The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1910-09-09
SLAVERY AT BETHLEHEM.
Mon Required to Toll Eighty four
Hours a Week.

Men Required to Toll Eighty four
Hours a Week.
Out of every 100 men 30 work seven
days every week. 43. including these
20, work some Sundays in the month.
81 work twelve hours day. % work
twelve hours day seven days a week
and 46 earn less than So day.
These are the grim figures which the
United States bureau of labor gives us
of the working shifts of the Bethle-
hem Steel company as drawn from the
company's own books, says the Sur.
vey. They are not figures which would
man, say Of Lincoln's intelligence,
much assurance as to what civilization
or prosperity are to mean for the PEG.
pie of the United States Of America.
The pay is that Of single men. the
hours are those Of dodgers rather than
of fathers and husbands who can par.
ticipate in household living; the week.
~ schedule is that of work engross.
ed citizenship, which must leave to the
leeching and loafing elements in the
community the responsibility for car
rying on town and county and state.
These were the conditions we are
told which provoked the strike at the
Bethlehem works which started Feb.
4. The men with shorter hours, high
er pay and more intelligence claim
that they feared that the encroach-
ments Of overtime and Sunday work
were leading to twelve hour and sew
en- day schedule for the whole force.
therefore they protested, therefore the
protesting committee was discharged.
therefore the strike. There is evil
dence, then, not only of bad working
conditions, but Of despotic repression
at the bottom Of the Bethlehem situa-
tion
The governments inquiry, begun by
direction Of Secretary Nagel March II.
was made by Ethelbert Stewart, spe-
cial agent of the bureau Of labor, one
Of the most experienced economic in
vestigators in the country, whose find
ings will carry conviction.
The part of the report dealing with
wages, taken from the January pay
roll. shows that large percentage of
the laborers working twelve hours a
day seven days a week earned only
1871 cents an hour. This is cents an
hour lower than that paid by the steel
corporation mills in Pittsburg and low
er even than by Jones & Laughlin. the
chief independent competitor in the
Pittsburg district. Those working for
IL cents and under IA cents in January
numbered 2,64O, or 2S7 per cent of the
total number on the payroll, while
1928. or 1866 per cent. received II cents
but under 16 cents an hour. The total
number shown as receiving less than
16 cents an hour mot including appren-
tices) numbered 1921. or As per cent of
the total number ON the payroll. while
1888, or $50 per cent, received less
than IS cents an hour.
Commenting on the report. Commits
sioner Neill said: These are condi-
tons of labor which may be termed
shocking, but they are not confined to
the Bethlehem Steel works. Blast fur
mace work is necessarily a continuous
process. requiring operation twenty
four hours of the day every day of the
week, and for this reason three shifts
of eight hours each offer the only plan
of relief. Three shifts of workers
would not only give reasonable work
ing hours to those employed. but would
by rotation of shifts leave workers free
the greater part of the day two Sun
days in three