Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1913-01-16
Bakers Union
Fights Trust

te"So Ill, Jan. Ib.-1ihrep bakery
concerns are now in control of nearly
oV per cent OF the rations bread SIM
ply is the startling charge made bv
the coming Nation, the biggest of the
progressive weekly magazines in the
united States, in the first of a series
OF articles appearing in it's current
issue on Saving the Nations Bread
written by j.. l.. Engdahl.
'Ihese three concerns are the Ward
Bread Company, the General Baking
company and the Shuts Bread Com
pany, capitalized at over $4,000, 900.
IL is declared that the Ward Bread
company has had the support of big.
nnaneiers,t who made most of their
money IN the steel trust, in establish
ing ITS big bread factories in New
1orK CITY; Boston, Mass; Providence,
n. =; flttsDurgh, Pa; Cleveland. o.,
! and Chicago.
1t is pointed out that the late John
w. Gates was instrumental in huild-
ing up the General Baking Company
py amalgamating thirty of the biggest
pakerles IN the nation in the principal
cities from the Atlantic coast to the
mississippi river. The Shuts Bread
company is an amalgamation of near
and around New York City.
"lna the present stage of bread frnst
development the General Baking Com
pany and the Shuts Bread COMPANY
are but waiting for the proper time
to be definitely and conveniently alb
sorbed by the War concern" declares
| the article in the Coming Nation.
THAT the Ward company has it's in
tentions also fixed on the cracker in
dustry is cleaned from, the fact that
it has provided in it's new $4,000, 900
| plants in New York city for the maxi
ing of cakes and crackers as well as
bread"
1t is shown that 80 per cent of the
cracker industry today is controlled
by the National Biscuit Company and
the Federal Biscuit Company.
ssThe dominating position in store
for the Ward Bread Company as the
chief factor in the growing bread
trust may be judged by some of its
| other activities" continues the Com
ing Nation article. 1T is not alone
interested in the final making Of
bread. 1t is seeking an interest in
some of the leading flour mills of the
land. The Ward Bread Company has
Fits own yeast plant, it is interested in
shops that build bakery machinery, it
is in the advertising business because
1t conducts huge publicity campaigns,
it us in the motor vehicle business
because it finds that it is cheaper to
make its own bakery auto trucks than
to buy them from others; in fact, it
is interested, or it is becoming inter-
ested, in every activity that leads up
to the making, and is concerned with
the distribution of bread"
The bread trust is one of the few
trusts. that has never been muck
raked" in the magazines, that has
never been investigated" by Congress
prosecuted" by the federal Depart
ment of Justice or dissolved" by the
United States Supreme Court.
The only power that is fighting this
combine oday is the Bakers Union
with 10000 members working in the
bakeries of the nation. The Bakers
Union is in death struggle with the
bread combine to enforce union con-
ditions in the bread industry and to
prevent it's own extermiation in the
bakeries afer the manner of the GUST
ing of the organizations of the steel
workers from the mills of the steel
trust.
In it's fight to .unionize the bread
industry, points out the Coming Ma
ton, the International Bakers Union
has organized Anti-Bread Trust Con-
ferences in four large centers through
out the country, and letters have just
been sent out by Thomas F. Tracy,
secretary7treasurer of the, Unitedl La.
bel Trades Department Of the AIneri- e
can Federation of Labor, to the 25, 900.
local unions of the federation, urging
them to become active in the struggle
for the unionfzation of the American
| bread supply
The, Coming Nation announces that
later articles will tell of the massing
of power both on the part of the bread
trust and the Bakers Union, how the
struggle has progressed up to the
present time and where it is~leading
J to.