Page:Jay Lovestone - Blood and Steel (1923)).djvu/29

 magistrates' verdicts were rendered frankly on the basis of whether the striker would go back to work or not."

In Indiana the conditions were not different from those in Pennsylvania, as can be seen from the following despatch appearing in the New York Times of October 16, 1919:

"The first outdoor meeting of the strikers since the arrival of the troops in Gary was held this afternoon by permission of Colonel Mapes, who sat on the speakers' platform during the meeting. Secret service men were in the crowd of nearly 3,000 strikers, and soldiers were stationed on the outskirts. Near the park machine guns were held in readiness."

On the developments in this area the Interchurch Report said:

"General Wood declared that 'the army would be neutral.' He established rules in regard to picketing. These rules were so interpreted and carried out as to result in breaking up the picket-line. One picket, for example, would be permitted at a certain spot; if the striker who came up to relieve the picket, stopped to converse with him and to receive reports and instructions, both strikers would be arrested. Delays and difficulties would attend the release of these men from jail or 'bull pen.' The picket line thus dwindled and its disappearance signalled to the Gary workers that the strike was breaking. Army officers sent soldiers to arrest union officers in other trades, for example, for threatening to call a strike on a local building operation. Workers throughout the city believed that the Federal Government opposed them and that the regulars would stay as long as the steel workers remained on strike. The army was not withdrawn until the strike was declared off."

In many instances the spies of the Steel Trust are the same ones who are agents of the Department of Justice. In other instances they work hand in glove in keeping the workers chained to the 12-Hour Day. Apropos of this interlocking system of slave-driving, the Interchurch investigators showed that:

"In McKeesport in one raid 79 workmen were taken, three were detained and one on final examination was held by the Federal authorities. Federal officers testified that the denunciations which had led to these arrests were made by plant detectives or 'under-cover-men' of the steel companies, many of them sworn in as Sheriff's deputies during the strike. In the Pittsburgh district raids and arrests for