Nearly everyone waxes nostalgiac these days about the now defunct Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Not me.Save Our Steel seems much more like a white-washing effort than a true attempt at historical preservation. If we really want to remember, we'll need to look at some warts.
We criticize big business today for shipping manufacturing jobs overseas. Their excuse, as we all know, is the cheap and nonunion foreign labor. So what if a few girls lose their hands making your T-shirts. That's what they have two of them, damn it!
So how do you think the money bags operated before they got that bright idea?
That's where history tells a tale, at least if told honestly. Allentown blogger Mike Molovinsky hints at it. His own family history provides an answer. Big business simply brought cheap foreign labor here! Mike's Transylvanian grandparents (uh oh) were actaully imported to work at the Bethlehem Steel in the 20s. Night shift.
Company strategy then was to hire different ethnic groups who had trouble speaking to each other. That made it harder for workers to organize. In 1918, the Bethlehem Steel bragged "that we have 10,500 foreign-born employees in the various departments of the Bethlehem plant alone, there being fifty-eight different nationalities represented in all." Why, the Steel even hired blacks, who were already used to working like slaves. According to a typically racist company newssheet, they loved working to the music of the company band.
Once everyone caught on and started to speak the same lingo, they tried to organize. That ruined everything. Mounted state troopers swung their billy clubs, but were unable to stop the union. Too many heads to bash.
Now that the Steel is dead, people speak of it in hushed and reverential tones, as though it were some great benefactor. Its land is still polluted, although it glows in the dark, which saves money on street lights.
The SteelStax must be preserved!
Why?
"Respect for the past," they say.
Bullshit, I say. The Bethlehem Steel had no respect for the future.
I have no problem with ArtsQuest and ballet classes and the PBS39 broadcast center being planned there. Let them all hop around and sip lattes. It's a great re-use of a festering sore. But I have a feeling that the Bethlehem Steel and all its monstrosities will be deified in the process. I hope I'm wrong.
38 comments:
"The Bethlehem Steel had no respect for the future."
To which I say thank you! Now my generation will be shouldered with the burden until we die.
That's very much the truth. But we'll always have Martin Towers.
They got a mention in the movie The Great Debaters:
What's the irony with the name Bethlehem Steel Corporation. Bethlehem was the the birth place of Jesus the prince of Peace. The Steel Corporation made weapons of war.
Interesting I wonder what they will be saying about our local representatives 70 years from know.
Bethlehem was the the birth place of Jesus the prince of Peace.
Yeah, I think He shot out of one of the steel stax.
Ohare, After that little remark, you'll be spending eternity in the blast furnace with Angle.
Molovinsky is from Transylvania?
No wonder he sucks the life out of every City Council Meeting!
Anon 7:30, You did it now! Be sure you post only by daylight. Gotta go. I think I have a sore throat or something ...
anon 7:30, if only there was life at city council meetings, rather than dead eyes acting as rubber stamps, i'm afraid pawlowski made them zombies, not me. pawlowski will now fix and improve our nationally appreciated park system, let us hope he doesn't screw it up like the police and permit departments. back on topic, my grandfather was almost killed when a boiler blew up at steel, before the union there were many accidents and fatalities. opportunity and exploitation are two edged swords. overall, i differ with bernie, and feel the town and country prospered from the steel, they built the country and won the war.
"i differ with bernie, and feel the town and country prospered from the steel, they built the country and won the war."
...at the expense of my generation which will forever be forced to deal with the environmental hazards created by the company. Your generations benefited. I'm forced to deal with brownfields.
But hey, build the country and win the war b/c it's all here and now. Forget about the future. That's somebody else's problem. Hopefully my generation doesn't commit the same sin.
anon 9:19, if this country didn't create the industrial base that it did, i don't believe the service economy of today could exist, we would have nothing to service. we are living on the labors of the past, and frankly, i question our position in a couple more generations. let us hope the next bill gates is also american.
Your point is essentially well-taken. I would like to point out, however, that it was the tendency of Bethlehem Steel to put like ethnicities in the same departments.
You knew Molovinsky would climb out of his casket in South Whitehall to answer that one! You know Mike, you are pretty critical of pawlowski, so for a change, I have a challenge. What would you do to try and repair Allentown?
8 years of Conservative R Bill Heydt, and 4 of Roy saw no revitalization. Pawloski is trying things. So what would you do Molovinsky? You have so many answers that are disparaging, and you have spent a lot of time trying to find out where I live and who I am. - Warren
warren, i have spent no time trying to find out who you are or where you live, (you revealed your name somewhere). i find it interesting that besides for casey and stolz, nobody politically active, has ever heard of any of you others on the "team". you guys don't have a "backstage pass", you don't even have a audience pass. you may not agree with my positions, and you may call me a grandstander, but i'm there at the meetings, expressing myself on every issue relevant to allentown. attend the meetings, and you will know my idea's. your welcome to move this discussion to my blog, where we will not be off topic for bernie, and you will not be able to delete my comments, as per your usual practice.
I find it better for the local and regional economy to import labor than it is to outsource it. In the past, companies would start here with their first generation or first wave of labor working right here in the US, and then gradually shift labor overseas over a several decade span. But today companies that actually make things start and their first wave of labor is already overseas and then for all subsequent products, the labor pool only exists somewhere else. The second aspect of this is importing labor. People used to come here to work, and while many still do, there seems to be an increasing number of immigrants who come here simply to live and not to work.
Love it or hate it, Bethlehem Steel was integral to the post WWII prosperity of this nation. A nation's might is still measured by how much it can build and what it can produce internally for the world to see, buy, and consume. Bethlehem Steel was the company that built America. Casinos, an Abercrombie and Fitch, Starbucks, et al, while they don't pollute as much, build nothing. They provide nothing. They are worth nothing. They contribute nothing. Nations aren't built on gambling and shopping and they cannot continue to prosper if they depend on gambling and shopping for their economic backbone. One can't help but think of the irony of buying that Chinese-made shirt on the same ground that built steel for battleships and skyscrapers.
People complain about how China is the new economic and industrial powerhouse and bemoan how the US has lost some of her industrial edge. However, I wonder how many "Bethlehem Steels" there are in China? Something tells me The Jungle is tame compared to the real working conditions in China.
just my .02
By the way, here's a good article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the Homestead Works, now a retail paradise:
link
Where are the jobs? Right there but instead of making steel you can serve that Starbucks and make whole $7.50 an hour! Yippie! At least there's no pollution and that 170 degree coffee is a lot less dangerous than that pesky 2500 degree furnace! Job security? You bet! No need to worry about armed Pinkertons!
Bernie O'Hare said... 11:27 PM
"Yeah, I think He shot out of one of the steel stax.
11:27 PM " Bernie I think that is a very sick thing to say, especially at this time of year.
Bernie I know I agreed never to post here again, but if you are going to make insulting statements like Jesus was shot out of one of the B steel stacks in Bethlehem, I am not going to shut up and let your blaspheme go unanswered. We live in AMERICA.
I know people who are getting $1700 a month pensions from the steel since they retired. they retired at age 55 twenty years ago. geez what a bad place huh?
Michael Molovinsky,You prove the crazy guys point, you have no position other than attacking anyone who questions what yours might be. I love when they get you all stirred up, you are so pompous. You act like you are the only person who ever attends every meeting. Be thankful I just observe, because the only reason someone like I at city Council would have for speaking to you is to wrap a roll of duct tape around your head and seal your idiotic mouth shut.
You don't know everything Mike, and you've always been this way, since you were a kid. I don't write a blog, but I know a fool when I read one, and you are a fool. Always have, always will be.
I am not going to shut up and let your blaspheme go unanswered. We live in AMERICA.
That's right, God damn it! Can we burn him at the stake??
dear mad as bats(lehighvalleypoliblog) and malcontent, i believe enough insults have been directed at me here, that bernie will allow a reply. you guys confuse a couple of new buildings with progress. what is the message when the brewpub is given 7mil of public funds, and you close down harys for the sins of the previous owner when the new owner just paid 4mil private money? i met and tried to organize all the merchants against the meter increase. for 7mil you could have spent 150k dressing up the other 47 merchants. or in the real world, 25k each, and saved the taxpayers 6mil. Pawlowski who was the director of the alliance for building communities (low-income) just hired their current director for community development. i would have hired a hot shot from a commercial realtor, he hired another grant guy. i organized a meeting for a city wide crime watch, at which various neighborhood leaders suggested it was better to concentrate on their separate existing organizations. i would not have removed the buses or authorized studies of the police and park departments, having a long time familiarity with both. i do not believe either of you attend city council or township meetings, in my experience, people who participate have no reason or desire to hide behind anonymous names. i will be organizing a backlash against the home inspections, having failed to stop it at council. if you check the archives of the morning call you will discover that i led several other positions over the years.
Maddy and I are doing research at A-town's adult book stores. We got pix of Ohare walking in a few of them on Christmas Eve! It even looks like he and Molovinsky made a few adult fims, like "MiniBernie - Where is it?" and "Transylvania sucks, but not like Mike!"
Wow, some people are getting kinda mean here. I can appreciate Mr. Molovinsky's "moxie" (his word), even though I might disagree with him on certain issues. I think it is cool that he's a Transylvanian. His blog is interesting and insightful.
But I agree with Brian, Bethlehem Steel was the company that helped build the beautiful skyscrapers and bridges of America. I know there is also a sad side to that story, and I have heard the stories about the dangers of working there.
Dottie & Brian,
There is no doubt in my mind that when the history of the Bethlehem Steel is told, the points you make will be prominently featured. And Brian, you state them eloquently. But will the whole story be told? That's my concern.
Mayor Ed,
Was that you we saw? Don't be so shy next time. I don't bite. Mike does, but usually waits until sundown.
Lucifer, River,
What can I say? Mea culpa? I'm a product of Catholic school.
Tell Bernie that Jesus wants to help straighten out is crooked and sinful life and will baptise him at Mr Minder moat in front of the drawbridge.
There's a little mound there where Jesus likes to take a walk on the water.
Jesus also said to bring Angle; but
fears there won't be much hope for the little tyke. Jesus also mentioned we should keeping trying; since, there is hope for everyone.
Jesus ask do you want to be baptise fluoride or without fluoride.
He recommends without fluoride the
baptism seems to take better that way. The fluoride tends to hamper good health both physically and spiritually.
Mike Molvinsky heralds his status as omnipresent Allentown City Council meeting resident. exhorting how he attends every meeting and freely expresses his opinion on each and every subject. Some people pass gas to make a statement, Molovinsky opens his mouth. Same effect, different end.
MAD AS BATS said...
Molovinsky opens his mouth.
More citizens should open their mouths. Regardless of their views.
It's something I praise Mike and Bernie for and any anyone else that comes along even sometimes Angle god bless the little tyke.
You know he needs it.
Great observation regarding importing cheap labor. The US economy has always relied upon some form of an economic slave class. Today's Mexicans are the latest incarnation. The strange alliance of do-gooders and the US Chamber of Commerce to promote pseudo-amnesty programs indicates the seriousness with which cheap labor supplies are protected. Neither party has any real interest in "solving" illegal immigration.
bats, i do not attend every meeting, and i seldom address more than one topic. but what is a joke, is the pretension of your blog. although you call it lehigh valley political blog, only two of you, casey and stolz, have any involvement in the political process. to my knowledge, and i did inquire, none of you others attend any meetings or participate in government in any way, your function seems limited to blindly bashing the opposition to democrats and your information is limited to the morning call and regurgitating casey statements. stick with your satire, because you don't have enough information to discuss policy.
michael molovinsky said...
or participate in government in any way,
Mike, we all participate in government, are tax dollars are use in everything we come in contact with in our society.
I know, you know this; I just wanted to emphasize that point.
Mike, Maddy, et al,
I don't know whose turn it is to insult the other, but I'm going to ask that you two settle your lovers' quarrel back channel. I've spoken to Casey. If this doesn't stop, I'm going to nail Molovinsky's casket shut tomorrow morning, and Casey will take away all of Maddy's porn, even that DVD with the dirty parakeet. Sorry.
I have zero clue what you guys are talking about! BSCo lasted nearly 100 years, helped build America & win wars. Warts and all, BSCo was a boon to our lowly Christmas City of Bethlehem. Former Mayor of Bethlehem, Paul Marcincin, always said it best as "Bethlehem is the jewel of the Lehigh Valley" and always will be, is my opinion. Casino and more service jobs will keep us moving forward as did BSCo employment for my Grandfather, Uncle and many thousands of others here. No dark history, only graditude while it lasted, warts and all! larry@kisslinger.com
Regading the outsourcing of Jobs - If someone can make something more cheaply they will - and buyers will buy it. Protectionism leads to bankruptcy.
If you want economic strength, you must have innovation and hard work - both of which were integral to BSCO's success - and both of which are based on a sound EDUCATION SYSTEM - which is largely non-existant, particularly in urban areas
Lower Mack,
Wow! Protectionism leads to bankruptcy?? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what happened to BS? Didn't its failure to be innovative lead to its demise? It's not so simple as you seem to think. Both good and bad coming from that company. We are irresposnible unless we lay out the sins along with the virtues.
I do share your belief in the importance of a sound educational system.
bethlehem steel may not have had "enlightened" working conditions during the era of my grandfather, however, 40 years later, the union was encouraging my peers to slow down and take naps on their shift.
i believe our educational system provides opportunities for those with any motivation, however, the popular culture breeds failure. i'm horrified that the promotion for even the history channel's new show, glorifies gangs.
michael molovinsky said...
bethlehem steel may not have had "enlightened" working conditions during the era of my grandfather, however, 40 years later, the union was encouraging my peers to slow down and take naps on their shift...
Mike is correct and even moreso. Union folks "demanded" we sleep an entire shift, not just naps, is why I quit after two years at BSCo & predicted their demise as a 21 year old snotnose, while others called me crazy for doing so. I learned from my Mother that I had to work for my money and future. She as always was correct and so was I for leaving BSCo at that time. I said before, WARTS and all, BSCo was great boon for lowly Bethlehem and sleeping on the job was one of the biggest WARTS! How could BSCo survive if less productivity was my opinion as I quit after two years? I always suggest BSCo downfall was fault of Union "and" Management equally to blame! Please feel free to call me for more about my opinion. 610-691-5338, always has been in phone book, email larry@kisslinger.com or contact me to write a book about my experiences and share in
the financial proceeds?
PS. michael molovinsky mentions elsewhere on this blog, that "ALL" here have taken exception with him for any of his views, but I have never done so and never will. Everyone is entitled to their opinion is my thought. You don't agree...tough shit!
larry, in regard to the "all" comment, i was answering a question as to why i referred to members of one specific blog as a tag team. i have received positive feedback here and elsewhere from many people.
i agree that bethlehem steel was a complex story. my grandfather learned a trade there(pipe fitting) and eventually became a plumber. as i said before i believe the steel was a hugh contributor to this country, and WW2.
Wow. At the sands hotel just checking out info for the steel company. Feeling sad. The generations before you working in hard conditions at a steel company would expect more from your conversations.
Sorry. I can only tell you the truth. At 4th and Polk, you can see a monument to a striking steelworker shot and killed on his wedding day, thanks to police that came up from Philly.
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