The Colorado statesman., 1923-11-17
(Lincoln Service)

YIN 4NON. H. IL 81
w recent address before the
American Iron and Steel Insti-
tute, of which he is president, Mr.. Ell
bert II. Gary, chairman of the board
of the United States Steel Corpora
ton, said in part: "The prosperity of
this country will apparently have cor
dial, appropriate and effective assist
ance from the national government,
limited only by the established rules
and principles and the general welfare
of the people," He paid tribute to
President Harding as the man whose
words did more to bring the eight-hour
day into the steel industry than any
thing else. Epitomizing the above
statements, from a man who heads a
productive industry that gives employ
ment to a minimum of 100000 men
and transacts a business of more than
two billion dollars annually, even a
child can see that the future prosper
ity of this great industry depends
largely upon the continuation of the
economic policies fostered by the Re-
publican party, the party whose lead
ers are trained business men, and,
furthermore, that the reduction in the
wage hours from - to s was made eff
fective through a President who was
the chief and the spokesman of the
Republican party.
Engaged in the iron and steel indus
try are nearly 100000 colored men
who with their families aggregate a
popuation approximately nearly 5OO,-
600 persons. A conservative estimate
of the wages received by these men
would be $6,40O,000 per week or $780,
100000 per year, and no small part of
this considerable amount flows into
our cOlored newspaper offices and our
churches, into the cash registers OF
our 23,526 retail dealers, our banks,
insurance companies and building and
loan associations, into our bakeries
and moving picture theaters.- 1t helps
to maintain our 3,493 physicians and
surgeons and contributes to the pros
perity of our 1109 dentists; while n
considerable amount finds its way to
our 91O druggists, to our 34y243 car
penters, 3,516 plumbers, and 1,342
electricians.
Yet, there is an element of croakers
who are ready and willing to kick
prosperity in the face, to scuttle the
ship of industrial opportunity, to send
many of these wage-earners back TO
the cotton fields with only seasonaDle
employment, to take thousands of our
children out of the schools, and to fur
ther retard the Industrial and econom-
ic progress of their group through the
preachment of nebulous theories
which if embraced by our voters VIII
result in a check to the aspirations
and ambitions of our entire racial
group whose progress depends largely
if not wholly, upon the general pros
perity of industry and commerce
rather than upon the individual sue
cess of ward politicians.
. The men of our race are prlnclpaliv
employed in the iron and steel lndus-
try as laborers and semi-skilled work
ers in blast furnaces, steel rolling
and tin plate mills; as furnacemeh'
,smeltermen, heaters and pourers; as
forgemen, hammermen and weiders'
iron molders, founders and casters; as
imachinists, millwrights and tooi-mah-
ers and as filers, grinders, buffers ana
polishers. Included in this army OIL
wage earners are 1,s4S colored females
whose employment, not unlike that OIL
,he mon can continue only through