Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-05-07

pioyment at wages equal to any,
should answer, BY persue ding them to
adopt the sliding scale, with minimum
insuring living wages, at its works at
Rraddock fourteen years ago. which has
given perfect satisfaction from that day
to this and is still in force, and has
produced undisturbe3 harmony between
capital and labor.
Gentlemen, while, as you have seen,
the Carnegie Steel Company interested
its young men rs partners and was al
ways anxious to reward exceptional
service, and carried the bonus system
to an extent, perhaps, unknown in any
similar organization, the masses of the
ordinary workmen could not be EN-
braced under the limited partnership
form, even if it had been thought de-
invested. The objection to this from
the point of view of the workman,
which always arose in our minds and
which we We're never able to surmount,
was the sad and instructive history of
the largest manufacturing concerns. es-
pecially those of iron ana steel
More than once in the history of the
Carnegie Steel Compan, leading part
ners have been so doubtful of its fu-
ture as to beg their more optimistic
senior partners to buy large amounts
Of their interests at actual cost.
1T is an instructive fact that the
majority of the principal Of these in the
United States have. at some period in
their career, either been in the hands of
receivers. been mortgaged, reorganized
or sold by the sheriff to the great loss
OF their original owners. Indeed, those
who have escaped financial trouble are
the exceptions. There was no over
capitalization in any of these compa-
MES. Only actual cash counted. Our
experience in America has not been Pc
culiar. The year before last the iron
and steel works of Germany were gen.
orally in depressed conditions, and their
shares suffered heavily. l read list of
these losses at the tire. which Inn
pressed me deeply, If remember
rightly. many declined ora-half or more.
in financial trouble. Your own expert
ence in Britain is similar.
You know too we'll, gentlemen, how
the path of iron and steel IS strewn with
financial loss in all countries, and that
all forms of business must encounter
great risks. Scarcely a week passes
without news OF embarrassment or fall
ure in the industrial world. This it has.
ever been, and ever must be, while hu-
man nature remains unchanged.
Bearing all this in MUD, the thought
cf asking the workingman to risk his
precious savings in the manufacturing
or any form of business was, always dis
carded by us as too dangerous for him.
He was advised to buy a home instead
and save his rent. To facilitate this,
to build homes was lent to the
employees who had the ground clear of
debt. Their savings up TO $4,000 each
We're taken by the company and placed
III a special trust fund, entirely separate.
from the business. Interest at per
cent was allowed to encourage the.
workman To save part of his earnings
for old age. The funds received were
lent upon mortgage on real property,
to such workmen as wished to
build homes. 1t was believed that this
was the safest and therefore the wisest
use of their savings which workmen
could make. The most convincing proof
Of the steady march OF labor to recon-
pense more and more, based upon
profits, and in forms drawing capital
and labor into the peaceful bonds of
is to he credited to the
United States Steel Corporation, the
largest of all Industrial corporations.
and for which 1t deserves unstinted
praise, as proving genuine interest in
the workmen and sagacious thought for
tic own