The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1919-11-06
DRIVE WOLF FROM DOOR
OF POOR STEEL WORKER
PRIEST DESCRIBES HIS DEPLoR.
ABLE coNDITIoN-HIs LIv.
ING WAGE SCALE.

ing nlgner wages than they ever eS
pected to get, whose pay has gone u
ITO per cent in the same length {
time that living costs have risen 8
per cent, who have been as happy an
contented as 1t is the lot of human
~ be; but who by false teachings ly
ing generalities, appeals to class ha
tired and absurd promises of futur
rewards are being persuaded to strik
for the good Of the cause by men VIII
In most cases do not know a nue.
bar from an I-beam.'
In the foregoing words the pastor o
Catholic church on the south side
Pittsburg, deplored the work of tn,
agitators sent into the steel mill dis
tricts to induce walkout among tn,
alien workers, says the New Yorl
Sun. The priest in his many year.
OF experience among mill workers ha.
seen many strikes in large and small
Industrial establishments, and knows
that in the majority of instances the
workers have lost, the results being
generally lower wage scales eventual
ly.
"The saddest part of these unjus-
titled strikes" continued the spiritual
adviser of hundreds of workers of the
Jones & Loughlin Steel company SIS
the number of innocent persons who
are made to suffer-the women and
the children. l have seen many homes
broken UP by these walloouts and I
know the distress caused. The per-
sons most affected live in a narrow
circle, with horizon not far off and
the changed conditions stun them so
that they become almost hopeless. In
the transitory period workers savings
are eaten up, their Old jobs are gone
their strike records do not make them
the most desirable applicants when
they go after new positions, the dis.
couragement that follows affects them
for long time and they receive set
backs from which they do not recover
for years.
Poor Living the Exception.
AS to the squalor and poor living
conditions complained of by Foster
and Fitzpatrick, the strike leaders,
they are THE exception rather than the
rule and can not be laid to the mems
employers, as shiftless and unambi-
tious persons, who scorn dirt, win re-
main so no matter what their envir-
onment. know, for with pleas and
threats l have done all in my power
to compel changes for the better. In
the majority of cases I have been
successful, but in my time | have been
faced with many persons who were
hopeless"
Investigation throughout the Pitts
curg district bears out the priests
words both as to wages and living
conditions and reveals also the efforts
1T betterment made by municipal au-
.horities, uplift organizations and the
companies. The United |
States Steel corporation alone has
spent 100000 in a comparatively
short time to help its workers in vari-
nut ways without considering its ex-
ensive pension system, by which the
OVAL workers are provided for in their
Id age.
John Fitzpatrick, chairman of the
ational committee for organizing the
ron and steel workers, when testify
lg on September 25 before the senate
ommittee investigating the steel
lrike, announced without any quail
cations that wages in the steel in
ustry were below the pauper line"
fitzpatrick, before he became an or d
anizer, was a horseshoer and admit I
ID to senators that he did not know
lything about steel mills.
Facts and figures Cleaned from the I
~ rolls of the steel mills in the Pitts
irg district prove that the men in
e lowest jobs are paid far above "
e "pauper" line while in the skilled '
'sitions the rewards are about three a
mes those in other trades. N
Common laborers receive As to so p
iAsS GA houi, thch DelUS !
at eight hours. For overtime they u
ceive time and a half. Therefore, u
a man works ten hours ne gets paid =
r eleven, receiving for a days pay
95 to $3.50. No men are compelled
work more than eight hours, al r.
)ugh with so much work to be done
d the shortage of labor men may 40
rk overtime If they desire to do So TO
Wages of from $S.26 to SO a day are IN
de by the men in the semi skilled w w
IS, large number of which are fill r
by persons who are foreign born.
Average of the Skilled. ag
Imong what are known as the skill az
workers in the steel mills, to which ed
itions all workers may aspire, and he
ny Of which are held by aliens, the ser
rage daily wages are: Az
et TOlleTS
ct heaters ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 112
gnerS .............................. 11.92
FL pourerS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 1884 "
sci men l4.65
ineers, manipulators etc.. 1858 10
ming mill heaters ................. 1892 dor