Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1901-08-22
THE GREAT STRIKE
ORGANIZED LABOR IN A FIGHT
FOR ITS LIFE.

vania and Ohio Were Making Pi1srimasss
to Canton on Special Trains. They Little
Knew They Were Strengthening the Arm
That Now Smitss Them.
The inevitable conflict between in
dustrial despotism and American wage
earners is being precipitated at least a
year earlier than was anticipated by the
most thoughtful observers of the tide Of
events. The strike Of the employees of
the billion dollar steel trust for the right
of organization and for uniform wage
scale, conditions abhorrent and distaste-
full to that monopoly, has precipitated
the conflict. It now looks as though it
would be fight to finish as j. Pierpont
Morgan, in behalf of his monopoly, has
contemptuously spurned the demands OF
the workers and given orders to his
lieutenants that the capital and power Of
the great iron and steel combination is
to be used to crush out and annihilate
the labor unions in that department of
industry.
During the years that have passed
when the votes of the labor unionists Of
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other states
were cast for the candidate of the trusts,
and many labor leaders used their in.
tluence in behalf of the election of Nc
Kinley, the men who are now engaged
in life and death struggle for the rights
of labor to organize in its own defense,
little knew that their votes we're being
cast to strengthen the arm that is now
shifting them. Under the plea of pro-
lection to American workingmen the iron
and steel workers of Pennsylvania and
Ohio were led to the ballot box in sup
port of the candidate of the trusts only
to find little later that billion dollar
steel trust was organized to control the
iron and steel trade of the world, and
that American workmen were expected
to wear out their lives for wage suffi.
GENTLY low to enable the great combine
to undersell in their own markets the
iron masters Of Europe.
First and foremost among those who
have in the past demanded and received
of the American people high tariffs on
their products in the name of protection
to American labor were the iron manu-
facturers. They received all they asked
because generous public, including
.agriculturalists and artisans of all sec.
tions, desired that the iron and steel
workers ehould be sufficiently we'll paid
to enable them to rear their families
after the manner of Americans. Where
the profits of the generosity of the Ameri-
can people went was amply testified to
when Mr.. Flick in his suit against Mr..
Carnegie stated under oath that the two
hundred millions represented by the
Carnegie properties, together with yearly
dividends, was the product Of only ten
millions of dollars in 1887. The dis
honesty of the demands of the iron and
steel manufacturers of America is clearly
shown by their present demand for the
continuance of high tariff to keep
foreign products out of our markets in
order that they may practice extortion
upon the American people while selling
their product at profit in England and
other European nations in direct com.
petition with the manufacturers against
whom the American tariff is raised.
A steel trust was formed nominally
with capital of eleven hundred millions
of dollars, and three hundred and five
millions Of bonds outstanding in addition
to its eleven hundred millions of stock,
making it fourteen hundred million
dollar combination, an amount equal to
the capitalization Of five of the greatest
railroad systems of America. That the
three hundred millions of bonds of the
steel combination represents all the
actual capital employed and that the
eleven hundred millions of stocks repre-
sent fictitious capitalization, usually
termed watered securities, is believed by
many men possessing an extensive
knowledge Of the iron and steel trade.
But however this may be, the working.
men in the employ of the great combina-
ton find themselves in life and death
struggle with their employers over the
right of the men to perfect and maintain
an organization that will afford them
protection against the rapacity OF organ
lied greed.
The battle is an unequal one, because
the working men have stomachs that
need food and bodies that will parish
unless clothed and sheltered and wives
and families dependent upon them. In
a struggle Of this kind the capital Of the
great combine may be seriously i'm
paired, but the lives OF the workers and
their families are in such cases pitted
against money in contest of endurance.
The soluti on OF the difficulty, how
ever. is no to be found in tests OF en-