Grace

"Late in 1945 the Steel Workers made their initial moves. Their contract was due to expire, and they threatened a strike if Big Steel did not grant a substantial increase. President Truman persuaded Murray to extend their deadline to January 21, 1946, and created a fact-finding board to determine an equitable wage adjustment. The board recommended a basic hourly increase of $.185. Murray accepted it, but Big Steel would not budge from a “final” offer of $.15. Industry leaders would grant the full amount, but only if the government abolished price controls. Truman would have none of it and considered seizing the companies.59 That was where matters stood on January 17, 1946, four days before expiration of the deadline. Truman invited Murray and Fairless to the White House, but the meeting stalled, and the steel man left in a huff. The next day, Kaiser, who “happened” to be in Washington, showed up at the White House and announced that he would accept the $.185 increase. He realized full well the impact his concession would have. Kaiser unctiously stated: “I have informed the President…that I have sufficient faith in this great nation to humbly take the lead in peace—as I did in war—in helping our people and our world establish the sincere and honest relationship which these critical times require.” He chided his competitors: “…three-and-a-half cents is two percent of steel wages. Who can estimate costs down to two percent? Can anyone hesitate to save his country for three-and-a-half cents?” Murray chimed in, calling Kaiser’s concession “a great contribution to the nation.”60 Once again, Kaiser won a media contest with his rivals in steel. The reactions of men such as Bethlehem’s Grace and Republic’s Tom Girdler have not survived, but their thoughts toward Kaiser must have been unprintable. In their view, Kaiser had simultaneously committed two unpardonable sins. That he had broken the ranks of “solid steel” was hardly surprising, since he had always been an outsider; but his break weakened their bargaining position.61 Far worse, he had openly consorted with the enemy and had the gall to condemn their penuriousness from the most visible forum imaginable. To Big Steel, this was unconscionable grandstanding."

"Grace's youngest child is five years old when the second world war starts. Little Leonardo's life becomes even more precarious. "We were a very poor family, my mother a widow, I the youngest of four siblings. And then the war came," he recounts in a rare television interview. Grace is increasingly worried, she doesn't know what will become of the little one. When she comes home from the factory, the other women tell her about the pranks of her little one, the fights with the kids, the scuffles in the courtyard. No one can take care of him. "Once, a bad lady, who wanted to sleep in the afternoon, poured water all over the stairs to stop us from running up and down," he recalls. Obviously, the tiny homes gang does it anyway. Leonardo falls and cuts his eyebrow. Mother Grazia comes home and finds the little one injured, takes him to be treated at the nearby military hospital, where they put in two stitches. She realizes that she cannot leave him like that all day. And, meanwhile, ordnance rains from the sky."