CITY OF STEEL

A city of steel, it was called,

Also soot, smoke and grimy dirt.

In winter, sometimes it would snow

But the flakes would all be black.

The safety rules were so lax in mills,

One year more than a thousand men died.

Their widows received one hundred dollars.

Crippling injuries left thousands of men

Dependent on the charity of other workers.

The mill owners never cared for cripples.

Wages just barely covered the necessities.

In 1892, on the streets of Homestead, guards

Opened fire on marching steel workers

Peacefully protesting the working conditions.

A great many marchers were killed or wounded.

Quite often, because of no women’s jobs,

Women would have to sell their bodies

For the cash to feed their children.

No one in authority seemed to care about this.

Pittsburgh remained a city of steel yet.

There were always replacements for those lost.

The women and children were the innocent bystanders

And suffered without any course of help.

Yes!  A city of steel!  Steel hearts, that is.