and to bargain collectively is unquestioned. On
every hand the workers are exercising this right in
order to protect and advance their interests. In
the steel mills not only is the right generally denied
but the attempt to exercise it is punished by expulsion
from the industry. Through a system of espionage
that is thoroughgoing and effective the steel com-
panies know which of their employees are attending
union meetings, which of them are talking with or-
ganizers. It is their practice to discharge such men
and thus they nip in the bud any ordinary movement
toward organization.

Their power to prevent their employees from act-
ing independently and in their own interest, extends
even to the communities in which they live. In
towns where the mayor's chair is occupied by com-
pany officials or their relatives -- as was the case
during the 1919 strike in Bethlehem, Duquesne,
Clairton and elsewhere -- orders may be issued de-
nying to the workers the right to hold meetings for
organizing purposes, or the police may be instructed
to break them up. Elsewhere -- as in Homestead,
McKeesport, Monessen, Rankin and in Pittsburgh
itself -- the economic strength of the companies is so
great as to secure the willing cooperation of officials
or to compel owners of halls and vacant lots to re-
fuse the use of their property for the holding of
union meetings.

One who has not seen with his own eyes the evi-
dences of steel company control in the towns where
their plants are located will have difficulty in com-
prehending its scope and power. Social and reli-
gious organizations are profoundly affected by it.

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