Out of this Furnace by Thomas Bell

Below is a paper I wrote for a history class I had on working people in America.

George Kracha came to America in 1881. This begins a wonderful novel by Thomas Bell that covers the hardship, despair and love of three generations of an immigrant family working in a steel mill in Pennsylvania and the desire of earning a fair wage and the ability to make a better life for themselves. Like so many other from Eastern Europe Kracha came to America to flee the endless poverty of being a Slovak in the Austria-Hungarian Empire. After finally walking to White Haven, PA he began his life as a rail worker but after the advice from a friend moved to the steel towns. The reason for moving was the pay was better in the steel mills than the railroads. Kracha was introduced to the hierarchy which existed within the steel mills when he needed to buy an Irishman a drink to get a job at the mill, a Scotsman (Carnegie) owned the mill, an American (Frick) ran the mill and the Irish were the foremen with the Slovaks taking the bottom.

There is a brief mention of the Homestead Strike but it didn’t affect the Slovaks because the union only included skilled workers. After the strikers were defeated Henry Frick would message Andrew Carnegie, “We taught our employees a lesson.” That lesson lasted until 1937 when the Union was finally recognized. The Panic of 1893 caused by the collapse of the Reading Railroad caused hardship as the company lowered wages and cut production, a typical response during downturns in the economy.

In many ways the hope of the Slovaks were similar to many immigrants, to save enough money to go back to the old country and buy a farm or to buy a farm in the United States. Kracha develops the entrepreneurial spirit by starting a butcher shop and learns that “money makes money.” If not for greed and lust he would have maintained that spirit. There is a fear of getting involved with politics as with Mike when he was going to vote the Socialist Party ticket but feared retaliation if found out. As Kracha told Mike, “Think what you like but keep your mouth shout.” By John’s generation this would change as people came out in mass to support the Democrats in 1932.

In December 1900 the hierarchy that existed was American, English and Irish who were the department heads and Slovaks who made up half the mill but had no skilled jobs. The goal of these immigrants was to come to America, find work and make a living. The living conditions were such that when Mary returned from the ocean for the first time she realized how smoky and dirty the mill town was. One night after drinking heavily Mike shows the despair that existed within the unskilled workers at the mill. The hierarchy system did not allow the Hunkies to move upward within the mill. Tied to a life of hardship and no hope the toll it took upon the people, as one older woman complained all she had done was work all her life to the point she could not longer use her hands. After the death of Mike, Mary, like so many others, suffered due to the World War I Wartime Inflation. At the time prices of groceries more than doubled causing the ever present poverty to consume Mary as she struggled to live off her sewing, savings and what John could earn. Like most widowed women throughout history she could not find enough work to provide for herself and the children. Mary contracted Tuberculosis and was sent to a sanitarium. After Mike’s death she was never the same and died in the sanitarium. During the war John, to show his patriotism was forced to buy Liberty Bonds and War Savings Stamps. He would have to sell at a discount in the early 20’s.

The possibility of a strike in 1919 actually split the Catholic Church in the area. It also created a “Red Scare” promoted by the newspapers, as Unionism was tied to Bolshevikism. During this time period the company decided to bring in the Blacks to work the mills. A common strategy used by many companies to continue the ethnic division that existed. Thus the Slovaks were replaced on the lowest wrung of the ladder. Later on Dobie would tell Kracha as the Irish looked down at the Hunkies now the Hunkies looked down on the Blacks. This hierarchy was repeated within industry throughout the United States. Even to this day an order exists within some production facilities, Whites, Blacks and finally Hispanics. After the strike was called off the Pittsburgh Catholic Charities received $25,000 fro US Steel.

The Crash of 1929 and the subsequent depression caused the steel mills to literally shut down. The people were starving and were aimless with no hope. After the election of Roosevelt we see the passage of the National Recovery Administration specifically Section 7(a). Section 7(a) allowed the organization of unions for the purpose of collective bargaining. This recognition of right to organize by the government was required for any long lasting success of the unions. As has been shown throughout history when the force of government was used to end strikes and always favored business. The American Federation of Labor attempted to organize a union but in the preparation for a strike the AFL’s William Green called off the strike. Plus the union tossed 75% of the steel workers out of the union. The union was finally created when John Lewis and Sidney Hillman started the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO). One benefit the union members enjoyed was that all were members of the union and there was no ethnic divide.

The book focuses on the lower class workers within the steel towns of Pennsylvania who lived in poverty. Bell could have chosen any industry within the United States to make his point that unions lead to a better life for workers. For the poverty and treatment of the mill workers was repeated within industries ranging from rail workers to the meatpackers. The significance is that without the government backing the right of workers to organize and the right to collective bargaining no such rights would exist as history has shown that employers will use everything in their power to keep workers down. It was only with the passage of the Wagner Act that exempted unions from the Sherman Anti-Trust Act that unions could finally not fear the use of government force to breakup strikes.

The book shows two areas that have existed since the early 1800’s in the United States. The first is the desire of foreigners to migrate to this country and the second is the anti-immigration stance of people already here. These opposing views allowed employers to use ethnic groups against each other to achieve their goals. The railroads used this when bringing in Asians to build the rail lines causing friction with native born and European immigrants.

The novel is a well written and interesting work. In many ways it almost seems that the characters are real and possibly based on real persons or family members. It allows the reader to put a human face on the hardship that immigrants faced to find a better life in America and the disillusionment that occurred when hopelessness set in when they finally realized there was not a better life ahead. It shows the effects of ethnic division when groups look down upon another base on nothing more than a birthplace.

Thomas Bell wrote a novel that has a place in the library. As I read the book I kept thinking about modern day China and the struggles of industrialization that the country is facing. Many of the labor issues that faced America in her history are now facing China. Factory workers in China are treated similar to factory workers were treated in the United States before Roosevelt. How China responds to these growing pains will be interesting to watch. In the United States today we have similar classes of people, the Slovaks and Polish have been replaced by the Hispanics. We as a nation leave the dirty jobs to the Hispanics as we struggle as a nation to decide the future of these illegal’s, thus since Kracha came to America we as a nation continue to argue about the same issues as we did then.