Evening star., 1920-01-11
OUACK REMEDIES FAIL
ININDUSTRIAL AILMENT
Raw Stannard Baker Discusses Futility OF
STRUCTURES Which Have Been Used
by Employers and Workers.
ny RAY srANNARD BAKER.

ARTICLE v.
TN this article I shall endeavor 10
answer the question: How mucn
of the trouble and unrest IN
American industry is caused by
routside azitators" and "alien radi-
GALS: and how much is caused by
conditions inside of industry? Judge
Gary thinks that the trouble, as l
showed in my last article. is incited
from outside; Mr.. Gompers thinks 1t
due to conditions inside.
There is no doubt that what Judge
Gary calls "outside agitators" did
come in and organize the steel work
ers. At it's St. Paul convention, in
June, 1918. the American Federation
of Labor appointed committee head
ed by John Fitzpatrick. president OF
the Chicago Federation Of Labor, who
was never connected with the steel
Industry in any way. to go into the
steel towns and organise the men.
There is no doubt. as Justice Gary oe-
clares, that there are revolutionaries
and alien radicals, some OF them hold
ing the extremist views, to be founo
at Gary and in other steel towns
there is no doubt that there is con-
siderable violent literature" in cir
culation in these towns. There Is no
doubht,< also, after the workers went
out, that the familiar tactics OF the
strike-persuasion verging always
upon intimidation-did take place at
Gary. All this is true.
Gary's Many Advantages.
But let US look more closely at Gary.
Here is a fine. bright city Of some so.-
600 people. 1t has an excellent Gar
nerie library, an impressive Y. M c.
A. building. good churches. superiative
schools. It lives wholly upon mills
owned by the United States Steel Cor
poration. A few Of the workmen. large
ly Americans, are highly skilled and
well paid, often owning their own houses
sometimes having few shares Of stock
in the corporation. But the great mass
of the workers are more. or less un-
skilled foreigners. There are forty
two different nationalities, speaking
twenty or thirty languages The ma
jority work twelve hours day and
many seven days a week To an extent
which at first atnazes the inquirer, these
are young unmarried men. Forty-fve
per cent Of the Serbians and 4s per
cent of the Rufnanians in the steel in-
dustry are single HaAn. accnrding =
the United states lsbpr reports. Even
Of those who ne nna1ffed aslaxsezprc--
S~t~ o<
(ez per cent Of the Croatians. 40 per
cent Of the Italians). They are strong
boys or young men, largely peasants
(s4 per cent) from farms IN southern
or eastern Europe. About one-third Of
these men are twenty-five years Of age
or under-hardly more than boys
81 per cent are forty-four years old
or under. The steel workers themselves
assert that man is "old at forty" in
the steel industry; that men cannot
stand the strain of the long hours and
the heavy work.
wiIlin4 to. work All Hours.
Consider these masses of young
men-peasants, who came to golden
America to make, Instantly. their for
tunes. They were willing to work
all hours. all times, where American
workmen would not and could not
work; they got as much money as
possible. in as short time. either
70 bring their wives over from Eu-
rope or to go back there with their
earnings. The poorest of them lived.
and still live, impossibly crowded to-
gether-sometimes a dozen men to q
room-in the very cheapest places
they could rent. There are some very
miserable places in this fine town of
Gary; very terrible, really, with no
relation to any American standard
of living" Well, these men, working
under such pressure, confused and
divided, could not organize. had no
way of expressing themselves. But
they could get drunk. Before In
diana went dry Gary had probably the
largest number Of saloons to the pop
ulation of any city in the United
States; solid blocks Of them. A pop
ulation of young unmarried men,
away from home. working under high
strain in an unfamiliar and danger
Gus industry. without amusement or
diversion-this was the natural out
let. There may be those who think
prohibition discourages economic un-
rest. 1 do not. l believe it is one of
the causes of it; for it has removed
the great deadener of human trou-
ble-and human ambition-alcohol:
and has left time to the workers to
talk and meet and read, and money to
buy publications and support organi-
Eations.
Consider also what the war did when
Il came. In the first place it brought
the entire working forces at Gary
under an iron regime. Workmen could
not go and come freely between Eu-
rope and America, as they had always
done. and they were worked harder
and longer than ever; but on the
other hand they got more money and
had steadier work than ever before
in their lives. for the steel trust raised
wages eight times during the war
Everything Different and Better.
This. however, was only a minor re-
suit of the war. Consider what they
were taught day after day during the
struggle. 1t was not what was put
into their pockets. but what was put
tnto their heads that counted. They
were told that this was a war for
democracy, and that when it was over
everything would be different and
better The War Labor Board at
HSashinefon laid down the broadest