The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-09-11
SLAVERY At bEIhLEHEM.
Men Required to Toll Eighty -fou
Hours Wsck

ssSSSS SsSSNs
Out Of every 100 men 70 work seven
days every week. AZ. including thes.'
%. work some Sundays in the monta.
81 work twelve hours day. % work
twelve hours day seven days a wees
and AZ 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
help enact high tariff or would give
man. say of I.iEcoln's intelligence.
much assurance as to what civilization
or prosperity are to mean for the peo
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
ly schedule Is that Of Il work engrosS-
ed citizenship. which must leave to the
leeching and loating elements in the
community the responsibility for car
rying on town and county and state.
Theae We're 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- dag 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 despot;c repression
at the bottom of the Bethlehem situa-
ton.
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
tngs 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 Il week .earned only
1917 cents an hour. This is cents an
hour lower than that paid by the steel
corporation mills in Pittsburg and low.
err even than by Jones 4 Laughlin. the
chief Independent competitor in the
Pittsburg district. Those working for
IL cents and under IA cents in January
numbered 2.G4O. or 2S.7 per cent of the
total number on the payroll. while
1.52S, or 1856 per cent. received IA cents
but under 1G cents an hour. The total
number shown rs receiving less than
16 cents an hour mot including appren-
ticesD numbered 4 POI. or 46 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
lions 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