Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1911-11-02
''Philanthrophic''
Steel Trust
Women Slave Ten Hours a Day in
Wire Mill at Heart Hreaking,
STORYTELLING 6acI<-Bending
Toll

%
Washington, Oct. q.Ameriean
traditions are being shattered and
American customs obliterated by the
trusts. In the state made famous by
the Minute Men and glorifed by the
struggle on Bunker Hill, women are
being slaughtered to provide divi-
dends for the corporations. Following
the dreadful revelations in the works
of the Blake-Knowles Pump Company
at East Cambridge, Mass, comes an
other exposure in Worcester, Mass,
revealing the horrible fact that rrA,
women are employed in the wire m,
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 Ameri-
can has to say about it:
women lift as much as $500
pounds Of wire daily at the wire max
ing branch at the plant of the Billion
Dollar Steel Trust at Worcester.
1.-The women work at this killing
labor for ten hours day.
f"They have to stand all the time
seThe atmosphere in which they toll
IS heavy with dust. This dust is par
sirt, part metal particles. 1t imperih
-he health of the women through COB
-act with the delicate tissues of TIT
nody.
Outside Of this peril the work II
dangerous in itself. The Swapping
or 'back-coiling' Of wire in the spool
ing 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: tt is fearful But
one must live
.'Here is brief quotation from one
woman's own, description of her work:
This is what I do. ! work in the
spoil room where the wire is wound
from can to spool. These spools.
weigh ten pounds each. / average 260
spools day. I have to lift these
spools twice each and carry them from
one end Of the room to the other.
You can figure out how much lifting
I have to do
worcester is the second city in
Massachusetts,. It boasts itself as the
Heart of the Commonwealth It's
manufactured goods go to all parts of
I the world.
'aThe 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.
s.In the North Works are women,
widows and mothers, many of them,
who spend ten hours a day in heart
breaking, soul-killing, back-bending
toll. They toll and toll without hope.
They labor while they last. Then go
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
1.-The opponents Of the "open shop
3elaim as their own. They have boast
led that they have killed off the forces
LOT organized labor, and introduced a
lclass Of "free and Independent. work
j men," The steel trust is also an ex7
fponent Of the "open shop" and en-
Iploys only free and Independent work
linen. The above terrible indictment,
mot from organized labor, but from an
independent source, shows conclusive
.lly the necessity for the organization
lof the workers If they would preserve
| American traditions and the spirit Of
\ american jstice.
| Trades unionism still lives in Wor-
Icester and it will yet purge the city,
and save the workers from thraldom.