George Kracha came to America in the fall of 1881, by way of Budapest and Bremen. He left behind him in a Hungarian village a young wife, a sister and a widowed mother; it may be that he hoped he was likewise leaving behind the endless poverty and oppression which were the birthrights of a Slovak peasant in Franz Josef’s empire. He was bound for the hard-coal country of northeastern Pennsylvania, where his brother-in-law had a job on a railroad section gang.
This is the story of the immigrant experience in America. More precisely, it is the story of the immigrant experience in the steel industry. Yes, the final words of this opening paragraph of the novel indicates that George Kracha is going to work for the rail industry, but notice also that it says he was “bound” for that job. The story of middle-European immigrants—really, all immigrants coming to America—is one in which the bread of intention is leavened with the yeast of reality. Things happen to change one’s course and for that George those changes begin before he even makes it to America; the circumstances which wind up putting him into the furnace of the steel mills for most of the rest of life with that job working for the railroad just a quick blip on the radar.
Mike had registered as a Republican—anything else would have been suicidal—but had determined to vote for Eugene Debs, the Socialist. He knew the risk. Should he be found out—and that the company had ways of learning how a man had voted nobody in Braddock doubted—he would be fired.
Mike Dobrejcak is another Slovak immigrant, but he not just younger than George, but is motivated and desirous of fully assimilating into American society. Again unlike George, he learns to read and write English and becomes politically active. He also winds up marrying George’s daughter and working in the steel mill. His political activism runs distinctly counter to what is expected from the Republican machine which controls the town of Braddock and with whom the owners of the mills are in corrupt cahoots. Inspired by the working man’s candidate, Debs, George dreams of unionizing his fellow workers to improve ages and working conditions merely to serve the purpose of the fulfilling the American Dream which for him means simply a nice, comfortable middle-class existence. But even this modest dream is deemed too great an overreach for simple immigrants lacking the skills to do anything else by those running things.
Mary pleaded with the officer behind the high, varnished desk, and he agreed to waive the usual fine. Because it was Christmas Eve. But he warned them that next time Kracha would go to the workhouse, money or no money. He lectured Kracha on the evils of drink, mentioned the war, used the phrase, “You Hunkies” once, and by inference, blamed Kracha for the Prohibition Amendment.
Mary’s father is in the police station on Christmas Eve, drunk and penniless. She, too, is without the money to pay the fine and in the spirit of the season the jailor shows compassion, but with a price attached. In order to pay for the fine without money, her father—and his daughter by association—must share the blame for the officer sees as all the evils wrought upon his country. “Hunkies” is a prejudicial term covering all those who speak with an accent or don’t speak English at all and are trapped in low-wage working class jobs. The term also covers the territory of being natural drunks and as well as bearing responsibility for World War I. It is the price that must be paid to be an immigrant granted the same rights are “real” English-speaking Americans.
The fifty-year struggle to free the steel towns was nearly over.
Mike Dobrejcak dies in a mill accident before he is able to make a difference in his attempt to unionize workers. Many years later, the son of Mike and Mary—nicknamed Dobie—goes to Washington, D.C. to testify before Congress on behalf of the Committee for Industrial Organization which go onto become synonymous with unions in America as one-half of the AFL-CIO. Dobie has become a national figure in fight to unionize steel workers and the hearings he attends is the turning point of the story of organized labor in America and the climax of the novel.
