The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1912-10-24
LARoR SHOULD gE wARMgp.

are really interested in the welfare OF
labor should carefully consider before
; they give their support to the third
term candidate. The third term plat
form proposes as a solution OF the
trust problem the establishment OF
private monopoly under feleral con
troll or regulation. This is the sug-
gestion Of Judge Geary, the head Of
the steel trust 1t is plan that finds
favor with the trust magnates gen
orally
While there is much in the platform
about social and industrial justice
there is not line proposing to guar
antee to labor the right to organize.
This is significant in view of the fact
that the third term campaign is fin-
anced principally by stockholders Of
the steel trust he steel trust is an
linyeterate enemy Of organized labor
AS long ago as 1901 partner of
George w. Perkins in the firm of j. p.
Morgan & Company offered a resolu-
Ltion which was adopted by the execu-
tive committee of the United States
Steel Corporation declaring: THAT
we are unalterably opposed to any ex-
tension of union labor an dadvise sub
sidiary companies to take firm posi-
tion when these questions come up
and say that they are not going to
recognize it, that is, any extension of
union in mills where they do not now
exist"
| There is practically no union in the
steel mills today Where efforts to
extend the union have resulted in
strikes, skilled American labor has
been supplanted by cheap foreign la
|bor. The United States Commissioner
of Labor in report on the conditions
in the steel industry reports that dur
ling May. 1910, $4,000 persons worked
seven days per week twelve hours a
tday, or eighty-four hours a week. with
the hardships of the twelve-hour sew
en-day week increased by the fact
| that every two weeks, when employees
on the day shift are transferred to the
night shift. and vice versa, employees
lremain on duty without relief eighteen
to twenty-four hours
The associated charities of Pitts
burg estimates $4,000 year as the
minimum requirement for a man with
a wife and three children If the ay-
erage steel trust employee worked
twelve hours day for S65 days in the
year he would have just $3.50 short of
this minimum amount. The actual
! average earning is $4,000 year
which is less than the earning in any
other trade investigated by the Fed
eral Commissioner of Labor. The
average income of male heads of
families among iron and steel workers
is only $4,000 In no other trade in
vestigated is it so law with the single
exception of the wool industry
| If Mr. Perkins, who is chairman of
the finance committee of the steel
trust and the harvester trust, and a
large stockholder in both. if Mr.. Hanna
OF Cleveland. Mr. Massey Of New York
and Mr. Finn of Pittsburg-al of
them largely interested in United
States steel, are really so much con-
cerned for the great cause of social
land industrial justice they do not need
Ito wait for the uncertainty of a po-
ilitical campaign 1t is not necessary
for them to have a political party to
i control the government, to compel
themselves to do Justice to their ems
ployees They have the power to put
an end to night work by women and
children in the twine mills of the har-
yester trust and TO stop the grinding
oppression of a twelve-hour seven-day
lweek for starvation wage in the iron
and steel industry Perkins, Hanna,
Finn and Munsey are not contributing
their hundreds of thousands to relieve
their oppressed employees when there
is much simpler and more direct way
for them to accomplish social and In
dustrial justice. They are financing
the third term party for quite diff
ferent purpose. They are financing
Iit because it stands for legalized pri-
yate monopoly and because they want
a party they can rely upon to serve
their interests which will at the same
time temper the opposition to their
crimes with false pretenses to the
IAictims OF their injustice
"ARE MARTIN" ON THE BULL