The weekly examiner., 1901-08-03
THE B WHOLE V TRUTH.
IT WILL PAY THE BIG BOSSES OF LA
 BOR TO STICK TO IT.

the FuDA1c as 10 the heaA Sause O1
 the Trouble.
 It is usually advisable to tell the
 truth.
 The steel trust gained considerable advantage for the first day of the strike by disregarding this principle, but it is likely to find in the end that honesty is
 the best policy. The public appreciates good faith and is inclined to resent an appeal to its sympathies based upon palpable misrepresentations.
 It was announced at the start that the strike was based solely upon the demand that the trust should coerce it's nonunion men into joining the union. It would not submit to that iniquitous demand, and it snobly permitted $3O,- 100000 of water to be squeezed out of it's stock rather than sacrifice the liber- ty of it's workmen.
 l Many indignant editorials have been written on this theory of the strike. l But President Shaffer of the Amalga- mated association disposes of it by the statement:
 eve do not ask assistance of the | now being operated nonunion. l we simply ask that the three com paniesSthe Sheet Steel, Tin Plate and Steel Hoop-sign the scale for all mills, 1 whether nonunion or union, thus pre- 1 venting discrimination in favor of the nonunion plants during dull times.
 "We ask 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.
 eve ask to be let alone in the matter ! of organization.
 tsWe have never been arrogant in in- 1 sisting that men join >our organization ! or leave the union mills.
 sThe statement that we wish the companies to bind themselves to en- ploy only union men Is a deliberate 1 falsehood.
 "We do not ask even recognition of the union in the organization of non union mills further than the signing of the scale.
 'The representatives of our organiza tion in each mill is the mill committee. We do not demand that the companies agree to recognize this committee, even in the nonunion plants. That is mat ter we allow employees of every plant to settle for themselves.
 'The thing that we insist on is that the men be released from the contract now binding them to belong to no labor organization and be allowed to join our association without being discharged, as has been the rule heretofore in the nonunion plants Of the American Sheet Steel company.
 That is clear and straight forward The head of the Amalgamateda associa- ton takes the public completely into his confidence. The heads ofs the steel trust are less frank Mr. Schwab has nothing to say. MT. Morgan has noth- ing to say. Nobody in authority has anything to say in his own name, but in a semiofficial statement f'of the most authoritative kind" which Wall street is disposed to accept as the fnal word for the steel interests, it is 1al1eged:
 'eThe question between theE Strikers and the companies has nothing to do with wages or hours, both of which are equal to if not better than the union scale. The sole item of importance in the demand of the strikers is the. insist ence that nonunion men employed in -nonunion mills on union wages shall be discharged by the company if they do not join union."
 These two statements make it evident that somebody is lying. ss
  ; The authorities of the trust have said, and most of our contemporaries have hastened to take their word for it. that they are simply protecting the liberty of their men. They have said that the strike has been ordered because they have refused to coerce the men in their nonunien mills into Joining the union. . That is an attractive theory. It is a strong bid for public sympathy. It moved MT. James R. Keene to-say that if the trust officials acceded to the de mand of the union they would make themselves liable to indictment. But there are some things that throw doubt upon it.
 For instance, the Associated Press dispatches from Pittsburg said: Developments indicate that Pitts l burg is going to be pretty lively strike center. The most interest at taches to the Painter mill on the south 1 side and to that of Lindsay & Nc Cutcheon in Allegheny. Both mills are controlled by the American Steel Hoop company and have hitherto been az gressively nonunion and much depend | ed upon the action taken by the men in these plants. The employees of both | mills held open meetings and both de- | cided to strike.
 'I. W. Jenks, manager of the Ameri- | can Steel Hoop company, said he had | heard of the attempt to be made to tie | up the two mills, but he had heard such l strike talk for several months past. l MT. Jenks said both mills would re-