Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1919-07-18
Relic of Brutal Past
GREAT STEEL AUTOCRACY MUST
SOON CAPITULATE
Right of Free Speech Denied in Some
Steel TOwns-Many Volunteer
to Face Arrest if Necessary
to Secure Justice

The autocratic conduct of employ
ers in the steel industry has long
been one of the outstanding points of
industrial injustice in America. When
the great steel companies merged in
to the combine known as the steel
trust, the employment policy, left by
the trust agreement in the hands Of
the component corporations, became
| fiXedly anti-union. Gradually this
old-time policy of the several COM
panies has become the fixed policy of
the great trust, backed by all of the
immense power of the combine. 1t
has been the policy Of the steel COR
poration to operate shop closed to
union men. This policy is a relic of
the brutal past. 1t has no place in
the scheme Of things today.
During the convention of the Amer
ican Federation of Labor in 1918, in
st. Paul, by direction of the conven-
| ton, a conference was held at which
were present the officers of the in
ternational unions interested in the
steel industry. The conference, pre-
sided over by President Gompers,
formed the committee for organiza-
tion Of the steel industry The meet
ing at st. Paul was followed by a
year of hard work, the fruits of
which were recOunted at a similar
but larger conference held during the
Atlantic City convention, just closed.
In this conference there were present
the representatives of "a national and
international unions. Much progress
was made during the year, but the
brutal, archaic policy Of the steel
corporation persisted in opposition to
the tide of human events and the tide
Of sentiment flowing so strongly in
the direction of progress everywhere.
1t was reported at this conference
that in the Pittsburg district the
right of free speech was being denied
by authorities in some of the steel
towns. Organizers were not per-
mitted to speak openly in behalf of
the work of organization. This de-
nial of a fundamental right by the
exercise of arbitrary authority on the
part of those clothed with brief and
passing power constitutes a most
fragrant breach of deep-rooted Amer
lean principles not to be tolerated,
and the conference so regarded it.
The result was that every inte1na-
tional president in the conference
arose and volunteered to go into the
district and speak when called upon
by the organizing committee, facing
arrest and Imprisonment if necessary
in assertion of rights of American
citizenship and in furtherance of the
struggle to give the workers of the
steel mills measure of justice in
the ordering of their lives.
This is notice to the autocrats of
the steel industry that their autoc-
racy must remove itself from the
face Of the earth, or be removed by
the sweeping tide of progress that is
today leading the people everywhere
to better and higher concepts of life.
No such industrial autocracy can con-
tinue to exist and function in this age
of the worlds development. AS po-
litical autocracy has gone, so must
industrial autocracy go. The roseate
path of depots ended in the consum-
ing fire Of the war.
There has got to be freedom in the
lives of all men and women. The
right of a few to order and direct
and control the lives of the many is
today denied and abrogated. For the
steel workers there can be no free
dom and no democratic voice in the
ordering of their lives until they are
free to organize and deal collectively
with their employers concerning the
wages and conditions and hours of
their work-until they are able thus
to exercise a compelling voice in fix
ing the terms and conditions of their
work. There is no democracy where
only one voice speaks.
Steel in America must be democ-
ratized!-American Federationist.