Southmont --Johnstown, Pa.
Oct. 27—1919
My dear Anna,--
I want to tell you with much pleasure that I am suffering with neuritis in my right-arm and shoulder. I can't express the pleasure I have during the long nights rolling from one side to the other trying to get in a position that will rest my poor old right-wing, but that is not possible so I just fall asleep to brake this monotony for a short time.
I also had two front teeth extracted which adds very much to my personal appearance. Then my hair has fallen out so much that I have the most beautiful wide parts all over my poor old nut. I am writing you this so when you get home you will not eat your heart out wishing you were like me. Enough of this nonsense.
We are still at the hotel and expect to be there until Spring as our house will not be completed before April and I doubt very much if it will be finished then for they have just finished digging the cellar. Billie (her son) has been working very hard as the strike (1919 Steel Strike) has necessitated each man doing extra work.
There are six young men have a house and are living in comfort. Each one has furnished his own room and as for the rest they pay equal shares of the expense. They live about a block from where Nancy lives which makes it nice. By the way, Nancy expects a little new comer in February. Her baby is a darling. My Alice (her daughter) is visiting a room mate in Cairo, Ill.,,,and the latter of next month she may go to a prom at Annapolis and from there go to visit Freida. She may as well have a good time for when we get our house and the help problems as it is she will have to do a lot for me.
I am with sister Alice for a couple of weeks. I think this house is the most complete I have ever seen. The view from every side is beautiful. The labor situation is looking very bad although as far as the steel strike is concerned that is done but the miners can put things to the bad.
Everybody is well as far as I know. We all feel very much disappointed at the Corey's (Midvale Steel manager) going away. I thought it would so nice all around. Everybody liked Freida (?) and the few that met Mrs. Corey liked her. Old Theodore (her brother) says he will not stay since Mrs. & Mrs. Corey have gone away, so he wants to go back to the Waters (relatives).
Excuse me, I am taking liver pills.—I do hope my arm gets well for I certainly would not enjoy a new home and not be able to do anything. I hope all are well and prosperous and would love to see them. Don't John (son of Mrs. Hay) ever go to Homestead (Mill)? John Unger (her husband ) has been cheated out of his hunting trip on account of the strike so now he has missed two years hunt. I tell him he will not be able to hit the side of a barn if he don't soon have an opportunity to practice.
I must close now. With love to John and his family. I remain with love.
Sister Elizabeth
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Pictures of some of the names in this letter. After the pictures I have included a brief history of the steel strike from the workers point of view.
Mrs. Anna M. Hays
Elizabeth Unger
Alice Unger - daughter of Elizabeth and niece of Anna Hay.
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The 1919 Midvale Steel Strike (formerly Cambria Steel) in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a major local conflict where thousands of local workers walked off the job demanding union recognition, an eight-hour workday, and higher pay following a massive national strike of steelworkers across the nation led by the AFL. A total of four million American workers went out on strike - one-fifth of the nation's industrial workforce - in one of the largest waves of labor actions in American history.
During WWI to keep war material flowing with no work stoppages, the federal government's newly created National War Labor Board affirmed "the right of workers to organize in trade unions" without interference or hindrance "by the employers in any manner whatsoever." For the first time in American history, the federal government required owners to bargain collectively with shop committees. The Board arbitrated 1,250 disputes between workers and employers. In the war's last months, employers even offered workers a basic eight-hour day with time-and-a-half for overtime. But that all changed after the war- by 1919 the steel mills reverted back to what they called their "normalcy" - 12 hours work days - seven days a week. And refused to bargain or recognize any union efforts.
Add to that fact that company officials had many local politicians, newspaper and even most church organizations on their side - creating deep tensions in the immigrant neighborhoods and community. On September 22, 1919, local plants closed "indefinitely" as thousands of workers struck. More than 2,000 local coal miners also joined the protest in support. The Midvale Steel (Cambria Steel) organized relentless telephone calls, letters, and home visits to coax, pressure, and frighten individual workers into returning to the mills.
Once the general public and government officials were convinced that the strikers were dangerous radicals, the steel companies held all the winning cards. Bickering among the twenty-four cooperating unions did not help either. For fourteen long weeks, the strikers held on. As late as mid-December the national committee estimated that 109,000 strikers were still out, but by January 8, 1920, it called off the strike at last: "All steelworkers are now at liberty to return to work pending preparations for the next big organization movement." That movement would not occur until the mid-1930s, when the CIO led another great wave of strikes in the bleak days of the Great Depression.
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