The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1901-08-10
on THE THRESHOLD.

Labor, particularly organized labor,
seems to be on the threshold OF a
mighty vital struggle. There are at
present on strike nearly one hundred
thousand of the workingmer employed
by some of the constituent companies
in that great aggregation of capital
known as the United States Steel Com
pany, and a general strike Of all the
employees Is threatened. 1t Is undOubt-
eddy true that recognition of the
enormous proportions which general
strike Of the steel employees would at
tain, has it's SOLDERING effect on both en-
ployer and workman. Neither one
quiet cares to bring on such contest,
and yet we have seen often enough
great strikes precipitated by a sudden
passionate act, although both parties
to the quarrel had opposed actual hos
tile action. If in this case a strike
should extend to all the properties of
the Steel Trust it would mean not less
than three hundred thousand men out
of work, and a large proportion of them
ready for trouble.
It would mean too, that the great cor
poration by stubbornly standing out
against the demands of it's men, could
practically check production In score
Of important Observation-Disclosures
railroads, structural iron works-all
would feel the shock.
The precise nature Of the qurrel which
has brought matters to their present
pass is difficult to state with exactness.
The Steel Trust managers, true to their
conception of their business as a purely
private affair, with which the general
public has no concern, refuse all expla-
nations.
They say it is question whether
they or the unions will run the mills,
but do not go into details. President
Schaffer and the men talk frankly,
seeming to realize the Importance to
their cause of public sympathy. They
are fighting for the very existence of
trades unionism in the steel and allied
crafts. Their position has been persist
entity misrepresented ever since the be-
ginning of the present struggle. They
do not ask the assistance Of the manu-
facturers in unionizing the plants which
have been operated by non-union men.
All they ask is that the three COM
panies, the sheet steel, the tin plate
and steel hoop, sign the scale for all
mills, whether non-union or union, thus
preventing discrimination during dull
times, and that all agreements now in
force between the companies and the
men, binding the latter not to join any
labor Organization, be cancelled by the
companies.
The do not ask the companies to bind
themselves to employ only union men.
They do not even ask for the recogni-
ton Of their union, or the organization
of the non-union mills, further than the
signing of the scale. The only thing
they insist on is that the men be re-
leased from the oppressive contracts
binding them to belong to no labor Or
ganization.
AS matter of fact it is the principle
of trade unionism that is at stake in
this contest, and because of that the
struggle may we'll be the fiercest the
world Of industry has ever seen. The
men who dominate the great trust, are
at heart, bitterly opposed to trade un-
ionism in every form.
President Schwab announced his hos.
tility in his testimony before the In.
dustrial Commission, and the very fact
the the biggest properties Of the trust
the Carnegie mills-are non-union, an6
by the command of their managers. j:
. sufficient indication of it's attitude
towards union men.
This strike is only another battle /,
the war which opened with labors' de-