The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1909-03-02
STEEL TRUST TO CUT
WAGES OF 100000
Decision to Do So Follows Re.
ductica in Corporations Prices.
ABOUT 100000 AFFECTED
Effort to Be Made to ForestaH a Gil
gantic Strike-Workers Who
Quit Forfeit Rights Under Prof
it-Sharing Plan.

New York City.-That the wages
of 100000 employees of the United
States Steel Corporation will be cut
on or about April 1 was the unequivo-
cal statement made to-day by man
who has intimate sources Of informa-
ton.
The decision to reduce wages at
this early date was reached within
the past few days at one of the daily
conferences of the Steel magnates.
Meantime every effort will be made
to conciliate the men who will suffer
by the wage cut and thus forestall
what would be one of the greatest
strikes that has ever affected Ameri-
can industries.
Wages will be cut by the Steel
Trust as result of the reduction an
nounced in prices of steel products.
Decision to reduce wages was
reached after consultation with en-
ployes. Since the profit-sharing plan
went into effect four years ago most
of the employees have dropped out of
the unions, and less than twenty per
cent. of the men are members of
labor organizations. But even the
union men will accept cut in wages,
it is said, in order to get steady work.
There has been no thought of resist
ance to the cut. Strikes are out of
the question in the trust mills be-
cause any man who quits work with
out permission of the trust forfeits
his rights under the profit-sharing
plan.
Wages of skilled men who work on
cd mil he
automatically by the cut in prices
Over two hundred thousand men
are employed by the trust when bust
ness is at full swing, so that, count
ing all the members of families, about
a million persons are affected by the
decision.
1t is hoped that it will not be neces-
sary to cut wages all along the line.
For instance, the price of steel rails
($28 a tom will not be changed, con-
sequently it is possible that the men
employed in the mills where steel
rails are made will not suffer cut in
wages. This undoubtedly would
raise howl among the workers in
other mills whose output was affected
by the cut in prices and whose wages
were therefore reduced.
These matters will all be gone into
at great length and there will be
many conferences with labor leaders
and committees appointed by the
workers in the various mills. Just
how many of the steel workers are
organized is unknown, even to the
Steel magnates themselves.
Steel workers have been pretty
generally regarded since the last big
strike, eight years ago, as contented
lot of men. Generally, their wages
were pretty high, and as great body
of toilers they were prosperous. Then
their work was steady and depend
able.
If it can be shown to them now
that their wage reduction will be
only temporary, and that it will be
a comparatively insignificant reduc-
ton after all, it Is likely that strike
will be averted. The very possibility
of one, however, has shaken the
financial world, knocked the props
out from under the stock market and
caused a great furry on the ex-
changes abroad. This fact alone re-
veals how really strenuous is the sit
uation
Furthermore. in view of the pres
ent crisis, the labor leaders are get
ting busy to solidify the entire body
of men into an organization that can
lift a powerful voice of protest
against reduction of wages.