United labor bulletin., 1911-10-19
THAT "PHILANTHRoPIc-
STEEL TRUST.
Women Slave Ten Hours Day in Wire
Mill at Heart-Breakine, Soui-killins
Back-Bendng Toll.

American traditions are being shat
tered and American customs obliterated
by the trusts In the state made famous
by the Minute Men and glorified by the
struggle on Bunker Hill women are be-
ing slaughtered to provide dividends for
the corporations. Following the dread
tul revelations in the works OF the Blake
Knowles Pump company at East Cam
bridge. Mass, comes another exposure in
Worcester. Mass revealing the horrible
tact that frail women are employed in
the wire mill Of the Billion-Dollar Steel
Trust and are compelled TO perform
tasks that would shorten the lives of
strong men. This is what the Boston
American has to say about it.
Women lift as much as $500 pounds
of wire daily at the wire-making branch
at the plant OF the Billion-Dollar Steel
Trust at Worcester.
The women work at this killing labor
for 10 hours day,
They have to stand all the time.
The atmosphere in which they toll is
heavy with dust This dust is part dirt.
part metal particles. 1t imperils the
health of the women through contact
with the delicate tissues of the body
Outside of this peril the work is dan
gerous in itself. The swapping or
'hack-coiling' of wire in the spooling and
drawing rooms causes loss of fingers. or
even of an arm or leg at times
-Clergymen. physicians and others
condemn this terrible employment of
women in the Worcester Wire Works.
The women say; 1t is fearful. But one
must live
Here is a brief quotation from one
woman's own description of her work.
This is what l do. work in the spool
room where the wire is wound from a
can to a spool These spools weigh 10
pounds each l average 26o spools
day | have to lift these speels twice
each and carry them from one end of
the room to the other. You can figure
out how much lifting | have TO do
Worcester is the second city in
Massachusetts. II boasts itself as the
Heart of the Commonwealth. Its man
ufactured goods go to all parts of the
world.
THE biggest manufacturing plant in
Worcester is that of the American Steel
and Wire company. This is one of the
subsidiary corporations of the United
States Steel Corporation.
In the North works are women,
widows and mothers. many of them who
spend 10 hours a day in heart-breaking.
soul-killing hack-hending toll They toll
and toll without hope. They labor while
they last Then so to their miserable
homes to rest Sometimes they return
to the wire works to take up the burden
of life again Sometimes they do not
return. Others fill their places,
Worcester Is one of the cities that the
exponents of the open shop claim as
their own. They have boasted that they
have killed of the forces of organized
labor. and introduced class of free
and independent workmen. The steel
trust is also an exponent of the open
shop and employees only free and indie
pendent workmen. The above terrible
Indictment. not from organized labor,
but from an independent source, shows
conclusively the necessity for the organ
ization of the workers IL they would pre-
serve American traditions and the spirit
OF American justice.
Trades unionism still lives in Wor-
cester and it will yet purge the city, and
save the workers from thralldom-