About This Collection
The Department of State Police was created in 1905 to help preserve law and order throughout the Commonwealth and to cooperate with and assist local law-enforcement officers in the apprehension of criminals. It was the first uniformed police organization of its kind in the United States. The original complement was limited by law to only 228 men to patrol the 45,000 square miles of Pennsylvania. The State Highway Patrol in the Department of Revenue, which had originally been established in the Department of Highways in 1923 to enforce motor vehicle laws, was merged with the Department in 1937 to become the Pennsylvania Motor Police. The name of the agency was changed to Pennsylvania State Police in 1943. In keeping with its responsibility to assist local police departments, the State Police administer professional training programs for municipal police, and provide direct assistance to State law enforcement agencies wishing to utilize the technical, scientific and data resources of the Department. They have jurisdiction in all political subdivisions in the state. The collection, arranged chronologically by start of strike date, includes records contained in individual reports include police endorsements of special duties assigned to troops to investigate labor unrest, patrol reports from picket areas, telegrams from the superintendent to local sheriffs, and various radiograms. Strike reports were filed for the following labor occupations: coal, milk, clothes, silk, clay products, teachers, textiles, glass, sewer pipes, lumber, hosiery, steel, refractories, chocolate, ship building, leather, rubber, electric products, trucks, turnpike employees, iron, aircraft manufacture, shoes, wallpaper, buses, and highway construction workers. Individual details of those troopers involved in the surveillance of industrial disturbances are given, as well as passes issued to companies in order that some workers might work despite a strike or disturbance. There are also general orders issued by the superintendent pointing out that before the state police could be sent to an area of unrest, the governor must be notified that it is beyond the local sheriff's control. Labor disturbance reports from substations in the strike region form a large part of the reports. Disclaimer: Not all records in this collection are digitized. Please visit the PA State Archives to see the rest of the collection. The Pennsylvania State Archives provides digital access to a wide variety of historical documents, some of which may be considered offensive by current standards. The Archives does not endorse views expressed in these historical collections, but presents these collections to aid in scholarly research.
