Causes and consequences of the 1909--1910 steel strike in the Wheeling District

This thesis is a study of the failure of trade unionism in the Wheeling District mills in the early twentieth century, a district whose unions had previously enjoyed great success. The conversion to tin plate in the district was, at first, beneficial to the skilled workers in the union, but with the combination of companies culminating in the creation of the United States Steel Corporation, the union could no longer count on the skill of its members for survival. Ultimately, Wheeling steelworkers were victims of the modernization of the steel industry and a union that would not adopt industrial unionism to maintain its position in the new corporate environment