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Speaker1: Okay.
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Mulaney: Yeah, we was talking about is about the strike and that lasted
till. Well, some of the people went back,but they wasn't doing what I call
real good because in 1933, Roosevelt was elected. And he gave the union a
boost because he said men had a right to organize. So in 1933, but instead
of going back to our regular wages. Top wages is $5. Non-skilled was four,
4.75. There's always that quater, I don't know why, but--
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Speaker2: Okay. And this was in, what?
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Mulaney: 1933. Speaker2: Okay. Mulaney: So me, I went at that time, I went
to to Montour [inaudible] to work. I got a job there. And as a wireman
honest day work.
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Speaker2: How much were you making there?
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Mulaney: 4.75.
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Speaker2: 4.75 a day?
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Mulaney: Yeah I was a helper. See I wasn't, I wasn't called the wireman. I
was a wireman's helper. So I worked there 19 days after I loafed during the
two years.
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Speaker2: You mean you didn't work? Mulaney: No-- Speaker2: You didn't do
anything at all during the strike?
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Mulaney: No. Just a little bit over there at County Park At. I agreed with
Armstrong and I forget the name of the commissioner. But the election.
Mcgovern got in the Independent. And we was Armstrong and we was laid off
so I loafed. In 1933 I went to number ten, worked 19 days. Got laid off. No
demand. At that time there wasn't very much demand for coal.
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Speaker2: Well, this time that you were laid off. How were you managing to
live? Were you getting money from somewhere else?
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Mulaney: No, I wasn't getting I run. Well, at that time, I was living down
with my mother and we ran a big rent bill and Kurshmen he ran a store down
there. He had a book. Book was full. And so finally we went back and he
said, Oh, well, we'll give you a new book. That was the only help.
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Speaker2: He gave you credit then?
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Mulaney: Credit up to I got a job in in January of 19-1934. Number four
recalled quite a bit of the people was laid off after him. And I said I'd
be laid off 19 days.
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Speaker2: Now this was during the Depression.
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Mulaney: Well, I imagine it was. Yeah. But we was breaking a little bit
out of the Depression in 1934. And I worked there, went back as a wireman
helper and I worked there till July of 1934. Whatever happened, he got laid
off again. But I know the pit boss at Horning number four, McIlroy. And
finally I went up to there and he gave me a job. That time not day work,
but piecework wherever you [inaudible]. And I was pretty fortunate that I'm
doing pretty good. It's hard work, but at that time you didn't mind the
hard work. So let's see. 36, 1936. Travis come is a superintendent number
four. And I knew that Travis and his youngsters and he gave me a job. They
work from there till they shut down, 1940. I was an electrical worker. I
was bound and different things and all day work.
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Speaker2: How much money were you making then? Do you remember?
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Mulaney: Now that's going to be tough. I don't just remember what we was
making about 8 or 9 dollars, I think, or seven. It'll be back around 7 or 8
dollars because [inaudible] was going up because through Roosevelt, you
know, they was organized. And I know in 1940, I think I was making $9 and
some cents as a pumper. Speaker2: A day? Mulaney: Yeah, but I'm not sure I
couldn't go telling you for sure what the wages was then. Then the mine was
going to close. And. But the pit boss. Williams, he was the superintendent
number four. Because I was one of the oldest pumpers in number four, I
could stay, keep up water pumping. Was left was me, Frank Kelly, Tom Bound
and Joe Musgrove. Joe Musgrove was when they closed down was the mine
foreman. Tommy Bound. He was running the electric power plant. An awning
was making par for all the rest of the mines. Frank Kelly was outside boss
cager and what you call it and me, I was the oldest pumper. And at that
time we was working well, six days a week, time and a half for the sixth
day. And we're supposed to work around the clock.
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Speaker2: Shift work?
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Mulaney: Shift work. Seven I was put on duty, 7 to 3. Next man come on 3
to 11. And the next man come on 11 and watcha call it. But there was. The
four men could just make it to, you always had, where somebody had to
double up. What I mean, two men come out because it was only in the shift
seven days, eight hours and only make it was two days there. Somebody
double up. It went along that the coal company figured that's too much
expenses for him in there. Why not cut, take a chance. The pumps was all
put automatic, you know. All you had to do is wash them once in a while. So
they come over and they says to me, I'm the oldest man there working there
for time. Why can't we just leave two men, one work seven days a week? One
man a day shift and one man a night shift.
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Speaker2: And just leave two men there?
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Mulaney: Two men eight hours each but seven days a week. That meant that
they had to pay him. I was the oldest they couldnt lay, they had to lay the
whole floor off. They had laid three off. Or as long as he lay in 2 or 1
man. One man stayed. I had to stay. I was just going to keep two. So they
says to me, You work seven days a week. You need to work straight time five
days, time and a half on the second day, saturday, double time for Sunday.
Well, I didn't want that. I didn't. I knew all the rest of the boys there,
colleagues and I said this ain't gonna save you no money. Why don't you
just give me, number four at that time, it was during getting during the
war. The war was going to start. A great man for coal and had worked six
days a week. The mine was working six days a week, so I was entitled to six
days. Five days of straight time. The double time I didn't want. So I said,
why don't you leave three men on? Won't cost you any more. Don't know, but
there was a dispute. Now, who was next to me in seniority? Was it Joe
Mutsuko? Brian Kelly? Tom Bound he knowed he bowed out and he wasn't. So
they was arguing who was? So they went to the super was Williams from
number ten or number eight. And they said to him, Why can't we compromise?
We'll work. Me and Joe, Louis will get. Your given 14 days. Two days at
double time. That makes 60 and two days at time and a half. That's another
day. So Louis is entitled to six and a half days. Me and Joe must go work
for the rest of the days. Four and a half days or whatever it is. So,
Williams says no. If Louis satisfied. Do you work six days and then still
pick up to five days. And that's when we went up to 1949 when the mine shut
down. Thats all I can tell you.
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Speaker2: Okay. You didn't have any problems then with the unions, the
unions were good to you?
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Mulaney: Good to me when I went by. Now there's lots of there was lots of
people that we leave from, I don't know, from union but I never did. I
guess I didn't need it as long as I was getting treaded down at the what
you call. [inaudible] they get you relief and it was also, you know,
relief, the government relief.
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Speaker2: Well, what about during the strike? Did the unions give you
money?
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Mulaney: They gave some the people who really demanding who they thought
really needed it. They had people. I think that depends who you know and
who you didn't know. Speaker2: Oh, really? Mulaney: Well, yeah, because I
never got nothing.
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Speaker2: When you were on strike, you never got anything from the
unions?
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Mulaney: No, nothing from the union, whatever. But there quite a few
people did and. But in 1931, I think it was quite a few people was on
government relief.
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Speaker2: That was during the Depression. Mulaney: Yeah. Speaker2: They
were getting food stamps and--
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Mulaney: Well, see, the strike when we went, number four didn't go on
strike till 1927 in April. So you only had little money, you know, for the
way but you didn't feel it for a while, as I say. then I went to work for
the county a little bit. So wasn't entitled to anything. What you call it.
But when I got laid off in 1931, I think it was in park there for a while.
Everybody used to say, Oh, don't go on relief. You don't need don't go. So
as long as Kerschmann was given something, he was doing pretty good. But it
got so bad there, I believe, in the last part of 1934, why you could say
that we did get a little bit of help. But Bernier at the end.
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Speaker2: Were you, during this time, living with your mother and dad?
Mulaney: Well-- Speaker2: Did you have your own house?
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Mulaney: No, I never, we never had a house. But I mean, during 31 And 30.
I lived in park I rented off the Allegheny County, park. But in, just when
I got laid off, I had to leave it. So I moved in with my, my dad built an
extra room to the house. Me and my wife moved there.
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Speaker2: Were these down in the company houses?
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Mulaney: No, no, no. This, he had his own house. He. We lived in company
houses up till 1927.
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Speaker2: And how many of you were living in the company house then? How
many were in the family then?
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Mulaney: Well, Harry, the oldest and he got killed. He lived there in a
company house with his wife up till 1926, while his wife stayed on 1927,
they got put out. Well, in 1925 it was the whole family, all But Harry was
living. Me, sister, two brothers lived in company houses. In 1925 I got
married.
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Speaker2: That's when you went back to Italy?
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Mulaney: I went back to Italy for a trip. Yeah. And finally got married.
But I didn't tend to go to Italy to get married. You see, my dad had quite
a few brothers in Brazil. See my dad went to Brazil first. He worked there
and he was doing good. As I say, he must have been doing good. And he
called his brothers, finally pitched his brothers in Brazil. Whatever
happened is I say 1901 he left and went to Italy then come to this country.
But I don't know. His brothers was there, his mother was there. Speaker2:
In Italy? Mulaney: No, in Brazil. Speaker2: In Brazil. Mulaney: My mother's
side. All was in Italy. My dad's side all had gone to Brazil. My mother's
side. See, I went back to see my grandmother.
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Speaker2: And when did you get back again? 1920?
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Mulaney: When I got back?
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Speaker2: When you went back to Italy.
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Mulaney: I went back over there in June of 1925. June 13th. Got back--
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Speaker2: Did you go back alone?
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Mulaney: No I took my wife.
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Speaker2: No, No. When you went, when you left America and went back to
Italy, you went back alone?
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Mulaney: Yeah, I went to Italy to see my grandmother. That was on my
mother's side, my uncle's over there on my mother's side. But I had already
made a not arrangement that I was going to go to Italy, stay there about a
month, and then go to South America and see my uncles on my father's side.
Never made it. But as far as Italy and stayed there a couple of months. And
finally, well, when I was in Italy at that time, it was Mussolini at the
head of the watch a call, but he was a citizen or what you was it didnt
mean nothing. So in 1925, he was going to put me in the army in Italy. See
I was the son of Italian parents. That because you don't lose your Italian
citizenship. You understand? But I had classified as one A in America
during the draft. And. And over there, they didn't have no records of me
being in, but they knowed my dad. But I was not registered in Italy. So the
question was, I could I had an American passport. I could leave any time I
wanted to. I used to go and see the consul of Florence, Italy, and he'd say
to me, You'd just better watch. Just keep in mind what trains go through
France or Austria in case of any trouble, because this Mussolini over here,
he says to me, They'll take you and keep you there before anybody can
straighten them out. He said, maybe you haven't served for two years. So I
went to my uncle in Pistoia, knew a couple people in the courtyard in the
court. So they says, why didn't I go to Florence, you know, and find out if
I could straighten that out. Now, I was going to try because in Italy, if
you want to get married, you have to make promises. You know, the
courthouse, 15 days, they bail you out that time. And the only way they do
this, if I'd register for the army. Well, I wasn't registering for no army.
I went to the consul and I asked him he says, well, the only thing is.
Right the country over there. But we don't make laws here. They make the
laws. So I finally found somebody who told me to go at a certain placein
Florence, that was an army recruiting station. To talk to a certain people
there and find out that I was not registered in Italy. They couldn't take
me now unless I registered. And they said, maybe they can straighten you
out. So I went there. And when I got there. All I did was pull a bell on
the door and the door sprung open. There was a guard there, soldier. And I
had a letter of some people and I talked to him, but he couldn't understand
me. And I showed him the letter and he just wondered whether I was supposed
to give him that letter or he wanted me to take back to the office. So I
guess it was hand singles and one thing or another we understood one
another and he took me back. So the gentleman he interviewed me back here
says to me, he says, this letter is not for me he says, but I'll read it.
He says it's for the gentleman that's in Pistoia today. That's where the
city I was at, well, where I was living. So he read it and he says to me,
he says, well, you come from Pistoia he says, they must be something wrong
with them. Why? Well, he says they have no right to view you're not an
Italian citizen, you're an American citizen. You have served in you never
served the army, but you were registered under American Army. So you just
go back to Italy and tell them not to give you one wife, give you two if
you can get it [speaker1 laughs]. So in the meantime, I went back there to
Pistoia and when I did went to the courthouse, this man had been there and
had trashed that case. And they said, oh, everything's okay, everything's
okay. You can go ahead and make your promises. And we made the promises.
But they fixed that. They put William Milani, born in South America,
American citizen. They put Louis Milani, born in Italy.
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Speaker2: And that made you an Italian citizen?
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Mulaney: That made me that American citizen. But the only thing is. So
when we got we got married, all right, everything went smooth. But my wife
needed a Italian passport because I got a visa from the United States. At
that time, Garner worked with Esquire in Bruceton said to me, in case of
anything, if you happen to get married or want to get back with somebody
with you, all you need to do is write to Washington for Visa. Now them
papers will have to come up over in regular mail, but the answer can be by
telegram, yes or no. You understand? So I did what the council after we got
married to write for the visa. And he'd done what he had, send the regular
mail over back to telegram. But whatever got wrong is that it came back
right away. So because I believe it was sometime in November was the stance
given day. I know I went to the consular consul was closed. I wonder why it
was closed. You know, I didn't know it was Thanksgiving. So finally I went
there a couple of days later and they told me that they had missed
addressed my mail for a different place and be quite a while before it get
back. But finally, when I got back, I got a letter. So my wife's passport
was held up. Now, at that time, the fascist were in Italy, they run the
country. Though through friends over there, I knew one fella and he says to
me, I'll go down and see what's holding it up. So they found out what was
holding it up. That I was born in Italy. So they finally got that
straightened out. You know what they told me? You'd better get out or
you're going to get in a lot of trouble in this country. So we made a way
around Firtness, got a ticket to United States. We land in New York on 11th
day of yeah, January. Had to leave that country.
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Speaker2: 19 what? 20--
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Mulaney: 1926. That was a, couple days I was home and back to work in the
morning. That's on the 13th, on the third of going back just a couple of
weeks.
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Speaker2: And when you and your wife came back from Italy, then you moved
in with your parents. Mulaney: Yeah. Speaker2: And you lived with them for
a while?
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Mulaney: Yeah. So just a short while then say we had a place to move into
company house but the strike come out. My dad and mother, they moved in a
barts. I moved up in South Park. All right. Stay there until the two years.
Then back to my dad. And from there, up here.
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Speaker2: Okay. Um, so then the depression really wasn't all that hard for
you?
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Mulaney: Not for me, no. For me and my dad. No, It wasn't what I call real
hard. [inaudible] a two years. I said the only thing that helped was
Kurschmann.
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Speaker2: He gave you food on credit?
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Mulaney: Credit and thats the only thing that really did help. Other than
that. No, I don't regret any parts of it because I don't know. Lots of
people say, well, there's lots of better places. I don't know if I left
Bruceton and no. Coal miners as long as I could work in a coal mine.
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Speaker2: What about your neighbors, the people that lived around you?
Were they mostly Italian or were there?
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Mulaney: They were all mixed. Mixed. Italian. Mixed. Italian. There was
Italian, Polish, Hungarian.
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Speaker2: Everybody got along okay?
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Mulaney: Oh, yeah. No trouble. Colored people or anything. It was never,
it was some of the nicest colored people just think anything that it was
color, you never even mention it. Went to school with colored people who
used to be the kings and the Barnet's. Their leads quite a few. In 1927
they overloaded us they took quite a few of the colored people from the
South up in the mines.
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Speaker2: Okay. I'm going to turn this over again.
