Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-05-08
Steel Trust,s RrutaI Action.

the American Steel ana wire Com-
pany, trust which has made its ex-'
actions felt most cruelty by farmers
who have to make use of its product for
fencing, issued peremptory order
closing down twelve of its mills sit
uated in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and
Pennsylvania. At the headquarters of
the amalgamated association of iron,
steel and tin workers in Pittsburg, it
was estimated that the loss to work
ingrnen would aggregate about $110,
900 week. The Chicago Times-Her-
aid gathered reports from the mill
towns themselves, which indicate that
about $3.50 men were thrown out of
employment and a loss of about $751;
600 in wages each week is incurred.
Col John w. Lambert, one of the d.
recting officials of the trust, explained
their shutdown with the characteristic
insolence and brutality Of the typical
trust magnate. thus: Our company is
running its business without any need
of explaining. We shut down and open
our mills when we see fit"
No weli-regulated mind nor any con-
fecience not completely ossified by the
persistent pursuit of money-making to
..islt. exclusion of all other ideals, will for
8 moment accept the theory that a
business which employs nearly 1000
men, a business upon the continuance
Of which the livelihood of probably 3d.,
300 people is Immediately dependent, is
the sole concern of a few individuals
who, by methods familiar to corpora
ton managers, have, seized upon its
control. The people as a whole have
some rights in these premises. The ma
ton cannot honestly remain silent and
supine while the domination of Il cor
poration over the lives and happiness
of great body of industrious men and
their dependents is thus wantonly and
brutally abused. In this specific case
different explanations are given for the
shutdown 1t is said that it was
caused by oyerproducti0n, yet all
through the West farmers and mechan-
les have been stopped from satisfying
their wants for the products of this
monopoly because ITS managers have
repeatedly increased prices until they
have reached almost the prohibitory
point. If there is any oversupply of its
product in the market, it is because the
prices put upon it are such that the or
binary consumer is driven to all sorts
of expedients to avoid purchasing. 1t
is claimed by others that the true rea-
son for the shutdown was that the rul-
ing spirits in the trust. one of whom, by
the way, John w Gates, is a Republi-
can aspirant for a United States Sena-
torship, have certain plans for manipu-
lating the stock market which the shut
down win further This is possibly
| true, bat il only lays emphasis upon
the folly and the criminality of permit
| ting the control of a great and neces-
sary industry in the United States to
pass into the hands of q small body of
men, men who would not have gained
control of it IL they had not possessed
! the instinct of gamblers and who nat
uraIly utilize their control to further
their gambling transactions.
| ne IcdSoi llAt A.OOO VI tue
! American Steel and Wire Company are
suddenly and arbitrarily thrown out of
work is because one single governing
| board controls the employment of all of
! them and controls the industry in
which all are engaged. If the twelve
mills involved were operating as cor
porations should operate. independents
~, one or two might shut down, but the
others would continue Indeed, it is
most unlikely that any would shut
| down. because the mill so doing would
| be in danger of losing its trade to those
which renamed in continuous opera
| ton. If, therefore, the existing anti
| trust law had been enforced against
Ills monopolistic corporation, not only
would the farmers not be compelled to
pay extortionate prices for their fenc-
| ing, nor the mechanics mulcted of eX.
| tortionate sums for wire nails and
metal rods, but the working men now
out of employment would still be in en-
joyment of their wages, their families
/ would be living in comfort and the
radesmen dependent upon their custom
would not suffer-Wil Abbot.