The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1909-07-22
MERE INDUSTRIAL GREED

American skilled workmen and
high grade laborers are justly indig-
nant at the action of the car COM
panies in their method of producing
their new line of steel cars, and hav-
ing the work done by foreign labor,
which makes no effort to live in. the
same class as the American. This
u one of the resultant features of
the present strike at Pittsburg, and
It is not to be wondered at much that
the American files this kind of a pro-
test against his discrimination. How
over, 1t seems to be in line with
these companies to employ q few high
class mechanics and have the rough
work done by the cheaper laboring
class. which Is brought into this coun-
try under the circumstances 1t would
seem that 1t would not be wholly inn
proper to place something Of an en-
barge on the importation Of the real
" cheap labor to compete against the
work Of the American citizen, who
lives q higher life and does more for
the upbuilding Of the American in
stitutions. IN commenting on the
strike feature at Pittsburg, the st.
Louis Republic says:
THE pressed steel freight car car
ries 10 tons and is higher in pro-
portion its load than an car hereto
fore designed. 1t mas a steel body,
steel wheels and steel trucks. 1t is
part of the material triumph of Amer
lean civilization. Thousands of ex-
cellent examples OF it are turned out
yearly from the great plant at Nc
KEGS Rocks, near Pittsburg. Much
OF the work is done by foreigners
from southern Europe. They know
nothing of American Institutions;
they speak little English; they are
herded In shacks at which a we'll
scared-for horse would look askance;
they work at work which requires
the minimum Of intelligence. The
brains Of the plant is concentrated in
II small force OF highly trained tech
meal men and overseers. The rest
~ = matter only of passive obedience
10 brute strength. But the system
makes cheap steel.
The wage question that precipi-
tated the strike is the least import
ant phase Sc this awful occurrence.
Wemay safely ignore 1t for the CON
siderafion Of graver things. The
truth is that we, a Americans. have
largely ignored the human side of
Industrial progress. We have gloat-
ed over the figures of steel produc-
stion and have had our magazines
filled with illustrations of Bessemer
~converters. continuous mills and
open-hearth furnaces. One machine
have forgotten-the man, igno-
rant and unsklled and insignificant,
Who nils in certain gaps in the cycle
OF automatic processes. And while
We reveled In statistics and in engi-
neering detail, there have been built
NJ communities which are not Amer
s1an-are not even civilized-in the
heart OF the manufacturing regions
sOfSthe United States.
WaDes iare, q We have said. tie
least part of Ct: Tor they are 30.
Snuek better than the wages OF Po-
Hand and Russia and Italy and Ser
via that the Immigrants have kept
coming. The grave things are the
brutality. the lack Of contact between
tho man before the furnace and the
spirit and life OF the nation whose
ward he 8. Nov comes the explos-
lon. but It 9 mot a accident. It has
m been prepared. A few men did
the work-actively. They brought
these men over. rented the ground on
which their shacks are built. bar
gained with the padrones, organ
i~xed"--these we're not the same ones
the foreigners. gave them union
cards. taught them their rights"
But no one-employer. organizer"
sttel buyer, ultimate consumer-
cared what happened in smoky Pen
3nsylvania so long as the work was
done, the union dues came in regu-
3larly and wages were maintained and
steel could be made cheaply.
The neglect OF a man is an awful
thin. No matter how well paid by
the employer and Organized" by the
labor leader, Il his manhood is moth
ing and he Is permitted to live on q
foreign subsistence in the social organ
lam which includes him. the machine
viii 8 at some hour to act me-
Ichanically. Look at McKees Rocks