The Wilmington daily Republican., 1901-08-05

/ lnaL lue- AMalkulnaleu aSSOcldtlOu HIS
lodges of varying sizes in tho plnnt>
and they may be drawn into the strug'
gle.
The National Tube Company employs
at its Mckeesport works about 5000 men,
but not all these are organized. The
union men occupy skilled positions, and
if they suspend work will at once be
stopped in all the departments, at least
for time. The rolling mill is the foun-
dation of the process Of pipe making.
| If it snspends all departments will be
compelled to quit sooner or later, If the
company fails to start it again soon.
! The same condition exists among other
mills in the various companies that arc
placed in the non-union list. There is
| scarcely one of the 100000 employees OF
| the United States Steel Corporation but
what may feel the strike. 1t may be
that the American Federation of Labor
will call ont its thousands who handle
products of the United States Steel Cor
puration; the structural steel workers
may refuse to handle steel from the mills
Of the trust: the miners may refuse to dig
coal for trust mills; the railway organ
izations may he drawn into the contest,
although that is not probable. Unless
it be speedily broken by the United
States Steel Corporation the strike and
its results will be felt over the whole
Of the United States. Mills that manu-
facture finished products and obtain their
raw material from the trust in many
eases may be closed; blast furnaces that
manufacture iron may he compelled to
pile it in stock and then stop if the
,t,,ls, La. Il fh, .,f
time, and coke ovens will close when
the furnaces stop.
The big works of the Carnegie Steel
Company are almost free Of unionism.
hut this is the citadel that will be at
tackled at once by the Anmlgamatrd AS
Socation. If the union men can close
the other mills and prevail upon union
men to stop handling structural steel
ana plates. the plants at Homestead and
in DnQuesnr can be seriously crippled. as
their product would not be taken. The
Homestead armor plate department
would scarcely be affected, although if
til" workers there could be induced to
come ot it would place the company
in n bad situation regarding its almor
plate contracts with the Federal Gov
ernment
The possible magnitude Of the strike
may not he foretold rcndily. Should the
supply Of raw materia. be cut off from
tho works of the wire trust that con-
ccrl, might he forced to close from the
Atlantic to the Pacific coast.
The railroads will be heavily affected
by the general strike. Their freights
have already been affected by the length
to which the strike has gone. but should
there be anything like Il general sll>-
pension at the works Of this mammoth
corporation the railroads would feel the
effect Immediately and heavily.
The coke workers in the Connelsvilln
region are unorgarizcd. but might he
induced TO strike. They are paid on a
sliding scale which has been satisfactory
to them for seven or eight years. and
has done away with all strikes r.vrnc
that time. But they may be anerted
even if they do not strike, as the clos
ing Of blast furnaces would throw them
ont Of work. The steel corporation opcr-
at"s tifty-scven blast furnaces.
The entire system of steel making as
perfected under this enormous com
bination through its constituent com
panics. resolves itself into an endless
chain. and if this chain is broken for
any length of time ut one or more points
the entire system must eventually come
to almost Il complete staildStl'l.