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

“Puddlers are on a strike. They went out on Monday. The action due to the locking out of Michael McNally who violated a recently posted order relative to leaving mill between heats. Trouble at the Valley works. About three hundred and fifty men thus far involved. National officers summoned to the city to take action in premises. Settlement likely. The men objected to being placed under a restraint heretofore unknown.”

“The puddlers employed at the Valley works of the Republic Iron & Steel company went on strike Monday afternoon.

“The trouble is alleged to have been caused by the action of Michael McNally, a puddler employed on furnace No. 23 in the new mill. He is said to have left the mill though the Valley Street gate at about 10 o’clock in the morning in violation of the pass system order issued several weeks ago. On his return he was refused admittance. McNally communicated his trouble to the puddlers inside. The mill committee assembled and the boilers were all ordered out immediately after finishing the third heat on the second turn. About 350 men are thus far affected.

“The pass system was first introduced in Youngstown by the Republic Iron & Steel company at the Brown-Bonnell mill…. The object of the rule is to prevent tonnage men, heretofore unrestrained, from going in and out of the plant between heats.

“The employees at the Valley mill accepted the new rule under protest. They assembled in the mills and about the furnaces and discussed it. Several men who had attended nation conventions and who had served on conference committees remembered that there was a clause in the wage agreement prohibiting the adoption of any pass or checking system in union mills….

“There is said to be a rule, or joint agreement, between the Amalgamated Association and the manufacturers which compels either side to give a notice of three days before causing a suspension in the operation of any mill or department. The men at the Valley plant are reported to have discussed this clause and their decision to strike was based on a notice said to have been served on Charles Hart, manager of the western mills of the Republic Iron & Steel company, by Thomas Williams on his last visit here that if any employee of the Valley works was discharged because of the new rule, when it was proven conclusively that he had not neglected his duty, a strike would follow. This, the mill committee held, was an official notice and of longer standing than three days, as required.

“It has been learned that Michael McNally, who by ignoring the new rule hastened the present trouble, was practically discharged Monday when the mill gates were locked against him. He summoned the mill committee to the fence, and related his side of the case. The mill committee called on Superintendent George Huggins and insisted that McNally be allowed to resume his work. The request being refused, extreme measures were taken, the committee claiming that there was no other alternative.

“A joint meeting of Garde, Garland, and Springdale lodges has been called for this evening at 7 o’clock in the A.O.H hall. At the meeting this evening the strike situation at the Valley mill will be fully discussed and some action will be taken on the matter…. The national officers are expected to arrive here this afternoon and will in all probability attend the meeting.”

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