The Mena weekly star., 1919-09-25
INDUSTRIAL WAR
 MAY TRY NATION
Writer Declares Steel Strike Brings Country Face to Face With Grave Crisis-Radical Said to Plan Cap
 ture of Democratic Convention.

Washington, Sept. 2i.Both capi- tai and labor profess to be ready to fight to the last ditch over the issue of the "closed" vs "open" shop con spicuously involved in the strike of the steel workers, which goes into eff feet at midnight tonight. The prog gress and outcome of the strike are fraught with the utmost importance not only to labor and capital, but to the American people, says Arthur Sears Henning in the Chicago Trl- bune.
 While it is renewal of the battle lost by the workers in the bloody Homestead riots 27 years ago, the strike against the United States Steel Corporation, the greatest employer of labor in the country, is regarded by many observers as the opening gun of a general union war on capital in the shadows of which the presidents con ference, which meets on October 6, will endeavor to formulate the prin- ciples of permanent industrial peace.
 If Mir. Wilson's conference fails to lay the foundation of a sound rela- tionship of capital and labor it is not doubted that industrial warfare will enter upon a more alarming stage, and that the issue will be projected into the presidential election of next year, bringing forward new candi- dates and transforming that contest completely.
 Radicals Seek Control.
 The radicals of organized labor are now reaching out for supremacy It was against the advice of the conserv- ative element that the steel strike was called at this time, in defiance of the presidents request for a tempo rary truce pending the deliberations of the White House conference.
 John Fitzpatrick, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor and the chairman of the Steel Workers Com- mittee, carried thru the radical pro- gram and is now regarded as the head of the faction that sooner or later will challenge Samuel Gompers' conseva- tive leadership of the American Fed eration of Labor
 Fitzpatrick also is active in pro- noting the movement for the forma- tion of labor party to nominate a candidate for president next year on a platform proposing to introduce soviet principles into industry and govern ment.
 May Try to Take Democratic Party.
 The miners demands for nationali- zation of the coal mines with workers shares in management is the latest manifestation of the movement which materialized first in the Plumb plan for labor control of the railroads. As a result of the encouragement given their program by President Wilson the radicals entertain high hopes oi capturing the Democratic convention next year, in default of which the for nation of labor party is certain they say.
 The 24 unions striking against the steel corporations have formulated their demands, but are ignored by the employers. On the issue of the clos. cd shop the corporation and the unions are as far apart as the poles The directors have declared that the steel plants shall be open shops, ana Chairman Gary has refused to deal with the union leaders, on the ground that they are not employees.
 Wages Are Published.
 The unions complain of starvation wages in the mills, and the corpora tions replys with this citation of av- craze pay:
 Average earning of sheet rollers for an eight-hour day: Heaters $2i.12; roughers, $11.92; catchers, $11.92; steel pourers, $12.S4; vessel men, $14.65; engineers and manipula- tors, $12.03
 Average earnings of men employ ed on 12-hour turns: Blooming mill heaters, $17.92; skelp mill heaters, $18.1S; skelp mill rollers, $21.73; lap weiders, $i6.0S; blowers, $1376; bot tom makers, $1291; regulators, $13.52.
 "Semi-skilled labor, $4.44 to S.26 a day, with majority doing better than $6 day, usually an eight-hour day.
 Common labor, 45 to soc an hour, or about S125 to $40 month.