Page 2 - The 1923 Strike in Steel and the Miners' Sympathy Strike

ISSUE : Issue 22

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1979/6/1

the wintertime, never saw his family until the next spring • because he went to work and they were in bed and they were in bed when he came home. We were slaving under conditions that were hard in this day and age for anyone to believe. You were at the whim and the wish of the boss. The boss could send you home. If he didn't like the colour of your hair, if he didn't like the church you went to, if he didn't like the way you voted on election day • he could send you home and there was no questions asked. The men themselves decided there had to be something done. And the union was organized and slowly worked up to the 1923 strike. It was one of savagery by all governments in power at that time. They sent their soldiers down here. The provin? cial police galloped up and down the streets of our city, they trampled our wo? men and children, they had no regard for anyone. The 1923 strike is history that I hope will never be repeated in the island of Cape Breton. Emmerson Campbell: I was born on September the 2nd, 188?. The first work I did was labouring around- when they were still building the steel plant, I remember when it was just barren ground there. My first job was pick and shovel, 15 cents an hour, 10 hours a day • no holidays, no nothing, I was down in the rail mill the day the first rail came through, I think that was about 1906, I got more money when I went straightening rails. But I wasn't on that plant a month when I saw there was some? thing wrong, and I w's only from the coun? try. I didn't know a steel bar from a log. I said there is something wrong working those long hours and all that sort of stuff. And I started talking about a imion. I'll give you an example. In the rail mill I was getting three dollars and a half a day, which was big money. And my helper • he was a coloured chap • he was getting 15 cents an hour • and I couldn't make a dol? lar without him, without his help. And an? other thing, when you had a grievance, you'd go and try to settle it. If you went to the boss and he said, "No, no, that's it, th' guy's no good, he was drimk yes- college of Cdpe breton press presents Some interesting souvenirs of your visit to our beautiful island. Patterson's History of Victoria County (edited by W. James MacDonald). G. G. Patterson wrote the history in 1885. The work has been updated with added appendices and footnotes. Complete with early photographs, first settlers' names and early place names. Beautifully bound, hard cover $13.00 Records GLENDALE '77 - A live recording of the 1977 Cape Breton Festival of Fiddlers at Glendale, Inverness County $6.50 THE RISE & FOLLIES OF CAPE BRETON ISLAND - Original cast , recording of the music and comedy revue that took Cape Breton by storm $6.50 Historic Map Reproductions DETAIL OF FORTRESS LOUISBOURG (circa 1760). A beautiful detail of the city and fortifications. One of the few maps of this period in English. 11"x16". THOMAS KITCHIN'S MAP OF CAPE BRETON (circa 1758). An ex? quisite map of the island by the English geographer. Beautifully illustrated. 12"x16" Each Map: Matted-$10.00/Framed-$30.00 AVAILABLE AT MANY RETAIL OUTLETS. If you wish to order by mail, send cheque or money order in the amount indicated to: THE COLLEGE OF CAPE BRETON PRESS P. 0. Box 5300, Sydney, N. S., BIP 6L2

Cape Breton's Magazine