Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1909-12-30

After comforting two days the
special committee appointed by the
conference of the foremost labor
leaders of the country, yesterday at,
the Menongahela house, returned its
report late this afternoon. The re-
port concerns the fight to be waged
by organized labor against the United
States Steel Corporation and other gi-
gantic industrial concerns. 1t reads:
|. A crisis in the affairs of labor has
arisen. TheN gigantic trust-the
United States Steel corporation-has
used and is using it's great wealth and
power. in an effort to rob the toilegs
not only of a livelihood, but of their
right of American manhood and of the
opportunity to resist it's further en-
croachments. Grown rich and power
full by the consent and good will of
the people of our country, this cor
poration in It'll mad greed and lust for
still greater riches and power sweeps
aside, makes and unmakes law, its
enactors, Interpreters and executors.
and is now engaged in an effort to
destroy the only factor-the organ1za-,
,tions of its employees standing be-
tween it and unlimited, unchecked
and unbridled Industrial, political,
social and moral carnage. If there
exists any virile power in our time
and. life to check the absolute and
autocratic dominion of civic, indus
trial and political life, our people and
our Republic it must be found in the
indomitable will and mission of the
much misunderstood and misrepre-
sented organizations of labor:
hTe United States Steel corporation
has declared war on labor. In it's Sc
cret councils this corporation has de-
creed that the only obstacle to it's
complete sway-organi labor
shall be crusehd. This soulless cor
poratiohI represents nothing but dol
lars, knowing neither body nor soul.
It's god is the. almighty dollar:
The labor organizations consist of
its employees, the workers (their
wives and little ones), human flesh
and blood. 1t is by their Ilabor that
they live They have no purpose
other than safeguarding their lives,
their character, their future, the
safety. of the republic, and humanity.
These factors now confront each
other By their purposes, attitude
and action must they be judged.
On June 1, 1909, the United States
Steel Corporation. proclaimed its de-
cree of hostility toward labor. The
right of the. workers to associate for
! their common protection was no
longer to be recognized or tolerated.
Accompanying that decree was a no.
tice of further reduction in the al
ready scant wages of the workers. The
decree went into effect July 1, 1903.
Under these circumstances, what
was left for the workers to do?
Could they be expected to calmly sub
NIT to be bound hand and foot to the
| tender mercies of this moloch of
grinding greed, this juggernaut of
modern monopoly? The mere state
ment based on common knowledge
| forbade. hTe safety of the workers,
their fellows, their dependents, the
hope for their future and the future
of all the working people, and all the
people, compelled resistance. Ehey
did resist and are resisting manfulfy.
grand1y, heroically.
This billion-dollar steel trust con
trolls more than SIXTY per cent of the
total tonnage of tie steel product of
the country According to it's re-
cent financial report, It has absorbed
at the rate of 5000 per year profit on
each. of it's employees on business Sc
cured during year of industrial de-
preston. The earnings Of thousands
of it's employees, working eleven hours
per day, amount to less than $500 per
year each, when working full time,
seven days per week, Sundays and
holidays included. The reports of the
corporation show that thzgzaaep re-
oeive inIMages 500 per year less for
their labor than the average annual
profit per man to the corporation. "
Why should the United States Steel
corporations annual average profit
yield $500 from each of it's employees,
while thousands of these workers re-
ceive less than $500 annually in
wages? Where is the justice of the
ssystem? Why should the steel cor
poration seek to still further impov-
erish the men working in it's plants?
It is engaged in the industry that has
received the greatest amount of>pro-
lection from the congress Of the
United States. through the enactment