In 1941

Excerpt from an interview with Mary Stolysiak by Andrew Krause for Beyond 

Steel:  An Archive of Lehigh Valley Industry and Culture on March 

30, 2006. 

JOHN:  He was a big union man. 

MS: He started the union down at the steel. 

JOHN:  He was a staff man. 

MS: Yeah, he was a staff man. 

AK: So he worked in the offices or the plant? 

MS: No, he worked in a plant but then when he became a union man, 

then he got the union job and he quit the steel. 

AK: Oh, I see.  So he was involved in 1940-41 with the strike and 

everything? 

MS: Yeah, yeah.  Big strike.  In all of that.  Yeah 3930. 

AK: What do you remember from the strike?  What are your 

recollections of that? 

MS: Well, I remember when the strike was because it was 1941.  We 

got married in 1941 and then I became pregnant.  And I was like 

four months and we went, and my brother come running up and he 

came running up here to get a baseball bat because he said-- 

JOHN:  I went with him. 

MS: Yeah, you went with him.  My brother came up here and he quick 

got a baseball bat and he took my husband with him because he 

said the police are coming down.  There’s a strike down, at the 

steel.  So I went down with them, you know.  But I was pregnant, 

like four months.  And here when we got down on Third Street, 

there was a colonial, a hotel right on the corner, colonial.  There 

was a hotel there.  I was standing on the steps there and here the 

police on the big horses, they came right for us.  Oh, I ran. 

JOHN:  Yeah, yeah.  There was a bank down there on Third Street that 

[unclear] Gustonies. 

AK: Gustonies.  Yeah. 

JOHN:  I was walking along there and one of them Cossacks hit me right 

in the behind with a club at Gustonies.   

MS:  Oh, they were mean.  With the horses and all. 

JOHN:  They had a big gas tank, I remember.  

MS: Yeah.  Yeah. 

JOHN:  Hundreds of thousands of people were milling around.  And 

them Cossacks--  

AK: Cossacks. 

JOHN:  And one was amongst the crowd and it was a guy about my size.  

He couldn’t take it no more.  The Cossack was walking [unclear] 

That guy had a lot of nerve.  You know what he did?  He hit that 

cop right underneath the chin and the cop’s helmet fell off and he 

went down the line.  They never caught him.  If they had caught 

him, they would have killed him. 

AK: Wow. 

MS: The strike was real bad at that time, ’41.  That was a bad strike.  

The cars, they were turning cars over and everything. 

JOHN:  [Unclear] was the worst. 

MS: Yeah. 

JOHN:  What was the name of that marathon that was up there? 

MS: That was-- 

AK: Was it Smodishes? 

JOHN:  No, no. 

MS: Well, Smodishes was up there, but, Eagle.  Wasn’t it the Eagle? 

JOHN:  Right near the steelworks, it was.   

MS: Hoffage. 

JOHN:  Hoffage.  Yeah.  That’s where it--  

MS: Hoffage, yeah.  That was a beer garden, yeah. 

JOHN:  So Jack Thurner, remember he was a police when he come up 

with a car. 

MS: Yeah. 

JOHN:  And oh, he’s a wise guy.  When he come up, the cops, no the 

strikers. 

MS: The strikers turned him over--  

JOHN:  The strikers got a hold of the car--  

MS: And turned it over. 

JOHN:  No, wait.  Didn’t turn them over.  They were ready to turn him 

over and he got away. 

MS: Yeah.  Oh yeah, he got away, oh yeah.  And then a little girl was 

on the steps and remember the horse went right for her.  They 

knocked her over.  She’s all bloody and everything. 

AK: A little girl? 

MS: Twelve year old. 

AK: Twelve year old, oh my. 

JOHN:  They didn’t care what they did. 

MS: They were bad, real bad.  The strike was extra bad.   

JOHN:  I remember at that time the Governor was Governor James. 

MS: Yeah. 

JOHN:  The reason that I can remember that is because they gave him a 

nickname.  They called him Jesse James.   

AK: Because he was so forceful. 

JOHN:  That’s why I remember that. 

AK: And were you in the pickets, John? 

STOLYSIAK 30 

JOHN:  I was, sure. 

MS: There were scabs too.  A lot of guys that went in.  They jumped the 

fence and went in. 

JOHN:  Did they climb ladders?  I’ve heard that story that they climbed 

ladders --  

MS: Yes, they did. 

JOHN:  I climbed over the fence to get in my pay [unclear] during the 

strike.  Yeah, I climbed in.  And the superintendent came over, and 

what do you want?  And I looked down and I said, all the scabs, I 

seen them.  I said, I came in for my pay.  Well, he said, you don’t 

get it unless you stay here.  I said, no, I’m not going to stay here. 

MS: Yeah. 

JOHN:  So I left without it. 

AK: So you left. 

JOHN:  He wouldn’t give it to me. 

MS: There were a lot of scabs, you know.  Like now, you know.   

Courtesy of Lehigh University

http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/beyondsteel/