The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-22
ALL IS NOT PROSPEROUS
EFFORT TO MAKE SHOWING WHICH
 DOES NOT EXIST.
The United states Steel Corporation, With Its Output. Heavily Protect.
 cd, Has Had Bad Year.

|
 Pittsburg, Pa., Oct 21.--(Special. )- Here in the very citadel of the steel industry of the United States--an in- dustry so highly protected that 1t is able to make an enormous profit while selling it's product to foreigners at a reduction of nearly one-third of the home price-one does not have to go far to find evidences of the fact that a stupendous effort Is being made to | make a show of abounding prosperity out of a precarious condition of affairs. Everybody knows that the steel indus | try, and particularly in so far as 1t concerns the United States Steel Cor poration, has had a very bad year. Yet Republican agencies are diligently cir culating the report among the laboring element that after election another pe- riod of high wages and booming bust | ness will be entered upon.
 Pittsburg was the most vitaIly af- 1 fected district last year in the 30 per cent. reduction in salaries of employees of the Steel Company amounting to a | total of s4o.o00.000 a year. reduc- | tion of 20 per cent. in the wages of | still another class of the employees amounted to an economy of ssS, o, ,ooo When to this fact is added the closing down and the reduction of output in a
 
 | trust. 1t is but natural that the em- ployes should wonder why 1t Is that | the high tariff for which they had | voted that their wages might be kept up above the standard of those paid in | Europe. should not produce even per manent employment
 It should be stated here that in 1903 the Homestead Steel Company closed down its mills for several months, | throwing 2.o0o men into likeness. Seven hundred were affected by the closing down of the Tin Plates Plant in Pitts burg. The Cambra Steel Company re- duced the working time of its force. and 13,000 men suffered a reduction of wages. The, Shenango Works of the Carnegie Steel Company were closed down for several months and the Pitts burg Works of the Tin and Sheet Plate Company at New Kensington were clos ed for four months, throwing all of the workmen of both plants out of em- ployment.
 Wage Reductions in 1904. The Steel Car Forge Company at El- wood, Pa, was closed down two months resuming this year at reduction in the wages of all employees of 10 per cent. The Pennsylvania Engineering Works at New Castle, Pa., has cut the | wages of skilled labor per cent, and l of comon labor 10 per cent.
 The American Car and Foundry Com pany at Huntington. W. Va, has re- | duced by 10 per cent. the wages of 5000 | men. The National Tube Company at | Chester, Pa, has scaled the wages of all employees by from 10 to 25 per cent.
 Similar reductions have been made in the wages of the men employed in the Mckinley Furnace at New Castle, Pa, the National Malleabie Casting Com pany at Sharon. Pa., and the Aetna Iron and Tube Works in Pittsburs. All the members of Burns organization of Glass Workers in Pittsburg have suf- fered a reduction of 25 per cent. in their incomes. The employees of the All Union Sheet and Tin Plate Mills in Pittsburg have likewise had to stand reduction of 20 per cent. in their wages.
 | Many Mills Idle.
 To tell the story of the reduction of | wages through closed mills and reduced output in the year 1904 would concern almost every manufacturing plant in this district. The rod, wire and blooir- ing mills of the Carnegie Steel Company and the American Steel and Wire Com pany were shut down for three months this year. throwing 2,o00 men into idla- ! ness. All the employees of the Monon- gahela Iron and Steel Company at Rays Station and all the glass plans at AL toona and Reynoldsville. Pa. were like wise thrown out of work through the complete shutting down of the mills. The vast plant of the Steel Trust at Homestead, Pa. was very largely shut down for nearly all summer. It re. l mained for a date only four weeks prior to the Presidential election to see this plant resume its operations. Previ- ously to this date the Bessemer plant, | the thirty three inch mill. and many other departments had been entirely idle. The eighty-four inch mill has been working on a single turn. In 1 starting the mills up again the officials did not say how long they will TUT. They simply report that they have sufficient number of orders to keep them busy for some time"
 ! The Monongahela Works of the | American Sheet and Tin Plate Company and the Star Mill of the same concern, have also just been placed in commis- sion after a long shut down. The hot mill departments of the New Castle works, however are still idle, although | the report is being extensively circu- lated that they will resume operations shortly" Another Republican agency 1 Is seeing to 1t that this announcement | is circulated among the workingmen: Work on the new plant of the Mey- ersdale Sheet Steel Company is being l rushed. and the mill will open as soon as completed"
 Plant Cutting Down Running Time. On the other hand, the Edgar Thomp- son Steel Works at Braddock, Pa, are even now cutting down their running time, and will run on not more than from one third to two thirds time from now until after the election. The req son given is that the orders are not coming in, consumers waiting until the result of the election becomes known. It Is announced that the plant has or ders sufficient to run it on two-thirds time until. January 1, although no in- formation lis vouchsafed as to the pros- poets after that time.
 Simultaneously with the announce ment from England that Mir. Andrew Carnegie was coming home to work for Roosevelt. came the pronunciamento in Pittsburg that the Carnegie Steel Com pany had just started up two more open hearth furnaces at South sharon, Pa. But this did not blind those familiar with the situation to the fact that four out of the twelve furnaces at that place are still idle. Promises are made that the entire plant will be running in full by November 8, and this might affect the votes of some 2,0oo men who would get employment by that time, and who don't have 1t now.
 From Conne1lsville Pa. comes tho report that the Humbert Plant of the American Sheet and Tin Plate Company, comprising six mills. Is entirely idle, with no prospects of resumption. Like wise the Greer plant of the same com