United labor bulletin., 1910-01-14
LABOR AND THE STEEL TRUST.
Pittsburg, Pa, Dec. IA

Pittsburg, Pa, Dec. IA, 1903.
To All Organized Labor and Friends,
Greeting:
A crisis in the affairs of labor has
arisen. The gigantic trust, the United
is using its great wealth and power in an
effort to rob the toilers, not only of
livelihood, but of their rights of Ameri-
can manhood and of the opportunity to
resist its further encroachments. Grown
rich and powerful by the consent and
good will of the people of our country.
this corporation in its mad greed and
lust for still greater riches and power
sweeps aside, makes and unmakes laws,
its enactors, interpreters, and executors
and is now engaged in an effort to de-
stroy the only factor-the organizations
of its employes-standing between it and
unlimited, unchecked and unbridled in
dustrial, political, social and moral car
mage. If there exists any virile power
in our time and life to check the absolute
autocratic domination of civic. indus
trial and political life of our people and
our republic it must be found in the in
domitable will and mission of the much
izations of labor.
The United States Steel Corporation
has declared war on labor In its secret
councils this corporation has decreed that
the only obstacle to its complete sway
organized labor-shall be crushed. This
soulless corporation represents nothing
but dollars, knowing neither body nor
soul Its God is the almighty dollar.
The labor organizations consist of its
employees. the workers Ctheir wives and
little ones)-human flesh and blood. 1t
is by their labor that they live; they
have no purpose other than safeguarding
their lives. their characters. their future.
the safety of the republic. and humanity.
These factors now confront each other.
BY their purposes. attitude. and actions
must they be judged.
On June 1. 1909. the United States
Steel Corporation proclaimed its decree
of hostility toward labor. The right OF
the workers to associate for their COM
mon protection was no longer to be recog-
nized or tolerated. Accompanying that
decree was notice of a further reduc-
tion in the already scant wages Of the
workers. The decree went into effect
July l. 1909
Under these circumstances. what was
left for the workers to do? Could they
be expected to calmly submit to be bound
hand and foot to the tender mercies of
this moloch of grinding greed. this jug
gernaut of modern monopoly? The mere
statement. based on common knowledge,
forbade The safety of the workers.
their fellows, their dependents, the hope
for their future and the future of all the
working people, and all the people. COM
PEELED resistance. They did resist and
are resisting manfully. grandly, hero
ically.
This billion-dollar steel trust controls
more than 60 per cent of the total ton
mage of the steel product of the country.
According TO its recent financial report,
ii has absorbed at the rate of 5000 per
year profit on each OF its employees on
business secured during year of in
thousands Of its employees. working Il
hours per day. amount to less than $500
per year each. when working full time,
seven days per week. Sundays and holi-
days included. The reports of the cor
poration show that these men receive in
wages 500 per year less for their labor
than the average annual profit per man
to the corporation.
why should the United States Steel
Corporations annual average profit yield
5000 from each of its employees. while
thousands of these workers receive less
than $500 annually in wages? Where is
the justice of the system? Why should
the steel corporation seek to still further
impoverish the men working in its
plants? 1t is engaged in the industry
that has received the greatest amount of
protection from the congress of the
United States. through the enactment
legislation being enacted upon the theory
that American labor was to be protected
and an American standard of life main
tanned.
It is through the power of combination.
monopolizing the iron and steel industry
of the country. and while ceptralizing its
powers It proposes TO individualize its
employees. 1t arrogates to itself the right
water question. or the telepbone question. q