The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-10
Fight to Finish Between the
 Trust and UniOniSm.
Orders That the Dewees Wood Plant Worth 5000, 900 be Dis
 mantled and Removed to
 Kiskiminetas Valley.

ly important developments in the str1E0 position today. The United States Steel Corporation moved decisively In its strike campaign with peremptory order directing that the great Dewees- tied and removed to the Kiskiminetas Valley. President Gompers. of the American Federation of Labor. after a two days conference with President Shaffer and his associates, issued a formal statement tonight specifically pledging the Federation to the moral and financial support of the AmaIga- mated. His written review of tho train of events leading to industrial Quarrels sustains the course of the Amalgamated Association and decides that nothing remains but to battle for the cause or unionism.
 The official announcement of the or- der to dismantle the Dewees- Wood plant was a great surprise and Me- heesport received 1t with doubt. Ac- tual preparations were made later in the day for the dsmantling, and there is little room for doubt that 1t will ba torn down. The strikers heard the or der in a spirit of defiance. They sim
 
 poration was convinced that 1t coui1 not reopen the plazt in the face of the opposition of the Amalgamated As- sociation. Strike leaders said her5 that the order was a bluff that had been worked unsuccessfuily before and declined to take 1t seriously.
 Steel Officials Reticent.
 The steel officials declined to give any reason for the order. but 1t Is openly stated here that the pronounced sympathy of citizens and city officials at MeEeesport with-tae strikers is responsible for it.. It is said that t1al plant of the National Tube Compafyn at McKeesport will be abandoned and the old Carnegie plan for a tube plant at Conneaut. Ohio. revived.
 The DeweeS- Wood plant was founded about forty years ago and is one CT the best known plants in Pennsylvania Its yards and mills cover between IF and IA acres: it has employed 1,20O men at it's busiest times and its cost is placed at 5,O00.0O0 by officials of the steel corporation.
 President Gompers of the American Federation of Labor was at the strike headquarters again this afternoon with Secretary Morrison and was cloSeted with the advisory board of the Amai- gamated Association for more than three hours. He gave out the follow ing statement:
 rison of the American Federation of Labor, and myself, we have been in almost continual conference with the Advisory Board of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers.
 Upholds the Strikers.
 "We made thorough investigation of the present strike, of it's members, formerly in the employ of the United States Steel Corporation and its con- stituent branches; the cause which led to the strike; the present situation Of the country, and we unhesitatingly de- clare our judgment that the position of the Amalgamated Association is aoso- lutelv justified and essential to its con- tinuance and effectiveness as union of workers in the trade, as well as the protector of the rights and interests of it's members.
 "It is true that the Amalgamated As- sociation in the first conferences asked that the United States Steel Corpora tion sign the union scale of wages for all the mills operated, owned and con- trolled by that company, but 1t is also true that the request was withdrawn by that company. but it is also true that the request was withdrawn and one
  should apply to those mills only in which the members of the Amalga- mated Association are employed: in other words, which are we'll known to be union mills This the United States Steel Company refused to concede, in- sisting that the scale should apply only to those mills which were union last year, eN en refusing to allow two mills to be included. which. by a species Of nnnnGtfiOn the company, had become non- union during the year.
 Why It Was Modified.
 Even the first demand for the scale to be applied generally throughout the / iurisdiC tion of the company was conn., menda ble, for the obvious reason that1S an employer should be willing to pay uniform wage to men who performed like work: but realizing that 1t was demand for those whom 1t did not fully represent. the Amalgamated As- sociation modified its demand to the extent already stated.
 "It appears the company took the position 1t did with an avowal thSt it would not allow the extension of the union to unionists. Such posi- tion and avowal are tatamount to de- claring that notwithstanding the growth of the craft the organization had reached status beyond Wnlch it could not extend.
 Now. any one a' all familiar with industrial development ard economic organization i% aware that organized labor advances or recedes, never stands still It therefore follows that if the trust. hy it's great wealth can prevent the extension and growth of the Amal- glmated Asso"i1tion. 1t encompasses It's dsntegration and destruction. The only power then standing between the trust and workers as a protector are the tender uercies of its directors. Against such 2 calamity the sense oe justice and humanity revolt ana against it we solemnly protest. r