on  and  from  the  date  specified  in  such  approval,  and  the  Super- 
intendent shall  issue  to  him  a  certificate  of  membership  attached  to  a  copy  o(  the 
Regulations  then  in  force. 

)6.  If  any  applicant  for  membership  has  phywcal  defects  which  would  pre- 
clude the  approval  of  hi]  application  if  presented  unconditionally,  his  appltcatka 
may  nevertheless  be  approved,  provided  he  executes  an  agreement  in  writing 
satisfactory  to  the  Superintendent,  to  the  effect  that  he  shall  not  be  entitled  under 
his  membenhip  to  any  benefits  for  disability  caused  by,  arising  from,  or  growing 
out  of  such  defects,  such  agreement  to  be  atladied  to  and  made  part  of  his  said 
application,  and  such  modification  of  the  foregwng  preKribed  forms  of  the  Piwdpal 
Application  is  hereby  authoriied. 

yj.  If  an  employee,  entitled  to  become  a  member  upon  passing  a  satisfactoiy 
medical  examination,  and  who  has  not  previously  been  examined  and  rejected, 
shall  have  executed  3  prescribed  form  of  "  Preliminaiy  Application, "  but  shall  not 
have  had  opportunity  to  be  examined  before  the  date  specified  thereon  for  hb 
application  to  take  etTect,  he  shall  be  protected  by  such  preliminary  application, 
under  and  in  accordance  with  the  temis  of  the  prescribed  form  of  Principal  Applica- 
tion from  said  date  until  he  shall  have  had  opportunity  to  be  examined:  provided, 
however,  that  he  shall  only  be  entitled  to  benefits  payable  on  account  of  injury  of 
death  caused  solely  by  accident  arising  out  of  and  in  the  course  of  his  employmait 
and  if  his  Principal  Application  is  not  approved,  his  rights  and  obligations  in  tbe 
Relief  Department  shall  cease  from  the  time  of  medical  examination;  and  if  be 
shall  refuse  or  neglect  to  be  examined  when  opportunity  for  examination  is  offered, 
his  rights  and  obligations  in  the  Relief  Department  shall  thereupon  cease. 

38.  An  applicant,  protected  in  accordance  with  the  foregoing  against  accident 
only,  shall  not  be  required  to  contribute. 

J9.  Empteyeo  of  the  Company  now  in  its  empk>yment  tnay  become  mem- 
bers of  the  Relief  Department,  without  regard  to  age  or  health,  in  their  respective, 
appropriate  classes,  by  making  application  for  admission,  in  the  form  prescribed, 
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prior  to  January  I,  1914:  >fl*r  which  day,  no  applicant  will  be  admitted  at  an  ag« 
beyond  50  yean  or  without  a  medical  examination. 

40.  Eveiy  preient  member  of  the  Relief  Department  shall  continue  to  be  a 
member  of  the  Relief  Department;  but  if  not  heretofore  a  member  of  the  class 
therein  corresponding  to  his  r^ular  wages  or  salary,  he  must  enter  such  class  and 
become  entitled  to  enjoy  the  benefits  thereof  and  be  required  to  make  the  con- 
tribution specified  therefor  in  these  Regulations  in  order  to  be  eligible  to  enjoy  for 

-hitmelf  and  his  family  the  privileges  and  benefits  of  the  Pension  Department.  The 
class  of  every  member  shall  be  determined  by  the  Superintendent.  Consent  to 
such  transfer  shall  consist  in  the  acquiescence  of  such  member  in  the  deduction  of 
the  appropriate  contribution  from  his  wages,  salary  or  benefit. 

MEMBERSHIP 

41.  All  employees  of  the  Company,  who,  under  the  Regulations,  shall  con- 
tribute to  the  Relief  Fund,  shall  be  designated  as  "members  of  the  Relief  Depart- 

43.  In  referring  to  employees  of  the  Company  the  word  "service"  shall 
mean  employment  by  this  Company,  and  the  service  of  any  employee  shall  be 
r^arded  as  continuous  for  the  time  during  which  he  has  been  continuously  in  the 
employment  of  this  Company. 

43.  There  shall  be  five  classes  of  members.  The  class  in  which  an  employee 
shall  be  a  member,  shall  be  detennined  by  the  amount  of  his  ordinary  regular 
monthly  wages  or  salary,  omitting  from  consideration  overtime  or  occasional  toss 
of  time,  as  follows: 

MonMj  Pay  Oast 

Less  than  H$-(*'> 'st 

fjj.ooor  more,  but  less  than  fjj.oo .and 

i^yooorman,  but  less  than  tjyoa 3rd 

Vjyoo  or  more,  but  lew  than  t^yvo 4th 

f9j.ooormore  $th 

44.  No  employee  shall  be  required  to  become  a  member  of  the  Relief  De- 
partment; but  preference  in  laying  off  and  taking  on  employees  will  usually  be 
given  to  such  members  or  persons  offering  to  become  such. 

4;.  The  class  of  a  member  shall  be  determined  in  case  of  claim  for  benefil 
or  compensation  by  the  contribution  made  by  or  for  him  immediately  prior  to  the 
disability  or  death. 

46.  An  employee  cannot  remain  a  member  in  a  class  higher  than  that 
allowed  by  bis  pay. 

47.  The  Superintendent  has  authority  am)  the  duty  to  change  the  class  and 
contribution  of  a  member  when  his  wages  or  salary  call  for  it.  If  a  member  de- 
clines to  permit  such  change,  the  Superintendent  shall  have  authority  to  cancel  his 
membenhip. 

48.  Any  member  may  withdraw  from  the  Relief  Department  at  the  end  of 
any  month  upon  giving  notice  to  the  Superintendent  before  the  twentieth  of  that 
month  on  the  prescribed  form  of  withdrawal  notice,  which  will  be  furnished  upon 
request. 

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49.  The  Cominittee,  on  recommendation  of  the  Superintendent,  shall  have 
authority  to  cancel  the  membership  of  any  member  upon  receiving  reliable  evidesa 
of  habitual  or  frequent  drunkenness,  disreputable  at  unlawful  conduct  at  any  tim^ 
or  for  persistent  disregard  of  the  Regulations  by  such  member  while  disabled. 
Written  Dotice  of  such  cancellation  tA  membership  shall  be  given  the  member,  iitd 
refund  of  contribution,  if  any  due,  shall  accompany  the  ttotice  aiul  be  specifically 
mentioned  therein. 

JO.  Any  member  who  is  furloughed,  suspended  or  otherwise  temponrily 
rdieved  from  the  service  for  a  specified  time,  may  retain  his  membenbip  duri^ 
such  absence  by  paying  his  contributions  in  advance.  His  Foreman  or  Head  of 
Department  shall  notify  the  Superintendent  at  the  bepnning  of  such  absence, 
specifying  the  time  set  for  return  to  duty,  and  if  at  that  time  the  member  does  noi 
return  to  duty  his  membership  in  the  Relief  Department  shall  thereupon  terminate, 
unless  otherwise  previously  arranged  by  him  with  the  Superintendent. 

Any  person  who  shall,  in  accordance  with  these  Regulations,  be  awarded 
compensation  for  partial  disability  due  to  accident  arising  out  of  and  in  the  coarse 
(rf  hb  employment  by  this  Company  and  who  is  reemployed  by  this  Company  may 
continue  bis  membership  in  the  Relief  Department  in  the  Class  in  which  hii  reduced 
wages  or  salary  shall  place  him. 

$1.  When  a  member  resigns  from  the  service,  or  leaves  the  service  ivithout 
notice,  or  is  relieved  or  discharged  therefrom,  his  membership  in  the  ReKrf  Depart- 
ment shall  terminate  with  his  employment,  and  be  shall  not  be  entitled  to  claim  any 
benefits  thereafter,  except  such  as  he  may  be  entitled  to  by  reason  of  disability 
beginning  and  reported  before,  and  continuing  without  interruption  to  and  aflci 
such  termination  of  employment. 

S3.  Any  member  of  the  Relief  Fund  who  became  a  member  of  Ttaa  We>t- 
inghouM  Air  Brake  Company  Employea'  BaneflcUl  Aswciatioii  pnviotn  ta 
At^gDSt  38,  1895,  and  has  held  continuous  membenhip  since  that  date  in  that 
Association,  and  in  the  said  Relief  Fund,  may  continue  membership  in  the  Relief 
Department  after  leaving  the  employ  of  the  said  Company,  provided  he  resides  it 
Allegheny  or  Westmoreland  Counties;  but  shall  in  such  event  continue  bis  member- 
ship in  the  first  class  only,  and  shall  contribute  therefor  in  advance  at  the  rate  c( 
60  cents  per  month. 

$).  When  a  member  absents  himself  from  duty  for  a  period  of  six  days  with- 
out the  permission  of  his  employing  officer  previously  obtained,  or  without  giving 
reason  for  absence,  satisfactory  to  his  employing  officer,  he  shall  be  held  to  have 
left  the  service  without  notice,  and  his  membership  shall  be  held  to  have  terminated 
on  the  day  preceding  such  absence.  If  such  member  be  reinstated  in  the  service 
he  may  also  be  reinstated  in  membership  upon  approval  of  the  Superiniendeni. 

J4-  If  a  member  is  relieved  from  service  and  is  afterwards  re-employed,  he 
may  again  become  a  member  of  the  Relief  Department,  although  then  over  fifty 
years  of  age,  upon  application  at  the  time  of  re-employment,  upon  passing  a  siti*- 
factory  medical  examination  in  which  his  physical  condition  at  the  termination  of 
former  employment  will  be  i^ven  due  consideration,  and  upon  approval  of  his  appli- 
cation by  the  Superintendent. 

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WESTINGHOUSE   RELIEF  DEPARTMENT 

if.  When  a  member  b  in  arrean  for  three  months,  bis  membership  shall 
thereupon  cease.    (See  also  Regutations  Nos.  (^  and  91.) 

^  If  a  member  resumes  work  for  the  Company  with  the  approval  of  the 
Medical  Examiner  and  the  Superintendent,  before  he  has  been  in  arrears  three 
months,  he  shall  be  protected  from  the  time  of  resuming  worlc,  and  the  arrears 
shall  be  paid  on  the  next  pay-roll. 

$7.  Members  shall  keep  their  Foreman  or  Timekeeper  informed  of  their 

$8.  A  member's  place  of  residence  when  on  duty  shall  be  held  to  be  the  last 
address  given  to  his  Timekeeper  or  Foreman. 


CONTRIBUTIONS  OF  MEMBERS 

{9.  The  word  "contributions"  wherever  used  in  these  R^ulations  shall  be 
held  and  construed  to  nia  to  such  designated  proportions  ot  the  wages  or  salary 
payable  by  the  Company  to  an  employee,  as  it  is  provided  in  these  R^ulations 
that  the  Company  shall  apply,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  benefits  of  the  Relief 
Fund,  or  to  such  cash  payments  as  it  may  be  necessary  for  a  member  to  make  for 
said  purpose. 

60-  Contributions  shall  be  made  monthly  in  advance  at  the  following  rates: 

lit  Class,  wages  less  than  f)j  per  month $  .jo 

and  Class,  wages  tii  to  $$$  per  month 7j 

jrd  Qass,  wages  t$$  to  {7$  pel' month 1.00 

4th  Oass,  wages  (7$  to  fg$  per  month i.3f 

jth  Class,  wages  )95  and  over  per  month i.jo 

61.  Contributions  for  each  month  mil  be  due  on  the  first  day  of  that 
month,  and  will  tmlinarily  be  deducted  from  the  member's  wages  or  salary  on  the 
first  pay-roll  of  the  preceding  month. 

63.  If  deduction  of  a  member's  contribution  from  his  wages  or  salary  is 
omitted  in  error,  the  fact  that  such  deduction  has  not  been  made  shall  not  debar 
him  M'  his  betteficiary  from  benefits  to  which  they  otherwise  would  be  entitled,  but 
such  deduction  shall  be  made  from  ivages  or  salary  payable  thereafter. 

63 .  When  a  member  has  no  wages  or  salary  due'lo  him,  any  contribution  due 
from  him  must  be  paid  in  cash  in  advance  to  the  Superintendent;  otherwise  he  will 
be  in  arrears.    (See  also  Regulations  Nos.  j$  and  91.) 

64.  No  member  will  be  permitted  to  fall  in  arrears  for  contributions  while 
drawing  benefits  from  the  Relief  Fund  for  disability.  A  sufficient  amount  will  be 
withheld  from  benefits  to  protect  dues  for  one  month  in  advance  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  disability  for  which  benefits  are  payable,  provided  an  insufficient 
amount  is  due  the  member  for  wages  or  salary  on  the  Company  pay-roll. 

6$.  No  deduction  on  account  of  contribution  to  the  Relief  Fund  shall  be 
made  from  the  pay  trf  an  applicant  for  membership,  and  no  increase  of  deductions 
shall  be  made  for  increase  of  class  without  instructions  from  the  Superintendent, 
and  any  deduction  made  to  the  contrary  shall  be  held  to  have  been  made  in  error, 
and  shall  be  due  the  applicant  or  member  as  a  refund. 

66,  In  determining  contribution  for  a  part  of  a  month,  the  amount  for  each 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

day  shall  be  one-thirtieth  (rf  the  amount  for  one  month,  and  the  amount  for  an; 
other  part  of  a  month  shall  be  determined  by  multiplying  the  amount  Soi  one  day 
by  the  number  (tf  days  in  such  part,  adding  to  make  even  cents  when  fnctioM 

67.  In  determining  the  number  of  days  in  the  part  of  a  month  (or  which 
contribution  is  to  be  collected,  the  actual  calendar  days  shall  be  computed,  begiit- 
ning  on  the  day  on  which  the  application  takes  effect. 

68.  When  a  member's  service  terminates,  there  shall  be  due  him  u  a  R^und 
any  excess  of  contribution  he  may  have  made  above  what  is  necessary  to  adjust  bit 
account  up  to,  but  not  Including,  the  last  day  of  service;  but  no  refund  dull  be  doe 
in  the  month  in  which  a  member  dies. 

69.  Any  refund  of  contribution  due  a  member  or  applicant  for  membership 
shall  be  payable  upon  application  therefor  by  such  person,  if  made  within  twelve 
months  after  termination  of  membeiship,  and  shall  be  made  by  warrant  or  other- 
wise, in  conformity  with  the  financial  methods  ot  the  Company. 

DISABILITY 

70.  Wherever  used  in  these  Regulations  the  word  "disability"  shall  be  hdd 
to  mean  physical  inability  to  work,  by  reason  of  sickness  or  injury,  and  the  wocd 
"disabled"  shall  apply  to  memben  thus  physically  unable  to  work;  the  decision 
as  to  when  members  are  disabled,  the  cause  and  extent  thereof  and  when  they  ire 
able  to  work,  shall  rest  with  the  Medical  Examiner,  subject  to  review  by  the  Super- 
intendent and  the  Committee. 

71.  Whether  disability  at  any  time  shall  be  classed  as  due  to  accideat 
arising  out  of  and  in  the  course  of  the  member's  employment  by  ibis  Company  ot 
to  other  causes,  shall  be  passed  upon  by  the  Medical  Examiner,  ivho  shall  traasmit 
the  same  with  his  recommendations  to  the  Committee  which  shall  make  fiul 
determination.  Pending  such  determination  the  Superintendent  shall  order 
benefits  (or  compensation)  to  be  paid  from  such  fund  as  upon  the  facts  before  him 
may  seem  liable  and,  if  upon  final  determination,  any  sum  or  sums  shall  prove  thus 
to  have  been  paid  from  the  Relief  Fund  which  should  have  been  paid  from  the 
Workmen's  Compensation  Fund  the  former  shall  be  reimbursed  out  of  the  latier. 

73.  tn  considering  the  question  of  disability,  subjective  symptoms  er 
alleged  feelings  will  be  given  due  weight,  but  these  themselves,  unsupported  bf 
objective  and  discoverable  symptoms,  shall  not  entitle  a  member  to  be  conadered 
disabled. 

73-  When  a  member  becomes  disabled,  he  shall  notify  his  tiraekeepel  « 
foreman  immediately,  or  cause  him  to  be  so  notified.  In  reporting  disability  the 
member  shall  also  give  his  house  address.  If  he  fails  to  give  notice  until  he  recovers, 
DO  benefit  shall  be  payable  unless  he  proves  his  disability  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
Superintendent,  and  gives  satisfactory  reason  for  failure  to  pve  notice.  If  he  gives 
notice  during  his  disability,  but  delays  in  so  doint  he  shall  not  be  considered 
disabled  before  the  day  on  which  notice  is  given,  unless  he  proves  his  disabiliiy 
before  that  day  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Superintendent,  and  gives  satisfactoty 
reason  for  delay  in  giving  notice. 

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WE5T1NCHOUSE   RELIEF   DEPARTMENT 

74.  When  a  member  becomes  disabled  it  shall  also  be  his  duty,  unless  in- 
capacitated thereTrom  by  his  disability,  to  report  immediately  in  penon  to  the 
Medical  Examiner  at  his  office  during  office  hours.  It  shall  alio  be  the  duty  of  a 
disabled  member  not  confined  to  the  bouse  by  disability,  to  report  at  the  Medical 
Examiner's  office  from  time  to  time  as  requested,  and  to  keep  any  other  appoint- 
ments made  by  the  Examiner.  Members  who  avmd  the  Medical  Examiner,  or 
Defect  to  report  or  keep  appointments  as  herdn  provided,  shall  not  be  entitled  to 
benefits. 

7j.  If  a  member  who  has  been  reported  by  the  Medical  Examiner  as  able 
to  work,  is  not  able  to  work  on  the  day  set,  he  shall  immediately  notify  his  employing 
officer  to  that  effect  and  shall  immediately  communicate  with  the  Medical  Exami- 
ner, reporting  10  him  in  person  if  posMble;  otherwise  be  shall  not  be  considered 
disabled  on  or  after  the  day  set  for  his  return  to  work. 

76.  When  a  member  becomes  disabled  during  suspension,  furlou^  or  Other 
leave  of  absence,  and  while  away  from  his  usual  place  of  residence  when  on  duty, 
he  shaJl  not  be  entitled  to  benefits,  unless,  in  addition  to  reporting  hb  disability 
immediately  as  required  by  the  regulations,  he  proves  his  disability  while  absent 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Superintendent. 

77.  When  a  disabled  member  wishes  to  absent  himself  for  any  length  of 
tine  from  his  usual  place  of  residence  when  on  duty,  he  shall  first  see  the  Superin- 
tcodent  and  the  Medical  Examiner  and  obtain  written  approval  of  absence  for  a 
Specified  time;  he  shall  furnish  to  the  Medical  Examiner  satisfactory  certificates 
of  disability  during  absence,  keep  him  informed  erf  his  address  and  report  to  him 
immediately  upon  his  return.  If  such  disabled  member  goes  away  and  remains 
away  without  previously  consulting  the  Medical  Examiner  and  obtaining  written 
approval  of  absence  for  a  specified  time,  he  shall  not  be  entitled  to  benefits  or  com- 
pensation for  any  time  (rf  absence  unless  he  proves  his  disability  while  absent  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  Superintendent,  and  gives  satisfactory  reason  for  failure  to  con- 
sult the  Medical  Examiner  before  leaving. 


BENEFITS  AND  COMPENSATION 

78.  A  member  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  from  the  Relief  Fund  benefits 
cuitinuously  after  the  first  week  during  any.  total  disability  due  to  causes  other 
than  accident  arising  out  of  and  in  the  course  of  employment  by  the  Company,  but 
not  beyond  the  day  when  such  disabled  employee  shall  be  awarded  a  service  pension 
by  the  Company  under  the  Regulations  of  its  F>ension  Department;  and  any  em- 
ployee from  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Fund  like  benefits  as  compensation 
from  the  first  day  during  the  entire  duration  of  his  total  disability  due  to  such  acci- 
dent. Benefits  or  compensation  to  disabled  members  in  receipt  of  the  same  on 
Januaiy  1st,  1914,  shall  be  payable  from  said  day  as  provided  in  this  paragraph. 

79.  After  a  member  has  sufficiently  recovered  from  a  disability  for  which 
beiMfits  or  compensation  have  been  paid,  to  resume  work,  he  shall  be  restored  to 
full  membership,  if  he  is  re-employed  by  the  Company. 

80.  A  member  who  has  drawn  benefits  or  compensation  for  total  disability 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

fhal)  not  be  required  to  make  contribution  uotit  restored  to  fnU  membenUp; 
except  as  the  same  is  deducted  from  his  benefit. 

8).  A  nteinber  shall  not  be  entitled  to  benefits  or  cocnpeiiHtiiMi  for  totil 
disability  alleged  to  be  due  to  any  cause,  while  still  so  disabled  from  a  piecediai 

83.  While  wages  or  salary  is  received  from  any  source  whatsoever  durias 
disability,  a  member  shall  not  be  considered  totally  disabled  within  the  meaniag 
of  that  tenn  as  employed  in  these  Regulations,  and  no  benefits  or  compensation  for 
total  disability  shall  be  paid;  provided  that,  after  such  total  disability  shall  have 
been  established,  the  earnings  of  not  more  than  one-sixth  the  amount  shall  DM  be 
deemed  to  terminate  such  total  disability. 

83.  Should  a  disabled  member  decline  to  accept  benefits  or  compensatiM 
he  shall  not  thereafter  make  contribution  or  retain  title  to  benefits  or  eompenntioii. 
Should  such  member  afterward  accept  the  benefits  or  compensation  to  which  be  is 
entitled,  a  proper  adjustment  of  contribution  shall  be  made. 

84.  In  any  case  of  grave  injury  or  chronic  weakncu  where  the  member  dt* 
sires  to  accept  a  tump  sum  in  lieu  of  the  benefits  or  compensation  which  nd^ 
become  due  to  him  or  on  his  account,  and  in  full  of  all  obligations  of  the  Departmait 
w  the  Company  arising  from  his  membership,  the  Superintendent  shall  have 
authority  to  recommend  full  and  final  settlement  with  such  member  for  such  amoont 
and  on  such  terms  as  may  be  agreed  upon  in  writing.  All  such  pn^nsed  settle- 
ments shall  be  based  upon  computation  of  commuted  value  of  the  benefits  by  tbe 
actuary;  and  shall  not  be  effective  until  approved  by  the  Committee  after  ten  days' 
written  notice  setring  forth  in  detail  what  the  benefit  or  compensation  is,  tbe  pro- 
posed commutation  and  the  reason  therefor. 

85.  In  computing  benefits  or  compensation,  the  time  of  disability  dnll  be 
considered  as  beginning  upon  the  first  day  upon  which  no  wages  or  less  than  one- 
half  day's  wages  are  paid  because  of  disability,  and  this  day  shall  be  called  "Fust 
day  wages  not  paid," 

86.  Benefits  and  compensation  shall  be  paid  in  confonnity  with  the  financial 
methods  of  the  Company,  and  on  warrants  drawn  by  the  Superintendent  (or  in  his 
absence  by  other  penons  authorized  by  the  General  Manager)  upon  his  receiving 
satisfactory  certificates  respecting  the  claims  and  such  releases  as  may  be  required 
by  him. 

87.  Benefits  or  compensation  on  account  o(  continued  disability  will  be  paid 
monthly;  on  account  of  short  periods  of  disability  as  soon  as  the  amount  doe  can 
be  ascertained. 

88.  Benefits  or  compensation  payable  on  account  of  total  disability  shall  be 
payable  only  to  the  member  or  employee  or  in  accordance  with  bis  written  order 
when  approved  by  the  Superintendent,  or  to  his  legal  representative;  but  payment 
for  medical  or  surgical  treatment  may  be  made  to  the  attending  physician  or  sar- 
geon. 

89.  When  in  the  opinion  of  the  Superintendent,  a  disabled  member  or  em- 
ployee is  mentally  incompetent,  disability  benefits  or  compensation  due  him  may.ii 
the  discretion  of  the  Superintendent,  be  paid  to  his  wife  or  to  some  member  of  hit 

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family,  or  to  some  other  person  in  law  charged  with  or  in  faci  astuming  his  care  and 
custody  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  the  member,  and  such  payment  shall  be  a  bar  to 
any  subsequent  claim  on  part  of  Ibe  member  or  his  legal  represeotative  for  the 
amount  so  paid. 

90.  Disability  bcnefiis  shall  not  be  payable  out  of  the  Relief  Fund  for  dis- 
ability directly,  indirectly  or  partly  due  to  intoxication  or  to  the  use  of  alcoholic 
liquor  as  a  beverage,  or  to  immoderate  use  of  stimulants  or  narcotics,  or  to  unlawful 
acts  or  immoralities  or  venereal  disease  however  contracted,  or  to  the  results  thereof, 
or  to  urethritis,  orchitis,  epididymitis,  stricture  or  to  glandular  swelling,  or  abscess 
in  the  groin,  however  caused,  or  to  fighting,  unless  in  self-defense  against  unpro- 
voked assault,  or  to  injury  received  in  any  brawl  or  ia  any  liquor  saloon,  gambling 
bouse  or  other  disreputable  resort.  Compensation  shall  not  be  payable  out  of  the 
Workmen's  Compensation  Fund  for  death  or  disability  due  to  accident  solely 
caused  by  the  member's  intoiication,  or  by  his  willful  or  reckless  act.  During 
such  disability  members  who  keep  the  Superintendent  informed  of  their  addresses 
and  furnish  him  satisfactory  evidence  of  continued  disability,  retain  title  to  death 
benefit;  otherwise  their  membership  shall  be  held  to  have  terminated. 

91.  Benefits  or  compensation  shall  not  be  payable  on  account  of  disability 
be^nning  or  death  occurring  while  a  member  is  in  arrears.  (See  also  Regulations 
Nos.  J5  and  6j.) 

93.  Members  or  employees  shall  not  be  entitled  to  beoelits  or  compensation 
if  they  decline  to  permit  the  Medical  Examiner  to  make,  or  to  have  made  by  any 
other  physician,  such  examination  or  examinations  as  he  may  deem  necessary  to 
ascertain  their  condition. 

9).  Disabled  members  or  employees  must  take  proper  care  of  themsdves 
artd  have  suitable  treatment:  benefits  or  compensation  will  be  discontinued  If  they 
refuse  or  penistently  neglect  to  comply  with  the  recommendation  erf  the  Medical 
Examiner  of  the  Relief  Department  as  to  proper  care  and  treatment. 

94.  Oaim  for  disability  benefits  or  compensation  must  be  made  within  sixty 
days  from  the  lime  a/hen  such  benefits  or  compensation  bepn  to  accrue,  and  claim 
for  death  benefits  or  compensation  must  be  made  within  one  year  from  death. 

9$.  A  person  claiming  benefits  or  compensation  for  time  after  termination  of 
service  shall  not  be  entitled  to  such  for  a  disability  arising  from  any  cause  occurring 
after  such  termination  nor  in  any  case  unless  directly  due  to  a  cause  which  arose 
out  of  the  disability  existing  at  the  time  of  such  termination. 

96.  Members  vi\l  be  entitled  to  benefits  or  compensation  as  follows: 

Bnufit 

H^agti  or  Salary                    Cotitribttiitm  Total  Dimbilily  Dtalb 

Clan         ptrmontb                              ptr  numlh        H^ttUy  Ont  Sum 

I  Under  f)j t  -io             {j.oo  f  150.00 

II  fe5.oo  to  fss-oo                             .75               7.S0  150.00 

III  Sjt.oo  tof7;.oo                            1.00             10.00  ijo.oo 

IV  J7J.00  to  (9J.00       .              .       t.3j              ia.50  IJO.OO 
V  (95.00  or  over    ....       1.50              15.00  150.00 

97.  No  member  shall  be  entitled  to  disability  benefits  for  sickness,  nor  shall 
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death  benefits  be  payable  for  death  resulting  from  sickness,  unless  said  sickness 
begins  at  least  )o  days  after  date  of  formal  acceptance  as  a  member. 

98.  Payment  of  benefit  shall  be  made  for  each  week  attd  fracti<Hi  of  a  ved 
of  total  disability  not  due  to  accident  arising  out  of  and  in  the  course  of  the  employ- 
ment of  the  member  by  the  Company  (except  for  the  firat  week  of  such  total  dis- 
ability) during  the  period  of  such  disability,  but  not  beyond  the  day  when  the 
disabled  employee  shall  be  awarded  a  service  pension  by  the  Pension  Oepirtmrot 
under  its  Regulations.  Payment  of  compensation  for  total  disability  due  to  such 
accident  shall  be  made  for  each  week  and  fraction  ot  a  week  of  total  disability. 

9!).  To  establish  a  claim  for  benefit  for  disability  due  to  sickness  there  mutt 
be  positive  evidence  of  acute  or  constitutional  disease  sufhcient  to  cause  disabffity. 

100.  In  case  of  relapse  in  event  of  disability  which  lasted  one  week  or  dwr, 
the  first  seven  days  shall  not  a  second  lime  be  deducted  in  computing  time  of  dis- 
■bility  benefits;  and  where  such  immediately  preceding  disability  lasted  sil  days 
or  less,  the  number  of  days  to  be  deducted  shall  be  seven,  less  the  number  of  days 
of  such  preceding  disability. 

loi.  Death  benefit  shall  not  be  payable  in  case  of  death  due  directly  or 
indirectly  to  unlawful  acts  or  at  the  hands  of  justice. 

loa.  Death  benefit,  or  compensation,  together  with  any  unpaid  disibUity 
benefits  or  compensation,  shall  be  payable  to  the  beiMficiary  of  a  deceased  membet 
upon  proof  of  claim  and  eseculion  and  delivery  of  the  necessary  releases. 

iDj.  A  part  of  the  death  benefit  or  compensation,  not  to  exceed  tiao.00. 
may,  at  the  discretion  of  the  Superintendent,  be  paid  before  final  settlement,  to 
meet  funeral  or  other  urgent  expenses  incident  to  the  death  of  a  member. 

104.  No  benefit  shall  be  payable  for  partial  disability  due  to  cause  otiwf 
than  accident  arising  out  of  and  in  the  course  of  empbyment  by  the  Company: 
compensation  for  partial  disability  due  solely  to  such  accident  shall  be  cUim^fie 
from  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Fund  in  an  amount  based  upon  the  compensf 
tion  which  would  be  claimable  by  the  member  for  total  disability,  proportionate  to 
the  extent  of  the  disability  as  determined  by  the  impairment  of  the  earning  powa. 
If  such  impairment  is  temporary  or,  when  permanent,  is  at  least  40  per  cent  ol 
the  earning  power,  such  partial  disability  compensation  shall  be  paid  in  the  uinc 
manner  and  at  the  same  times  as  are  prescribed  by  these  Regulations  for  the  pay- 
ment of  compensation  for  total  disability.  If  such  impairment  is  permanent  sad 
less  than  40%  of  the  earning  power,  compensation  may,  at  the  discretion  of  the 
Superintendent,  be  paid  in  a  lump  sum.  equal  to  four  years'  payments  of  compea- 
sation  at  the  rate  corresponding  to  such  degree  of  impairment. 

■OS.  Should  the  Company  re-«mploy  the  partially  disabled  member,  am- 
pensation  for  partial  disability  shall  be  fixed  at  a  proportion  of  the  compeosatiM 
which  would  have  been  claimable,  had  the  disability  been  total,  corresponding  U 
the  reduction  (if  any)  in  wages  or  salary.  Such  re-empk>yroent  shall  be  upon 
the  basis  that  the  Company  reserves  the  right  to  suspend  or  discharge  such  empkiyee 
at  its  pleasure  but  in  event  of  such  suspension  or  discharge  he  shall  be  entitled  toi 
review  by  the  Committee  of  the  determination  and  award  of  compensalioa  for 
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106.  Sboutd  a  partial  disabitiiy  through  any  cause  improve  or  should  it 
increase  through  the  cause  which  was  oripnally  responsible  for  ii,  the  amount  of 
the  compensation  shall  be  subject  to  review  on  motion  of  either  party  by  the  Com- 
mittee in  ordeflo  fix  the  proper  amount  to  be  paid  thereafter:  and,  on  motion  of 
the  claimant,  upon  a  showing  of  mistake  of  fact  or  of  newly  discovered  evidence. 

107.  All  compensation  for  disat»lity  or  death  due  to  accident  arising  out  of 
and  in  the  coune  of  the  employment  shall  be  paid  from  the  Workmen's  Compensa- 
tion Fund  contributed  by  the  Company  and  no  pait  thereof  from  the  Relief  Fund; 
and  if  by  error  or  oversight  any  such  payment  at  compensatbn  shall  be  made  out 
of  the  Relief  Fund,  it  shall  be  reimbursed  out  of  the  Workmen's  Compensation 
Food- 

ro8.  In  any  controversy,  daim,  demand,  suit  at  law  or  other  proceeding 
between  any  member,  his  beneficiaiy  or  legal  representative  and  the  Company 
or  the  Relief  Department,  the  Certificate  of  the  Superintendent  as  to  any  facts 
appearing  in  the  records  of  the  Relief  Department  or  of  the  Company,  or  that  any 
writing  is  a  copy  taken  from  said  records  of  any  instrument  on  lile  in  said  De- 
partment, or  with  the  Company,  or  that  any  action  has  or  has  not  been  taken  by 
the  Committee  or  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Company,  shall  be  prima  facie  evidence 
of  the  facts  therein  stated. 

109.  All  questions  01  controversies  of  whatsoever  character  arising  in  any 
manner,  or  between  any  parties  or  persons,  in  connection  with  the  Relief  Depart- 
ment or  the  operation  thereof,  whether  as  to  any  claim  for  benefits  or  compensation 
preferred  by  any  member  or  employee  or  his  legal  representative  or  his  beneficiary 
or  any  other  person,  or  as  to  the  construction  of  language  or  meaning  of  tbe  Reg- 
ulations, or  as  to  any  writing,  decision,  instructions  or  acts  in  connection  with  the 
operation  of  the  Department,  shall  be  submitted  to  the  determinaijon  of  the  Super- 
intendent, whose  decJMon  shall  be  final  and  conclusive  thereof,  unless  an  appeal 
shall  be  taken  lo  the  Committee  within  tbirly  days  after  notice  of  such  decision  to 
the  parties  interested. 

1 10.  When  an  appeal  is  taken  to  the  Committee  it  shall  be  heard  by  said 
Committee  without  further  notice  at  the  next  stated  meeting,  or  at  such  future 
meeting  or  time  as  they  may  designate  and  shall  be  determined  by  a  vole  of  a 
majority  of  a  quorum  or  of  any  otber  number  not  less  than  a  quorum  of  the  mem- 
bers present  at  such  meeting,  and  the  decision  arrived  at  thereon  by  the  Committee 
shall  be  final  and  conclusive  upon  all  parties  without  exception  or  appeal;  except 
that  it  shall  be  reviewable  by  a  court  of  competent  jurisdiction  by  an  actbn  brought 
within  JO  days  after  notice  of  the  decision  of  the  Committee,  as  to  the  right  of  any 
party  to  recover  a  benefit  or  compensation. 

1 1 1.  The  action  of  the  Board  of  Directors  in  establishing  (he  Relief  Depart- 
ment, in  adopting  these  Regulations  and  in  making  contributions  shall  not  be  held 
to  create  a  contract  between  the  Company  and  any  em^doyee  or  other  persons  or 
vest  in  him  or  any  of  them  any  interest,  prior  to  or  other  than  an  actual  award  of 
benefit  or  compensation  or  to  confer  upon  any  such  employee  a  right  to  be  retained 
in  the  service  of  the  Company  or  to  oblige  the  company  to  continue  the  Relief 
Depaitment,  the  Relief  Fund  or  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Fund  or  to  make 

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further  contributions  for  the  benefit  of  persons  other  than  those  to  whom  bcnttt 
or  compensation  shall  have  been  awarded;  provided  that  no  such  diKontinuioct 
shall  affect  the  Company's  liability  as  trustee  or  guarantor  of  the  Relief  Fund  or 
Workmen's  Compensation  Fund  as  regards  benefits  or  compensation  awarded,  ex- 
cept that  the  Company  may  at  any  time  be  released  from  further  liability  there- 
under by: 

I.  Nominating,  by  and  with  the  approval  of  a  Judgeof  aCourtof  Allqibmy 
County,  Stale  of  Pennsylvania,  of  competent  jurisdiction,  a  trustee  for  the  Rdief 
Fund,  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Fund  or  both  as  the  case  may  be,  to  hold  ud 
administer  the  same  as  herein  provided  for  the  benefit  of  all  persons  to  whoa 
benefits  or  compensation  shall  have  been  awarded  and  transferring  to  such  tnuite 
funds  and  securities  at  least  equal  in  value  to  all  benefits  or  compensation  awarded 
and  then  in  force,  as  determined  by  the  Actuary  of  tbe  State  Insurance  Department 
<rf  Pennsylvania;  « 

1.  Purchasing  annuities  for  all  persons  to  whom  such  benefits  or  cMnpema- 
tion  shall  have  been  awarded  and  shall  then  be  in  force  for  amounts  equal  to  tucb 
benefits  or  compensation  and  payable  for  the  same  terms.  fn»n  a  life  insurance 
company  licetised  to  do  business  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 

In  either  of  such  cases,  the  remainder  of  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Faod, 
and  in  any  case  when  valuation  shall  disclose  a  surplus  of  that  Fund,  ovtr  all 
requirements,  the  surplus  may  be  withdrawn  by  the  Company  and  under  like 
circumstances,  the  remainder  or  surplus  of  the  Relief  Fund  may  be  distributed 
equitably  among  its  then  members. 


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APPENDIX  XVIll 

PENSION  SYSTEM,'  WESTINGHOUSE 
AIR   BRAKE  COMPANY 

Pumunt  to  action  taken  by  the  Board  of  Directon  of  the  Westingboute 
Air  Brake  Company  at  their  meeting  held  September  17,  1908,  and  at  subsequent 
meetings  and  la  action  taken  by  the  shareholders  It  their  meeting  held  October  1, 
1911,  for  the  purpose  of  providing  Service  Pensions  for  faithful  employees  who, 
after  rendering  long  and  efficient  service,  may  be  relircd  by  reason  of  age  and  for 
the  purpose  also  of  providing  for  the  dependents  or  next  of  kin  of  employees  of  the 
Company  who  die  as  the  result  of  accident  arising  out  of  and  in  the  course  of  their 
employment  by  the  Company  and  of  such  of  the  employees  of  the  Company  as 
come  within  these  Regulations  who  die  in  consequence  of  any  other  cause,  the  Com- 
pany bas  created  a  Pension  System  and  hereby  creates  a  Pension  Department  for 
the  administration  of  the  same  and  adopts  the  following  Regulations  to  carry  such 
Pension  System  into  effect  and  to  provide  for  such  administration. 

Wherever  in  these  Regulations  the  following  words  occur  without  quali- 
fication, they  will  have  the  meaning  defined  as  follows:  "Company"  will  mean  the 
Westingbousc  Air  Brake  Company;  "Board  of  Directon,"  "Pension  Department" 
and  "Relief  Department"  will  mean  the  Board  of  Directors,  Pension  Department 
and  Relief  Department  of  the  Westinghouse  Air  Brake  Company;  "Pension 
Fund"  and  "Actuary"  will  mean  the  Pension  Fund  and  actuary  of  such  Pen- 
sion Department;  and  "Relief  Fund"  and  "Workmen's  Compensation  Fund" 
will  mean  the  Relief  Fund  and  Workmen's  Compensation  Fund  of  such  Relief 
Department.  "Wages  or  salary"  means  the  ordinary  average  earnings  of  the 
employee  by  service  to  the  Company,  without  deduction  for  occasional  loss  of  time 
or  extra  pay  for  overtime,  as  determined  by  the  Pension  Board. 

I.     PENSION  FUND 

A.  Tbesumof  ti  10,000,  with  all  additions  thereto  and  accumulations  there- 
of, which  has  already  been  set  aside  in  the  custody  of  the  Treasurer  of  the  Company, 
it  hereby  declared  to  be  held  in  trust  for  all  persons  who  are  or  may  become  pension- 
ers of  this  Department,  to  provide  for  the  payment  of  all  penuons  awarded  to  them. 

B.  In  addition  to  the  above-named  fund,  the  Company  will  in  each  year 
cmtribute  to  such  fund  from  the  income  of  trusts  created  or  to  be  created  for  the 
purpose,  and  from  its  other  funds  such  further  sum  or  sums  as  may  be  required  to 

*  Established  September  17,  1908;  amended  regulations  effective  January 
1. 1914. 

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provide  all  Peimoiu,  awarded  because  of  superannuation  or  of  deaths  during  sodi 
yearor  to  restore  and  make  good  any  impiinnent  of  sucti  fund  below  an  amount  at 
least  sufficient  to  provide  all  pensions. 

C  The  Company  absolutely  guarantees  the  solvency  at  all  tlmei  of  the 
Pensbn  Fund  and  the  payment  promptly  and  in  full  of  all  pensions  awarded  there- 
under, subject  to  these  Regulations. 

D.  No  right  or  title  shall  vest  in  any  peison  to  any  pension  or  against  the 
Pension  Fund  in  any  Tespect  unless  and  until  a  pension  shall  actually  have  been 
awarded  to,  and  accepted  by,  him  or  by  his  legal  representative  or  committee,  in 
accordance  with  these  Regulations. 

E.  All  contributions  by  the  Company  are  so  far  voluntary  that  at  any  tioK 
the  Board  of  Directon  may  repeal  these  R^ulations  in  respect  to  all  persons  wko 
mi^t  thereafter  have  become  entitled  under  them  to  make  claim  to  awards  of 
pensions,  and  thereafter  the  Company  shall  be  bound  only  as  respects  pensions 
already  awarded. 

F.  No  contribution  to  the  Pensbn  Fund  shall  be  required  or  be  received 
fnun  an  employee  of  (he  Company. 

II.    ADMINISTRATION 

A.  The  Pension  Department  shall  be  managed  by  a  board,  to  be  known  ■* 
the  Pension  Board,  consisting  of  live  persons,  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Directon 
and  acting  during  the  pleasure  of  the  Board  of  Directon. 

B.  Tbe  Pension  Board  shall  elect  a  Chairman  and  appoint  a  Secretaiy,  and, 
subject  to  approval,  as  submitted  or  with  modilicaiions,  by  the  Board  of  Directors, 
may  adopt  by-laws,  not  Inconsistent  with  these  Regulations. 

C.  A  majority  of  the  members  of  the  Pension  Board  shall  constitute  a 
quorum  for  all  purposes. 

D.  The  Pension  Board  shall,  subject  to  this  or  further  action  by  tbe  Board 
(rf  Directors,  have  full  control  over  and  management  of  (he  Pension  Fund  and  the 
power  and  duty: 

(i)  To  award  pensions  in  conformity  irith  these  Regulations. 

(])  To  authorize  the  payment  of  all  sums  becoming  due  under  pentiou  so 

(j)  To  determine  all  questions  that  may  arise,  in  or  in  respect  to,  the  Pension 
Department, 

E.  The  affirmative  vote  of  at  least  three  members  of  the  Pension  Board  shall 
be  requisite  in  all  cases. 

F.  Thecompensation,  if  any,  of  membenof  the  Pension  Board  and  of  oflicen 
and  employees  of  the  Pension  Department  shall  be  fixed  by  the  Board  of  Directon 
and  paid,  together  with  all  other  operative  expenses  of  the  Pension  Department,  by 
the  Company  as  a  part  of  its  general  expenses. 

G.  The  Pension  Board  shall  be  under  the  immediate  direction  of  the  Board 
of  Directors  to  which  it  shall  render  reports  of  its  transactions  and  condition  an- 
nually as  (rf  December  jist  of  each  year.  It  shall  also  render  such  other  and  further 
reports  to  the  Board  of  Directors  as  such  Board  may  require. 

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WESTINCHOU5E   PENSION   DEPARTMENT 

H.  The  Pensioii  Board  ihall  employ  an  actuary  who  shall  malM  valuation  as 
of  December  jisl  of  each  year  and  perform  such  orher  services  as  the  Pension  Board 
may  direct. 

1.  All  act$  of  the  Peiuion  Board  shall  be  valid  as  to  all  proceedings  there- 
under until  disapproved  by  the  Board  of  Direcion;  when  so  approved,  they  shall 
becmne  conclusively  binding  upon  the  Company. 

III.     SERVICE  PENSIONS 

A.  All  employees  of  the  Company  (except  general  officers)  shall  be  retired 
upon  attaining  the  age  of  70  years  and  shall  not  thereafter  be  re-employed,  except 
by  order  of  the  Board  of  Direcion, 

B.  All  such  empbyees  who  shall  at  the  time  of  such  retirement  be  members 
of  the  Relief  Department  in  the  class  to  which  their  respective  wages  or  salaries 
allocate  them,  as  determined  by  the  Superintendent  of  the  Relief  Department  under 
the  Regulations  thereof,  shall  be  granted  a  Service  Pension. 

C.  Any  employee  10  qualified  may  be  retired  on  a  Service  Pension  at  any 
time  after  attaining  the  age  of  6;  years,  by  order  of  the  Pension  Board,  if  deemed 
for  the  best  int«ests  of  the  service. 

D.  Kx  months'  notice  shall  be  given  to  eveiy  employee  prior  to  his  retire- 
ment, naming  the  date  of  the  same  and  the  amount  of  the  Service  Penuon  awarded 

E.  The  amount  of  the  Service  Pension  shall  be  determined  by: 

(1)  The  average  monthly  salary  or  wages  during  the  last  10  yean  of  con- 
tinuous service. 

(a)  The  number  of  yean  continuously  in  the  service. 

(j)  The  character  and  quality  (rf  the  service. 

The  Service  Pension  shall  be  one  per  cent  (1%)  of  the  average  salary  or 
wages  during  the  last  10  years  of  continuous  service,  for  every  year  of  continuous 
service. 

The  minimum  Service  Pension  shall  be  taaoo  per  month  and  the  maximum, 
f  100.00  per  month. 

The  Pension  Board  may,  with  the  approval  of  the  Board  of  Directors, 
increase  by  not  to  exceed  one-fourth  the  Service  Penuon,  so  computed,  in  an 
exceptional  case  of  specially  meritorious  service;  provided  that  in  no  case  shall  the 
pennon  when  so  increased,  exceed  f  loaoo  per  month. 

F.  Should  the  employee,  upon  reaching  the  retirement  age,  be  in  receipt  of 
compensation  from  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Fund  or  from  the  Company 
under  any  obligation  created  by  law  or  by  contract  or  from  insurance  paid  for  by 
the  Company,  for  permanent  partial  disability  due  to  accident  arising  out  of  and 
in  thecounc<^employment  by  the  Company,  the  computation  shall  be  based  upon 
his  salary  or  wages  prior  to  said  accident  at  the  rate  of  1%  thereof  for  each  year  of 
continuous  service  and  the  pension  awarded  shall  not  be  for  a  larger  amount  than 
will,  together  with  the  compensation  for  permanent  partial  disability,  be  equal  to 
the  sum,  so  computed;  the  intention  being  that  the  pension  awarded  shall  iwt 
bring  the  total  income  of  the  employee  from  compensation  and  pension  above  the 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

pcntion  that  wmild  be  awarded  od  the  baiUof  ulafy  or  wages  receivable  before  the 
accident. 

G.  Employcei  who  ihill,  upon  reaching  the  retirEinent  age,  be  in  receipt  of 
benefit  for  total  dUabiJity  from  the  Relief  Fund,  shall  be  eligible  for  Service  PennM 
the  Hmc  a*  if  *til1  in  the  cmploymeiii  of  the  Company;  and  upon  the  award  of 
Hich  Service  Pension  the  payment  of  further  benefiti  from  the  Relief  Fund  ihaD 
cease,  in  accordance  with  the  Regulations  of  the  Relief  Department. 

H.  Time  during  which  an  employee  is  in  receipt  of  benefit  for  total  disabilit)' 
from  the  Relief  Fund  shall  be  counted  the  same  as  service,  in  computing  the  amoonl 
of  Service  Pension,  which  shall  in  such  case  be  based  upon  his  wages  or  salaiy  just 
prior  to  such  total  disablement  at  the  rate  of  r%  thereof  for  each  year  of  continuoos 

1.  The  Pension  Board  may  deny  or  withhold  a  Service  Pension  in  any  case 
of  criminal  or  grossly  immoral  conduct. 

J.  A  retired  employee  to  whom  a  Service  Pension  has  been  awarded  may, 
without  forfeiting  such  Pension,  engage  in  other  employment  or  business  unkss 
advised  by  the  Pension  Board  that  the  same  is  deemed  prejudicial  to  the  intensts 
of  the  Company;  but  he  will  not  be  re-empkiyed  by  the  Company. 

K.  No  Service  Pension  shall  be  allowed  or  paid  to  any  person  who  shall  have 
enforced  or  sought  to  enforce  against  the  Company  any  claim  for  personal  injoiy, 
other  than  undn  the  Regulations  of  the  Relief  Department  against  the  Wotk- 
men's  Compensation  Fund  because  of  any  personal  injury  received  within  five 
yean  prior  to  date  of  retirement. 

L.  Service  shall  be  deemed  to  be  continuous  from  the  dale  of  last  employ- 
ment. Leave  of  absence,  suspension  for  cause,  lay-off  (not  exceeding  one  year)  on 
account  of  dull  business  or  dismissal  followed  by  reinstatement  within  one  year 
^alt  not  be  deemed  a  break  in  continuity  of  service,  but  such  time  out  of  service 
shall  be  deducted  in  computing  the  period  of  continuous  service. 

M.  The  period  of  continuous  service  shall  be  reckoned  from  the  dale  c( 
last  employment  to  the  dale  of  retirement,  eliminating  in  the  result  any  fraction 
of  a  month  over. 

N.  Retirement  shall  be  from  the  first  day  of  the  month  neat  following  the 
month  in  which  the  retirement  age  is  reached,  provided  the  six  months'  prior  notice 
has  been  given,  as  required;  otherwise  from  the  first  day  of  the  calendar  month 
neat  succeeding  the  expiration  of  the  six  months'  notice. 

0.  Service  Pensions  will  be  awarded  only  to  employees  who  have  been  em- 
ployed for  their  entire  lime  and  services  by  the  Company  and  not  to  employees  of 
subsidiary  companies.  Time  in  the  service  of  a  subsidiary  company  shall  not  be 
reckoned  in  computing  the  period  of  continuous  service. 

P.  Employees  who  were  continuously  in  the  service  of  the  Company  prior  ta 
July  I,  1908,  for  two  years  or  longer,  shall  be  deemed  to  have  an  unbroken  period 
of  service  from  their  first  employment  by  the  Company  to  said  dale;  provided,  ia 
each  such  case,  the  aggregate  absence  from  the  service  from  such  first  empbyment 
to  said  date  does  not  exceed  two  and  one-half  years.  In  every  case,  however,  all 
absences  shall  be  deducted  in  computing  the  period  of  ct 

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WESTINCHOUSE   PENSION   DEPARTMENT 

IV.    PENSIONS  TO  DEPENDENTS 

A.  Upon  the  death 

(a)  From  my  cause,  of  any  person  in  receipt  of  a  Service  Pennon  from  the 
Pension  Fund  of  the  Company;  or 

(b)  If  caused  by  accident  arising  out  of  and  in  the  course  of  hii  employment 
by  the  Company,  of  any  employee  whose  dependent  or  dependents  or  any 
Other  person  m  persons,  if  any,  who  might  be  legally  entitled  to  claim,  shall 
release  the  Company  from  all  other  liability,  if  any;  or 

<c)  If  not  caused  by  such  accident,  of  any  member  of  the  Rdief  Department 
who  comes  within  Regulation  NIB,  who  has  been  such  fw  at  least  two  years 
and  who  is,  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  the  empkiyment  of  the  Company  or  in 
recdpt  of  total  disability  benefit  from  the  Relief  Fund  or  of  any  person  in 
receipt  of  total  disability  compensation  from  the  Workmen's  Compensation 
Fund; 

Pensions  to  Dependents  shall  be  awarded  as  follows: 

(i)  Thesumof  {ijo.oo  payableimmediatdyuponreceiptof  proof  of  death. 

(i)  To  the  wife  or  dependent  husband  of  the  deceased  empbyee  (if  married 
to  the  deceased  before  totally  disabled  or  at  least  five  years  before  awarded  a 
Service  Pension)  until  death  or  remarriage  (irith  two  years'  pension  upon 
remarriage)  30%  of  the  average  wages  or  salary  of  the  deceased  employee 
prior  to  his  total  disability,  or  8a%  of  his  Service  Pension,  as  the  case  may  be, 
pins  10%  thereof  additional  for  the  support  of  each  of  his  children  under  the 
age  of  t6  years  until  such  child  shall  have  attained  such  age. 

()]  If  no  such  wife  or  dependent  husbaitd  survive,  then  i;%  of  such  wages 
or  salary  or  so%  of  the  Service  Pension  of  the  deceased  for  the  support  of  each 
of  bis  children  under  the  age  of  16  years  until  such  child  shall  have  attained  such 
age. 

(4)  To  each  of  the  (a)  grandchildren,  (b)  parents  and  (c)  grandparents  of 
the  deceased  employee,  in  each  case  only  if  actually  and  principally  dependent 
upon  him  for  support,  10%  of  his  such  wages  or  salary  or  jo%  of  his  Service 
Pension  during  continuance  of  such  dependency. 

Should  pensions  for  the  support  of  children  together  with  penuon  (if  any) 
to  wift  or  dependent  husband,  exceed  60%  of  his  wages  or  salary  or  100%  ol 
his  Service  Pension,  the  pension  for  the  support  of  each  child  shall  be  reduced 
pro  rati  so  that  the  total  pensions  payable  shall  not  exceed  such  60%  or  tDO%, 
as  the  case  may  be.  If  pensions  to  other  dependents,  together  with  penuon 
(if  any)  to  wife  or  dependent  husband  and  pensionsfor  the  support  of  children, 
exceed  60%  of  his  such  wages  or  salaiy  or  toc^o  '^  hi*  Service  Pension,  the 
pension  to  each  other  such  dependent  shall  be  reduced  pro  rata  so  that  the 
total  pensions  payable  shall  not  exceed  such  60%  or  100%,  as  the  case  may  be. 
If  the  pensions  for  the  support  of  children  and  the  pensions  (if  any)  to  wife  or 
dependent  husband  aggregate  60%  of  his  such  wages  or  salary  or  100%  of  his 
Service  Pension,  no  pension  shall  be  payable  to  any  other  dependent. 

B.  Excess  of  wages  or  salary  over  fioo.oo  per  month  shall  not  be  taken  into 
account  in  computing  Pensions  for  Dependents. 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURCH 

C.  Should  any  person  to  whom  otherwise  a  Pennoa  for  a  Dependent  wwU 
be  awarded,  be  a  rendent  of  any  UMintiy  other  than  the  United  States  or  Cinidi. 
the  award  nuy.  at  the  diicretioD  of  tlie  PeoMon  Board,  be  for  four  yean'  peBMa 
(but  not  exceeding  the  maiimuin  aggr^ate,  were  the  peniion  paid  monthly)  of  Ibe 
amount  computed  a*  directed  in  Sub-section  A  of  this  section,  payable  in  oae  nm. 

GENERAL  RULES  AND  REGULATIONS 

A.  Every  person  to  whom  a  pension  has  been  or  shall  be  awarded,  mtal 
notify  the  Secretary  of  the  Pension  Department  of  any  and  all  changes  of  residtnce 
or  of  pott-office  address;  and  must  furnish,  as  a  conditi«i  precedent  to  the  paynKU 
of  each  sum  due  on  account  of  pension,  proof  that  be  survives  and  is  otbcrwite 
entitled. 

B.  Eveiy  person  claiming  a  pension  as  a  Dependent  must  furnish  proof  of 
fact  and  date  of  marriage  or  of  relationship,  of  dependency  and  of  all  other  facts 
that  may  be  required  to  establish  his  right  to  claim. 

C.  Every  person,  claiming  a  Pension  as  a  Dependent,  must,  as  a  oKtditioo 
precedent  to  receiving  any  payment  under  any  award,  execute  and  offer  and  be 
ready  to  deliver  and  actually  deliver  upon  notice  of  such  award  a  full  and  complete 
release,  in  such  form  as  the  Company  may  require,  of  all  liability  (if  any)  of  dte 
Company  because  of  the  death  of  the  empbyee  or  pensioner,  other  than  for  the  pay- 
ment of  the  pension  so  awarded. 

D.  All  pensions  awarded  heretofore  or  hereafter  against  the  Pension  Fund 
are  hereby  declared  to  be  Spendthrift  or  Alimentary  Trusts,  created  and  maintained 
for  the  support  of  the  ccstuu  que  irusteot  and  secured  by  the  Pension  Fund  held 
in  Trust  by  the  Company.  No  assignment,  mortgage,  pledge  or  antidpition  of 
any  such  pension  or  of  any  payments  to  become  due  ihereuitder  will  be  recogoiied 
by  the  Pension  Department  or  the  Company,  or  in  any  way  bind  or  be  valid  against 
the  Pension  Fund. 

E.  Every  employee  who  leaves  the  service  of  the  Company,  whether  volua- 
tarily  or  in  consequence  of  dismissal  or  discharge  forfeits  entirely  his  eligibility  for 
Service  Pension  and  the  eligibility  of  his  wife,  dependent  husband,  children,  and 
other  dependents  for  Pensions  to  Dependents. 

F.  The  action  of  the  Board  of  Directon  in  establishing  the  Pension  Depart- 
ment, in  adopting  these  Regulations,  and  in  making  contributions  to  provide  for  the 
payment  of  pensions  shall  not  be  held  or  construed  to  create  a  contract  with  any 
employee  or  other  person,  prior  to  the  actual  award  of  a  pension  to  him,  or  as  con- 
ferring upon  any  officer,  agent  or  employee  of  the  Company  a  right  to  be  retained 
in  its  service  or  a  right  to  enforce  any  claim  to  a  pension  except  for  a  pension  duly 
awarded  under  these  Regulations  or  as  creating  an  obligation  upon  the  Company  to 
continue  the  Penuon  Department  or  Pension  Fund  or  to  make  contributions  there- 
to, for  the  benefit  of  persons  other  than  those  to  whom  pensions  shall  have  been 
awarded.  The  Company  reserves  its  right  and  privilege  to  discharge  at  any  time 
any  officer,  agent  or  employee  as  the  interests  of  the  Company  may  in  its  judgment 
so  require,  without  incurring  any  liability  because  of  any  pension,  not  actually 
awarded;  and  also  reserves  its  right  to  amend,  alter  or  repeal  at  any  time  these 

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WESTINCHOUSE   PENSION   DEPARTMENT 

R^ulatioiu  or  any  of  them  as  regards  all  persons  who  might  otherwise  become 
entitled  to  claim  thereafter  an  award  of  pension  thereunder,  but  not  so  as  to  affect 
the  ri^t  of  any  person  to  whom  a  pension  shall  have  been  awarded  to  receive  all 
payments  of  the  same  promptly  and  in  full  or  the  obligation  of  the  Company  as 
trustee  of  the  Pension  Fund  and  guarantor  of  the  sufficiency  thereof  and  of  the 
prompt  and  full  payment  of  every  pensioD  awarded  thereagainst. 

H.  These  Regulations  may  be  amended,  altered  or  repealed  at  any  special 
meeting  of  the  Board  of  Oirectors,  called  for  the  purpose;  but  do  such  amendment, 
alteration  or  repeal  shall  affect  pensions  theretofore  awarded  or  the  liability  of  the 
Pension  Fund  or  of  tbe  Company  in  respect  thereto,  except  that  the  Company  may 
at  any  time  be  released  from  further  liability  thereunder  by: 

I.  Nominating,  by  and  with  theapptovalof  a  judgeof  acourt  of  All^beny 
County,  State  of  Pennsylvania  of  competent  jurisdiction,  a  trustee  for  the 
Pension  Fund,  to  hold  and  administer  the  same  as  herein  provided  for  the 
benefit  of  all  persons  to  whom  pensions  shall  have  been  awarded  and  transfer- 
ring to  such  trustee  funds  and  securities  at  least  equal  in  value  to  all  pensions 
awarded  and  then  in  force,  as  determined  by  the  actuary  of  the  State  iniutance 
department  of  Pennsylvania;  or 

3.  Purchasing  annuities  for  all  persons  to  whom  such  pensions  shall  have 

been  awarded  and  shall  then  be  in  force  for  amounts  equal  to  such  pensions 

and  payable  for  the  same  terms  from  a  life  insurance  company  licensed  to  do 

business  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania. 

In  cither  of  such  cases,  the  remainder  and  in  any  case  when  valuation  shall 

disclose  a  surplus  of  tbe  Pension  Fund  over  al)  requirements,  the  surplus,  may  be 

withdrawn  by  the  Company. 


■d^yCoogle 


APPENDIX  XIX 

ONE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY-FIVE  WORKING  GIRLS 

Charles  C.  Cooper 
Resident  Director,  Kingsley  House,  Pittsburgh 

During  the  settlement  season,  1910-1 1,  a  card  index  of  the  member- 
ship of  Kingsley  House  was  inaugurated.  This  was  in  addition  to  the 
regular  book  registration  always  kept  at  the  settlement.  During  the 
succeeding  year  this  card  index  disclosed  the  fact  that  while  the  number 
of  giris  remained  the  same  a  decided  shift  in  the  personnel  took  place. 

To  find  the  cause,  a  study  of  the  girls  who  did  not  come  back  was 
made  and  the  results  published  in  the  Kingdey  House  Record  (Apn), 
1913). 

Various  causes  for  the  shift  were  found,  notably  a  change  in  resi- 
dence: but  one  cause  was  not  anticipated.  Card  after  card  was  returned 
by  the  investigator  with  the  information  that  the  girl  was  working  and 
"too  tired  to  come  to  the  settlement."  Some  13  per  cent  of  the  girls 
attributed  their  non-attendance  at  the  settlement  house  to  the  fact  that 
they  were  working.  A  further  study  of  these  working  girls  was  therefore 
made  the  following  season,  by  Mabel  Vogleson  of  the  Kingsley  staff. 

The  group  does  not  represent  any  one  class  of  girl  workers  nor  the 
workers  in  any  one  department  store,  factory,  or  trade.  They  were 
neighborhood  giri  workers  in  various  occupations.  Some  12$  cases  were 
studied  and  the  results  tabulated. 

In  no  sense  has  this  investigation  been  made  with  any  purpose  of 
painting  the  shadows  dark  or  of  obtaining  special  data  for  legislative  fights; 
it  represents  a  study  by  the  settlement  house  made  with  reference  to  its 
own  routine  work,  the  startling  results  of  which  were  not  anticipated. 

White  it  is  not  safe  to  generalize  for  the  whole  city  from  this  one 
study,  nevertheless  it  seems  fairly  well  established  that  in  one  of  the 
poorersectionsof  Pittsburgh,  the  Hill  District,  many  working  girls  are  not 
receiving  a  living  wage  and  are  working  longer  hours  than  is  safe  for  tbote 
who  are  to  become  the  mothers  of  the  future  citizens. 
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ONE  HUNDRED  AND  TWENTY-FIVE   WORKING  GIRLS 

The  tables  which  follow  show  hours  and  wages  in  connection  with 
the  ages  and  occupations  of  the  la;  girls. 


NunAtT 
of 

Hours 

WORKED  P 

..„„ 

Waoes  per  week 

gitlt 

LoHgtit 

SborUil 

'''"''• 

Highta 

Loieta 

A^agt 

14    ■ 

7 

i« 

I 

8H 

14-00 

»3.oo 

JjJ4 

3.00 

8» 

7.50 
S.50 

9K, 

7K 

i« 

3.J0 

S.j6 

Over  17     , 

45 

9-iab 

7K 

4-00 

S.69 

Total      . 

"35 

io}4 

7 

m 

fiaoo 

Jaoo 

fV09 

■  One  giri  works  13K  hours  on  Saturday. 
bOnegirlworksfromninctoiahounpcrday;  t 


Hours  w 

>RKBO 

Wages  per 

NutKberof 
girh 

PERD 

AY 

Longta 

SborUa 

Hifbtit 

Laatil 

Wrapper       . 

,, 

8 

»5.oo 

U-iO 

34 

J.00 

to 

9-13  « 

Slock  prl      .       . 

6 

9 

8 

3JXI 

Office  worker 

Stope  worker 

lOj^ 

8.00 

38 

7 

All  ffrls .       .       . 

135 

.3 

7 

liaoo 

f3.00 

■  One  girl  works  i3>^  hours  on  Saturday. 

■>0nly  one  received  }io,  the  two  next  highest  received  ^.00;  tti 
pay  then  dropped  to  f6.oo,  and  lower. 

■=  One  worked  from  9  to  11  hours  per  day,  next  highest  gK  hours, 
d  Only  one  received  }io. 


■d^yCoogle 


APPENDIX  XX 

BUREAU  OF  SAFETY.  SANITATION.  AND  WELFARE, 
UNITED  STATES  STEEL  CORPORATION 

(From  statements  supplied  by  C.  L  Close,  Manager) 
The  Bureau  of  Safety,  Sanitation,  and  Welfare  of  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation  has  been  in  operation  since  191 1.  This  Bureau  acts  as 
a  central  station  in  obtaining  infonnation  and  disseminating  it  among  the 
subsidiary  companies.  It  carries  on  the  administrative  work  of  both  the 
Committee  of  Safety  and  the  Committee  on  Sanitation.  It  distributes 
to  the  subsidiary  companies  comparative  statements  on  accident  pre- 
vention, compiled  from  reports  sent  in  by  them  periodically,  so  that  they 
may  benefit  by  each  other's  experience.  The  Bureau  is  constantly  in 
communication  with  municipal,  state,  and  national  authorities,  with 
other  employers  of  labor,  and  with  various  persons  engaged  or  interested 
in  this  work.  From  many  sources  it  obtains  information  of  value  on 
these  subjects,  and  keeps  the  subsidiary  companies  informed  of  the  latest 
and  best  methods  in  accident  prevention  and  welfare  work.  In  this  way 
the  Bureau  aids  materially  in  coordinating  the  efforts  made  by  the  sub- 
sidiary companies  to  improve  the  conditions  of  their  employes. 

It  was  realized  from  the  start  that  cooperation  between  those 
carrying  on  this  work  is  one  of  the  most  essential  features.  With  this  in 
mind,  there  has  been  established  in  the  Bureau,  located  at  71  Broadway, 
New  York  City,  a  museum  of  safety  appliances,  together  with  photo 
graphs  showing  the  improved  conditions  under  which  employes  of  the 
subsidiary  companies  work  and  live. 

Although  this  Bureau  was  installed  primarily  for  the  benefit  of  the 
subsidiary  companies  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  many  other 
employers  of  labor  have  written  for  information  or  have  visited  the 
Bureau. 

Safetv  Work 
Outline  of  Safety  Organization  op  THi  United  States  Steel  CaRPOKATioii 
/.     UniUd  Slalts  SUil  Corporation  Committee  of  Safety. 

Cuualty  managers  of  all  subsidiary  companies  called  together  May,  1906,  to 
discUH  accident  prevention. 

Subsidiary  companies  actively  took  up  safety  work  by  detailing  special  nteo 
for  the  work. 

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SAFETY,   SANITATION,   AND  WELFARE 

Committee  of  Safety  organized  in  March,  1908. 

An  officer  of  the  Steel  Corporation  acts  u  chairman  ar»d  seven  other  members 
represent  the  larger  subsidiary  companies. 

Meets  quarterly,  either  in  New  York  or  at  one  of  the  planti  or  mines. 

Coitducti  inspections  by  having  an  inspector  from  one  company  inspect 
another  company's  operations. 

Also  makes  inspections  personally. 

Studies  alt  serious  accidents  and  makes  recommendations  against  further 
occurrences,  not  alone  to  the  company  in  whose  woiks  the  accident  happened,  but 
10  all  companies. 

Passes  upon  safety  devices  and  makes  recommendations  as  to  their  use- 

SUBSIDIARV   COMPANV,    SAFETY   COMMITTEES 

II.    Cmtral  Safely  Committtti. 

Organiied  shortly  after  the  Steel  Corporation  Committee. 

Made  up  of  important  officials  from  each  of  the  plants,  mines  or  railroad 
divisions. 

Meet  monthly. 

Duties  similar  to  the  Sted  Corporation  Safety  Committee,  but  each  with 
reference  to  its  particular  company  only. 

Cooducts  inler-mill  inspections. 
///.     Plant  Safay  CommitUti. 

Organiied  shortly  after  Steel  Corporation  Committee. 

Made  up  of  important  officials  of  the  plant. 

Meet  monthly  and  in  some  cases  daily. 

Make  regular  inspections  of  the  plant. 

Duties  similar  to  those  of  the  Central  Safety  Committee,  but  each  ivith  ref- 
erence to  its  particular  plant  only. 
ly.     Dtpartnuni  and  Special  CoMmiUtes. 

Organiied  shortly  after  Steel  Corporation  Safety  Committee. 

Made  up  of  foremen,  master  mechanics  and  skilled  workmen. 

Meet  weekly  or  monthly  as  the  case  may  be. 

Make  periodical  inspections  of  the  plant. 

Make  special  investigations  of  particular  problems. 

Safety  committees  have  been  organized  for  practically  every  oper- 
ation throughout  the  subsidiary  companies  of  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation;  4,678  employes  were  members  of  these  committees  during 
1913.  The  personnel  of  these  committees,  especially  those  made  up  of 
workmen,  is  changed  periodically  in  order  to  extend  the  individual  interest 
in  safety. 

In  an  endeavor  to  eliminate  accidents  due  to  the  carelessness  of  the 

workmen,  a  very  active  campaign  of  education  was  starteil  by  all  of  the 

subsidiary  companies  some  time  ago.    Entertainments  are  given  at  the 

different  plants  or  mines.    All  employes  and  their  families  are  invited. 

495 


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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 


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SAFETY,   SANITATION,  AND  WELFARE 


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WAGE-EARNINO   PITTSBURGH 

Typical  unsafe  practices  in  contrast  with  the  proper  and  safe  method  of 
doing  the  work  are  shown.  Motion  pictures  and  lantern  slides  are  cnh 
ployed  and  are  relieved  by  music  and  other  things  of  an  entertaining  char- 
acter. Twenty-one  such  entertainments  were  given  by  <»ie  company  thii 
year. 

Many  other  plans  have  been  inaugurated,  the  most  recent  at 
which  is  the  giving  of  monthly  prizes  to  eacb  man  in  the  departments 
having  the  best  records  for  safety;  one  company  has  established  a  bonu 
plan  which  applies  to  all  foremen.  Cash  bonuses,  based  upon  the  per 
cent  of  reduction  in  accidents  in  each  particular  department,  are  paid  at 
the  end  of  the  year  to  each  foreman.  In  some  ctmipanies,  suggestioa 
boxes  arc  located  at  convenient  places  throughout  the  plant  for  the  benefit 
of  at)  employes  who  are  not  members  of  committees  but  desire  to  make 
suggestions.  Prizes  are  awarded  periodically  to  those  making  the  best 
suggestions. 

The  cost  of  safety  work  in  191  j  was  |66o,;9J.oo. 

Serious  accidents  per  i  ,000  employes  are  now  j8yi  per  cent  less  than 
in  1906,  when  this  work  was  first  taken  up  by  the  Corporation.  This 
means  that  3,37)  men,  who  might  have  been  injured  under  earlier  cmdi- 
lions,  were  saved  from  serious  injury  during  the  year. 

Sanitary  Work 

The  work  in  sanitation  has  been  organized  in  a  manner  ahnosl 
identical  with  the  safety  organization,  except  that  the  Sanitation  Com- 
mittee is  chosen  from  among  the  presidents  of  the  subsidiary  companies, 
with  an  officer  of  the  United  States  Steel  Corporation  as  oneof  its  members. 
This  committee  administers  the  work  through  a  sub-committee  compcncd 
largely  of  technical  representatives  from  eacb  of  the  subsidiary  companies 
designated  by  the  presidents  of  their  respective  companies.  In  thiswork 
trained  sanitary  engineers  and  experts  from  outside  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation  organization  are  employed  as  occasion  arises,  and  in 
some  cases  have  been  attached  permanently  to  the  organization  of  cer- 
tain of  the  subsidiary  companies. 

The  committee  selected  for  first  attention  the  purification  at 
drinking  water  and  the  disposal  of  fecal  matter.  Each  subsidiary  compaay 
had  an  analysis  made  of  all  water  used  for  drinking  purposes,  about  i.joo 
analyses  having  been  made.  In  cases  where  the  water  was  found  impure, 
the  source  was  abandoned  and  a  new  supply  obtained.  These  analyses 
are  now  made  twice  each  year  and  oftener  where  there  is  any  questkm  as 
to  the  purity  of  the  supply.     In  the  mining  towns  where  springsandwdb 


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SAFETY,   SANITATION,   AND  WELFARE 

are  used,  extra  precautions  are  taken  to  avoid  pollution  by  surface  water  or 
otherwise. 

The  common  drinking  cup  is  rapidly  being  replaced  with  sanitary 
drinking  fountains;  483  such  fountains  were  installed  during  1912. 

The  investigation  of  water  supplies  and  the  installation  of  drink- 
ing water  systems  alone  cost  $t3o,ooo.oo  during  1913. 

Where  there  are  no  sewerage  systems,  especially  in  mining  camps, 
special  types  of  out-door  closets  have  been  installed,  arranged  and  designed 
with  the  idea  of  preventing  soil  pollution  and  flies  from  coming  in  contact 
with  the  excrement.  Interchangeable  and  removable  cans  are  used,  and 
are  collected  periodically  and  hauled  in  a  specially  constructed  wagon  to 
a  point  where  the  feces  is  disposed  of  by  incineration  or  in  septic  tank. 
91D  new  closets  were  built  during  the  year  1911,  and  1,763  old  ones  were 
remodeled  and  made  sanitary. 

Water  Closets,  Wash  and  Lockek  Rooms 

During  191),  there  were  installed  in  the  operations  of  the  subsi<^ 
iary  companies,  1,19)  wash  basins,  aio  showers,  i$,47r  lockers.  There 
were  also  installed  333  separate  urinals  in  addition  to  a  large  number  of 
water  closet  installatrans. 

The  cost  of  providing  washing  facilities  for  1913  was  {141,000.00. 

The  total  cost  for  sanitary  work  in  the  United  States  Steel  Cor- 
poration's companies  last  year  was  y564.977.00.  While  these  figures 
cover  the  entire  Steel  Corporation,  a  large  proportion  of  it  was  in  the 
Pittsburgh  District.  This  is  the  extension  of  work  started  in  earlier 
years,  and  while  all  plants  and  operations  are  not  equipped  up  to  our 
present  standards  in  these  respects,  all  of  them  are  equipped  in  some  man- 
ner to  meet  the  entire  needs  of  the  employes. 

Restaurants  for  the  employes  have  been  installed  at  a  few  of  the 
Pittsburgh  plants.    This  work  is  still  in  the  experimental  stage. 

General  specifications  have  been  prepared  by*  the  committee, 
covering  the  general  sanitary  requirements  for  water  closets,  urinals,  and 
drinking  fountains.  These  are  to  be  followed  by  all  subsidiary  companies 
when  putting  in  new  installations  or  making  repairs  to  old  installations. 

The  committee  is  now  making  a  special  study  of  the  following 
subjects: 

I— Fly  prevention. 

2 — Malaria  prevention. 

) — Proper  ventilation  and  light  in  plants  and  houses. 

4 — Provisions  for  proper  heating  systems  in  plants. 

i — Provisions  for  regulation  of  milk  supply  at  company  houses  or  camps. 

fr— Provisions  for  dust  removal  at  plants,  including  roadways  and  pavements. 

7 — Provisions  for  sterile  ice.  storage  and  distiibuiion. 
499 


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wage-earning  pittsburgh 

Pension  Fund 
On  Jan.  i,  1914,  there  were  1.092  active  pension  cases  under  the 
United  States  Steel  and  Carnegie  Pension  Fund. 

The  435  employes  retired  in  igi)  arc  classified  as  follows: 

Compuboiy  Retirement $4  (<i-7%) 

Retirement  at  Request  of  Employe                    .    3$9  (61.0%) 
Retirement  at  Request  of  Employing  Officer  '7  j  ^7^^ 

Permanent  Incapacity 7S  ('7-o%) 

Total 4>»   ("»%) 

For  these  43j  cases  the 

Avenge  age  was ^IP  yea" 

Average  service  was aS.Sa  years 

Average  pension  was }30.8j 

It  may  be  of  interest  toknow  that  49  (11.}  percent)  of  those  retired  in  191) 
had  served  more  than  forty  years,  and  nine  of  them  for  periods  ranging  fram  forty- 
five  to  fifty-tivo  years. 

The  amendment  to  Rule  No.  7,  effective  January  1,  191),  reducing  the  ser- 
vice requirement  from  twenty  years  to  fifteen  years,  for  cases  of  permanent  total 
incapacity,  permitted  the  Fund  to  place  twenty-six  of  these  distressful  cases  00  the 
pension  roll.  Wirbout  that  generous  provision  it  is  llkdy  that  about  half  of  this 
number  could  never  have  participated  in  the  benefits  of  the  Pension  Fund,  because 
of  insufficient  service.  In  a  few  other  cases  of  permanent  total  incapacity,  due,  in 
most  instances,  to  tubercular  infection,  rest  and  specialized  treatment  were  sug- 
gested, with  the  result  that  in  two  cases,  at  least,  the  employes  recovered  suffidently 
to  be  able  to  return  to  the  service.  In  two  or  three  others  the  progren  of  the  dis- 
ease seems  to  have  been  arrested  and  it  is  hoped  that  a  result,  similar  to  that  in  the 
other  cases,  will  be  achieved. 

Employes'  Stock  Subscription  Plan 
On  December  31,  1913,  more  than  3$,036  employes  were  slock- 
hdders  under  this  Man.    Their  aggregate  holdings  amounted  to  more 
than  146463  shares  of  stock. 

Voluntary  Accident  Relief  Plan 
There  has  been  practically  no  change  in  the  Voluntary  Accident 
Relief  Plan  since  its  adoption  in  May,  1910.  A  year  later,  or  in  May, 
1911,  the  maximum  relief  per  day  for  married  men  was  changed  from 
I3.00  per  day  to  {i.jo  per  day.  The  amount  paid  to  and  for  injured  wwk- 
men  in  1913  was  }3,;64,839.  The  accompanying  charts  show  compara- 
tively accidents  and  relief  for  the  entire  Steel  Corporation,  years  1906  to 
[913  inclusive;  and  for  one  of  the  large  plants  of  the  Pittsburgh  District. 


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APPENDIX  XXI 

THE  PITTSBURGH  MORALS  EFFICIENCY 
COMMISSION 

Rudolph  I.  Coffee 

In  1912  came  a  further*  and  more  radical  turning  point  in  pub- 
lic policy  toward  prostitution  in  Pittsburgh, — the  fifth  distinct  stage 
in  twenty  years.  The  results  of  each  have  stood  out  so  clearly 
that  Pittsburgh's  experience  should  be  of  practical  value  in  the  present 
country-wide  study  of  the  problem. 

I.  Twenty  years  ago  Pittsburgh  was  known  as  a  "wide  open" 
town ;  and  it  was  so  in  every  sense  of  the  term. 

II.  Then  through  a  decade  or  more  prostitution  flourished  less 
brazenly  under  the  cover  of  police  regulation,  which  had  in  view  only  the 
suppression  of  disorder  and  the  removal  of  disorderly  houses  from  resi- 
dence districts.  And  because  it  was  kept  out  of  the  public  eye,  vice  grew 
steadily  and  was  able  to  intrench  itself  strongly  in  a  business  way.  The 
power  for  evil  of  the  underworld  under  police  supervision  and  protection 
was  the  same  in  Pittsburgh  as  in  every  other  city  where  similar  methods 
are  in  force.  It  had  the  same  corrupting  influence  not  only  on  the  com- 
munity but  on  the  police  and  in  politics. 

ill.  In  1906  came  the  administration  of  Mayor  George  W.  Guth- 
rie, who  realized  that  the  solution  of  the  entire  question  was  too  big  for 
any  one  administration,  but  whose  clear-cut  policies  of  regulation  are  set 
forth  by  Mr.  Forbes.  At  the  end  of  his  term  the  superintendent  of  police 
estimated  that  334  houses  had  been  closed.  There  was  thus  established 
a  new  standard  which  Pittsburgh  did  not  forget  when  the  reaction  came. 
Mayor  Guthrie  permitted  the  police  to  enforce  their  regulations  by  raids. 
From  time  to  time  a  small  army  of  police  would  surround  a  district  and 
carry  hundreds  of  men  and  women  to  the  station  houses.  This  method 
had  the  effect  of  driving  many  prostitutes  to  the  residence  districts,  where 
they  lived  in  apartments  and  carried  on  their  trade  quietly.  No  effort 
was  made  by  the  police  to  fdlow  them  there.  Subsequent  experience 
*Sce  Forbes,  James,  op.  cit.  P.  )0$  ol  this  vdume. 
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has  shown  that  raids  were  unnecessary.  Because  almost  every  aa  in 
the  life  of  a  prostitute  is  a  violation  of  law,  a  simple  pcdice  order,  with 
honesty  of  purpose  and  public  opinion  back  of  it,  is  enough  without  raids 
to  enforce  any  regulation.  If  this  fails,  the  criminal  courts  can  be  resorted 
to  for  drastic  remedy. 

IV.  Following  Mr.  Guthrie's  administration  from  1909  to  1911, 
under  another  mayor,  Pittsburgh  again  was  a  "wide  open"  town.  With  it 
came  all  of  the  attendant  evils,  debauching  the  community,  corrupting 
the  police,  and  tainting  politics.  Conditions  became  so  intolenble  that 
the  citizens  at  large  revolted.  The  Voters'  League,  the  same  organtutkn 
that  put  an  end  to  graft  in  Councils  by  locking  up  more  than  a  hundred 
members  of  that  body,  led  the  fight.  It  appeared  before  the  state  legis- 
tature  and  made  the  question  of  public  morals  one  of  the  chief  demands 
for  the  new  charter  which  gave  Pittsburgh  a  new  Council.  The  league 
early  in  1912  forced  the  trial  before  this  new  Council  of  the  directorof  the 
department  of  public  safety,  charging  him  with  malfeasance  in  office  and 
mismanagement  of  his  oflTicial  duties.  He  was  convicted  of  mismanage- 
ment.  The  league  had  the  substantial  backing  of  the  leading  churches. 
On  one  Sunday  its  charges  were  read  and  discussed  from  more  than  two 
hundred  pulpits.  The  value  of  the  churches'  co-operation  in  this  move- 
ment can  not  be  over  estimated.  In  fact,  it  would  have  failed  utterly 
without  such  support. 

V.  More  important,  these  exposures  and  this  trial  so  stirred  the 
people  of  Pittsburgh  that  they,  in  1912,  were  ready  to  lake  up  actively 
constructive  work  in  dealing  with  prostitution. 

At  the  instance  of  a  few  citizens,  a  bill  was  introduced  in  Coundb 
asking  for  the  appointment  of  twelve  members  to  serve  without  pay 
on  a  Morals  Efficiency  Commission.  The  time  was  most  opportune. 
Certain  councilmen  bdieved  it  politically  expedient  to  remove  the  police 
from  politics  before  the  campaign  for  mayor  in  1913.  Others  voted  for 
the  bill  as  a  forward  step  in  municipal  affairs.  Mayor  Magee  signed  the 
bill,  appointed  twelve  citizens  of  standing,  and  supported  the  commission 
loyally  throughout  its  work.  The  commission  organized  on  May  1,  1913, 
by  electing  Dr.  Frederick  A.  Rhodes,  president,  and  George  Sdbd,  secre- 
tary. Three  of  the  members  were  women.  All  three  great  religions  were 
recognized,  and  the  personnel  included  two  physicians,  three  lawyers,  ooe 
professor,  one  minister,  one  social  worker,  two  women  club  workers,  and 
one  business  man. 

"nie  commission  had  no  definite  powers.  It  merely  made  sugges- 
tions to  the  police  department,  but  these  were  carried  out  by  the  superin- 
tendent of  police.    A  careful  survey  of  the  city,  including  both  All^Jieny 

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and  Pittsburgh,  disclwed  247  houses  of  prostitution,  on  34  streets,  with 
347  madams,  and  approximately  t  ,000  girls.  At  the  end  of  eighteen  months 
of  activity  by  the  commission,  this  number  has  been  reduced  to  71  bouses, 
on  six  streets,  with  71  madams,  and  3^3  girls. 

The  commission  set  to  work  with  an  c^n  mind.  Without  passing 
on  the  question  of  segregation,  it  adopted  the  practical  method  of  pro- 
ceeding  step  by  step,  choosing  as  a  motto  "gradual  restriction  leading  to 
ultimate  elimination."  It  first  recommended  to  the  police  department 
that  all  houses  of  prostitution  in  residential  sections  of  the  city  should  be 
eliminated  as  soon  as  possible,  particularly  in  the  streets  where  the  poorer 
people  live;  that  commercial  prostitution  in  tenement  houses,  alcMig  a 
street  car  line,  near  any  schod,  hospital,  or  charitable  institution,  must  be 
stamped  out.  AH  assignation  houses  were  to  be  closed;  and  all  bouses 
with  colored  inmates  receiving  white  visitors.  No  new  houses  were  to 
be  opened,  and  no  new  madam  nor  girl  was  to  be  henceforth  permitted 
to  enter  a  house.  This  rule  was  later  extended  to  prohibit  the  return  to 
Pittsburgh  of  persons  who  had  gone  elsewhere  and  wished  to  come  back. 
No  landlady  nor  girl  was  allowed  to  keep  a  pimp. 

Liquor  and  soft  drinks  were  banished  absdutely,  and  every  form 
of  dancing,  show,  or  music  was  strictly  forbidden.  Minors  were  denied 
admission;  peddlers  were  to  be  kept  out.  Every  insanitary  place  was 
to  be  closed,  and  houses  paying  exorbitant  rents  wen  recommended  for 
closing. 

These  were  preliminary  moves.  Each  was  recommended  as  soon 
as  it  was  felt  that  it  could  be  properly  enforced.  As  a  result,  the 
backbone  of  commercialized  vice  was  broken.  If  a  house  disregarded 
any  rule, — admitted  minors,  for  example,  or  kept  liquor  under  cover, — 
it  was  penalized  for  the  first  offense  and  closed  for  the  second.  This  pro- 
gram stripped  the  houses  of  every  form  of  allurement  and  attraction  other 
than  sexual  pleasure. 

To  see  that  the  police  carried  out  orders,  five  of  the  nine  men  on 
the  commission  made  frequent  trips  to  the  segregated  district,  and  never 
less  than  once  a  week,  two  members  visited  it  with  detectives. 

The  attempt  to  handle  the  medical  end  of  prostitution  ended  in 
failure.  The  commission  recommended  that  every  girl  submit  to  a  weekly 
examination,  but  the  certificate  merely  furnished  a  false  sense  of  security 
to  men,  as  the  girl  might  become  infected  an  hour  later.  The  medical 
examination,  at  best,  was  none  too  careful.  Therefore,  the  commission 
withdrew  its  original  order,  and  merely  advised  the  girls,  for  their  own 
good,  to  be  examined  weekly. 

The  commission  looked  forward  to  the  reporting  of  venereal  dis- 

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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

eases  as  a  hopeful  measure,  but  that  lay  outside  of  the  powers  of  the  niiuiid- 
palhy.  Other  practical  measures  for  keeping  track  of  the  situation  irtiick 
it  brought  forward  were  recommendations  that  all  transfer  companies 
report  the  names  of  persons  moving  furniture,  giving  cAd  and  new  ad- 
dresses; that  lodging  bouses  be  licensed;  emptoyment  agencies  roistered; 
and  policemen  required  to  report  daily  the  names  of  persons  moving  from 
and  into  their  beats. 

it  must  noc  be  supposed  that  the  commission  came  to  regard  ntber 
l^islation  or  enforcement  a  cure  for  the  social  evil  but,  throughout  its 
work,  laid  stress  on  education.  It  endeavored  to  anmse  the  people  about 
the  dangers  of  venereal  disease,  but  paid  even  more  attention,  on  the  pre- 
ventive side,  to  instniction  in  sex  hygiene.  Many  prominent  churches 
of  Pittsburgh  were  open  to  members  of  the  commission;  they  delivered 
addresses  before  all  the  leading  women's  clubs;  started  a  movcmeDt 
for  instruction  in  the  high  schools;  and  constantly  sought  to  awaken  a 
deep  interest  in  the  subject  throughout  the  city.  Physicians  were  urged 
to  revise  their  ethics  with  respect  to  patients  having  venereal  disease, 
and  one  member  of  the  cc»nmission  wrote  a  play,  "The  Leper."  It 
deals  with  the  educational  value  of  sex  education,  and  the  folly  of  phy- 
sicians remaining  silent  when  a  word  may  prevent  an  innocent  rnxnan 
from  marrying  a  moral  leper. 

Before  the  first  year  was  up  the  commission  was  ready  for  another 
drastic  step,  and  voted  in  favor  of  closing  all  houses  on  the  North  Side. 
The  91  houses  in  operation  there  had  been  decreased  by  the  various  recom- 
mendations to  2;,  and  on  May  i,  1913,  all  of  these  were  closed.  Evety 
house  had  been  visited  in  February  by  members  of  the  commission,  and 
the  girls  had  been  spoken  to  individually.  They  were  urged  to  save 
money  and  think  of  their  future.  Every  girl  in  the  Pittsburgh  houses  was 
similarly  spoken  to  and  told  that  the  same  recommendation  might  at 
any  time  be  made  for  Pittsburgh.  The  results  in  closing  Allegheny 
and  cleansing  other  infested  districts  were  so  satisfactory  to  the  com- 
mission that,  had  it  remained  in  power,  it  would  in  the  near  future  have 
voted  to  close  the  entire  city. 

As  a  result  of  ail  these  activities,  we  found  the  frequenting  of  houses 
of  prostitution  radically  decreased  the  second  year.  With  70  per  cent  of 
the  houses  closed  it  might  be  imagined  that  the  30  per  cent  remaining  in- 
creased their  business.  The  reverse  was  true,  going  to  show  that  not  the 
desire  of  man  but  the  leal  of  com  mere  iaiizers  is  at  the  bottom  of  the 
trafik.  One  salutary  effect  was  that  many  boys  have  never  visited  these 
houses  owing  to  the  strict  watch  for  minors. 

The  commission  was  convinced  by  its  experience  that  the  handling 

504 


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MORALS  EFFICIENCY  COMMISSION 

of  the  social  evil  can  best  be  done  by  a  special  body,  created  for  that  pur- 
pose and  co-operating  with  the  police.  While  it  had  no  real  legal  rights,  it 
was  backed  by  an  authority  higher  even  than  the  law  itself— an  aroused 
public  opinion.  To  give  such  a  body  permanence,  to  give  it  power  when 
public  interest  should  in  the  future  be  engrossed  in  other  community  prob- 
lems, and  to  equip  tt  to  take  up  problems  of  education  as  well  as  enforce- 
ment, the  commtssicm  secured  the  passage,  in  the  legislature  of  1913,  of  a 
bill  *  providing  for  a  Morals  Bureau  to  consist  of  seven  members,  three  of 
wh<Hn  may  be  women,  to  serve  without  pay.  A  superintendent  of  morals 
was  provided  for,  under  the  orders  of  the  Morals  Bureau,  with  salary  of 
$3,000  and  a  staff  under  him  to  handle  the  work. 

Thus,  new  municipal  machinery  has  been  created  to  relieve  the 
police  of  the  responsibility  for  dealing  with  a  problem  which  the  wisest 
men  of  all  ages  have  as  yet  failed  to  solve,  and  Pittsburgh  is  entering  upon 
a  sixth  stage  of  public  policy  in  dealing  with  the  baffling  evil. 

The  law  went  into  effect  January  I,  1914,  and  what  use  is  to  be 
made  of  the  new  machinery,  what  policy  employed,  is  in  the  hands  of  a 
new  administration, — and  ultimately,  of  the  people  of  the  city. 


ACT  CREATING  A  BUREAU  OF  MORALS 
AN  ACT  providing  for  the  creation  of  the  Bureau  of  Public  Morals  in 

the  Department  of  Public  Safety  in  cities  of  the  second  class, 

defining  its  purposes,  and  providing  for  the  payment  of  expenses 

incurred  thereby. 

Section  1.  Be  it  enacted,  &c..  That  there  shall  be,  and  is  hereby 
created,  a  Bureau  of  Public  Morals  in  the  Department  of  Public  Safety 
in  cities  of  the  second  class,  for  the  purpose  of  investigating  and  acting 
upon  all  questions  and  conditions  arising  from  sex  relationship  which 
affect  public  morals. 

Section  2.  That  the  bureau,  hereby  created,  shall  be  governed 
by  a  board  of  seven  (7)  directors,  three  (3)  of  whom  may  be  women, 
appointed  by  the  mayor  of  the  city,  and  confirmed  by  the  council.  The 
directors  shall  elect  from  without  their  own  body  a  superintendent,  who 
shall  give  his  entire  time  to  the  work  of  the  bureau,  and  shall  receive 
therefor  a  salary  of  not  exceeding  three  thousand  (fs.ooo)  dollars  per 
year.  The  directors  shall  be  appointed  for  the  term  of  four  years,  and 
shall  be  subject  to  removal  at  the  pleasure  of  the  mayor.    Vacancies 

*  A  second  bill  was  introduced  making  a  bealtb  certificate  a  prerequisite  in 
granting  marriage  licenses  but  was  passed  only  in  a  compromise  form.  A  tntnl  bill, 
to  report  venerMi  diseues  as  any  other  communicable  disease  is  reported,  was 
defeated  and  will  be  presented  again  at  the  next  session. 


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WAGE-EARNING  PITTSBURGH 

in  their  offices  shall  be  filled  in  the  same  manner  as  the  appointments 
are  made. 

Section  3.  The  board  of  directors  shall  have  full  power  to  direct 
the  work  and  operation  of  the  bureau;  they  shall  have  power  to  investigate 
all  conditions  growing  out  of  sex  relationship  affecting  public  morals; 
and  they  shall  have  full  power  to  enforce  all  laws,  and  prosecute  all  viola- 
tions  of  law,  in  matters  of  sex  relationship;  and  for  that  purpose  they  shall 
exercise  such  pc^ice  power  as  may  be  necessary.  The  business  and  pdicies 
of  the  board  shall  be  determined  by  a  majority  vote  of  the  whole  board. 

Section  4.  For  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  the  operation  of  the 
bureau,  there  shall  be  detailed  such  policemen  and  detectives  as  the  board 
may  require  and  sdect  for  its  purpose  from  the  regular  police  and  detective 
forces,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  director  of  said  Department  of 
Public  Safety,  and  during  the  time  that  they  are  so  detailed  they  shall 
be  subject  to  the  orders  of  the  board  of  directors,  exercised  through  its 
superintendent,  and  shall  be  responsible  to  said  board,  and  shall  receive 
the  regular  pay  as  provided  by  law.  The  board  of  directors  may,  frixn 
time  to  time,  appoint  and  employ  such  additional  investigators  as  they 
may  deem  necessary. 

Section  j.  The  board  of  directors  shall  elect  from  its  own  number 
a  chairman,  and  employ  whatever  clerical  help  may  be  necessary  to  enable 
it  to  carry  out  the  purposes  of  this  act. 

Section  6.  All  acts  or  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with  the  pro- 
visions of  this  act  are  hereby  repealed. 

Approved — The  37th  day  of  June,  A.  D.  191J. 

JOHN  K.  TENER. 


506 


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APPENDIX  XXII 

STATISTICAL  EXCERPTS  FROM  THE  REPORT  OF  THE 

PITTSBURGH  MORALS  EFFICIENCY  COMMISSION. 

1913 

Investigations  conducted  by  the  Commission  showed  that  about 
600  prostitutes  in  Pittsburgh  had  come  in  equal  proportion  from  almost 
everywhere,  the  greatest  number  being  from  the  nearest  points.  Pitts- 
burgh  gave  birth  to  154  out  of  fin;  surrounding  cities  to  29;  Philadelphia 
to  10;  the  remainder  of  Pennsylvania  to  i$i ;  a  total  of  ^44.  From  Ar- 
kansas came  i;  California,  a;  Colorado,  3;  Connecticut,  i;  Georgia,  i; 
Illinois,  4;  Indiana,  2;  Iowa,  1;  Kansas,  i;  Kentucky,  5;  Louisiana,  2; 
Maryland,  7;  Massachusetts,  2;  Michigan.  2;  Missouri,  2;  Nebraska,  t; 
New  Jersey,  4;  New  York,  54;  North  Carolina,  1 ;  Ohio,  49;  Tennessee.  4; 
Texas,  7;  Virginia,  7;  Vermont,  i ;  West  Virginia,  23;  a  total  of  1  s?.  There 
were  no  foreigners — from  Austria,  ji;Canada,2;  Denmark,  i:England, 
3:  Germany,  16;  Holland,  i;  Ireland,  );  Italy,  9;  Russia.  18;  Scotland,  3; 
Sweden,  3;  Switzeriand,  1.  Many  of  them  are  virtually  female  vagrants 
with  criminal  tendencies. 

Our  inquiry  as  to  the  previous  occupation  and  income  of  ;o6  pros- 
titutes revealed  that  169  had  been  in  domestic  service  at  wages  from  |i.  JO 
to  17  a  week;  jj  had  worked  in  factories  at  from$3  tofioa  week;  51  had 
been  clerks  at  from  $)  to  fS;  ;o  had  been  waitresses  at  from  $3  to  $7;  14 
had  been  seamstresses  at  from  fj  to  f  10;  [4  had  worked  in  laundries  at 
frCMnl3to|6;  10  had  been  nurse  girls  at  from$i.jotof4;5  had  been  tele- 
phone operators  at  $3.50;  4  had  been  flower  girls  at  ^  to  ls;  4  had  done 
office  work  at  from  $2  to  (15;  3  had  been  milliners  at  16;  3  had  been 
cashiersat  f6  tof  13-so;  2  were  chorus  girls  at  |io  to  $12;  one  had  been  a 
manicure  at  $y  one  an  actress  at  (40,  one  a  governess  at  f;,  one  a  can- 
vasser at  ^,  one  a  fur  maker  at  $4,  and  one  a  music  teacher,  income  not 
^ven.  But  1 18  had  come  directly  from  homes,  having  never  engaged  in 
any  gainful  employment.  Low  wages  are  an  indirect  factor  as  they  pro- 
duce an  unattractive  home  life,  parental  ne^ect,  a  taste  for  cheap  amuse- 
ments and  strong  stimulants,  and  similar  elements  in  the  psychology  of 
poverty.  From  this  point  of  view  the  low  wages  of  men  are  as  much  to 
blame  as  the  low  wages  of  women. 

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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

Ten  women  gave  their  average  weekly  income  as  from  f$  to  K: 
36  from  $g  to  $10;  8t  from  fi  1  to  f  15;  139  from  |i6  to  {20;  93  from  |io 
to $35;  30 from  $2^  to|3o;  36  from  f^^totAO;  2$from(4;  to^jo;  17 from 
$SS  to  f75;  8  from  $80  to  |ioo.  The  prostitute  will  rarely  acknowledge 
her  full  income,  but  fairly  dependable  reports  from  458  in  Pittsburgh  at 
the  beginning  of  1913  show  their  share  of  the  traffic  amounted  to  about 
f  10,000  weekly.  As  the  share  of  the  keeper  of  the  house  is  the  same,  that 
would  mean  I1.040.000  annually  as  a  tribute  to  the  social  evil,  or  about 
fi. $00,000  (excluding  the  equally  huge  drink  bill),  when  there  were  over 
300  houses  and  about  t  .000  inmates,  a  tax  of  fs  on  every  man,  woman,  and 
child  in  the  city.  Out  of  558  Pittsburgh  women  406  had  never  had  any 
children:  out  of  the  153  who  had.  there  were  66  who  had  one  child  living. 
[9  who  had  two  living,  and  five  who  had  three  or  four  living. 

Of  360  women  both  parents  were  dead,  of  only  87  both  were  living. 
The  mothers  of  103  and  the  fathers  of  73  were  living.  Two  came  from 
wealthy  families.  10  were  well-to-do.  i$3  in  moderate  circumstances, 
and  3  $4  poor. 

Out  of  474  Pittsburgh  women  1  entered  a  house  at  fourteen,  1  at 
fifteen,  3  at  sixteen,  8  at  seventeen.  44  at  nineteen,  75  at  twenty,  113  at 
twenty-one.  163  at  twenty-two,  64  at  twenty-five  to  twenty-eight,  and  IJ 
at  twenty-nine  to  thirty-five.  It  will  be  seen  that  257  entered  at  the  age 
of  eighteen  to  twenty-one,  and  only  317  at  all  other  ages.  It  is  a  corollary 
of  this  that  most  of  the  women  entering  this  life  are  single;  there  were 
359  such  in  the  above  enumeration,  1 19  who  had  been  married  but  were 
separated  or  divorced  from  their  husbands,  and  84  who  were  widows. 

While  earlier  marriage  would,  undoubtedly,  check  the  tendency 
to  prostitution  in  a  large  measure,  its  bonds  are  by  no  means  a  guarantee 
of  virtue.  Out  of  34;  fallen  women  in  Pittsburgh,  95  were  seduced  by 
married  men.  and  250  by  single  men. 

Nor  do  the  churches  appear  as  any  restraining  influence.  There 
were  found  373  Protestants.  18S  Catholics,  67  Jewesses,  1  Dunkard,  1 
Spiritualist,  1  Freethinker  and  1  Agnostic.  They  came  from  all  walks  of 
life.  There  were  13;  daughters  of  laborers.  70  of  fanners,  39  of  miners, 
21  of  clerks,  18  of  carpenters,  17  of  contractors.  13  of  mechanics.  11  of 
engineers,  10  of  merchants,  8  of  tailors,  8  of  painters,  8  of  blacksmiths,  7 
of  firemen.  6  of  mill  workers.  6  of  stone  masons,  6  of  machinists,  four  each 
of  shoe  makers,  pumpers,  plumbers,  and  brakemen,  three  each  of  saloon 
keepers  and  officers,  two  each  of  bookkeepers,  schod  teachers,  florists, 
cooks,  milkmen,  bakers,  attorneys,  hotel  keepers  and  mill  superintendents; 
one  each  of  a  postmaster,  a  real  estate  agent,  a  driver,  a  physician,  a 
conductor,  a  waiter,  a  broker,  a  rabbi,  a  plasterer,  a  pattern  maker,  a  bar- 


■d^yCoogle 


EXCERFTS  MORALS   EFFICIENCY   REPORT 

tender,  a  cigar  maker,  an  oil  driller,  an  attorney,  an  editor,  an  actor,  a 
manager,  a  glazier,  and  a  glass  worker.  Eighty-five  did  not  even  know 
their  fathers'  occupations,  indicating  how  largely  lax  family  ties  are  re- 
sponsible for  female  delinquency. 

Out  of  ;  i8  Pittsburgh  prostitutes,  aged  from  twenty-one  to  forty- 
eight,  there  was  i  aged  twenty-one,  41  were  twenty-two,  73  were  twenty- 
three,  89  were  twenty-four,  $7  were  twenty-five,  40  were  twenty-six,  43 
were  twenty-seven,  39  were  twenty-eight,  38  were  twenty-nine,  33  were 
thirty,  21  were  thirty-one  to  thirty-two.  34  were  thirty-three  to  thirty- 
four,  12  were  thirty-five  to  thirty-six,  and  6  were  thirty-nine  to  forty- 
eight.  Over  half,  or  261,  were  under  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  they 
looked  <dder. 

Only  1 13  were  found  who  had  been  in  the  business  over  five  years; 
only  18  who  had  been  in  it  over  nine  years;  only  one  who  had  been  in  it 
for  twenty  years.  Out  of  a  total  of  491,  15  had  been  prostitutes  from 
six  to  eight  months;  133  from  one  to  two  years;  76  from  two  to  three 
years;  68  from  three  to  four  years;  76  from  four  to  five  years;  S3  from 
five  to  seven  years;  47  from  seven  to  ten  years;  s  from  ten  to  thirteen 
years;  8  from  fourteen  to  eighteen  years. 


■d^yCoogle 


APPENDIX  XXIII 

RECORDS  OF  REPEATERS 

POLICE  COURT,  JAIL,  AND  WORKHOUSE   RECORDS  OF  A 

GROUP  OF  PETTY  OFFENDERS  IN  PITTSBURGH, 

SHOWING  THE  ENDLESS  ROUND  OF  SHORT 

TERM  SENTENCES 

Compiled  by  Frederick  A.  King 

RED  McHUGH* 
CouHTr  Jail  Record 
June,  1910-June,  1907 
Committed  39  ti 


Days 


Nov. 
Nov. 
Nov. 


March    )   . 
Feb'y     4  . 


ntbs,  ij  djiyt 
1900 

}»«.       2  . 

igcS 

Dec.     38  . 

Nov.     la  . 

Nov.      6  . 

Aug.      }  . 

May     J?  : 
Jan.       s  . 


Aug.  16  . 
June  36  . 
June     IS  . 

Central  Police  Court  Record 

June,  1910-Juiic  1909 
Arraigned  and  discharged  )  lime* 


drunkenness    discharged 
drunkenne»    discharged 


Nov.    3  arrested 

4  drunkenness    discharged 

July   I  s  arrested 

16  drunkenness    discharged 


drunkcnnCM    discharged 

*  Names  fictiltous. 
510 


■d^yCoogle 


RECORDS  OF   REPEATERS 


Red  McHuch  « 

Workhouse  Record 

1910-1870 

93  Terms  of  ImpriMHimenl 

Served  a  total  of  13  years,  8  monthi 


1910 

Ci<ir(« 

Dayi 

,8g8 

Ci«-(< 

D-y* 

M.y    1. 

vagrancy       . 

■    30 

April    ao 

disorderiy  conduct 

■      JO 

igog 

Jan.        1 

■    90 

ManhTi 

vagrancy 

.    30 

>897 

i,oS 

Nov.    a6 

.     30 

Nov.    38 

■    30 

Sept.    ai 

■     30 

Oct.       7 

disordetiy  conduc 

-    30 

July        7 

disorderly  conduct 

■     30 

Stpi.      J 

■    30 

April      9 

■     30 

Apnl      3 

drunk     .       . 

-    30 

Feb'y     3 

.    30 

Jan.      15 

vagrancy 

.      JO 

.896 

/po? 

May     ty 

vagrancy 

■     30 

July      10 

.    30 

March  as 

disorderiy  conduct 

■     30 

,,06 

Jan.       8 

.    30 

Sept.    J, 

vagrancy 

.     30 

K,     '*« 

J«i»      7 

.     30 

Nov.     14 

.     30 

April    II 

.    30 

July       7 

vagrancy       .       . 

■     30 

/po5 

]une       1 

disorderiy  conduct 

■    30 

Aug.     as 

disorderly  conduc 

■    30 

K,     '**^ 

June      9 

vagrancy 

■    30 

Nov.    39 

vagrancy       .       . 

■    90 

April      s 

.    60 

June      3 

-    90 

1904 

Jan.      33 

■    90 

Nov.  Vi 

•    90 

/»P3 

Joly     JO 

disorderly  conduc 

.    & 

Dec.     aa 

.     30 

April    17 

'POJ 

" 

AfofX 

Nov.     II 
Oct.       5 

drunkenness '. 
vagrancy       .       . 

■  30 

■  30 

May     15 

vagrancy 

.      6 

Match  3) 

.     30 

Dayi 

disorderly  conduct 

.     30 

April      1 

■     30 

suspicious  person 

■       JO 

ipoa 

Jan.      ao 

vagrancy 

.     60 

Aug.     tj 

disorderly  conduc 

■    90 

iSpa 

Jom     <o 

vagrancy 

■      JO 

Cte.       a 
Oct.      ai 

■      JO 

IflOl 

vagrancy 

■      JO 

Sept.    37 

disorderly  conduc 

.    60 

S.pt.    at 

.;    i** 

Aug.     ai 

vagrancy 

■     30 

Motifhi 

May     1; 

■     30 

Jan.      35 

6 

Mareliaa 

■     30 

iS,i 

Day, 

Feb'y    i6 

■    30 

Oct.      30 

90 

/poo 

Aug.     30 

■      JO 

Dec.     JO 

,     30 
■    90 

"".sS 

■    30 

■       JO 

Jan.       7 

-    90 

fJ99 

MoiUbi 

tSdj 

Nov.   78 

.      6 

D«:.       5 

■      JO 

Days 

Sept.    ai 

■       JO 

Aug.     18 

■     90 

Jan.     36 

.    30 

disorderiy  conduc 

.     30 

.SSi 

■    90 

Ang    ao 

90 

.S98 

te  z 

interfering  with  officer.     30 

Dee.       1 

vagrancy 

30 

suspicious  person 

■      JO 

Aug.      9 

exposing  person 

.       JO 

iSS} 

July       6 

suspicious  person 

■    30 

July      16 

■     30 

.d,Google 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 


,a8i 

Ctoj* 

M4mtbi 

,878       Chart* 

Nov.    36    vagrancy 

Oct.        1    disorderly  conduct 

Oct.       4 

April    26 

J-,^; 

aiMult  aod  battery 

30 

i^\      ■■      ■■ 

Sept.    39 

vagrancy 

90 

,S,6 

■      JO 

Feb'y     9 

disord«riy  conduct 

JO 

,S,i 

Aug.       4 

-    y> 

■«70 

'879 

Aug.      9 

Day, 

J.«.       16 

April      . 

■     90 

Pemitentiarv  Record 

1866-69 

Served  )  yean,  6  months 

Jan.  I)    Felonious  auauTt  and  battery. 


1910 
May     19 
Ma;^      6 

FebV  37 
Jan.      1$ 

1909 
Dec  30 
Nov.  1 1 
Oct.  ao 
Sept.  37 
Sept.  13 
Sept.  5 
Aug.  37 
Aug.  3t 
July  19 
June  J 
May  t7 
April  34 
April  I) 
March  19 
March  17 


TOM  MURPHY 

County  Jail  Record 

June.  I9io-Jone.  1907 

Cammitled  4$  times 

Served  a  total  of  4  months,  3  days 


Oct.      30  . 
Oct. 


Sept.  aj  . 

Sept.  7  ■ 

Aug.  3S  . 

Aug.  18  . 

July  39  . 

June  4  . 

1907 

Dec.  17  . 

Oct.  30  . 

Oct.  4  . 

Sept.  3j  . 

Sept.  1   . 

Aug.  18  . 

Aug.  8  . 


■d^yCoogle 


RECORDS  OF   REPEATERS 


GERTRUDE  SNOW 

Workhouse  Record 

June, 

1910-June,  1900 

Police  Court  Record 

June. 

1910-June.  1909 

Arraigned  1 1  times 

1910 

fe  ;| 

April     16 
Match  17 
March   6 

Discharged 

diwrderiy  conduct 

ID  or  )o  days  to  work  house 

drunk 

10  or  10  days  in  ail 

Committed 

diiord«riy  conduct 

10  or  JO  days  in  ail 

Committed 

drunk 

iDonodayiin  ail 

Committed 

Jan.       8 

dnink 

^joo  or  5  days  in  jail 

Committed 

Dec.     13 

dnink 

$(.00  or  s  days  in  jail 

Committed 

Nov.     ig 

drunk 

Discharged 

CPct.      i5 

drunk 

yio  or  10  days  in  jail 

Committed 

Sr;  ^; 

drunk 

>.o  or  10  days  in  jail 

Committed 

drunk 

iyoa  or  j  days  in  jail 

Committed 

THOMAS  SCOTT 

County  Jail  Record 

June, 

1910-June,  1907 

Committed  36  times 

rpio 

Day, 

,90s 

Dayi 

May     "   : 

April     30  .         .        . 
April      9  ■               - 

10 

'.     10 

ApHI    38  . 

3 

April      4  .        ■       ■ 

S 

April     10  . 

■  0 

March  10  .       .       . 

March  )i 

March    1 

March  35  . 
March  19  . 

-      J 
■       S 

Feb'y  31  .      :       ! 

Feb-J     7.       .       . 

'.     lo 

March   9  - 

Jan.      .3  .       .      . 

.     10 

1900 

1907 

Nov.    36  . 

.      lO 

Sept.    »T  .       .       . 

,go8 

Sept.    2A.       .       . 

■       ■      J 

Oct.     33  . 

Sept.     13  .       .       . 

Oct       13 

IS 

June     30  .       . 

May      6  . 
April    39. 

June  ?:   :   ; 

■       5 

.d,GoogIe 


ip/0 

May    19 3o 

May     i8 lo 

May      7 lo 

April    » s 

April     19 ] 

March  16 30 

March   9 j 

Feb'y  33 10 

Nov. 


WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

WALTER  JOHNSON 
CouNTV  Jail  Record 
June,  1910-June,  1907 

Committed  $8  times 

Dayi 


Oct. 
Oct. 


JO  ■ 


July  11  ...  . 

July  6  .       .       .  . 

June  34  - 

May  18  ...  . 

April  3j 30 

April  II  . 

Feb'y  10  ...  . 


Oct. 
Sept. 
Sept. 
Aug. 
Aug. 


Suly  31  . 

Illy  10  . 

uly  I  . 

une  II  . 

aS  U: 

April  18  . 
April  8  . 
March  38  . 
March  18  . 
March  1 


Oct. 
Oct. 


<W7 


I   . 


Sept.    19  . 

Sept.      6  . 

Aug.     IS  . 

Aug.       I  . 

uly      10 

37  , 

i(  ■ 


CORNELIUS  CARR 

Workhouse  Record 

1910-1S83 

Served  a  total  of  9  yean,  1 1  months 

Apn/^ie 

Di'°'i8 
April     >6 

Nov.       J 
Oct.         ) 
July       8 
April    39 

vagrancy        ...     60 
...     90 

.       JO 

disorderly  conduct      .     30 

1907 
Dec.     33     vagrancy 
Nov.    3J          •' 

ft"  .?     :: 

March  34          "             .       . 
1906 

1905 
Aug.     36    vagrancy 

May     39          " 

vagrancy       ...     30 

...       JO 
...       JO 

drunkenness  ...     30 

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RECORDS  OF   REPEATERS 


l!>04 

Sept.    36 

IffO) 

Sept.    ai 

vagrancy        .       . 

«1?     '7 
Feb'y  aj 

7(103 
ipOi 

Dec.      ID 

:   ; ; 

Sept.     II 
igoo 

Dec.       i    vagrancy 

Sept.      4  ■■ 

June    33    disorderly  conduct 

'894 
May     aj 

June     ti 

Oct.      16    vagrancy 

Aug.     30  " 

April     17  "  .       . 

/891 
May     30    disoideriy  conduct 

1800 


March  33 

iSg6 
March  n 


Dec.     34    drunkenncM . 
June       i    disorderly  conduct 
March  33 

r8S4 
March  37    vagrancy 


y>     J»n-„ 


May       i    disorderly  conduct 


County  Jail  Record 

June,  igio-Ju'w-  '9o6 

Committed  33  times 

Served  a  total  of  3  months,  19  days 

April     19 S  July 

April     13  ...       .  ^* 

March  34 10 


Dec. 
Dec 

Nov. 
Nov. 
Nov. 


Sept. 
Sept. 
Aug. 
Aug. 


March  18  . 

Feb'y  a  I  . 

,908 

Dec.      ao  . 

Sept.    36  . 

Sept.     II  . 

April     18  . 

Nov*^i 

Nov!     10  '. 
Ctt.      .7 

Sept.      t   . 
May       i    . 


■d^yCoogle 


APPENDIX  XXIV 

EXCERPTS  FROM  REPORT  ON  BUREAU  OF  POLICE 

Pkepaked  FOR  THE  City  Council  OF  Pittsbukch  by  the  New  Yok 
Bureau  OF  Municipal  Research,  JUNE-JuLr,  1913 

BUREAU  OF  POLICE 
Bureau's  Efficiency  Not  Shown  bv  Records 

The  present  system  of  records  and  reports  of  the  bureau  of  police  nukts 
intelligent  direction  and  accountability  impossible.  Neither  the  superintendcoi 
of  police  nor  the  director  of  public  safety  can  determine  the  eflicieiicy  or  ineflideiicy 
of  the  bureau  by  reference  to  these  records,  and  therefore  all  chance  of  intdligCDI 
direction  of  the  activities  of  the  force  is  destroyed. 
Lack  of  Discipline  Due  to  Lack  of  Information 

The  director's  lack  of  information  concerning  the  bureau  accounts  in  large 
measure  for  the  apparent  lack  of  discipline  throughout  the  force. 

To  the  present  irregular  and  inefficient  methods  of  supplying  the  director 
with  information  concerning  the  workings  of  the  bureau  of  police  may  be  attributed 
the  presence  of  the  present  patrol  system  which  was  established  more  than  35  yean 
ago  and  which  has  neither  been  altered  nor  improved  since  its  adoption. 

The  director  is  unable  to  maintain  adequate  control  over  the  bureau  because 
he  does  not  know,  and  no  records  are  available  to  tell  him: 
I.  Whether  crime  is  on  the  increase  or  decrease. 
a.  Whether  the  number  of  arrests  exceeds  that  of  preceding  years. 
).  Whether  the  number  of  convictions  exceeds  that  of  previous  years. 
4.  Whether  complaints  received  are  being  properiy  investigated. 
}.  Whether  the  number  of  complaints  received  exceeds  that  of  previous 
yean. 

6.  Whether  the  members  of  the  detective  division  are  intelligently  inves- 
tigating cases  which  come  within  their  jurisdiction. 

7.  Whether  the  station  bouses  are  in  good  sanitary  condition. 

8.  Whether  there  arc  few  or  many  disorderly  houses  or  houses  of  prostitu- 
tion in  the  city. 

9.  Whether  juvenile  delinquency  is  on  the  increase  or  decrease. 

10.  Whether  supplies  are  being  properly  distributed  and  honestly  accounted 
for. 

11.  Whether  the  surgeons  are  performingtheir  duties  intelligently  and  with 
greatest  benefit  to  the  force. 

II.  Whether  there  is  much  or  little  sickness  among  the  membersoftheforce. 

516 


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REPORT  ON   BUREAU  OF   POLICE 

This  lack  of  infonnatioD  a  the  fundamtntal  defect  in  the  administration  of 
Pittsburgh's  bureau  of  police.    Until  this  defect  is  eradicated,  present  police 

inefficiency  wilt  continue 

Plan  op  Reorganization 

It  is  recommended  that  the  director  provide  a  plan  of  reorganization  em- 
bodying the  suggestions  in  this  report,  and  that  he  secure  immediate  control  over 
the  activities  of  the  entire  force  by; 

I.  Establishing  a  complaint,  record  and  filing  division  by  means  of  which 
all  the  correspondence,  complaints  and  iecord$  may  be  under  the  supervision  of  the 
director  himself. 

a.  Providing  formi  which  will  biing  to  his  desk  each  morning  in  concise, 
accurate  and  consolidated  form  adequate  information  of  the  workings  of  the  entire 
force  so  as  to  make  intelligent  control  and  accountability  possible. 

}.  Appointing  a  civilian  aide  who  will  have  no  duties  involving  adminis- 
trative detail  but  will  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  director  to  make  intelligent  research 
into  modem  methods  of  policing  and  to  conduct  confidential  investigations. 

4.  T>roviding  charts  and  maps  for  his  own  office,  which  would  enable  him  to 
KC  at  a  glance  the  cKme  conditions  of  the  city.  This  map  should  show  the  boun- 
daries of  all  precincts  and  at  the  end  of  each  day  the  crimes  committed  within  the 
various  precincts  should  be  indicated  on  the  map  by  different  colored  tacks.  An 
increase  of  tacks  of  a  certain  colot  in  any  one  section  would  immediately  serve 
notice  of  the  increase  of  crime  therein  and  would  indicate  the  need  for  immediate 
investigation. 

ORGAN tlATION  AND  PEKSOKNEL 

To  have  an  efficient  patrol  force,  the  patrolmen  must  be  governed  by  a 
definitcset  of  rules;  they  must  be  properly  trained;  they  must  have  decent  working 
hours;  the  stations  in  which  they  are  housed  must  not  only  be  saniiaty  but  must  be 
comfortable  and  as  nearly  home-like  as  it  is  possible  to  make  them;  the  men  must 
be  treated  with  respect  by  their  superior  officers  and  the  superior  officers  must 
demand  of  them  the  respect  to  which  the  higher  office  is  entitled 

The  present  system  of  patrol  we  condemn  as  unfair  to  the  policemen  and 
unfair  to  citizens. 
Patrolmen  Should  Faithfully  Report  Conditions  on  Their  Posts 

The  patrolman  is  required  to  patrol  his  beat  continuously  for  not  less  than 
Dine  hours.  It  is  the  experience  of  police  experts  that  much  of  the  trouble  into 
which  policemen  get  in  large  cities  is  due  to  leisure  time  while  on  patrol.  The 
patrol  force  should  be  made  to  understand  that  it  is  not  sufficient  that  they  walk 
back  and  forth  on  Iheir  posts  and  make  arrests  for  violations  of  the  law  but  they 
must  do  more — they  must  co-operate  with  all  the  city  departments  by  observing 
conditions  on  their  posts  and  calling  the  attention  of  the  respective  departments 
having  jurisdiction  to  matters  which  they  discover  requiring  attention. 

Indeed,  in  some  cities  in  this  country  and  in  almost  all  the  cities  of  Europe, 
policemen  are  required  to  make  inspections  for  the  various  departments,  such  as 
health,  fire,  and  buildings.    The  administrative  head  of  the  department  should 

S17 


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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

hold  each  patrolman  stricily  to  account  for  alt  conditions  on  his  pMt,  Patrolmen 
should  be  furnished  uniform  standard  memorandum  books  of  the  loose  leaf  type. 
They  should  be  required  to  report  in  writing  in  this  memorandum  book  such  mat- 
ters as  come  to  their  attention  while  on  patrol,  and  their  efficiency  in  this  direction 
should  not  go  unrewarded  but  should  be  carefully  considered  in  rating  their  monthly 
efTiciency  cards.  Much  of  the  inspection  work  now  being  performed  at  a  large 
expense  by  the  other  city  departments  could  be  reduced  if  the  policemen,  who 
have  plenty  of  leisure  time  while  on  patrol,  were  efHcient  in  observing  conditions 
and  reporting  upon  them 


WoKK  OF  Macistrates  Not  Supervised 

....  Magistrates  should  be  responsible  to  the  judges  of  the  courts 
of  record  and  their  work  supervised  by  one  of  their  number  to  be  selected  as  chief 
magistrate.  To  accomplish  this  it  will  be  necessary  to  amend  the  statutes  by  an 
act  of  the  legislature,  and  it  is  recommended  that  an  effort  be  made  to  secure  the 
necessary  legislation  to  remedy  the  defects  in  the  present  magistrate  system. 
Macistrates'  Courts  Not  Properly  a  Part  of  Bureau  of  Pouce 

The  function  of  Che  magistrates  is  judicial  and  in  no  sense  a  police  function. 
The  practice  of  having  police  magistrates'  courts  a  part  of  the  police  system  has 
been  proved  in  other  large  cities,  particularly  in  New  York,  to  be  unsatisfactory 
and  not  in  the  best  interests  of  justice.  Ma^strates'  courts  should  be  separated 
from  the  bureau  of  police  and  made  a  part  of  the  judiciary,  as  are  the  inferior  courts. 
No  Sessions  of  Court  after  Eleven  a.  m. 

The  taw  should  create  a  board  of  ma^strates  providing  for  the  holding  of 
hearings  in  regular  district  court  houses  especially  built  for  this  purpose.     .     .    . 

At  present  a  person  arrested  after  1 1  a.  m.,  and  in  some  sections  of 

the  city  even  earlier,  is  required  to  remain  in  a  cell  over  night  or  procure  bail. 

If  magistrates'  courts  were  kept  open  during  the  entire  day.  the  present 
system  of  providing  meals  for  prisoners  in  station  houses  could  be  abolished.  This 
would  result  in  a  saving  of  money,  and  the  station  houses  at  present  used  as  jaib 
could  be  used  as  places  of  temporary  detention 


Arrests  for  Drunkenness  Point  to  Need  for  STi;Dy 

More  than  4 1  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  arrests  during  the  years  190^ 
1910,  and  1913,  were  made  on  charges  of  drunkenness.  These  figures  indicate  either 
that  the  policemen  are  making  a  great  number  of  unnecessary  arrests  or  that  the 
city  of  Pittsburgh  has  an  inebriety  problem  to  solve.  In  either  case  a  careful  analy- 
sis of  the  figures  should  be  made 

Bureau  Lacks  Data  to  Form  a  Basis  of  Study 

Under  the  present  system  of  records  no  data  can  be  secured  which  would 
be  of  value  in  astudy  of  the  causes  of  inebriety.  It  is  impossible  to  determine  from 
the  records  the  number  of  habitual  drunkards  arrested  or,  in  fact,  the  number  of 

5.8 


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REPORT  ON   BUREAU  OF   POLICE 

second,  third  or  fouTth  ollenden.    No  card  record  system  of  persons  arrested  U 

maintained 

Many  Needless  Arrests  Are  Made 

A  study  of  station  house  procedure  showed  also  that  many  persons  were 
arrested  and  charged  with  drunkenness  against  whom  there  was  no  complaint  of 
disorderly  conduct  and  who  might  well  have  been  sent  home.     .    .     . 
LiEUTEHANTS  Have  No  Power  TO  DISCHARGE  Persons  Arrested  for  Intoxica- 

Except  where  an  intoxicated  person  is  very  disorderly  or  so  drunk  as  to  be 
unable  to  reach  home  safely,  no  arrests  should  be  made.  The  ordinance  should 
provide  that  desk  sergeants  or  lieutenants  upon  taking  the  necessary  pedigree  upon 
the  cards  referred  (o  above  should  have  the  power  to  discharge  from  custody  when 
sober  and  in  condition  to  go  home,  persons  arrested  for  intoxication  where  no 
charge  of  disorderly  conduct  is  made.  The  ordinance  should  further  provide  that 
in  cases  where  the  records  show  the  prisoner  to  be  a  second  or  third  offender  or 
a  habitual  drunkard  he  should  be  detained  and  the  facts  called  to  the  attention  of 
the  magbt  rate.    .    .    . 

Each  precinct  should  maintain  a  duplicate  set  of  card  records  for  drunken* 
ness.  Patrolmen  should  be  instructed  to  use  more  intelligence  in  the  matter  of 
handling  intoxicated  persons.  While  it  is  impossible  to  estimate  in  what  degree 
needless  arrests  for  intoxication  are  made  it  is,  however,  quite  apparent  that  at 
least  very  many  of  the  persons  arrested  on  this  charge  need  not  be  taken  to  the 
Station  house. 
No  Civic  Agency  Is  at  Present  Studvihg  Inebriety  in  the  City 

Council  should  appoint  a  commission  to  make  a  study  of  the  whole  inebriety 
question  with  a  view  to  providing  treatment  for  persons  addicted  to  the  use  of 
liquor  other  than  criminal  prosccutbn  and  incarceration  in  prisons.  Such  persons 
should  be  treated  from  an  entirely  different  viewpoint  than  they  are  at  present. 
This  commission  should  observe  the  workings  and  results  obtained  by  the  Inebriety 
Board  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
More  than  4;  Per  Cent  of  Arrests  Result  in  Discharge 

An  examination  of  the  records  of  arrests  and  dispositions  in  the  police  mag- 
istrates' courts  discloses  the  fact  that  more  than  4;  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of 
arrests  made  result  in  discharge. 

The  following  table,  showing  the  total  number  of  arrests  during  the  years 
1909,  1910  and  191 1  and  the  total  number  of  discharges  in  magistrates'  courts,  by 
comparison  with  the  total  numt«r  of  arrests  and  discharges  in  the  city  of  New  York 
in  the  year  1913,  indicates  that  many  needless  arrests  are  made: 
Total 


Ytar 

Arrtits 

DiubaritJ 

PtTCenlagi 

f^ttsburgh    . 

■     1909 

}  5,611 

18.781 

53.7a 

Pittsburgh   . 

1910 

}9.'i" 

17.769 

%s 

Pittsburgh   . 

.     1911 

)6,9ia 

'7.9'? 

New  York    . 

.     1911 

I70.)75 

3<l.ao4 

aj.oi 

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wage-earning  pittsburgh 
Records  E>o  Not  Show  Number  of  Dischances  or  Acquittals  in  Hicmer 

The  figures  relating  to  the  city  of  Pittsburgh  under  the  beading  "Nnoiber 
Discharged"  do  not  indicate  the  total  number  of  cases  discharged  becaose  they 
show  only  the  cases  disposed  of  in  the  police  magistrates'  courts. 
No  Investigations  Made  of  Discharges 

The  director  of  public  safety  should  cause  to  be  made  forthvith  an  investip- 
tion  in  order  to  dettrmine  the  reasons  for  the  unusually  large  number  oi  cases  dis- 
charged in  [he  police  magistrates'  courts  with  a  view  to  instructing  the  memberi  of 
the  force  not  only  to  avoid  making  unnecessary  arrests  but  also  to  use  more  intelli- 
gence in  the  presentation  of  their  cases  in  court 

juvenile  delinquents 
Arraicnment  op  Children  in  Police  Courts  Unwarranted 

The  present  method  of  handling  juvenile  prisoners  Is  cruel  and  without 
justificatbn.  A  child  arrested  for  juvenile  delinquency  is  taken  to  the  police 
Station  in  a  patrol  wagon  wheie  he  is  placed  under  the  care  of  a  matron.  Although 
police  officers  are  supposed  to  notify  the  parents  of  the  child's  arrest,  it  is  admitted 
that  there  is  no  rule  requiring  this  and,  according  to  desk  sergeants,  it  is  not  the 
usual  practice.  Children  are  arraigned  before  police  magistrates  notwithstanding 
the  existence  of  a  juvenile  court.  .  .  . 
All  Children  Should  Be  Taken  to  Juvenile  Court 

Measures  should  be  taken  at  once  to  provide  for  the  tnns- 

portation  of  children  in  some  manner  other  than  by  patrol  wagon.  In  referring  to 
the  manner  of  arraigning  children  before  magistrates  one  of  the  judges  stated  that 
frequently  little  children  have  to  be  raised  up  by  the  policenien  and  placed  upon 
the  desks  while  their  cases  are  being  heard.  Nothing  In  this  report  is  of  more 
imporunce  than  the  suggestion  to  reform  the  present  method  of  procedure  in  the 
handling  of  juvenile  delinquents. 
No  Child  Should  be  Detained  at  Station  House 

Under  no  circumstances  should  a  child  be  detained  in  a  station  bouse.    The 
city  should  either  maintain  a  building  for  this  purpose  or  contribute  to  some  sodeiy 
for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to  children  so  that  juveniles  when  arrested  would  not 
be  held  at  the  station  house. 
Parents  op  Arrested  Children  Should  be  Notified 

The  department  should  have  a  rule  requiring  lieutenants  or  desk  sergeants 
to  notify  forthwith  the  parents  of  children  arrested,  and  all  children,  except  in  very 
serious  cases,  should  be  paroled  without  a  forfeit  in  the  custody  of  their  paitnis. 
Failure  on  the  part  of  commanding  officers  to  observe  this  rule  should  result  in 
instant  suspension  and  subsequent  dismissal.    .    .    . 

conditions  in  station  houses 
CitL  Houses  Unsanitary— Padded  Cells 

With  the  exception  of  the  cells  in  one  station  bouse,  the  cells  throughout  the 
$20 


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REPORT  ON   BUREAU  OF   POLICE 

city  are  equipped  with  unsanitary  plumbing.  They  are  all  of  the  oldest  type  and 
none  b  equipped  with  drinking  water.  They  are  of  steel  and  iron  construction, 
poorly  vcntitaled,  and  only  a  few  are  natuially  lighted. 

In  station  No.  i,  which  serves  the  busiest  precinct  and  has  the  largest  cell 
bouse,  the  toilets  in  the  cells  are  of  the  oldest  type  and  it  is  impossible  to  keep  them 
in  a  sanitary  condition.  They  should  be  removed  at  once  and  replaced  with  the 
newest  standard  plumbing.  Most  of  the  cells  in  this  house,  and  especially  on  the 
lower  tier,  are  absolutely  dark.  There  is  still  in  use  at  this  station  a  cell  of  the 
type  of  the  ancient  torture  dungeon,  and  it  is  frequently  referred  to  in  the  news- 
papers throughout  the  country  as  "the  menagerie."  The  walls  are  padded  with 
a  heavy  canvas  which  is  blood-smeared  and  filthy.  The  cell  is  not  lighted  and  no 
place  is  provided  for  the  prisoner  to  sleep  except  on  the  wooden  floor.  In  this  cell 
sanitation  is  impossible,  the  only  means  of  ventilation  bdng  through  a  small  open- 
ing in  the  door.  It  Is  declared  that  this  cell  is  only  used  for  demented  and  delirious 
prisoners.  Two  other  stations  are  provided  with  similar  padded  cells  except  that 
they  are  somewhat  cleaner.  Padded  cells  have  long  since  been  condemned.  A 
piisoner  who  is  demented  or  deliiious  is  entitled  to  immediate  medical  attention, 
and  should  not  be  detained  at  a  station  house  but  sent  directly  to  a  hospital.  It 
would  be  cruel  to  put  a  well  person  in  such  a  cell — and  much  more  cruel  in  the  case 
of  one  suffering  from  delirium  or  dementia.  As  a  means  of  preventing  demented 
prisoners  from  doing  themselves  bodily  harm  these  cells  have  proved  useless.  In 
fact,  this  particular  cell  was  stripped  of  its  padding  and  its  walls  laid  bare  by  de- 
mented prisoners.  At  the  best,  padded  cells  are  torture  chambers  and  there  b 
always  the  temptation  for  the  jailer  to  use  them  as  "coolers"  for  punishing  unruly 
and  troublesome  prisoners.    This  cell  should  be  removed  immediately.    .    .    . 


Policemen  Receive  No  Training 

Policemen  receive  no  training  whatever  for  their  work.  The  moment  a 
patrolman  has  been  appointed  he  is  assigned  to  duty  and  little  or  no  instruction  is 
given  him.  He  is  required  to  learn  the  duties  of  his  office  as  best  he  can  or,  as  the 
authorities  in  charge  of  the  bureau  put  it,  "by  experience." 

He  is  not  even  placed  under  the  charge  of  an  older  patrolman  or  required  to 
perform  duty  with  him  for  a  definite  number  of  days  so  as  to  become  familiar  with 
the  merest  routine. 
Lack  of  Discipline  Due  to  Lack  of  Training 

It  is  unreasonable  to  expect  a  policeman  to  enforce  the  laws 

and  ordinances  unless  he  has  at  least  some  idea  of  what  those  laws  and  ordinances 
are.  The  policeman  who  has  received  no  training  in  court  procedure  and  no  in- 
struction as  to  how  to  conduct  himself  in  court  can  scarcely  be  expected  to  present 
evidence  properly  to  a  court  of  law.  Policemen  are  given  revolvers  to  use  with- 
out a  sini^e  lesson  in  target  practice. 
Urgent  Need  for  Training  School  for  Police  Service 

It  is  recommended  that  a  training  school  for  police  service  be  established  at 

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wage-earning  pittsburgh 

promotions 
Political  Influgnce  Affects  Promotions 

An  eumination  of  ihe  records  shows  that  political  influence  affects  promo- 
tions in  the  bureau  of  police.  Letters  on  file  in  the  bureau  prove  conclusively  tlut 
all  promotions  are  not  made  upon  merit.  .  .  .  The  politician  who  succeeds  in 
securing  preferment  for  policemen  insists  upon  preferment  at  the  hands  of  the  police- 
men so  favored,  and  when  the  opportunity  arises  for  the  policeman  to  help  the 
politician  who  helped  him  secure  his  promotion,  efficiency  and  fair  play,  and  some- 
times even  justice,  must  suffer. 

The  entire  system  of  promotion  should  be  changed  and  the  civil  regubtioos 
should  provide  that  alt  promotions  be  made  in  the  same  manner  as  are  appwnt- 
ments — one  name  to  be  selected  from  every  three  certified.    .    .    . 

Trials  of  Delinquent  PoLiCEHiN 
Sessions  of  Trial  Board  Secret 

By  excluding  the  public  and  the  press  from  the  hearings  of  the  trial  board 
its  sessions  are  shrouded  with  an  air  of  mystery  which  serves  no  good  purpose  and 
invariably  creates  suspJcbn.  Therefore,  it  is  recommended  that  all  trials  be  pub- 
lic and  that  the  press  be  admitted  to  all  sessions  of  the  trial  board — including 


For  some  reason  which  could  not  be  explained  by  the  head  of  the  bureau, 
there  appear  upon  the  record  card  of  each  member  of  the  force,  which  accompanies 
the  copy  of  the  charges  of  trial,  the  names  of  the  accused  policeman's  vouchers  or, 
as  one  man  put  it,  his  "backers."  The  placing  of  these  names  before  the  trial 
board  can  serve  no  good  purpose,  but  they  may  serve  to  influence  the  members  of 
the  board  in  the  matter  of  punishment.  The  practice  should  be  discontinued  forth- 
with, as  delinquent  policemen  should  be  tried  upon  the  merils  of  the  case  without 
regard  totheir'backcrs"  or  vouchers.  ,  .  . 
No  Uniformity  of  Punishment 

A  study  of  the  individual  record  cards  disclosed  the  fact  that  there  is  no 
uniformity  in  the  matter  of  punishment  for  Ihe  same  offense.  Typical  cases  of  the 
disregard  for  uniformity  may  be  observed  from  the  following  illustrations  taken 
from  the  record  cards  of  members  of  the  force: 

....  Can  I. — Drunkenness,  fined  Sio;  drunkenness  on  duty,  second 
offense,  discharged — subsequently  reinstated;  drunk  on  duty,  third  offense  (fine 
not  recorded);  drunk  and  neglect  of  duly,  fourth  offense  (tine  not  recorded):  visiting 
"speak  easies"  in  uniform,  fifth  olTense.  no  case;  drunk  on  duly,  sixth  offense, 
reprimanded:  seventh  offense,  fined  %y,  eighth  offense,  fined  %y,  ninth  offense  (line 
not  recorded);  drunkenness,  tenth  offense,  case  dismissed;  eleventh  offense,  cau- 
tioned by  superintendent  and  relieved  from  suspension. 

Can  J, — Intoxication  and  conduct  unbecoming  an  officer,  reprimanded; 
drunkenness,  second  offense,  discharge  recommended  by  board,  but  disapproved 
by  D.  P.  S.;  drunkenness,  third  offense;  discharged  and  reinstated.  Note:  On 
this  man's  record  card  in  one  year  there  appeared  the  record  of  complaints  and 
IS  follows:  Neglect  of  duty  (a),  intoxication  and  conduct  unbecoming 
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REPORT  ON    BUREAU    OF    POLICE 

an  officer,  neglect  of  duty  ()).  absent  without  leave,  conduct  unbecoming  an  officer 
(three  limes).    This  patrolman  is  still  a  member  of  the  force.    .    .    . 

pensions 
Pension  Benefits 

....  The  present  system  of  pensions,  is  faulty  in  that  it  docs  not 
provide  adequate  protection  to  a  member  of  the  force  who  may  be  injured  or  killed 
in  the  performance  of  his  duty  or  to  the  widow  and  children  of  a  policeman  who  dies 
at  his  post  while  protecting  the  ciliiens  of  the  city. 

To  illustrate,  if  a  policeman,  while  in  pursuit  of  a  burglar,  were  shot  and 
killed,  his  widow,  provided  the  deceased  had  made  a  will  and  complied  with  all  tbe 
regubtiontof  the  association,  wouhj  receive  f  1,000;  and  in  the  event  that  a  police- 
man die  intestate  without  complying  with  the  regulations  as  to  naming  a  bene- 
ficiary, the  widow  would  be  forced  to  litigate  her  claim,  and  the  f  1,000  mi^t  be 
reduced  by  divisions  among  possible  heirs  to  a  very  small  sum  for  the  widow.     .     . 

If  Ihe  bullet  from  the  gun  of  the  burglar  did  not  succeed  in  killing  the  police- 
man, but  perchance  destroyed  his  eyesight  or  made  him  a  cripple  during  the  rest  of 
his  life,  the  only  pension  he  could  receive,  under  the  by-laws  of  the  association, 
would  be  one-half  the  sum  of  his  salary  for  a  period  of  fifty-two  weeks  and  Si,ooo 
at  the  end  of  this  time. 
Council  Should  Create  a  Municipal  PENStON  Ststem 

....     Adequate  pensions  for  the  policemen  should   be  provided   as 

I.  Service  pension;  This  is  to  allow  all  members  of  the  police  department 
who  have  served  aj  years  or  more  and  who,  at  the  expiration  of  such  lime  of  ser- 
vice, shall  be  j$  years  of  age.  to  retire  upon  a  sum  equal  toone-half  of  their  salary 
at  the  lime  of  retirement. 

3.  Disability  pension:  This  form  of  pension  should  be  for  members  of  the 
department  who  become  totally  incapacitated  from  performing  police  duty,  their 
injury  having  been  received  In  the  actual  performance  of  police  duty.  They  should 
be  paid  at  the  rate  of  one-half  their  annual  salary  at  the  time  such  injury  was 

detective  division 

Our  investigation  of  the  detective  division  revealed  a  condition  of  demorali- 
zation due  principally  to  a  lack  of  supervision,  a  defective  method  of  securing 
detectives,  a  lack  of  control  of  their  activities,  failure  to  specialize  in  the  investiga* 
tion  of  the  mote  serious  crimes,  lack  of  detectives  capable  of  understanding  and 
speaking  foreign  languages  and  the  complete  lack  of  records  which  would  be  of 
value  in  directing  activities.  .  .  . 
Detectives  Receive  No  Special  Training  for  Theih  Work 

....  According  to  the  figures  furnished  by  the  coroners'  ofRce  (none 
being  available  in  the  division  of  detectives)  of  77  defendants  tried  for  murder  since 
1905,  a8,  or  36^  per  cent,  were  acquitted.  In  191 1,  the  total  force  of  detectives 
made  761  arrests,  of  which  343.  Of  3 1.8  per  cent,  were  discharged  in  the  magistrates' 
courts;  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  from  the  records  of  the  detective  division  how 
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WAGE-EARNING   PITTSBURGH 

many  of  the  1)3  cases  which  were  held  tor  court  were  alsodischarged  or  acquitted. 
The  entire  detective  organization  for  the  year  191 1  only  made  on  an  average  ol  1 
httle  over  two  arrests  a  day. 
School  for  the  Thaininc  of  Detectives  Should  Be  Estabushed 

...  A  training  school  for  detectives  should  be  established  at  once  as 
a  part  of  the  regular  training  school  for  policemen  suggested  elsewhere  in  this  re- 

Detectives'  Duties  Not  Comfined  to  the  Imvestication  of  Chime 

Members  of  the  detective  division  are  used  in  the  enforcement  of  the  Uvi 
against  gambling,  prostitution  and  the  illegal  sale  of  liquor.  Detectives  should 
be  relieved  of  any  duty  in  the  enforcement  of  these  laws  except  where  felonies  have 
been  committed  in  connection  with  their  violation.  Detectives  should  be  free  to 
investigate  ciime  and  apprehend  criminals.  Contact  with  saloons  or  disorderly 
houses  is  not,  however,  conducive  to  efficiency  and  the  enforcement  of  the  law  in 
relation  to  these  places  should  be  left  either  to  the  precinct  plain  clothes  men  or  to 
special  squads  created  for  this  purpose.  .  .  . 
No  Members  in  Detective  Division  Who  Speak  Foreign  Languages 

A  large  percentage  of  the  population  of  the  city  is  composed  of  foreigners. 
Polish  and  Italian  colonies  have  already  been  established  in  various  sections  and  the 
records  of  the  bureau  show  the  need  tor  specializing  in  the  investigation  of  crimes 
characteristic  of  the  criminal  element  in  the  foreign  sections.  In  order  to  study 
the  habits  and  characteristics  of  the  foreign  criminal,  it  is  necessary  to  empkqr 
detectives  capable  of  speaking  and  understanding  foreign  languages.  The  person- 
nel of  the  detective  division  does  not  now  include  detectives  who  could  be  asNgned 
to  this  work.  All  investigatbns  of  Italian  cases  are  made  by  an  Italian  clerk  fn>m 
the  office  of  the  chief  clerk  of  the  bureau.  While  this  clerk  is  carried  on  the  payroll 
of  the  chief  clerk's  office,  he  devotes  all  of  his  time  to  detective  work,  thus  depnving 
the  chtefclerk'sofhce  of  his  clerical  services.  In  the  reorganiiation  of  the  detective 
bureau  provision  should  be  made  for  the  appointment  of  detectives  capable  ol 
speaking  and  understanding  foreign  languages.  .  .  . 
Detectives  do  Not  Specialize  on  the  More  Important  Work 

Although  the  detectives  are  specializing  in  pawn-shop,  junk  and  second-haitd 
store  cases,  and  in  fraudulent  stock  speculation,  none  is  specialiiing  in  the  investi- 
gation of  the  more  serious  crimes. 

There  is  no  homicide  squad  or  squads  specializing  in  the  investigation  of 
foreign  blackmail  cases  in  which  bombs  are  used,  and  no  detectives  are  making  a 
special  study  of  the  methods  employed  in  the  investigation  of  such  cases.  When  the 
attention  of  the  superintendent  was  called  to  the  absence  of  a  homicide  squad,  he 
replied  that  the  entire  force  is  required  to  investigate  murder  cases.  This  does  not 
meet  the  need  for  specializing  in  the  investigation  of  homicide  cases.  The  fact  thai 
the  entire  detective  force  is  assigned  in  each  murder  case  does  not  make  tbero  any 
tiettcr  fitted  for  the  work  or  provide  any  method  of  specially  preparing  them  for 
this  kind  of  investigation. 

Detectives  should  be  assigned  to  specialize  in  the  investigation  of  the  more 
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REPORT  ON   BUREAU  OF   POLICE 

scriotu  Crimea.     Italian  and  Ptdiih  deteciives  should  be  trained  in  delecting  crimes 
peculiar  to  their  race  and  instructed  to  mingle  among  tbe  people  of  the  foreign 

No  Record  of  Homicides 

Thus,  of  the  loB  murders  committed  in  the  city  since  190;  the  records  of  the 
detective  divliion  contained  information  concerning  but  ten  easel,  and  this  was  of  no 
value  either  statistically  or  for  future  action  in  connection  with  the  cases.  .  .  . 
Records  Seem  to  Indicate  Greater  Efficiencv  in  Recovering  Propertt 

THAN  IN  Apprehending  Criminals 

....    A  great  many  cases  in  which  recoveries  of  property  and  no  sub- 
sequent arrests  were  made,  were  cues  where  the  property  was  found  in  junk  or 
pawn  shops.    From  the  records  in  this  booh  it  would  seem  that  detective  activity 
usually  ceases  with  the  recovery  of  the  property.    .    .    . 
"Stool  Pigeons"  and  Special  Detectives 

The  bureau  of  pdice  formerly  was  allowed  four  thousand  dollars  a  year  as  a 
contingent  fund  out  of  which  to  pay  for  the  services  of  special  detectives,  or  stool 
pigeons  and  to  secure  evidence.  Last  year  council  appropriated  but  one  thousand 
dollars  for  this  purpose. 

Efficiency  in  detective  work  requires  that  the  detectives  be  able  to  secure 
speedily  and  accurately  information  of  the  "doings"  of  the  underworld.  There  is 
no  better  method  of  securing  this  infonnarion  than  through  the  aid  of  stool 
pigeons.  Great  care  should  be  talien  that  the  function  of  the  Stool  pigeon 
shall  always  remain  the  furnishing  of  information  and  not  inciting  criminals  to 
commit  crime  for  the  sake  of  apprehending  them. 

Stool  pigeons  are  invariably  of  a  criminal  class  and  successful  deteciives  are 
never  without  their  aid.  They  must  be  paid  for  their  services.  When  the  city 
does  not  provide  sufficient  funds  to  enable  the  detective  to  pay  the  stool  pigeon 
it  is  the  experience  of  other  cities  that  the  detective  invariably  resorts  to  the  dis- 
reputable practice  of  protecting  his  stool  pigeon  on  his  commission  of  minor  crimes 
as  a  reward  for  the  information  furnished  him  of  the  activities  of  other  criminals. 
Pkesent  Svstem  op  Describing  Pawned  Articles  Efficient 

The  improved  Boston  system  of  filing  and  describing  pawned  articles  is  in 
use,  and  according  to  the  records  of  the  diviuon,  considerable  property  has  already 
been  recovered  since  the  adoption  of  this  system.    .    .    . 
Division  of  Criminal  Identification 

Bertillon  measurements,  photographs  and  finger  prints  are  kept  of  persons 
arrested  on  serious  charges.  Measurements  are  carefully  made  and  the  records 
of  the  divi«on  are  neatly  and  carefully  filed  and  indexed.  The  equipment  is  ade- 
quate for  the  work.     .     .     . 


Suspected  Disorderly  Houses,  etc..  Not  Reported  Br  Captains 

....    While  the  superintendent  alleges  that  he  has  information  relative 
to  all  disorderly  houses  in  the  city  he  was  unable  to  produce  any  written  lists  or 
reports  concerning  the  suspected  disorderly  house  or  houses  of  prostitution  except 
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WAGE-EARNING    PITTSBURGH 

I  card  record  of  the  houses  of  prostitution  and  thdr  inmates,  located  in  the  scfre- 
gated  districts.    He  admitted  that  there  were  no  such  lists  and  alio  alleged  thai 
there  were  no  othN  disorderiy  houies  operating  in  the  city  other  than  those  confiBed 
10  the  segregated  district.    .    .    . 
Police  ActOnlv  on  Complaints 

....  The  official  records  of  the  bureau  of  police  now  show  ibe  existence 
of  but  67  regular  houses  of  prostitution  which  are  all  located  within  the  segrc^ttd 
district.  While  we  were  unable,  because  of  the  limited  time  at  our  disposal,  to 
make  any  extended  investigation  of  the  vice  conditions  of  the  city,  we  had  no  dHK- 
culty  in  locating  a  number  of  houses  of  prostitution  and  disorderly  a  part  meets 
located  outside  of  the  segregated  districts.  Investigations  also  showed  that  dis- 
orderly apartments  wherein  one  or  two  women  operate  are  on  the  increase.  .  .  . 
New  Bureau  of  Public  Morals  to  be  Created 

This  new  board  should  have  the  hearty  co-operation  of  the  bureau  of  police. 
To  be  of  real  value  it  must  be  furnished  truthful  and  adequate  information  con- 
cerning the  vice  conditions  of  the  city. 
Patrolmen  Should  Report  all  Susncious  Places 

For  this  purpose  It  is  recommended  that  the  rules  be  strictly  enforced,  re- 
quiring patrolmen  to  report  all  places  on  their  post  which  they  suspect  of  being 
used  for  immoral  purposes.  From  the  reports  of  the  patrolmen,  as  well  as  frocn 
their  own  observation,  captains  should  be  required  to  furnish  a  regubr  monthly 
list  of  suspected  disorderly  houses  and  houses  of  prostitution.  Immediately  upoa 
the  receipt  of  information  they  should  be  required  to  report  the  opening  of  any  im- 
moral place.    .    .    . 

station  house  records  and  reports 
Lodger  Card 

During  the  year  191 1,  31$  women  and  13.491  "i^"-  >  '<>'^'  <>'  ia,Si6  persons, 
were  furnished  lodginp  at  the  13  police  stations  in  the  city.  These  lodgings  were 
furnished  principally  during  the  winter  months.  This  enormous  number  of  appli- 
cants for  lodgings  points  to  the  need  for  an  analysis  of  the  conditions  surrounding 
the  practice  of  using  the  station  houses  as  lodging  places.  Of  themselves,  these 
figures  seem  to  indicate  the  need  for  the  establishment  of  a  municipal  lodging  bouse. 
The  police  station  is  not  adapted  for  use  as  a  lodging  house. 

From  the  present  record  kept  of  lodgers,  it  is  impossible  to  ascertain  how 
often  during  the  winter  any  one  person  is  given  lodging,  or,  indeed,  any  other  sta- 
tistics concerning  them.  It  is  therefore  recommended  that  a  special  card  history 
of  lodgers  be  established  and  a  study  made  of  the  facts  and  figures  assembled 
upon  the  cards.    .    .    . 

.  ...  All  the  tables  of  arrests  and  police  activity  in  the  present  annual 
report  show  only  the  conditions  for  the  year  reported  upon.  Thus,  a  comparison 
of  the  work  performed  by  the  bureau  of  police  in  former  years  cannot  be  made. 
The  report  does  not  show  whether  crime  is  on  the  increase  or  decrease,  whether 
juvenile  delinquency  is  on  the  increase  or  decrease.    .    .    . 

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INDEX 


AcceMibili^  to  maikets,  113 


Accid«nta.    See  Work-^eeUtnls 

Act— 

Cnsting  a  Dqiutment  of  Labor 
and  Industry,  1913,  446-450:  occu- 
pational diseues,  4$!,  451.    See  abo 

Adanu,  Samtial  Hopkins,  t4i  is 

AdminlatiatlTC  areu,  8-11;  iteces- 
^ty  for  expanding,  S,  9;  restricted, 
playing  iata  hands  of  underworld,  S; 
sanitary,  expanded,  S 

Afro-American  Steam  and  Gu  En- 
{ineera  and  Skilled  Labonn,  4:8 

Afn>-Ameiican  Steam  and  Gaa  Fit- 
ting Dnion,  153 

^reementa — 

"Gentlemen's,"  in  steel  industry, 
376.    See  also  Emptoyers'  asntments 

Acricultnn — 

Land  unsuited  to,  113;  state  de- 
partment of,  19.  See  also  Uorkel 
farden;   VegtUMeJarm 

AlcoholiBn — 

Attack  on,  through  recruiting  of 
employes,  aio.  See  also  DnmkeH- 
nas;  Saftfuardint  employts 

Aldeimanic  conrt.    See  Court,  older- 


Aldennen  ud  Tbalr  Courts,  The,  i 

S3.  377 
Alfradsbof.    See&im 


335;   harboring  outside  Yeggs,  337; 
rrheF --•■-'■' 
"White,      _  _, 
Yeggs,  334, 335 


"Whitey    O's,"   a    rendezvous    : 


Allegheny  County  VoiUionae,  3S8 
Allied  Printing  Tradea  Council,  iSi 


Social  responsibility  of  police  com- 
pared with,  3901  special  classes  ex- 
cluded from,  390 


Ambulance — 

No  systematixed  hosfMtal,  1 

America,  18-30, 157, 158 


American  Federation  of  Labor,  118, 
i8t,  iSa;  Retail  Qerks'  Interna- 
tional Protective  Association,  131 

American  Order  of  Eagles,  314,  315 


■d^yCoogle 


Americcn  Steel  Cempaay,  >66 


Anti-Mclal.    See  Social,  anti 

Anti-nnloB.    See  Union,  anU 

Apollo  lion  and  Steel  Compenj,  i6i 

AppUcatioa  bUnki  uid  fonni,  Wei- 
tinchonse  Electric  and  Huiafac- 
tmug  Companj,  461-467 

Apprentice*— 

I^ysical  eiaminmtiwi  of,  911,  an; 
probatioiiaiy  period  of,  ai3 

Appronticethip— 

Bieweiy  workers,  1371  bridge  uid 
■tructunl  iron  workers,  149;  build- 
ing tndet,  1451  carpentera,  154; 
electiicat  workera,  155,  156;  eievfttor 
constructors,  157,  158;  glass  houses, 
300,  301;  hoisting  mgineers,  145, 
15^.  lS4i  houBeamiths,  152;  ma- 
cnuiists,  141;  painters,  decorators, 
and  paperhangen,  160;  (dasteren, 
161;  plumbers,  145,  i6a;  printera, 
134;  sheet  metal  workers,  165;  slate 
and  tile  roofers,  145,  165;  ateanjfit- 
ten,  145,  163,  164;  system  employed 
in  recruiting  employes,  310,  »i,  ait; 
^stnn  in  Annstiong  Cork  Company, 
aiil  system  in  H.  K.  Porter  Com- 
pany, aij;  system  in  Mesta  Machine 
CcHupany,  Jii;  system  in  Pittsburgh 
and  Lake  Erie  Railroad,  131,  aai; 
system  in  Pittsburgh  Railways  Com- 
pany, ill;  system,  weak  feature  in, 
iia;  tile  layers  and  helpers,  145, 166; 
Westinghouse  Electric  and  Manu- 
facturing Company,  couises  in,  an 


Ambe,  355 


AnDttrons  AiaocUtlon,  43a 


Aireat*— 

In  New  Yoric  and  Pittsburgh  com- 
rared,387i  in  Toledo,  367.    See  also 


mended  by  report  o 


to  withhold  prosecutions  for  vioUtiaa 
of  child  lalxn  law,  306;  chief  factory 
inqiector's  dedsion  conceming  edu- 
cation test  of  children  seding  on- 
ployment  ovemiled,  aoS 

Anstria-Hnnguy,  63 

Aostriuu,  i3S,35i 

Aver;  College  Trade  School- 
Appropriation   of   legislature  for, 
discontinued  in  1913,  434; 
in  I9r4,  434 


Bakeriea- 

Investigation  of,  by  new  factety 
inspection  department,  444 

Bakera,  134-136;  effect  of  panic  of 
1907-08  on,  134.  13s;  emploren' 
agreements  with,  135;  hours  of,  119, 
13J,  136;  improvement  in  conditica 
<a,  during  fourteen  years,  (Table) 
13s;  racial  make~up,  135;  sborlige  in 
supply  of,  doubled  wages  and  ihort- 
ened  hours,  129;  strike  in  1910,  136; 


.d,Google 


unknkm  among,  119,  134,  135,  136, 
187;  unioD  labd,  1191  wages  of,  tag, 
'3S>  i3<ii  iSj,  1S5,  in  1914, 136 


135 
Balcb,  BmUj  Greene,  69 
Baldwia  LocomotiTe  Worice,  337 
"Beldj  Calkhan,"  330 


Baltimore  and  Obio  Railroad— 
Machinists'  and  blackamitlis*  strike 
00.14* 

"Baad-Boi"  on  Grant  Street,  316, 


Amounts  dnosi  ted  by  1 2  Slavs  b  a 
Pittsburgh,  (Table)  54;  deposits  of 
immigruit  wage-earners,  53,  54;  for- 
eign achtmge  department  of,  53 

BftOUng.    See  WoikintfocUUki 

Begeara,  336-339;  blind,  from  Over- 
brook,  337,  338;  representative 
typeSi  337-  338;  victims  of  work- 
accidents  as,  337;  Y^,  "woiking" 
Pittsburgh  during  winter  of  1908, 
333.334 

Begrinf— 

ftletbod  pursued  in,  from  factoiy 
employes,  31S,  319.  See  also  Under- 
KvrU;   Ytut 

Belcittm— 

Death  rate  from  mine  workers' 
accidents  in,  175;  farm  colonies  in,  371 

Bell  Telephone  Company,  156 

Set  EmpU/yts' 

Bennett  and  Company,  J.  G.,  454 


Bethel  Home,  343, 344 

Betterment— 

Of     immigrant    wage-earner    re- 
quires aggressive  woric,  60 

Beyer,  David  S.,  145.  371 

"Big  Sam"  Stiaanlder,  313 

"Billy  Kid,"  331 

HiTmingham    England — 

Factory  m^Kction  in,  13 

Black  Diamond  Hill,  106 

Blackmailing  and  graft- 
In  Iron  City  Central  Trades  Coun- 
dl,  iSi 

Blackamitln,  144;  employers'  agree- 
ments, T44;  hours  of,  1441  strike  on 
Baltimore  and  Ohio  Railroad,  141; 
among,  144,  iSi;  wages  of. 


Association  for  the,  in  New  Eng- 
land, 338;  b^gars  from  Overbrook, 
337i  33S;  Pittsburgh  Association  for 
the,  338 


Boarding     honaes.      See      Lodp»t 

Boggs  and  Bnhl,  130, 131, 4:4 
Bohemians,  35, 63, 64 
Bohner,  E.  H.,  414,  417 

Boiler  makera — 

Character  of  work  of,  143;  houis 
of,  143,  144;  unionism  amoo^,  143, 
144;  wages  affected  by  unionism 
during  panic  of  1907-08,  144;  wages 
of,  143.  '44 

Bonus  sjBtem— 

Bi-vreekly  premium  to  children  in 
glass-houses,  398;  deigned  to  in- 
crease output,  36S,  369;  development 
of  em[Joyes  through,  368,  169,  374; 
effect  of,  on  techniod  edtKation  of 
young  men,  169;    late  of  ttie  "one 


■d^yCoogle 


Amutrong  Asn^' 


American  Steel  Camp«a7,  166 

Aatiionf,  Principal  J.  W.— 

Educaticau]  work  of,  among  Jews, 
S> 
Antl-wKial.    See  Social,  anU 
Anti-nnlsn.    See  Union,  atiti 
Apollo  Iron  aad  Steel  Company,  16 

Application  blanks  and  forma, 
oachonae  Electric  and  Hani 
tuitag  Company,  461-467 

Apprentice!—  JT-  . 

Physical  examination  of,  g  Li ' 
probationaiy  period  of,  jr  \  , 

ApprenticealUp—  ,.      ^ 

Brewery  workers,  i'  ^        i 

structural  iron  woi^  Y,       ' 

ing    tiBdes,    14s;     i  -^ 

electrical  woilien,  ,--  '■'- 


chinists, 
and  papcrL 
161;    plum' 
134;  sneet^ 


01;    hois'  1^9 

™rhf  I      V 
[n<    { 


,/;  strikes  not 

unless  sanctioned 

,   145;    union  working 

-ce  of  employen'   agree- 

.uforced    among,    14S,    149; 

n  among,  146,  147,  14S,  149; 


I4S.  " 


r.uS 


.jj,  i«4:  ap- 
..,  14S)  hours  in,  146, 
.,  nours  of  day  labor  in,  184; 
..maoal  unemployment  among,  145; 
unionism  among,  39,  146,  147,  1S61 
uniocusni  among,  affected  by  panic  of 
1907-08,  146;  unionism  among  day 
laborers  in,  \2o,  i3t;  wages  afiected 
lism,  146;  wages  affected  by 
L  during  panic  of  1907-08, 
147;  wagesin,  ISO,  144,  "4S. '46,147, 
166, 182,  i8j,  1&4;  wages  of  day  labor 
in,  130, 1S3.  See  also  SriciJoyeri  Md 
nxuoni,'  Bridie  and  stmetural  iron 
workers;  Hoisting  engineers;  Carpem- 
lers;  Eieclrital  markers;  Eietator  am- 
structors;  Painters,  decoralors,  and 
paperhangtrs;  Plasterers;  Plumbers; 
Sleamfillers;  Sheet  melal  markers; 
SlaU  and  tile  roofers;  Tiie  layers  and 
hdperi 


■d^yCoogle 


.d,Google 


job"  man  under  the,  during  bsrd 
times,  i6g;  for  punctuality  and  regu- 
larity,  3511  loss  of  individual  in  skill 
and  volition  under,  168,  369;  to  de- 
velop speed,  iio;  United  States 
Steel  Corporation  stockbolder'B  re- 
port on,  399,  400 


BoBtcm— 

Death  rate,  14;  premium  on  home 
building  in,  31;   ward  school  system 

Borcntt— 

Unionism  among  breweiy  worken 
strengthened  by  the,  129,  136 

Brmc«  BrotberB'  Laundry,  315,  231 

Bnddock,  136,  161;    housing  condi- 


Brtkemen.    See  Railway  emfhyes 

Br«w«ry  workers,  136-138;  appren- 
tices, 137;  employers'  agreemoits 
with,  136, 137, 13S,  sanitary  standards 
in  1914, 138,  J58,  454;  Iwura  °fi  i37. 
138,  184;  unionism  among,  29,  129, 
'3^7  i37i  >38>  1S3,  t86;  unionism 
among,  struigthened  by  tbe  union 
labeland theboycott,  129, 136)  wages 
of,  1^7,  (Table)  138,  183,  183,  184; 
working  conditions  of,  137 

BrickUyerB  and  masons,  147-149; 
carfares  of,  14S;  decrease  in  building 
operations  affecting  employment,  149; 
hours  of,  146,  147,  148;  number  of, 
147;  piece  work,  149;  seasonal  un- 
employment of,  I4S,  147;  strikes  not 
allowed  by  union  uiJess  sanctioned 
by  committee,  149;  union  working 
code  in  place  of  employers'  agree- 
ments enforced  among,  148,  149; 
unionism  among,  146,  147,  148,  149; 
wages,  J4S.  147, 148 

Bricklayers'  and  Hasons*  Inter- 
natiooal  Union  of  America,  147, 
148, 149 


{doyen'  agreements  with,  150,  i$ti 
emdoyeis'  aasodation  "principks 
and  working  rules,"  ijo,  151;  botis 
of,  150,  151,  153,  IS3;  seasonal  un- 
emjiloyment  of,  15a;  strike  in  1906 
against  National  Erectore'  Associa- 
tion, 150,  153;  strikes  in  1901,  150; 
unionism  among,  149,  150,  151,  r52; 
unicHiism  among,  affected  by  panic 
of  1907-08, 150;  wages  of,  146, 150, 
151,  153.     See  also  Stntctural  vorktn 


Bridge  and  Strnctotal  Iron  Woiken' 
Diiion,  146,  r49,  150,  153 

Brinton,  Jasper  T.,  315 
Bronchitis— 

In  river  wards  and  East  End,  24 

Brodiels.    SeePnufiiwiMni 


Brown  and  Company,  333 
Builders'  Eschange  League,  154, 1S3 


Building  trades,  144-166;  agreements 
with  employers,  166,  1S3,  1S4;  ap- 
prenticc^p  in,  145;  hours  in,  146, 
166, 184;  hours  of  day  labw  in,  1S41 
seasonal  unemployment  among,  145; 
unionism  among,  29,  146,  147,  186; 
unionism  among,  affected  by  panic  of 
1907-08,  146;  unionism  among  day 
laborers  in,  130,  121;  wages  affected 
by  unionism,  146;  wages  affected  by 
unionism  during  panic  of  1907-08, 
147;  wagesin,i20,i44,i4S,i46,i47, 
166,183,183,184;  wages  of  day  labor 
in,  lao,  183.  See ahio Brietiaywj aitrf 
masons;  Bridge  and  limclurai  inm 
workers;  BoiiHng  emgitieers;  Car  fat- 
ters;  Eieclrkal  vorktrs;  Elivaltr  am- 
stnictors;  Painters,  decorators,  ani 
faperhangers;  Plasterers;  PlmmUrs; 
Sleamfillers;  Sheet  meliif  VMrkirs; 
Slate  and  Hie  roofers;  Tile  layers  and 
Mpers 


■d^yCoogle 


Bttildlng  Trades  CotmcU,  iSi,  183, 
184 

Bnreau  of  Huaicipal  Reaearch,  New 
York,  16, 516-526;  reconunendations 
of,  ba^  on  amditions  found  in  igij, 
19;  report  oo  amsts  and  incarcera- 
tkaa,  387;  report  on  Pitlsbuigh  po- 
lice, 311;  report  to  dty  coundl  in 
•9i3i  »i.  "^1  '7i  19;  survey  of  county 
by,  17 

Bnrean  of  PabUc  Honlt.  See  Mor- 
all 


BoTMO  of  Statiatiu  ud  Infoima- 


Duties  and  powers  of,  448;  field 
covered  tv,  at* 


"Bnrly  It,"  333. 336 
Bums,  Allon  T.,  9, 13 


Butlar,  Elizabeth  Boardslej,  33,  i7> 
18,  19,  49>  i3i>  '94i  19s.  >^>  i'°> 
Jij,  3S4.  360,  !75'-3'Mi  3S4 


Cab  drivers.    See  Ttamtkn 
Cadets.    See  Prostiiutim 


Capital— 

Immobility  of,  cocnpued  witb  mo- 
bility of  labor,  iiG,  117 

Brit^yen  aod  masons,  1481  ele- 
vator constructors,  158 


Carnegie  Lil>rai7, 136, 185 


Carnegie  Pension  Fnnd,  49S 
Carnegie  Relief  Fnnd,  a6,  365 
Carnegie  Steel  Company,  71, 96, 106, 
107,  S30,  336, 137,  333,  337,  3^6, 147, 
161,  365,  37s;  suigiad  or^ouatioD, 
4SS-460 


Carpenters,  154.  1551  apprenticeship, 
154;  empli^en'  agreements  with, 
154;  hours  of,  154,  iss;  untonism 
among,  146, 1541  wages  of,  146,  i54. 


Canon,  Hr.,  306 

Casea  cited — 

Constructive  soda]  work  in  New 
York  in  case  of  Greek  boy  who  had 
lost  arm,  and  Dane  picked  up  in 
Union  Square,  wo;  death  of  boy 
hastened  by  conoitions  of  work,  39S; 
of  fatal  work-accidents  to  children, 
t(>gi  of  improved  atmospheric  oMtdi- 
tions  in  certain  woA  places, 


356.  3S5;  of  refusal  o 
relief  physician  to  attend  smallpoi 
case  in  Sharpsburg,  181;  of  under- 
world alliances,  314,  31c,  316;  physi- 
cally or  mentalTy  handicapped  boys 
placed  in  glass-houses,  399;  showing 
causes  of  immigration,  cl^racter  of, 
attitude  of,  and  eSect  of  American 
conditions  on  Slavs,  Gi,  63,  64,  65, 
66, 67, 68, 69,  70;  showing  how  work- 
accidents  have  handicapped  Slavs, 
73,74,  75' 76;  showing  lack  of  munic- 
ipal provision  for  lodging  poor,  347, 
3481  showing  readiness  of  Slav  to 
help  countrymen  in  distress,  76,  771 
showing  reasons  for  contempt  for 
American  law  held  by  Slavs,  71,  73, 
73;  showing  restlessness  and  in- 
stability of  child  labor,  300;  showing 
slight  chance  for  apprenticeship  in 
glass-houses,  300, 301;  showing  viola- 
tion of  child  labor  law,  201,  303,  310, 
311,313,181,197;  showing  violation 
of  labor  law  governing  hours  of  work 


■d^yCoogle 


for  women  and  childim,  103,  104; 
tnuiicy  in  Sharpsburg  ichools,  386, 
187,  aSg,  igo,  391,  tgj,  199;  Yeggt 
utd  b^an,  317,  318.  3*8.  3»9.  33'. 
333,  334.  337,  338 


Centrfti  Labor  UnioOi  445 


"Cluppia  Hoimn,"  311 
Charittfls  AsaocUtlon,  Public,  1 1 
Check-waicbouui.    See  Mine  mcrktri 
Cbemicov,  61 

CUCKgO— 

Court  system  of,  13,  381;  munici- 
pal lodging  houses,  347;  vice  com- 
mission, 371,  3S8,  leconmiendations 
of,  concerning  agencies  to  deal  with 
prostitution,  3S3;    ward  school  sys- 


"CUSteUr,"  318,319 

Child  Uboi— 

Affected  by  inadequate  tniancy 
Staff,  III;  aaected  by  provision  in 
schod  law  penmtting  abridgement  of 
school  year,  m;  afiected  by  school 
census,  110,  313^  ages  of  children 
leaving  school  for  work  in  Plymouth 
and  Hazelton,  in  1007,  (Table)  308; 
an  extravagant  tool,  301,  302;  cita- 
tion of,  cases  in  Shupsburg,  aSi,  397, 
398,  399,  300,  301;  d^ection  of 
mental  and  social  development  caused 
by,  301;  effect  of,  in  stogy  factory 
on  physical  condition,  101,  303;  in 
caseof  false  affidavits  burden  of  proof 
rests  with  factory  inflection  depart- 
ment, »07i  lack  of  records  of  children 
woilung,  1S4;  method  of  checking, 
in  New  York,  309;   nunimum  legal 

Tfor,  388;   Negro,  99;   night  work 
in  glass  factories,  19s,  30^,  313; 
official  transcripts  of  birth  certificates 


or  idigious  records  from  abroad  as  a 
means  of  checking,  309;  on  dajr  awl 
oigfat  shifts,  3Q3,  393,  394,  395,  39S, 
i99i  3°°.  3^1  physical  effect  <^  joi; 
Shaipsbuig  childim,  387-19^ 
Shaipsburg  children  in  tlte  gbua- 
housea,  395-301,  in  the  metal  trades, 
391-39$,  wbcdiy  m  partially  suppott- 
ing  family,  389,  wondng  double  turn, 
399,  wtnkiDg  without  certificate*, 
396,  397;  unconcern  of  sdwol  autlwri- 
ties  reguding,  an 


ChUd  labor  CI     .    _ 

Combination  of  lax  law  and  lax 
enforcement  brought  out  by,  111; 
ol  1911,  generally  unsuccessful,  313 

CliiM  Lcbor  Conunlttoe,  453 

ChUd  Ubor  Ij 


Urictina 
lefeated. 


ni^t    : 

113;  case  died  showing  effect  of 
failure  to  enforce,  3oi ;  certificates  of 
minors  in  Sharpsburg,  396;  Ddaney 
amendment  to,  affecting  tobacco  in- 
dustry, 303  \  duty  of  factory  inspec- 
tion department  to  enforce,  tar, 
education  test  under,  207,  208,  309, 
379,  393„30i;  cnfordng,  in  Sharp*- 
bure,  lia;  e:qierience  of  schod  prin- 
cipal in  dealing  with  violation  of,  310; 
"farm  Ubor"  not  covered  by,  213; 
fomtecn-year-old  limit  uochanged, 
379;  glass  industry  working  against, 
379.  395;  in  Massachtisetts,  307; 
in  Pennsylvania,  207;  in  New  York, 
207;  in  New  York,  compared  with 
Philadelphia,  304;  in  Wisconsin, 
r^ulating  employpient  in  tobacco 
trades,  202;  inteUigent  co-opentioa 
of  children  in  breaking,  311;  issuing 
work  certificates  under,  IT3;  Ujc, 
and  lax  enforcement  btought  out  by 
child  labor  campaign,  in;  new,  in- 
ability of  children  to  qualify  under. 
211,  involving  educational  test,  placed 
in  hands  of  schocd  offidab,  311,  re- 
quireaproof  of  age,  211;  non-enforce- 
ment of,  in  stogy  factoiy,  101,  202; 
of  1905,  issuance  of  certi&^tes  under, 
held  unconstitutional,  107;   proof  of 


age,  3 


r,  309,  3 


379; 


tions   concerning   hours. 


313. 


■d^yCoogle 


pHiUtnted  occupations  for,  199,  113, 
proof  of  age,  309,  113;  rebtitig  to 
irauis,  108:  vkdation  of,  by  mBnsgeT 
of  picUe  iBctoty,  »ii,  III,  by  sted 
mids,  301,  303,  goveniiiig  boun  of 
work,  103,  303,  104.    See  also  Labor 

Child  Welftre  Burean,  16 

CUIdr«a— 

Consenration  of,  unKcognlzed  |irob- 
lem  of  Shaiptburg,  304;  djamissed 
from  industnes  by  lactoiy  inqiectian 
depvtmeiit,  305;  factory  inspection 
department  report  of,  at  woi^,  1903- 
1913,  (Table)  196;  factory  inspection 
depaltment  reports  lati  statistics 
conterninz  employment  of,  in  glass 
factories,  laun^es,  and  metal  trades, 
193,  194,  19s,  196;  intelli^Dt  co- 
operation of,  in  breaking  child  labor 
iLoA  compulsny  education  laws,  in; 
lack  of  detention  rooms  for  truant, 
3ii;  leaving  school  for  work,  loS; 
s^r^ation  of,  in  jails  and  alms- 
boiue,  390.  See  also  Sharpsburg:  A 
TypiaaWaitt  rf  ChUdhood 

Children's  initltntioiif — 

Education  in,  131  hygiene  in,  13; 
lack  of  co-operation  among,  13;  plac- 
ing-out  work  of,  13 

Children's  work- accidents- 
Fatal,  r99;  reports  of  factory  in- 
qiection  department  lack  adequate 
statistics  conceniiit^,  1991  re^cHrta 
of,  important  as  baais  for  prohibiting 
dan^tnis  occupations,  199 

China,  3 

Cincinnati  Mine  CompanT,  176 

Cltiieoa — 

Desirability  of  Old  Believers  as, 
03,  94;  Russians'  lack  of  desire  to 
become,  94,  9j;  Slavs  as  permanent, 
61,  6»,  6s,  66,  67,  70 

Citizens*  Committee — 

Attack  by,  on  administration  of 
William  A.  Magee,  363,  363 

CltUenship— 

Converting  Old  Believers  to,  94, 95 ; 
efFect  of  overwork  on,  iS,  39 

CiQr— 

Hours,  day  labor,  lai,  184;  wages, 
day  latxM',  i3i 


City  cooacil— 

Ant^onistic  to  reform  adminis- 
tration, 313;  graft  of,  ^63;  graft  of, 
during  reform  administration  ex- 
posed, 313 

City  pbTsician— 

Sharpsbuig,  3S3,  3  S3,  384 

ClTlc  Club  of  Allegheny  County,  333 
CItIc  Forces,  The  Coalition  of  Pltts- 
bnrgli's,  9 

CItIc  meetlass— 
National,  7 

CItIc  problem  of  1914,  30 

Clvle  responsibilities,  7;   of  democ- 

ClTict- 

Young  Men's    Christian  Associa- 
tion da^es  in,  416,  417 
CItU  aerrlce — 

Effect  of  extension  of,  on  police, 
375;  factory  iiiq>ectots  placed  under, 

fornon-e 

factory  ii 

municipal,  I 

effective  because  of  character  of  com- 

missioo,  310;  phyucal  examination  of 

day  labor  under,  i3i 
Clark  mills,  96,  to6, 107 
Clesnliness.    See  WaskUi  facUUks 
"Clem"  Hackeaberger,  344 

CleTeland,  4;  death  rate,  14;  low- 
fare  street  railway  service,  »;  re- 
ducing number  of  arrests  in,  387;  ty- 
phoid death  rate,  17;  ward  school 
system,  9 

"CleTeland  Jim,"  330 

Close,  C.  L.,  345,  494-49S 

Closed  shop.    Sec  Unionism 

Closing  hours.     See  Hours 

Coal- 
Yearly  production  of,  in  District 
No.  ^  of  United  Mine  Workers  of 
America,  ii; 


■d^yCoogle 


Coflee,  Sadolf  I.,  501-506 

Coke  region— 

Affected  by  outcome  of  unioniEm 
in  Westmoreland,  168 

Cokeborgh,  S3, 84,  S5, 86 

ColonUation— 

Of   immignmt   wBge-euueTa,   44, 
45.56 

Colorado- 
Mine  wofkers,  167 

Colnmblui  Settlement,  51 


Colnmbna  Daj,  60 


Appointed  by  25  states  to  invcsti- 
R&te  work-ocddents,  en^loyets'  lia- 
bility laws,  etc.,  300 

I 13-188, 
,440 

Cosmi^Mlitan  make-up  of,  366, 
367;  eSect  of  inflow  of  itonugruits  on 
moral  and  religions  life  of,  34;  effi- 
ciency tests  of  social  machinery  of,  16; 
expansion  obstructed  by  street  rail- 
way system,  ii;  relation  ol  wage- 
eamers  to,  j;  respomnbility  of,  18, 
to  industriea,  14;  soda)  aod  indus- 
trial development  of,  as  affecting 
crime,  366-369,  See  also  Uuniei- 
paUty 

Community  and  Workshop,  j-30 
Community  betteanent— 

Pioneer  work,  41  tools  for,  11-16, 
18, 19 


mpanyai 


Competltloa— 

Effect   of   imrestricted,    176;    of 
United  States  with  foreign  natkos. 


Comatock,  George  S.,  445 
Condition  of  the  Working  CUh  in 
England  In  18441  The— 
By  Frederick  F.ngds,  18  a 

Condition  of  Woman  and  Child 
Wage-earners  in  flie  United 
States,  ao8 


Congress.    See  Ftdtrai  fOMrwMeal 


Coniidine,  John,  314 
Conaolldated  River  Coal  Com|any, 


Constabnlary.    See  Piiict 
ConatmctiTe  public  policy— 

Development  of,  an  dement  is 
solution  of  housing  problem,  11 

Conanmers'  Leagne— 

Child  labor  committee  and,  active 
in  factory  legislation  and  oifacement, 
453;  enactment  of  women's  labor 
law  in  1913  accomplished  by,  114; 
enforcement  of  common  standards 
for  women  workers  by,  »6o 

Consumers'  League  "white  lift," 
131,  304,  138,  453,  454:  cooditiaDt 
inaking  retail  houses  eligible  to,  453, 
4S4 

Contract  labor  law- 
Circumventing  the,  37,  38,  39;  no 
violation  of,  by  em[doyen  in  iHlls- 
burgh,  39;  suits  for  violation  tA,  39; 
verdict  in  suit  for  violation  of,  39 

Contractors- 
Wages  day  labor,  iiq,  120 

Contrasts  of  Pittsburgh,  119 


536 


.d,Google 


Cooper,  diaries  C,  493.  493 

Co-operation-^  ' 

Develt^ment  of  employes  through 
encouragiiig,  167,  368;  eveiy  move- 
ment for,  a  sain,  5;  in  garment  tradea 
b  New  York,  1731  374i  lack  of,  4 

Co-oper«tiTe  cemmitteas— 

Development  and  stability  of  em- 
ployes through,  271-174 


Lack  of,  between  di^iensacies,  19, 
between  boqiitals,  10, 11, 11,  between 
nurses'  aasodationa,  11,  in  IQ14,  i3 


Cut  accotmtinE— 

Practiced  by  Andrew  J.  Canegie, 
376 
Coat  of  living.    See  Living 
Cottntj  poor  relief  phyaiclan,  }Si 

Cotirt— 

System  of  Chicago,  13;  records  of 
repeaters,  310-313 

Court,  aldeimanic,  11,  13,  377;  blind 
man's  parade,  37S',  fees,  378;  in- 
fluence of  underworld  in,  316,  379; 
injustice  acMirded  immiffrant  wage- 
earners  in,  3a,  S3,  71.  7».  73i  379, 380, 
attitude  of  Westinghouse  striken  in 
1914  toward  deputy  sheriffs  and  po- 
lice a  reaction  against,  380;  present 
jurisdiction  of,  33,  378 

Court,  coDimon  pleai — 

Consolidated      under      presdent 
judge,  380 

Court,  county- 
Influence  of  underworld  in,  316; 
of  concurrent  jurisdiction,  13,  $3,  53, 
378,  non-sun>ort  cases  in,  381 

Court,  juvenile- 
Association,   colored   auxiliary   to, 
433;  lack  of  detention  rooms  for  chil- 
dren, III,  330.    See  also  Jiftenile  de- 
linquaili;  ProbalioH 


Court,  maglatratea'- 

Alliance  between,  and  underworld, 
377;  aniointmenta  to,  377;  domi- 
nated by  police,  377;  dnmks  and 
petty  ccenders  tried  before,  378; 
malpractice  in,  377;  not  property 
part  of  Bureau  <»  Police,  stS;  now 
part  of  centralized  police  ^stem,  377; 
sessions  of,  377 

Court  of  Oyer  end  Tenniner,  380 

Court  of  Quarter  Seuloos,  380; 
adult  probation  officer  ifipcdntcd  in, 
38" 


tion  work  needed  for  adults  in  higher, 
383;  pcdice  and  the,  375-380;  prejudice 
and  contempt  for  immigrant  wage- 
earnersin,44.S'.  S3.  7».  7».  73.368; 
probation  needed  for  oSenders  brought 
before  minor,  383;  reformation  and 
prevention  si^terseding  punishment  in 
the  minor,  376,  377;  rehabilitation 
of  minor,  needed,  381;  relation  of 
probation  officer,  to,  376,  377.  See 
also  Crime 
CoTode  House,  359 

Deaths  due  to  cq)eration  of,  13,  15 
Creaaon,  11 

Among  AmericaD-bom  and  aliens, 
367,  368,  immigrant  wage-earners, 
50-33.  Negroes,  433:  bureau  of,  pre- 
vention, 386;  camplollowasof,  315- 
317;  case  work  in  dealing  with,  389- 
391;  effect  OB,  of  home  conditions 
of  immigrant  wage-earners,  ji,  53; 
etimination  of  organized,  384,  385; 
6rst  (lenders  and  rounders,  387,  388; 
methods  suggested  for  prevention  of, 
386;  not  confined  to  lowest  sodal 
order,  367, 368;  opportunity  of  police 
tor  prevention  of,  383,  384;  police 
accessories  to,  309;  police  poLcy  in 
dealing  with  organized,  and  individual 
offenders,  385;  scientific  treatment 
of,  388,  389;  BOdal  program  needed 
to  prevent  and  eliminate,  383,  384; 
sources  of,  366.  See  also  Cotirls; 
Pelict 


■d^yCoogle 


AttnctioD  of  bduatrul  center  for, 
366;  generating,  in  an  indiutriu 
center,  366,  367;  per  cent  of  inuni- 
grant,  unmarried,  53;  tendency  to 
punish  alien,  368 

Crlppl«  factory  of  Tegga,  334 

Cripples,  fake,  334,  33s 


Ctoaln,  Prank  S.,  445 
Crowell,  F.  BUtabetb,  10 
Cmclbte  Steel  Compaa;,  at,    261, 

410-413 
Cultural  poaalbiUtiea— 

Of  immigrant  wige-eanMts,  34,  6a 
Cpabrlani,  95 


Dairiea.    See  Milk 

Darr  Mine,  176 

Day  labor,  119-111 

Day  labor,  boon  of,  184;  in  building 
trades,  184;  in dty  enqitt^'ment,  iii, 
1S4;  in  state  emidc^inent,  lit 

Day  labor,  wagea  tor— 

Affected  by  knoidedge  of  En^ish, 
131,  politics,  I30,  111,  unionism,  110, 
III;  immifpaat,  in  steel  aHnpanies, 
119;  in  bimding,  no,  i8t;  m  dty 
employmeot,  iii,  181;  in  state  em- 
ployment, lit;  In  U.  S.  Steel  Cor- 
poration, 41,  119;  on  railway,  119, 
110;  paid  by  contractors,  119,  no; 
under  Americanized  padrone,  tio 

Daylaborara — 
Physical    em 
dvil  service,  i3t;    unionism  among, 
184,  in  building  trades,  iio,  111 


Deatb  rate— 

Comparison  of,  in  Pittsburgh  and 
four  other  dties,  14.  See  also  Mor- 
talily  slatistici 


"Denver  Shine,* 


331 


Dapartmant  of  tbe  Interior^ 

Bureau  of  mines  established  under, 
'3.  '4.  i77t  safe^  wotk  of,  177 
Depreasion— 

Influence  of  unionism  during  pe- 
riods of,  iSs 

DetectiTe  bureau.    See  PeUct 
Develmment— 

Sodal  and  industrial,  as  affectiag 
crime,  366-369 

DeTlne,  Bdward  T.,  7 

Diamond  Ccdie  and  Coal  Cempany, 

430 
Dlarriiaa— 

Death  rate,  14 
Dinwiddle,  Emil;  W.,  10 

Dlaeaae — 

Infectious,  danger  to  modem  dtics. 

14;  preventable,  a  drain  on 

ity,  17,  deaths  from,  14,  ij.    Sec 
Saftptarding  trnphyet 

DiBpenaariea— 

Lack  of  co-ordination  between,  11, 


538 


Dlatrict  attomaj'a  atafl^ 

Coundlmanic  graft  during  reforai 
administration  exposed  by  later,  313 

District  Council  No.  i,  BroUi- 
erhood  of  Painters,  Decorators, 
and  Paperbai^ara  of  Allegheny 
County,  159 

Districts  defined.    See  Prottititiitm 

"Doc" — 

Industrial  worker,  bartender,  piiie 
Ggbtei,  and  sanitary  policeman,  318 

Drinking— 

Among   immigrant    wage-earners, 
49i  50,  531  among  Negro  sted  work- 


■d^yCoogle 


en,  104;  unofflg  OM  Bdieven,  84, 
85,  S8,  89,  90,  91,  94;  among  river- 
1001,113;  u  cause  M  wo A-«ccidcnts, 
119;  employes'  benefits  not  payable 

.  if  disability  is  due  to,  264 

Dnif»— 

Sale  of,  38s 

Qnmku'dB — 

Scientific  treAtment  of,  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  York,  388 


Anests  for,  point  to  n«cd  for  study, 

518,  519;   neeJless  airests  for,  519 
DntokaniiaH  and  disorderly  con- 

dnct— 
Elimination  of,  ^5;    pei 

police    cases   of,    umiigrr-* 

Southeastcni  Europe,  50, 5: 
Dnqiteane,  11, 136, 161 
Dntcb,  351 
Dyiutmitfl  coaiplntcT,  15a 


mmiigrants    from 


■■J&>, 


Ttiwfiigiant 

gm  sted  workers. 

See  also  ITiifei 
East  End— 

Comparison  of  mortality  statistics 

in  river  wards  and,  »3 
BastmsD,  CtrabU,  15, 43t  73.  i97. 19S. 

199,  200, 145.  »64, 166,  443 
Bconomic  Iwttennent.      See  Bctier- 

Ecooomic  cost— 

Of  typhoid  fever,  17;  of  work-acd- 
doita,  34,  15,  16,  17;   of  work-acd- 
dents,  distribution  of,  a6, 17 
Economic  jtosition— 

It  wage-earners,  33-43 


ce  of  prostitution,  353 
Economic  snrver— 

By  Piof .  Holdswortb,  19 
Education,  compiilBOrT.      See  Ckild 

labor 
Educational  need— 

Of  Sharpsbuig  children,  303,  304 


Educational  woA— 

Among  immigrants,  jt,  51 

Edwards,  Dr.  James  t.,  16, 345, 406 

Bfflcioacj,  Patifae  and.    See  Fi^pu 


Eisner  and  Philips,  131 


Electrical  machinery,  apparatus,  and 
snppUes— 
Output  of,  115 

Electrical  wortcers,  155-1571  appren- 
ticeship of,  155,  1561  employeis' 
agreements  with,  I5S)  hours  of  inside 
'''iremen,  155,  156,  of  linemen,  157; 
linemen   favor  municipal  ownerahip, 


ng,  "4S;  , 
not  permitted  by  union  linemen,  i^ 
strike  in  1905,  155;  strike  in  1907 
among  linemen,  156;  strike  in  190S 
among  linemen,  1561  unionism 
»mong,  155, 156,  inside  wiremen,  iss, 
linemen,  156)  wages  of  inside  wire- 
men,  145,  i55i  >56>  of  linemen,  145, 
iSfi.  "57 
Blsvator  constnictors,  157-159;  ap- 
prenticeship, 157,  158;  cariares  of, 
158;  classified  as  mechanics  and 
helpers,  157;  employers'  agreements 
with,  157,  158,  159;  hours,  158,  159; 
jurisdictional  dilutes  of,  158;  piece 
work  prohibited,  158;  scarci^  of 
workmen  among,  145,  157;  unionism 
among,  146,  147,  i57,  'jB,  1J9; 
wages  affected  by  unionism  during 
panic  of  1907-08,  147)  wages  of,  147, 
158, 159 


BUis,  Morton,  317,  338,  319 
Emergencj  rooms— 

In  industrial  plants,  231,  332.    See 

also  Plants,   pkyiical   equipment   of; 

Surfieal  orgamtaHon  0}  the  Camept 

Steti  Company 


■d^yCoogle 


EmenoD  Compuiy,  17 
Employer— 

SelaCionsbip  between,  and  employe 
in  large  oiganizationa,  17a 

Bmployen— 

Cmitests  between,  and  unions  for 
supremacy,  173;  enforcemtjit o( tabor 
laws  in  lUiiioii  crippled  by,  190;  in- 
suiance,  264;  interstate  conventioDS 
of,  and  mine  worken,  170;  labor 
legi^tion  defeated  by,  bl  Massachu- 
setts, 190;  metbods  lesorted  to  by, 
to  ddeat  labor  legislation  and  cripple 
enforcement,  190;  power  of,  to  re- 
move factory  inqvectors,  190,  191 

Employerf'  ■graemmti.     See  Trade 


Employ  en'  asaocUtion— 

Bndge  and  stnictuial  iron  workers, 
150,  i;i;  hobting  engineers,  153; 
machinists,  140;  metal  trades,  139; 
moldeis,  1411  slate  and  tile  roofers, 
i6f;  tile  layers  and  helpers,  i6£; 
unionism  aSected  by,  139,  140,  150, 
153.  See  also  Eittator  hlatatfactur- 
tr^  and  Builders'  Association;  tn- 
lemaUotud  AssociatUm  of  Bridge  and 
StnictUTol  Iron  Workers;  Uanvfac- 
ttirtrs'  Association  of  Pittsburgh; 
Hosier  Brick  Contractors'  Associa- 
tion; Master  Builders'  Association; 
Master  House  Painters'  and  Decora- 
tors' Association;  Master  House- 
smiths'  Associalum;  Master  PUm^trs' 
Aisocialion;  National  Erectors'  As- 
sociation; National  Pounders'  As- 
sociation; National  Metal  Trades 
Association;  State  Roofers'  Associa- 
tion; Tite  Dealers'  Association 

Employer*'  liability- 
Commissions  appointed  to  investi- 
gate, 3oa;  law,  35,  176;  legislative 
action  concerning,  joo,  urged  by  De- 
laney,  100.  See  also  Workinfmen's 
compensalioH 

EmployeB— 

Effect  of  monotonous 
repetitive  tasks  on,  36S,  169; 
loaned  to,  for  vegetable  farm,  361; 
relationship  between  employers  and, 
in  targe  organizations,  370;  resent- 
ment of  American,  by  welfare  work, 
=S8 


IS  drudgeiy  of 
fiS,  169;    land 


Bmployu'  benefit  aseociatioiM— 
Elnect  of,  on  morals,  264,  365;  in 
H.  J.  Heuu  Company,  364;  in 
Pittsburgh  Coal  Company,  164;  to 
Pittsburgh  Railway  Company,  1641 
in  Standard  Sanitary  Manufacturing 
Company,  364;  in  United  States 
Steel  CorporatioD,  364;  in  Westing- 
bouse  Air  Brake  Conqiany,  1G4, 46S- 
401;  in  Westin^wuse  Electric  and 
Manufacturing  Company,  164;  in- 
suiaoce  by  emfdoyers  in  em(4oyeis' 
liability  conqiany  genersUy  super- 
seded by,  364;  suffMWted  by  cmn- 
pany,  i&t,  supported  by  cnmpaay 
aad  employes  jomtly,  264;  npfionBd 
by  employes,  364 

Employes'  benefite— 

Baaed  on  service  and  resionaibility. 
164;  not  dqiendeut  on  liability  of 
company,  1&4;  irat  payable  if  dis- 
ability or  injury  b  due  to  intoiin- 
tion,  z64i  not  payable  if  anpiojt 
sues  for  damages,  364;  petd  by  Car- 
negie Relief  Fund,  (Table)  165 

Employe!,  deTalopment  and  atabil- 
Itj  of,  155-374;  effect  of  anti-unioa 
policies  on,  168;  efiect  of  gettenl 
method  of  labor  management  cm,  168; 
eSect  of  immigratioo  on,  i6ft;  im- 
portance of,  to  employer  outside  of 
employing  center,  363;  in  ctial  town 
of  Mariarma  (Pittsburgh-BuSalo  Cod 
Conutany),  161,  363;  in  mill  town  of 
Braddock  (Carnegie  Sted  Company), 
36 1  i  in  mill  town  of  Midland  (Cru- 
cible Steel  Company),  i6r;  in  mill 
town  of  Duquesne  (Carnegie  Sted 
Company),  161;  m  mill  town  of 
Homestrad  (Cajne^e  Sted  Com- 
pany), 3G1;  in  mill  town  of  Vaodv- 
grift  {Apollo  Iron  and  Sted  Com- 
pany), 161;  in  miU  town  of  Wilkins- 
Durg  (Westinghouse  Electric  aad 
Manufacturing  Con^iany),  160;  in 
mill  town  of  Wilmeiding  (Westing- 
house  Air  Brake  Company),  160; 
in  mill  town  of  Woodlawn  (Jones  and 
Laughlin  Steel  Company),  261;  m 
mill  towns.  359-363;  through  acci- 
dent and  sickness  relief.  i63'i66. 
3751  through  bonus  system,  36S,  369, 


.d,Google 


encouiagEng  initiative  and  co-open- 
doD,  167,  368;  throu^  penwms,  165, 
a66;  through  [Kofit-ahajiiig,  166,  167, 
ID  H.  K.  Porter  Company,  367,  in 
Reymer's  Omdy  Factory,  167,  in 
United  States  Sleel  Corporatioii,  166, 
167,  initiative  and  con^ieraCion,  166- 
374;  through  relief  and  pensions, 
163-166;  through  sug^tion  syv 
tern,  170-171,  in  Amencan  Bridge 
Company,  271,  in  H.  J.  Heini  Com- 
pany, 171,  in  National  Tube  Com- 
pany, 27i>  373;  through  wdfare 
woR,  157-159;  thiougli  wdfaie 
work,  a  paying  investment,  158,  in 
America,  157, 158,  in  Aimstiong  Cork 
Company,  159,  in  H.  J.  Heine  Com- 
pany, 258,  259,  in  Germany,  157,  In 
Jenkmson's  stogy  factory,  259,  in 
McCreeiy's  depMtment  store,  259, 
in  Rauh  clothing  factory,  159; 
tliTough  worits  committees,  170,  271, 
272;    wages  affecting,  263 

^nployea,  recmitiiig  ' 
apprenticesliip  courses 
liouse  Electric  and  Manufacturing 
Company  in,  221;  apprenticesliip 
metbod  of  H.  K.  Porter  Company  in, 
222,  Mesta  Machine  Company  in, 
222,  Pittsburgh  and  Lake  Erie  Rail- 
road in,  221,  322;  apprenticeship  S]rs- 
tem  employed  in,  110,  lit,  113; 
attempt  to  attack  alcoholism  in,  by 
littsbulgh  Railways  Company,  220; 
attributes  to  be  considered  in,  218; 
constant,  necessitated  by  restlessness 
of  labor,  221,  222,  22j;  in  early  days, 
1751  indiscnminate  method  in,  ziS, 
219;  indiscriminate  method  in,  re- 
sults in  inefficient  working  force,  219; 
method  employed  by  H.  J.  Heinz 
Company,  1 19,  Westinghouse  Electric 
and  Manufacturing  Company  in,  119, 
no;  physical  examination  in  con- 
nection with,  119,  110,  by  Camc^e 
Steel  Company,  210,  by  Central  Dis- 
trict Telephone  Company,  120,  by 
H.  J.  Heinz  Company,  J19,  by  West- 
inghouse Electric  and  Manufacturing 
Company,  2  30;  physical  examination 
of  apprentices  in  connection  with,  by 
H.  K.  Porter  Company,  121,  by 
Mesta  Machine  Company,  222,  by 
Pittsburgh  and  Lake  Erie  Railroad, 
iji;  probationary  period  and  train- 
ing   of   pn>q>ective    motonnen    by 


Pittsbui^  RaHways  Onnpany  in, 
322;  probationary  period  of  Arm- 
strong Corii  Company  in,  122,  of 
H.  K.  Porter  Company  in,  222.  of 
Mesta  Machine  Company  in,  111, 
of  Pittsburgh  and  Lake  Erie  Railroad 
in,  in;  sdection,  iiS-iio,  274;  se- 
lection through  foremen,  3iq.  110; 
training,  320-223;  training  immi- 
Erontsforone taskin,  110, 111;  weak 
leatuie  in  apprenticeship  system  of. 


Anployes*  aerrice  p 

Paid  by  AmericaD  Steel  and  Wre 
Company,  166,  Aimstroi^  Cork 
Company,  166,  Carnegie  Relief  Fund, 
(Table)  165,  Pittsburgh  Coal  Com- 
pany, 166,  Reymer's  Candy  Com- 
pany, 266;  Westinghouse  Air  Brake 
Company,  485-491;  taken  over  by 
United  States  Steel  Relief  Pension 
Fund,  166 

Bnceli,  Fndftrick,  282 
Engiiieen.    See  RaUway  Employer 
Botineera'  Soci«tj  of  Peiuu;lTuila, 
445 


BngUsd,  I  J,  2 


1,181 


Eoglisli  labor  laws- 
Recommendation    that,   be   made 
basis  of  a  code,  213 

Englishmen,  34,  54,  3^ 


American  sodal  industrial  problem 
not  to  be  solved  along,  lines,  7;  com- 
munity conditions,  3;  convalescent 
homes,  6;     co-operative  stores,  6; 


ig,  5,  6;  industri 
inWidity  funds,  6;  new  industrial 
center,  5;  pensions  and  woik-acd- 
dent  funds,  6;  rents,  6;  sanitary 
facilities,   5,  6.    See  also  Gtmony; 

Essen  No.  I,  79 


■d^yCoogle 


Ivaiiwu  W«jr,  Th», ,-,  S 


■.Vll4luH    ithUOlS.       ^t  >t.ilU<M 


tuiiets  ordered  by  new,  1 15, 445  '•  ^*^ 
ol  co-opa*tioii  between,  and  xbad 
Bulhoritie*,  iSj;  ladu  powet  of  con- 
intay  aaiety  experts  in  gettiiiE  ictkB 
on  recommeiMktions,  19Q;  BMil 
effect  00  children  of  bulim  on  pui  d 
to  prosecute  law  bre^tcn.  iii.  ni: 
tieed  of  higbeat  efficiescy  in.  itr. 
new,  divutoo  of  indusunl  bypoB. 
Jij,  iit>,  Md  covcfed  by.  :i;.  :ia: 
no  o|>|M6itiaa  by,  to  pcwvisuB  iH^ 
tan   lUKbl   work  of   mnofs  in  ^iHi 

result  of  LKfc  of  dvii  juwne  pane' 


^ety  laws  by.  ^05; 

•vnrlr   iiiiiiMn 

'»nuiuiy  01.  a 


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cbOdioi  important  ai  buh  for  pio- 
hibitiug  dangerous  occupations,  199; 
amtssions  in,  191,  193,  194,  195,  196, 
197;  questions  which  should  be  cov- 
ered in,  193;   to  the  public,  191-198 

Factoij  inapsctloD  headqnarters— 
Estabiisbedat  Pittsburgh,  115,4451 
establishmen  t  of ,  at  Pittsbui^,  recom- 
mended in  report  on  factory  in^>ec- 
tion,  111;  inadequate  impropriation 
for,  in  1914,  13;  madequate  clerical 
force  at  new,  445;  no,  m  Pittsburgh, 
189 

Factor;  inspection  In    Pittsburgh, 
1S9-11G 

Factory  inapection  atafi — 

Physicians  and  engineers  added  to, 
115,  316;  recommemiation  of  report 
on  ractory  inspection  that  physiaaos 
and  engineers  DC  added  to,  113 

Factor;  inspector,  cblel— 

Advised  by  attorney  general  to 
withhold  prosecutions  for  violation  of 
child  labor  law,  106;  change  in,  rec- 
ommended in  report  on  factory  in- 
qjection,  213;  character  of  won  of, 
iQo;  characteristic  statement  of,  con- 
cerning accidents  197,  198;  decision 
by,  concerning  education  tert  of  chil- 
dren seeking  employment,  loS,  over- 
ruled by  attorney  general,  108;  J.  C. 
Ddan^  reappointed,  in  1909,  by 
Governor  Stuart,  3151  J.  C.  Ddaney 


J.  C.  belaney,  loo;  new,  L.  R.  Pal- 
mer, 445;  number  of  orders  of,  to 
guard  machinery  compared  with 
number  of  orders  of  safety  inqiector 
of  private  company,  19S 


Factor;  Inapectort — 

Inaccessibility  of,  ^89;  insufQdent 
number  of,  189;  power  of  employers 
to  remove,  100,  191;  unprotected  by 
civil  service  law,  191 


under  civil  service  rules,  115;  pladng, 
under  civil  service  laws  recommended 
in  r^Mrt  on  factory  itk^Kction,  iii; 
political  appointees,  191;  power  of 
incompetent,  191 

Factor;  lam — 

Qutnges  in,  from  1908  to  1913,  313, 
114;  local  agencies,  and  laz  enforce- 
meat,  307-114.     See  also  Labor  Lam 


Farm  colonies,  373 
"Fum  labor,"  in 

Fati|iio  and  Bfficimic;— 

By  Josephine  Goldmark,  153,  154. 
See  also  Safeptarding  employtt 

Federal  bnraan  of  mines,  ij,  14, 177 

Federal  goTsrament— 

Steps  by,  for  prevention  of  mining 
accidents,  13,  14,  177 

Federal  Immigration    Conunisslon, 

3S3.  "5»n,  36 
Federal  Supply  Company,  174 
Feehan,  Francis,  171^,  i77i  445 
FUtration  plant.     See  Water  supply 


Firemen.    See  Railway  empioya 

Fitch,  John  A,,  17,  117, 119, 178,  153 

*73 
Flagmen.     See  Railviay  tmphyet 
Flint,  Joslah,  317 
Flood  prevention,  9 


Food  anpply — 

In£ssen,5,6;  study  of  quality  and 
cost  of,  by  Professor  HoldkworUi,  iS 


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Foreign  white  atock  in  PittabniKh 
in  igiD— 
By  mother  tongue,  (Table)  3  a 
Fort  Pitt  Bridge  Ctmt*aj,  1 50 
Poster  HoOier,  Plttibargh  u  a,  la 
Foundries  and  machine  iliops — 
Labor  condltkos  in,  17;    investi- 
gation of,  by  new  factory  inspection 
department,  445 

Prance- 
Death   rate   from  mine   workers' 
accidents  in,  17s 

Fraternal  order* — 

S6 


French,  35 '1  3*4,  3^S 
PridE,  H.  C,  t68 
Friedrichshof .    See  Bssfit 

Garbage  remoral  contract,  14 
Garment  trades— 

Co-operation  In,  inNew  Vork,  173, 
174 

Garrison  Fonndr;  Company,  133 
Gaynor,  Mayor,  387 
Geographical  situation,  113 
German  Lutheran  school,  184 

Germans,  3.  5. 6, 18, 33, 37, 40, 46, 34, 
84,  I3S>  187.  as8|  aSo,  a84,  apo,  310, 
3>8,  337.  3SI.  366.     See  also  Teutons 

Germany,  3,  257,  371;  workingmen's 
insurance  in,  3.  See  also  Esten; 
Krupp;   Rktnisk-Wesiphaiia 

Girls- 
Legislation  affecting  hours  of  woA 
for,  imder  eighteen,  aoa,  113,  314; 
one  hundred  and  twenly-Gve  work- 
ing, 4ga,  493,  hours  of  work  of, 
(Table)  493.    See  also  CliUd  labor; 


Glass  House  Row,  38a 

GtaM-honses,  297,  39S,  399,  jcxi,  3ot; 
legislatim  in  1913  safeguarding  em- 
ployes in,  aoi;  night  work  of  duldien 
m,  195,  ao3,  ai3,  ijg;  reports  of  fac- 
ttwy  Inspection  dniartment  ccmcon- 
ing  einployinent  ol  women  and  ddl- 
drenin,lacking,  194, 195;  Sharpsbuig 
ctuldren  in,  195-301 


3qS 
Glenshaw,  »g6 

Goldmark,  Josephine,  353, 154 
Goler,  Dr.  George  W.,  18 

GoTetoment — 

Effective  methods  of,  probleni  of 
iver  in^xovonenls  by. 


Grady  of  tk«  underworld,  $1$ 


Greater  Birmingham,  8 
Greater  Pittabnrch,  8, 9 
Greek  Orthodox  Rnstians,  57 
Greeks,  46,  a8o,  345, 335 

Greenabnrg- 

Mine  wor 
Grodno,  6  a 
Gnizot*s  History  of  Prance,  78 

Guthrie  administration,  14,  18,  311, 
3i».  313. 3S0, 358, 371. 386, 406, 501, 
Soa 


"H— henchman,"  316 
Hang-onts.    See  Ytu^ 


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Hardy  uid  Bmjm  ComponT,  454 


Hurison,  Shelby  H.,  9 
Hkyes,  Gertrnda,  3^1, 35S 

Htueltoo— 

Ages  of  childKD  in,  leaving  school 

HMlth— 

LahM  conditions  itiimiml  to,  ij; 
puMic,  I^ttabuigh's  foregnie  uset. 

Health,  bnreBtt  o( — 

Deaths  from  wc«k-acddenta  not 
shown  by  T^>orts  of,  15;  develop- 
ment of  Military  service  and,  pro- 
tecdMi  of  ctly,  141  gubage  removal 
contract  engrossed  two-thiids  of 
ajHiiopiiation  of_,  14^  in  hoods  of 
pcditician,  ij;  in  hands  of  skilled 
sanitarian  in  190S,  14,  15)  lodging 
hoiue  licenses  issued  by,  341;  lodging 
houses  closed  by,  345;  new  adequate 
departntental  organization  and 
trained  sanitarian,  15;  no  annual 
rqiort  of,  for  five  years,  14;  no  physi- 
cian at  head  of,  until  Guthne  ad- 
ministration, 14;  only  one-half  of 
appropriation  free  for  general  health 
purposes,  14;  power  of,  to  vacate,  10; 
reorganization  of  food  inspection  ser- 
vice of,  recommended  by  New  York 
Bureau  of  Municipal  Research,  iq; 
report  oa  work  ol,  by  New  Yott 
Bureau  <^  Municipal  Researdi,  15, 
16;  Shaipsburg,  inadequate  care  of 
poor,  283,  183,  inconudete  records, 
181.  lax  disinfection  by,  383,  183, 
laxness  b  r^KHting  contagious  cases, 
1S3,  384;  subordinate  bureau  up  to 
'909.  '4 

Health  certiflute — 

Legislation  making,  prerequisite 
in  granting  marriage  licenses  passed 
m  compromise  form,  505 


Heinz  Bottle  Works  in  SharpabnrB— 
Improvement  of  atmospberic  con- 
ditioia  by,  101 


Hoinz  GUh  Company,  319,  334,  319, 
330, 131, 136,  330,  353,  is8,  359.  ^f 
37a,  39s,  »9<i 


Herr,  President,  141 
Heyl-Pattenon  Compaay,  150 


HolBting  engineers,  r53, 154;  appren- 
ticeship of,  14S.  IS3,  rS4;  employers' 
assodation,  1531  hours  of,  154;  li- 
cenaingof,  153, 154;  unionism  among, 
133;  wages  of,  1S4 


Home  condittons— 

Effect  of,  of  immigrant  1 
ers  on  crime,  S3,  S3 


Homestead,  106,  336,  361;  bou^ng 
conditions  in,  33,  13;  mills,  33S; 
overcrowding  in,  131  privy  vaults 
not  prohiUled  in,  33;  riota,  276; 
strike  of  1893,  113;  water  supfdy  in 
houses,  33 


Home  aad  CompsiiT 
i3».  4S4 

Joseph,  .30. 

Hospital— 

tizedini9i4,i3;  ex-poHceman super- 
intendent of,  for  insane,  ii;  munici- 
pal tuberculosis,  11,  do  general  mu- 
nicipal, in  1914, 13 

.d,GoogIe 


Hotpltalr— 

At  EsMD,  6;  lack  o(  co-ordin&tioD 
between,  lo,  ii,  in  1914,  la;  recent 
additions  to  spedalized,  11;  subsi- 
dized, difficulty  in  getting  patients 
accepted  in,  11 

HoteU— 

Investigation  of,  by  new  factory 
inspection  department,  445 

Hotm — 

Adult  male  wage-eainecs,  303; 
a^tatioD  by  workers  to  shorten,  met 
with  reprisal,  39;  bakers,  129,  1351 
blacksmiths,  144;  boiler  makers,  143, 
144;  brewery  workers,  137,  138,  184; 
bricklasrers,  146,  147,  148;  bridge 
and  structural  iron  workers,  ijo,  151, 
151,  153;  building  trades,  146,  166, 
1S41  building  trades  day  labor,  184; 
carpenters,  154,  15^;  duld  labor  law 
relating  to,  308:  aty  day  labor,  iii, 
184;  clostng,  [or  women  and  ^rU, 
114,  in  Indiana,  Massachusetts,  Ne- 
braska and  New  Yoric,  >i4;  day 
labor,  184;  effect  of  long,  on  citizen- 
ship, family  life,  and  morals,  17,  38, 
19J  effect  of  long,  on  restlessnos  of 
l^ior,  117;  electrical  workers.  Inside 
^nnwax,  155,  156;  electrical  woric- 
ers,  linemen,  157;  elevator  construc- 
tors, 158,  159;  for  women  and  girls, 
313,  114;  ^ris  under  eighteen,  Icns- 
lation  affecting,  1^1;  ^rls  wotked  in 
tgij,  104;  Imiating  engineers,  154; 
houKsmiths,  153;  in  1914,  18;  in 
laundries,  104)  in  United  States 
Steel  Corporation,  395-399;  law 
regulating,  in  Ohio,  301;  machinists, 
140,  141,  i4»;  masons,  146, 147, 148; 
metal  trades,  139,  1S41  mine  wcorkers, 
167,  168,  170,  17a,  173;  mine  work- 
ers compared  with  steel  workers,  178, 
r^o;  molders,  143;  of  135  settlement 
giris,  (Table)  403;  of  Shaipsburg 
chUdren  in  ^ass-houses,  198,  in  metal 
trades.  Iron  mill,  193,  in  meUl  trades, 
shovel  factory,  193,  in  metal  trades, 
tube  mills,  394;  pamtera,  decorators, 
and  paperhangers,  tjg,  160;  pattern 
D!'^''^!  '43>  plasterers,  161;  plumb- 
ers, 146,  i63i  printers,  133,  tS4i  rail- 
wav  and  runs,  115, 136, 117, 138, 184; 
railway,  restricted  by  federal  legisla- 


116,  : 


retail  deits,  iig,  ly),  131, 133, 184; 
retail  clerks,  leg)dat»n  affecting,  133, 
314,  360,  shortened  through  tflorts  of 
Knights  of  Labor,  119,  women,  1841 
rivermen,  133;  sheet-metal  wodten. 
Its ;  shortened  to  safeguard  enqiloyei, 
354;  slate  and  tile  roofos,  165;  state 
daylabor.iir;  steamfitters,  14C,  164; 
street  railvnty,  and  runs,  133,  134, 
1S4;  summary  showing  effect  of 
184,   i8s; 


Honae  building — 

Promoted  by  Industrial  owpoia- 

Honsebold  demonstrators— 
Resident,  359 

Hooseliold  needs,  17-30 
Honsekeeplufc— 

Co-operative,    among    imnugnnt 

wage-earners,  47 


i>  »3,  45. 54. 
nsus  of,  3a 


See  also  OsovrwRiJiKf 

Housesmidis,  153,153)  affiliated  with 
structural  iron  workers,  153;  appm- 
ticeahip^  of,  153;  employers'  agree- 
ment with,  153, 153)  hazards  of,  ijji 
he^ieis  allowed  to  fitters  or  journey- 
men,  153;  houisof,  153;  ^mpathebc 
strikes,  153;  I  '"  ■ 
wages  of,  1S3 

Housing — 

Immigrants  In  nnderworid  ds- 
tricts,  307;  in  Essen,  5,  6;  nine 
workers,  174,  175;  mine  workers  and 
steel  workers  compared,  179;  Negro 
steel  woikers,  tot^  non-enforcen»ii 
of,  laws  and  ordmanccs,  406;  the 
immigrant  wage-earner,  45,  46,  47, 
4*.  49.  55.  59.  60 


Houaint  conditions— 

At  Mariaima,  263;  inqirovtd. 
shown  by  photogr^te  in  Museum 
of  Safety  ^)pliances,  494;  in  tai 
towns,  33;  m  Sharpsburg,  33,  iSa, 
181,183;  ' ' -—     - 


S46 


.d,Google 


Hmuing  of  Pittsborcb's  workeri,  20 

UaiuiBf  problem — 

Ci><ipcntive  building  sdwme,  >i, 
r,  devdopmcDt  of  constructive  pub- 


Hnbbard'f  iborel  factory,  191, 193 

Httman  coniorratioD — 

Kesults  of  failure  to  apply  principle 
of,  to  tndustiy,  18 


HnmMJanti  34,  t»,  S4t  86, 161, 351 
HimkiM,  aSo,  319, 334 


Ice  men.    See  Teamslen 

nilDois— 

Enforcement  of  labor  law«  crippled 
by  employer!,  190 

"niinoia  Jlmm7,"33i 

Immlcrant  children.    See  Sharpsburg 


Imiiiciant  labor — ' 

^ect  of,  on  improvement  of  min- 
ing iwocesMS,  169 


TtwntfrMnti^ 


.    underworld    districts, 
307;   Pittsburgh  as  a  destination  of, 

56;  Sodety  for  tlie  Protection  of 
talian,  51;  the  Jewish,  of  two  Pitts- 
burgh blocks,  419-413;  training,  for 
one  task,  sio,  111;  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  work  for,  in  the 
Pittsburgh  District,  6a,  414-41S. 
See  Lodging  iotues;  Wait-tamtr3,im- 


bmnigration — 

Causes  for,  of  Slavs,  61,  63;  effect 
of,  on  conditions  of  mine  workers,  167, 
168,  169,  170,  on  development  of 
employes,  368;  eacouraged  by  steel 
industry,  276;  higher  wages  a  reason 
for,  36,  37,  40;  per  cent  of  Slavs  in 
present,  61 

Immoralltj — 

Among    immigrant    wage-earners, 
48,49 
Indiana — 

Oosing  bour  for  women  and  giris 

in.   214;     segregation  of  confirmed 

felons  in,  37a 

Indtiatrlal    accident*    in    Pennayl- 

Tani«,  443.    See  also  Work-accidentz 

Industrial  advance — 

Made  by  inunigiant  wage-eamen, 
40,  41,  42,  43 

Indnatrial  board — 

Duties  and  powers  of,  216,  448, 
449;  membenbip  of,  445;  outcome 
of,  to  be  seen,  216.  See  also  Indus- 
tries; Labor 

Indni  trial  center— 

Attractions  of,  for  professional 
criminal,  366;  generating  social  ren- 
%ades  in  an,  366,  367;  new,  in  Es- 
sen, 5 ;  workin^ien  resource  of,  14,  28 

Indnatrial  centera— 

Social  progress  in,  during  last  five 
years,  19, 30 

Indnttrlal  cooditiona— 

Recapitulation  of,  iSo-t88 

Industrial  corporationa— 

Promotingliouse  building,  at 

Indnatrial  deTelopmant— 

Of  community,  as  aSecting  crime, 
366-369 


IndnitrUl  dlatrict— 
Areaof,  iij,  116 

Induatria]  efBciency— 

Of  immigrant  wage-eaners,  38,  40, 
4*.  43 


■d^yCoogle 


InduBtrial  Koremment' 

Contest    between    ej 

imioni    for   supremacy 


.       . .  0.  *74- 

278;  devebpment  and  stability  of 
employea,  255-1741  divisioD  of,  in 
factory  inspection  dqtartineat,  116; 
improvement  in,  depttident  on  man- 
agerial and  finandal  heads,  175,  177; 
of  the  Pittsbui^h  Distcict,  27,  217- 
1781  physical  equipment  of  plant  as 
it  affects  the  comfort  and  convenience 
of  employes,  213-140,  174;  piindples 
fonning  basis  for  analysis  of,  117; 
recent  improvements  in,  259,  260, 
»7S;  recruitiny  of  employes,  21&- 
313;  safeguarding  employee  against 
accident  and  disease,  140-255,  274. 
See  also  Working  condilioiu 

Indnatrlal  maiugameDt — 

Desire  of  wage-earners  to  have 
voice  in,  tSS;  evolution  of,  compared 
wi  til  that  of  political  government,  273. 
See  abo  Labor  maHagement 

Industrial  problem  of  1914, 30 


Indiutrial  unions.    See  Unions 

Indnstriai  workers — 

Drifting  into  underworld,  317,  3181 

preyed  upon  by  underworld,  307, 317, 

318.  319.  3™ 
Industrial  Workers  of  the  World, 


Industries- 
Community  responsibility 
dependent  on  immigrant 


ers,  59;  effect  of  panic  of  1907-0S  mt, 
itSi  expansion  of,  other  than  steel, 
277;  independent  of  rank  and  file, 
117;    relation  of  wage-eamen  to,  7 

Industries,  pig  Iron- 
Quick  response  of,  to  depicsiioa  «r 
prosperity,  118 


548 


InltUttire— 

Development  of  employes  tbim^ 
encouraging,  167,  36S 


£x-policemaj 
hospital  for,  12;    provisions  for  o 

Insorsnce.     See  WarkingmtH'i  imfw 

Insursnce  societies — 

Founded  by  priests,  58;  of  immi- 
grant wage-gamers,  56 


International  Association  of  Steam- 
fltters  and  Steanifitters'  Helpers 
of  America,  162 


International  Brotheriiood  of  Team- 
sters, Chauffeurs,  Stablemen  end 
Stablemen's  Helpers,  111 

International  Loi^thoremen,  Ha- 
rine  and  Transport  Worfcen' 
Association,  121 

Intemationat  Holders'  Union,  141 

International  prostltotion,  352, 353 


■d^yCoogle 


Intozication.    See  Drunkaititss 


Iiiibi  33.  34.  37,  54>  'So,  184,  310,  35i 
Iron- 
Output  of,  115 
Iron  Age,  iis 
Iron  aad  Steel  Roll  HuuIb'  Union, 

106 
Iron  City  Central  Trades  Cotincil, 


Iron  mills — 

ShaipsbuiR  children  in.  tgt,  192; 
Sharpsburg  diildren'f  opportunity  for 
advancement  in,  iQi 


Italians,  33,  34.  37,  39.  40,  43.  48.  53. 
S4.  S5.  56,  S7,  79. '19,  "o,  i".  "35. 
]6l,  2Sa,  381,  183,  2S4,  287,  397,  199. 
302,  330,  3SO,  3SI,  3SS.  368.  See 
abo  Wage-earners,  immtrant 


Jackaon,  John  Price,  445 
Jenkinson  Stogy  Factory,  330,  ijt, 

259 
Jerome,  District  Attomsy,  315 
Jewish  Bakors'  Union,  1 19 

Jewiah  Immigrants  of  Two  Pitta- 
fanrgh  Blocka,  Tbe,4i9-423 


J«ws,  3S,  129,  135,  136.  187.  280.  350. 
3S",  3SS,  360.  3WI;  educational  work 
4rf  J.  W.  Anthony  among,  51 

"Jocker."    See  Yeggs 
Jones,  John  H.,  263 
JonesandLaaghlin,45.  "9,  '73,  '78, 
2l5t  >33.  *4S,  161,  445 


JuTenile  dBlinonests— 

Rectwunentutions  made  by  New 
YoA  Bureau  of  Municipal  Researdi 
affecting,  510 


Kellogg,  Paul  U.,  3-30, 43,  53,  ji 

Kelts,  33,  34,  40,  43 

Kennard,  Benbtb,  10,  52,  60 

Kerr,  Allen  H.,  12,  377,  378 

King,  Frederick  A.,  3S8,  5io-S>5 

King  of  Second  Avenue,  315 

KIngaley  House,  51, 133, 363, 453, 491 

Knights  of  Labor,  1 : 
Salespeople's  AasemI 

Kohler,  Chief,  387 

Eoukol,  Alois  B.,  36,  61-77 

Krupp,  3,  5. 6 

Krapps— 

Mobilization  of  workmen  by,  s; 
remarkable  labor  force  of,  6)  sick- 
ness or  disability  of  skilled  workiaen  on 
economic  loss  to,  5;  welfare  work  of, 
from  standpoint  of  American  em- 
ployer, 6,  from  standpoint  of  Ameri- 
'  '      See  also  Essen 


Knrtz,  Langb«in  and  Swartz,  454 


Labor- 
Causes  and  effect  of  restlessness  of, 
117;  effect  of  Balkan  war  on,  ti8; 
tack  of  effort  to  attract  higher  class 
of,  268;  mobility  of,  compared  with 
immobility  of  capital,  116,  117,  evi- 
denced by  panic  of  1907-08,  ti8; 
mobilization  of,  by  Krupps,  j;  rest- 
lessness of,  116,  ir7,  169,  390,  191, 
ji)6,  300;  scarcity  o(  electrical  work- 
ers, 145;    scarcity  of  elevator  con- 


■d^yCoogle 


■tiuctots,  145,  iST;  scardtyof  iknied, 
974;  situatioilin  igi4, 118.  Seeabo 
Day  labor;  Wafe-eamen 

Labor  ftnd  IndnstrioB  Department- 
Act  creating,  446-4  jo,  appoiiit- 
ments  under,  445;  factory  adminis- 
trative service  o(  state  reotganiied 
as,  315;  inadequate  appropriation 
under,  for  supcrviiing  factory  in- 
spector's ofbtx  at  Pittsburgh,  13; 
indudes  bureau  of  statistics,  factMy 
inspection,  and  ait»tration,  115; 
iiAa  Price  Jackson,  commis^Dner, 
445  i  legislation  making  report  of 
wOTli-aixidents  to,  obliptoiy,  443; 
outctMne  of  work  of,  to  be  seen,  116. 
See  also  Factory  irupectian;  Ittdut- 
Irial  board 

Labor  condltiona— 

RepOTt  on,  by  Stockholders'  Com- 
mittee United  States  Steel  OMpora- 

tion,  April  ij, "     ""     "-- 

also  Workitii  u 

Labor  conToations — 

Worit-acddents  to  miners,  subject 
of  complaintat,  175.   See  also  I/moiu 
Labor  Urn— 

AfFecting  wmneo  and  children, 
amended  hi  1913,  113,  ai4,  includes 
all  women  subject  to  partial  exemp- 
tions, 1131  California,  and  enforce- 
ment, 115;  mforcemetit  of,  duty  of 
factory  inspection  department,  aoi, 
elements  in,  307,  In  Ulincis  crippled 
by  etapl<^ezs,  190,  ineffident,  190; 
enforcing  authority  of,  unchanged  up 


■  1913.  :  -. 
improvement  of  woriting 
through,  2j8;  limiting  working  week 
foe  women  not  ^lorceable,  loj; 
Massachusetts,  and  enforcement,  115; 
New  Yotk,  and  enforcement,  aij) 
no,  regulating  ventilation  in  indus- 
trial plants,  226;  non-enforcement  of , 
by  factory  inflection  dqiartment, 
191,  104,  105,  106,  III,  112,  249,  in 
stogy  factory,  loi,  201;  Ohio,  and 
enforcement,  103,  us;  opposed  by 
steel  industry,  276;  Pennsylvania,  in 
igijexcelledby  only  four  stales,  214) 
recommendation  that  English,  be 
madebasisof  acode,  213;  regulating 
hours  of  women  retail  clerks,  1S4, 
ti4i   violation  of,  governing  hours  of 


work,  303,  304;  Wiscoosin,  and  en- 
forcement, 115.  See  also  CkM  iabar 
lav;  Ltp^latioK,  mimini  law 

Labor  logislatioii— 

E>ef  eated  by  emplojreis  in  Blaaa- 
chusetti,  190 

Labor  manaKemont — 

Beginnings  of  scieotific,  255;  cflect 
of,  on  development  of  emphqivn,  26S1 
problem  of,  256,  157;  tii-tinii-.l  men 
unprepared  for  duties  of,  i>s,  »6 


Lamont,  Philip,  323 
Lanf ,  Director,  310, 33$ 
Langfltt,  Dr.,  149 
Utlna,366 

LatrobamtnewDTfcers,  167 
Lattfanore,  Florence  L.,  13,  417 


r  day  ii 


Lanndriei— 

Friday  a  fiftecn-bo( 
labcx  conditions  in,  . . 
factory  impecttim  dq>utment  c 
cemiog  en^<»rment  of  wmnen  1 
children  in,  lacJting,  194 


Law  breaking— 

Capitalixing,  and  selling  protec- 
tion, 359 

Lawrence  Park,  136 


"Leadriile  Jimmj,"  331 


■d^yCoogle 


\ 


L«KlsUtioa— 

AfFecdng  houn  of  Rtail  daks,  133, 
at4,  ate,  of  women,  1&4,  113,  314, 
of  pxb  under  eighteen,  133,  313, 114; 
affectkiK miniog  (^tendons,  i;6, 177; 
aSecdng  noo-nqiport,  381;  affecting 
MOtNLtion,  380,  381 ;  ftffe<^iiig  woric- 
ing  oooditloiu  m  women  tnjd  siris, 
314;  aiming  to  [vevent  mine  woricen' 
accBdcDtA,  176,  177^  unendmetits  to 
compiilsMy  education,  give  local 
ButhiMitiet  juriidictioii  over  enqdoy- 
ment  of  childRn  under  fourteen  and 
illitente  under  «iTtiiii,  309;  tuU  pro- 
viding for  rqxxt  of  venereal  disoues 
defeated,  S05;  "Blower,"  loi,  250; 
cMd  laboc,  in  Uaasachuietts,  107,  in 
New  YoA,  107,  in  Pennsyivania,  107, 
idatin^  to  boun,  loB;  compulsory 
"•■—'■—I,  »07,  J79,  39a,  301;    ctm- 


inc  the  iMuing  of  worit  certificates  to 
(Mdren,  313;  Consumers' League  ac- 
comfdislied  enactment  of  labc«,  in 
1913,  314;  creating  Bureau  of  Public 
Morals,  363,  SOS,  S061  creating  Ete- 
partmcDt  of  LatxM  and  Industries, 
446,  4so;  effort  t^  employen  to  de- 
feat labor,  and  ennircement,  190;  en- 
abling local  scIkmI  autbmtiea  to  open 
dasBcs  for  adult  immigrants,  51;  es- 
^■i^iw^i'w  counW  court  <d  ct^cur- 
rent  jurisdiction,  53,  531  establishing 


insurance,  enacted  in  13  states,  300; 
failure  to  enact,  providing  for  vcdun- 
tary  workingmen  s  compensation  syt- 
tem,  44;  federal,  restricting  hours  of 
railway  moi,  116, 13S;  makmg  health 
certificate  {HCTequisite  in  granting 
marriage  licenses  passed  in  comfoo- 
mise  form,  505;  making  cMigatory 
report  of  wo^-acddents  to  Labw 
and  Industries  Department,  443; 
proof  of  age,  379;  j»t>vidiDg  for  state 
commission  to  mvestigate  work- 
acddents,  44;  requiring  construction 
of  fire  wall^  145;  requiring  file  drills, 
344;  restricting  night  messenger  ser- 
vice defeated,  3131  tariff,  114;  to 
prevent  occupational  'li"****",  301, 
>49.  *S«i  4Si>  4S'i  wwkmen's  com- 
pensation, 313-  See  also  Labor  laws; 
Ckild  labor  lam 
L«giaUtlr«  action— 

Concerning  en^Ioyei's  liability  and 
woikingmen's  compensation  bill,  100 


Leia«rMii,  WUlkm  H.,  113-188, 173 

Lib*rt]r  ATenn*  Hiulim,  343 

Library- 
Branches  and  substations,  11;   foe 
Sharpsbuig  children  lacking,  303 

Tlie  Pnblie:  A  SocUl  Foru 


innti 


Light- 
In  industrial  plants,  333,  334.   See 
also  Planti,  pkyikal  equipMtnl  of 

Lillian  Horn*,  See  KimgiUy  Botat 

Llppincott,  If  Ih,  55 

Liquor- 
Effect  of  prohibiting  sale  of,  in 
houses  of  prostitution,  311,  338,  359. 
361,  361;  law  strictly  ^forcxd  unOH 
reform  administration,  513;  profits 
from  sale  of,  in  houses  of  ^Hostitu- 
tion,  3s8,  3591  sale  of,  ^85,  m  Mari* 
anna,  363.    See  also  Drtnkmg 

LithnuiUlU,  33,  34,  3S,  37,  38.  39, 4<»i 
43,  43.  44,  45.  47.  44.  Sh  53.  55.  56. 
57,58.65 

LlTellhood.    See  Earninti 


liTiaco 

Among  immigrant  wage-eamert, 
43-*o 
UTinc,  cost  of,  18, 19,  30;  advance  in, 
55,  ii9>  440,  441;  effect  of,  on  rest- 
lessoess  of  labor,  117;  for  unmarried 
immigranta,  46,  47;  maiket  garden 
poanMlities  in  reducing,  19 


Lockers— 

In  industrial  plants,  133,  3741  in 
United  States  Steel  Cmporation,  497. 
See    also    Plaitit,    pkyikal     eqmp- 


■d^yCoogle 


/ 


Ordinance  providing  (or  operation 
of  mUDidpa],  vetoed  by  Mayor 
Magee,  346 

Lodfing  house*,  3J9-348;  assault  and 
battery  in  immigiuit,  47;  Bethel 
Home,  34J,  m;  Chicago  munidpal, 
347;  class  seeking  shdter  in,  339, 
jj4o;  "Clem"Hacke(ibergeTconduct- 
ug,  for  rivermen  and  market  men, 
344;  dosedby  bureau  of  health,  345; 
comparatively  small  number  of,  33Q; 
five-  to  tirenty-five  cent,  341,  341, 
co-operation  between  poUcc  ^id 
health  bureau  needed  for  regulation 
of,  3S3)  immigrant,  87, 86,  congested, 
46,  47,  48,  3Q,  moral  conditioiis  in, 
48,  49,  sanitary  conditions  in,  46.  47, 
59;  ineffective  oversight  of  private, 
348;  investigation  of,  by  local  com- 
mittee, 345;  keptby"&-,"34i,34», 
ilS;  kept  by  "Rev."  R—,  343,  344; 
iberty  Avenue  Mission,  343,  345; 
Liberty  Misuon  enjoined,  345;  U- 
censea  for,  issued  by  board  of  health. 

Si;  lodging-house  resort,  345; 
Iging-house  types,  346,  347,  the 
moral  bankrupt,  34b,  347,  the  old 
railroad  yardmaster,  346;  men  al- 
lowed to  sleep  on  diain  at  Rescue 
Mission,  345,  346;  munidpal  pro- 
vision,  340,   347,   348;      New  York 


Tavern,  344;  Providence  Mission, 
345;  rivermen's  houses,  344;  Salva- 
tion Amjy  conducting,  343;  Salva- 
tion Anny,  enjoined,  345;  Salvation 
Army  Industrial  Home,  345;  Salva- 
tion Army  Shdter,  3431  the  "Mis- 
*«>n,"  340.  34»t  34*.  343;  triple- 
deckere  and  sanctimony,  343,  ~  ~ 
Volimteers  of  America  condu 
341.345 


LodKinga-- 

Municipal  provisions  at  police 
stations  for,  347,  383;  no,  provided 
by  dty  exc^t  police  station  or  work- 
house, 3401  police  station,  eleven- 
C-cdd  boy  seeking,  347.  348,  oum- 
of,  347,  underiying  evil  oiF,  34S 

I^endi  Clnb,  433 


"Loi  Slim,"  331 

Liuch  taclUtl*!— 

In  industrial  plants,  114,  aiS-i^ 
174.     See  also  PJont,  pkystcal  tqmf- 


Hachiniata— 

Arorentices  of,  141;  charactei  o( 
work  of,  140;  employers'  agiLuuuit 
with,  140;  employers'  associatiaD, 
140;  hours,  140,  141,  141,  number  d, 
139;  strike  in  1907,  141;  strike  io 
1910,  141;  strike  on  Baltimore  and 
Ohio  Railroad,  143 ;  strike  on  Pean- 
s>1vania  Railroad,  141;  iinLmkni 
among  140,  141,  141,  187,  afiected 
bypanic  of  1907-0S,  i4i,afiectedby 
^xcialiiation  in  Westiugbouse  shops, 
140;  wages  of,  140,  141,  183 


HaglBtratea'  canrti.        See 

ma^ittalts' 
Magyar,  33,  3s,  37,  70 
Hallej  Compaoy,  The,  454 


Hanheimer,  W.  j 
Mana  act,  353 
HBiiiifactar«r>* 


Harlaima,  176;  borough  g 
at,  303;  devdopment  and  stability  of 
employes  at,  iti,  363.  See  uso 
Pillsburgk-Buffale  Coal  Company 

Uarket  ^rden — 

Possibilities  of,  in  reducing  cost  of 
living,  19 

HarshalsM,  11, 370 

Uasons.    See  Bricilaytrs  and  matmu 

Haaaachiisetts— 


■d^yCoogle 


in,  114;  farm  coloay  for  dninkaids 
in,  3SS;  laboT  laws  and  enforcemcDt, 
ii4i  labor  legislatkm  defeated  by 
enqiloyeTS,  1901  safeguarding  em- 
ployes against  tuberculosis  is,  150 

Haater  and  aerrant  law,  164 


Haater  Builder*'  Aasoctation,  154 


Maater  Houaemltha'  Aaaociation, 

Matter  Plumbers'  AuocUtton,  163 

Matthews,  William  H.,  363 

Mattresa  factoriea— 

Investigadon  of,  by  new  factory 
inflection  department,  445 

••Masey  tlie  Flier,"  315 

"Maxey  tli«  Mixer,"  350 

McCandleas,  George  W.,  445 

Conatruction 

McConnaugbey,  H.  A.,  414.  4'8 
McCord,  Annie  E.,  453 
McCteery's,  tja,  J15,  331, 259, 454 

McEeesport^ 

A  "percentage-buig"  for  the  un- 
derworld, 321,  311;  bousing  condi- 
tions in,  3i;  Tccreatioii  grounds,  136; 
worked  by  underworld  at  Old  Home 
Week,  319 
HcXeea  Rocka  atrike.  See  Slrttts 
McQuaide,  Thomas,  311,  335 


Wages  of,  183 
Medical  inspection— 

In  schools  a  forward  step,  16;    in 
Sharpsburg  schools,  183,  3S4 

Meaaenger  aerrice — 

Bill  to  restrict  night,  to  boys  d^ 
teen  or  older,  defeated,  113 


Metal  trades,  139-144;  employefs' 
association,  139;  hours  in,  139,  184; 
tadal  make-up,  139;  reports  of  fac- 
tory in^iectioa  department  concem- 
ing  employment  of  women  and  chil- 
dren in,  lacking,  194)  Sfaarpiburg 
children  in,  991-1951  Sharpsburg  chil- 
dren's opportunity  for  advancement 
in,  291;  unionism  in,  139;  union- 
ism in,  affected  by  speculixation, 
139;  wages  in,  139,  183.  See  also 
Blacksmiths;  Btriier  Makers;  Maddn' 
ists;   Holders;   Pattern  Makers 

Metal  Trades  Section,  181 

Mexicans,  331 

Mexico,  3 

Meyer  Jonaason  and  Company,  132, 

4S4 
"Mickey  G—,"  331 
Midland,  31,  261,  410-413 

Midland  Improvement  Company, 
410-413 

Milk- 
Clean,  as  a  bountiful  ccnunodity, 
191  dairy  inspection  since  1907,  18; 
deaths  caused  by  impure,  18;  In- 
saftitary  condition  of  dairies,  18,  19; 
municipal,  dispensaries,  iS;  wider 
area  covered  by,  inspectors  since  1907, 
8 

Milk  and  Ice  Aasoclation,  tS 

Mill  towns,  260-163 

Mine  explosions — 

Station  for  investigation  of,  estab- 
lished under  United  States  Geolo^ 

cal  Survey,  i  J7 

,  179. 

180 

Mine  workers,  167-177;  agreement 
of,  not  to  sue  for  wages,  170;  and 
steel  workers  compared,  178-tSo;  at 
Colorado,  167;  at  OmnellsvUle,  167, 
168,173;  at  Greensbuig,  167;  at  Ir- 
win, 167;  at  Latrobe,  167;  atWest- 


■d^yCoogle 


moreUnd  County,  167, 16S;  U.  West 
Virgmii  minea,  1671  bieniual  inter- 
sUte  coavcDtioDS  of,  and  en^ikiyen, 
170;  check-weigluQg  system  of,  170, 
i73>i74;  coke  region  ifiected  by  out- 
come of  unionism  ammig,  in  West- 
moreland, 168;  company  houses  for, 
174.  '75;  company  stores  for,  174, 
17s;  district  ctnifeiences  of ,  1 701  ef' 
feet  of  immigration  on  oxiditioni  of, 
167, 16S,  i6g,  170;  employers'  agree- 
ments with,  170,  171,  174  i7g,  180; 
H.  C.  Frick,  168;  hours  of,  167,  168, 
170,  171.  173;  hours  of,  compared 
with  steel  workers,  17S,  179;  housing. 
1741  housing  of ,  comp«Ted  with  steel 
workers,  179;  hfe-saving  demonstra- 
tion by  bureau  of  minea,  177;  num- 
ber of,  167;  overtime  woric  of,  173; 
payment  to,  for  "dead  work,"  170, 
173;  percentage  of  immigrant,  169; 
racial  make-up  of,  and  steiEl  woiken 
similar,  178;  rents  paid  by,  174; 
Slavic,  167,  168,  160,  170;  strike  of, 
in  iS^7,  i7g;  strikes  of,  167,  16S1 
unionism  among,  ag,  167,  168,  i6g, 
•70,  173.  174.  I7S.  "77,  "79,  180.  "82, 
186;  unionism  among,  compared  with 
steel  woikeis,  179,  iSo;  Uniontown, 
16S;  VestaNo. 4, 173;  wageaof,i67. 


Mine  woiters'  acddeati.    See  Work- 


HinB  workers'  w«ge>— 

Check-woghman's  wages  and  oEBce 
expenses  deducted  from,  174)  union 
dues  deducted  from,  174 


Hlnea,  F«d«nil  Btueao  of— 

Established  under  Dqiartment  of 
the  Interior,  13, 14, 177;  safety  work 
of,  177 

Mining  districts- 
Town  pUnniDg  in,   161;      Yotmg 
Men's  Christian  Association  work  in, 
418 

Mining  indnstrr— 

Movement  of  miions  for  work- 
acddent  prevention  in,  177 


Mining  lew,  bitmnintms— 

Amendments  to,  urged  by  minrn, 
■76;  commission  appointed  to  revise, 
176.  "77;  commission  appmnted  10 
revise,  rqmrt  and  recommendatioas, 
177;  revisi(Hi  of,  rect»nmaided  by 
177. 


L^sUtion  affecting,  176,  177 

Mining  processes— 

Effect  of  immigrant  labor  on  im- 
provement of,  169 


Molders,  14a,  143;  employtn'  asn- 
dation,  141;  hours  of,  143;  Dumbec 
of,  nfj  piece'Tate  s^tem  opposed 
by,  umon,  143;  unionism  amoog, 
141,  143,  b  Westingbouae  Madnne 
Company,  141;  wages  affected  by 
panic  of  1907-0S,  14a,  by  trade  de- 
pression, 141;  wages  at,  143, 143, 183 

Monroe,  James,  313 

Moore,  Miss  Sarah,  $1 

Moorhead,  391,  291 

Morscorlcki  Dr.,  48 

HonlitT— 


ElSect  of  employes'  benefit  axt 
tions  on,  164,  163;  eSect  of  a 
work  on,  18,  19 


police  needed  by,  536;  theaxthst 
of  public  policy  in  dealing  irith  pi 
titution,  S05 
Morals  Efficiency  CommisBioB,  363, 
37t.  37a,  501-506;    apposntmoit  d, 
503;    educational  famp«;pn  agaiut 
prostitution  by,  504;    bequcnting  oi 


■d^yCoogle 


houses  of  pnstitutioii 
der  Bctivibes  of,  504;  houseaofpros- 
dtutkui  on  North  Side  dosed  by, 
504;  medical  ezanunation  of  prosti- 
tutes recommended  by,  503;  minors 
protected  from  prostitution  by  activi- 
ties of,  504;  number  of  houses  of 
prostitution  disclosed  by  survey  of, 
503;  organized,  501;  perwmDet  of, 
501;  rules  for  pc£ce  Id  dealing  with 
prostituticn  laid  down  by,  503,  304; 
statistical  excerpts  frran  report  C^, 
S07-S09 

HonTis,  63,  65 

Horln,  J.  H.,  315 

Mortalltj  aUtistlct— 

Compaiison  of,  in  river  words  utd 
East  End,  13,  14.    See  also  Dtalh 

Hortarittlnra— 

Vnioiusin  amcmg,  no;    wages  for 
day  labor,  no 

Hotfaer-tonsoa  atatiatics.    See  Pof- 


MU  Alto,  II 

Hnalcipcl  eiril  sBTvlce  law,  310 

Mmiidpal  lioapltal— 

Fot  tuboculosis,  11;  no  general,  m 
1914, " 
Himlcipal  lodfiiic  honsra,  340,  347, 
348:  ordinance  providing  for,  vetoed 
by  Maym  Migee,  346 


Mnolcipal    RhmucIi,    Butmu    ot 
See  Bmeau  of  Uuiucipal  Reteank, 
New  York 
HtmkipaHty— 

Improvement   of   working   condi- 
tions through,  158-,   (^Kratiiig  effid- 


Mnaenm  of  taf  ehr  cpoUaacei — 
And  photof^afdu  of  un[»oved  hous- 
ing and  working  conditions,  494 

Hnshiks.    See  Rmiian 


Naomi  Uln«,  176 

Nktlonal  aapect^ 

Of  underworid,  314,316;  <A  Y^gs, 
3^330.  331. 33» 
Natloiul  Biacnlt  Company,  135,  187 
National  Child  Labor  Canmlttee, 


National  Croatlaa  ScclatT— 

Report  of,  showin);  number  of 
fatal  and  disabling  work-accidenta 
and  deaths  from  tuberculous  among 
members,  73,  74 

National  Brectora'  Aaaociatioii,  146, 
ISO,  iS'i  tS».  'S3t  187;  "print'  ' 
aikd  working  rules"  of,  150, 151 

National  Foundartf  AaiociatloB,  14s 

National  Lead  and  Oil   Company, 
140 

National  Uetal  Tradea  Aaaociation. 

140,   141.    See  also  Mam^aeturtri 
Aisoeiatioii  ^Pittsburgh 

National  minea,  17S 

National  Mining  Company,  171 

National  Slovak  Society,  56 

National  Tube   Company,  44,   aoi, 

M%,  317,  133>  >38>  14S<  1461  340>  >7ti 

»7».  ^95 
Nebratka— 

Dosing  hour  for  women  and  girls 

in,  114 

H^ro— 

Ability  of,  loS;  as  an  industrial 
factor,    loS,    109;     percentage    of. 


■d^yCoogle 


By   age 
excess  of  n  ...     „,    . 

portion  of  ^fd  persons  in,  103; 
small  pn^Mition  of  children  in,  103, 

108 

Negro  prostitute!,  jss,  356 

negro  steel  workers- 
Ages  of,  (Table)  97;  and  Amal- 
gamated Anodation  of  Iron  and 
Steel  Worliers,  105;  and  Associated 
Brotherhood  of  Iron  and  Steel 
Heaters,  io5;  and  Iron  and  Steel 
Roll  Hands'  Unioo,  106;  and  Sons  of 
Vulcan,  105,  io6i  and  the  union 
problem,  107;  and  the  unions,  104, 
io|,  to6,  107,  to8;  attitude  of  white 
union  men  toward  union,  106,  107; 
attitude  toward  President  Roose- 
velt's action  at  Brownsville,  107; 
attitude  toward  socialism,  107,  to8; 
attitude  toward  unionism,  104,  106, 
107,  loS;  birth[daces  of,  oS;  charac- 
ter and  quality  of  work  of,  105; 
childrenof,  101,101, 103,  loS;  church 
life  of,  104;  clothing  of,  101;  com- 
munity life  of,  103-105;  conjugal 
condition  of,  101;  connection  with 
unions  unsatisfactory,  loj.  106,  107; 
drinking  among,  104;  earnings,  100, 
101;  earnings,  average  daily,  (Table) 
101;  education  of,  gS;  food  of,  lor; 
farmers'  employment  of,  98;  housing 
of,    lor;    in   Black   Diamond   Mill, 

106,  ^l8,  439;  in  Clark  Milb  of  the 
CoiiKgie  Steel  Company,  96,  106, 

107,  41S,  429;  in  Homestead,  106, 
4tS,  429;  in  non-union  mills  <Ndy, 
106;  insurance  carried  by,  103;  last 
attempt  to  unionize.  107;  no  labor 
union  among,  104;  output  oE  mill  not 
limited  because  of,  loS;  per  csnt  of, 
96;  Pittsburgh's  debt  to  the  South 
for,  log;  politics  of,  107;  portions 
held  by^  96;  proq)eTity  of,  loS; 
rents  paid  Dy,  loi;  savings  of,  103; 
secret  societies  of,  103;  strikebreak- 
ers,  42S,  429;  union  white  men  re- 
fused to  worit  with  union,  at  Beaver 
Falls,  106;  working  under  Negroes, 
loS;  working  up  from  unskilled  labor, 
99;  working  with  white  men,  104, 
105,  1081  yean  in  diy  employ,  419, 


IfeKToes,  to,  >8,  54,  96-109,  121,  itio. 
280,  283, 331, 341,  3SO,  3S1, 3SS.  3S6. 
360,  368;  as  property  owners,  431, 
432;  business  enterprises  of,  429.  430, 
431;  crime  among.  435;  in  Mooiikead 
Mill, 428, 429;  in  thechurch, 432,4^; 
industrial  school  needs  of,  434;  soaal 
and  dvic  needs  of,  435,  436;  social 
clubs  and  homes  for,  433 ;  muonism 
anuKi^,  428;  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association  for.  opened,  436.  Sec 
also  Avtry  CoOtge  Trade  Sdutol 

Negroes  of  Pittabufg^,  The,  414-43' 

Nemst  Lamp  Company,  243,  244 

Newsric,  4 


Typhoid  death  rate  in,  17 

New  Jersej^— 

Argument  for,  system  of  working- 
men's  compensation,  mo 
"New  Orleuis  Ray,"  331 
New  York— 

Arrests  in,  387;  attempt  to  reform 

Klice  force,  309,  310;  child  labor 
jisIatioD  in,  207;  child  labtM' statute 
compared  with  Pmn^vania  law, 
204;  dosing  hour  for  women  and 
gills  in,  214;  co-c^ieration  in  garment 
trades  in,  273,  274;  &re  protection 
in,  244;  labor  laws  and  enforcemest, 
115;  munidpal  lodging  bouses,  347; 
official  transcript  of  birth  certificates 
or  religious  re«wds,  metfaods  em- 
ployed by,  in  checking  chikl  labor, 
209;  p^-ch(^thic  pavilions  in,  38S; 
system  of  reporting  wmk-acddBits 
in,  197;  "turning  pmnt"  foe  "wire- 
lees  wire  tapping,"  314, 31$ 
Hew  York  Bureau  of  Municipal 
Research.  See  Bureau  ef  Mttmd- 
pal  Research 


S56 


.d,Google 


Newsboy's  lodsiiig  botuM,  548 


North,  LiU  V«r  PUnck,  g,  53,  j8,  313 


I  Siarpabaig  children  m  metal 
trades,  iron  mills,  191,  ia  met^ 
trades,  shovel  factory,  343,  in  metal 
trades,  tube  mill,  194.  igj;  oppoi- 
timity  of  factory  inspector  to  reduce, 
198,  igq.    See  also  Worlniccidtiitt 


Occup«tloa>— 

Injurious,  i;»S;  injurious  effects 
(tom  overwork  in  certain,  i^S 

OfflcUls— 

Strength  of  underwc«Id  thiouf^ 
venal  alliances  of,  314,  31s,  316 

OUo- 

LaboT  laws  and  enforcement,  iij; 
law  regulating  hours  of  work  for 
girts,  SOI 

OUobuikef^ 

"  by  underworld,  314 


Olcott,  Francis  J.,  11,  53 

"OldAgestFor^"— 

Report  of  stockholders'  committee, 
United  States  Sted  Coiporation.  on 
statement  contained  in  article  en- 
titled, 355-405 

"  Old  Baldy."  331 

OldBcUeTers.    SeeRuisianx 

OUnr,  Mrs.  Henry  W.,  335 


Ollwr  StMl  WatkM,  43,  335,  433 
Opoa  shop.    See  Uitumism 
Oporstlnc  offlciency— 


1  greater 

factor  than  mechanical  equipment 
b  obtaining,  317,  326,  339,  367 

OtEsniied  labor.    Sec  Unionism 


Oseroff,  Abnhun,  406-413 

Ootpot— 

Bonus  system  designed  to  increase, 
36a,  369;  efforts  for  increased,  374; 
not  limited  because  of  Negro  steel 
workers,  108;  of  allied  foundry  and 
machine  shoJM,  115;  of  industries, 
115,443.    See  also  ronitdie 

Ovorbrook — 

Blind  beggars  from,  3,  3J7,  338 

OmcnwdiDK— 

Cases  cited  of,  30;  in  Homestead, 
13.    See  also  Eotuts 


T8, 


Effect  of,  on  citizenship,  family 
life,  and  morals,  17,  38,  39,  on  rest- 
lesaoess  of  labor,  117;  in  United 
States  Sted  Conxuation,  395-399; 
injurious  effects  01, 19S,  hours  wortwl 
by  135  girts  showing,  (Table)  493 


Psdrono— 

Standard  Oil  Company's  contnct 
with  Americanized,  1301  wage*  under 
Americanized,  i3o 

Painters,  decorators,  and  paper- 
hangers,  159,  t6o;  apprenticeship 
of,  160;  employera'  agreement  with, 
159,1601  hounof.  159,  i6oi  seasonal 

among,  159, 160;  wages  of,  i4St  iS9i 


,  37,  38,  39,  40,  68,  74, 
133, 136, 130, 131,  IJ4, 137, 141, 
144. 148, 149. 15I1 151. 153. 154. 
158, 159,  i(k>,  161, 164, 166, 173, 
1S4,  iSs,  301,  303,  304,  391,  393. 
See  also  Sunday  vork 


■d^yCoogle 


Painter'a  Kow— 
Donolisbed,  II 

Pabun,  L.  R.,  74S,  445 

Puic  of  1907-^1  "8,  iig,  133,  13s, 

"41.  i4»,  144.  146,  147,  ISO,  166 
Puiih  sdiooli.  Stt  Sckooh,  parish 
P«rol«  law.    See  ProboHm 


Pattern  makers,  143;   hours  of,  143; 

number  of,   143;    uniouiam  among, 

1431  wages  of,  143 
Pattern  Uakera*  League,  143 
PatiUon  BroOiers,  454 


Pemisylmiia — 

Child  Labor  Assodation,  215; 
Child  Labor  Committee,  316;  child 
labor  legialatioD  in,  3071  Uanu^- 
turen'  Assodation,  445 


At  Essen,  6;  United  States  Steel 
Cwporation  lervice  nquiiementa  for, 
redutxd  in  1913,  49S,  stockholders 
report  on,  40a,  403;  Westingliouae 
tux  Brake  Company,  485-491 

Peniioiu  and  relief- 
Employes'  devek^ment   through, 

Perkina,  George  W.,  267,  268 


Fbrsical  •xaminatios— 

Effect  on  police  of,  of  ^>plicaiita, 
375.    See  also  Emfloya,  rtcnUting  0} 


R«ce  worii— 

Bricklayers  and  masons,  148; 
elevator  constructors,  158;  iniini- 
grants,  411   molders,  143;   printen. 

Si;  sheet  metal  workers,  165;  tile 
pers  and  layers,  166;  stockholders' 
rqiort  United  States  Sted  Onpota- 
tionon,  399,  400 

Pi«k«rski,  Attorney  Frank  A.,  57 

Pierce,  LTmaii  L.,  414 

Pig  Iran.    See /rim 

Pimpa.    SiteProstUidioii 


Description  of  Yegt^  by,  316 
PItcaira— 


PlttBbnrgfa-Bnlfalo  Coal   Cmnpany, 

170,   174,   176,   164,  366.    See  alM 
Maruuma 

Pittrturgh  Coal  Company,  176 

Pittabor^  Coostnictioa  Company, 


h  calendar  of  the,  15 


nttaburgh  TubercnlosU  League,  1 


PUnt,  fanproTaments  in — 

Not    generally    directed    toward 
betterment  of  conditions  for  employe. 


558 


.d,Google 


Plant,  physicsl  eqiiipiiteDt  of— 

Act  pBued  in  igij  aSectiDg,  451, 
45j;  afEected  by  breweiy  workers' 
1914  trade  agreemenC,  454;  as  it 
aSects  the  ccmifort  and  convenience 
of  empb^a,  313-340,  374;  deajili- 
ne*s,  333-336,  374;  diinlcing  water 
316--31S,  374,  analysis  of,  33S,  and 
CCHmnOD  cup  as  centers  of  danger, 

335,  bucket  brigade  system,  317, 
distributing  system  in  American 
Steel  and  Wire  Company,  317,  dis- 
tributing ^tem  in  Carnegie  mills, 
ia6,  317,  distributing  system  in 
Homestead  mills,  318,  distributing 
system  in  National  Tube  Company. 
317,  distributing  system  in  Unitea 
Engineering  and  Foundry  Company, 

336,  137,  filtered  and  distributed 
throu^  sanitary  fountains,  327, 
from  ^rlngB  and  driven  wdls,  137, 
33S;  fadlitks  for  fhanging  and  dry- 
ing clothing,  331,  331;  facilities  foi 
oontndling  temptnture,  324,  315,  in 
Brace  Brothers'  Laundry,  335,  in 
Central  District  Telephone  Company, 
335,  in  laurulries,  315,  in  McCreery's 
de[MUtment  store,  335,  in  National 
Tube  Company,  215,  in  office  building 
of  H.  K.  Porter  Company,  135,  in 
Reymet  Candy  Factory,  31^,  in  Stan- 
danl  Sanitary  Manufacturmg  Com- 
panyii'S,  in  Westinghouse  Foundry 
at  Trafford  City,  335;  heating  fa- 
cilities, 314,  3351  heating  facilities  in 
foundries,  1 34 ;  insanitaiy  privy  vaults, 
»3S.  '39,  of  the  United  States  Glass 
Conqjaiiy,  339;  Hght,  333,  334,  attifi- 
dal,  313,  at  H.  J.  Heine  Company's 
facbny,  334,  clean  windows,  iij,cfiect 
of  unequal,  on  health.  314^  m  food 
factories,  334,  in  new  buikhngs,  333, 
in  old  buildings,  333,  "white  black- 
smith shop"  of  Pittsburgh  and  Lake 
Erie  RailrDad,  334,  white- washed 
walls,  113;  lockers,  331,  331,  374; 
lockers  for  men  in  machine  slx^, 
331,  metal,  in  Armstrong  Cork 
Works,  331;  lunch  facilities,  33S-ri3Q, 
374,  as  a  rival  to  nearby  saloDos,  139, 
330,  in  Bdnunistrative  buildings  but 
not  in  wraks,  339,  in  H.  J.  Hrins 
Company,  339,  In  Mesta  Machine 
Company,  129,  in  United  States 
Glass  Company,  339,  in  Westing- 
bouse  Electric  and  Manufacturing 
Conqkony,  33S,  339;  recent  improve- 


ments in,  l^  United  States  Sted  Cor- 


strong  Cork  Company,  331,  232,  of 
Brace  Brothers'  laundry,  23a,  of 
Westinghouse  Electric  and  Manu- 
facturing Company,  331;  rest,  230, 
331^  rest  and  emergency  rooms, 
231 ,  332,  in  Central  District  Telephone 
Coinpany,  231,  259,  in  H.  J.  Heinz 
Company,  3ji,  in  McCteCTy*s  de- 
partment store,  331;  test,  backless 
stools  aSording  no,  330,  iji;  rest  for 
women  at  work  in  American  Sheet 
and  Tin  Plate  Company,  330,  in 
Aimstiong  Cork  Works,  330,  in  H.  J. 
Heinz  factory,  130,  331,  in  Jenkinson 
dgar  factory,  230,  23r,  in  McCreery's 
department  store,  331,  in  Rauh 
Brothers'  clothing  factory,  230,  in 
United  States  Glass  Company,  130, 
232;  rest,  no  seats  provided  for,  330; 
rest  stools  lor  motormen  in  Pitts- 
burgh Railway  Conmany,  330;  stud- 
ied by  bureau  of  safety,  rdj^,  sani- 
tation and  welfare  in  United  States 
Steel  Corporation,  232,494-498;  ven- 
tilation, 325,  336,  no  legi^tion 
regulating,  226,  system  of  Pittsburgh 
and  Lalce  Erie  Railroad,  226;  wash- 
ing facilities,  233-236,  274,  at  Mari- 
amia,  362,  bath  houses  near  Olivet 
worits,  335,  condition  of,  in  Armstrmg 
Cork  Worits,  3J4,  essentials  of  ade- 
quate, 334,  hot  water,  334  274,  in 
Westinghouse  Electric  and  Manu- 
facturiiw  Company  233,  335,  in 
Westinffbouse  Electric  and  Manu- 
facturing Company  conqiared  with 
those  of  Eastern  competitor,  335, 
inadequate,  333,  133,  installation  of, 
ordered  by  factc>ry  inspection  d^mrt- 
ment  untkr  law  cd  ipir,  335,  not  pro- 
vided by  A.  Garrison  Foundry  Ccnn- 
puiyi  iJ3>  itot  provided  by  AJIegbeny 
Counh'  Light  Company,  233,  not 
provided  by  Brown  and  Company, 
33,  not  provided  by  Carnegie  steel 
m^,  233,  not  provided  by  Jones  and 


pools,  23s,  336,  pools, 
transmitting  disease  through7  -^- 
pools,  frequency  of  chaugtog  water  in. 
336,  poob  m  Carnegie  library  at 
Biaddock,  Duquesne, and  Homestead, 
336,  poob  In  H.  J.  Heins  Company, 


■d^yCoogle 


3i6,  pools  in  Lawrence  Park,  1^6, 
potit  in  McKeesfMTt  recreatioD 
ETOtuidi,  136,  poolt  ID  Turkish  Bath 
Natatorium,  136,  poob  in  Westing- 
liouse  Air  Brake  Company,  136, 
poob  in  West  Park,  136,  pocds, 
number  of  bathers  in,  136,  shower 
baths,  335,  shower  baths  not  used  by 
men,  135,  towels  and  soap,  133,  334, 
13S1  i74i  towtls,  roller,  234,  wash 
bowls,  133,  334,  washing  in  the 
bashes,  131;  water-closets,  236-340, 
174,  apparent  method  pursued  by 
employers  in  regard  to,  136,  economy 
of  providing  an  attendant  to  caie  for, 
137,  in  American  Sheet  and  Tin  Plate 
Ctnnpajiy,  338,  in  American  Steel 
and  Wire  Company,  138,  in  Carnegie 
Mills,  237,  in  H.  K.  Porter  Locomo- 
tive Shops,  337,  in  Mesta  Machine 
Company,  138,  in  National  Tube 
Company,  23S,  in  PittsbucKh  and 
Lake  £rie  Railroad  shops,  337,  in 
Pittsburgh  Valve  and  Constniaion 
Company,  238,  in  Standard  Sanitary 
Manufacturing  Company,  339,  340, 
in  United  Engineering  and  Foundry 
Company,  33S,  in  Westinghouse 
Electric  and  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany, 23S,  loafing  in,  337,  segregation 
of  men  and  boys,  33S,  See  also 
AltHoiffienc  conditions;  Working 
cendiltont 

Plant*— 

"WoA-out"  prqtaiatory  to  aban- 
donment, 375, 377 

Plwtecen,  160,  161;  apprenticeship 
of,  161;  employers'  agreement  with, 
iti;  Negro,  non-union,  160;  rada] 
make-up,  160^  seasonal  unemploy- 
ment of,  145,  161;  unionism  among, 
146,160,161)  wagesof,  145, 146, 1611 
working  without  specifit^tions  pro- 
hibited by  union,  161 

PUrgcound— 

And  camp  work  of  Young  Men's 
Christian  Assodation,  417,  418 


Playgrounds— 

For  Shaipsburg  children  lacking, 
303;  in  mill  neighborhoods,  ijg; 
school,  lacking,  283,  2S4 


Plumbers,  161-163;  appcenticeshq> 
of,  145,  163;  employers'  agreemeot 
with,  161,  162;  boujs  of,  146,  161, 
162;  racial  mi^e-up  of,  161;  strike 
in  1903,  163;  unionism  among,  146, 
147,  161,  i6a;  wages  aSected  by 
unionism  during  panic  of  1907-08, 
147;  w^esof,  147,  1^1 

PlymouQi — 

Aps  of  children  ii 
in  1907, 108 


leaving  sdMNi 


In  river  wards  and  East  End,  24 
Polscks,  319 


355 

Police- 
Accessories  to  crime,  jog;  appomt- 
ments,  521 ;  bodies  on  call  to  assist, 
in  preserving  law  and  order,  311,311; 
rhjinging  administrations  requiring  of , 
divergent  policies  of  sodal  coatial, 
3081  confidence  of,  in  oew  adminis- 
tration, 311;  co-opeiatioD  of ,  needed 
by  Morals  Bureau,  s^;  courts  aid 
the,  373-3801  diramal  vocabulary  cf, 
374,  373;  criminals  working  vpaa 
busmeas  basis  vrith  local,  30c 


of,  3 


1,309; 


of,  by  double  statKlard  of  law  and 
eijorcement,  370, 371;  desiability  of 
courses  on  elemental  sodal  ethics  and 
sodal  needs  for,375;  detective  burean 
brought  under  control  of  superinten- 
dent of,  311;  detective  diief  dis- 
charged, 311;  detective  divison  of, 
523,  534,  535;  development  of,  neg- 
lected, 384;  (Lvision  of  criminal  idm- 
tification,  325;  effect  of  citensioa  of 
dvil  service  on,  310,  311,  37s;  effect 
of  phyacal  ezaminatiim  of  applionti 
f>n,375i  effect  of  political  TCMcm  on, 
370;  effect  of  reform  administratkn 
on  rank  and  file  of,  31a,  37a;  tStd 
of  underwiMid  alliances  oo,  370; 
effidency  and  sdf-ieqiect  of,  under 
new  leadership,  310;  eKmination  of 
organized  crime  by,  384,  385;  ta- 
fiKcement  by,  of  outward  decency, 
310,  of  Sunday  obsovance  laws  od 
saloonsandhotels,3io;  faceoutwiid 
taboo  and  secret  t<detation  of  cm- 


560 


.d,Google 


mercMliied  iwMtitutiiHi,  371;  gnft 
in  piDtectiiig  prostitution,  361,  handl- 
ios  of  habitual  cnminaJa  by,  under 
refonn  rtgime,  311;  inadequacy  of, 
lecordi  and  reports,  526;  mSuence 
o[,  30S;  lack  of  infotmation  funda- 
mental defect  (rf,  administration, 
517;  lessening  the  number  of  amsta, 
387;  New  YMk's  attempt  to  reform, 
300.  310;  no  buying  protection  that 
protKted  during  refonn  adminis- 
tration, 31a,  31s;  number  on  roster 
of,  310,  311;  (^jpoTtunity  for  social, 
woit.  338,  384,  385;  opportunity  of, 
for  prevention  of  crime,  383,  " 
organisation  of,  311;  port  of 
and   governmental   machinery, 


S'3; 


. "percentage  jobs     of 

E,  3091  KtlsbuTgh  and  the  Pitts- 
burgh Force,  310-311;  Pittsburgh 
under  old,  control  a  mine  for  the  cun- 
ning criminal,  310;  Pittsburgh  under 
reform  administration  do  iriace  for 
"winlesswire  tapmng,"  315;  pc^cy 
of,  in  dealing  with  oiganized  crime 
and  individual  offenders,  385;    pcdi- 


senting  "deadwall"  against  reforms 


31Z;  problem  of  social  control  in 
haDdsof,3o8;  promotions, 523;  pub- 
licpolicyand  the,  370-373;  pi^lidty 
and  the,  373-375;  recommendatiOD 
that,  be  required  to  rep(Ht  lu^dous 
pistcts,  536;  regeneration  of,  from  the 
tc^,  300;  reorganization  plan  recom- 
mendea  by  New  York  Bureau  of 
Municipal  Research,  517;  report  by 
New  Yorfc  Bureau  of  Research  on, 
3tt,  516-536;  repressiiHi  under  re- 
form, 311,  313;  salaries  of,  311;  self- 
protection  of,  from  scheming  poli- 
ticians and  bureaucrats  posing  aa 
reformers,  3og;  social,  366-369,  re- 
^lonsibility  of,  386,  compared  with 
almshouse,  390;  sooal  inake-up  of. 
3741  sodalization  of,  375;  suppres- 
sion of  vice  by,  535,  S36;  systematic 
grafting  by,  stopped  under  reform 
administration,  313;  tenure  of  office 
of,  31a;  testof  ^ciency  of,  309, 366, 
369;  Thomas  McQuaide,  311;  tol- 
,eiate  raids  by  outside  gun  mobs,  312; 
I  training  school  for,  recommended  by 
j  New  York  Bureau  of  Municipal  Re- 
36* 


search,  531;  trials  of  delinquent,  539, 
539.  See  also  Courls,  mipttraU^: 
Cnme;   Repealers 

Police  station— 

Lodgers,  study  of,  recommended, 
536;  lodging  at,  340,  347,  536;  ]Md- 
ded  cdl,  388,  510,  511.    Sec  tidfinft 

PoUcei  The,  An  Orgutlmi,  308-313 


Pollah  National  AlUuce,  56 

Political- 
Factory  inspectors,  aj^xiintees,  191; 
power  of  underworld,  3 14,  315,  316, 
3".  i*^,  3'*<  3>S>  370;  refmm  and 
the  police,  369, 370 

PoUticiana— 

Graft  in  protecting  prostitution, 
361;  self-protection  of  police  from, 
309 
Politics- 
Immigrant  wage-earners  in,  50, 
56,  57;  of  tiegzo  Steel  workers,  107; 
wages  of  day  labor  affected  by,  t30. 

Poor  Man's  TsTam,  344 


Population,  13, 115. 116;  of  Austrian, 
Hungarian,  Italian,  and  Rus^an 
nativity,  1900  and  1910,  (Table)  35; 


forrign bom, 35,34,3s;  percentageof 
Negro,  33;  racial  make-up  of,  (Table) 
35;  Sharpsburg,  381.  See  also  iV^fro 
pept^athn 

Porter  Company,  H.E.,  233, 325,  337, 


Postal  Savings  Deposits  and  Do- 

g>Bltora  by  Race  and  Country  of 
Irth  of  Depositors,  (Table)  54 


561 


■d^yCoogle 


PresbjterUn  Book  Store,  454 

Presied   Steol  Car  Companj,  42, 
59,  168,  Ii9,334>4i8 


Prevontton  of  crimo.    See  Crime 
Prioits.    See  Wate-eamert,  immigranl 


Printen,  131-134;  advuiUges  of, 
employed  on  newspapers,  139,  130, 
133;  agreement  of  1914,  133,  134; 
apprenticeship  of,  134;  effect  of  panic 
«  ii)07-<>8  on,  133;  employers'  agree- 
ment with,  131,  134;  houiB  of,  133, 
1S4;  [Mece  won,  133;  strike  in  1907, 
unionism  among,  131, 133, 
«  of,  133,  134,  183,  1S4 

Ptivy  vaulU.    Sec  Vaults 

Probatioit— 

Adult  parole  law  of  1911,380,  381; 
be^nnings  of,  380-383;  constructive, 
work  needed,  381;  recottstructiiig  tlie 
potential  dtizen  throu^,  3S9 
Piobatton  offleei^ 

Constructive  work  of,  389;  io 
Court  of  Quarter  SesMons,  381 ;  non- 
support  cases  handled  by,  381;  op- 
ponunity  of,  for  sodal  work,  384; 
plea  of,  for  assistance  to  carry  proba- 
tion into  community,  383;  prisoners 
from  jail  and  workhouse  paroled  to, 


I3».  ' 
iS6;i 


381 
Probationen — 
Payments  for 
made  in  instalments  by,  381 

Professiona — 

Immigrants  in  the,  53 
Profit  on  inTeBtment — 

Early  owners  satisfied  with  fair,  375 


Proof  of  ace.    See  Ckild  lobar  law 


Property  depreciation— 

In     neighboiboods     occupied    by 
Slavs,  46 
Property  owner*— 

Immigrant  wage-eamen  as,  53,  59 

Proaperit]'— 

Of  immigrant  wag&^amers,  53, 
S4,  55. 59 

Prostitotes— 

Ages  of,  at  entruce,  50S,  at  time 
of  iovestiration,  soy;  average  weekly 
income  M,  5081  butliplaces  of,  507; 
"  body  snatcboL"  357,  amoog  Negro, 
3S5;  businesBofbthaa  of,  508,509; 
cadets,  piofessioaal  recruiten  of  gint 
to,  364;  ccJored  giils  from  the  South, 
3SSi  356;  families  of,  508;  fifty-ceot 
nouses  of,  351;  Gertrude  Hayes  moi- 
^  — ■■■    HongKong,3si,      " 


nof. 


i.SOJ. 


^04;  number  of  yean,  49r,  1 
m  business,  509;  pceviousoccupatkm 
and  wages  of,  507;  religious  belief  cf, 
50S;  scientific  treatment  oi,  388; 
suiddes  among,  357;  tubcTCukns 
and  the  Negro,  355,  356;  typical 
Negro,  m  HiU  District,  353,  356 

^oatitntion,: 
forgiiisas  ai 


562 


.  364.  i 
in  houses  of,  in  Snangnai,  353;  ap- 
p(Hntments  aikd  entertainments  at 
houses  of,  353;  benefidal  results  of 
dehned  districts  for,  350;  business 
proposition,  359,  360;  business  rami- 
fications bade  of,  shown  by  case  <d 
"Mazey  the  Mixer,"  359;  cadrts 
and  the  brass  check  astern,  360; 
cadets  arrested  for  vagrancy  unds 
reform  administration,  361;  cadets 
driven  from  dty  imder  rebinn  ad- 
ministration, 311;  cadets  or  pin^ 
360;  capitalizing  law-breaking  lad 
selling  protecticMi,  359;  Chiogo  Mce 
Commis^on's  recommendations  coo- 
ceming  agends  to  deal  with,  3S3; 
dean  centers  of  recreation  as  an  ltd 
in  eradicating  commerci^ized,  :£]. 
364;  commercialized,  an  educatiattl 
center  io  unnatural  vices,  364,  31s. 
catering  to  esthetic  sense,  363,  Pitt- 
burgh  center  for,  348,  recreatiMi,  363 
364;    distribution  in  community  of 


■d.yCoo'^Ie 


glej 


proceeds  fiom,  3S8;  duty  of  unioiusm 
m  Matniping  out,  34gi  economic  pres- 
suie  a  source  of,  355,  507;  education 
as  a  cure  for,  373,  504;  ^ect  of  pro- 
hibiting sale  of  UquiK  in  houses  of, 
3",  JS8,  3S9i  3611  36*;  efforts  of 
AmerKam  dties  to  cape  with,  9on- 
dic,^7il  Federal  Immigraticai  Com- 
missioa  exposed  international  as- 
pects of,  353;  five-dollar  houses  of, 
3Si;  houses  of,  frequenting  of,  de- 
creased under  activities  of  Morals 
Efficiency  Commission,  504,  on  North 
Sde  dosed  May,  1913,504;  removal 
from  car  lines  under  reform  Bdmiuis- 
tration,  313;  inadequacy  of  fine  in 
dealing  with,  387;  increasing  extent 
of,  365;  indusuial  position  of  patrons 
of  houses  of,  3S'i  legislative  and  ex- 
ecutive powers  involved  in  elimina- 
•ion  of.  37'.  373i  minora  protected 
from,  by  Morals  Efficiency  Com- 
mission's activities,  304;  moral 
jeopardy  of  shops  le^ing  to,  353, 
354;  Negremes  working  as  maids, 
coi^,  or  laundresses  ia  bouses  of, 
coe  source  of  Negro  prostitution,  355; 
not  single  active  dominant  power  in 
underworid,  361;  number  of  houses 
of,  J50,  disclosed  by  survey  of  Morals 
Efficiency  Commission,  503;  owners 
of  prc^jeny  used  for  purposes  of,  359; 
penal  laws  affecting,  and  munid[ul 
enforcement,  339;  police  and  poli- 
ticians' graft  in  protecting,  361;  po- 
lice face  problem  of  outward  taboo 
and  secret  toleration  of,  371;  power 
to  blackmail  keepers  of  houses  of, 
curtailed  under  reform  administra- 
tion, 36r;  profits,  358,  359;  profits 
from  sale  of  liquor  in  houses  <rf,  358, 
359;  profits  of  commercialized,  de- 
pend on  victimizing  boyhood  as  well 
as  girlhood,  363;  prosecutions  under 
Mum  act,  353;  public  policy  in  deal- 
ing with,  501,  five  distinct  stages  of, 
in  IHttsburgh,  501,  502,  sixth  stage 
of,  morals  bureau,  503;  pidilidty 
needed toeliminate,373;  radal make- 
up of  active  promoters  in  buaness  of, 
3^9, 360,  of  inmates  of  houses  of,  351, 
<dpatr(Mis  of  houses  of,  331,  355;  re- 
form administration  tolerated,  in  de- 
fined districts,  36r;  r^ulations  gov- 
erning houses  of,  under  reform  ad- 
ministration, 361, 371;  repression  of, 
not  an  adequate  poUcy,  363;     re- 


striction, 361, 363;  rules  laid  down  by 
Morals  Effidency  Commission  look- 
ing to  ultimate  elimination  of,  37r, 
37'.  503.50*;  Saturday  night  in,  dis- 
trict under  reform  admuustrstion, 
363;  situaticMi  of,  districts,  349,  350; 
sooal  aqiect  of,  365;  social  situation 
leading  to,  34S,  349;  source  of  re- 
cruits to,  353,  369;  sources  of,  inter- 
national, 352,  353;  ten-  and  fifteen- 
dollaihousesof,35i;  the  street  walk- 
*fi  3S7r  358;  twenty-fivc-ceat  houses 
of,  351;  two-  and  one-dollar  bouses 
of,  351;  two  extremes  in  the  social 
scale  of,  35S,  365;  types  of  houses, 
351-353-,  under  Mayor  Guthrie's 
administrati<m,  501,  503,  Mayor 
Magee's  administration,  361,  502; 
venenal  diseases  spread  by,  365 ;  vice 
and  disease,  364, 365;  Voters'  League 
leaders  in  fi^t  against,  502;  wages 
for  men  adequate  to  ■^■■*^'"''  hraae 
as  an  aid  in  eradicating  commercial- 
ized, 364;  woman  in  the  alley,  the, 
35^.3571   w<Hnen  of  the  underworid. 


563 


Benefits  from,  1 14.    See  TariJ 
Protestant  misBion  woA — 

Among  Slavs  and  Italians,  57 
PrOTldence  Miaalon,  345 
PsTchopathic  pavilions — 

In  New  York,  388 
Public  poller— 

And  the  police,  37»-373 


Pnllnuui  car  shops  is  Chicago,  337 


Race  studies,  33-109 

Racial  antlpathlsB— 

Effect  on  unionism  of,  among  im- 
migrant wage-earners,  40,59;  sunk  in 
strike  of  Westinghouse  employes,  30 


■d^yCoogle 


Racial  mak»-ap— 

Bakers,  1351  inmatea,  houses  of 
prostitution,  351;  met&t  trades,  139; 
mine  workers,  178;  mother-tongue 
statistics.  35;  patrons  of  houses  of 
prostitution,  351,  355;  pUsterEn, 
160;  plumbers,  161;  population,  31, 
35 ;  promolere  in  business  of  prostitu- 
tion, 359, 360;  railway  en^>loyes,  135; 
Sharpsburg  inhabitants,  280;  Sharps- 
burg  schools,  1S3,  284;  steel  workers, 
178;  teamsters,  iii.  See  also  Pop- 
idatio»,  perctnlate  ofJorHpi  bom 

Railroad.    See  Raitway 


Deaths  due  to  operation  of,  z j 

RaUway— 

Character  of,  employes,  1151 
duties  of,  employes,  114,  115;  em- 
ployes, 134-118;  hours  restricted  by 
federal  l^islation,  116,  117,  tiS; 
number  of,  employes,  124,  tiy,  racial 
make-up  of,  employes,  1 15;  unionism 
among,  ig,  115,  118;  wages,  day 
labor  on,  itg,  no;  wages  on,  115. 
136,  137,  iiS.    See  also  Sireet  raU- 


Rebates.    See  Railroad  r^aUs 

RecldiTlsts.    See  Crime 

Recreation- 
Clean    centers    of,    as    meai 
eradicating   prostitution,    363,    364; 


community  should  provide  dean, 
for  immigiant  nogC'eaniers,  S0|  ^i 
Sharpsbi^s  facilities  for,  303 

RecruitiiiE  anployea,  itS-tti 

"RedHcHu«h,"388 

Reed,  Anna,  419-433 

Reform  adminlstratioD — 

A  period  of  abeyance  throug^iout 
the  underworld,  362;  antagonisai 
of  underworid  to,  313;  bunco  games 
in  hotels  checked  under,  311;  cadets 
of  prostitutes  arrested  for  vagrancy 


attorney's  office  aDtagooistic  to,  313;  ' 
effect  of,  OD  police  alliaaces,  370; 
effect  of,  on  rank  and  file  of  pdice, 
312,  on  underworld,  307,  313,  311, 
332>  313.  3=5.  3'6;  efficiency  and 
self-respect  of  pohce  under,  310; 
gambling    houses    and    pool    rooos 

closed      under,      312;        hanHling     ot 

habitual  criminals  by  pcdicc  undn 
312;  houses  of  prostitution  removed 
from  car  lines  under,  312;  inter- 
munidpal  alliances  of  underworld 
held  in  abeyance  during,  325,316;  lim- 
ited activities  of  underworld  under, 
3]  I ;  liquor  law  strictly  enforced  under, 
312;  no  buying  protection  fnm 
police  during,  312,  315;  Pittsburg 
no  place  for  "wireless  wire  ta(^>ing" 
under,  315;  power  to  bladu&aS 
keepers  of  houses  of  prostitution 
curtailed  under,  361;  pressure  as 
pohce  under,  to  relax,  312;  regula- 
tions governing  bouses  of  proititutioB 
under,  361;  r^ression  under,  312, 
313;  Saturday  night  in  prostitutioo 
district  under,  363;  systematic  graft- 
ing by  police  stopped  under,  312; 
"  take-a-chance"  men  under,  312. 
313;  tolerated  prostitution  in  de&ied 
districts,  361 


564 


■d^yCoogle 


ReUef— 

RqxiTt  of  stockholdeiy'  committeee 
United  States  Steel  CoiporatioQ  on, 
plan,  401;  voluntaiy  a/xident,  4i>Si 
Westiiigboiue  Air  Brake  Gimpany, 
department,  468-484 

ReUef  and  penalons— 

Employes'  devel<^inent    through, 

2-a66.    See  also  Bureau  of  Safety, 
ief,  Sanilatitm  and  Wdfare 

Rellgloua  elemeat — 

Id    immigrant    wage-esmera,    57, 
S8.S9 
Rent*— 

At  Meiiaiuu,  161;  diacrimination 
against  immigration  in  price  of,  45, 
46,55;  in  Essen,  6;  in  Midland,  411; 
paid  Iw  mine  woikers,  174;  paid  by 
Kq  ■         ■ 


Repression  of  the  men- 
Report  of  stockholders'  committee 

United  States  Steel  Corporation  on, 

400 
Rescue  Hbsion,  345, 346 


Rest  and  emerpentf  rooms— 

In    industrial    plants,    131,    i^i. 
See  also  Plants,  physical  tquipment  of 

Rest  facilities— 

In     induitrial     plants,     330-133. 
See  also  Plant,  physical  equipment  of 

ReitleasnesB  of  labor.    See  Labor 

Retail  clerks,  130-13*;  employers' 
agreement  with,  130,  131;  hours  of, 
119,  130,  131,  131,  iS4i  Knights  of 
Labor  able  to  shonen  hours  of,  iig; 
It^hlation  aSecdog  hours  of,  131, 114, 
360;  legislation  interference  to  pre- 
vent excessive  hours  of  female,  184; 
stores  employing,  on  Consumers' 
L^gue  "white  list,"  132;  strike  of, 
in  190S,  131;  unionism  among,  139, 
130, 131. ij*;  wagesof,i30,i3i,t3i, 
183,185 


Retail  Clerks'  International  Pro- 
tective Association.  See  AtnericaH 
Pederalion  of  Labor 

Retail  stores— 

I^bor  day  not  a  holiday  in,  in 
1908, 13' 

"Rer."  R— ,343,344 

ReverseSide,  The,  305-391;  beggars, 
33^339;  lodging  houses,  339-348; 
I>olice,  an  organism,  308-313;   pros- 


.  "S. 

Rheaish-Westphslls,  3 

Rhodes,  Dr.  Frederick  A,,  503 

Rice,  W.  C,  31,  410-413 

Ridgwsy,  310 

Riotsof  1877. 113 

Riter-Conlej  Haaufactuiiog  Com- 
pany, I  JO 

RiT«r  distrtct.    See  Water  shed 

River  Improvement*— 

Aid  to  transportation,  114;  by 
government,  114;  by  private  o^iital, 
114 

River  wards- 
Comparison  of  mortality  statistics 
in,  and  East  End,  13,  14 

drunkenness 
33;  strike  in 


1907, 


113,  i»3; 


■33; 


33,  iiS;  wages  of,  i: 
Rivermen's  lodglnc  houses,  344 
"Riverside  Slim,"  33r 
Roberts,  Peter,   3S,  33-60,  63,  71, 

73,  a6i,  378,  414 
Roderick,  James,  177 
Romsn  Catholic  parish  schools.  See 

Schodt,  parish 
Reman  Catholic  wsge-eamers,  57 


S6s 


.d,Google 


RooBSTelt,  Preildent — 

Attitude  of  Negroes  toward,  a 
at  Brownsville,  107 


RusseUtown,  86,  87,  88,  89,  go 

RnssU,  gj 

RnssU  In  tho  Pittsburjcli  Dlitrict— 

MedJKVBl,  78-gs;  moiKTn,  96 
RusiiUL  "mnzhika,"  79,  91 


I,  4,  34>  4o>  4*.  44.  47>  48.  55. 
S7.  6a,  63.  66,  77,  78-95,  355,  357. 
See  also  Slaw 
RuasimiiB,  Old  Belierers— 

Ameriau's  snapshot  knowledge 
of,  79;  appearancx  oE,  81,  81;  bath- 
ing lubits  of,  88;  boarders  and  keep- 
ers, 87,  88;  converting,  to  American 
citizenship,  94,  95;  desirability  of, 
as  dtizens,  93,  94;  drinking  among, 
84,85,88,89,90,91,94;  "efficiency" 
of)9ii93i  fight  for  cars,  gi;  beater- 
boss,  91,  91;  hospitality  of,  80,  86, 
87,  fta,  90;  in  Cokeburgh,  S3,  84,  Sc, 
86;  in  E^en,  No.  1,  79;  in  RusseU- 
town, 86,  87,  88,  Sg,  90;  in  Russia, 
91;  in  Siberia,  gi;  in  the  steel  mills, 
91,  93;  industry  of,  91;  knowledge 
of  En^ish,  81;  lack  of  desire  to  be- 
come American  dtizens  among,  94, 
SS;  living  pictures  of,  78,  79;  lodging 
ousts,  87,  88;  Don-imionism  among, 
93;  photc^raphing  the,  go;  priests, 
93;  self-dq>endency  of,  93;  sketch 
<rt,  and  their  religion.  So,  Si,  S3,  83; 
strikebreakers,  93;  success  among, 
gi,  gi;  traits  of,  as  seen  by  Texan 
cowboy,  89,  90;  women,  85 

I  44,  45.  46. 


SadowBkl,  Dr.  Lmn,  48 

Safeguarding  employes  against — 
Acrident  and  disease,  240-255,  274; 
alcoholism,  2so-»s3,  275,  by  im- 
proving working  and  sodal  concUlions, 
^5^,  153,  by  paying  a  bonus  for 
punctuality  and  r^:ularity,  251; 
fatigue,  153.  254,  by  shortened  time 
schedule,  154,  by  the  "preventive 
clinic,"  354, 155,  in  telephoi' ■" 


S66 


1541  fire,  140-145,  at  the  ArmstroDg 
Cork  Company,  141,  at  the  Nenot- 
Lanq]  Company,  242,  244,  by  ex- 
tinguishers, 142,  by  fiie-escapes,  141, 
242,  244,  by  the  fire  brigade,  242, 143, 
by  the  fiie  drill,  24r,  141, 143, 144.  by 
the  fire  wall,  244,  245,  in  the  steel 
mills,  i<),  240,  the  alarm,  242,  243; 
occupatwiial  diseases,  14S-153,  274, 
275,  by  American  Sted  and  Wire 
Company  14S,  by  maldng  use  of  wash 
and  lundi  rooms  obligatory,  249,  by 
Nations!  Lead  and  Oil  Onnpany, 
149,  by  National  Tube  Conqnny, 

249,  by  Pittsburgh  and  Lake  Erie 
Railroad  Company,  148,  by  Standard 
Sanitary  Manufacturing  Company, 
34g,  250,  by  United  States  Sted  Cor- 
poration, 152,  caused  by  dust,  ttu, 
149,  250,  275,  caused  by  pouoos, 
dangerous  fumes,  etc.,  248,  249,  251; 
tuberculosis,  150,  in  Honz  factoty, 

250,  in  Ma^achusetta,  250 
rding  emploi 

Moral  rtspoD^td 
for,  148;  throu^  the  shop  cUmc, 
2S4,  25s.  in  Armstrong  Cork  Com- 
pany, 155,  in  Central  District  Tele- 
phcme  Company,  255,  in  Heini  Coo- 
pany,    155.      See     also     W«rk-«ai- 


147,  455^480;  at  J<Hies  and  Lau^ifin 
Mills,  148;  at  MesU  Machine  Com- 
pany, 24S;  at  United  States  Sted 
Corporation,  iji,  146,  147;  by  e:q»cn 
study  of  mill  mjuriea,  247;  by  im- 
mediate antiseptic  treatment,  146; 
by  local  emergency  haqtitals  and  dty 
hospital  care,  246,  247;  by  medkal 
supervision  after  re^cmirfoymail. 
147;  by  preventing  premature  re- 
employment, 247;  by  su^cal  n- 
ganization  of  Carnegie  Sted  Com- 
pany, 12, 455-460;  r»ults  from  casu- 
alties less  serious  by,  247;  trivial 
arrangements  for,  in  many  shops  and 
factories,  147,  148 
Sa(e^  appliance! — 

I^bA  hos|Mtal  care,  145-248;  *t 
Carnegie  Sted  Conqiany,  455;  at 
Marianna,  262;  museum  of,  494, 
See  also  Safepiardint  emptoyes; 
Work-accidtnt  pretenlitm 


.d,Google 


Safety 

Of  National  Tube  ConqMny,  143, 
246;  of  United  Sutes  Sted  Corpora- 


SBf«t7  edncatioiLtl  aHaftiga,  495, 
496 

Safety  expert— 

CM  Jones  and  ijHietiliti  Conqwny, 
Z48;  ^National  Tube  Company,  245 

Safety  orfaaisatiott— 

Of  the  United  States  Steel  Cotpon- 

lion,4M,495 
Safety   pro^oiona    in    the   United 

State*  Steel  Corporatioii,  19,  145. 

See  abo  Safety  Commiuee 


.  Maiy'a  Parochial  School,  184, 


St.  Petersburg,  65 


Salespeople.    See  Retail  cltrkt 


Sanitary  in^ectian  force — 
Jurisdiction  of,  S,  g 


Sanitary  standardt— 

In   btewety   worken'  1914   trade 
138,  »S8 


Sanitation.    See  Burton  of  Safety 

Sanitation  and  welfare- 
Report  of  stockholders'  coounittee 
United  States  Sted  Corporation  on. 


iavinn— 

CK   im 


54.  55.  59 


immigrant   wage-eanen,    53, 


Canq),  for  immigrant  wage-earners, 
ji,  sa;  children  leaving,  for  work, 
3c^i  evening,  courses  at  Camesie 
Technical  Schools,  51;  industrial,  for 
Negroes,  43f,  4351  legislation  enaU- 
ing,  autltorities  to  open  classes  for 
adult  immigrants,  53^  medical  in- 
spection in,  a  fonnrd  step,  iti;  ward, 
system  in  Baltimore,  9,  system  in 
Bostni,  9.  system  in  Chicago,  9,  sys- 
tem in  Cleveland,  9 

School  anthoritiea — 

Unconcern  of,  whether  children 
are  at  school  or  work,  iii 


School  board  syatem,  anb-district— 
Effect  of,  OD  housing  and  equip- 

Scfaool  censni,  i8j,  186;  hodge-podge 
scheme  of  taking,  110;  legislation 
oonceming.  113 

School  Uw— 

Provision   in.   permitting   abridg- 
ment of  school  attendance,  an 

School  officials- 
Educational    test    of    new    child 
labor  law  in  hands  of,  3ti 


567 


School  Syatem,  The  Hew,  10,  $2 


■d^yCoogle 


Schools— 

No  compulsoty  enrollment  in 
Sh&ipabuig,  185,  3&6;  Pittsburgh, 
9;  truancy  in  Sbaipsbuig,  185,  186, 
a87>  389,  390,  391, 197,  399 


Schools,. 

Attendance  in  Sharpsburg,  384; 
childiea  vacdnated  in  Sttup&burg, 
384;  erected  and  maintained  by 
inimigiant  wage-eanien,  58;  gym- 
naiiums  in  Sbupsburg,  lacking,  1S4; 
housing  Shaipsbuis,  384)  in  Siiaips- 
burg,  184.  38s;  l>ck  of  records 
of  childien  working,  1S4;  Ubraries 
in  Sharpsburg,  185;  medical  inspec- 
tion in  Shaipsburg,  384;  no  reports 
o!  contagious  cases  to,  from  Sharps- 
burg board  of  h^Ui,  3S4;  not  m- 
nected  by  board  of  health  or  dty 
physician,  1S4;  playgrounds,  384; 
rooal  make-up  of^  Sharpsburg,  384; 
tuition  fees  in  Shaipsbuig,  384 

Schools,  ptibllc— 

Gymnasiums  in  Sbaipsburg,  lack- 
ing, 3Sj ;  high  school  class  in  Sharps- 
burg, 383;  houses  in  Shaipsbuig, 
3831  housing  Sharpsburg's,  383; 
in  Shaipsburg,  183,  384;  lack  of  co- 
operation between  factory  inqiector 
and,  in  Sharpsburg,  383,  384;  lack 
of  co-Cf>eration  between  mediod 
BUthoriues  and,  in  Sharpsburg,  183; 
medical  inspection  in  Sharpeburg, 
lacking,  383;  Negroes  in,  433,  434; 
number  of  pupils  in  Sharpsburg,  383; 
playgrounds,  3S3;  radal  make-up  of, 
183;    Sharpsburg,  board,  3S3 


Scotch,  31S 


"Scrsatoajtauny,"  33^,333 

Seasonal  unemployment— 

Bricklayeif,  14S.  '471   bridge  and 
structural  iron  workers,  150;  building 


S68 


399, 300;  slate  and  tile  roofers,  166 

Sedgwick,  Professor  Wm.  T.,  334 

Selbel,  George,  503 

S«U-ctdtnre  sodotios— 

Of  immigrant  wage-earners,  56 

Sem^e,  Mrs.  Samuel,  445 

SefTla,s3 

Sorrlaas,  33, 43, 44. 4S,  4*'.  49.  ss.  S7 
83 

SesquicentewiiKl  celebration,  60 

Sessions  of  Trial  Board  secret,  370 

Seven-dsr  week  and  long  torft— 
Report  of  stockholders^  ommittee 
United  States  Steel  Ccnporatioa  oe, 
395-398.    See  also  Ottneart;  Smtitj 


Shaneborg — 

Child  labor,  an  extravagant  tool, 
301,303;  conservation  of  childtai  un- 
reco^iized  problem  of,  304^  Glasa 
House  Row,  383;  homes  <rf,  181-3S3; 
houses,  number  of,  381,  shortage  in, 
381;  housing  conditions  in,  33,  380, 
3811  industrial  aspect  ot,  179,  iSo; 
lost  children,  385-387  i  obligatiM) 
of,  to  children  unfulfilled,  303,  304; 
officials     satisfied     with     induSiiil 

Erosperity,  304;  outside  hydrants 
He  family  water  supply,  i8i,  in  1914, 
383;  outside  privy  vaults,  1S3,  in 
1914,  3831  physical  aspect  of,  379; 
peculation,  381,  character  of,  igo, 
laciaJ  make-up  of,  380)  reoeatirt 
and  amusement  facilities  of,  303;  re- 
fusal of  county  poor  relief  jdiysdan 
to  asast,  383;    work  [rfaces,  390,  391 

Sharpsbtirg  board  of  health- 
Inadequate  medical  care  of  poor 
by,  383,  3S3;  incomplete  rcoHds  of. 


■d^yCoogle 


iSi;  lack  of  effort  to  wfcguaid 
health  of  people  by,  >8>,  183;  Uz 
disinfectioD  by,  iSa,  383;  kxM3s  of, 
in  reporting  to  school  authorities  con- 
tagious cases  among  school  children, 
=83,284 

Sharpabnrg  duldren— 

Class  in  English  for  Italian,  con- 
ducted by  Protestant  church,  302; 
dub  life  for,  lacking,  303;  educational 
need,  303,304;  free  night  schools  for, 
Urlfing,  303;  inunigrant*  not  ad- 
mitted to  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association,  301;  leisure  hours  of, 
301-304;  mental  and  emotional 
poverty  of,  303 ;  placed  in  industries 
as  altemative  of  school  for  physically 
and    mentally    handicsp(>ed,     199; 

CrgTDunds  for,  lacking,  303;  prob- 
of  meeting  needs  of,  made  more 
difficult  by  day  and  night  shifts,  304; 
public  library  for,  lacking,  303; 
•odol  need,  304;  sodal  work  by 
Catholic  churches  for,  301,  303; 
vocational  training  need,  303,  ^04; 
Young  Men's  Christian  Anodation, 
asasodal  center  for,  303,  educational 
■    s  only. 


„  I  unreported 

l>y,  183 ;  failure  of,  to  report  to  board 
of  health,  3S3;  one  in  name  only,  1S3; 
vaccination  by,  of  children  in  parish 
schools,  1S4 

SharMborg  acliools— 

Ages  of  806  children  in,  (Table)  1S6; 
census  of  assessor  of  little  value,  185, 
186:  German  Lutheran,  384;  tack  of 
uniformity  of  records  in,  185;  ni^t, 
303;  no  compulsory  enrollment  in, 
385,  1&6;  pansh,  284,  385,  286,  age 
of  duldren  leaving,  184,  285,  atten- 
dance, 1S4,  children  in,  vaccinated  by 
dty  physician,  2S4,  course  of  study  in, 
184,  283,  gymnasiiun  in,  lacking,  3S4, 
bousing,  1S4,  lack  of  recoids  as  to 
duldren  working,  184,  libraries  in, 
1S5,  medical  inspection  in,  lacking, 
284,  DO  report  of  contagious  cases  to, 
from  board  at  health,  284,  not  in- 
spected by  board  of  health  or  dty 
[Aysician,    184,    fdaygrounds,     1S4, 


racial  make-up  of,  1S4,  tuitim  fees, 
1S4;  public,  1S3,  284,  gymnasiums 
ladung  in,  283,  high  school  classes, 
383,  hours,  1S3,  housing,  1S3,  lack  of 
cooperation  between  school  and 
medical  authorities,  1S3,  lack  of  co- 
operation between  school  authorities 
and  factMy  inqiectors,  293,  medical 
inspection  m,  lacking,  2S3,  no  reports 
received  by  school  authorities  of  chil- 
dren at  work,  283,  384,  number  of 
pupils,  3S3,  {daygrounds,  283,  racial 
m^e-up  of,  283,  reporting  contagious 
cases  in,  lu,  383,  scboal  board,  283; 
tniancy  cases  dted,  286,  287,  289, 
290,  391,  297,  299;  truancy  in,  285, 
386,  187;  truant  officer  failed  to 
:  re^tration  list  with  schocd 


compare  re^trat 
cnroUment,  3S6 


S69 


Sharpsbtirg  mtkinf  childnn,  387- 

r;  ages  at  time  of  b^inning  wiuk 
177,  under  seventeen,  found  at 

work  in  1908,  (Table)  zS8;  agesof4i, 
under  fourteen,  found  at  work  in  1908, 
(Table)  288;  tMys  at  work  in  dty, 
3gi;  cose  dted  of  restlessness  of  girls, 
290,  291;  educational  and  industrial 
equipment  of  177,  found  at  woric  in 
1908,  301,  303;  in  the  glaas-houses, 
393-301,  ages  of,  296,  OS  altemative 
for  boys  unable  to  attend  school,  299, 
at  Glenshaw,  number  employed,  396, 
bi-weekly  premium  for  faithful,  steady 
service,   298,  certificates  of   minors, 

396,  day  and  night  shifts,  2^,  death 
of  boy  hastened  by  conditions  of 
work,  29S,  H.  J.  Heinz  Glass  Com- 
f^^y-  295,  296,  hours  of,  198,  insta- 
bility of,  396,  lure  of  the  industry, 

397,  moral  ^ect  of  alternate  day 
and  night  shifts  and  «^"«""''l  occupa- 
tion, 199,  300,  nature  of  the  work, 
397,  398,  permitted  by  legislation  to 
work  on  night  shift,  295,  physical 
con<Ution  of,  298,  199,  physit^  effect 
of  alternate  day  and  night  shifts, 
399,  30a,  restlessiess  of.  296,  30a, 
slight  chance  for  apprentice^p,  too, 
301,  Tibby  Brothers,  29s,  Tibby 
Brothers,  number  employed  by,  295, 
Tibby  Brothers,  seasonal  occupation 
at,  293,  wages,  298,  without  certifi- 
cates while  enrolled  at  school,  296, 
197,  working  double  time,  290;  in  the 
metal  trades,  391-195;  m  the  metal 
trades  iron  mill,  ages  of,  291,  292, 


■d^yCoogle 


chain  boya,  191,  houn  of,  191,  Moor- 
head  plant,  391,  3gi,  no  opportunity 
for  advancemeot,  igi,  occupadonaJ 
risk  of,  2g2,  on  altETnate  day  and 
night  siiifts,  19},  puU-up  boys,  igi, 
shear  btn^,  391,  wages  of,  1911  in 
the  metal  trades  shovel  factiKV,  ages 
of,  393,  393,  hours  of,  393,  Hubbard's, 
391,  39^,  nature  of  work,  igt,  3()3, 
occupatioDal  risk,  393,  opportunity 
for  advancement,  393,  overtime,  393, 
wages  of,  193;  in  the  metal  trades 
stove  foundiy,  393,  ages  of,  393,  op- 
portunity for  advancement,  393;  m 
the  metal  trades  tube  mill,  ages  of, 
394,  houiB  of,  394,  nature  of  work, 

394,  occupational  risk,  194,  395,  on 
day  and  night  shifts,  393,  294,  Spang, 
Cholfont  and   Con^iany,   393,    394, 

395,  wages  of,  394,  work-acddents, 
394,  395;  interchange  of,  between 
Pittsbu^  and  Shaipsburg,  ago; 
ipJTiimiim  legal  age  for,  388;  on  day 
and  night  shifts,  391,  393,  194,  395, 
398,  199,  300,  304;  sentiment  in  en- 
forcing law  with  reelect  to,  389;  siz- 
teen-year-dd  illiterate  giri  working  at 
homewitta  nine  iwardets,  381;  status 
of  fathers  of  177,  found  at  work  in 
190S,  (Table)  369;  tendency  of  giiia 
to  restlessness  and  irregiJarity  of 
work,  390;  wages  of  fathers  of,  3S9; 
wholly  or  partially  supportiiig  family, 
J89;  work  {dace  of  117,  found  at 
work  in  190S,  (TaUe)  390 

Shaw,  Ira  D.,  418 

Sheet  metal  woriiers,  164,  165; 
appreoticeship  of,  165;  definition  of, 
164)  employers'  agreement  with, 
164,  i65i  hours  of,  1651  piece  work 
of,  prohibited,  165;  sub-contracting 
prohibited,  i6s;  unionism  among, 
164,  165;  wages  of,  165 

Shennaa,  William  Olfelll,  146,  455- 
Shop  Clinic,  Tlie,  354,  355 


Shovel  factor;^ 

Shaipsburg  children  in,  393,  3931 
SbariMburg  diildren'sopportunityfor 
advancement  in,  393 


Slckneia  relief.    See  EMpfoya"  kaeft 


Sktuk  Hollow,  437 

Slate  and  tile  roofera,  165,  166;  ap- 
prenticeship of,  145,  165)  cmptoyta' 
agreements  with,  166;  empbym' 
association,  i6s;  hours  ^,  165; 
seasonal  unemployment  of,  166; 
strike  in  1903,  165;  unionism  among, 
165, 1661  wages  aifected  by  ■mi'Tiiw 
during  panic  of  1907-08,  166;  *fag(s 
of,  14s,  16s,  166 

Slate  Roofers'  AssocUtioii,  165 

Slai^ler  bouiet — 
Output  of,  115 

sub- 
case of  slow,  showing  that  qualities 
of  ranstaocy,  honesty,  and  sobriety 
are  unappreciated,  68,  69;  qiirit  ol, 


Slaw,  33,  34,  37,  38,  39.  40,  4".  4». 
43,  4S.  46.  49.  JO.  SI,  S3,  S4.  SS.  S*. 
S7.  S8.  59.  60,  61-77,  78,  79.  81.  8*. 
93,  93.  94.  "9.  I30,  131,  13s,  169, 
»7o,  178,  3*9,  3SI,  3SS.  3W,  36*; 
attitude  of,  toward  America,  61,  61, 
65.  ^7.  70,  toward  native  land,  67, 
70,  71;  cases  dted  showing  causes  M 
immigration,  character  of,  attitude 
of,  and  eSect  of  American  conditioos 
on,  63-70,  showing  how  work-acd- 
dents have  handicaiqjed,  73-76,  sho*- 
ing  reasons  for  contempt  for  American 
law  held  by,  7 1-73 ;  cause  of  immign- 
tion,  economic,  6a,  63,  knowledge  of 
Httsburgh  industries,  6^,  pc^tica!  op- 
pression, 63,  solicitation  of  tisns- 
portation  companies,  63,  631  char- 
acteristics of,  61;  effect  of  liviDg 
conditions  on,  63;  effect  of  working 
conditions  on,  63;   greatest  suffenn 


■d^yCoogle 


from  woA-Bcddenti,  73, 74;  injustice 
acinrded,  in  aldenn&nlc  court,  71, 
71,73;  misunderstood  by  Americans, 
fii;  per  cent  of,  in  present  immigTB' 
tion,6i;  i^dinessof, tohelpcountry- 
men  in  distress,  76,  77;  reasons  for 
settling  in  Kttsburgh,  64,  65;  re- 
port of  National  Ctoation  Society 
showing  efiects  of  work-acddents 
and  tuberculosis  among,  73,  74; 
Slovaks  most  ambitious  of,  69,  70. 
See  also  Ruisians 


SloTikB,  3S.  37,  40,  42,  44.  45.  S3.  SS. 
S6,  57.  63,  64,  67,  69,  70,  79 

Social— 

A^iect  of  prostitution,  365;  book- 
keeping of  municipality,  16;  build- 
ing erected  by  Heinz  Ccnnpany,  159; 
center,  at  Maiianna,  361,  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  as  a,  for 
Sbatpsbuig  children,  303 ;  centers  of 
Carnegie  Steel  Company,  1611  cm- 
trol,  proUems  of,  in  hands  of  pdice, 
308;  coat  o{  typhoid  fever,  17;  cost 
erf  wmfc-BCcidents,  14-17;  institu- 
tions, h^^tazaid  develtqnnent  of,  7; 
machinery,  efficiency  tests  of,  16; 
need  of  Stiaipsburg  children,  304; 
otganizations  of  immigrant  wage- 
earners,  56)  ormnizations  of  Negroes, 
loj,  104;  ptwce,  366-369;  police 
work,  opportunity  for,  338,  384,  385, 
386;  problem  of  1914,  30;  progress 
and  l^ck-9et  currents  in,  366-369; 
progress  in  industrial  centers  during 
last  five  yeais,  30;  re^xmaibility  of, 
police  compared  with  almshouse,  3^; 
sigaificance  of  underworld  pnmng 
upon  work  pec^le  unrecognized  by 
court,  J2t;  situation  leading  to  pros- 
titution,  34S,  349;  tests,  16-18;  the 
challenge  to  industry,  14-18;  work  of 
Catholic  churches  in  Shaipsburg, 
301,  303 

Socisl,  anti- 
Recruiting  the,  forces  of  a  com- 
munity, 316,  317 

Social-economic  achemes — 
In  Great  Britain,  3 

Socialism— 

ESect  of  defeat  of  unions  on,  tSS; 
Negroes'  attitude  toward,  107, 108 


Socialist  Tote— 

Increase  in,  following  defeat   in 
economic  strug^,  188 


Needless  delay  in  cleaning  up,  ao 

Sobo  Hillside,  A,  406-410 

Stdcofofl)  Alsxli,  18,  79-95 

Sons  of  Vnlcaa,  105, 106 

Sfiaiic,  CttaUant  and  Coinpanj,  193, 
w>4.  »9S 

Specializatioo— 

Effect  of,  on  restlessness  of  labor, 
117;  not  allowed  among  tmion  line- 
men, 156;  unionism  affected  by,  139, 


SpecUlcatioua— 

Plasterers   working   without,   pro- 
hibited, 161 
Speeding  of  the  woAmen — 

Report  of  stockholders'  committee, 
United  States  Steel  Coipoiation,  399, 
400 
Speeding-np — 

Effect  of,  aa  operatives,  17,  on 
restlessness  of  labor,  117;  through 
the  bonus  system,  1 30,  399 


Standard  Sanitary  Manufacturing 
Companr,  315,  139,  140,  249,  150, 
361, 164 


"StarEid,"3z8,339 


State     . 

Or     workiugmc 
legidation  enacted  in  33  states. 


■d^yCoogle 


Steamfltters,  163,  164;  a[^>raiUce- 
ship  of,  145,  16],  164;  employers' 
agreement  with,  163,  164',   houn  of, 

146,  164;  unionism  among,  146, 147, 
161,163;  use  of  non-union  machinery, 
tools  or  material  by,  not  prohibited, 
163;  wages  afiected  by  unionism 
during  panic  of  1907-08, 147;  wages 
ol,  147,  164 

Ste«l— 


if  pioccu  0 
of,  lis 


99, 100;  output 

St««l  IndtistiT— 

Effect  of,  on  other  industries,  ajj: 
en  of  combinations  in,  176;  fastened 
opposition  to  labor  laws,  3761  "good 
timei"  in,  following  period  of  com- 
binations, 3771  unmigration  en- 
couraged by,  176;  labor  conditions 
in,  376;  outhne  history  of,  175,  176, 
i77>  P^'  cent  o(  fatal  woric-acciilents 
in,  197;  per  cent  of  unskilled  immi- 
grants in,  117;  promoted  "(^tie- 
men's  agrecmeut,"  376;  railroad 
rebates  fostered  by,  }76i  removal 
of,  out  o[  town,  377i  supported  high 
taiiS  movement,  176;  town  plui- 
ning  in,  361;  unionism  fought  by 
spy  system,  176;  unionism  in,  176{ 
violation  in,  of  lam  reducing  hours 
of  women  and  children,  302,  103; 
work-accidents  in,  15 

Steel  woikers— 

Employers'  agreement  with,  180; 
hours  of  mine  workers  compared  with, 
178,  179;  housing  of,  compared  with 
mine  workers,  179;  percent  of  Negro, 
961  racial  make-up  of  mine  workers 
and,  similar,  178;  unionism  among, 
iSo;  unioni&m  among  mine  workers 
conqiared  with,  179,  180;  wages  of, 
1S3;  wages  of  immigrant  day  labor, 
119,  of  mine  workers  compared  with, 
1 78, 1 79.    See  also  Jf  «jro  sitel  worktrt 


SteTcnioa  and  Companr,  George  K., 


^irporat 


StockbolderB*  c<nmDitt»»— 

Report  on  labor  conditions.  United 
States  Steel  Coipnation,  Aftfil  15, 
i9",3W-40S 

Stogj  factory- 
Lack  of  factoiy  inflection  in,  101, 
101;  physical  effect  of  wiorking  in, 
on  young  giris,  301,  103;  Wisciwain 
statute  r^ulating  employment  of 
children  in,  zoi.  See  also  rofrooe 
iradt 

Stool  plgeona,  374 

Stove  fonndr;— 

Sharpsburg  children  in,  191,  193; 
Sharpsourg  children,  oppntuni^  for 
advancement  in,  191 

Strategic  position  of  Pittabor^  113 

Street  deTelopment,  9 

Street  railway^ 

Low  fare,  in  Qevdand,  11.  See 
also  TroctiM 

Street  raUmr  employes,  113,  1341 
employers'  agreemeDt  with,  133, 134; 
hours  and  runs  of,  113,  114,  i&4) 
strike  in  1909,  114;  unionism  amcog 
enqiloyes,  133,  124,  138;  wages  ol. 
133, 134.  izS,  183,  in  process  of  aibi- 
tration  LI<ilyt  >9I4)>  'M 

Streetwalker.    SeeiVMl>M»M« 

Strikebreaken— 

Rusman,  93 
Strikea— 

Bakers,  136;  blacksmiths,  141; 
bricklayers  and  masons,  not  allowed 
by  unimi  unless  sanctioned  by  com- 
mittee, 148,  149;  bridge  and  struc- 
tural iron  woriters,  15a,  153;  electrical 
workers,  155,  i5<^;  garbage  cdlectors 


155, 156;  garbage  cdlec 
113;    Homestead,  113,  : 


141. 

141'  marine  engineers  in  1914,  113; 
McKees  Rocks,  t88,  119,  311;  mine 
workers,  r67  i63,  179;  plumben, 
1611  Pressed  Steel  Car  Woits,  42, 
S9,  319;  printers,  132,  r33;  ret«l 
clerks,  r3i;  rivermen,  122,  123; 
slate  and  tile  roofers,  165;  street  lail- 


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my,  134 i  teamstera,  111;  tile  layers 
and  helpers,  i66;  Westinghouse,  at 
Turtle  Creek  in  1914,  3°,  14*.  '68, 
188,  269,  311,  380.  See  also  Riots; 
Unitmism 
Structural  Iron  workers— 

Aod   housesmiths   affiliated,   151. 
See  also  Bridge  and  structural  iron 

Stuart,  Goveraor,  114 


Snggeation  syitam— 

Development  of  employes  through, 
170-»7J 

Snicid«a— 

Among  prostitutes,  357;  attempted, 

edentific  treatment  of,  in  New  York, 

388 
SulliTUU  of  HewTork,  314.324 
Sunday  Uw.    See  Police 

Sunday  work,  17,  28,  39,  40.  6S,  74. 
122, 123,  ia6,  130,  1311 134,  137. 141. 
143,  144,  149.  'SI,  iS>>  '53.  '54.  'SS. 
158,  160,  i6t,  164,  166.  178,  184,  39a, 
395-398.     See  also  Overtime 

SnppI;  trades,  129-138;  unionism 
among,  139.  See  also  Bakeri;  Brew- 
ery viorkers;   Printers;    Retail  clerks 

Surgical  organliatitm  of  the  Car- 
n^e  Steel  Compan;,  455-460 

Inquiry  into  work-accidents  by,  34; 
Pittsburgh  the  year  of  the,  7;  study 
of  fatal  work-accidents  by,  43 


"Swedish  Clara,"  331 


Switchmen.    See  Raihoay  employes 

Switchmen's  Union  of  North  Amer- 
ica, 135,  "8 

Swltierland,  373 

Sylvester,  Mayor,  375 

Syrians,  35s 


Tariff- 
High,  supported  by  steel  Industry, 

276;   legislatioD,  benefits  from,  ii4> 
See  also  Protection 


"Tea"  West,  331 

Team  play.    See  Unity 

Teamsters,  131,  131;  duties  of,  111; 
employers'  agreementi  with,  133; 
hours,  III.  122;  per  cent  of  Negro. 
Ill',  racial  make-up,  111;  strike  in 
1905,  123;  unionism  among,  133, 
138;  wages  of,  [22, 183 


Telephone  serrlce — 

Fatigue  in,  354;  legislation  aSect- 
ing  women  operators  in,  214;  recent 
welfare  work  among  women  in,  259 

Temperature— 

In  industrial  plants,  334,  335. 
See  also  Plant,  physical  equipment  of 

Tenement  bouse  census,  30 

Tener,  Governor,  215. 445 

Teutons,  33,  34,  40,  43.  9S-  See  also 
Gemumi 

"Texas  Rod,"  33' 

Tibbj  Brothers,  295 

Tile  Dealers'  Association,  166 

Tile  layers'  helpers,  166;  apprentice- 
ship of,  I4S.  I&6;  employers'  agree- 
ments with,  1661  employ  era'  associa- 
tion, 166;  hours  of,  166;  piece  work 
prohibited  by  union,  166;  strike  in 
1907,  166;  unionism  among,  166; 
wages  of,  T(S6 

Tile  Layers'  and  Helpers'  Union,  166 


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Tobscco  InduBtry— 

Delaney  amendment  to  child  labor 
Uw  ftfiecting,  enacted,  loz;  iovesd- 
KBtion  of,  by  new  factory  inspection 
dqAttment,  115;  labor  additions 
in,  17.  See  also  Slogy  factory 
T«t«do— 

Reducing  number  of  arrests  in,  387 
Tom  L««,  331,  33J 

Tonnage,  iij,  376;  pace  in  mill,  set 
by  Andrew  J.  Cainegie,  3j6.  See 
alsoOwf^ 


Town  pUnnlnc — 

An  element  in  solution  of  housing 
problem,  11, 12-,  in  the  coal  industry, 
1621  in  the  steel  industry,  361 

Toylud.    S«e  Midland 

Traction  deTslopment,  g;  an  dement 
insolutionof  bousing  prcjikm,  31,  ix; 
lack  of,  obstnicting  community  de- 
vcIopmenC,  31 

Trtd«  agreements- 
Advantage  of,  to  en^>loyers,  186; 
blacksmiths,  144,  between  employers 
and  bakers,  135,  bridge  and  struc- 
tural iron  workers,  151,  153,  biEwery 
woriters,  136,  137, 138,  454.  building 
trades.  iM,  183,  184,  caipenteis, 
154,  electrical  TOiters,  isSt  elevator 
constructors,  157,  158,  i6p,  bouse- 
amiths,  153,  153,  machinists,  140, 
minetrorken,  170, 171,  174,179.  180, 
painters,  dec^a^ors,  uid  pape^ang- 
ers,  1S9,  160,  [Jasterers,  161,  plumb- 
ers, 161, 163,  printeia,  133,  134,  retail 
clerks,  130,  ijt,  sheet  metal  workers, 
164,  165,  slate  and  tile  roofers,  166, 
steamfitters,  163,  1O4,  steel  workers, 
180,  street  railway  employes,  113, 114, 
tile  layers  and  helpers,  166;  competi- 
tive conditions  for  employers  equal- 
ized by,  186;  hygienic  proviuons  in 
1914,  brewers,  454;  union  working 
code  in  place  of,  enforced  among 
bricklayers  and  masons,  14S,  149 

Trade  onions.    See  Unimis 


TrtnBDortation—  Underworld,  The,  313-336)    affilit- 

ESect  of  unproved,  mi  freight  rates,         tions  oi,  counting  for  immunity.  314; 

114;  national  facilities  for,  113,  114;  alliance  between  courts  and,  377, 378, 


railroad      fadlities     supplementing 


TruupoitatiaB  tradea— 

Unionism  among,  iiS.  See  XaH- 
wiy  empioves;  Rmrmai;  Skttt 
raiheay  employa;  Teamiteri 

Tiuancr.    See  SekeUs 

Trusto— 

ESect  of,  on  unionism,  186,  1S7, 
18S;  struggle  between,  and  unions, 
187, 1S8 


TuberctUosls— 

A  menace,  11,  12;  and  Negro 
prostitutes,  355,  356;  death  rate,  14; 
munidpa],  b^pital,  ii;  PittsbwEh, 
League,  11;  (ooviskiiis  for,  pAtiau 
report  of  NstiaQi] 
■      ■  -^of 

J.  74- 

Tucker,  Helen  A.,  q?,  106, 4i4-43<i 
Tnrkiah  bath  nntntoriom,  336 


Twelve-hour  day^- 

Report  of  stockbidders'  c 
United  States  Steel  Corporaiiaa  on, 
398,  399.    See  also  Ouneork 

Typhoid  fe»er— 

Among  immigrant  wage-earoets, 
481  death  rate,  14,  i^,  in  Qevdand, 
17,  in  Columbus,  17.  in  New  Havto, 
17,  in  Washington,  17;  decrease  in, 
after  opetung  ol  filtration  [dant,  17. 
30;  endemic,  17;  in  river  wards  id1 
East  End,  34;    social  and  ecotiomk 

TTphoid  Fever  CaaimiBsion,  33 
Typhoid,  Thirty-flre  Tenn  of,  17 


■d^yCoogle 


3791  American  Order  o  Eagles  holds 
omdavE  in  Pittsburg  315,  national 
OTgaiiuationof,3i4,335;  anUgtnism 
of,  to  icftxni  admuiistnitimi,  313; 
"band-boi"  on  Grant  Street  316, 
315;  "Big  Sam"  Sticenider,  313; 
bunco  games  in  hotels  checked  under 
reform  admioistrstion,  3Tii  busioess 
■gent  of  the,  315;  cases  dted  showing 
strength  of.  through  venal  alliances 
with  offidals,  314,  31S,  316;  "Chap- 
pie Moran,"  31a;  conviction  of 
expert  Pittsbu^  swindler  secured 
by  Pennsylvania  Railroad  detective, 
311;  oonvictioiis  secured  by  District 
Attoraey  Jerome,  315;  "Doc,"  in- 
dustrial worker,  bartender,  prize 
fighter,  and  sanitary  policeman,  318; 
effect  of,  alliances  on  police,  370; 
tfect  of  refcKm  administration   on, 


.7  3»6;  "filed' 
bill  ignored  by  grand  juty,  314; 
friendliness  and  welcome  of,  to  the 
down  and  out,  317;  gambling  houses 
and  pool  rooms  closul  under  reform 
admmislration,3ii;  gambling  houses 
reopened  under  administration  of 
Mayor  Magec,  361;  Giady  of  the, 
31J;  immigrants  housed  in,  districts, 
3071  inadequacy  of  imprisonment  in 
dealmg  with,  387,  3SS;  industrial 
classes  preyed  upon  by,  307, 317.  318, 
319,  3»o;  industrial  in^eis  drifting 
mto,  317,  31S;  influence  of,  in  alder- 
'c  court,  316,  in  county  court, 


3'6; 


:    of 


leddents  of,  held  in  abeyance  during 
reform  administration,  335,  376;  J. 
M.  Morin,  president  local  aerie  of 
American  Order  of  Eagles,  ^a  j;  James 
Monroe,  323;  John  Considine,  314; 
leader  in,  operating  small  factory,  314, 
posing  asreal estate  man,  3i4i  limited 
activities  of,  under  reform  adminis- 
tration, 321;  McKcesport  a  "per- 
centage burg,"  3*1,  31);  McKees- 
port  at  Old  Home  Week  worked  by, 
319;  natituial  aspects,  314-316;  New 
York  "turning  joint"  for  "wireless 
wire  tapping."  314.  3'S;  outside 
invaders,  322,  323;  Philip  Lamont, 
323;  political  power  of,  314,  315, 
316,312,^23,324,  325,370;  potential 


pei^ile.  3is-3ati  raids  by  outade 
gun  mobs  tcHeratcd  by  pohce,  311; 
recruits  tA  crime,  patnms  of  liquor 
and  vice  resorts,  317;  reform  ad- 
ministiatitm  a  penod  of  abeyance 
throughout  the,  362;  restricted  ad- 
ministrative area  playing  into  ^an^l* 
of,  8;  rise  oE  "H-heodunan"  typical 
of  lesser  lights  of,  316;  social  sig- 
nificance of,  preying  upon  working- 
men,  imreco^iized  by  court,  32r; 
strilung  out  from  the  dty,  321,  311; 
SuUivaos  of  New  York,  314,  3^i 
"sure  thing  men,"  314;  "takisa- 
chance"  tridents  of,  under  reform 
aHmini»tr«tinn,  jjj,  3^3;  "trimming" 
of  an  Ohio  banker  by  tlw,  3 14;  "trim- 
ming "of  wealthy  oil  operator  by  the, 
3r4>  315;  victims'  fear  of  publicity 
makes  convicting  swindlers  difficult, 
321;  womenof  the,  3SJ,353:  "orit- 
ingmen  tricked  by  tin  box.  handker- 
chief, or  podetbook  game,  b^"  wheel 
of  fortune,"  by  "strong  jomt"  and 
by  "thimble  ringer,"  319,  3*0.  See 
also  Crimt;   Ytfgs 

Union- 
Dues,  deducted  from  mine  workers' 
wages,  r74;  ^namiting  conspiracy 
of  natknud  officers  of,  150'.  labd, 
bakers',  i2g,  unionism  among  btewety 
workers  strengthened  by,  iig,  136; 
strikes  of  bricklayers  and  masons 
not  allowed  by,  unless  sanctioned  1^ 
committee,  :48,  149;  working  code 
in  place  o(  employers'  agreements  en- 
foKed  among  bricklayers  and  masons, 
148,149 

Union,  onti— 

Effect  of,  pdldes  on  development 
of  employes,  26S 

Union  Iron  Worits  of  Son  Fnwcisco, 


Affected  by  employers'  association, 
t3g,  140,  ISO,  iS3i  pa^c  of  1907-08, 
118, 141, 146, 130,  ^wcialization,  139, 
140;  among  bakers,  119,  134,  135, 
187,  blacksmiths,  144.  181,  boOer 
makers,  143,  144.  brewery  workers, 
119,  136,  i37>  138,  182,  1S6,  brick- 


■d^yCoogle 


Tobacco' 

law  aff 
oqMT 


Tom 
Twi 


■"-..'U;  ■"'"-:^  ''^*'°- 


'rtJia  mine  wii^r^ 


■-»«;','■■  ■"  ~22?°"«  /  "«"«'  Sun. 


.^    "m^  n^        .  influence  /      ""  " '  " 

-"^ "  I.C ,?; ""  'I.     ^--  'S:!^  '1'  ~  --  =• 


.d,GoogIe 


i  steel  Relief  Penalon 


»      if  Plttabnrgh,  19 


oi  buieftu  of  health  t< 


pay 


1  tdepbcMK  company, 


,  _  ■  . .  upply  CompMy,  174 

^  _  ,  {rift,  261 

^^  *  priTy,  10;  ID  industrial  plants, 

^139)    in  Sharpsburg,  183,  183; 

.  Ao,  40S,  4091    not  prohibited  in 

Sestead,  31,  13.    See  also  Plants, 

il,-ical  tquipmtnt  of 


.?  "^S, 


*et«tl  diseaua— 

fini  providing  for  leport  of,  de- 
— -"    "s-    See  also  ProiWu/ion 
"■*  ^^tiUtion— 

^      In    industrial    plants,    3 15,    a  16. 
■  See  also  Flanlt,  fhyikal  equipmtnl  of 


,//lGe,    See  Eaerse  Side,  TMt 

lak  Vice  and  diseue,  364, 365 

* '   Vocattooal  traiiiin«~ 
im  k  Needed  by  Shoipsbuig  children, 

mm:      303. 504 

Vogelson,  Uabel,  492 

•  i»*    Volnntery     accident     relief     plan, 
Stx  Relief  pian 

Volnnteen  of  America,  343,  34s 

Voters'  Leagoe— 

■■  Agitatirai  against  vice  led  by,  363, 
S02;  district  attorney's  oflto  in  con- 
junction with,  exposed  councilnumic 
fit,  313;  instigated  survey  of 
county  by  New  Yorit  Bureau  of 
Municipal  Research,  17 


d  by  immigrant  wage-earners. 


Wage-earners — 

Desire  of,  to  have  voice  in  manage- 
ment of  industry,  1S8;  hours  of 
adult  male,  not  limited  by  statute, 
1031  number  of,  in  Greater  Pitts- 
burgh, 1 16;  relation  of,  to  community 
and  industries,  7.  See  also  Industrial 
workers;  Labor;  Mine  workert;  Nt- 
fro  sled  workers;  Wage-earners,  innni- 


ptability  of,  36,  40,  ^ 
paid  by  luunarried,  for  room  and  food, 
46,  47;  as  property  owners,  53,  59; 
asaiinilation  of,  difficult,  56;  buik 
and  postal  savings  dep<»its  of,  53, 
54;  betterment  of,  requires  aggres- 
sive wMt,  60;  boarding  bosses,  46, 47, 
cOD4Jetence  accumulated  by,  55; 
camp  school  for,  51,  52;  celebration 
of  Columbus  Day  by  Italian,  60; 
change  in  type  of,  33,  34,  35;  classes 
in  English  for,  360,  261;  colonization 
of,  44,  45,  sf>',  community  should 
provide  ckan  recreation  for,  50,  60; 
compensation  for  work-accidents  to, 
44,  sg;  oMnpcnsation  for  work 
fatalities  to  alien  families  of,  44; 
conditions  of  work  among,  43i  "»- 
operative  housekeeping  among,  47; 
crime  among,  50,  51,  51,  53;  domin- 
anceof  Magyar,Slav,andLitliiianian 
•ntaw.  33.  34.  35;  drinking  among, 
4g,  50,  53;  earnings,  expenditures, 
and  savings  of  single,  55;  economic 
positi<ni  of,  33-43)  educational  work 
among,  51,  52;  effect  of  home  con- 
ditions of,  on  crime,  52}  effect  of 
inflow  of,  on  moral  aiid  religious  life 
of  community,  34;  effect  of  panic  of 
1907-0S  on  union  and  non-union,  1 18; 
eSect  on  unionism  of  radal  antip- 
athies among,  40,  59)  evening 
schools  for,  lacking,  51;  expenditures 
of  married,  55;  fomer,  in  business 
and  the  profes^ons,  53;  fraternal 
ordeis   of   Slavic.    Lithuanian,    and 


■d^yCoogle 


Iftyeis,  146,  147,  148,  149,  bridge  and 
structunJ  iron  iniAers,  149,  150, 
151,  iji,  building  trades,  146,  147, 
186,  building  trade  day  tabor,  iio, 
111,  carpenters,  146,  ij4,  day  labor- 
en,  184,  electrical  worun,  155,  i;6, 
electrical  vforkers,  inside  wiremen, 
155,  electrical  workers,  linemen,  156, 
elevator  constructors,  146,  147,  157, 
•  S8,  isg,  hod  carriers,  i  jo,  438,  hrast- 
ing  Ni^neers,  153,  housesmiths,  153, 
machinists,  14a,  141,  141,  187,  ma- 
sons, 146,  147. 148. 149.  metal  trades, 
139,  mine  workers,  167, 16S,  i6g,  170, 
173.  >74.  I7S.  »77,  "75,  180,  181,  186, 
mine  workers  compared  with  steel 
mwkers,  179,  iSo,  molden,  141,  143, 
mortar  miieis,  no,  Negroes,  418, 
painters,  decorators,  and  paperhang- 
ers,  159,  160,  pattern  makers,  143, 
plasterers,  146,  160,  161,  plumbers, 
146,  147,  161,  161,  printers,  13J,  133, 
186.  railway  emfjoyes,  115,  tiS,  re- 
tail clerks,  iig,  130,  131,  131,  river- 
men,  113, 113,  iiS,  sheet  toetal  woo- 
ers, 164,  165,  slate  and  tile  roofers, 
165.  166,  steamfitters,  146,  147,  i6a, 
163.  steel  workers,  tSo,  street  railway 
employes,  1 13, 1 14,  T  ]8,  siqijdy  trades, 
iiq,  teamsters,  ita,  isS,  tile  layers 
and  helpers,  166,  tramportatton 
trades,  iiS;  at  Marianna,  163;  atti- 
tude of  mine  operators  toward,  179, 

180,  United  Sutes  Steel  CotpoTadim 
toward,  179,  tSo,  400;  coke  regitHi 
affected  by  outcome  of,  in  Westmore- 
land, 168;  duty  of,  in  stamping  out 
prostitution.  349;  effect  of  competi- 
tion oa,  r86,  national  corporation  or 
trust  on,  186, 187, 188,  on  progressive 
improvetnent  in  industrial  conditicKis, 
185,  187;  effect  of  racial  antipathies 
among  immigrant  wage-earners  on, 
40,  59;  hygiene  (or  brewny  woilets, 
4S4;  in  steel  industry,  976;  influence 
01,  in  hard  times,  iSj,  on  non-union 
err^itoym,  1S5;  summary  showing 
effect  of,  cm  hours,  184, 183,  on  wages, 

181,  1S3,  1S5;  trade  autonomy  vbt- 
sus  industrid  group  in,  136;  wages 
affected  by,  146,  during  panic  of 
1907-08. 144, 147, 166;  wages  of  day 
labor  affected  by,  iio,  ni 

UaltuiiflD,  non — 

Among  Old  Bdievers,  93;  effect  of, 
on  restlessness  of  labor,  117 


Dnlona — 

And  Uie  Negro  sted  worfcs-  ^ 
"5'  '*=*.  •°7.  toS;  tombi^,^ 
bership  d,  18,;  conditi^  St 
have  built  up  stronfr  VSi  ^? 
contests  between,  «™ie^«dSv^*S|i 
supremacy,  273;  defeatTl^* 
increase  in  socialistk  vou,  Js^fcJa 
of  organiiatKn  of,  181  ia  "V  ^^ 
inent  ol,  for  Trork-accident'nSSr 
tion  in  mining  industry  n-,.  C251 
•ievdoped  to  secure  %iii  JJ*gi 

Emphyers' assecinlioK      '  T^ 

Unlontown,  i68  L^ 

United  AuocUtion   of 


Gutnd 
Vnlted  Brotherhood 


ud  JoioenVf iSeHe,"^!'  3P> 
Doited  Coucpo.,^,^"-"* 

Uolled  EodoeeHo,   .^  > k. 

Doited  UborU.^_,j_ 

D^  P,o.h„«^    3^  ^ 
United  States 

*™o  mute  mtk^^ 
United    State, 
tion,  138 

United     State, 
unmigntiaii  in 

„=»*'-'««*»,,  u-^ 

Doited  Stotos  €l-„i     . 


D1t«i  St. to.  GU_  T^" 
Doited    st.t„    -.^, 


S76 


tMMSimSlidBtSrfP 


■d^yCoogle 


tdvances  made  by,  40-431  iodustrUl 
cffideDcyaf,38,4o,  41,431  industries 
dependent  OD,  sq;  uifloir  ind  outflow 
of,  36;  insuisnce  societies  of,  56;  liv- 
ing conditions  of,  43-60;  lodging 
bouses,  Bssftult  and  battery  in,  47, 
congested,  46,  47,  48,  59,  moral  con- 
ditions in,  4S,  49,  sanitaiy  conditions 
ill>  4^1  47>  S9i  majraity  of,  Roman 
Catholics,  57)  means  of  lecniitiug, 
ifii  37r  3$i  ""**'"£  rdigious  needs  of 
Slavic,  (orwanl  problem  of  church, 
59;  money  sent  to  home  countries  by, 
S3;  money  sent  to  Servia  by,  53; 
parish  schools  erected  and  maintained 
Dy,  58;  participation  of,  in  sesqui- 
ccntennial  celebration  in  1908,  60; 
per  cent  of  oiminal,  uumanied,  53, 
of  police  court  casa  among,  from 
Southoutera  Europe,  50,  »,  of 
mukil]ed,ln  steel  mull.  It;;  [diysical 
and  cultural  poaubilities  of,  34,  6a; 
physique  of,  37,  38,  40;  Playground 
Association  May  festivals  for  sodal 
devdopment  of,  60;  political  clubs  of 
Croatian,  57,  of  LiUiuanian,  57,  of 
Polish,  57;  political  leaders  unong, 
56,  sj;  political  leaden  among 
Italian,  56,  among  Polish,  56,  57; 
political  power  of,  57;  prejudice  and 
contempt  for,  in  courts,  44,  S».  55.  7'. 
7»,  73,  368;  priests  of,  character, 
activities,  and  mfluence  of,  5S,  foun- 
ders of  building  and  loan  associations, 
58,  founders  of  insurance  societies 
against   sidutess   and   acddent,   5S; 


property  depredatia 
noods  occupied  by  S 


y  Slavic,  46;  pros- 
perity of,  53,  S4,  55,  S9i  Protes- 
tant mission  work  among  Slavic  and 
Italian,  57;  races  of,  performing 
baldest  and  most  dangerous  work, 
45;  racial  consciousness  of,  56; 
reasons  for  immigration  of,  usually 
ectxKnnic,  36,  37,  40;  religious  ete- 
■nent  in,  57,  58,  59;  rent  sometimes 
r^ulated  by  number  of  boarders, 
46;  rents  paid  show  discrimiruiti<m 
against,  31,  45,  46,  55;  Russian, 
Greek  Orthodox,  57;  Russian  (Greek 
Ortbodoi),  Slavic,  and  Italian,  pre- 
ferred by  employers,  39,  40;  schools 
for  adult,  51,  53;  self-culture  9od»- 
ties  of  PoUdi,  s6;  Slavic  and  Lith- 
uanian, in  aJdennanic  courts,  s>; 
Slavic,  sddom  apply  for  aid,  5^, 
subject  to  Patriaith  of  Constanti- 


aUcf- 


judges,  51;  study  of,  in 
19071  34;  tenckocy  of  Italian,  to 
construction  work,  railrDad  wxk, 
and  mines,  33;  Teutonic  and  Keltic, 
displaced  by  races  from  Southeaston 
Europe,  33,  34,  35,  43;  typhoid 
fever  among,  48;  votes  polled  by 
Italian,  56,  S7,  by  Polish,  56,  57; 
wage  standard  affected  by  inflow  of, 
33.34. 40,41. 4»,  43,  S9;  wages,  piece 
and  day  work,  43;  wiUmgneaa  01 
skilled,  to  do  menial  worit,  41;  women 
exposed  to  danger,  49;  woik-aod- 
diiits  to,  43.  See  abo  Iwmdpvatt; 
Otertimt;  KMStiant;  SlitK;  Simi*r 
wfi;  r  ■  ■■  ■ 
Wagaat 

Affected  by  inflow  of  immigrants, 
33.34.40,4r,4>,43.59 

Adequate,  as  an  aid  in  eradicating 
prostitution,  353,  364;  affected  by 
unionism,  r46,  during  panic  of  r^oT- 
08, 144, 147,166;  affecting  employes' 
development  and  staUlity,  163;  bak- 
[36,  i83_,  18s;    Wa<±- 


smiths,  r44;  boiler  muers,  t43, 144; 
brewery  woikers,  137,  (TabteJ  138, 
~      18^,  t84;  bricUayas,  145,  r. 


578 


148;  bndge  and  structural  Lr 
ers,  r46,  rjo,  isr,  153;  oauamg 
trades,  iw,  r44,  14S.  >46,  t47.  >48, 
166,  rSi,  183,  ra4;  building  tiada 
day  labc«,  ito;  carpenters,  146, 
1S4,  IJS;  city  day  labor,  131;  coo- 
tractois'  day  labor,  ri9,  rio;  day 
labor,  affected  by  knowledge  oc  Eng- 
lish, rii,  affected  by  politics,  rio, 
III,  affected  by  unionisn,  110,  iii, 
in  1913  and  1914,  119,  in  United  . 
States  Steel  Corporation,  41,  119; 
effect  of  low,  on  restlessness  of  labor, 
117;  hitler,  usually  teaaon  foe  inmu- 
gration,  ^6, 37, 40;  dectikal  worfcets, 
inside  wiremoi,  145,  147,  155,  156, 
linemen,  145, 156, 157;  fUeruot  con- 
structors, 147,  158,  159;  fatben  at 
Sharpdnirg's  woAin^  chUdroi,  3S9; 
hod-caniers,  im;  botsdng  engmeen, 
147,  154;  housesmiths,  153;  immi- 
grant day  labor,  in  steel  companka, 
110;  Jones  and  Lanolin,  119;  ma- 
chuiials,  140,  i4t>  183;  masons,  145, 


■d^yCoogle 


i47>  148;  medisnits,  1S3;  metal 
trades,  139,  183;  miiw  mxkm,  167, 
168, 170,  (Table)  171, 171, 173;  niine 
woAxn  compared  with  ated  wcxicen, 
17S,  179;  midden,  143,  143.  1S3; 
mratar-miieis,  130;  painten,  deco- 
raton,  and  paper  hai^eis,  145,  147, 
159,  i6a;  pattern  makers,  1431  pat- 
tern makers  at  WestingnouM  Ma- 
chine Ccnnpany,  143^  piece  and  day 
wotk,  of  immigrants,  41;  plasteiers, 
r45,  146,  147,  iGt;  plumoeis,  147, 
i6a;  printers,  133, 134, 183, 184;  rail- 
way day  labor,  iig,  110;  railway  em- 
ployes, us,  J36,  J17,  ia8;  retail 
deifcs,  130,  131,  133,  181,  i8s:  river- 
men,  r»,  181;  ^axpsburg  ciuldicn, 
in  ^^as-housea,  398,  m  metal  trades, 
inn  mill,  391,  in  metal  trades,  shovd 
bx^ry'  >93<  >°  metal  trades,  tube 
mills,  394;  sheet  metal  woffcen,  165; 
slate  and  tile  roofers,  145,  165,  166; 
state  day  labw,  t3i,  steamotten, 
147,  t64;  sled  wnfcers,  183;  street 
railway  enqik^'ea,  uj,  t34,  laS,  tSi, 
in  process  of  artntration,  134;  sum- 
mary showing  dfect  of  unionism  on, 
183,  183,  185,  under  Americanised 
padrone,  no,  United  States  Sted 
Corporation,  iig,  178;  teamsters, 
III,  183;  tile  layers  and  helpers, 
147,  166.     See  also  Barnintf 

Washing  facUltiva— 

In  Cam^ie  libraries,  336;  In 
industrial  plants,  333-131^1  >74;  in 
Lawrence  Park,  336;  in  McKeesport 
recreaticA  groimds,  136;  in  Turkish 
Bath  Natatorium,  136;  in  Umted 
States  Sted  Corporatitm,  497;  b 
West  Parit,  336.  See  also  Plantt, 
fkytkal  eqttipmfnt  n^ 


Water-«l<weta— 

In  industrial  plants,  336-140,  374; 
in  United  States  Sted  Corporation, 
497.     See  also  Planit,  fhyiical  equip- 

WctM,  drlnkinc— 

In  industrial  [dants,  116-iiS,  174, 
Midland,  413,  United  States  Sted 
Coijioration.  496,  497;  legislation 
providing    lor    pure,    for    working 


Water  ahsd— 

Co-operation  throughout,  needed 
to  solve  water  and  sewage  probkm,  9 

Water  aapplT— 

Fami^',  in  Shaipeburg,  381, 18},  no 
ordinance  in  Homestud  requiring 
adequate,  13;  filtration  plant,  de- 
crease in  typhoid  fever  after  opera- 
tion of,  17,  30;  pure,  a  water-shed 
{HX)blem,8,9 

Wattlea  and  Sou,  W.  W.,  454 

Wealth- 
Pittsburgh  gigantic  in  creation  of, 
113;    principles  ap^ed  to  distribu- 
tion of,  117;    titanic  in  contests  toe 
division  of,  113 


Welfare  work— 

Devdopment  of  enqiloyei  through, 
157-359;  land  loaned  to  employes 
for  vc^table  farm,  16 1;  of  Amoridge 
Works  of  American  Bridge  Com- 
pany, 3611  of  Central  District  Tde- 
phone  Conqiany,  359;  of  department 
stores,  359,  160;  of  Krupps,  6;  of 
Mesta  Machine  Conqiany,  161;  of 
Standard  Sanitary  Manufacturing 
Company  through  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association,  361;  United 
States  Sted  Coiporation,  403;  re- 
sentment of  American  employes 
aroused  by,  15S;  term,  being  dromied 
in  Westinighouse  Air  Brake  Works  as 
in^prc^riate,  35S.  See  also  SweoK 
^  Safety,  Rditf,  SamtatioH  and  Wd- 

Welsh,  33.  317,  366 
West  Park,  336 
West  Virginia- 
Mine  workers,  167 
Weatem  Pennsylvania  Association 

of  the  national  League  for  Women 

Worken.    See  Women  viorkert 
WeBtlnghonse    Air    Brake    Works, 

136,  158,  364,  166,  414,  417,  468-491 
Weslingboiue  Electric  and  Manti- 

fftctnrinK  Company,  30,  143,  143, 


■d^yCoogle 


i68,  i8S,  119, 110,  zii,  118,  139,  33i> 
»33,  »3S.  ajS,  J43.  H4.  »6o.  afiQ.  3". 
380,  461-467 


Wat  mines.    See  Rutidltaam 
White  BUTerr.    See  ProOUution 
"Whitey  O,"  334, 33S 
Whitlock,  H«ror,  387 
WUkbubnrc,  16a 
WUmeidiiiK,  160, 414,  417 
Wilwm,  Robert,  363 
Wac,  Frank  E.,  17,  ao,  48 


Labor  laws  and  enforc«meDt,  11 
statute    legulating   cmf^ymoit 
children  in  tobarm  trade,  102 

Wall  1  fa  tirfa-Rinrirti  titti£^ti  ^  jj^ 

Wcoun'i  Leapie,  CcdioUc,  453 


agendea  tecuring   emplc^mcnt   (or, 


Council  of  Jewish,  453;  bcttxy  in- 
spection depaitmoit  Rpofts  lack  of 
'        ent  o(. 


metal   trades,   193.   194,   195,   196; 
boucs  <rf,  retaQ  clerks  regulated  by 


darker,  49;  labor  law  kc,  amended 
in  1913,  114,  as  amended  inchidea 
those  suhject  to  partial  aenmciCDs, 
Bmits  hours  of  work,  provides  for 

'     ■      ■  "  i, Witt  ■'  ■• 

J.  .^  ■  -  '««»i»»'  ***' 
duty  (M  factory  i^*!!***"*!  > 

'  MtnUe,  SOS,  nq 
ts"  for,  viobted, 


organisations  among,  258,  in  1914, 
4S3>  454!  Voung  Women's  Chrisiisn 
Assoaatiao  work  aamag,  453.  See 
aboGtrfi;    Sal/adliiia 

Women  and  the  Trade*— 

By  Elizabeth  B.  Butler,  27,  49, 

132,  194, 104,  279.  3S4,  453 
Women  of  the  underworld,  352,  353 
Women's  Trade  Dnion  LeafKe,  4S] 
Women  woAen  utd  aoctal   agen- 

cie«i  433. 454 

irlranla  Aanociation  of  the  Ha- 
tKmal  LMgne  for,  453 
Wood,  Major  John  P.,  445 
Woodlawn,  261 
Woods,  Robert  A.,  8 
Woods  Knn,  51 
Work-nccident  funds— 

At  Easen.  6 
Work-accident  prereotioa,  16,  198- 
206;  activities  of  Naijmal  Tibe 
Canq»ny,  395,  PittAar^  Sled 
Conqiany,  44,  United  States  Sttd 
CoqMTMion,  16,  »9.  43.  44.  >99.  aoo. 
^75;  ■PC™'  to  anpkijivn,  ogi- 
s,  foremen,  and  »offcm^  >»{■<>- 
-  "    ■  *6»;     by 


WelEarc,  United  Stales  Sted  Cespeaa- 
tiao,494;  canpanj  safety  cspot  far, 
198,199;    duty  of  factory  ■ 


^t  27,  '99.  200;  ,    _ 

and,  198, 199,  »os;  taooryB  . 

""  '  lacks  power  of  an^May 


580 


14.I7S.»7*.I77;  I 

for,  ■  iJKi^  i»*      .. 
lorcemcfU   by  factory   MifiFiiiis 
statotf  paDvvhng  far,  1984 I9K  n 


.d,Google 


ber  of  orders  given  for  guuding  mach- 
inery for,  198;  pubUdty  as  an  aid  in, 
35,  16;  recommendation  in  report 
on  factory  iuspectioD  concerning, 
311;  removal  of  nearby  saloon  as, 
jiQ.  See  also  Safeguardinf  em- 
ptoya;  Saftly  committee 

Work-accident  sUtistiea— 

No  local  or  state  compilation  of, 
44 

Work-accidents— 

And  old  liability  law,  35;  as- 
sumption of  risk  theory,  15.  16; 
cases  cited  showing  how,  have  handi- 
capped Slavs,  73,  74,  75,  76;  chief 
factory  in^iectors  characteristic  re- 
mark concerning,  197,  iqS;  com- 
missions appointed  to  investigate, 
loo;  compensation  for  fatal,  to  alien 
families  of  immigrant  wage-eamers, 
16,  44;  compensation  for,  to  immi- 
grant wage-earners,  44,  59;  deaths 
due  to  operation  of  cranes,  13,  35; 
deatlis  fnun,  not  shown  by  re[)orts 
of  bureau  of  health,  35;  discrepancy 
between  state  factory  inqiector's  re- 
port and  coroner's  records  in  report- 
mg  fatal,  197;  distribution  of  eco- 
nomic cost  caused  by,  »t,  37;  dtie  to 
non-enforcement  of  statute  providing 
for  guarding  of  machineiy,  198,  ipg; 
duties  of  factory  inspection  dmart- 
ment  concerning,  196,  197, 1981  fatal, 
r4,  3j;  fatal,  in  mines  and  mills, 
1908-1913,  as  shown  by  coroner's 
records,  (Table)  35;  fatal,  of  children, 
199;  in  Pennsylvania,  443!  ""  ""'er 
wards  and  East  End,  34;  in  steel  in- 
y  into,  by  Survey, 
3  prevention,  198- 
\  making  obligatory 
report  of,  to  Dq>artment  of  Labor 
and  Industry,  443 ;  legislation  provid- 
ing for  state  conunission  to  investi- 
gate, 44;  number  of,  rq>orted  by 
chief  factory  inspcxtor,  197;  per  cent 
of  fatal,  in  steel  industry,  197;  re- 
duction of,  by  safety  work  in  United 
States  Steel  Corporation,  496;  report 
of  National  Croatian  Society  showing 
number  of  fatal  and  disabling,  among 
members,  73,  74;  rq>orts  of  factory 
inspectitm  depanment  lack  adequate 
statistics  concerning,  104,  196,  197, 
iqo;  Stuupsburg  chiltuvn  in  tube 
mills,  194,  395;   Slavs  greatest  suf- 


sSr 


ferers  from,  73,  74;  soctal  and  eco- 
nomic cost  of,  24,  35,  16,  37;  state 
commis^on  appointed  to  investigate, 
34,  35, 177,  law  drafted  by,  defeated, 
177;  study  of  fatal,  by  Survey,  43; 
system  of  reporting,  in  America 
compared  with  European  countries, 
197.  in  Minnesota,  197,  in  New 
York,  197;  to  inmiigTant  wage- 
earners,  43;  United  States  Steel 
Corporation  action  for  relief  of,  loo; 
victims  of,  as  beggars,  337.  See  also 
Oceupatiimal  danger 

Work-Accid«ntt  ud  tli«  Law— 

By  Crystal  Eastman,  35,  43.  73i 
I7S,  197.  "9*.  '99.  »">.  »4S.  264,443 

Work-«ccidenta,  miners' — 

Death  rate  from,  in  Belgium,  175, 
in  France,  176.  in  Great  Britain,  175, 
in  United  States,  175;  deaths  fnnn, 
in  Allegheny  County,  175,  176; 
fatal,  as  shown  by  coroner's  recmds, 
35;  measures  for  preventHW  of ,  token 
by  operators,  176;  no  adequate 
measure  for  prevention  <rf,  173; 
preventable,  175,  176,  r77j  pre- 
ventive legislation,  176,  177;  station 
for  investigation  of  mine  eiplod<ms 
established  under  United  States 
Geological  Survey,  177;  steps  taken 
hy  federal  government  for  preven- 
tion of,  14,  177;  subject  of  com- 
plaint   at    labor    conventions,    175 


Working  conditions,  174;  among 
immigrant  wage-earners,  43;  better- 
ment of,  37,  39;  brewery  wOTken, 
'37. 138,  »S8, 4S4;  effea  of,  on  Slavs, 
62;  effect  of  unionism  on  [Htigressive 
improvement  of,  185, 1S7;  improved, 
shown  by  photographs  in  museum  of 
safety  appliances,  494;  improvement 
of,  through  borough  and  dty  govon- 
ments,  358,  through  factory  legisla- 
tion and  enforcement,  358,  through 
outside  agencies,  158,  ihroi^  welfare 
work,  357-359,  through  Young  Men's 
Christian  Asiodatian,  358;  in  Amer- 
ica, 38;  in  Pittsburgh  in  1914,  39, 30; 
in  steel  industry,  39, 176;  'nit" ■'Til  to 
health,  37.  See  also  Atmosfheric  eoM- 
diiiom;  ImluslHal  kygtent;  Phut, 
pkyacal  ej    ' '        '    * 


■d^yCoogle 


Varidngmon— 

Resource  ol  induitruJ  center,  14, 
iS,  ag 

Woifclncmen'i  compniMtion,  16, 17; 
bin  kSled  in  1913,  316;  Dtiaxity 
Mgues  for  New  Jersey  Bystem  of, 
mo;  effective  factory  in^tcction  nec- 
casaiy  because  of  Uck  oi  provinoa 
for,  199;  employeis,  lack  incentive  to 
prevent  kcdoentt  because  of  absence 
of,  bw,  19Q,  100^  fulure  to  enact 
le^slatkm  providing  ioi  voluntary, 
(ystcra,4^;  legislation  or  state  insur- 
ance l^iiiation  enacted  in  11  states, 
>oo;  Pennsylvania  last  to  enact,  legis- 
lation,  36,  1001  Btate  commission  t^ 

Cted  to  investigate.  14,  35,  177, 
drafted  by,  defeated,  177,  legis- 
lature of  1915  to  amsider  report  baaed 
on  invcsdgatimi  of,  177.  See  also 
BMphyers'  liatiiUy;    Relief  and  feit- 


Work!  cominitt«e>— 

Employes'  development    through, 
370,  371,  »7i 

WoAshop  and  Communitr,  3-30 

Wriglit,  Jr.,  R.  R.,  96-iog,  419,  430 

Yardmen.    See  Raihcay  employes 

Yeggs,  336-335;  Allegheny  City  hang- 
outs dosed  after  annexation,  335; 
Allegheny  City  harboring,  who 
"worked"  ebewhere,  337;  Allegheny 
City  termed  by,  "The  Fence,"  337, 
334-  335;  author's  introduction  to, 
in  Pittsburgh,  339;  "Baldy  CaUa- 
han"  or  " Cleveland  Jim, "  3^0; 
Baldwin  Locomotive  Works,  Umon 
Iron  Works  ol  San  Francisco,  Pullman 
Car  Shops  in  Chicago,  Weatinghouse 
planta  in  East  Pittsburgh,  as  fields 
of  operation  for,  337;  "best  works 
in  which  to  make  a  pitch"  according 
3»7;   "BiUy  Kid,^'  33i[    "Burly 


.,     -     .    ,  ..■■        •  J'^'    ^'' 

cnpple  factory,"  334;   CroaB-coim- 

try  Jumps,"  330-333;  "Denver 
Shine,"  331;  description  of  open- 
tiou  of  two,  339:  Mming.  of,  on 
pay  day  at  Pressed  Steel  Car  WoAs, 
334;  fake  cripples  closdy  akin  to, 
334<  335>  f^e  cripi^es'  hMdquarten 
rend^vous  for,  335;  few,  found  in 
Pittsburgh  in  1908.  333,  334;  field  of 

r rations  of,  316,  337;  hang-outs 
,  ?I7.  334.  335:  "Hariigan,"  331; 
"lUinois  Jimmy,"  331;  "jocker," 
and  crippled  boys,  338,  339;  "K.  C 
Red, "  331 J  "  Louise  Jimmy," 
33:;  "LosSlim,"33i;  "MickeyG.," 
331;  national  characters,  336;  na- 
tional ramifications  of,  331;  "New 
Orleans  Ray,"  3^1;  "Old  Bildy," 
331;  on  the  "Mam  Stem"  319,  330; 
Pinkerton's  descriptian  of,  316; 
Pittsburgh  a  "Hostile  Town,"  333- 
Te^de^vous  for^  at  "Whitney 


"Riverside     Slim," 


Allegheny  City,  334,  ^35; 
ide  Slim,  331;  saloon 
opened  by  "Scranton  jimmy"  fre- 
quently raided  and  finaUy  dosed  by 
liini.  333,  333;  slayers  trf  "Swedisii 
Clara,'^  ._  ,  "  "" 

Ellis  as  to  Pittsburgh  conditions  and 
operations  of,  337,  358,  330;  "Tea 
West,"    331;     "Texas    Red,"    331; 


rorking"  the  factories,  397- 

3'9 

Yellow  Row- 
Razed    during    Mayor    Gutlirie's 
administration,  31,  350 

Young  Hen's  Christian  AisocUtlon, 
5t,  358,  3tio,  361.  301;  all  nations' 
singiiig  c»ntest  held  by,  417;  at  Wil- 
merdin^,  360,  414;  at  Preston,  418; 
classes  in  dvics,  416,  417,  in  En^ish, 
415,  416;  for  Negroes  opened,  436; 
in  Harbison  and  Walker  Refractories 
Con^iany,  41S;  in  miung  districts, 
41S;  out-of-door  lectures,  416;  wcnk 
for  immigrants  in  the  Pittsburg  Dis- 
trict, 6a,  from  190Q  to  1914,  414-41S 

Young  Women's  Christlin  AssocU- 


S82 


At  Wilmerding,  361 


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THE  PITTSBURGH  SUKVEY.  Rodbiss  in  six  Tolomes.  edtted 
by  Paul  U.  Ketlogg.  Sto.  Fi^j  iHtutrated  with  photos 
by  f^e  and  drawing  by  Joseph  Stella.  Maps,  charts,  and 
twles.    Price  per  set.  postpaid,  $10. 

THE   mrSBtntGH    DISISICIi    one    frontage.    S7«    p>bw.    PDBpilil. 

VAGE-EAKNING  FITTSBURGH.     MO  ■>■(«.    TammmlO.  SI.73. 

WOHKH    ARD  THE  TRADES.     Br  EUubMh   BuidaW  Bmlu.     Id  ailttkMi. 

««>  paRO.    Poripiad,  St  .73. 
WORK-JLCCIDENTS  ARD  THE  LAW.    Br  Cryaul  "■-'"ft-      350  ■»■■■.     Fsat- 

P«tJ.il.72. 
THE  STEEL  WORKERS.     By  John  A.  FHdi,  R«v  T«k  Dapt,  of  Labor.     SSO 

paiH.     PoMiHld,  $1.73. 
HOHESTEAOi  THE  HOUSEHOLDS  OF  A  KILL  TOWR.    Br  ECuaurt  F.  Brtai- 

ton.     ItOftt—-    PiwipiliLSI.70. 

WEST  SIDE  STUDIES.  Embodyios  the  results  of  an  investi- 
Sation  into  social  and  economic  conditions  on  the  Middle 
West  Side  of  New  York,  carried  on  tmder  the  direction  of 
Pauline  Goldmark.  la  two  volumes.  I2mo.  Ufus.  Price 
per  Tolume.  $2.00  postpaid. 

THE  KIDIXJE  WEST  SII«i  A  HISTORICAL  SKETCH.     BrOlboG.Cutwtltbt. 

m«.     «0m«.  ^ 

■iOTHERS    WHO    HDST    EARR.     Br  Kuthuliic  Anthsor.    Ulia.     324  etfm. 

PabUatma  la  eu  tobaaa.    hM«ald,  t2M>. 

BOTHOOD  AHP  LAWLESSHBSS.     Dla.     204  hmh. 
THE  NBGLBCTBD  GIRL.    Br  Rntb  S.  Tn».     14S  pain. 
PabUsbd  ta  on*  nhimc.    hMfHld.  t2M>. 

THREE  PRACTICAL  BOOKS  ON  HOUSING. 

A  lltHtBL  HOUSmC  LAW.    Bj  Ltwmem  VmaUr,    Sn.  SO  Dbfnsu.   352  mna. 

PMIp-M.  S2.0CL 
HOUSING  RHFORES.     A  Hudbook  (or  Uaa  In  Amuleu  OiIh.    Br  Lawnau 


tlJ6. 

WORKINGMEN'S  INSURANCE  IN  EUROPE.  By  Lee  K. 
Frankel  and  Miles  M.  Dawson,  with  the  co-operation  tA  Louis 
LDubllo.  Svo.  450piu:eB.  I45tables.  2ded.  Postpaid, $2.70. 

FATIGUE  AND  EFFICIENCY.  By  Josephine  Goldmark.  In- 
troduction by  Frederic  S.  Lee,  PhJ>.  Appendix  shows  com- 
parathre  schedules  of  hours  and  extracts  from  laws  on 
women's  labor.    8to.    358  pages.    4th  ed.  Postpaid,  $2.00. 

THE  DELINQUENT  CHILD  AND  THE  HOMEi  A  Study  of 
Children  in  the  Chicaso  Juvenile  Court.  By  Sophonlsba  P. 
Breeklnridse  and  Edith  Abbott.  8to.  360  pages.  Postpald,$2.00. 

SOCIAL  WORK  IN  HOSPITALS.  By  Ida  M.  Cannon.  R.  N. 
12mo.    272  pages.    Postpaid,  $1.50. 

WORKING  GIRLS  IN  EVENING  SCHOOLS.  By  Mary  Van 
Kleeck.     Illus.     I2mo.    258  pages.    Postpaid,  $1.50. 

WOMEN  IN  THE  BOOKBINDING  TRADE.  By  Mary  Van 
Kleeck.    Illus.     I2mo.    290  pages.    Postpaid,  $1.50. 


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ARTIFZCIAL  FLOWER  MAKERS.   By  Mary  Van  Elecck.  HIus. 

I2mo.    280  pages.    Postpaid,  $1.50. 
SALESWOMEN  IN  MERCANTILE  STORES.    Baltimore,  1909. 

By  Elizabeth  Beardsley  Butler.    Ulus.     I2mo.    234  pages. 

2d  ed.  Qoth,  postpaid,  $1.08.  Paper,  postpaid,  $0.75. 
THE    STANDARD    OF    LIVING    AMONG    WORKINGMEN'S 

Families  m  Net  Yore  Cttt.   By  Robert  Coit  Ch^>in, 

PtuD.    &T0.    388  pages.     131  tables.    Postpaid,  $2.00. 


_, mm,WLrd^PhJ>.    lOu.   13m. 

jBUdMW-     adwttUea.    PistiMid,  St  J5. 
UGGARCS  in  ODK  SCHOCXS.    A  Stnfr  id  RatudiUaa  tnd  Bhnla»tiBm.    Bj 

UgaudP.Art*a.PhJ>.   In.  TSXpafm.   4t)i  wttHoa.  INmpsU, S).SO. 
HEDICAL  inSPECnOFI  OF  SCHOOLS.    B*  LottiB  H>1«t  CdIA,  HJX.  iwl 

L«BHd  P.  ArMib  PhJX     moL     Bn.    344  tmfm.    4lh  aAtoB.  CDHplKtatr 

mlHd.    PoMpald,  SI.50 

CORRECTION  AND  PREVENTION.  Four  Tolumes  prepared 
for  the  El^th  International  Prison  Congress.  Edited  by 
Charles  Rkhmond  Henderson,  PhJD.  870.  Price  per  set, 
express  prepaid,  SlOt  per  volume,  $2.50  net. 

PKISOR  XEFOKIL  BrCbu.  K.  KaaOmwiio,  P.  B.  SMbnctt.  P.  H.  Wlaa  ud 
Odwn.  And  CRUiraAL  LAT  m  THE  UIOIBD  STATES.  Br  B— ■■■ 
Smltb.    Illfii     3U  imM      INmhhM.  S1.47. 

PBNAL  AND  KBP0MIATOR7  inSTTnrnORS.    Br 
m,M.    »M>M— •    POMpilii.  SUO. 

FRBVEnnVB  AGBRCIBS  ARD  HEmoDS.    B*  OuUs 

PREVBfniVB  TKBATHBnr  OF  NEGLECTED  OOLIMtER. 
Hut,  LLJX  VIA  w»fl  **P«  br  ladlaf  aaAiKWH. 
POstMtd,  S3.70, 

CARRYING  OUT  THE  CTTY  PLAN.  By  Flavel  ShorUefif. 
Iq  collaboration  with  Frederick  Law  Olmsted.  J2mo.  362 
pages.    Postpaid,  $2.00. 


RECENTLY  PUBLISHED  by  Surrey  Associates.  Inc. 

OOK   SLAVIC   FELLOW  ClI'lZBRS.    Br  EidIIt  Gnu*  Bskb.    Put  L  Shflc 

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Sm.    SSOiMfa.     4»  (idl-1«t«  I"'-"" " ^  «  m 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  SOOAL  WOKK.  ~ 

344  PMu.    id -"■■-- 

SOCIAL  PORCBS. 

Hn  Toifc  Seb___ 

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