WILLIAM E. SCHEUERMAN
Canton and the Great Steel
Strike of 1919: A Marriage
of Nativism and Politics
Prior to 1900 the production of iron
and steel in the United States
was primarily the domain of the skilled
"English-speaking" worker.1
By the turn of the century, however,
the skilled worker was becom-
ing extraneous. Technological
innovations in the production of steel
deskilled the labor force, and
immigrants from southern and eastern
Europe flocked to America's steelmills
to assume the bulk of the low-
paying, "backbreaking"
unskilled jobs.2 The new immigrants usual-
ly
settled in dilapidated
neighborhoods near the mill-often re-
ferred to as Hunkeyvilles-where they
followed social and cultural
patterns alien to the American
experience.3 Consequently, they were
frequently the targets of xenophobia
and nativism. The popular view
of the "hunkies" as stupid
beasts of burden was supported by the
immigrants' squalid living conditions,
their willingness to work long
hours at the most arduous jobs, and
their sporadic drunken revel-
ries.4
William E. Scheuerman is Associate
Professor of Political Science at State University
of New York at Oswego.
1. David Brody, Steelworkers in
America: The Non Union Era (N.Y., 1960), 96-111.
U.S. Congress, Senate, Immigrants in
Industries, Part Two: Iron and Steel Manufactur-
ing, I, 61st Congress, 2nd session, Senate Document 633
(hereafter referred to as Senate
Document 633).
2. Brody, Steelworkers in America, 96-111;
Senate Document 633; Report on Condi-
tions of Employment in the Iron and
Steel Industry in the United States, II,
U.S. Com-
mission on Labor, 1913 (hereafter
referred to as Labor Conditions).
3. For some general works concerning
eastern and southern European immigrants in
the steel industry, see John Bodnar, Immigration
and Industrialization: Ethnicity in an
American Mill Town, 1870-1940 (Pittsburgh, 1977); James R. Green, The World of the
Worker: Labor in Twentieth Century
America (New York, 1980).
4. For a good analysis of the complex
relationship between the skilled native worker
and the unskilled immigrant in the steel
industry, see Henry B. Leonard, "Ethnic
Cleavage and Industrial Conflict in Late
19th Century America: The Cleveland Rolling
Mill Company Strikes of 1882 and
1885," Labor History, 20 (Fall, 1979), 524-48. Whiting
Williams, a "Labor relations
expert" who studied labor conditions in the steel indus-
Canton and the Great Steel
Strike
69
Nativistic hatred of these new
immigrants reached its apex during
the postwar Red Scare of 1919-1920.5
Revolutions in central and
eastern Europe convinced America's
growing bloc of superpatriotic
"hundred percenters" that the
alien was not to be trusted. If not
viewed as revolutionaries, the new
immigrants were often seen as will-
ful dupes of foreign agitators. In fact,
almost anything foreign was per-
ceived as subversive, and the various
levels of American government
enthusiastically used their repressive
powers to crush the country's
un-American Left.
The nativist reaction in Ohio was
particularly extreme. After a
Cleveland May Day battle in 1919 between
5,000 marchers and sever-
al hundred policemen, many Ohioans
sincerely believed that the
"American way of life" was on
the verge of collapse. Chapters of the
Loyal American League, vigilantees who
provided governing officials
with information on "enemy
aliens," were formed and helped galva-
nize the Ohio General Assembly into
passing a harsh criminal syndi-
calism act.6
Unfortunately for advocates of organized
labor, the Great Steel
Strike of 1919, the backbone of which
was the immigrant worker,7
occurred during the height of the Red
Scare. The association of the
alien with the steel strike encouraged
state and local burghers
throughout the United States to use
their police powers to crush the
industry's nascent labor movement. Violence
was commonplace and
civil liberties were often suspended as
elected officials sought to
maintain order and protect private
property.8 The trouble with this
try by working in the mills, chastised
the industry's managers for assuming that
"Hunkies" like to work. See
Whiting Williams to J. H. Foster, April 1, 1919, Western
Reserve Historical Society, Whiting
Williams Papers, Container 1, Folder 2.
5. The literature on this subject is
voluminous, but works which are especially perti-
nent include Stanley Coben, "A
Study in Nativism: The American Red Scare of 1919-
1920," Political Science
Quarterly, 79 (March, 1964), 52-75; Kate H. Claghorn, "Aliens
and Sedition in New York," The
Survey, 56 (Jan. 7, 1920), 422-23. Robert Murray's Red
Scare (New York, 1971) also provides a good overview of the
times. For an analysis of
red-baiting and violence during the 1919
steel strike, see David Brody, Labor in Crisis
(Philadelphia, 1965); for a view of the
Red Scare in Ohio, see Richard A. Folk, "So-
cialist Party of Ohio-War and Free
Speech," Ohio History, 78 (Spring, 1969), 104-15.
6. For a discussion of the relationship
between the Red Scare and the labor move-
ment in Ohio, see Raymond Boryczka and
Lorin Lee Carey, No Strength Without Un-
ion: An Illustrated History of Ohio
Workers, 1803-1980 (Columbus, 1982),
158-67.
7. See the Commission of Inquiry, The
Interchurch World Movement, Report on the
Steel Strike of 1919 (hereafter referred to as Steel Strike of 1919). U.S.
Senate, Commit-
tee on Labor and Education, Report to
the Senate on the Causes of the Steel Strike,
66th Congress, 1st session, 1919.
William Z. Foster, The Great Steel Strike (New York,
1969); Senate Document 633.
8. For examples, see Steel Strike of
1919 and Brody, Labor in Crisis.
70 OHIO HISTORY
approach, however, was that in some
communities labor could swing
an election by voting hostile officials
out of office. Canton, Ohio, was
one such community.9 Yet,
despite the polarizing affects of the hys-
teria, Canton's political atmosphere was
far more complex than the
simple issue of natives versus
foreigners. Thus when Canton busi-
nessmen requested Governor James Cox to
intervene against rioting
strikers whom local officials could not
control, the governor's presi-
dential ambitions came into play, as
well as his skill at realpolitik:
Cox's failure to respond would damage
his standing with the busi-
ness community and tarnish his
reputation as a nativist, but interven-
tion against the strikers could soil
his image as a friend of labor.10
Faced with a political dilemma surely
the bane of many candidates
for office, Mr. Cox extricated himself
by turning these potentially po-
litically disastrous circumstances to
his advantage.
This short essay analyzes how Governor
Cox astutely rode the
crest of the nativist reaction by
manipulating Canton's unique political
situation to gain the support of
organized labor. In analyzing the gov-
ernor's actions this work not only
provides a rare examination of the
historic 1919 strike on the local
level, but in so doing also illuminates
the complex social, economic, and
political forces which focused on
Canton during the Great Steel Strike of
1919.
I
Canton's geographical location was
uniquely conducive to the
growth and development of manufacturing
and trade. Located al-
most equidistant from the coal fields
of West Virginia and Pennsyl-
vania and the thriving industrial
centers along the Great Lakes,
Canton's manufacturers prospered, and
by 1919 the iron and steel in-
dustry was at the forefront of the
city's more than two hundred fac-
tories. Indeed, after developing slowly
over several decades, Can-
ton's steel industry expanded rapidly
after the turn of the century,
and by 1920 employed over ten thousand
workers.11 Most of the
9. David Brody refers to Canton, Ohio,
as a steel town which was a useful ally of
the union. He bases this conclusion on
the favorable reaction of ministers of all denom-
inations to a 1901 strike in that city.
See Brody, Steelworkers in America, 122.
10. For a view of Cox's problems, see
James M. Cox, Journey Through My Years
(New York, 1946), 265-68.
11. This information was compiled from the following
sources: Edward T. Heald,
Free People at Work, 1919-1955 (Canton, 1955); E. T. Heald, "Canton's Birth and
His-
tory," in the Canton
Sesquicentennial, 1955, sponsored by the Canton Sesquicentenni-
al Corporation, 7-127; John H. Behman,
ed., A Standard History of Stark County, Ohio
Canton and the Great Steel
Strike 71
steelworkers were associated with the
Berger Industries which in-
cluded the Berger Manufacturing Company,
the Stark Rolling Mill,
the United Furnace Company, the Canton
Stamping and Enamel
Company, and the United Steel Company.
In 1916 the United Steel
Company was reorganized as the United
Alloy Steel Company, and a
modern new plant, operated entirely by
electricity, was constructed.
The new company's huge electrical
machines moved raw materials
and finished products through the mill,
thus rendering obsolete
many of the traditional skills of
heating and rolling, which were now
built into the machines. The United
Alloy Steel Company employed
between 5,000 and 6,000 workers, but its
new technology greatly min-
imized the need for highly skilled
labor. Consequently, the bulk of
the workers were semiskilled machine
operators or unskilled labor-
ers. 12 The reorganized steel company
was now the leader in techno-
logical innovation, but its supremacy
was not unchallenged. At the
start of World War I, Canton's
steelmakers could boast of having the
largest roller-bearing company in the
world; the builder of the
world's largest electric furnace; the
first large-scale producer of vana-
dium alloy steel; the world's largest
roll plant; and the largest manu-
facturer of seamless tubing.13
Canton's rapidly growing technologically
innovative steel industry
increased the need for more workers. As
late as 1914, the city's six
steel plants and rolling mills employed
3,799 wage earners, some 31
percent of the city's labor force. By
the end of 1919, the same six
plants, stimulated by the demands of
World War I, employed 10,128
workers or 49.7 percent of Canton's
labor force.14 The new workers,
however, were mainly unskilled
immigrants from eastern and south-
ern Europe. The influx of new immigrants
substantially altered Can-
ton's ethnic composition and provided
the basis for a local nativist
reaction just prior to the 1919 steel
strike.
In 1910, 8,648 foreign-born whites lived
in Canton, about half of
(Chicago and New York, 1916); J. W.
Hughmanic, Canton's Story of Steel, clippings
from the Canton Repository, April
7, 8, and 9, 1946, Western Reserve Historical Socie-
ty, Cleveland, Ohio. U.S. Census Office,
14th Census, 1920, Fourteenth Census of the
United States Taken in the Year 1920.
Manufactures: 1919. Washington, 1923,
IX (here-
after referred to as 14th Census of
Manufactures, 1920), 1180.
12. See Hughmanic, "United Alloy
Steel Corporation's Works," Iron Age, 105 (Janu-
ary 14, 1919), 72-77; also Katherine
Stone, "The Origins of Job Structures in the Steel
Industry," The Review of Radical
Political Economics, 6 (Summer, 1972), 61-97; Rich-
ard Edwards, Contested Terrain: The
Transformation of the Work Place in the Twentieth
Century (New York, 1979).
13. Heald, "Canton's Birth and
History," 107.
14. 14th Census of Manufactures,
1920, 1180.
72 OHIO HISTORY
whom were southern and eastern
Europeans; most others were Cana-
dians and northern Europeans. Germans
comprised the largest single
ethnic group; slightly more than one of
every four immigrants was
born in Germany. But as unskilled
immigrant labor poured into the
city's steel mills, Canton's ethnic
composition underwent an abrupt
and drastic change. By 1920 the
immigrant population increased to
14,680, 65 percent of whom were eastern
and southern Europeans.
Greeks and Italians each replaced the
Germans as the largest group.
Now only approximately one of eleven
immigrants was German, while
one in four was either Greek or
Italian. 15
The new immigrants not only assumed
low-paying, unskilled posi-
tions at the workplace, often
physically and psychologically removed
from skilled native workers, their
living arrangements frequently mir-
rored this ethnic and occupational
isolation. They tended to settle in
ethnic clusters where they developed a
wide range of religious and
secular institutions and a sense of
community.16 About two-thirds of
Canton's Italian immigrants resided in
the fourth ward alone, and
nearly 80 percent of the city's Greeks
lived in either the fourth or
fifth ward. Similar residential
patterns were repeated with the less
numerically significant ethnic groups.17
The influx of thousands of new
immigrants created a number of
serious social problems. The
foreigners' squalid living conditions
spawned disease, alcoholism, and crime,
conditions exacerbated by
the fact that many of these
"globe-trotting proletarians" were tran-
sients who came to the United States to
work in the mills until they
could save enough money to pay their
debts or buy farmland in the
old country.18 To realize
this goal they were often willing to tolerate
the most abject living and working
conditions. Since they could only
save money if they worked, immigrant
workers were generally docile
employees. Their lifestyles, however,
rendered them susceptible to
crime and vice. The majority of new
immigrants were peasants who
now found themselves in an alien urban
environment. Many were ei-
ther unmarried or had left their wives
and families in Europe until
they could earn their stake.19 Craving
companionship, they social-
15. U.S. Census Office, 13th Census,
1910, Thirteenth Census of the United States
Taken in the Year 1910. Washington, 1913, III, 426; U.S. Census Office, 14th
Census,
1920, Fourteenth Census of the United
States Taken in the Year 1920, Washington, 1922,
III, 798 (both hereafter referred to as 13th
Census 1910 or 14th Census 1920).
16. See Brody, Steelworkers in
America, 102-04; also, Leonard, "Ethnic Cleavage
and Industrial Conflict in Late 19th
Century America," 445-46.
17. 13th Census 1910, 426; 14th
Census 1920, 798.
18. Brody, Steelworkers in America; Green,
The World of the Worker, 3-31.
19. In 1920 approximately 68.5 percent
of Canton's foreign-born population were
Canton and the Great Steel
Strike 73
ized in neighborhood saloons where they
frequently drank copious
amounts of beer and whiskey. Gambling,
prostitution, drunkenness,
and violence were part of their
experience in the new country. Native
Americans tolerated the foreigners'
indiscriminate lifestyles because
the immigrants were considered barely
human; and, after all, they
were generally obedient workers who
kept to themselves. By the
summer of 1919, however, intolerance
now characterized the attitude
of native Americans toward the
immigrant.
One of the first fruits of the nativist
reaction was the passing of state
and local dry laws. In November 1918,
as political support for the
proposed eighteenth amendment grew,
Ohio's voters approved a
constitutional amendment providing for
statewide prohibition. The
new state dry law took effect on May 27,
1919. Not to be outdone,
Canton's city council passed its own
ordinance prohibiting the un-
lawful manufacturing or sale of
intoxicating liquors.20 Prohibition was
a progressive act designed in some part
to give the native-born Prot-
estant majority control over the new
immigrants.21 Once prohibition
was passed, the immigrants' drinking
and socializing in saloons were
suddenly illegal. The flaunting of the
newly enacted dry laws by
many foreign-born bootleggers and
immigrant-run speakeasies
heightened the public's fears and
triggered a law-and-order cam-
paign specifically directed at Canton's
alien population.22
The attack on the immigrants' lifestyle,
now sanctioned by state-
wide prohibition, was given further
impetus as foreign steelworkers
became increasingly militant. The First
World War reduced the im-
migrants' mobility and forced them to
reexamine their commitment
to America. The war economy, higher
wages, and the federal govern-
ment's more positive attitude toward
unions provided the foreigner
with incentives to remain in the United
States after the war. While
many of Canton's immigrants returned to
Europe, most made a per-
manent commitment to the United States.23
The decision to stay in
America affected the workers'
expectations and made them respon-
sive to the American Federation of
Labor's National Committee for
male, about 70.7 percent were between
the ages of 20 and 44, and only 7 percent were
below the age of 19. For the native
white population the figures are as follows: about
51.1 male; 43.7 percent between 20 and
44, and slightly more than 39.4 percent were
under 17 years. 14th Census, 1920.
20. Minutes, Canton City Council, June
23, 1919, Ordinance No. 4357.
21. Jacquelin Fear and Helen McNeil,
"The Twenties," in Bradley and Temperley,
eds., Introduction to American
Studies (New York, 1981), 204.
22. There are numerous newspaper
accounts of this issue in the Canton Evening Re-
pository, Canton Daily News, and the Massillon Evening Independent.
23. Minutes, Canton City Council, July
14, 1919; Canton Daily News, July 23, 1919.
74 OHIO HISTORY
Organizing the Steel Industry.24 The
AFL had initiated organiza-
tional efforts in 1918 and, as David
Brody points out, "It was the im-
migrants who really gave impetus to the
organizational drive."25 By
the summer of 1919 the organizing drive
was in full swing and the
threat of a massive steel strike loomed
large on the horizon.
Unfortunately for Canton's mayor,
Democrat Charles E. Poorman,
the political climate of 1919 was
inhospitable to anything but the
most zealous administration of the law.
From the onset of Poorman's
administration, however, it was apparent
that he could not be a
forceful administrator in this
Republican-controlled city. At best,
Poorman had a tenuous working
relationship with his Republican
colleagues on the city council, and by
the summer of 1919 he was
in a most precarious position. The
Democratic mayor, confronted
with a possible primary challenge in
August and a general election in
November, could not count on the support
and cooperation of the
Republican-dominated council to deal
with what promised to be a
disruptive steel strike and the public's
demand for strict enforcement
of the dry laws.
Public disenchantment with the mayor's
performance finally sur-
faced two weeks before primary day when
the Reverend C. W. Re-
card, Pastor of Canton's First
Congregational Church, made head-
lines by calling for Mr. Poorman's
defeat. Describing Canton as
"immoral and unclean" and
alleging that the police were soft on eth-
nics, Recard chastised the mayor, Public
Safety Officer Hamaker,
and Police Chief C. N. Riblet for
tolerating crime, drinking, gambling
and prostitution.26 In urging
Poorman's defeat, Recard said:
I have warm personal regard for Mayor
Poorman as a private citizen. I believe
he is a clean man in his personal
character, but he is a raw heathen as a city
administrator.27
The very next day, the possibility of a
primary challenge became a
reality when some forty-five local
Democrats, including several candi-
24. Some two million workers joined
labor unions during the war, but the gains in
the iron and steel industry were
minimal. The gains that were achieved were primarily
the result of the policies of the War
Labor Board which protected union members.
They were not the result of the organizational policies
of the Amalgamated Associa-
tion. See Lewis L. Lorwin, The
American Federation of Labor (Washington, D.C.,
1933), 181; Raymond Patrick Kent,
"The Development of Industrial Unionism in the
American Iron and Steel Industry"
(unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of
Pittsburgh, 1938).
25. Brody, Labor in Crisis, 75.
26. Canton Evening Repository, July
28, 1919; Canton Daily News, July 28, 1919.
27. Canton Daily News, July 28,
1919; July 29, 1919.
Canton and the Great Steel
Strike 75
dates for local office, met to form a
Herman R. Witter for Mayor Club.
According to newspaper accounts of the
event, the founders of the
Witter Club felt that Mr. Witter was a
stronger candidate than Poor-
man and, consequently, despite
entreaties from the Mayor, proceed-
ed with their plans to support the
challenger.
To further plague Poorman, two days
after the formation of the
Witter Club was announced, the issues
of vice and corruption in the
city's foreign quarter were back in the
headlines. A public scandal
developed when Police Chief Riblet
suspended a patrolman for tak-
ing a bribe from a foreigner; two
people purportedly witnessed the
bribe. After an administrative hearing
before Safety Director Hamak-
er, the officer was cleared of all
charges. In exonerating the police-
man, Hamaker noted that one witness was
a foreigner, a Greek, and
the other witness was only recently
released from Massillon State
Hospital. During the hearing, questions
were raised concerning Chief
Riblet's knowledge of the alleged
bribe, and the newspapers sug-
gested that the accused officer was
either caught in the middle of a
struggle between Riblet and Poorman or
was "set up" by "Greeks"
in the spirit of revenge.28 In
any case, the incident received daily
press coverage and the public was
constantly reminded that the au-
thorities might not be doing their job.
The only open question was
who was at fault: the police officer,
the chief, or the mayor.29
The charges of crime and corruption
were further highlighted by a
series of articles in the Canton
Daily News. Supporting the claim that
Ohio's dry law was being openly
violated by ethnics, the News print-
ed stories of liquor sales involving
the complicity of the police. The
paper claimed that six Canton saloons
within a five-minute walk of
the police station were selling
intoxicants, and one city policeman was
spotted standing before a bar while ten
customers were served whis-
key for thirty cents a glass.30 The
News also printed a front-page story
directly implicating the mayor in the
illegal sale of whiskey. Accord-
ing to this article, city officials
refused to issue a license to still anoth-
er local dance hall, the Eve Cafe,
because liquor was sold there. An
attorney for the club called the mayor
and denied the city's allega-
tions. After hearing the attorney's
case, Poorman was informed by
the News that liquor was indeed
being sold at the cafe. Three days
later, despite this information, the
mayor saw to it that the club re-
28. Canton Evening Repository, August 9, 1919; Canton Daily News, August 1,
1919.
29. Canton Evening Repository, August
3, 6, and 9, 1919; Canton Daily News, August
1, 7, 1919.
30. Canton Daily News, August 9,
1919.
76 OHIO HISTORY
ceived its license. Poorman justified
his actions by claiming that the
cafe's owners had agreed to stop
selling liquor.31
Three days prior to the primary
election, Mayor Poorman re-
sponded to the charges of impropriety
and vice by suspending Police
Chief Riblet. The mayor, attempting to
deflect blame elsewhere, ac-
cused Riblet of tolerating corruption
and charged him with neglect of
duty and incompetence.32 Despite
his efforts to blame the police
chief for failure to enforce Canton's
laws, Poorman himself was greet-
ed with new charges of incompetence and
duplicity. Furthermore,
two days after the suspension, the
Republican city solicitor and the
city prosecutor publicly criticized the
mayor's treatment of Riblet,
attributing it to political motives.
They announced that they would
not prosecute the police chief.33
The results of the primary election,
held on August 12, clearly indi-
cated that the public wanted no more of
Charles Poorman: the may-
or was thoroughly defeated at the polls
by Herman Witter, 950 votes
to 570. But Witter had little to
rejoice about; his Republican oppo-
nent in the upcoming election, Harold
A. Schrantz, a former mayor
who had defeated Witter for the
presidency of the city council in
1917, won the Republican primary
overwhelmingly, garnering more
than twice as many votes as the
Democratic nominee, and looked like
a sure winner in the forthcoming
general election.
Two days after the primary,
approximately 800 workers at the Berg-
er Manufacturing Company walked off the
job over the issues of a
standard wage scale and union
recognition. The Berger workers
formed Victory Lodge No. 110, Canton,
Ohio, of the Amalgamated
Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin
Workers of North America, one of
the unions associated with the AFL's
National Committee for Organ-
izing Iron and Steel Workers. Their
struggle soon blended with that
31. Ibid. The News articles
were substantiated in late August when ten saloon keep-
ers were arrested for the illegal sale of alcohol,
including the operator of the Eve Cafe.
Canton Daily News, August 21, 1919.
32. Specifically, Poorman charged that
Riblet "has failed, neglected and refused to
enforce the liquor laws of the state of
Ohio and the liquor ordinances of Canton, Ohio,
and to cause same to be enforced within
said city of Canton, Ohio during the period
beginning on the 27th of May, 1919 and
ending on the 9th day of August, 1919." Min-
utes, City of Canton, Ohio, Civil
Service Commission, August 11, 1919.
33. Canton Daily News, August 12,
1919; Canton Evening Repository, August 14,
1919; also, on September 2, 1919, Riblet
was cleared of the charges, although he was
criticized for "a lack of vigor and
aggression" in enforcing the dry law. It should be
noted that the presiding officer of the
Civil Service Commission was E. A. McCuskey,
a law partner of Solicitor Fisher. See
Minutes, City of Canton, Ohio, Civil Service Com-
mission, September 2, 1919.
Canton and the Great Steel
Strike 77
of the nation's steel industry in
general.34 On the eve of the greatest
strike in American history, the city of
Canton's law enforcement was
dependent upon a "lame duck"
mayor on the verge of relinquishing
control to the opposition party.
II
With employees at the Berger plant
already on strike, the National
Committee's efforts to organize the
remainder of Canton's steelwork-
ers intensified. The committee's
approach was to hold large public
rallies at which union organizers
harangued crowds of workers be-
fore distributing membership cards.
According to the National Com-
mittee's Secretary, William Z. Foster,
"The idea was to make a hurri-
cane drive simultaneously in all steel
centers that would catch the
workers' imagination and sweep them into
the union en masse."35 In
Canton, as in most steel centers, this
technique proved effective. Bert
Evey, an organizer for the AFL,
disclosed some initial successes in
his report to the Amalgamated
Journal, the newspaper of the Amal-
gamated Association of Iron, Steel, and
Tin Workers of North Ameri-
ca. In addition to the early walkout at
the Berger plant, Evey re-
ported enlisting five hundred new
steelworkers in a single week.36 On
September 20, 1919, in preparation for
the nationwide strike sched-
uled for September 22, three mass
meetings were held in Canton's
Eagle Hall and two more in nearby Massillon.
That same evening sev-
eral hundred employees of the United
Alloy Steel Corporation reject-
ed a proposal made by the company, and
the strike was all but inevi-
table.37
The union was not alone in preparing for
the strike. Steel companies
announced plans to remain open and made
arrangements to protect
strikebreakers: They hired additional
private guards, some of whom
were not residents of Canton, and stowed
weapons, food, and other
supplies inside the mills.38 The
possibility of violence between strik-
ers and loyal workers prompted Stark
County Sheriff Milo Cathon to
hire extra deputies, twelve of whom were
assigned to the United Al-
34. Canton Evening Repository, August
14, 1919; Amalgamated Journal, September
25, 1919.
35. William Z. Foster, The Great
Steel Strike, 21.
36. American Federation of Labor, American
Federationist, September, 1919, 861.
37. Canton Evening Repository, September
20. 1919.
38. It is not clear how many plant
guards were "outsiders," but an amendment to a
local ordinance governing private police
proposed to restrict the hiring of private police
to individuals who had resided in Canton
at least 60 days prior to appointment. See
Minutes, Canton City Council, November
3, 1919.
78 OHIO HISTORY
loy Steel plant. City officials also
prepared for violence. Safety Direc-
tor Hamaker deployed the city's motor
vehicles to increase the mo-
bility of the police, and Mayor Poorman
added twenty new men to
the force. The mayor's control over the
police, however, was suspect;
the Civil Service Commission had
reinstated Chief Riblet and rela-
tions between the mayor and the chief
were strained, to say the
least. Perhaps this explains why Poorman
did not make even more
extensive preparations, although the
strike was being publicly hailed
as the work of the foreign Bolsheveki,
and the steel companies, antic-
ipating violence, had turned their
plants into armed camps.39 In-
deed, unlike his colleagues in steel
centers along the Monongahela
and in Lackawanna, New York, who from
the onset restricted the cit-
izenry's free speech and right to
assemble, Poorman merely urged
the public to obey the law and requested
that they not gather in
crowds. Governor James Cox, on the other
hand, made it abundant-
ly clear that the state would not
tolerate rioting when he issued a
public statement warning all parties
involved in the strike that he
would follow precedents established
during previous labor troubles
in Youngstown, Bellaire, and Hamilton:
That he might use force,
including calling out the national
guard.40
In spite of the tensions and the
paramilitary preparations, on Sep-
tember 22 the strike began peacefully.
At the close of the first day,
union organizer Bert Evey noted that the
walkout had been success-
ful at the United Alloy Steel plant.
Evey could not say the same
about the strike's effectiveness at the
city's other plants, which con-
tinued to operate after the first day.
On the second day, however,
the strike began to pick up momentum: An
additional one thousand
workers struck Canton's steel mills,
bringing the total number of strik-
ers to about seven thousand; within two
more weeks the Stark Roll-
ing Mill, the United Alloy Steel
Corporation, the United Furnace
Company, and Canton Sheet Steel were
entirely idle. Union organi-
zers hailed the effectiveness of picket
lines and optimistically predict-
ed that the partially idle Timken
Bearing Company would totally
close in a matter of days.41
As the strike gained support, the steel
companies responded by
running full-page newspaper
advertisements which attacked the
walkout as syndicalist and un-American.
These attacks were appar-
39. Ibid.
40. Canton Evening Repository, September
20, 23, 1919.
41. Amalgamated Journal, October
2, 1919; Canton Evening Repository, September
22, 1919.
Canton and the Great Steel
Strike 79
ently aimed at the many foreigners who
supported the strike, and
were printed in Polish, Russian,
Italian, Slovak, Lithuanian and Mag-
yar, as well as English. Some newspapers
ran illustrations of Uncle
Sam admonishing striking workers in
foreign languages to return to
work; others attempted to turn the
strikers against the union by
claiming that only paid organizers and
agitators benefited from the
walk out. The public relations campaign
against the "un-American"
strike was bolstered by news reports
exposing foreign workers' al-
leged plans to turn local steel mills
into soviets, and citing the desire
of "loyal" American workers to
return to the plants. The Canton Eve-
ning Repository also reminded the workers of the cost of the strike
by printing on its front page the daily
amount of wages not being
paid, as well as the total amount of
wages lost because of the strike.42
Sporadic violence erupted almost from
the beginning of the strike,
most often between striking
"foreigners" and "loyal" American
workers who refused to join the walkout.
On September 25 special
police of the Timken Company fired shots
at strikers.43 Two men
were injured in the outburst and six
were arrested. Both steel offi-
cials and union leaders, fearing the
spread of violence, met with May-
or Poorman to discuss ways to reduce
tensions. The strikers lamented
the corporations' use of special guards
and requested intervention by
city police. Steel officials countered
by complaining that picket lines
intimidated loyal workers and prevented
them from returning to the
mills, and demanded protection for their
non-striking employees.
Poorman reiterated his position of
neutrality by stating that he would
not take sides other than to enforce
existing laws against violence.
The mayor acknowledged the need for
additional police and con-
tended that he had plans to meet any
future contingency.44 These
plans, however, remained vague and were
never implemented.
As the strike dragged on and the steel
plants attempted to resume
operations, the violence began to
spread. By mid-October the com-
panies announced plans to start
production and invited strikers to re-
turn to work. Representatives of the
Berger Company even phoned a
number of "native" workers and
their wives and threatened to fire
them if they did not return.
Strikebreakers were imported and some
strikers, fearful of losing their jobs,
returned to work.45 Some new
42. See various 1919 issues of the Canton
Daily News and the Canton Evening Repos-
itory, especially after October 1, 1919.
43. Massillon Evening Independent, September
26, 1919; Canton Evening Reposito-
ry, October 6, 14, 1919; Canton Daily
News, October 24, 1919.
44. Massillon Evening Independent, September
27, 1919.
45. Reports from Canton's labor
organizers to the Amalgamated Journal lent some
80 OHIO HISTORY
scattered violence occurred, but it was
minimal as workers returned
under close police supervision. At the
Canton Sheet Company, for in-
stance, forty private guards under the
direction of the city police pro-
tected non-striking workers by forming a
line between strikers and
the approach to the plant. The success
at the Canton Sheet Company
encouraged steel officials to assure
their workers that it was safe to
cross the picket lines.46 Many
heeded the call: The Amalgamated
Journal reported eleven stacks working at the Carnahan Tin
Plate and
Steel Company and described prospects
for the success of the strike
as only fair.47
As quiet prevailed and the strike waned,
Stark County Sheriff Milo
Cathon transferred deputies from Canton
to neighboring Massillon.
Cathon's actions were premature,
however, for the lull was only the
calm before the storm. Emotions still
ran high among strikers, espe-
cially the foreign-born, and their
frustrations increased as native-
American workers continued to cross the
picket lines. Finally, on Oc-
tober 23 riots broke out in front of the
United Alloy Steel Company. A
crowd of between 500 and 1,000
steelworkers and their wives, many
of whom were foreigners, built stone
barricades and threw rocks at
street and motor cars carrying
strikebreakers to the mill. The rioting
continued through the following day and
culminated when a mob of
several hundred strikers and their
families followed police to the city
jail, demanding the release of their
arrested comrades. Further vio-
lence was averted at the jail when the
crowd heeded the entreaties
of union officials and the police to
disperse.48
In response to the riotous conditions,
Governor Cox dispatched
Lieutenant Colonel J. M. Bingham and
Major W. W. VanGieson of
the Ohio National Guard to Canton with
orders to investigate the
riots and then report back directly to
the governor. The governor's
representatives met with the picketing
strikers, but the strikers were
not intimidated and the rioting
continued. In reaction, Governor Cox
credibility to newspaper accounts that
the strike was slipping, but it appeared that
picket lines were still holding the
strike together. On October 9th, Canton Victory
Lodge No. 110 reported that the
prospects were fair. Organizer D. Watson reported
that the sheet mill was still down:
"Brother Leonard, who gave a rousing speech,
stirred the boys up and we will have the
pickets to stop them." Other reports from
Canton indicated that some workers were
talking about returning to work. Amalgama-
ted Journal, October 14, 1919; see also Canton Evening
Repository, October 15, 16, 17,
1919; Massillon Evening Independent, October
13, 1919.
46. Canton Evening Repository, October
14, 1919; Massillon Evening Independent,
October 13, 1919.
47. Amalgamated Journal, October
16, 1919.
48. Canton Evening Repository, October
24, 1919; Canton Daily News, October 24,
1919.
Canton and the Great Steel
Strike 81
on October 25 mobilized the 146th
regiment of the Ohio National
Guard. The guard unit, which included
infantry and machine gun
detachments, was held in reserve in
nearby Akron. To facilitate troop
movements, a number of heavy trucks
stood waiting to transport an
elite "flying squadron" of
men, and a special Pennsylvania Railroad
train was held in Akron to transport the
remainder of the troops.49
Concurrent with Cox's actions and on
petition of the Stark Rolling
Mill Company and the Berger
Manufacturing Company, Judge Har-
vey Ake of Canton's Common Pleas Court
issued a temporary injunc-
tion forbidding the strikers to indulge
in "violence by act or word."
It was apparent that additional manpower
would be needed to en-
force the injunction, and many hoped
that the national guard would
supply the necessary force. Governor Cox
was in fact inundated with
requests that the troops be sent to
Canton to protect the citizenry
from the alleged radical aliens,
Bolsheviks, and militant unionists.
The United Alloy Steel Company claimed
that national guard forces
were needed to prevent foreign strikers
from attacking loyal workers;
the Canton Chamber of Commerce and the
Canton Retail Merchants
Association joined the steel companies
in requesting troops. Mayor
Poorman and Sheriff Cathon, conceding
that the situation was out of
their control, joined in the chorus by
entreating Cox to send the
troops to Canton.50 Finally,
on Monday, October 27, the governor re-
sponded to the requests, but not as many
had wished. Despite myri-
ad pleas for assistance, Cox flatly
refused to send guardsmen to Can-
ton. Instead, he placed the burden back
on the local community by
appealing to the civic pride of Canton's
citizens and urging local offi-
cials to make more effective use of
local law enforcement agencies.
Governor Cox made it evident that he was
not satisfied with local
efforts to preserve the peace when on
October 27 he announced that
he was removing Mayor Poorman from
office in Canton, replacing
him, in accordance with Canton's City
Charter, with H. A. Schrantz,
the president of the city council, who
also happened to be the Re-
publican candidate for mayor. Cox made
this decision after meeting
with Ohio Adjutant General Roy Lawton
and a group of prominent
businessmen including, among others: H.
H. Timken, of the Timken
Roller Bearing Company; H. R. Jones,
president of the United Alloy
49. State of Ohio, Adjutant General's
Department, Office of the Adjutant General,
Special Order No. 82, October 25, 1919; Akron
Evening News, October 27, 1919; Mas-
sillon Evening Independent, October 26, 1919; Canton Evening Repository, October
26,
1919; Canton Daily News, October
26, 1919.
50. Canton Evening Repository, October
26, 1919.
82 OHIO HISTORY |
|
Steel Company; and C. H. Charles, general manager of the Stark Roll- ing Mill. As informal spokesman for the Republican-leaning business community, Harry H. Timken had urged Cox to remove Poorman and to send the national guard. Timken accused Mayor Poorman of refusing to swear in a number of men who were waiting at one of the city's steel plants to become special police officers and charged the city police with fraternizing with the strikers and allowing them to harass returning workers. Despite the steelmakers' appeals, however, Cox still refused to send troops into the city.51 Upon taking office, Mayor Schrantz was confronted with an imme- diate crisis. Responding to reports that alien strikers were assaulting native-born workers who crossed the picket lines, Judge Ake issued a restraining order which specifically prohibited foreigners from picketing at the Stark Rolling Mill and limited the number of pickets
51. See Governor Cox's statement in the Ohio Stare Journal, November 26, 27, 1919. Since a fire destroyed Governor Cox's papers which pertain to the strike and the re- moval of Poorman, the Journal account is invaluable. Also, see Canton Evening Reposi- tory, October 27, November 14, 20, 25, 27, 1919; Canton Daily News, October 27, No- vember 14, 15, 25, 1919; Massillon Evening Independent, October 27, 1919. |
Canton and the Great Steel
Strike 83
to seven at each gate of the plant. The
next day, October 28, 1919,
Judge Ake promulgated still another
restraining order: Contending
that the foreign element was responsible
for the violence, Ake ruled
that only citizens could picket and
enjoined foreigners from congre-
gating anywhere in the city.52 To
enforce these orders, Schrantz,
who could expect no help from state
forces, had to garner support
from within the city. Even though the
strikers themselves offered to
donate 500 men to help keep the peace,
Sheriff Cathon, still seeking
assistance from the national guard, sent
a telegram to Cox expressing
doubt that men could be found to enforce
the injunctions.53 Cox's
response was to the point. The governor
would use state forces if it
were absolutely necessary, but at this
time he still believed that
enough men could be found locally.
Rather than sending troops,
Cox, emphasizing local responsibility,
directed the Canton Chamber
of Commerce to call a public meeting to
"impress upon the people
that there is a duty that falls upon
them." He concluded his state-
ment with an appeal "to give your
citizenry a chance."54 In short,
then, there would be no state military
aid. Schrantz, the local Cham-
ber of Commerce, and whatever local
forces that could be recruited
were to bear the brunt of responsibility
for preserving the peace in
the Canton area.
Schrantz quickly assured the public that
he would restore the
peace, and supported his words with
actions. After notifying the city
council that "It will be my firm
purpose to exhaust every effort and
agency to see that law and order is
maintained," the mayor took sev-
eral decisive steps. First, he requested
the council to appropriate five
thousand dollars to cover the expenses,
if necessary, of hiring special
police to preserve order.55 While
searching for new police, Schrantz
directed his attention to labor
complaints about the steel plants' pri-
vate guards. Union officials held the
steel companies' private police
responsible for the rioting and wanted
the city to regulate their activ-
ities. Labor representatives claimed
that these private forces fre-
quently attacked strikers outside the
confines of the steel plants, thus
inciting the foreign workers to violence
and triggering the rioting.56
Schrantz responded by calling a special
meeting of the city council to
52. Canton Evening Repository, October
27, 28, 1919; Canton Daily News, October
27, 28, 1919.
53. Canton Daily News, October
27, 28, 1919.
54. Canton Daily News, October
28, 1919.
55. Minutes, Canton City Council,
October 27, 1919; Canton Evening Repository, Oc-
tober 28, 1919; Canton Daily News, October
28, 1919.
56. Ibid.
84 OHIO HISTORY
consider legislation regulating the
activities of the private police. At
the meeting, pro-labor councilman
William Horberdier introduced
legislation which would have required,
among other things, that
plant police reside in the city sixty
days prior to their appointment.
The councilman's "anti-scab"
proposal was tabled and eventually re-
jected in favor of Schrantz's more
moderate ordinance which simply
limited the activities of private
police outside the confines of the
plant.57
In addition to regulating the private
police and assuming respon-
sibility for enforcing the restraining
orders against the strikers,
Schrantz took other steps to restore law
and order, including refusing
to allow the National Committee's
William Z. Foster to speak in Can-
ton's auditoriums and parks. Just as
importantly, the symbolic impact
of his policies contributed
significantly to crushing the strike. The
strike was in its fifth week when
Schrantz took office and morale
among the strikers was already low, as
they were experiencing finan-
cial hardships and the possibility of
not getting their jobs back.58
Moreover, conflicts between foreign-born
strikers and American
workers had added to their woes by
turning public opinion against
them. When Schrantz assumed a law and
order stance, making it
clear that the city government would
vigorously protect the right of
workers to cross picket lines, many
additional strikers gave up and
went back to work. Within a week after
Schrantz's appointment,
peace was restored; the strike was
virtually broken, and the national
guard was demobilized.59
The politics surrounding Schrantz's
appointment surfaced as soon
as the rioting was brought under
control. On the day before the
general election, Schrantz's attorney,
Russell Burt, publicly claimed
that Governor Cox's removal of Poorman
was a political effort to em-
barrass his successor, Schrantz; as a
law and order Republican,
Schrantz would likely alienate the labor
vote.60 On election day, as
voters went to the polls, Mayor Schrantz
announced that he was ask-
ing the governor to reinstate Mr.
Poorman. Noting that the disturb-
ances were over, Schrantz said he
refrained from writing the gover-
57. Minutes, Canton City Council,
October 29 and November 3, 1919; Canton Eve-
ning Repository, October 29, 1919; Canton Daily News, October 28,
1919.
58. Canton Daily News, October
29, 1919; Massillon Evening
Independent, October
29, 1919; Amalgamated Journal, October
14, November 6, 13, 1919. For a discussion of
how these factors contributed to earlier
strike failures in Cleveland, see Leonard.
"Ethnic Cleavage and Industrial
Conflict in late 19th Century America."
59. Canton Evening Repository, October 28, 1919; Canton Daily News, October 29,
November 4, 1919.
60. Canton Evening Repository, November
3, 1919.
Canton and the Great Steel Strike 85 |
|
nor before election day because his request would have appeared politically motivated. Whatever the circumstances which catapulted him into office, Schrantz was identified with breaking the strike, and as such had to face the political consequences.61 The election results confirmed Russell Burt's theory. Schrantz lost the mayoral race, although his fellow Republicans swept virtually ev- ery office in the city, including six of seven council seats, the offices of city treasurer, city auditor, city solicitor, and the presidency of the city council. Schrantz received 5,425 votes to Democrat Herman Wit- ter's 6,315. The local press blamed labor for the upset, and Schrantz himself commented that the result was "not entirely unforeseen in
61. Canton Evening Repository, October 28, 1919; Canton Daily News, November 4, 1919; Unsigned letter, Assistant Director and Chief Bureau of Justice to Brigadier Gen- eral M. Churchill, Director of Military Intelligence, War Department, November 13, 1919, National Archives, Bureau of Investigation, File No. OG290720, Microfilm Reel Number 187B. |
86 OHIO HISTORY
light of events that have taken place
in the last ten days."62 Union
organizers hailed Witter's election as
a victory for the workingman.
Calling Witter "a laboring man's
friend," local union official Fred
James exhorted his fellow laborers
"to get some more just like
him."63
III
The growing intolerance for violations
of state and local liquor laws
was one manifestation of anti-nativist
sentiment in Canton, Ohio. Even
before prohibition, the
"globe-trotting" workers of the city's foreign
sections were seen as subhumans. The
newly enacted dry laws,
which made important parts of the
immigrants' lifestyles and cultural
patterns illegal, served to exacerbate
the public's view of the foreign-
born as lawless and irresponsible
beings. Immigrant laborers further
incurred the public's intolerance
during the 1919 steel strike by serv-
ing as the backbone of the walkout and,
as the strike waned, they,
more than anyone else, molested the
hated strikebreaking "scabs."
It was within this context that
Governor Cox took action.
Cox's intervention was effective on two
levels. First, he achieved
the immediate objective of restoring
the peace and minimizing
bloodshed. He did so by mobilizing the
national guard and replac-
ing a weak, lame-duck mayor who did not
get much cooperation from
his police force with an official who
was both willing and able to re-
store law and order. In this case,
however, restoring the peace was
associated with anti-union activities.
Indeed, enforcing the various
restraining orders against the strikers
reduced the effectiveness of
the picket lines; limiting the number
of pickets at the plant gates re-
duced the strikers' ability to
intimidate, lending the impression that
the strike was ineffective. Unable to
intimidate strikebreakers, and
confronted by a city government
actively hostile, many demoralized
strikers returned to work, effectively
breaking the strike. Order was
thus restored, even if it was achieved
at the expense of industrial la-
borers whose strike was already on the
verge of collapse prior to
Schrantz's taking office.
Cox's handling of the political
situation was also very astute. Al-
ready preparing his Democratic
candidacy for the presidency,64 he
62. Canton Evening Repository, November
5, 1919; Canton Daily News, November
5, 1919.
63. Amalgamated Journal, November
20, 1919.
64. For a statement of Cox's
presidential aspirations, see the Cincinnati Labor Advo-
cate, October 11, 1919.
Canton and the Great Steel
Strike 87
managed to take credit for restoring
the peace while placing the onus
of strikebreaking on Schrantz, a
Republican. Cox played the forceful,
no-nonsense chief state law-enforcement
officer when he activated
the national guard, and then, by
refusing to use the guardsmen,
adroitly passed the burden of actually
upholding the law back to lo-
cal officials. With public pressure
bearing down on Canton's gov-
erning officials, Cox removed the
unpopular Poorman, and Schrantz,
the Republican candidate for mayor, was
charged with the difficult
and unpopular task of restoring order.
Schrantz's very success led,
ironically, to his defeat; Governor
Cox, who made the shrewd politi-
cal moves, emerged as a decisive and
capable leader without incurr-
ing the wrath of labor.
This is not to suggest that James Cox
was no more than an oppor-
tunistic politician who put his own
personal ambitions above the
public good. Enough has been written
about the political virtues, or
the lack thereof, of Cox; his devotion
to political ethics approxi-
mated that of most aspirants for
America's presidency.65 The simple
point that emerges here is that Cox
used the nativist reaction to
squelch the already faltering steel
strike, then skillfully took advan-
tage of a rather strange set of
political circumstances and placed re-
sponsibility on the local Republican
party. Cox seemed to appreciate
the growing political clout of the
nascent labor movement; yet, ironi-
cally, he lost the presidency to
another nativist who did not conceal
his dislike for organized labor, Ohio's
own Warren G. Harding.66 As
a political animal, Cox might have
appreciated the poetic political
justice: he won the battle, only to
lose the war.
65. Cox, Journey Through My Years; for
a critical evaluation, see Andrew Sinclair,
The Available Man (New York, 1965), 158, where the author recounts Cox's
political
abilities in winning the Democrats' 1920
presidential nomination: "As a disguised Wet,
he received the city bosses vote; as a
progressive in his first term as Ohio's governor,
he received the McAdoo votes; as a
reactionary German-hater and Redhunter in his
third term as governor, he received the
Palmer vote; and as a three-time winner in
Ohio, he received the politic
vote."
66. In September of 1920, The
Federationist compared the legislative records of Cox
and Harding. Cox emerged as the
pro-labor candidate and Harding was associated
with his support of the anti-strike
Cummings Bill. See Randolph C. Downs, The Rise of
Warren Gamaliel Harding, 1865-1920 (Columbus, Ohio, 1970), 621.
WILLIAM E. SCHEUERMAN
Canton and the Great Steel
Strike of 1919: A Marriage
of Nativism and Politics
Prior to 1900 the production of iron
and steel in the United States
was primarily the domain of the skilled
"English-speaking" worker.1
By the turn of the century, however,
the skilled worker was becom-
ing extraneous. Technological
innovations in the production of steel
deskilled the labor force, and
immigrants from southern and eastern
Europe flocked to America's steelmills
to assume the bulk of the low-
paying, "backbreaking"
unskilled jobs.2 The new immigrants usual-
ly
settled in dilapidated
neighborhoods near the mill-often re-
ferred to as Hunkeyvilles-where they
followed social and cultural
patterns alien to the American
experience.3 Consequently, they were
frequently the targets of xenophobia
and nativism. The popular view
of the "hunkies" as stupid
beasts of burden was supported by the
immigrants' squalid living conditions,
their willingness to work long
hours at the most arduous jobs, and
their sporadic drunken revel-
ries.4
William E. Scheuerman is Associate
Professor of Political Science at State University
of New York at Oswego.
1. David Brody, Steelworkers in
America: The Non Union Era (N.Y., 1960), 96-111.
U.S. Congress, Senate, Immigrants in
Industries, Part Two: Iron and Steel Manufactur-
ing, I, 61st Congress, 2nd session, Senate Document 633
(hereafter referred to as Senate
Document 633).
2. Brody, Steelworkers in America, 96-111;
Senate Document 633; Report on Condi-
tions of Employment in the Iron and
Steel Industry in the United States, II,
U.S. Com-
mission on Labor, 1913 (hereafter
referred to as Labor Conditions).
3. For some general works concerning
eastern and southern European immigrants in
the steel industry, see John Bodnar, Immigration
and Industrialization: Ethnicity in an
American Mill Town, 1870-1940 (Pittsburgh, 1977); James R. Green, The World of the
Worker: Labor in Twentieth Century
America (New York, 1980).
4. For a good analysis of the complex
relationship between the skilled native worker
and the unskilled immigrant in the steel
industry, see Henry B. Leonard, "Ethnic
Cleavage and Industrial Conflict in Late
19th Century America: The Cleveland Rolling
Mill Company Strikes of 1882 and
1885," Labor History, 20 (Fall, 1979), 524-48. Whiting
Williams, a "Labor relations
expert" who studied labor conditions in the steel indus-