Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-01-06
CHARGES BY LABOR
Utter Badness of Steel Trust
Recited to President.
INDICTMENT IS SEVERE
Lawlessness, Cruelty and 'Unpatri-
otism Are Counts.
OPPRESSION OF AMERICANS"
"Tyrannical" Methods Told of in
Fourteen Generalizations-Taft
Asked for Remedy.

The American Federation of Labor to-
day carried its fight against the steel
trust to the President. Mr.. Taft took
the complaint under consideration. and
will advise with Attorney General Wick
ersham and other cabinet officers as to
the best course to pursue.
During the Roosevelt administration the
fight against the steel trust was severe
from many directions. But President
Roosevelt would never direct that the
trust be proceeded against. On the con-
trary he permitted the trust to gobble up
the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company
during the panic of two years ago.
The complaint of labor against the big
corporation was presented by President
Samuel Gompers. Secretary Frank Morri-
son, Vice President James O'Donne1I, G.
w. Perkins. E. S. Mccullough. ]. d:
Pierce. ]. w. Hays, P. j. McArdle,
Charles E. Lawyer. ]. w. Sullivan and
Arthur e. Holder, committee appointed
by the federation to present the situation
to the President.
Indictment Against Steel Trust.
The fight of labor against the corpora
ton is summed up in the following state
ment, handed to the President:
Federal authority is not impotent to
inquire, when great national trust
doing an interstate business, engaged in
governmental contracts for ordnance ana
armor plate, and recipient of govern
mental protection in the form Of ia
vorable tariff schedule-has undertaken
to directly lower the standard of living
Of more than a hundred thousand of its
own workmen, and indirectly all work
men, by the exercise of a power indie
pendent of any government and de-
structive of personal rights inherent I'M
der our government
can Illegal Combination"
1--WE charge, and invite your inspection
Of our evidence and investigation of our
charges through such governmental
agencies as you may prefer. that the
United States Steel Corporation is an il
legal combination existing in defiance of
the laws OF the land.
Its power and scope as trust have
been so often made manifest in its own
circulars to investors and in magazines
and the press. that no detailed evidence
on this point Is here deemed essential.
IF government officials will. as they
have done in the cases of the Standard
OIL Company and the tobacco trust. pre-
sent to a competent court the facts which
are public and notorious, the decision
must logically follow that the United
States Steel Corporation exists in viola
ton of the Sherman antitrust law.
ut is not to be doubted that the law
and the courts can reach this monopoly,
even if It's annual revenue is counted in
the hundreds Of millions of dollars.
Its power of wealth must not be per-
mitted to paraiyze the arm of the law.
Oppression Of Americans"
I'm this so-called great American in
dustry,' founded upon the tariff enacted
for the protection of American labor
from the competition Of the pauper la Dor
OF Europe 1T is speedily and effectually
excluding American labor, skilled and I'M
skilled, from its employment. 1t has al
most wholly eliminated from numerous
departments men who speak the English
language. 1t has again and again add
vertised that 'Syrians. Poles and Rou-
manians are preferred as its employees.
lit is accommodating hundreds of mil
prices for it's product from the American
public and enforcing an exhausting stint
of toll from it's lahorers. and by reducing
the masses of its employees to rate of
wages insufficient to provide For the
American standard of living
"It not only degrades labor by low
wages and a twelve-hOur workday. but
denies a day of rest by enforcing work
seven days In the week. as was made
clear in the revelations of the Survey.
Its products are made in reckless sac
rifice OF human life and human blood. the
shocking details of which also appear in
the survey.
1T tyranically prevents the organiza-
tion of Its workers to elevate the stand
ard of living.
1T denies the right. recognized to work
ers by law, to- form associations for the