The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-04-16

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A GIANT CORPORATION.
Richard Spillane, one Of the best informed
writer's on finance in this country says:
More than 10 per cennS Of the stock of the Unit
ed States Steel Corporation is owned today by
the employees Of the great company.
It is not improbable these holdings win be in
creased within the next five or ten years to 10
or 20 per cent.
No wonder there is suggestion of electing two
directors from among the workers to represent
the interests of the employees.
Up to the close of the year 1918 there had been
361 ,234 shares of common and 351, ia shares OF
preferred stock sold to employees under the spe-
cial arrangement whereby premiums are received
f5r i've years after the purchase.
II January, 1919, there was stock offering
Sa employees at 92 According to the best reports
bot Unable GAL employees subscribed at that time
for !. total of 156,68O shares
s. c. the 5oS3,0 shares of common Of par
seitie Of $500 3o2. 900 and market value of ap
Srn9stely The same the employees holdings are
3i4 shares with market value Of $51,791,-
Wat the workers PAID in actual cash for stock
II ssifficult to ascertain. The custom of the cor
assf!on has been to offer stock to the employees
1t 2 5soints below what in the best judgment OF
tne directors, is about the low price Of the year.
T.. the ernp.oya holds his stock as an investment
he pets special premiums. What is more, the
dividends especially in the last three years. have
been fat. Not few subscribers are understood
to have been able to pay for their stock with
their dividends that practically it cost them
nothing.
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value Of $3.50, 281 100 and a market value of
SAT-, 926,O76. the workers have $4,000. with
market value of $40,716.00O.
Broadly speaking, therefore the United States
Steel employees is the approximately 55,~
900 who are shareholders-have $92.O0O.000
stake in the corporation.
There reno figures obtainable as to the num-
Der of employees of the corporation at the present
time. In the rush days Of 1867 there was q
high mark of 268 O58 names on the payroll. That
was the biggest total in the history Of the COM
pany. Since then there has been gradual de
cline. A fair estimate Of the March roster would
be $4,000. Necessarily the number Of employees
changes with conditions in the steel trade.
Few persons appreciate the magnitude and
scope Of this giant corporation. It's volume of
business in one year has been Sic ,962,552-
that Is In excess Of $5,5OOOO0 a day for every
Is much - $s47, 1870, 400
For the employees, representative Of the labor
element In the corporation, to be elected to the
directorate Of this greatest and most successful
Of industrial concerns, would have profound eff
feet IN shaping opinion regarding the future re-
Iationship Of capital and labor.
This is appreciated fully by leaders in finance
and labor leaders, Many men Of large influence
in the Steel Corporation are bitterly opposed to
doing anything more toward e'coddling" labor
than has been done. Some important persons in
!. the ranks Of labor also oppose the idea. They
do not want to see capital and labor agree on any
thing. They contend that labor never has gain
q anything from capital except through force
and the two elements cannot mix with benefit to
labor. ss
But these men represent the reactionaries in
the two camps. The dominant spirits IN the cor
] roration are committed to cementing the labor
Interests into the organization - strongly as the