The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-08-23
BY J. RAMIREZ (eomez)

disappear into the limbo of played
out phrases marks the passing Of a
whole epoch. In place of the Wild
and Woody West of the old Jesse
James days, we have-Hollywood
with its salaried armies of movie des-
peradoes, manufacturing reel after
reel of standard westerns" for a
worldwide market. Seattle has be-
come the fourth greatest port in the
United States, and Los Angeles one
of the most populous cities But
there was always another, more ia
miliar West, without definite geo.
graphical limits, West which spread
out persistently year by year from it's
early enviorns in the foothills Of the
Alleghenies. 1t was for this West,
with its headlong industrial develop
ment, that Pittsburgh Plus was in
vented.
Steel for the new industries was
shipped from the East, first from Phil
adelphia and then from Pittsburgh.
Later, the all-powerful Steel Trust be-
gan to establish mills father west,
closer to the western ores and ship
ping terminals; but the Steel Trust
did not proceed to lower the price of
steel accordingly. All metal was sold
pittsburgh Plus" Regardless of
where it was fabricated, the imaginary
freight from Pittsburgh was added to
the selling price. Thus Chicago cen
tractor might get his steel from South
Chicago or Gary, but he paid the same
price for it as tho it were actually
shipped from Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh Plus has become a basic
consideration in the constitutional ac-
reckon with it in their financial calcu-
lations. 1t enters into every phase of
industrial planning. The imaginary
freight on steel paid by the so-called
ultimate consumers last year, in only
eleven middle Western states, amount
ed to more than $4,000, O00-and those
states include only small percentage
of the Western and Southern popula-
ton affected by Pittsburgh Plus!
Obviously, Pittsburgh Plus is
symbol of monopoly. The existence of
the practice bears ample and candid
testimony to the dominant role Of the
Steel Trust in American heavy indus
try. Combinations in restraint Of
trade" may be prosecuted so earnestly
that workers are thrown into Jail every
time they go on strike, antitrust laws
may come and go, Bob LaFollette may
shake his pompadour ever so menac-
ingly; but the s2,430, 100000 assets of
the United States Steel Corporation
continue to make themselves felt in
one way or another. Pittsburgh Plus
takes the place of the old steel pools
and other outlawed schemes for CASH
ing in on monopoly power. Nor will
the passing of Pittsburgh Plus put an
end to all this.
It is merely a question Of finding a
new basis for the exaction Of monopoly
price. Steel pools furnished the me-
dunn at one stage of economic de-
velopment, Pittsburgh Plus at another.
Big capitalists are planning to do
away with Pittsburgh Plus voluntarily
now, for the simple reason that it no
longer corresponds to all their inter
ests. Perhaps voluntarily is not the
right word. Some capitalists are
merely responding to pressure from
important business allies; the whole
movement is also influenced by po-
litical considerations, and the inner
ent issues in the present election cam
paign have had whole lot to do with
Fastening the progress toward a new
policy. The fact remains that there
is a great and growing sentiment
among the leading capitalists them
selves, in favor of the abolition OF
Pittsburgh Plus. This, Of course, Inn
plies a change in the relation be-
tween the money-power of the East
and the industrial forces Of the West.
II Ynuct he kant in mind that in adj