Ohio History Journal

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-

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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.

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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

• 3
 

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.

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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

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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.

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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.

• 7
 

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.

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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.

• 9
 

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.

• 10
 

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.

• 11
 

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

• 18
 

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.

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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.

• 20