Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-05-13
MIR. scHwAB TEsTIFIEs.

MIR. SCHWAB TESTlfIEs.
Mr.. C. M. Schwab, the young million
dollar president of the Billion Dollar
steel trust. gave evidence before the
Industrial Commission the other day
that he has a set Of million dollar
brains. Instead of the Commission
turning Mr. Schwab inside out and emp
tying him Of the secrets OF the United
States Steel Corporation, Mr.. Schwab
twisted the commission around his lit
tie finger, so to speak, Juggling It's
questions and dexterously avoiding re-
vealing anything the gigantic combine
might not want the general public or
the commission to know. And through
out his apparently frank and voluble
testimony the billion trust president
never for an instant lost sight of the
interests of the billion trust.
Although a firm believer in organ
izeo capital, Mr.. Schwab does not be-
lieve in organized labor. Says he:
IF l were a workingman-as 1 was
and in one of our mills especially, 1 would
not belong to a labor organization.
1T puts all men in the same class of
work on exactly the same plane. If 1
were a better man, possessing more abil-
ity than the other men, L would want to
reap the benefit l would not want to be
put in the poorest class where the labor
organization would put me.
IF there were 500 men employed on the
same work with me and l overtopped them
all in ability, would not advance, and l
would not be able to show ability over
anybody else if l was in such an organza-
ton
He proclaims against the labor unions
that they obliterate the individual,
crush out individual enterprise. Yet he
heartily commends the same process
and the crushing Of individual enter
prise in the banding together of capital
for the purpose of crushing out compe-
tition. What is sauce for the labor
goose is not sauce for the capital gan
der, in Mr.. Schwab's view. He would
have the organization question settled
all one way-capitars way. He would
permit capital to organize for plumber,
but doesn't believe in labor organizing
to protect the wage scale-which is
quite natural. Mr. Schwab thinks that
capital is entitled to all it can gouge
out of the consumer through organiza-
ton, and labor to no more than it can
get in a free-for-all competitive mar
ket. The labor cost is the greatest
item in manufacturing. and it would
soon fall to the lowest notch with every
workingman competing against his fell
low in the open labor market.
Mr.. Schwabs remarks with regard to
the tariff protection of the trusts were
the same old monopoly plea. The tariff
was all for the protection of the labor
ing man. 1t was to keep up the dear
workingman's wages-not the trusts
prices. My opinion is" said Mir
Schwab, that a reduction of tariff
means a reduction of wages, and this
applies to all classes of labor
The reduction must not come out Of
the trusts gigantic profits. mind YOU
but out of labor's wages! The trust
stockholders must continue to get their
dividends on billion dollars worth of
stock, at least half billion of which Is
pure water
Yet Mr.. Schwab openly admitted the
fact-which he could not well deny. bv
the way-that the trust sells lower in
Foreign markets than in the protected
nome market. I've have to sell lower
IN the markets abroad said he naively.
because the foreigners naturally wish
to patronize their own products" Yet
ne admits: 1T cost more to shin a ton
OF blllets or rails from Pittsburg TO
European shores than it costs Pittshure
manufacturers to make'a ton of steel"
This cost of shipping and the foreign
tariff are paid and still the American
goods are laid down in foreign markets
LOT less money-one-half to one-third
the price-charged the American con-
sumner in the home market right ar the
factory doors! Yet Mr. Schwab tells
us that the tariff is all for the benefit
OF American labor and that if if is re-
duced wages must come down, At the
same time he admits that labor is maid
the same wages whether the goods are
Tor export or domestic use. Yet. the
protective tariff, he assured the Com
mission, is only TO keep up the wages
of American labor and not to augment
the profits OF the trusts in the home
market! And if the tariff comes down.
down must come wages first of all.
The commission, apparently dazzled
by this million dollar witness. did not
ask Mr. Schwab to reconcile these an
parent discrepancies, and when asked
about the billion dollar trusts enor-