‘Smoke, Fire and Steel’ exhibit brings out the cold, hard facts

By Sean Barron

Brutal living and working conditions led to a 1916 clash between workers and guards.

YOUNGSTOWN — “I would curl up in a ball and die.”

That was 12-year-old Gabrielle Vargo’s reaction to imagining living during the early 20th century — a time long before she would have had a cell phone, computer, video game, Bluetooth device or other piece of popular modern technology.

Nevertheless, it’s probably safe to say that the Poland Middle School seventh-grader’s appreciation for the Mahoning Valley’s past is solid as steel, thanks largely to what she gleaned from Friday’s two-hour “Smoke, Fire and Steel” program. The event at the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor, 151 W. Wood St., was to engender in youngsters age 8 to 14 a greater awareness of and appreciation for the region’s heritage while helping them develop deeper critical-thinking skills, noted Keith Mann, the center’s education specialist.

The gathering was part of the historical center’s History Kids series and featured museum tours, a 1945 film about the city, hands-on artifacts related to steel-making, and sections of The Vindicator from the 1930s and today.

Gabrielle said she thought it would be interesting to go back in time to further understand how, for example, some steel workers survived making 19 cents an hour and to “see everything we don’t have today,” she said.

“I liked the way they made steel then. It was interesting, especially due to the technology they had then and had to put up with,” added Gabrielle, who hopes to have a career as an artist or musician.

During the film, Mann painted a picture of Youngstown during the mid-1940s when numerous steel mills were operating, saying that smoke and soot often obscured the sun. An estimated 25,000 Valley residents worked in the mills, and it was common to see people downtown lining up to use public transportation, he noted.

Over the years, though, the area’s economy was transformed from heavy industry to mainly a service-related one of banks, insurance companies and retail stores, he continued, adding that the Valley made the mistake of failing to diversify.

Mann explained during the tour how blast furnaces used coke, limestone and iron ore to produce iron, many uses of which largely predated those of steel. Cars dumped the material into a chute leading to a 3,000-degree furnace, after which it went to an open hearth. Eventually, the material was used to produce ingots, which are castings obtained when melted metal is poured into a mold.

In the early 20th century, Mann explained, many immigrant workers were subjected to harsh living and unsafe working conditions, as well as discrimination. Such treatment led to a violent Jan. 7, 1916, clash between workers at the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Campbell Works and guards, culminating in a six-hour riot that caused more than $1 million worth of damage and prompted the Ohio National Guard to step in.

Over time, company-owned tenements were built, and each was rented to one family for $15 to $20 per month in an effort to improve workers’ lives, he noted. In addition, laws were passed around 1920 banning forced child labor and requiring youngsters under age 16 to be in school, Mann said.

The late 1950s saw more customers buying imported steel, brought on mostly by a prolonged 1959 labor strike, a decrease in the demand for steel and the failure of many plants to upgrade. Unlike in the Valley, management and labor overseas largely worked together, and steel produced there was cheaper and as good or better than that made here, Mann explained.

Mann also displayed the news, comics and classified portions of The Vindicator from the 1930s and early 1940s and compared them to their 2009 counterparts.

Both sets had in common ubiquitous sales ads as well as stories about the steel industry, he noted. Among the differences were the type styles and comic sizes, as well as fewer front-page stories today, Mann pointed out.

Friday’s program was the historical center’s last History Kids program. Youngstown State University is to take over management of the center in January, he noted.