This is an interview with Louis Ropos for In the Age of Steel: Oral Histories from Bethlehem Pennsylvania. The interview was conducted by John Fugett on April 23, 1975 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. 00:00:00 First I have to start off. We re at the home of Mr. Ropos on Delaware Avenue in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on April 23, and my name is Jack Fugett. If we could start by how you came to work for Bethlehem Steel in the very beginning. Yes. Daughter: Tell him how it all started. Well, I say it this way. I came to this country in 1911 and started work in Bethlehem Steel. The Bethlehem Steel has a zinc mill where this roll mill 1 is today, eight, ten, and twelve, and there I started work the (inaudible) shop because that was still done, that zinc mill. You get me. Right. Then they got that all torn down. Well, then they got changed to another job, but those bosses, super, they all work with us. There was no white-collar. They love us and we love them. We was working so nice together. And, well, the wage was low, twelve cents an hour, twelve and a half, twelve hours, fifteen minutes lunchtime, but we was all satisfied. Later on, we keep on working, and when that was all cleaned up, the zinc mill where the merchant (?) mill is standing. Then they come, engineers, you know, to lay out foundation to dig it out to make foundation for put up the buildings. That was all pick and shovel. Everything work by pick and shovel. It wasn t all machinery work like we have today, not so. Many hundred people was working. Well, that was year by year, they started put up the building. They put up eight-, ten-, twelve-inch mill 2. Then little farther up was an 18- and 20-inch mill 3, and they keep on and they was transferred us. 1 Department that processed and formed the steel into the desired shape and improved its mechanical characteristics through the use of horizontal rolls. 2 Project staff were unable to identify these terms. 3 A mill consisting of two 3 high rolling stands driven by an 1800 HP electric motor producing channels, I beams and angle sections in the Saucon Division.
I got away from that work and put me on a rigger 4 job, put up the structural work, but that was a little more money. That was two cents and a half more, fifteen cents. I work on that by years and years, and they started put up the merchant mill 5. Merchant mill was ready to operate. Then they transferred me for the oiler. I was oiling the rollers. Then from that job, I got still transferred down by the old mill 6 where they got these ore loading for the blast furnaces 7. That was two, three hundred people working with shovels loading the ore on the transfer cars to hauling into the blast furnace. I worked there. That was around 1915. There was no burning outfit. If you needed something, but you must measure it perfectly right. Couldn t do it if it s longer, then burn it off, burn it. There was no burning outfit. It was measured right, and we started work. And railings and railroad ties, two men were sawing the rail on half for four hours. That was a long many, many years back. So then the war started once, and then they put up a little more wage, see? It was the First World War. Number Four shop 8, we have only in the Lehigh plant. That shop burned down. Then they start to build real big Number Four as we have today. Well, that wasn t very many shops in Lehigh plant. First was Number One open hearth. That was (inaudible). Then the steam hammers was next, and the press, and (pause) Number Six machine shop 9. That was one of the older shop, Number Six. I went all through these jobs. Most my (inaudible) was (inaudible), you know. I was on a floor, dismantling (?) and sampling (?) a job. That s the job I did always, and I put in from 1911 til 1962. Then I retired. You want anymore? You ask me the question. 4 Worked on the high steel with the L beams, erected Electrical Overhead Travelling (EOT) cranes, and moved and set in place heavy machinery. This position was considered especially dangerous and was well paid. 5 A mill, consisting of a group of stands of three rolls each, used to roll rounds, flats, or squares of smaller dimensions than could be rolled on a bar mill. [link] 6 Project staff were unable to identify this location. 7 A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron. 8 Part of the manufacturing division. It served as a central machine and fabricating maintenance shop. 9 Part of the manufacturing division. It served as a central machine and fabricating maintenance shop.
00:07:38 What country did you emigrate from? What s that? What country did you come from? Oh, I came from Austria-Hungary. When you first came to the United States, did you come to work for Bethlehem Steel or did you just come? I came to Bethlehem on 1911, August 26, to Bethlehem and was boarding 4th Street [Bethlehem, Pennsylvania] where the Donegan [Elementary] School is. You remember? Yes. They tore them houses down. There I was boarding. And I worked in Bethlehem Steel. How did you know enough to work for Bethlehem Steel? I mean, why didn t you work someplace else? That s what I m curious about. Well, that was the most place. That was the most factory that loved the people and hired. I was only 15 year old. They wanted me to go to school, but I couldn t. Nobody would support me to send me to school, and then I got job there. I was only small boy, but they loved me and the bosses says, You, boy, take it easy. Oh, we have a wonderful super 10, leader. He was all dressed up with the working clothes. Daughter: Well, you can tell them, too, that at that time they hired you boys, even though you didn t know English. The leaders was working just the same. Daughter: But you didn t know English, so they hired you anyway. 10 Supervisor a person in management charged with overseeing or directing an organization.
Yes. Daughter: And they hid you when it was time to go to school. They didn t actually have to go to school in those days, and most of them were no more than what? How old were you? Fifteen. Daughter: Fifteen years old. Fifteen years old. Who did you come over with? Who did you come over from Austria-Hungary with? I went into Vienna and I didn t have nobody, and in Vienna, I didn t have enough money to hold up in New York when we get off from the ship. You supposed to show up 25 dollars, money. I didn t have that much. There was two Hungarian men, that (inaudible) in Vienna. He asked some of them (inaudible) if he can take care of me, that little boy, two brothers (inaudible). We going to take that boy with us. We go to Bethlehem and we take him along with us. And I was stay with them (inaudible), so they was (inaudible) and then back to Europe. They was very good buddies. Did you live with them in Bethlehem? What s that? When you came to Bethlehem, did you live with those two men? Yeah, we was together in the boarding. We was in the boarding place. We was together, but, see, these two fellows, (inaudible) fellows, they make a little bit of money and they went back. Daughter: They used to board. A man and a wife would have a boarding house, and they would take all these young men in and then feed them. And I stay longer. I stay. I never went back to visit.
00:11:55 Did you ever want to go back? No, no. I have my family here. I have my family here and I figure this way, why shall I go over there? That country s under communist country. What do you remember about old Bethlehem? What can you tell me about that? Oh, old Bethlehem. (laughs) Just wait a minute. You know, when you go here in this Lehigh Valley [Pennsylvania] station well, that s the (inaudible), huh? That s no good no more. Right above the Lehigh Valley station was a bridge made, wood bridge on top of the roof. We walk under, across, and we got over town, over Bethlehem. Was a very small city. (inaudible) worked as much as was worked in South Side [Bethlehem, Pennsylvania] that time. The most people was living on the South Side. Third Street [Bethlehem, Pennsylvania] was the main line. People would walk day and night. Today it s the Puerto Ricans. (inaudible), what was that? Yes, that was a carpenter shop, big carpenter shop was there, and that was a (inaudible). Daughter: No cars, no automobiles. Oh, no, no, no, no. We have very few automobile. Automobile was these old style with that roof up and open place. You can sit on this side or the other side. Mostly Ford cars. Everybody got Ford. Daughter: You always walked, though. You didn t drive a car. You walked everywhere you wanted to go. I walked, yes. I never drive car. But the way I see, that s the way they was doing. Those years was the great years. They loved everybody and help everybody. Daughter: No violence he means, like today. (inaudible). And the bosses, they didn t use no white-collar. They was using working-class clothes on and work with the fellows. What better you want? That s how the people stick with them. Daughter: And they built their own churches. Every nationality built their own churches.
00:14:38 Well, see, the Lehigh plant was a very small plant. I didn t go through this eight- and ten- and twelve-inch mill here. When they start, they was (inaudible). The furnaces was built towards to the New Street Bridge 11, that yard. They got the billet 12 right there and furnaces, each mill has one furnace to heat, to heat them billets. The rollers would set right into the roller furnace and then the billets was real hot, like a melted. But they let them out, roll up to the rollers. Then they got the hook, you know, catch her and they grab that billet, swing them right into the roller. And that roller, the billet goes through there. The other guy catch them with a pair of tongs, put them in the other roller 13. And, see, each side was six fellas. Daughter: (inaudible). When (inaudible) come, he grab that bar, swing it around, put it in the other one. But he had to watch it so he don t get caught. It s real hot. When that board went all the way through, you know, there was a size whatever they would want to have it. If they would want to have it quarter by two or one-eighth by three inches, whatever they want them. But when they finish with that, then they finish with that board, there s another long (inaudible) with the rollers. Roll them over and put them on a stretcher, stretch them out. Then they stretch them out, that bar, then put them under the shear, shear them off to size, see? Then they got the well, that was a crane, but not big, small crane. Crane lift it up, put them on a pile. Then some other gauge was started up and put them on a side (?) too. Big trucks come in and they load them on a truck. That s the way it was going. And today, I don t know. Today everything go by machinery, but that time, everything by hand. Daughter: Are there any pertinent questions you want to ask him? 00:17:47 What do you remember about the union when it was first starting to be formed? The steel workers union, what can you tell me about that? 11 A bridge that runs over the Lehigh River connecting North and South Bethlehem. 12 A solid semi finished round or square product that has been hot worked by forging, rolling or extrusion. [link] 13 A person who passes metal stock through rolls in order to make the metal into a desired shape.
The steel workers union come in right after Roosevelt 14 got elected, Franklin Roosevelt. He was the man to give a right to the people to establish the union and work with the union. And (inaudible), well, they was working. From beginning, couple of guy was coming, good speaker, you know, politician, talking to the people, to the workers, see? But they couldn t chase away, you know, because he was going through the (inaudible), through Franklin D. Roosevelt. Eugene Grace 15 says he ll never sign union papers long as he live. He signed it before he died. (laughter) But I ve got to tell you something now. He not mention there, eight, ten, twelve, around Christmas, Charlie Schwab 16, he was the president/owner to Bethlehem Steel, (inaudible) man, strong, German, he have a big pile of (inaudible). (inaudible). You understand (inaudible)? Big pile. He hand it to us. I never forget it. That s how he was sweet with the workers. 00:20:20 Do you remember anything more about Grace or Charlie Schwab? Well, Charlie Schwab, he come in many time, but not that close as that time when he come with presents, you know, Christmas presents. That was the closest time. And Grace, I don t see much Grace. Did you think that the union was a good thing for the men? Well, (inaudible). You know, the union, lots of people didn t want to join, see? They say they re no good. This is no good and (inaudible). Well, there was about two-thirds joined, not that we had to join. Daughter: So, did you want the union? That s what he d like to know. Were you in favor of the union? Of course you were. We favored the union because the union was promise of going to give us a wage, better money, better pay. Daughter: And less working hours. 14 Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States who served from 1933 1945 and was known for his socially progressive politics. 15 Served as the President and then Chairman of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation from 1913 to 1945 and served as Chairman of the Board from 1945 to 1957. 16 Charles Schwab was the president of United States Steel Corporation before taking over Bethlehem Steel in 1904. His early 20th century leadership of Bethlehem Steel Corporation helped make the company the second largest steel producer in the United States.
Twelve cents and a half an hour. That s $1.25 a day for 12 hours. Now, since 1933, the union joined. We got the union, have meetings every day over everywhere, and this take for a while, for many years till we got that set. And when we got set, the wage was coming up and better conditions in the steelwork, in the boiler shop, where they make those boilers right alongside the Number Six. One fellow come in the morning, four o clock to start (?), build them coke 17 (inaudible) where they making fire to make heat. That was full of smoke. That was before the union was in. After union got everything over, we got different conditions. That was all cut out, close the (inaudible). We got better air conditioning in the summer and the wintertime, more heat in and looks better. But those union, they got shop steward 18. The shop steward, anything I was (inaudible) or if somebody didn t do right with me, the boss didn t do good with me or something, I have to go to shop steward. The shop steward (inaudible) the main office, and that s the way was that going. Well, first of all, we got raise and better raise, better condition. Then from day on day, it was going better. In 25 years, I never got vacation. Since union come in, first one week I got. Then I got two weeks. Then I got three weeks. That was my whole three weeks, long as I was working there, but still was better than before. That was under union. Now, today, I don t know how today it is. Daughter: Well, he s retired. I m retired, 1962. Do you think the union had any bad effects? Daughter: Do you think the fact that there was a union, they got a little bit too strong, maybe? Do you think that? The unions. You know, when you were working, you gave an eight-hour day. You worked hard for eight hours, but then later on, the men 17 The basic fuel consumed in blast furnaces in the smelting of iron. Coke is a processed form of coal. 18 A position held voluntarily in which an employee monitors and enforces agreements made by the union with management.
got their coffee breaks and they didn t want to work as hard as you did. You often said that. And they were protected by the union. The company didn t have to let them go. (inaudible). Wait a minute. If the union what? You tell me once more. Do you think that the union had any bad side effects? It did a lot of good things, but do you think it did any bad things? Oh, I think it s a good thing. Good, yes. Daughter: Well, he never really had anything bad to say about the unions except that they got just a little bit too strong (inaudible). Union did good thing. Daughter: As I mentioned before, the older employees, they really produced. But the younger, when they came in Now, see, those years, well, they didn t lay off, didn t fire when I came to this country. They would love us, you know, stick with us and so on. But later on, after the war, well, they can lay off who they want to. It was different altogether. It wasn t like I came in 1911. Around 1916, 18 [1918], 18 [1918] war was over, First World War. Oh, there was all whitecollars already. No more work with the working fellows. He says, I m the boss. You do the way I tell you. But those years when I came, they was love with us and work with us. 00:28:08 And something like this, when union got in and the steelwork sign it, sign the union paper, they negotiate all the time, they negotiate. And they must have a big reason that the company fire you. Must be very, very big reason. But before they fire you any old way, the way it just happen a little bit, think that they (inaudible) to the boss, firing. But after the union got in, can t fire them. That was a good thing. And pay better pension. There was no pension when I came. No pension for those was no pension. Well, say the president got in. But they don t give no pension. When president allowed to join into union, they make a pension, they make up Social Security, they make it all up for the working-class people, see? And they can say, Thank God to have that Roosevelt, or whatever. I m just curious. Did you ever get laid off during the Depression?
No. Daughter: No, he was fortunate. He only got one day of pay and he was still on the payroll. You were still on the payroll, Pop, even though you maybe worked only one day of pay. You never dropped from the payroll. No, no, no, no. Well, see, 1928, people was (inaudible) Alfred E. Smith 19 for United States President, but Alfred E. Smith was a Catholic, and the southerner most against him and some others, and so they elect [Herbert] Hoover 20. Hoover got elected for president and the job was going so bad. Such a Depression I never saw in my life. They was keep laying off, laying off people. I was putting at one days in a week, maybe two days another week. See, that s three days. I was married man, have three children. I was very glad that I was on a payroll. 00:29:57 Then that four years was over, the people (inaudible), and then Roosevelt did the best thing in the world. That was a very bad Depression. Hope never going to see any more. Anything else? Anything? Did you ever think about working someplace else beside Bethlehem Steel? Daughter: Oh, now, you left the steel company and went to (inaudible). Well, I didn t work in very real true. I quit, you know, and went around, see, little bit, look at the United States, how the other steelworks plant doing. But in years I was around, you know, to go here, there, and coming back and started work again. And then I quit and go around again. So, yes, I was working around. Anyway, I still like it better in Bethlehem Steel. When did you travel around? When? Yes. 19 The Democratic Presidential nominee in 1928 who was defeated by Republican Herbert Hoover. 20 The 31st President of the United States who was in office during the Wall Street crash of 1929.
Well, I think that was in Daughter: How old were you? How old were you when you were doing all this traveling around? Oh, oh, oh, oh, how old I was. About 18. No, no, no, no, I m mistaken. Eighteen years. Yeah, that s right, about 18 years. Yes, yes, that s right. Eighteen years I was when I was traveling. Daughter: Yeah, the wanderlust. Eighteen, nineteen. Daughter: Where else did you work besides the Steel? Where else did you work besides the Steel? Where else? Daughter: Yes. St. Louis, Missouri. Pretty far from here. I was there. I was there in a carpenter shop working on a planer. And it was around quarter to four, quitting time, I have a piece on to start a cut, watched the clock and I cut me fingers. See, right here and right there, and here a little bit. Whew, was bleeding. Took me to the doctor. It was my mistake because I had to look (inaudible) while I work at the clock. And St. Louis, Missouri, is a big, big brewery, all German people, most, living there. Dinnertime, nobody drink nothing but beer, (inaudible), five cents a big piece, this coffee can. Daughter: I don t think he s interested in. You know the coffee can we got? Five cents. Can drink all you want. Daughter: And where did you go from St. Louis? Where did you go from St. Louis? From St. Louis, I coming back to Indianapolis. Indianapolis. Daughter: Was there a steel mill?
I was in Indianapolis for about, I don t know, maybe not even a year. I left there and I coming back to Bethlehem, and then I was all around, you know. In 1918, I started to get married. I got married, took my wife and me down to Newark, New Jersey. And this daughter, she s the older one, she born in Newark, 85 Prospect Street [New Jersey]. I never forget it. Daughter: And what did you do down there? There I was going I didn t like to work around those factories, don t pay nothing. I went, see the contractor, iron contractor, moving, you know, bridges and boiler and stuff like that. He give me the job. Well, but, see, there was the horses. Were no automobiles. Got two horse and we was traveling. We go from Newark to New Brunswick [New Jersey], (inaudible) to New York. I remember we went in New York and remove some chimney from the brewery building, and those big poles where you hoisting (?) up. We put that pole right in between the window frame, tie it up against there so the pole can t fall off, and hook up the (inaudible), then tie it around the chimney, and the horses with a truck pulls the chimney up and lowered it down. This kind of job I was doing there. Better money. Then that was 1919. Nineteen twenty [1920], I came back with my family, with my daughter. Then from 1920, I worked steady in Bethlehem Steel till I retired. Nineteen sixty two [1962], I retired. What else? What do you think was the biggest difference between when you started working at Bethlehem Steel and when you finished? Was it the working conditions or was it the men or what? What do you think? 00:36:41 Daughter: What was the biggest difference? [speaks in Hungarian (?)] difference? [speaks in Hungarian (?)]? Did you find any difference or were the men all the same all the time? Was the working all the same all the time? Did you have to work harder when you first came or harder when you quit? What was the difference? Was anybody pushing you any harder when you first started or when you quit? Of course, when you first started, you were on timework, no? Yes. Daughter: Later on, you were on piecework 21. You had to work hard. Oh, excuse me. We was mostly on a piecework. It was twelve cents and a half more an hour. (laughs) More you work, faster you work, more money you make. But there was another trick in there, too, you know. Some people ruined things. 21 System in which a person is paid a fixed price per piece produced.
He went over you, turn it in too high and the piece rate (inaudible), All right, I m going to find something difference in there and I m going to cut you. So you watched that. But here, now, you can t tell them guys. That was good money, but not as much as today. Yeah, that was hard work. Daughter: You worked contract, huh? You got a job and you got a contract work. Yes, I got contract. They give me a contract. I got a contract and dismantling (?) separate, sampling separate. I was all the time work on the erection floor, all kind of machinery, steam shovels, these buckets, you know, that dig in the ground and those big buckets that pick the ore up on the (inaudible) Bridge. Maybe you ever saw them when you go over the Minsi Trail Bridge 22. Yes. We was all that thing repairing. That was sent into Number Six 23. That s the biggest shop in Bethlehem Steel. We did all this kind of work. Daughter: And you learned it all too. You had to learn it all. 00:39:00 Well, that s the way. Anything else? No. I guess that s it. Anything else you can think of? No, there s another thing (inaudible) I want to tell you. When we started work right from beginning when I came, there was no timecards when you started work to punch time. They have a blackboard, big as this fireplace here, blackboard and has a hook, and they has them metal, like a dime on the hooks and the numbers on. My number and whoever worked there, you got the numbers on. You went in. See, they was all laying down. When we started (inaudible) in to start work, we push it up. Then the timekeeper come. He checked. That s up, this up, this up. He mark it down in his book. In the evening, we went and pull it down. That s the way it was. But then later on, they got wise to that somehow and got a clock and the cards and got a puncher. See, that s the way it was (inaudible) from beginning. 22 A bridge in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which crosses the Lehigh River connecting the north and south sides of the city. 23 Refers to Coke Oven Battery No. 5 in which ovens were used for the conversion of coal into coke.
I don t know what else should I give you. (laughs) This is a good many years back, more than 60 years. I don t believe that you can hardly find any of these old fellows anymore to give you all this kind of information as I m doing now, because they die out, and the young ones don t know nothing about that. They just got into the factory, into the steelwork making big money. But this steelwork, all foreign people was build up. 00:41:17 Like I say, fellow by name, Henry Walker, he s a master mechanic once. He had the carpenter, riggers 24, laborers, pipefitters, all these people he has under his hand, but he got leaders, you know, to handle them fellows. Most Hungarian, Windish 25, our people was the high fellows, you know, to do the work. He was satisfied with our people. They don t need to make (inaudible) everything, you know, on a note. They call Henry Walker, call into the meeting and talk with them fellows, you know, with the bosses, I want to have this, I want to have that, and this is all right. Well, probably they know how to read the drawing because in Europe they was working in the big steelworks too. There s a big steelwork in Dallavitz (sp?). That s in Czecho today. Dallavitz is bigger than steelwork here that time, and those people most was working there. Then they come here and they know how to go, and the old Henry Walker like it very much. They all putting these buildings up, foreign people. But today it s standing up, everything nice, and I guess the steelwork pay highest wage in United States. And the state of Pennsylvania is the greatest valued state. Okay. Daughter: Okay. And you come around again if I be able to give you something. I ll do that. (end of recording) 24 Worked on the high steel with the L beams. This position was considered especially dangerous and was well paid. 25 Term used to refer to people whose ancestors came from Prekmurje, a mountainous region in eastern Slovenia.