120 Years Ago, 1906 Transcribed as originally published in the Youngstown Vindicator

“Excitement in East Youngstown over arrival of structural workers for big viaduct. Half the newcomers declined to go to work when they learned conditions.”

“Excitement ran high at East Youngstown Wednesday morning when the first collection of structural iron workers, engaged in Cincinnati by an employment agency, arrived to go to work on the viaduct being erected over the network of tracks from the Struthers Road at Stop 10, into the mills of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube company.

“The men went to East Youngstown from the Erie station shortly after 6 o’clock. The stopping of the train there was the signal for derisive yells from the throats of at least 100 employees of the East Youngstown mill, who had been notified the men were coming.

“The newcomers declare that they came here thinking everything was all right on the job. They did not know that attempts had been made at various times to get non-union hands to resume the work, which has been tied up for some months because of labor difficulties.

“The structural workers asked their leader, who is an employment agent for the American Bridge company, and who accompanied the men here, where they were going to put up. The agent pointed to several cabin cars standing on a siding. The men then walked down the tracks some distance and talked over affairs.

Five of the bunch decided to remain all day at East Youngstown to rest up; three were undecided whether or not they would go to work, and six positively declared that they would get out of the place just as soon as possible and seek work elsewhere. They left Stop 10 on the first car.

“One of the latter party, Joseph Malone, was seen when he reached this city on his return trip. He said: ‘I was glad to get out of that place safe. I was in Cincinnati, with my wife having just recently returned from Los Angeles. I saw an advertisement in one of the papers. Good structural iron workers were wanted. I went to the place as directed, and the agent engaged me. I was compelled to pay $1 down. The man in charge of the office said that the job was just outside of Youngstown, and on discovering that I was not a member of a union, told me I would have 60 days to get my card out. I accepted the terms of 50 cents an hour, and with 12 others left Cincinnati Tuesday. We arrived here about daylight Wednesday morning, and were met at the Erie station by four men whom I discovered afterwards were Pinkerton detectives.

“‘We took breakfast in a Phelps Street restaurant and after walking about the town for an hour or so boarded a local, and were taken to East Youngstown. It occurred to me just after landing that the job was not right, and the calls of the mill men and the stopping place assigned us confirmed my suspicions. I then made up my mind it was all off, as far as I was concerned.’

“Malone sold a pair of working shoes he carried for $1 to get money enough to reach Cleveland. He said that he would not work on a job termed ‘unfair’ for $100 a day. Malone stated that most of the men with him were under the influence of liquor when they arrived here having had eight quarts in the train during the night.

“He left for Cleveland about noon where he said he had a sister residing, and where he believed he could get work.”

Compiled by Dante Bernard, museum educator at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society.