The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-30
U. S. STEEL. ii YEARS OLD
 IS A GIANT OF TRUSTS

Among the great combinations of capital that are the outgrowths of is the United States Steel Corporation which is now under government fire. The "steel trust,' as it is commonly called, is eleven years old tomorrow, having been launched March 31, 1901. Besides being the greatest trust in the world, it is also the largest employer of labor among privately owned cor porations. During the first decade of it's existence the corporation transact ed business amounting to $5,S13, 243, ,724 certainly a staggering array of fig ures. Its net earnings were $1, 2O2, 214,- 515, of which a total of $654, ,00O, 900 was paid out to holders of it's securities in the form of interest and dividends. The balance for each year, after charges and before the deduction of dividends. has averaged over 20 per cent so that the corporation piles up in profits every five years an amount of money equal to its tremendous capitalization. The stockholders Of the corporation num- Der about 150,C0O of whom about 25,- GOO are employees. The average of the wages paid it's workers by the cor poraton is about s15 week. As this average includes many men receiving considerable salaries. there are neces- sarily many workingmen on the pay rolls who get much less.
 Although it has been declared that relations between capital and labor are nowhere so harmonious as in the Steel Corporation" there are two sides to the question. A recent report of United Mine Workers of America into the living conditions of Steel Trust workingmen gives the darker side of the picture. It says, in part:
 '"The protected American steel workers family live in two rooms in the garret of "a frame shanty. They cook and wash and eat in one room, sleep in the other. There is mo water in the house nor any sanitary con- venience. One of the boarding houses visited in South Bethlehem School AL ley discovered boarders (eight of them, out of work on account of the mills running half time) living with fam fly of five in a six-rOom tenement. Such food as described and the priv ilege of sleeping two to four in a bed in an overcrowded, unventilated room cost the steel laborer $15 to S16 month. In another section 100 fami- lies are packed in one brick building of two stories and a basement, with a stable in the cellar contributing to the unhealthful odors.''
 Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, the be- ginning of Holy Week, during which the most impressive symbolism of the
  ful throughout the Catholic world. Palm Sunday is characterized in the Roman Catholic communion by striking ceremonial, in which branch es of palm and olive, symbolic of victory over the prince of death" and 'the coming of spiritual junction." are blessed and distributed among the clergy and laity. This is followed by a procession, after which mass is said, palms being held in the hands of all during the singing of the Passion and Gospel. It is recorded that the feast of palms was observed, at least in the East, as early as the fifth century but the earliest mention of Palm Sunday procession dates from the tenth century. With the close of Palm Sunday begins the mourning of the church, and the faithful are grad ually prepared for the closing tragedy of Good Friday
 At sundown tonight the Jewish hol- iday, the Fast of the First Born, be- gins and continues through tomorrow. To-day is the birthday anniversary of Andrew Lang, English man of let ters, in 18AA; of Descartes, the great French philosopher, in 1596, and of King Frederick V. of Denmark. in