The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1918-03-16
END HEARINGS IN CHICAGO
d. d. .ST0CKYARDS CONTROVERSY
Deplah|e Conditions Are Revealed Among the abores in Chi
= cago 'jung|es@ Who Help MonopoIsts Accumulate
Enormous Fortunes
-C4IICAGosMsrch 14.-1After hear

f. -CHICAGo;SMaroh 1x~r.After hear
ing the testimony Of witnesses on both
sides for several weeks, Judge AL
>schuler. arbitrator in the controversy
between the big Five" packers and
their employees, has taken the matter
under consideration, and it is expected
that g decision will not be rendered
for sereral weeks.
! The workers demanded an eight
! hour day, a dollar a day increase in
wages, time and a half for overtime
and double time for Sunday and holi-
day work.
There were other demands cover
ing the adjustment of grievances, pro-
lection of workers against discrim-
! ination on account Of union activities,
etc. Most Of these did not go to ar
bitration. The packers in an effort
to stem the tide of public indignation
that was rising about them, granted
the minor demands.
For thirteen years the packers have
| ruled these workers as no Russian
autocrat ever dared to rule the work.
| ers Of Russia. This power is now
slipping out of their hands. They
accounted it the better part of valor
to relinquish some of it without
fight, hoping thereby to appear not so
bad as they were about to be painted
by the gruesome record of their profit
! squeezing methods.
| The investigation revealed a con-
! dition Of poverty and misery among
the stockyard workers that is most
appalling. Mothers of five and six
children testified that they were COM
PEELED to lock their children up in
their grir,y rooms and enter the pack
ing houses as workers in order to help
their husbands earn food for their
families. And the startling fact was
revealed that the combined wages of
father and mother was not sufficient
to buy enough food to keep the chill
dren from going to bed hungry.
Mrs. Josephine Sula told the arbi-
| traitor through an Interpreter that her
! six children had often went to bed
! hungry, after being huddled together
| around a cold stove all day, caring
| for themselves as best they might,
while she and her husband were help
| ing to make the twenty million dollars
! that Mr.. Armour "earned' in 1917.
/ She said she does not own hat and
! has not bought one during the eleven
! years she is in this country. She
owned one in the old country, but
since she and her husband worked
| for the packers she couldn't af-
| ford to buy one. When asked by
| Frank P. Walsh if she would like to
! have one, she said she would rather
have food for her children. She said
she never had wooden underwear for
hoY ~ no
| les, never visited the public parks or
| of Abraham Liucoln, the emancipation
of slaves.
| Low Wages and Brutality Rule.
! Other witnesses gave similar testi-
mony, all revealing the appalling con-
ditions Of servitude that have pre-
vailed in the stockyards since the
destruction of the union in 1898.
! John Kilkulski, organizer of the
/ American Federation of Labor, made
an impassioned plea for the stock
| yard slaves. He said: II want to
| protest against the clubbing and beat
| ing of the laborers at the hands of
| the guards and watchmen if they hap
pen to be a little late in falling in
| line," he said. II wish to protest
| against the use of vile epithets by
these men to foreigners lured here by
! INSCRIPTIONS agents, and who left the
! old country to escape the oppression
Of autocratic governments.
The Rev. Grudsinski, a polish Cath
Ole priest, told of the poverty "back
| of the yards and Of his efforts in be-
| half of the poor. He told of the many
children who have to go to the county
agent to get shoes, thus revealing the
dep1orable condition wherein the tax
| payers were contributing to the sup
port of the employees of the big
| packers.
); What 1t Costs to Live.
{ A budget covering the bare needs
of a family of five was introduced by
| the workers. According to this bud
get the cost of keeping a family of
that size is $1,28S.S4. The present
! income Of the vast majority of the
stockyard workers, if they work ten
hours every one of the 800 working
days, is $825.50. Thus the stockyard
laborers. getting 27k cents an hour
are receiving $463.34 less than enough
to exist. And expert witnesses, work.
ing mems wives, testified that this
budget of $1,2S8.84 is. too low. They
took the items up singly and showed
that in a number Of them the amount
! allowed was too small.
Miss Neinbery, an expert statisti-
tan from Washington, presented
budgets obtained from the Bureau Of
Labor statistics and others sources.
| Her figures showed that the minimum
amount on which family could live
at $1,000 to $1,70O a. veal. She showed
that the most necessary food mater
ials had increased 80 to 102 per cent
since 1910. She quoted the New York
! Health department as saying that a
man must have at least $1,000 year
to support wife and three children
in health. ,..> -.
| In the face of all this testimony
the packers, through their hireling
attorneys, superintendent, and "wel-
fare workers fought. bitterly against
any lettering Of the conditions of their
| workers.
! Cost OF Pound of Meat
! The following figures, showing the
wages per pound of meat and the
profits the packers make on each
Epound, of meat, are extremely inter-
esting. They show how little raise
in wages for the poor enslaved stock