Part 1: Work: 1910-20 (1)

1920

In 1920 the overall Market street population fell  to 831, 54% adult and 45% children. Adult males still outnumber women 64% to 36%, as male children outnumber female children 55% to 44%.The number of persons listed as “boarders” dropped to 12% of the total population, down from 31% in 1910. In 1920, 28% of all adults 18 years and older were unmarried, not counting widows and divorces. Of these, 39% of adult males were unmarried, and 7% of adult females.

In 1920, US-born residents predominate, as 55% of the total population, followed by Austrians, 17%), a growing number of Italians, 16%, then Russian 5%, other Europeans 2%, Mexicans 2%--though it is unclear if Mexico covers any Latin American, since that is the only country listed in the census documents--Germans and Scandinavians with 1% each.

The number of Negroes residing on Market street increased to 12 % of the total population.By 1920, the great migration of negroes moving out of the south had been underway for several years. According to census figures, there were virtually no black people living on Market street in 1900. By 1910, there were 17 black people living on Market, just 1% of the street’s population. of those people, 18% had been born in Illinois, 18% were born in Tennessee and 18% were born in Kentucky. In 1920, 23% of the black people living on Market street had been born in Mississippi, 13% in Alabama, 12% in Illinois, 10% in Missouri and smaller percentages from Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, the Carolinas, Virginia and other states.

Most residents were renters (62), with 20 owners, 13 in full, 7 with a mortgage. Ownership increased slightly from 1910 of 11.

In 1920, 11 individuals were listed as Widows, 4 males, 7 females.

Agnes Grobelch was 25 in 1920, living at 712 Market and widowed. She had with her the 3 children Frank, age 5, Agnes age 3 and Stephania, less than a year.

Anne Ydubausic was 34 in 1920, living at 907 Market, and widowed. She had with her the 4 children Annie, 10, Alice, 6,  Stella, 4,  and Lucy, 2.

Mary Passavanti, 47 and widowed lived at 522 Market with her three daughters, Elizabeth,12,  Ida, 9,  and Blanche, 7.

 

Work: 1910-1920

A.

In 1920, the Wire Mill/ steel works was the main single employer, employing 23% of  Market street workers. The Tannery was second, employing 15%, then the steam railroad, 9%, the cement works, 8%, the electric plant 7%, the gas works 6%. approx. 48 people were employed in various other trades, including the lumber yard, carpenters, 4 merchants (grocery, tobacco, soda, “junk”), 1 barber, 1 shoemaker. Unspecified “day labor” is no longer listed. At least 5 children under the age of 18 are listed as working, 2 young women aged 15 and 16 working in the mattress factory, 1 young woman, 16, working in an over-all factory, 1 young man, 15 in an auto factory, 1 young man 16 as a delivery boy for a grocer. The mattress factory listed the oldest worker as a “filler,” Paul Laulurc, a Russian boarder living at 907 Market, age 80. Because of the 18th amendment (prohibition), no saloons or taverns are listed on Market street in 1920.

.In 1920, the purchasing power of 1 dollar was the equivalent of $11.94 in 2016 dollars; Prices over-all had increased markedly since 1910: the price of a quart of milk was up from 8.4 cents in 1910 to 16.7 cents in 1920; a dozen eggs cost 68 cents, up from 33 cents, flour was 8.1, up from  3.6 cents per pound, a round steak was 39.5, up from 17 cents per pound. (7)

For Waukegan and its Market street residents, the changes to the local job market between 1910 and 1920 were multiple. Life and work remained relatively dangerous in the early years of the decade. The annual report of the Waukegan coroner covering the year 1910 lists deaths due to railroads at 21, due to electric trolleys 7, deaths at the wire mills, 3, along with 10 drowning, 5 murders, 5 suicides, 2 from burns, 2 from lockjaw and 9 other various accidental deaths and 15 sudden deaths. (47)

The decade started out optimistically. Monthly payrolls in 1910 had swelled to $300,00, more than double what it had been in 1906. The largest employer in the area was American Steel, at 1500 employees, followed by the Corn Products Refining Company at 750, the Chicago Foundry at 600, and the EJ&E Railroad at 200.(48)

The confidence of the first decade of the new century and the optimism of 1910 seemed to erode slowly. A recession in 1913 became a depression in 1914, lasting until early 1915. Another more serious downturn between August 1918 to March 1919 came as the war ended, followed by a sharper deflationary depression from Jan 1920 through July 1921.

Labor was still unevenly organized.

Local teamsters struck for a week in the spring of 1912 for an increase rate to $13 to $15 per week. Construction projects around the city were stalled, as material and supply deliveries ceased. It is not clear how much was accomplished by the strike. Team owners still insisted on discretion to pay more or less to drivers “according to their earning ability,” rather than a fixed rate, and that any driver who did not report back to work would be promptly replaced. Still, there were reports of scattered men on street corners shouting “quitter” to passing carters. (49)

Ice harvesters, too, demanded higher rates. 600 men struck in the winter of 1911-12 demanding an increase from 15 to 20 cents an hour. Out of their current rate of 15 they have deducted $4 a week for the  “cheapest kind of board and lodging that was almost worse than nothing.” Working conditions were harsh. “Those who have seen some of the strikers assert that every one of them has been marked by the privations they have undergone. Many of them have sustained frozen cheeks, noses, hands and feet and in some cases ends of fingers have dropped off.” The ice companies remained firm, replacing 300 striking workers at Round Lake, with others to follow. (50)

A protracted carpenter’s strike stopped construction throughout the city for several months from April until July, 1915.(51) Related strikes at the time included painters and mill workers at the Dow plant. The Dow company tried at first to continue limited operations with replacement workers, leading to some reprisals by former employees.--”Employee of Dow plant declares he was slugged--Says two of the strikers attacked him while in saloon on Wednesday night.”  (52) As the strike dragged on, in early July Dow shut down production entirely.(53) Shortly after, the carpenter’s strike was settled. The carpenters won an hourly increase of 5 cents to 70 cents per hour, an 8-hour work day, with half-days on Saturday, effective for three years. The effort to prevent contractors from purchasing supplies outside the city in a boost to local suppliers, failed. Still, the agreement “was cause for great rejoicing” for both strikers and contractors. As as sign of good will, workmen quickly set to the task of finishing the public bathhouse at the lakefront which had been left idle by the strike as a “a fitting memorial to the strike” and in time for use for the rest of the summer. (54)

Another builder’s and carpenter’s strike in 1919 slowed construction of the new Johns-Manville plant on the Waukegan shoreline.  (55) Carpenters won a wage increase to $1 an hour.  (56)

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) attempted to organize workers in Waukegan without appreciable success. Unlike the AF of L and other unions of “skilled” laborer, the IWW advocated “one large union” for both skilled and unskilled laborers of all fields, without distinction to race, ethnicity or gender, quite radical for the time. Waukegan did have its own socialist newspaper, the Free Press, edited by Robert Geise, which published between 1910 and 1913. Those years coincided with the apex of Socialist popularity in the United States, with socialist Eugene Debbs winning 6% of the popular vote in the 1912 presidential election. Debbs had helped found the IWW in Chicago in June of 1905. The IWW supported not simply reform of the current capitalist system, but its overthrow, and often used radical rhetoric in espousing its’ cause. In the popular press, it became associated with terrorism and violence.  To prevent violence was given as the justification for the arrest of John Pancner of the IWW while organizing in Waukegan in 1917. “The federal operatives who are working on the case are more than satisfied with the data they secured from the person of Pancner. They secured newspaper clipping, it is said, which indicate that possibly he is wanted for acts of violence committed in other cities….Meanwhile the heads of local factories have redoubled their watchfulness to see that no acts of violence are committed against their plants.” (57) What was not admitted in the local press, was that Pancner’s arrest on September 5, 1917, was part of a coordinated nationwide effort to crush the IWW, with raids in 34 cities and the arrest of its regional and national leaders. The IWW and socialists, among others, had openly opposed the US entry into the European War, but war fervor then rampant and the recent Espionage Act gave the government the tools it needed to suppress dissent. Pancner was transferred from Waukegan to Chicago, where he stood trial for “urging insubordination, disloyalty and refusal of duty” by opposing the war, along with “Big Bill” Haywood and other nationally known leaders.The evidence against Pancner and the other was all speech-related, with no links established between them and any acts of violence. (58)

A year later, in September, 1918, Pancner and others were convicted. Pancner was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $30,000 fine. (59) Debbs himself was convicted in the same month under the espionage act in Canton, Ohio for “attempting to incite insubordination and disloyalty, etc in the military and naval forces, attempting to disrupt recruiting and uttering language tending to incite, provoke and encourage resistance to the united States.” (60) At his sentencing in November 1918 to 10 years imprisonment, Debbs remained defiant. “Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.” (61)

The association in the press of the IWW with violence continued. When a small bomb exploded in the Chicago Federal building, killing four and injuring others, “by an IWW agent” in September, 1918, there was speculation that the bomb had been fabricated in Waukegan, though no real evidence was given to support that claim. “One fact which is causing the government to continue the probe here is that the materials used in the making of the bombs are readily obtainable in Waukegan.It is learned further that there was a big IWW meeting in Waukegan about a month ago.” (62) Certainly materials for the fabrication of the bomb could have also been found in the much larger city of Chicago.

When John Pancner and others filed for appeal of their convictions in 1919, the local account was even more extreme in its’ depiction. “The IWW has always been destroyers of property. Dynamite and bombs have always been their principal weapons against things material that have belonged to persons who they thought had too much.” (63)

The crackdown on radicals, opposition to the war and dissent generally was part of the general war fever which gripped the nation. The US entry into the European War in 1917 dominated all aspects of American life, both economic and social. On the economic side, there were shortages of fuel and food. In an effort to conserve fuel, Waukegan, following federal orders in January of 1918, shut all factories “and thousands of men were told to remain home for a period of five days.”  Merchants that required heat were to close Monday Jan 21, though groceries could remain open until noon and drug stores all day. (64)

The national draft soon started calling into service. Market street saw a number of men called:

837  Frank Oblak 732 Market st., 337 Vincenzo Batleant 703 Market st, 1045 John Bonans, 902 Market st, 1536 Nazarath Simonian, 670 Market st, 739 (?) Frank Kenik, 809 Market st, 1395 Chris Anton, 801 Market st, 1294 Filippo Trinciotto, 530 Market st, 1647 Joe Horst, 942 Market st, 638 Mercen Elioff, 920 ½ Market st, 335 Tony Blagonic, 613 Market st, 363 Peter Christ, 610 Market st, 2167 Jas A Miller, 705 Market st, 1722 Ignaac Hodnik, 817 Market st, 2053 Constantin Tantwanz, 724 Market st, 1698 Peter Costiglio, 309 Market st, 2283 John Zutenic, 624 Market st (65) The final list from Market street, after examination and exclusions in late August, 1917 came to: 337 Vincenzo Batleant, 703 Market st, 739 Frank Kenik, 809 Market st, 477 John Lackiskae 732 Market st, 2808 Steve Grabelsek  733 Market st, 305 Walter Hudson, 211 Market st. (66); followed by 1199 Louis Perhavec 714 Market st, 2310 Emil Ortman, 319 Market st,  and 96 Sam Kedekein, 422 Market st, 241 Joseph Slevec, 727 Market st, 1692 Fred Camasello, 312 Market st, 1348 Frank Sasek, 611 Market st, 1042 Jerry Busdrh, 732 Market st, 1074 Nunzio Bantivegna, 406 Market st called in Sept 1917, (67,68); by late September, certified into the army included: 335 Tony Blagenie, 613 Market st, 2053 Constantine Tautvancz, 724 Market st, 715 Anton Jesenower, 727 Market st, 2159 Pietro Greco, 230 Market st, 2348 Charles Mickuts, 410 Market st, 133 Samuel Rinaldo 522 Market st, 3302 Salvator Fiscilla, 703 Market st, 337 Vincenzo Batleant, 703 Market st, 739 Frank Kenik, 809 Market st, 477 John Loenishar, 732 Market st,  (69, 70). The first group left on an early train for Camp Grant in Rockford without fanfare. The second group of 122 were given a parade through the streets of Waukegan on their way to the train station on Sept 19, 1917. (71) Men were still being called a year later, in the summer and fall of 1918, just before the end of the conflict. Among those called in 1918 included: Peter Marli, Waukegan, John P Repp, Waukegan, 8—3748 Ajozij Rems, 733 Market st, 13—3073 Elpidio Testarelli, 613 Market, 22—625 Frank mix, 707 Market st., 31—1961 Bollsslow Damowski, 231 Market st. (72, 73, 74)

Child labor persisted during and after the war. In 1920 a survey by the Illinois state factory inspector counted 26,883 children working statewide (presumably not counting farm workers), (75), with 141 children working in Waukegan. “Child labor in Illinois reached its height during the war when a liberal interpretation of the child labor laws was permitted for the sake of production... Waukegan figures show 104 boys and 37 girls under age now working who it is said, should be in school.” (76)

While other national strikes in the coal and railroads continued, the sharp downturn in the economy in 1920 undermined and curtailed union strike actions. The rail strike as well as the general economic slowdown brought lay-offs at Fansteel and Dow by the end of summer, 1920. (77)  

The nativist movements that re-emerged during the war continued into the post-war economic downturn, along with the ongoing fear and suspicion of radicalism. The raids against leftists and radicals instigated by attorney general Palmer in November 1919 and January 1920 were even more sweeping than the 1917 attacks on the IWW.  Waukegan was publically warned that it might be a target. “Government agents” were said to be operating in Waukegan, preparing to make arrests of radicals, prior to their deportation. “Just how many of the Reds will be picked up in the federal net here is not known, but it is said the city has been gone over with a fine-tooth comb and none will be overlooked….Waukegan, because of its cosmopolitan population is regarded as a fertile field for the operations of radicals and it is known they have been spreading their propaganda broadcast. The agitation has been directed chiefly among a class of workers susceptible to their arguments.” (78) In the nativist  mood of the time, the unspoken implication was that radicals were foreigners, aliens and other outsiders disloyal to the United States. A front-page editorial in one local newspaper in May of 1920 advocated “America for Americans.” Warning against “the foreign born speech-maker ... who comes to this country to spread his European ideas of government, his socialistic or communistic propaganda...We do not want him or his converts and the quicker he and they are deported the better for them and for us. (79)

It does not seem that large-scale raids occurred in Waukegan, but public debate and anxiety over the “alien problem” (80) lingered until wider immigration restrictions were pass nationally in the mid-twenties. Even a report that noted the higher death rates among children of native-born parents compared to those of foreign-born parents had a nativist tinge. “The analysis also shows that the death rate for children born of native American mothers was higher than the death rate among children of foreign-born mothers, in spite of the fact that surroundings in the American homes were usually better than in homes of foreigners. Native babies were found to be neglected...Foreign-born mothers generally nurse their children. This is accountable for the low death rate in congested districts of the city where it might be expected there would be more infant deaths.” Quoting health commissioner Dr Royal S Copeland: “We have a natural pride in our country and our Americanism, but we leave it to our foreign-born to have the babies. If this state of affairs is continued through a score or more of years, our so-called first families, whose lineage goes back to the Mayflower, will dwindle until there be other and more recent first families. In the face of these figures,” he concludes, “it is time that very serious attention should be given to the subject of birth control.” (81)

Despite the recession/ depression of 1920-21, large companies announced plans to locate in Waukegan, with the promise of many jobs to come. Abbott Laboratories announced the purchase of a 26 acre site in North Chicago in March of 1920, for a “mammoth chemical laboratory.” (82) Even larger, Johns-Manville began work in 1920 on a massive plant on the north flats and boasted that it would eventually employ up to 7,500, “three and a half times as large a force of the American Steel & Wire company now has or had at it maximum operation.” Along with construction of a new slip and harbor on the lake, there were visions of large ships connecting Waukegan through the Great Lakes to the Trans-Atlantic trade beyond. It was estimated the company would spend up to $13 million to complete the plant, an enormous sum for the time.  (83)

B: American Steel & Wire

American Steel and Wire continued to expand in the period between 1910 and 1920, though not without occasional slow-downs and market fluctuations. It started the decade by announcing a raise for its employees in the spring of 1910. This may have been prompted by threats from organized labor. “Unions are not recognized in any of the mills of the company or its subsidiaries. This fact prompted President Gompers of the American Federation of labor to declare open war against the company recently.” The company tacitly admitted “the difficulty of its employees in reconciling current wages with the high cost of living.” (84) The increase applied nation-wide, save for the ore fields of Tennessee.

By the end of 1910, as the wire plant continued to expand with the addition of buildings, (85) an economic slump at year’s end saw “more men out of work and more families which needed assistance” than in any time in recent years. Still, there was optimism in early 1911 that employment would expand when the spring orders arrived. (86)

That optimism continued through the summer and fall. “September was one of the best months from the standpoint of new orders in the history of the American Steel and Wire company. Incoming business compares favorably with August, which was a very good month.” (87)

In 1916, the company offered a 10 percent wage increase.(88) Wages were frozen, with longer working hours during the war, but after the war, workers demanded an increase. In August, 1919, a general strike of all steelworkers in the United States was voted, affecting approx. 1,000,000 employees. “The workers are asking $1 an hour for forty-four hours a week. They also demand better working conditions.” (89) This was one of the nation’s largest labor actions, and included the American Steel and Wire Company in North Chicago/ Waukegan.. In the local plant, at least 20 percent of the workforce at the mill struck, though the union claimed the figure was higher. “This morning about four or five hundred men took their stations along Marion street” leading to the entrance of the plant, intimidating the few workers attempting to cross the pickets to get to work.(90) The strikers for the most part seemed disciplined. “A meeting was held in the Slovenic hall Sunday afternoon which was attended by a large number of the striking wire mill men. At the meeting various speakers urged the strikers to observe the law, to avoid all riot and trouble, and to make it a point not to use liquor or to carry firearms during the strike. The meeting was an entirely harmonious one and so far as can be learned it was designed merely to talk over the strike plan.” In the first few days of the strike, the pickets did seem to diminish the number of workers willing to cross the lines, with an estimate by Late September that 70 percent of the workforce was idle. (91)

The situation was tense. A shot was fired into the ground as strikers threw stones at bricks at cars of workers trying to enter the plant, though no one was seriously injured. Woman on the platform of nearby electric street car jeered at other workers, calling “scab” and “slackers” “and other names.” When police and deputies tried to clear the platform, a near-riot came close to materializing. “With that half a dozen men rushed from across the street, waving their hands and telling the crowd to follow. Just what he said wasn’t known because he spoke in a foreign tongue. It looked as if he were saying that the police had assaulted their women and they must rush to their aid. At the north platform of the station the police and the women were in a real struggle, the women to get back on the platform, the police department to keep them off. One man made a pass at Chief Tyrrell but it didn’t land. The crowd surged back and forth for ten minutes. Leaders of the strikers who kept their heads shouted to the strikers to remain across the street and not rush the depot. Most of them obeyed and not over twenty gathered in the crowed at the station. At last the police gave way and allowed the women to return to the platform where they continued their remarks to the wire mill men who came to the station to catch their car home.” (92)

While other cities experienced more serious acts of violence, Waukegan seems to have suffered only relatively mild skirmishes. Union leaders were credited with helping keep the peace, though local officials, with obvious bias toward the company, kept tight control of the events. An application by the union to parade was denied, as potentially inflammatory. (91) An effort by the union to promote a boycott of local businesses that supported the mills was undermined as the city deputized local citizens as extra police presence in the strike zones. “It is seen that practically every store in Waukegan and North Chicago has been pressed into service under orders of the sheriff and the plan of the sheriff’s office.”  (93) As the strike dragged on, workers slowly slipped back into work. Even Mother Jones in a speech in Waukegan in November, 1919, urged the Workers to not return to work, “that “if the men would hold out in this mill and not go back to work that they would win the strike for the members of the wire workers union….” (94)

Samuel Gompers’ proposal at the end of October to establish an arbitration board to settle the strike failed, (95); by December, with rumors that more workers were returning to the plants, the American Federation of Labor seemed poised to call the strike off. (96)  A week later, the union voted to continue the strike, and braced for an extended campaign, lasting possibly up to four years. (97)

A few weeks later, on Jan 8, 1920, the strike collapsed, and the union was forced to settle, having won nothing. ““The steel corporations, with the active assistance of the press, the courts, the federal troops, state police and many public officials have denied steelworkers their rights of free speech, free assemblage, and the right to organize and by the arbitrary and ruthless misuse of power have brought about a condition which compelled the national committee for organizing iron and steel workers to vote today that the active strike phases of the steel campaign is now at an ends. A vigorous campaign of education and reorganization will be immediately begun and will not cease until industrial justice in the steel industry has been achieved. All steel strikers are now at liberty to return to work pending preparations for the next big organization movement.” (98) The failure of the “great steel strike of 1919” was a major blow to organized labor.

Notes

(7) Retail Prices, 1890 to 1925: Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, No. 418)
 

(47) Death Toll Large, Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, Jan 13, 1911, p1

(48) Pay roll is huge, Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun,  Oct 21, 1910, p8

(49) Return to work Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, May 17, 1912, p6

(50) Many Ice men strike Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, January 19, 1912, p1

(51) Building is at a standstill thru carpenter strike Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun

, May 21, 1915, p5

(52) Employee of Dow plant declares he was slugged Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , June 18, 1915, p14

(53) Dow is to close; Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, July 2, 1915, p7

(54) Carpenter strike is settled Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, July 16, 1915, p6

(55) Strike stops work at Johns-Manville co Libertyville independent, Sept 18, 1919, p6

(56) How strike was settled Libertyville independent, Sept 22, 1919, p4

(57) Expect raid to curb IWW activities in Waukegan Libertyville independent Sept 20, 1917, P9

(58) The mass IWW Trials American Political Prisoners:  Prosecutions Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts by Stephen Martin Kohn, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994, p14-16

(59) Pancener goes to jail for 10 years; is fined $30,000 Libertyville independent Sept 5, 1918, P1

(60) Debs, socialist leader, guilty under spy act Libertyville independent Sept 19, 1918, P3

(61) Statement to the Court Upon Being Convicted of Violating the Sedition Act Delivered: September 18, 1918  Source: Court Stenogropher  Online Version: E.V. Debs Internet Archive, 2001

(62)  Think bomb which killed four was made in Waukegan Libertyville independent Sept 19, 1918, P2

(63) Pancner seeking Bondsman; Libertyville independent April 10, 1919, P2

(64) Without exception factories respond to national order without protest—Libertyville independent Jan 24, 1918, P6

(65) Order of drawing numbers in Dist Number two Libertyville independent July 26, 1917, P9

(66) The draft to date in Lake County district 2 Libertyville independent Aug 30, 1917, P11

(67) Sixty-one more men called; pass quota of 305 Libertyville independent Sept 6, 1917, P11

(68) New draft hits Waukegan hard; 39 more called Libertyville independent Sept 6, 1917, P12

(69)  26 names added to conscript list from local dist Libertyville independent Sept 20, 1917, P12

(70)  Thirty-nine more men called to National army Libertyville independent Sept 27, 1917, P11

(71)  Waukegan’s 122 men off for army camp in Rockford Libertyville independent Sept 27, 1917, P12

(72)  99 more men called to the army Libertyville independent Oct 4, 1917, P12

(73) List of latest Draft registrants Libertyville independent Aug 29, 1918, P11

(74) “322” is winner; drawn by President on Monday Libertyville independent Oct 3, 1918, P1

(75) Child labor in Illinois shows no diminution Libertyville independent, Aug 19, 1920, p1

(76) 141 children of city work in the local industries Libertyville independent, Sept 16, 1920, p6

(77) Two plants cut down force, Libertyville independent, Aug 5, 1920, p1

(78) City is soon to be a scene of Descent on agitators Libertyville independent, Jan 8, 1920, p8

(79) America for Americans Libertyville independent, May 6, 1920, p1

(80) Alien problem here large one, Edwards shows Libertyville independent, Jan 20, 1921, p10

(81) Native babies found to be neglected Libertyville independent, Feb 23, 1922, p12

(82) Huge laboratory purchases a site; Libertyville independent, March 25, 1920, p6

(83) To employ three times as many men as the wire works Libertyville independent, Sept 30, 1920, p11

(84) Wire mill workers get increase Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, April 22, 1910, p8

(85) New Buildings at Wire Mills Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun,  Dec 16, 1910, p8

(86) At the wire mills Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, Jan 13, 1911, p8

(87) Wire Company Rushed Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, October 6, 1911, p8

(88) Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , Feb 25, 1916, p14

(89) Steel workers of nation start vote on strike Libertyville independent, Aug 14, 1919, p9

(90) Wire mills stop running; 20 pc of force stop wheels Libertyville independent, Sept 25, 1919, p4

(91) Permission to hold parade is denied to union Libertyville independent, Sept 25, 1919, p3

(92) Developments over Thursday Libertyville independent, Oct 2, 1919, p3

(93) Strike notes, Libertyville independent, Oct 2, 1919, p6

(94) Answer is made to “mother Jones” on mill operation, Libertyville independent, Nov 6, 1919, p10

(95) Gompers’ plan to end strike meets defeat Libertyville independent, Oct 23, 1919, p12

(96) AF of L to end steel strike on Dec 13th, rumor Libertyville independent, Dec 11, 1919, p12

(97) Steel strikers draw plans for 4-year battle Libertyville independent, Dec 18, 1919, p3

(98) Plan to keep on with “educational campaign: in Mills Libertyville independent, Jan 15, 1920, p9

Appendix

(47) Death Toll Large, Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, Jan 13, 1911, p1

Death Toll Large

Industrial and other accidental deaths sad to consider

Industrial accidental deaths:

Railroads, claimed: 21

Electric roads: 7

Wire Mills: 3

Miscellaneous Violent Deaths:

Suspected murder: 5

Lockjaw: 2

Burned: 2

Suicides: 5

Drowning: 10

Various accidental deaths: 9

Various sudden deaths: 15

Total sudden deaths: 79

The above is the inquest record of coroner J L Taylor for the year.

Jan 13, 1911, p1

(48) Pay roll is huge, Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun,  Oct 21, 1910, p8

Pay roll is huge

Monthly wage distributions close to $300.000

Waukegan’s monthly pay roll from her industries is over a quarter of a million dollars, about $300,000 as nearly as a Sun reporter was able to learn.

This, Manufacturers told, is for four industries out of five straight through the city and north Chicago, greater than last year. In some cases the pay rolls at some plants are twice as large as last year,. In no important case was it said that the payroll is less than last year.

The Sun got the returns by telephone late Friday afternoon. No attempt was made to get a statement of payroll correct to the hair’s breath from each plant, but each owner and manager was asked to give the sum in round numbers and the figures were totaled. They reach the sum of $298,200.

North Chicago was included for the simple reason that North Chicago industries are in the same industrial [z]one and benefit the same territory as those within the Waukegan city limits.

Largest Pay rolls

The largest pay rolls were found to be with the American Steel & Wire Company, the Chicago Hardware foundry company, the Chicago hardware manufacturing company, the wilder tanning company, the Elgin Joliet & Eastern railroad, the northwestern and some others, the payroll figures gradually shading down. The least industrial payroll was about $1000.

Over 5,000 employed

The sun reporter who made the inquiry found that about 5,500 in this city and North Chicago, with a smattering from Zion city, have industrial jobs, showing the large and important element of factory population and exactly what the industries meant to the local trade, demonstrating that the more industries that can be located here, the more business is available.

Due to the Sun’s promise to industries, none of the detailed payroll figures are made known by names of companies, but the following are some of the factories and the number of men and women they employ:

Men in the factories:

Beaslyey’s brewing co: 29

Phanstiel electrical laboratory co: 55

Chicago Recording scale co: 27

Wilder tanning co: 100

American Steel & Wire: 1500

Alschuler & Co: 150

Barwell:30

Chicago Hardware Foundry co: 600

Corn Products co: 750

Dow Manufacturing co: 60

Elgin, Joliet & Eastern: 200

Fischer & Swawite: 31

Model Laundry Co: 30

Northern Brass Co: 100

North Shore Electric co: 35

There are others on which the Sun got data, but the list will serve to show how the  industries as to the people employed. The total reached nearly 5,500.

Further Tabulation Coming.

As a matter of fact, after the list was completed a number of industries were found to have been omitted in advertently and the Sun will at a later date print what it hopes will be a fairly close and accurate estimate, which will be even better than the present rather rough one.”

Oct 21, 1910, p8

 (49) Return to work Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, May 17, 1912, p6

Return to work

Teamsters return to work Tuesday following week’s idleness in Waukegan

Team owners propose to pay men what they are worth

Some receive $13.00

Once more peace reigns among the teamsters of Waukegan and the team owners. The strike has been declared settled.

At 6 o’clock Tuesday morning three fifths of the embers of the teamsters union, who have been on strike for the past week, returned to work.  A few others stood on the street corners throughout the day shouting “quitters.”

The team owners did not sign an agreement whereby they contracted to pay each and every teamster $15 a week.

Team owners in Waukegan are to be the sole judge of the value of the team drivers. Some will receive $15 while others will receive but $13. “The drivers will be paid according to their earning ability,” said Charles Bairstow of the firm Fred Bairstow & Son.

A few non-union men were given employment today.

Yesterday the team owners notified their former employees to report for work Tuesday morning. They told them they proposed to employ team drivers and if they did not show up for work that other men would be hired in their stead.

As a result of the strike which was declared a week ago, building has been practically at a stand-still. Since the strike has been settled a wave of prosperity reigns among contractors and the building supply men of Waukegan.

May 17, 1912

(50) Many Ice men strike Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, January 19, 1912, p1

Many Ice men strike

Six hundred men are now out and companies say new men are hired

Ask for 20c per hour

Some of them have lost ends of fingers; say demands were simple.

It develops that the strike in the Lake region among the ice cutters as related exclusively in the Sun last evening has taken on ever greater proportions. Instead of three hundred men being out the number is doubled as all the ice cutters on Long and Fox lakes are now out, having made the same demands the ice cutters on Round lake made. Bloodshed was threatened yesterday when a policeman and one of the strikers drew revolvers. They were kept apart by the intervention of friends.

The strikers assert that their demands are not unreasonable. They say that up to the present time they have been asked to work for 15 cents an hour and out of this were obliged to pay $4 a week for the cheapest kind of board and lodging that was almost worse than nothing. All they ask, they say is that they receive 20 cents an hour.

Those who have seen some of the strikers assert that every one of them has been marked by the privations they have undergone. Many of them have sustained frozen cheeks, noses, hands and feet and in some cases ends of fingers have dropped off.

They say that the companies got them to serve by making great promises and that as soon as they got them where they wanted them they subjected them to the greatest privations and kept them there by holding back their wages. The Sun told of these facts in an exclusive story told several days ago.

None of the strikers will be allowed back to work. The three hundred strikers at Round Lake have been sent away and it is said that those on Long Lake and Fox Lake will follow. The ice companies assert that they have hired men to take the places of the strikers who were paid off yesterday.

One hundred and fifty men still work are at work at Taylor Lake and it is said that up to the present time there has been no move on their part to strike against conditions.

January 19, 1912

(51) Building is at a standstill thru carpenter strike Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , May 21, 1915, p5

Building is at a standstill thru carpenter strike

At least one large building would have been underway but for strike

…The condition at the Dow mill, according to Mr. Dow, is unchanged. The plant is being conducted as an open shop, he saws, and is running practically the same as it did before the walkout. The strikers are offering not the slightest interference, feeling confident that they will receive their positions when the strike matter is adjusted….

May 21, 1915

(52) Employee of Dow plant declares he was slugged Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , June 18, 1915, p14

Employee of Dow plant declares he was slugged

Says two of the strikers attacked him while in saloon on Wednesday night

Was hit on the forehead

Robert Dow has names of the strikers but is undecided what course to take

That he was attacked by first one and later two of the strikers from the Dow sash and door factory was the statement given out today by Eugene Kunz, an employee at the mill. The alleged attack, according to Kunz, took place Wednesday night in the Oakee saloon on south Sheridan road. Robert Dow declared today that he was not quite sure as yet whether or not he would swear out a warrant for the strikers, the names of whom he says are known to him.

“It is attacks of this nature and other acts of roughness,” he said, “that are making it difficult to settle our little difficulty. If the men who walked out wished to conduct themselves in a gentlemanly manner, it might not be so hard to reach terms with them, but acts of this kind do not tend to hasten a settlement.”

Kunz formerly resided in Mexico but invested considerable money in Mexican land, going there to take care of it. The war caused him to loose what he had invested and upon returning home came to the Dow plant and secured a position.

On Wednesday night about 5:15 or 5:20 he entered the Oakes saloon, he says, and sat down at a table to read the evening paper. One of the strikers was sitting at the same table but Kunz did not know him.

“Say, you’ve got my job,” he says the striker said to him.

“That isn’t the way to talk—if you have a civil question to ask, I’ll answer it,” I told him, Kunz said.

“One thing led to another and he finally struck me in the forehead, almost stunning me. He was a much bigger man but I didn’t propose to be hit by him if he was twice my size. I backed up against the wall so that no one could attack me the rear.  The fellow tried to hit me again but I stopped him. Then another man came to the assistance of the two men. It kept me busy dodging their blows. Finally the first man struck at me but I ducked and his fist went through a glass window, cutting him. About this time a policeman entered the place and the fight was stopped.”

Robert Dow declared this morning that he had received a tip that some of the strikers intended to “lay for” Kunz, but he says he forgot to warn him. He said he felt confident however that Kunz would be able to take good care of himself.

Dow says he has the names of the men mixed up in the deal, but is undecided what course to take. To avoid possible clashes the police are still sending officers to the plant night and morning at the time the men go to work and when they leave in the afternoon. They report that everything has gone along quietly at these times.

June 18, 1915

(53) Dow is to close; Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, July 2, 1915, p7

Dow is to close;

Order big lockout of men

Millwork department will likely be shut down within forty-eight hours

Waukegan June 26

The general lockout of the building industry is on. Robert Dow of the W H Dow sash and door factory announced Friday morning that he will follow the example set by the building materials interests of Chicago and will cease to operate his mill work plant until the labor strikes now on are submitted to arbitration and work resumed.

All material manufacturers will cease work and close down their yards, all contractors will lay off their men, and the financial interests of the city will back them.

The principle guiding all interests in the move, as expressed by them is the necessity for adjusting differences between employer and employee by arbitration.

Blame the carpenters

They lay the burden of the tie-up upon the carpenters union, which is finishing a vote refusing to arbitrate.

Settlement of the carpenter’s strike will not relieve the situation it is declared. There are other strikes which must be settled also, those of the sheet metal workers, lathers, painters and structural iron workers.

Following the resolutions adapted by the ninety-two representatives present as given out by the free press committee, composed of Mr. Fryer, Mrs. Carey and Mr. Hines.

“Whereas conditions in the building industry have been such as to cause the contractors to unite to protect their own as well as the interests of the owners, architects, material dealers, their various employees and the general public from the many abuses incidental to the operation of building construction in this city,

“whereas in promoting the effort to eliminate the sympathetic strike jurisdictional dispute, the contractors insisted upon agreements being made between employers and employees in all branches of the building industry providing for the proper adjustment of all disputes through the medium of arbitration to avoid the cessation of stoppage of work,

“Resolved, that the building contractors and material interests declare their firm conviction in the principle of arbitration,

Resolved, that in view of the building contractors and material interests that it is absolutely essential to the general building interests that collective agreements should be made between employers and employees in order to remove the possibility of strikers and lockouts sympathetic and otherwise,

Resolved, in view of the present deplorable condition of the building industry, with the continuance of strikes and the refusal of certain interests to submit their disputes to arbitration, it is the sense of this meeting to continue in a practical manner the operation of their respective interests, in as much as operating and overhead expenses greatly exceed the output and sales in many branches of the building interests.”

July 2, 1915

(54) Carpenter strike is settled Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, July 16, 1915, p6

Carpenter strike is settled

Men get 70 cents an hour, an increase of five cents—adopt Thompson plan

Waukegan July 10

As of 7 o’clock this morning work was received over the telegraph wires that the carpenter’s strike had been settled and that Waukegan carpenters would return to work by eight o’clock Monday morning. By the terms of the agreement reached by the arbiters of the carpenters’ union and the contractors, the carpenters for the next three years will receive 70 cents per hour and still work eight hours a day with Saturday afternoons off.

The arbiters, after an all-night session, which was copied after the all-night session forced by Mayor Thompson of Chicago on the rail heads of Chicago and their striking trainmen recently, reached an agreement at 4 o’clock Saturday morning.

Shortly before 6 o’clock the city editor of a Chicago newspaper instructed The Sun that the strike had been settled and that there was cause for great rejoicing among the men at the strike and among the contractors who have been kept idle for the past four months.

W O Samson and Max Baade, two of Waukegan’s best known carpenters announced that on Monday morning the carpenters of Waukegan will return to work and that they will not forget their promise to the women and on Monday morning at 8 o’clock the local carpenters will assemble at the lake front and erect free of cost Waukegan’s new municipal bath-house.

The bath house would have been completed by this time but for the rain. We could not work today because the concrete forms have not settled sufficiently to permit us to proceed with the woodwork. On Monday we will resume the work and the building will be completed within 36 hours,” said Mr. Samson. One hundred and twenty-two carpenters have declared their intention of assisting in the work of erecting the bath house and a great many of them figure that they are erecting a fitting memorial to the strike when they use their hammers for the first time in months on a building that promises to bring happiness to the residents of the city.

Work will now start on building, the erection of which has been delayed for several weeks. Work is scheduled to start on the erection of L J Yager’s new building just west of the Whitney property on west Washington within a very few days. A large number of property owners are planning building and within a short time plans will be submitted to contractors for their prices.

By the terms of the agreement the carpenters won the main point—a  demand of 70 cents an hour or an increase of 5 cents. They waived on the other points—the material clause and date of expiration of agreement—and agreed to abide by the terms of the uniform agreement accepted by the Building trades council. They agreed to make the date for the ending of the agreement May 21, instead of April 15. The agreement was signed at once and will last for three years, dating from May 31 last.

The clause in the uniform agreement regarding the use of materials which the carpenters fought hard to have removed, remains. This means that there shall be no restrictions on materials manufactured elsewhere.

The clause reads: “There shall be no restriction of any manufactured material except prison made.”

The carpenters insisted this clause be stricken from the agreement, but the employers declared that this demand would never be met. They declared that it is impossible to procure materials necessary for a building in Chicago and maintained their right to buy they anywhere they pleased. The carpenters contended that they wanted to patronize home industry first.

The date of the expiration of the agreement was fought for bitterly also. The employers argued that on April 15 the building season is usually at its height and that they did not want interference just at the time they were busiest by having argument over making a new agreement. They maintained that May 31, after the busy season is over, is the proper time to arrange new working rules. The union men contended that the earlier date is the proper time, as everything should be settled before the big work of the spring is completed.

President Metz, however, had said many times that if the carpenter contractors would grant the 70 cent wage scale for three years the two other points could be easily agreed upon. The contractors had steadfastly refused to grant 70 cents and thus the deadlock continued.

July 16, 1915

(55) Strike stops work at Johns-Manville co Libertyville independent, Sept 18, 1919, p6

Strike stops work at Johns-Manville co

Hoisters Union calls men off the job when company refuses to hire extra help

Expect settlement soon

The probable settlement of the builders strike which is due to take place tonight is expected to settle labor difficulties which developed on the flats in Waukegan Wednesday and which tied up a large part of the work on the big Johns-Manville plant.

The hoisters union is one of the trades in Chicago which has been idle during the builders strike. Half a dozen members of this union are employed at the Johns-Manville plant engaged in operating the sand-sucker. The Chicago union is alleged by supt. Cassan in charge of the construction work here to have demanded that men from the Chicago union be given employment in the local contract.

Some of these men were put to work on Monday and Tuesday although it is claimed there was no real necessity for their services. It is claimed by Cassan and others who are directing the work here that an effort was made to force the contracting firm to put on more hoisters on Wednesday, making a total of ten extra men. He thereat was made, it is said, that all the men would be called off unless employment was given to the extra men. The contractor refused and a strike is said to have been called.

This left no one to operate the sand-sucker and with the exception of a few other men who are employed on the job construction has stopped. It is the belief that the settlement of the builders strike will cause the hoisters strike to be called off.

Sept 18, 1919

(56) How strike was settled Libertyville independent, Sept 22, 1919, p4

How strike was settled

He carpenter’s strike in Chicago and the north shore which has tied up all building in that territory and which subsequently caused the lumber and material yards to shut down in the endeavor to break the strike was finally settled in Chicago Friday night at a meeting in Hotel LaSalle.

As a result of the settlement work in building lines in Waukegan and the north shore will resume simultaneously with that in Chicago, namely next Monday.

The carpenters get $1 an hour, the wage for which they have contended during a ten weeks’ test of strength with the contractors. The men are to return to work next Monday Sept 22

The representatives of the union were invested with full power to reach the settlement and inasmuch as their demand of $1 a hour is conceded, there will be necessary no referendum vote or further ratification….

Sept 22, 1919

(57) Expect raid to curb IWW activities in Waukegan Libertyville independent Sept 20, 1917, P9

Expect raid to curb IWW activities in Waukegan

Police believe that arrest of local men will serve as warning to others

Pancner to Chicago?

Federal operatives said to be considering this move—are making a probe

That the raid made by the Waukegan police Sunday night will have the effect of curbing the IWW movement in Waukegan is the belief of those who are familiar with the situation.

“We have been watching the local activities of the IWW for a long time and we are just biding our time before we make a descent,” assistant Chief Thomas Tyrrell asserted today. “We are determined to stamp out the movement here and will make as many arrests as may be necessary. I think this affair will have a favorable affect for it will show others just what we expect.”

That there are a large number of IWW members in Waukegan is admitted by John Pancner, the organizer of the society who was arrested when he came here to organize an even stronger movement here. It was the first effort toward perfecting an organization here.

The federal operatives who are working on the case are more than satisfied with the data they secured from the person of Pancner. They secured newspaper clipping, it is said, which indicate that possibly he is wanted for acts of violence committed in other cities. One clipping would indicate the Pancner directed a threat against President Wilson while in Milwaukee recently. It is said that Pancner and his companion also an organizer and delegate for the IWW may be taken to Chicago in order that a more thorough investigation can be made.

Meanwhile the heads of local factories have redoubled their watchfulness to see that no acts of violence are committed against their plants. This is true with especial emphasis of the plants which are making war munitions.

Sept 20, 1917

(58) The mass IWW Trials American Political Prisoners:  Prosecutions Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts by Stephen Martin Kohn, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994, p14-16

The mass IWW Trials

Most of the espionage act cases involved the trial of an individual or a small group of individuals for speaking or writing against the war. But in the case of the IWW, the government targeted an entire labor organization, rounding up its national and local leaders and holding them for mass trials in the cities of Chicago, Illinois; Wichita, Kansas; Sacramento, California; and Omaha, Nebraska….

The Indictment and trial in Chicago

On September 5, 1917, the federal campaign to close down the IWW began with the arrest of the IWW’s national and regional leaders, it major newspaper editors and its executive board members. In the first indictment, the Department of Justice named 166 alleged union leaders.

As would be true in all other federal cases against the IWW, the indictments (and sustained convictions) were based on the union’s “public distribution” of statements and speeches against the war in general or against the United States’ participation in World War I specifically. The major conspiracy indictments were based exclusively on speech-related crimes. In relevant part, the federal indictment against the union leaders stated:

By means of personal solicitation, of public speeches, of articles printed in certain newspapers (here twelve newspapers are named of which eight are foreign-language editions), circulating throughout the United States, and of the public distribution of certain pamphlets entitle “War and the Workers,” “Patriotism and the Workers,” and “Preamble and Constitution of the Industrial Workers of the World,” the same being solicitations, speeches, articles and pamphlets persistently urging insubordination, disloyalty and refusal of duty in said military and naval forces and failure and refusal on the part of available persons to enlist therein.”

Of those indicted, eighty-seven were confined for over a year in the Cook County jail while awaiting trial, and  bail was arranged for twenty-six members. Of the remaining fifty-three indicted IWW members (often referred to as Wobblies), four received a severance of their cases and eventually had their cases dismissed, one was found dead at the time of the indictment and the remaining defendants were never apprehended.

The Chicago trial lasted from March 23 until August 30, 1918. The only evidence submitted against the IWW members consisted of newspaper articles, letters and organizational literature—most of which were printed before the United States entered into World War I. According to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) study of the trial:

No member of the IWW was convicted in any court of any crime involving the organization of violence…No connection whatever was found between German agents or German money and the IWW…most of the charges of obstruction against the IWW during this war were part of an organized campaign by war-profiteers and employing interests to use the war to crush this labor organization.

Despite the lack of evidence against them the IWW leaders were found guilty and sentenced severely—fifteen were sentenced to twenty years, thirty-seven to ten years, thirty-four to five years and eighteen to two years. Total fines were over $2.5 million. The convictions under the Espionage Act were upheld by a federal appeals court.

1994

(59) Pancener goes to jail for 10 years; is fined $30,000 Libertyville independent Sept 5, 1918, P1

Pancener goes to jail for 10 years; is fined $30,000

IWW leader who claims Waukegan for his home receives heavy sentence

John Pancner who organized for the IWW who claims Waukegan as his home must serve yen years in the federal prison in additio0n to paying a fine of $30,000. Pancner was one of over 100 IWW leaders who were convicted of disloyalty to the government when they were given a hearing in federal court in Chicago before federal judge Landis.

WD Haywood and several other of the chief leaders of the IWW have been sentenced to serve twenty years in federal prison and pay a fine of $20,000 each.

Pancner was arrested in Waukegan early last spring when he sought to organize a branch of the IWW in Waukegan. He called a meeting at a south side hall but the presence there of the police prevented any sort of demonstration.

After the meeting a conference was called at the home of a Waukegan man. When the police conducted a raid several arrests were made. The Waukegan men taken eventually were released but Pancner was turned over to the authorities in Chicago. He was held in the Cook County jail. The federal grand jury returned an indictment against him and a large number of IWW members. All members of the organization were confident they would be aquited and were stunned when the verdict of guilt was returned.

Sept 5, 1918

(60) Debs, socialist leader, guilty under spy act Libertyville independent Sept 19, 1918, P3

Debs, socialist leader, guilty under spy act

Cleveland O

Eugene Debbs, charged with violating the espionage act was found guilty by a federal jury today with (?) a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a fine of $10,000.

He was found guilty of attempting to incite insubordination and disloyalty, etc in the military and naval forces, attempting to disrupt recruiting and uttering language tending to incite, provoke and encourage resistance to the united States and to promote the cause of the enemy.”

Sept 19, 1918

(61) Statement to the Court Upon Being Convicted of Violating the Sedition Act Delivered: September 18, 1918  Source: Court Stenogropher  Online Version: E.V. Debs Internet Archive, 2001

Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

September 18, 1918  

(62)  Think bomb which killed four was made in Waukegan Libertyville independent Sept 19, 1918, P2

Think bomb which killed four was made in Waukegan

Department of justice agents are conducting a probe to determine facts

Was “home-make” affair

Investigation in Waukegan is started when the report first made

That the bomb exploded in the federal building, Chicago, a little less than two weeks ago by an IWW agent resulting in the death of four people and the wounding of many others was manufactured in Waukegan is the sensational new development being investigated by department of justice operatives.

Information pointing to the fact that the “home-made” bomb had been made in Waukegan was supplied the federal authorities in Chicago last Saturday. Agents have been investigating the matter here ever since.

Late Saturday afternoon the report was circulated that the bomb factory had been located here and the maker placed under arrest. This story, it appears, was without foundation.

One fact which is causing the government to continue the probe here is that the materials used in the making of the bombs are readily obtainable in Waukegan.

It is learned further that there was a big IWW meeting in Waukegan about a month ago. Whether or not there was any connection between this meeting and the bomb outrage has not been determined.

First accounts of the bomb explosion in Chicago stated that the bomb had been hurled from across the street,. It is now stated that the bomb by the department of justice that the bomb was placed deliberate in a dark corner of one of the closed entrances to the federal building.

Sept 19, 1918

(63) Pancner seeking Bondsman; Libertyville independent April 10, 1919, P2

Pancner seeking Bondsman; bail is fixed at $10,000

IWW member who claims Waukegan as home seeks release from prison

The IWW has always been destroyers of property. Dynamite and bombs have always been their principle weapons against things material that have belonged to persons who they thought had too much. “Away with property,” has been the cry. That was last week. Today the IWW leaders (or what is left of them outside the jails) are looking for $1,000,000 worth of property which cannot be destroyed. If necessary the IWW will stand over it and protect it with their lives. And they will no longer quibble over whether the owner of the property has more than he needs.

The “wobblies” want the million as security on the bonds of “Big Bill” Haywood and thirty-six other IWW leaders now confined in Fort Levenworth, who were granted an appeal late yesterday to the United States

Circuit Court of appeals on the charge of conspiracy. They were sent to prison some weeks ago from Judge Landis’ court for terms ranging from one year to twenty years for interfering with the operations of the draft law. If the necessary property can be scheduled, “Big Bill” and others will be released pending the appeal.

Among those whom the IWW are trying to release on bonds from Fort Levenworth is John Pancner, who claims Waukegan as his home. Pancner was arrested in Waukegan after coming here to conduct meetings. He was taken to Chicago where he was indicted by the grand jury and finally convicted, being sentenced to serve ten years in federal prison and pay a fine of $10,000. It will be necessary for his friends to put up $10,000 bail to obtain his release.

April 10, 1919

(64) Without exception factories respond to national order without protest—Libertyville independent Jan 24, 1918, P6

Without exception factories respond to national order without protest—

Men told on Thursday not to report to work this morning—

Tannery has largest force, being obliged to complete work already under process—

Wire mill never had so few at work on week day

Factories stop;

Many men idle

How factories were

Wire mill: at work 30, normal force: 2200

Hardware foundry: at work 12, normal force: 750

Dow Mfg co: at work 3, normal force: 75

Alshuler’s Garment factory: at work 4, normal force: 200

Envenope co: at work 4, normal force: 300

Wilder Tannery: at work 200, normal force: 600

Sagey (?) Lock: at work 4, normal force: 100

Terminal: at work 25, normal force: 1000

Oakie Milk Machine: at work 7, normal force: 60

Drown portable: at work 1, normal force: 100

Geolitz Candy co: at work 12, normal force: 25

Assdon (?) Bros: at work 2, normal force: 50

Northern brass: at work 3, normal force: 100

Blatsford Calf meal: at work 8, normal force: 75

Cyclone fence: at work 15, normal force: 200

Total:  at work 330, normal force: 5835

Waukegan Jan 18

Complying with the rule from Washington, Waukegan and North Chicago industries today ceased turning their wheels and thousands of men were told to remain home for a period of five days. It was the first time there has been such a general shut down of industries in this community and the duel effect will be watched with decided interest by people generally.

Promptly at midnight last night the rule went into effect that was given out by fuel administrator Garfield, power was shut off and the fires were (?) for a period of five days in the various factories and Waukegan joined with the rest of the nation in obeying the mandate from Washington which is intended to save fuel and permit the country to catch up with itself in this particular line.

The full effect of the shut down is not fully felt yet, but employers are [predicting that it will be felt within (?) day or so in a (?0 in many cases. It is admitted that many men are living from day to day on what they earn and it is feared that there will be more or less privation as a result of this sudden shut down….

Industrial

It is found that there are no industrial plants in Waukegan or North Chicago that are exempt from the five-day closing order and all should therefore close during this period subject of course to any modification of the orders by the fuel administrator. Repairs and tailoring shops using gas, motors or other power are included in the five day shut down.

Mercantile

Mercantile establishments except as hereinafter specified, should close all day Monday January 21.

The exceptions are that for purposes of selling food only, stores may maintain necessary heat on Monday until 12 o’clock noon; for the purpose of selling drugs and medical supplies only stores may maintain necessary heat throughout the day and evening. Confectioners, moving picture theatres, shoe shining parlors, repair shops and barber shops must close all day.

Jan 24, 1918

(65) Order of drawing numbers in Dist Number two Libertyville independent July 26, 1917, P9

Order of drawing numbers in Dist Number two

Below is presented the list of men in Lake County district no. 2 who were drawn in the first 2,000 draft numbers Friday.

The list is complete as far as district no 2 is concerned and the general belief in Washington and Chicago is that the first 2,000 names drawn will much more than care for the first drafted army. In fact, it is reported from Washington that the first 2,000 names probably includes all who would be subject to a second draft of the same size as the present case.

District two, Lake County

837  Frank Oblak 732 Market st.

337 Vincenzo Batleant 703 Market st

1045 John Bonans, 902 Market st

1536 Nazarath Simonian, 670 Market st

739 (?) Frank Kenik, 809 Market st

1395 Chris Anton, 801 Market st

1294 Filippo Trinciotto, 530 Market st

1647 Joe Horst, 942 Market st

638 Mercen Elioff, 920 ½ Market st

335 Tony Blagonic, 613 Market st

363 Peter Christ, 610 Market st

2167 Jas A Miller, 705 Market st

1722 Ignaac Hodnik, 817 Market st

2053 Constantin Tantwanz, 724 Market st

1698 Peter Costiglio, 309 Market st

2283 John Zutenic, 624 Market st

July 26, 1917

(66) The draft to date in Lake County district 2 Libertyville independent Aug 30, 1917, P11

The draft to date in Lake County district 2

337 Vincenzo Batleant, 703 Market st

739 Frank Kenik, 809 Market st

477 John Lackiskae 732 Market st

2808 Steve Grabelsek  733 Market st

305 Walter Hudson, 211 Market st

(work 31 ¾ 5 ⅞.5) The draft to date in Lake County district 2 Libertyville independent Aug 30, 1917, P11

(67) Sixty-one more men called; pass quota of 305 Libertyville independent Sept 6, 1917, P11

Sixty-one more men called; pass quota of 305

Draft board announce largest list yet given out since it started work

Will certify 440

In order to gicve sufficient whom federal government may make its choice

The draft board in district number two Lake Couty has passed their quopta of 305 which have been ordered drawn from the dirtrict for the new army. To date with today’s drawuing added to those certified before, 319 men have been certified into the army. The number required was but 305, but the board will keep on certifying more until probably in all 425 or 440 have been certified, from which the government will select its 305 after using those certified by the board and picking from the list of exempted those whom the federal board believes should not be exempted by the local boards.

The board expects to finish up its work of certifying by the latter part of the weekm and it is not figured that over 440 names will be certified in this total. The board however will continue its sessions and probably will be on duty for a month longer, taking up matters with the district board, etc….

The latest list of sixty-one:

1199 Louis Perhavec 714 Market st

96 Sam Kedekein, 422 Market st

Sept 6, 1917

(68) New draft hits Waukegan hard; 39 more called Libertyville independent Sept 6, 1917, P12

New draft hits Waukegan hard;

39 more called

Makes total of 258

Dr. Shellenberger, Art Rutlinger, Tom Merchant, Minard Hulse are called

Waukegan Aug 30

In the additional list of thirty-nine men whom draft board number two today called into the army Waukegan folks realize that there are more names of well-known Waukeganites than had been seen in any previous quota summoned. In other words, it hits home harder today trhan upon publication of any previous draft. The total called to date is 238….

The latest draft:

2310 Emil Ortman, 319 Market st

Sept 6, 1917

(69)  26 names added to conscript list from local dist Libertyville independent Sept 20, 1917, P12

26 names added to conscript list from local dist

Local exemption board certifies additional list of those who are accepted

List grows constantly

Will give out soon a list of those who will go to Rockford on September 20

The draft board today certified twenty-six additional men into the army and at the same time announced that on next Thursday, the 20th, it will send to Rockford 122 more men to enter the training camp there.

These 122 men will be added to the fourteen already sent there and now in training, making a total of 137 from district number two, Lake county at the Rockford camp.

Have special train

The 122 men will leave Waukegan on a special train here at 12:20 o’clock, go into Chicago and then at once to Rockford. These 122 names have not yet been certified back to the local board from the appeal board as yet but assurance was given today that the list would be here tomorrow; if it is then the board will publish said list of men called up in tomorrow’s Sun.

Up to the present time the Waukegan draft board has not had any men sent back as exempted by the appeal board. Of course some may come in any day but to date not a single name has been returned as shown exempted by the higher board.

The latest list of men certified into the army from the district contains nobody of special prominence in the city, in fact it appears as if all the Waukeganites drawn this time happen to come from the southern part of the city.

The latest certified into the army follows, their residence being Waukeagn where no place is mentioned:

335 Tony Blagenie, 613 Market st

2053 Constantine Tautvancz, 724 Market st

715 Anton Jesenower, 727 Market st

2159 Pietro Greco, 230 Market st

2348 Charles Mickuts, 410 Market st

Sept 20, 1917

(70)  Thirty-nine more men called to National army Libertyville independent Sept 27, 1917, P11

Thirty-nine more men called to National army

Lake couty board, district no 2 makes known list of men called to arms

Totyal certified now 444

Waukegan board complimented on its accuracy and printed form of recording

The draft board, district number two, Lake county, has certified thirty-nine additional men into the army.

This makes a total of 444 that have been called into the army out of about 1500 of those examined. In all 3300 were examined and the board now has about 1800 more, or the last two days supply of those examined yet to weigh in the matter of exceptions. The board has gone through the examine list until now but the last two days’ quota remains to be considered...

The latest list:

133 Samuel Rinaldo 522 Market st

3302 Salvator Fiscilla, 703 Market st

337 Vincenzo Batleant, 703 Market st

739 Frank Kenik, 809 Market st

Sept 27, 1917

(71)  Waukegan’s 122 men off for army camp in Rockford Libertyville independent Sept 27, 1917, P12

Waukegan’s 122 men off for army camp in Rockford

Big demonstration held in city as men march down the streets to entrain

131 go in district one

People throng streets of Waukegan and Highland park as contingents leave

Waukegan Sept 19

Waukegan may have neglected to make any sort of a demonstration when the 15 young men recently started for Rockford but that without a question was due to the fact that the young men started about 7 o’clock in the morning and that the public had been given no notice that any sort of a recognition of their departure was to be expected. In other words, it was an inappropriate time of day to start to enable the public to show its appreciation of these young men who are going into training to fight for their country.

What Waukegan lacked when the first contingent went to Rockford it made up this noon when the 122 men started away for Rockford where they are to begin training to be soldiers for the United States….

477 John Loenishar, 732 Market st

Sept 27, 1917

(72)  99 more men called to the army Libertyville independent Oct 4, 1917, P12

99 more men called to the army

Draft board issues new list of names—no word as yet as to when next quota will leave for Rockord—it will consist of sixty men

Waukegan Sept 27

The draft board has certified 96 more men from district two, Lake county and at te same time the board announced it did not know when the next quota of 60 men (9 percent of the whole quota under the new ruling) will be ordered to Rockland. Reports have it that it will be early in October, probably the 3rd or the 5th….

241 Joseph Slevec, 727 Market st

1692 Fred Camasello, 312 Market st

1348 Frank Sasek, 611 Market st

1042 Jerry Busdrh, 732 Market st

1074 Nunzio Bantivegna, 406 Market st

Oct 4, 1917

(73) List of latest Draft registrants Libertyville independent Aug 29, 1918, P11

List of latest Draft registrants

Stanley Kastlanski, Waukegan

Peter Marli, Waukegan

John P Repp, Waukegan

Aug 29, 1918

(74) “322” is winner; drawn by President on Monday Libertyville independent Oct 3, 1918, P1

“322” is winner; drawn by President on Monday

Results anxiously watched by registrant in every section of the country

Albert Volney Foster

Holds the number in district

Washington Sept 30—president Wilson personally today opened the ceremony of drawing numbers for the 13,000,000 men registred in the new draft. He drew the first capsule, which contained the number 322…

8—3748 Ajozij Rems, 733 Market st

13—3073 Elpidio Testarelli, 613 Market

22—625 Frank mix, 707 Market st.

31—1961 Bollsslow Damowski, 231 Market st

Oct 3, 1918

(75) Child labor in Illinois shows no diminution Libertyville independent, Aug 19, 1920, p1

Child labor in Illinois shows no diminution

Number now employed thru out the state given officially as 26,883

Springfield, Ill

Child labor in Illinois, which reached its height during the  war when a liberal interpretation of the child labor law was permitted for the sake of production has not receded as it should, according to Barney Cohen, director of the state department of labor.

“Many employers insist upon employing when the work should be for older workers,” Mr Cohen said, commenting on the twenty-seventh annual report of the chief factory inspector.

This report, just made by Robert S Jones of Chicago, shows there are 26,888 children working in Illinois. A total; of 53,252 work certificates were issued them, some of them obtaining as many as ten different certificates for ten different jobs.

The report shows an increase of 1,563 in the number of certificates over last year. In the factories inspected by Mr Jones, 886 boys and 7,255 girls were employed. They made up 1.5 per cent of the total number of workers.

Aug 19, 1920

(76) 141 children of city work in the local industries Libertyville independent, Sept 16, 1920, p6

141 children of city work in the local industries

Figures of state factory inspector show totals of child labor

Waukegan industries employ 141 children operating under children’s work certificates granted during the last year, according to statistics issued by Barney Cohen, director of the state department of Labor at Springfield.

In announcing the total, Mr Cohen issued a statement in which he said child labor in Illinois reached its height during the war when a liberal interpretation of the child labor laws was permitted for the sake of production, has not receded as it should. Waukegan figures show 104 boys and 37 girls under age now working who it is said, should be in school.

Chicago has a total of 52,0788 (?) children so employed. Of this number, 34,582 are boys and 17,496 are girls. The state has a total of 32,115 boys and 21,137 girls—a grand total of 53,252.

“Many employers insist upon employing when the work should be for older workers,” Mr Cohen said, commenting on the annual report of the chief factory inspector.

This report, just made by Robert s Jones of Chicago shows that there are 26,888 children working in the state (?)…

Sept 16, 1920

(77) Two plants cut down force, Libertyville independent, Aug 5, 1920, p1

Two plants cut down force, 105 given “vacation”

Fansteel and Dow plants, due to railroad situation, orders, etc, curtail.

While there is not occasion to feel alarmed over the fact, an important development in manufacturing circles precipitated in Waukegan Saturday as follows:

1. Fansteel company laid off eighty hands
2. Dow company laid off twenty five hands

In the case of the Dows, the reason for laying off help is that the company has had trouble getting products shipped out, the railroads tie-up being such that they have been unable to get cars.

In the case of the Fansteel company, the help laid off there represent a curtailment of the force due to the fact that the company has received orders from the Buick and other auto companies for which it manufactures valves etc to “hold up further produce” the auto companies apparently having reached a point where they are cutting down manufacture due to railroad conditions, shortage of money and subsequent dropping off of auto sales.

Another report was that the wire mill is considering cutting down the force somewhat but this is not confirmed and doesn’t look probable because a number of the Fansteel company men already have received work at the wire mill.

The reason why Waukegan can receive news of this sort without a big flurry is because there is so much work going on at the John-Mansville plant and other concerns in the city that the men laid off in one place can get employment at others.

However the local development together with reports from Detroit and other western cities that the factories there are cutting down their hours of operation and number of hands ought now to be trying to hold it rather than keep shifting jobs for the sake of shifting.

Aug 5, 1920

(78) City is soon to be a scene of Descent on agitators Libertyville independent, Jan 8, 1920, p8

City is soon to be a scene of Descent on agitators

Government agents operating under the direction of the federal agent’s office at Chicago today have begun investigating conditions in Waukegan with a view to making arrests of radicals prepatory to their deportation, it has been learned here. It is known that these detectives have been working in Waukegan for some time and it is said they are about ready to stage their raids.

Just how many of the Reds will be picked up in the federal net here is not known, but it is said the city has been gone over with a fine-tooth comb and none will be overlooked.

Waukegan, because of its cosmopolitan population is regarded as a fertile field for the operations of radicals and it is known they have been spreading their propaganda broadcast. The agitation has been directed chiefly among a class of workers susceptible to their arguments.

In case raids are made here and this seems likely, it is believed that the Waukegan police would be called in to assist as this plan has been followed in other cities.

Jan 8, 1920

(79) America for Americans Libertyville independent, May 6, 1920, p1

America for Americans

(?) resident (?) Marshall, speaking at the annual meeting of the Associated Press in New York poured hot shot (?) of Mercury (?) (?) into the ranks of the (?)an association of news organization (?....

Mr Marshall drew a distinction as….between those born in this country and those of foreign birth and declared that “those who sought a haven in this country and a right to propose a change in the system of government.”

America is different from any other nation on earth. With us it is not where we come from or what language that your grandfather spoke but what you are and the life you live that will open or close the doors of American (?) and American institutions to you.

The foreigner who comes to this country to spread his European ideas of government, his socialistic or communistic propaganda will find that he is an unwelcome guest and if he keeps out of the clutches of the law or escaping being deported he will be a (?) fellow so far as his personality is concerned, but very unfortunate as regards his physical or moral standing in the land he has adapted. America has no use for such as he. We do not want him or his converts and the quicker he and they are deported the better for them and for us. Let them be sent to keep company with Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman, wherever they may be at the present time. One thing is sure, this country is better of without any of that stripe spreading their soap box socialism and the like, ill advising the initiates (?) who are not acquainted with our institutions and the purpose of which this government was founded and for which it stands.

Foreigners who come to our shores knowing nothing of our language or customs fall easily for the rank anarchist and Bolshevik propaganda of the underworld and therein lies the danger we should guard against by every possible means.

The foreign born speech-makers ever clamoring for something they know not of, inculcate the disappointed and homesick immigrants with the poison virus that ruins their lives. They turn them from the natural drift of the home-seeker in a new country into the bitter haters of the institutions that offer them so much: and once their minds are poisoned and their backs turned to that which would be of inestimable value to them, they never again see the beckoning hands that would gladly lift them out of the “Slogh of despond.”

The slums of our great cities are teeming with thousands of such unfortunate people who are doomed thru ignorance if you will, vice and corruption of evil and ignorant agitators to live outside the pale of Americanism, learning nothing of the country or the people of the United States, where they came to make their homes.

The large cities do not always ha..

…but all the men of this kind as witness some of the meetings which have been held in Waukegan recently addressed by the striking agitators from Chicago and Milwaukee. Just go into any of those meetings and notice the type of men who differed (?) and observe who draws the most and (?) applause….

…This is America, the “land of freedom” and let us protect our sacred and dearly bought institutions by deporting all those who attempt to destroy them by introducing into the United states the poison propaganda of the ignorant subjects of European monarchies who have never in their lives enjoyed the privileges which this country affords them and which they in their ignorance and innate hatred of governmental restraints from which they have fled unwittingly through a license to speak, seek to destroy.

Let the privileges of free speech and freedom of the press be confined absolutely to American citizens and the newspapers printed in the English language by newspaper men of American birth and the American education. This is AMERICA, and the LABGUAGE of America is good enough for us all. Those who think otherwise should get out of the country as speedily as possible or a little faster and go where the conditions will be more suited to their mode of life. We certainly do not want them here.

Let us all remember that this is America; that the foreigner has no moral or legal right to meddle in our affairs, and that in justice to ourselves we should notify everyone who is not satisfied with conditions in America that, unless he is a naturalized citizen of the United States, the best and healthiest place for him is back in the country where he came from.

And by the same token, let us not meddle in the affairs of Europe or Asia or Timbuktu whether it be under the guise of the League of Nations or any other combination. Let them settle their own affairs and we’ll paddle our own canoe.

Those who abuse our freedom and our philosophy should expect to feel the heavy hand of the law.

While we, as a nation, acknowledge the right and privilege of our own citizens to meet, combine, petition and demand what they consider their just dues, we do object to the interference of the foreigner in our domestic affairs.

Let us raise the high standard of “America for Americans” and by every legal means seek to prevent a further increase in the undesirable elements that come to our shores, and to return those we have to the countries from whence they came; to the end that free speech and free press may appeal to an intelligent and patriotic people who love America and will defend her honor with the last drops of their blood.

May 6, 1920

(80) Alien problem here large one, Edwards shows Libertyville independent, Jan 20, 1921, p10

Alien problem here large one, Edwards shows

Circuit judge says Lake County is third in district; 20 percent are aliens

Sees big naturalization

Lake county has the third largest naturalization in the Chicago federal district, according to Judge C C Edwards, being led only by Cook County and Gary.

While naturalization has been heavy during the last two years the number will be twice as large during the next two years, the judge predicted.

In his naturalization work at Camp Grant, whose men came largely from this district, it was found that twenty per cent of the men between the ages of 21 and 30 years had to be naturalized before they could be sent overseas for army service.

During the war many aliens evaded military service by claiming their alien privileges. Now that the emergency has ended many of these are seeking citizenship. The bureau of naturalization is watching applicants closely to determine whether they are seeking to evade the eight per cent tax aliens are required to pay on their incomes before they can return to their native land.

Applicants must be able to show their good faith and prove by a five year record that they are desirable citizens.

These features of the naturalization work in Lake county were brought out Monday night in an address of Judge Edwards before the American Legion of North Chicago, during which he urged men to see that only a good type of alien be given citizenship…

Jan 20, 1921

(81) Native babies found to be neglected Libertyville independent, Feb 23, 1922, p12

Native babies found to be neglected

Children of foreigners in New York have the best chance to survive

Statistics are given

New York, Feb 20

More children were born here last year to foreign-born mothers than to American mothers, according to an analysis of vital statistics by health commissioner Dr Royal S Copeland

The analysis also shows that the death rate for children born of native American mothers was higher than the death rate among children of foreign-born mothers, in spite of the fact that surroundings in the American homes were usually better than in homes of foreigners. Native babies were found to be neglected.

In 1919, 68.7 per cent of the children born here were to foreign-born mothers. Last year’s records show about the same proportions.

“The death rate for children under one year of age is 90 per 1,000 among infants of native-born mothers,” said Dr. Copeland’s analysis, “while the rate of infants of Swedish born mothers is 58, Scotch 43, Russian 64, French 79, Austrio-Hungarian 69, Bohemian 75.

“Foreign-born mothers generally nurse their children. This is accountable for the low death rate in congested districts of the city where it might be expected there would be more infant deaths.

“There is another reason for the story told by these figures. American mothers are less inclined to make use of the baby health stations of the department of health and public health education promulgated by the department.

“We have a natural pride in our country and our Americanism, but we leave it to our foreign-born to have the babies. If this state of affairs is continued through a score or more of years, our so-called first families, whose lineage goes back to the Mayflower, will dwindle until there be other and more recent first families.

“In the face of these figures it is time that very serious attention should be given to the subject of birth control.”

Feb 23, 1922

(82) Huge laboratory purchases a site; Libertyville independent, March 25, 1920, p6

Huge laboratory purchases a site;

Will employ 100

Abbott laboratories of Ravenswood get 26 acres which recently was sold

The Sun is now able to announce the latest Waukegan industry that has been located in the Waukegan-North Chicago industrial zone.

The Abbott laboratories of Ravenswood have purchased a 26 acre site just south of Fourteenth St, North Chicago, a piece of property recently sold to Wm Johnson of Glencoe. The property was held by the Divers and Wards for a long time and was sold only recently. And now (?) comes another transfer whereby the Ravenswood concern acquired the site as a building spot for a mammoth chemical laboratory….

March 25, 1920

(83) To employ three times as many men as the wire works Libertyville independent, Sept 30, 1920, p11

To employ three times as many men as the wire works

Johns-Manville plans call for force of 7,500 men when plant is done

To spend 13 millions?

As the Sun has said repeatedly, the public generally does not realize the magnitude of the Johns-Manville company, whose plans are to be carried out on the flats north of Waukegan.

The company some time ago purchased 232 acres and the land has been in the process of preparation for building for some months past.

A Chicago contractor has had the contract for filling in the site and sand suckers have been at work for a long time.

It develops that the company’s plans for building have all been completed and specifications are now being drawn. If the buildings are all (?) as now planned by the company they will cover in the total 25 acres of ground.

As to the men to be employed in the plant eventually, it is stated on good authority that the company’s plans call for employment of five times as many men as now are employed in the Milwaukee plant, which is to be dismantled and moved to the Waukegan site. This means at least a force of 7,500 men, which is three and a half times as large a force of the American Steel & Wire company now has or had at it maximum operation.

The company has things in shape so that when spring arrives actual construction of the buildings will be started. Of course it means that the entire plant will not be in operation probably for a couple of years, as it will take that long a time to erect the many buildings, slips, etc.

It is understood that the plan calls for a slip running around the company property and that a harbor in front of the plant will enable large ships to enter the docks, unload their cargoes and make their way into the Great Lakes and eventually into the Trans-Atlantic trades as well as local trade.

The cost of filling in the site for the company is said to be about $177,,660 (?). It is said the company when it finishes its plans in Waukegan will have spent about  $12,600,000.

Sept 30, 1920

(84) Wire mill workers get increase Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, April 22, 1910, p8

Wire mill workers get increase

New York, April 14—Presidents of the head departments of the subsidiary companies of the United States Steel  Corporation at a conference in the companies offices this afternoon ratified the proposal to grant generous advance in the wages of all employees other than high salaried officials. Chairman Gary of the board gave out the following statement:

“The subsidiary companies of the united states Steel Corporation have decided to make substantial increases in wages. Notwithstanding the subject matter has been under careful consideration for the last sixty days, the exact amounts have not yet been fully determined, except as to the ore companies, which have already announced advances.

“As to the other companies, the figures will be definitively arrived at in time to become operative on May 1, excepting the Tennessee Coal, Iron  and railroad company and the transportation companies which may not be able to announce the increases until a later date.”

Wage increase is voluntary.

The increase is voluntary and prompted by reasons similar to those which led the Pennsylvania railroad to make its recent—namely: the difficulty of its employees in reconciling current wages with the high cost of living. An increase of 6 percent such as that declared by the Pennsylvania, would mean an addition of about $9,000,000 a year to the steel corporation’s payroll.

The raise has been anticipated, although it was thought likely the company would follow the same policy as that pursued in 1902, when instead of a general advance at one time, wages were raised by degrees in one mill after another. In 1902, a 10 per cent increase was given to more than 100,000 men.

Unions are not recognized in any of the mills of the company or its subsidiaries. This fact prompted President Gompers of the American Federation of labor to declare open war against the company recently.

Number of men affected

The following shows the number of men employed at plants of the Illinois Steel Company and affiliated companies:

Illinois Steel Company, Gary, Ind: 8,000

Illinois Steel Company, South Chicago: 7,000

Illinois Steel Company, Milwaukee: 3,000

Joliet Steel Company, Joliet: 4,000

Total Steel Mills: 22,000

American Steel and Wire Co, Joliet: 4,000

American Steel and Wire Co, Waukegan: 2,500

American Steel and Wire Co, DeKalb: 1,000

Total Steel and Wire: 7,500

Grand total not including steamship lines and workmen in ore fields: 29,500

April 22, 1910

(85) New Buildings at Wire Mills Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun,  Dec 16, 1910, p8

New Buildings at Wire Mills

Several new and important buildings have been finished at the wire mills, being expansions of old established departments of manufacture, and is reported that new additions are to be made. It is understood that there is quite a large appropriation for building and improving the local mills.

Dec 16, 1910

(86) At the wire mills Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, Jan 13, 1911, p8

At the wire mills

In the wire mills as well as the sugar refinery, conditions are rapidly improving. There, the average force is still working but four or five days in the week, but men are being added to the force right along. The plant at present is to give all the men possible at least work part of the time and as soon as the spring orders begin to arrive, it is expected that the mill will once more run full time and with a larger force of men then at present.

This condition is taken as a forerunner of better times in the city. According to the statement of Capt. Cook at Christmastime there were more men out of work and more families which needed assistance than at any time since the captain began his work here. Now it is thought that the conditions among the working men of the city will be greatly improved and that the large force of men now out of work will find employment at no far distant date.

Jan 13, 1911

(87) Wire Company Rushed Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun, October 6, 1911, p8

Wire Company Rushed

September was one of the best months from the standpoint of new orders in the history of the American Steel and Wire company. Incoming business compares favorably with August, which was a very good month. Mills were operating on a basis of between 75 per cent and 80 per cent of capacity and business on the books guarantees steady operations well up to the close of the year.

October 6, 1911

(88) Lake County Independent and Waukegan Weekly Sun , Feb 25, 1916, p14

Employees of the local plant of the American Steel & Wire Company were immensely pleased yesterday when they learned that notice has been received here that they are to secure the 10 per cent increase in wages which was decided upon by the United States Steel Corporation a few weeks ago.

Feb 25, 1916

(89) Steel workers of nation start vote on strike Libertyville independent, Aug 14, 1919, p9

Steel workers of nation start vote on strike

A general strike of steel workers throughout the United stated may be declared before Aug 25. Union employees of all steel plants are at present voting on the proposition. More than 1,000,000 men will be affected.

The workers are asking $1 an hour for forty-four hours a week. They also demand better working conditions.

Representatives of 40,000 labor employees in steel industries near Chicago will meet tomorrow night at Lincoln Hall, commercial avenue and Ninety-first street. The meeting has been called by Frank Doyle, secretary of the local division.

A majority of 40,000 workmen are employed in the mills of Gary, Ind. and South Chicago. They are now idle due to the railroad shopmen’s strike.

Aug 14, 1919

(90) Wire mills stop running; 20 pc of force stop wheels Libertyville independent, Sept 25, 1919, p4

Wire mills stop running; 20 pc of force stop wheels

No new work started at plant and present force is getting things into shape for an indefinite shut-down

Advance pay-day two days; paid off today

Waukegan Sept 23

Mill not running but ready

While the wire mills are closed it was stated today that the jobs at the giant plant still are ready for men who want to work. In short, the plant isn’t running, but is ready to run when the men want to return to work. Thu [sic] it is a paradoxical case of where the mill isn’t running but it is, so far as the men being given jobs is concerned.

The great wire mills in Waukegan are down

While twenty percent of the men reported for work this morning, representing about ten per cent less than those who were on duty Monday. It was learned this morning that the plant is entirely closed. No department is operating and the men who are now employed in the plant are those who are working and straightening things out in such a manner that they won’t spoil as the plant lies idle and cleaning up those things which are under way.

It is also learned that no new work is being started and plus from all deductions that could be made, it is very apparent that the local officials are closing up the wire mills with a view to keeping them closed for an indefinite period.

Today was pay day at the wire mill, although the date originally would come on the twenty-fifth. However, seeing that so many men had retired from work the decision was made to advance the pay day, thus they were all assembled at the wire mill office this morning including the strikers and were handed their pay envelope. According to officials at the plant there was no rowdiness and no trouble of any sort as the envelopes were handed out to the men who up to Saturday night had been employed in the plant for years and who retired on their own account.

This morning about four or five hundred men took their stations along Marion st similar in their general attitude to the line which formed their Monday. There was no trouble there, there was no boisterous action of any sort and the twenty per cent of the employees who went into the plant were not harmed on any occasion. It was reported however that there were more casual remarks hurled at them by strikers than there were on Monday.

A number of the men who worked on Monday up to noon decided there wasn’t anything to do at the plant and left there, going to their homes and saying there was no use of returning to the plant during the strike.

However, on the other hand, a number of those who worked during the day declared that they would go back to work as long as the company held the gates open for them. They explained that they had been promised protection not only going to the plant but inside the plant and also in their homes. Furthermore if necessary it was learned by them that steps had been taken to feed the men inside the plant who might be looked upon as non-union men but whose presence there would be absolutely necessary there in order to properly look after the property, such as keeping the fire going, etc. Officials of the plant declined to discuss this aspect of the situation…

Leaders differ on numbers

Claims of strike leaders and com-officials [sic] on the number of strikers are widely different.

Pittsburgh workers assert 71,000 men are out in that district; company officials estimate that only 15,000 are idle. The Youngstown, O., workers claim 55,000 on strike. Company estimates were by a small percentage of that number.

Strike headquarters in Chicago estimated that about 75,000 men had stopped work, while “unofficial” estimates from various companies were 10 to 30 per cent only had quit…

Sept 25, 1919

(91) Permission to hold parade is denied to union Libertyville independent, Sept 25, 1919, p3

Permission to hold parade is denied to union

City and county officials meet union committee Sunday and decided

Long discussion ensues

…Waukegan September 18

Thirty per cent of the normal force at the wire mill reported for work this morning. This means that about 600-700 men are at their stations in the mill as the plant operates today.

According to statements of the officials of the company many other men would have been at work today had they not been turned back by the pickets.

According to one official of the company, intimidations were tried on a number of the men who worked today and some who planned to work.

Here is what he said. “We had reports from a number of the men who came in and they were told by  pickets that if they did not turn back they would lick the. We also had reports from men who were turned back because of these men and they would come in had they not been intimidated. They also used the word “scabs” frequently to some of our men who came to work.”

Asked today whether the 30 per cent force would permit the plant to operate, one of the officials said that it would allow them to run certain departments. Inquiry showed that only certain department of the mill were running today and with a third of the total force on the job it was readily indicated outside that the mills would not likely operate a great while on any large scale.

Asked whether the company was taking on additional men who might apply for work, an official in the company said that was a matter that had not been decided on yet.

While the wire works officials say there are thirty per cent of the men at work, secretary Rundquist of the union insisted such is not the case when he said “We counted but 132 men who went in to work up to ten o’clock today. This was office force and all. We have fifteen hundred members of the union and all have struck. This shows the strength of our union. When they say that thirty percent are working it is not the fact.”

The various steel mills of the country today claimed that about 70 per cent of the forces have gone on the strike, and this appears to be about the same ratio in Waukegan.

Women on strike

It develops that it is not men alone who are on strike but that in all about forty women are included in those who did not appear for work this morning. These women work in various departments in the mill, along lines which they can handle.

Take women in cars

The women employees of the wire works did not ride to work in the streetcars this morning. The company sent autos to Washington street and they rode down in the machines, this plan being followed because of the desire to avoid anybody being subjected to thoughtless remarks from some irresponsible person. It is said this plan will continue during the strike.

A meeting was held in the Slovenic hall Sunday afternoon which was attended by a large number of the striking wire mill men. At the meeting various speakers urged the strikers to observe the law, to avoid all riot and trouble, and to make it a point not to use liquor or to carry fire arms during the strike. The meeting was an entirely harmonious one and so far as can be learned it was designed merely to talk over the strike plan.

That the local men have been taught to realize that they must not expect to win the strike in a hurry was indicated by the cheer which greeted the pleas of Chicago speakers who urged the men to hold out until the strike has been decided in their favor.

“It may be that you will be out of work a long time,” one of the speakers said. “It may be that you will go hungry at times and possibly your families will suffer some privations but we are going to win out in the end if we only stand firm. We must preserve an unbroken front and stick until victory is ours.”

This statement was greeted by vociferous applause. There were so many men present that is was necessary to hold a second meeting.

City and county officials on Sunday afternoon weighed carefully the request of the iron and steel workers union of the American Steel and Wire Company that they be permitted to hold a parade today. Then, after discussing the matter in detail, the public officials decided unanimously that such a demonstration would not be a good thing, and declined to grant the request….

Sept 25, 1919

(92) Developments over Thursday Libertyville independent, Oct 2, 1919, p3

Developments over Thursday

Waukegan Sept 24

1. Serious rioting takes place near Wire Mill entrance on Marion Street Thursday evening when strikers hurl stones into passing automobiles carrying wire mill workmen returning from work. Three or four men hurt, none seriously
2. Deputy sheriff John McShane when a fellow-workman in his auto fell to the bottom of his car when struck by a rock fires shot into crowd. Nobody hurt.
3. City and county officials hold long conference Thursday night to decide whether to ask fo state troops, get in touch with Springfield then later decide to once more try to handle the situation locally,
4. Adjutant Geral Dickson, head of the state militia with aid, arrived early this morning to look over situation. Left after being satisfied that the two hundred deputies that were being sworn in by Sheriff Greene could handle the situation.
5. About the same number of men reported for work at mill this morning. Only one-third the number of automobiles carried the men to work. Most everybody used street cars. Outbreak among strikers this morning.
6. Two men arrested in Thursday morning’s rioting and held under $10,000 bail, charged with throwing of stones at autoists.
7. Police driven back by crowd when they try to prevent women intimidating workmen at the tenth st station platform.
8. President Keller of the wire mill union offers to keep strikers in control and prevent outbreaks if citizens will pay him $4 a day which he is earning now at his work in the naval station.

The first shot in the wire works strike was fired Thursday evening about 6:30 o’clock on Tenth street when John McShane 416 Lake Cort (?) discharged his revolver after a dozen or more stones had been hurled at him and friends in the auto who were returning from the wire mills.

The shot did not take effect in the crowd but it was a miracle that it did not. Onlookers declare McShane shot toward the ground and did it more in the desire to eresent (?) the fullside of stones rather than shoot anybody.

The shooting came as the final to the worst rioting that Waukegan and North Chicago had ever seen.

Practically every auto that passed along Marion street just south of Tenth street and up to the wire mill entrance was subjected to the fullside of stones. This applied to north bound cars. The intent seemed to be to throw at the machines coming from the wire works but no distinction was made for other machines that came from the south were victimized, even W J Sackman of the North Chicago lumber company having his wind shield broken by a brick.

Bricks, stones, cans, etc were hurled at the cars. Men ducked their heads in the cars as the onslaught was made when they ran the gauntlet.

It was a riot for fair.

The police were unable to stop it….

Women fight police

It was at the electric station where the real set-to between the police and the crowd came on.

Two or three women were on the platform jeering the men who came from work, calling them “scabs” “slackers” and other names.

Finally the order was given by the chiefs that the women must leave the platform. They were told to go. They refused. Capt. Lyon of the police took one woman by the arm and led her up the platform, telling her she must get away.

With that half a dozen men rushed from across the street, waving their hands and telling the crowd to follow. Just what he said wasn’t known because he spoke in a foreign tongue. It looked as if he were saying that the police had assaulted their women and they must rush to their aid.

At the north platform of the station the police and the women were in a real struggle, the women to get back on the platform, the police department to keep them off. One man made a pass at Chief Tyrrell but it didn’t land. The crowd surged back and forth for ten minutes.

Leaders of the strikers who kept their heads shouted to the strikers to remain across the stret and not rush the depot. Most of them obeyed and not over twenty gathered in the crowed at the station.

At last the police gave way and allowed the women to return to the platform where they continued their remarks to the wire mill men who came to the station to catch their car home.

One woman holding out her hands to a worker said: “I have had nothing to eat for three days—you can do the same if you want to.”

Men and women held onions and a handful of corn in their hands and shouted in the face of the police: “Do you want us to eat this: shall we live on this?”

“Well,” replied the officer, “didn’t you grow that onion and that corn on the land which the wire works let you use, which the wire works plowed up and even fertilized for you to grow on?”…

Oct 2, 1919

(93) Strike notes, Libertyville independent, Oct 2, 1919, p6

Strike notes

Waukegan Sept 27

1. First woman disturber arrested early today when she jeered police and tried to make trouble; placed in city jail.
2. More deputy sheriffs among business men sworn in despite protests
3. Sheriff notifies deputy sheriffs they must report twice daily or face fine and imprisonment
4. Final pay consisting of $60,000 paid to strikers by wire mill this afternoon; shut down means loss of $12,000 a day to men who have quit.
5. Strikers this morning assumed new tactics of “riding the street cars” rather than congregating about the mill entrance, police declaring the plan was meant to crowd off men going to work….

Seek to boycott

At the meeting of the strikers headquarters Sunday various speakers urged the men not to trade with certain stores, banks, etc, because members of their firms had been among the deputies who were about on duty under orders of the sheriff. Statements were made that they did not have to be there if they did not wish to. However, in sifting over the list of names of men who are serving as deputies, it is seen that practically every store in Waukegan and North Chicago has been pressed into service under orders of the sheriff and the plan of the sheriff’s office is, it is reported not to let any of them escape this duty but put them all on an equal basis in this strike matter….

Oct 2, 1919

(94) Answer is made to “mother Jones” on mill operation, Libertyville independent, Nov 6, 1919, p10

Answer is made to “mother Jones” on mill operation

She tells strikers Waukegan is the only plant running—five never shut down

Others starting up now.

When “mother Jones” addressed the Waukegan wire mill strikers a week ago last Sunday she made the remark that the Waukegan mill was the only mill of the American Steel and Wire company that was actually running and added that “if the men would hold out in this mill and not go back to work that they would win the strike for the members of the wire workers union….”

Nov 6, 1919

(95) Gompers’ plan to end strike meets defeat Libertyville independent, Oct 23, 1919, p12

Gompers’ plan to end strike meets defeat

Washington DC Oct 21—the industrial conference this evening knocked out the Gompers proposal that it appoint six members to arbitrate the steel strike, the striking workers meanwhile to return to work.

The labor group voted for arbitration. Public and capital voted against it. To pass it required the votes of all three groups.

As a curtain raiser for its refusal to interfere in the strike the conference killed off one by one all the pending resolutions and substitute resolutions on collective bargaining. No common ground could be reached.

Oct 23, 1919

(96) AF of L to end steel strike on Dec 13th, rumor Libertyville independent, Dec 11, 1919, p12

AF of L to end steel strike on Dec 13th, rumor

Pittsburgh, Pa, Dec 9—there is a well-defined rumor in iron and steel circles today that the American Federation of Labor national committee will meet in Washington Saturday to recommend the national body calling off the steel strike.

Two thousand steel workers at the Bellaire plant of the Carnegie steel company tonight voted to return to work at once. By a vote of three to one, more than 2,000 employees of the Benwood mills of the Wheeling steel and iron company decided to return to work.

Dec 11, 1919

(97) Steel strikers draw plans for 4-year battle Libertyville independent, Dec 18, 1919, p3

Steel strikers draw plans for 4-year battle

Washington Dec 15—as a result of the almost unanimous decision of the national committee of organized iron and steel workers to continue the strike, leaders of the unions today were going ahead with plans for an active field campaign which they said would be carried on for at least four years if necessary.

Members of the committee, which is composed of twenty-four presidents of labor unions connected with the steel industry, conferred here last night and it was at this conference that the decision was reached. Chairman John Fitzpatrick stated the meeting was the most enthusiastic held since the original declaration of the strike and he expressed confidence in ultimate victory.

Leaders admitted that there had been defections in the striker’s ranks and that many plants had resumed operations, but said steel production had been far below normal and the plant were running under the disadvantage of heavy overhead charges.

Dec 18, 1919
 

(98) Plan to keep on with “educational campaign: in Mills Libertyville independent, Jan 15, 1920, p9

Plan to keep on with “educational campaign: in Mills

Fitzpartick and Foster and others tell steelworkers “Work, but wait.”

Kellwer on local status

Herewith is printed for the first time the official telegram from the leaders of the steel strike which called off the strike, this message being sent out from Pittsburgh January 8 to the heads of the various leaders. The telegram:

“The steel corporations, with the active assistance of the press, the courts, the federal troops, state police and many public officials have denied steelworkers their rights of free speech, free assemblage, and the right to organize and by the arbitrary and ruthless misuse of power have brought about a condition which compelled the national committee for organizing iron and steel workers to vote today that the active strike phases of the steel campaign is now at an ends. A vigorous campaign of education and reorganization will be immediately begun and will not cease until industrial justice in the steel industry has been achieved. All steel strikers are now at liberty to return to work pending preparations for the next big organization movement. (signed) JohnFitzpatrick, D J Davis, Edward J Evans, William Hannon, William Z Foster.

Keller remains confident

President Keller of the Waukegan union says that there are many men who have returned to work in the wire mill in Waukegan who still wish to remain members of the union; that the steel officials have not assumed that they will not permit members of unions to work in the mills, that they merely have said they will not recognize the union of steel workers . He says he believes the Waukegan union will continue its charter and admits that its membership will also include many of the men who have not gone back to the mill to work.

His statement that the union will continue is further born out by the statements in the telegram which show that the head officials are planning a renewal of their union plans and even intimate that they already are taking steps for another move along the same live as that recently taken when they called the big strike which fizzled out.

Jan 15, 1920