The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1910-03-31
OF the Steel Trust is Laid
Bare by the Ar11eri->
can Federation
OF Labor and Demand
Action by MIR. Wicker
sharn---Win the u. S.
Help Steel Slaves? !?

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government against the United States
Steel Corporations
This question is being freely asked in
Washington result of the severe in.
dictment brought by the American Fed.
Grafton of Labor against the stbillion
dollar steel trust, in which charges are
made that the trust exists in violation of
the Sherman and Wilson tariff acts, that
1t has crushed competition in transport
alton on the Great Lakes; that it has es
tablished a peonage system in it's mod
el town. (Gary, Ind.), and that it hires
thugs and bribes municipal authorities
to commit assaults on unionists who try
to organize its EMPLOYEES.
The A. f. of L., in it's statement to the
Attorney General, shows through testi-
mony given at public hearings by Geo.
w. Perkins and other officers of the cor
poration, through the opinions expressed
by Senators Bacon and Nelson, and by
articles in magazines, that it is combi.
nation in restraint of trade and com.
merce. The charter of the corporation
is also attached because it is comprehen.
sive enough g to absorb the industrial
dcLlN lIleS VI lne United States.
a broadsdie of evidence proving the
criminal character of the steel trust in its
desperate determination to throttle or.
ganization among its employees is pre-
sented by discharged employees, labor or.
ganizers, municipal officials, hall proprie.
tors, and disinterested persons.
Llewellyn Lewis, of Martins Ferry, O.,
AYERS that he and William Hilton were
seriously assaulted with clubs and knives
used by a mob lel by minor officials of
the steel trust at Vandergrift, Pa, July
9, 1909, because they had attempted to
organize the steel workers.. Lewis and
Hilton then sought refuge in Apollo, Pa,
two miles from Vandergrift, but tho
trust s agents went on their heels, and
prevented meetings from being held in
Apollo by coercing owners of halls from
renting them to the organizers.
y similar outrage was the experience
of Robert Edwards IAN organizer, who,
with Raymond Robins, of Chicago, ad:
vacant lot in Apollo, July 81, 1909. The
same evening, mob of several hundred
people, led by Oscar Lindquist, superin.
tendent of the Vandergrift mill, sur
rounded Parks Hotel at Apollo and de-
manded that the organizers be turned out
of the hotel and delivered up to them
This the proprietor refused, and Lind
quist threatened to burn down or other
Use destroy the hotel
The burgess and A. L. Hammitt, a
trust official, then entered the hotel, and
first ordered the organizers to leave, then
offered money, which was refused, and
later the burgess personally prevailed
upon the organizers to leave town next
morning, as the mob outside was getting
terribly violent. The organizers, how
ever, kept an all night vigil for their
own protection.
Because wives of steel workers attend
ed labor meetings two shearmen at the
Hyde Park mill were discharged, accord
ing to an affidavit. The Rev. C. John
8 n, of Leechburg, was threatened with
| discharge, because he had addressed a
| Ia Dor meeting, on the invitation of A.
L. Holder, A. F. of L.. organizer.
At Cambridge, O., the men employed
at the mills of the steel trust forbid
den to converse while at work and to
leave their homes when not on duty at
the mill. The latter order is for the pur-
pose of keeping them from coming in
| contact with labor organizers.
| According to an affidavit, Thomas O..
Jones organizer. assaulted in the
most public part of the main street of
Morgantown, w. Va, July IA, 1909, and
left for dead. On regaining conscious
| ness, Jones said the last man he remem-
| bered seeing before being struck was
| the chief of police. The tSabraton .
mill of the steel trust is located in Nor
| gantown.
| The United States Steel Corporation is
s@athingly arraigned for its criminal con
duct in the town of Gary. The state
| rent says:
| The company imports and holds un-
1ar SPECIES of practical peonage Slavs,
| Eungarians, Italians. Servians, Poles and
| Turks. And this class of laborers. wheth-
| er made citizens or left as foreigners, is
| herded together, in some instances as
many Is or 16 in room, bringing
with them all the degradation, filth and
lack of civilization that~are incident to