The Great Steel Strike of 1919 brought a Shift in Life and Careers for the McGregor Family.

The McGregor’s immigrated to North America around 1770. Following Matthew McGregor’s service he received land in south-central Pennsylvania. His descendants remained in the area for generations. They were committed to their farms, but lacked any education. When a father divided his farm each generation received a smaller portion. This created unsustainable farm sizes, and the McGregor men were forced to find other employment. 

Industries needed uneducated and unskilled labor from men like the McGregor’s for coal and other industries. In census records from 1880 to 1930 we can see they worked in these industries. Their farms had become so small they could no longer support families on farming alone.

Miners had to be willing to perform hard manual labor and the motivation for workers were the steady wages. As the number of factories doubled in the years 1850-1900, the weekly earning positions increase. According to the Pennsylvania Historical Association, “The average number of wage earners had grown from 146,766 to 733,834 in the same period.”

 “The railroad, coal, and steel industries in Pennsylvania … reached all-time maximum output under stimulation of wartime demand.” Some would even say that Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania won the war. Raw materials are vital in wartime. According to Frank Murdock American industrial production was central in its importance in securing the American victory.  World War I brought a temporary end to the frequent strikes of the menial workers in these industries. The spirit of patriotism made men more willing to work long hours which in turn push production higher. When the war ended, so did the conformity of the Steel workers and others.

Many wanted to avoid striking, but as the Harrisburg Telegraph reported on September 18th, 1919, “Their last and only hope is to strike.” The initial wave of the strike was tremendously successful. According to Irwin Marcus, “Virtually the entire labor force of Johnstown honored the strike call on September 22.” Not only the steelworkers, but two railway workers organizations also refused to work, and nearly two thousand coal miners. This solidarity with other industries effectively stopped major production. Yet the strike was short lived.

This strike of Steelworkers in Johnstown, Pennsylvania caused a quick succession of other strikes within supporting industries and their labor forces. The McGregor family worked not far from where the strike was taking place and it had a major impact on their work and lives. There were several men within the McGregor family who worked at a mine near Mount Braddock in Percy, Pennsylvania. This coal mine created coal and coke for the furnaces that went cold during the Johnstown strikes. According to the American Journal of Sociology, the use of strikebreakers was quite significant. “The importation of black labor during the strike varied substantially by city and was most prominent in breaking the strike in the Pittsburgh area.” The anti-union sentiment of the government and the general population was another factor which ended the strike. The perceived connection of Unions and Bolshevism turned public opinion against Unions. The Steel Strike of 1919 set future strikes on a path to failure because of the strong negative public opinion. This had a direct impact on the McGregor’s when they later participated in the Coal Strikes in 1919. Any move by Unions to gain better working conditions and a living wage were met with government opposition and a lack of public support. Robert K. Murray claims this impacted not only on future strikes but also on the immediate future of labor. “Subsequent to its bitter defeat in the steel strike … labor lapsed into the doldrums.” Hinting that this government protection against unions may have aided in the onset of the Great Depression. 

This protection for big business by government took away the opportunity of free market for wages. Some economists , such as Lee Ohanian, theorize that this lack of support for Union organizers aided in creating the depth of the Great Depression. For the McGregor family, this created an environment which motivated them to change their careers. William McGregor left the coal industry which his family had been in for three generations. His decision to leave may have been due to the volatile environment created by frequent strikes and the low wages. He was fortunate enough to get a position as a store clerk and this shifted future opportunities for the family away from mining. His son William H. McGregor would return after World War II and take up a sales clerk position just as his father had had. This simple change in opportunity has allowed subsequent generations to go to college, start businesses, and enjoy more economically stable lives. 

Bibliography:

Associated Press. “Last and Only Hope is Strike ---Steel Workers.” Harrisburg (PA) Telegraph, September 18, 1919.

Brown, Cliff, and Terry Boswell. "Strikebreaking or Solidarity in the Great Steel Strike of 1919: A Split Labor Market, Game-Theoretic, and QCA Analysis." American Journal of Sociology 100, no. 6 (1995): 1479-519. Accessed February 26, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2782678.

Dunn, Durwood. Cades Cove: The Life and Death of A Southern Appalachian Community 1818-1937. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1988. 

Fourteenth Census of the United States, Taken in 1920. Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, January 30, 1920. Accessed February 26, 2017. Ancestry.com.

Marcus, Irwin M. "The Johnstown Steel Strike of 1919: The Struggle for Unionism and Civil Liberties." Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 63, no. 1 (1996): 96-118. Accessed February 26, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27773870.

Murdock, Frank R. “Some Aspects of Pittsburgh's Industrial Contribution to the World War.” Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine 4, No. 4 (October 1921): 214-223. Accessed February 26, 2017. 

https://journals.psu.edu/wph/article/viewFile/1264/1112.

Murray, Robert K. "Communism and the Great Steel Strike of 1919." The Mississippi Valley Historical Review 38, no. 3 (1951): 445-66. Accessed February 26, 2017.  http://www.jstor.org/stable/1889031.

Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. “1861-1945: Era of Industrial Ascendancy.” Pennsylvania History. August 26, 2015. Accessed February 26, 2017. http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/pa-history/1861-1945.html.

Rice, Otis K. West Virginia: A History. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1985.

Waller, Altina L. Feud: Hatfields, McCoys, and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860-1900. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1988.

Stevens, Dr, Sylvester K. “A Century of Industry in Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 22, no. 1 (January 1955): 49-68. Accessed February 26, 2017. https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/viewFile/22395/22164.

Twelfth Census of the United States, Taken in 1900. Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, June 13, 1900. Accessed February 26, 2017. Ancestry.com.