The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1910-03-12
Poorest Paid Artisans III
Us. Make cov'ts Big Guns

| WASHINGTON. d, c., March liz
THE poorest paid skilled labor in the
country are employed in the works
Of the Bethlehem Steel Company" I
Representativ Rainey's words
startled the House of Representatives
into attention. Was it possible that
| the industrial strife raging in Penn
| sylvania was to be reflected on the
! flor of the House? Distrust and hate
| cleaned from. the eyes of the MAJOR
| 1ty. Approval and covert applause
! came from the more radical as the
! Speaker continued 4,
! They make the guns for the
army; they make the guns for the
| navy. They make armor plate for
our great men-of-war. It is claimed
that guns are made at Watervliet, in
IN the governments plant, but it is
not so. The orders for all the cast
1ngs and all the forgings for all the
guns in the navy. and practically, for
all the guns in the navy, are. diverted
by officers in charge to Midvale and
Bethlehem, and there the castings are
made by the poorest paid labor in
the country
! Like lot of school boys caugh:
stealing apples, the Cannonized Re-
pub]icans and Democrats dropped
their heads; they knew what was
coming. 1T was an attempt. through
an amendment offered by Hughes
OF New Jersey, to compel record
vote on the :eight-hour law" and the
facts that the speaker was relating
have been the hidden scandals Of the
| government
Rainey Flags Mann.
turning to Mann from Illinois.
| whose motion to construct some rev.
! enue cutters had been amended to
include an eight-hour workday, Rain
! ey- flayed him with a mingled stream
OF sarcasm and facts: Did Mann dare
assert that if these ships were built
IN government yards they would moi
need the "eight-hour law as the
existing law already provides for it?
Well, Mann knew that these ships
would never be built in government
yards. Parts of them would be let
TO Bethlehem, asserted the speaker,
! VINO again turned his attention to
the strike in Schwabs steel works:
NO man knows how much the
United States is losing at the present
time on account of the strike at Beth
lehem.' Not long ago, on account Of
the failure of the government ITO
furnish in time to the Cramp Ship
building company armor plate and
other apparatus which was manu.
featured by some of the private com,
| panies, the Cramp & Sons COMPANY
sustained a loss. They brought suit
against this government in the courts
n MI.
little revenue cutters that you desire
quilts it not possible that we can
built them in our government yards :?
over in Japan they build great
'Dreadnaughts' in their government
yards.
II submit that the time has come
IN this country when in our ship
yards, at least, we should have the
eight-hour day They are. doing it
IN Germany. Over there they have
established almost an UNIVERSAL eight
hour day, working men three shifts
in their factories, keeping these great
plants that cost millions of dollars.
in use for all the tWenty-four hours
in the day.
Men Driven Like Slaves.
AT Bethlehem they are not, organ
led. You cannot charge that strike
against organized labor. Up there
they are compelling the men to work
on Sunday. When a committee of
Workmen were appointed to protest
against working nine hours overtime
without time-and-a-half pay, the
committee was at once DISCHARGED bv
Charles M. Schwab, and in this way
the strike at Bethlehem commences
where today 10000 men are out of
work and government contracts are
delayed"
Stung to a reply, Fassett, whose
J working alliance with New York cor
porat1ons has made him notorious.
Jumped to his feet and demanded
that Rainey retract his accusation
against the employment of cheap
labor by Schwab. But this only
brought a reply from Rainey tina.
SchWab had an endless chain arrange
mept with Ellis Island whereby he
was able to establish the lowest rate
of wages paid in the United States
for skilled labor.
Forced to record their votes for
or against the eight-hour amendment
majority voted AYE" but imme-
dlately reversed the effect of their
ballots by tabling the measure in a
lump with three other bills.
BY this trick, like ostriches hiding
their heads in the sand, the corpora
ton representatives in the House
! fhnl1phf fa