Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-08-24
TRUSTS AND LABOR
WHEREIN ARE THE "BLEssINGs"
OF PROTECTloN2
Schwab's Evidence Before Congress
sional Committee Shows That Policy
Only Serves to Swell the Profits
of the Corporations.

OF the Corporations.
Recently Mr.. Charles M. Schwab,
'ormer president of the steel trust, ap-
peared before the committee of con
gress to testify as to the blessings Of
4 protective tariff. There vas a fine
stroke of humor in his opening dec
aration that the trust of which he
claims the original conception vas
organized to develop the steel indus
try of America, not at all to maintain
prices and restrict competition. While
not caring to argue the tariff, he
could not for the life of him see the
disadvantage to America from liberal
protection"
Andrew Carnegie, the patron of Mr..
Schwab, has testified that there is no
longer need of a protective tariff for
the steel industries of this country.
At the same time Judge E. H. Gary
testified that, while the steel corpora
ton needs no protection, he feared
that the independent companies could
not do without a tariff. Not so Mr..
Schwab. The tariff evidently cannot
be too high for him. Selfshness and
greed ooze out of every pore. He
does not think that under the benign
influence Of the tariff $2S a ton is
enough for steel rails, having never
sold them for less than $50 a ton
since he became president Of the
Bethlehem company. Yet he has
sworn that rails could be produced In
this country more cheaply than any
where in the world, and the trust sells
them in foreign lands at much less
than $2S a ton. 1t is only in this coun-
try that, under cover of the tariff,
such a price can be extorted from the
railroads and levied in turn by the
railroads upon the public.
Reverting to his tariff ideas, Mr..
Schwab cited the examples of Ger
many, France and other countries lex
cept England" in preventing foreign
competition. The exception is worth
all the rest. England, thanks to free
trade, is foremost of the nations of
Europe In commerce and industries.
There was no need for Mr.. Schwab
to tell why the steel trust was organ
lied. Its object was to make multi
millionaires out of ~millionaires, and to
that everything else was subordinated.
When asked as to the conditions of
labor Mr.. Schwab had the daring to
assert that the $4,000 or 10000 en-
ployes of the Bethlehem works re-
ceive an average of $1,000 a year.
The strike In the works last year was
to obtain a far lower rate of wages
than that. The truth Is that the con-
ditions of labor In the steel trust are
a disgrace to the monopoly and a re-
proach to the country that tolerates
1t. Investigation has shown that the
great majority Of the employees earn
scarcely $1,000 a week, working seven
days and twelve hours a day. Hardly
two per cent. of all Of them secure
more than $40 a week. 1t Is only by
constant recruits by immigration from
eastern and southern Europe that the
labor force in the mills is maintained.
Such is the protection that the tariff
gives to labor in the most highly pro-
tected combination of capital In this
or any other land. Yet the Payne
Aldrich tariff, which puts a prohibit
tory duty Of As per cent. on building
materials of steel, is not quite 'llb-
eral" enough for Charles M. Schwab,
president of the Bethlehem company.
There was a time, not very remote,
when his testimony in behalf of the
tariff would have been complacently
received by a committee of congress,
but that time has gone.