El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1916-01-28
LABOR IN STEEL
PLANTS SUFFERS
Government Report Says
Many Men Earn on an
Averge of 5000 Year.

Washington. D. {. Jan. 26.-Start-
ling facts about labor conditions in
the steel industry throughout the
country are presented in a report on
the Youngstown strike in its bearing
in the general situation. which has
been made public by the committee on
Industrial relations. The report is
written by Basil NJ. Manly, director Of
the commission
THE discomfort in the industrial
hell-holes known as the steel towns
Of Pennsylvania. Illinois. Indiana. New
York, Maryland, Alabama. Colorado.
West Virginia and southern Ohio, is
more bitter and has a deeper seated
basis than in the plants of the YOunss-
town Sheet and Tube company. where
the overlOrdism and exploitation Of the
steel workers had been at least salved
with profit-sharing. accident pre-
ventiOn and compensation, and a meas
ure Of so called welfare work., says
the report
Armed. Brutal Bosses.
There We're armed guards and
brutal bosses in Youngstown, but less
conspicuous and insOlent than in the
steel towns OF Pennsylvania, West Vir-
glnia and Colorado The steel work
ers' villages in the outskirts of
Y Youngstown Were Sickening exhibits
Of squalOr and filth, but such is the
typical condition of steel towns
throughout the country. The mills
were irregular in opera ton and I'M
employment was frequent and dis
tressing, but even so, the Youngstown
mills had the reputation of low costs.
big sales and steadier operations than
other districts less favOrably located
''Tha entire steel industry north.
south, east and west. is ripe for a
strike, and the situation Is not going
TO be relieved by the granting Of a
10 percent wage increase The strike
fever in the steel industry showed it.
self first in the NOung stOwn district.
apparently because the labor demand
was little keener than elsewhere
Average Annual Wage $500.
The investigation by the bureau OF
labor in 1910 covering all the steer
plants in the United States showed
that Go percent Of all employees in the
industry when working full time earn
less than SIS a week, and that in the I
year Of steadiesI operation the indus
try had ever known. only SO percent |
of the employees, including even the l
high paid rollers and petty bosses. had !
$500 per year, If they worked every
day the mills operated. This in spite !
Of the fact that all Investigations have |
shown that the very least a family can !
live upon with any degree OF decency 4
is soc a year
Organization Suppressed.
why have such conditions con- /
tinued in so rich an industry The |
answer IS that the corporations, OF /
which less than six produce 20 per- J
cent of the steel manufa ctured in the }
country, are not only highly organized. |
but possess a complete agreement and /
OH matters of labor i
policy, while the workers are not only
but through a system OF /
espionage and terrorism
more complete than that of the Colo
RADIO Fuel ana Iron company. every at
tempt at organization or even cOllec- /
tive action is brutally stamped out 1
and the leaders black1lsted. Orga- ]
nizers sent into the steel towns have !
been assaulted. meetings broken up
by the cOmpany-s guards and police (
and the threat OF discharge and starYa-
ton welded over every man suspected
Of sympathy with ideas of organiZa-
ton"