Great Steel Strike
1919The Great Steel Strike is presented through a revealing intervention by J. P. Morgan: while steelworkers were on strike, Morgan congratulated Gary for standing for the open shop and described the principle as bound up with American liberty. The account gives no chronology or outcome for the strike; its emphasis falls instead on the alignment of financial authority with the employers’ position.
Financial and Political Context
The strike is set against the book’s account of wartime finance. By 1917, the Allies had borrowed $1.9 billion through the House of Morgan. By the end of the Peace Conference, the repeated phrase “J. P. Morgan suggests” is presented as carrying authority over a power of $74 billion. These figures frame the steel dispute within a larger narrative of expanding financial influence, without claiming that the borrowing itself caused the strike.
Morgan’s Support for the Open Shop
During the strike, J. P. Morgan wrote to Gary to offer “Heartfelt congratulations on your stand for the open shop,” adding that he was “absolutely in accord.” He argued that “American principles of liberty” were deeply involved and must prevail if those backing the open shop stood firm. His message thus recasts an industrial labor conflict as a defense of liberty, while plainly aligning Morgan with Gary’s position.
Significance and Limits of the Account
The episode’s force comes from the contrast between the language of liberty and the concrete question at issue: whether the steel industry would remain open shop. Morgan’s private message supplies evidence of his personal support for that position; the account does not describe the strikers’ demands, the course of the strike, or its settlement. Instead, it places the exchange beside references to wartime borrowing and postwar financial power, inviting the reader to see the language of principle alongside the influence of capital.
