pa1778data.pdf

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U.S. STEEL DUQUESNE WORKS
HAER No. PA-115
(Page 16)
in the area, even below those of other non-union mills. Union
men, upon learning that they had been locked out of the works,
set up picket lines in an attempt to dissuade non-union workers,
many of whom were recently arrived immigrants from Eastern
Europe, from entering the mill. The company responded by
employing the services of the Allegheny County Sheriff's
department to protect workers who crossed the picket line. The
lockout dragged on for most of the summer, finally ending in
early August. During that time, the locked out men received
support in the form of money and foodstuffs from the Homestead
lodges and from the union lodges representing the organized
wrought-iron mills in the area. They also gained a moral victory
in May when the company, which was already beleaguered by the
false rumors being spread by Carnegie regarding the shortcomings
of direct rolling, had to accept the return of seven carloads of
rails from a railway customer because of shoddy work.
Nevertheless, the lockout ended in a complete victory for the
company. As evidenced by the events at Homestead in 1892, the
Amalgamated Association's experience at the Edgar Thomson Works
and Duquesne were portents for the future. After 1892, the steel
mills in the Monongahela Valley would remain unorganized until
the 1930s. 18
Plant and Community. 1886-1917
The Duquesne Works was constructed on farmland in an area
known as Riverside, close to a settlement called "Dutchtown" in
Mifflin Township. At the time it was built, the area was
primarily agricultural and had no more than a few dozen local
inhabitants of Scots Irish and German lineage. Soon after the
works was built, the local population grew rapidly as men came
looking for work. By 1891, the newly incorporated Borough of
Duquesne had a population of 2,000. This grew to 9,036 in 1900
and finally to nearly 19,000 when the 913 acres comprising the
borough was incorporated as a third-class city in 1917. The
ethnic makeup of the population reflected contemporary trends for
industrializing communities. By 1900 three out of every eight
residents were foreign born, most were from Ireland and Eastern
Europe. The remainder of the population was mostly native born
white. Only 195 African-Americans lived in the borough until
World War I when the black population grew as migrants left the
18 The National Labor Tribune, April 20, 27, May 4, 18, 25, June
8, 15, 29, and August 10, 1889; Bridge, Inside History, 177-8;
James Dougherty, "Markets, Profits, and Labor Management Relations:
The Mon Valley Steel Mills, 1880s-1980s," manuscript in HAER
office, p. 18-20, Historic American Engineering Record, National
Park Service, 1989.