The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-12-19

alarmed over a five-day week. The
statistics of the department Of labor
prove that since 1914 the per capita
production In the steel industry has
increased so per cent, and during
that period the eight-hour day has
replaced the 12-hour day for over
one-third OF the employees Of that
corporation.
Eve have no conception, until
we begin to delve, of the enormous
increase there is in production.
Taking some figures which were
published recently by the Pollock
Foundation, we are told that in
some departments of the steel in
dustry two men are now doing the
work formerly done by 20 men, that
two men, working with a machine,
have replaced IA others, that in the
handling of pig iron seven men are
doing the work which formerly re-
CURED 12S."
But what does Frey, Green, Vol,
Lewis, Mcmahon, Sigman and the
rest do about it. Nothing! Less
than nothing! Because they try
to convince the workers that it is
sufficient to pass resolutions plead
ing with the employers to increase
wages and shorten the work-day
with the growing efficiency and pro-
ductiyeness of industry, without de-
veloping the organized strength and
enforce this plea.
Every effort of the militant Sec
ton Of labor to strengthen labor's
position thru amalgamation, organ
ization of the unorganized, world
trade union unity and the Labor
Party is viciously fought, the latest
example of this being the reaction
airy onslaught against the left wing
in the needle trades.
There will be no Christmas gift
of increased wages, better working
conditions or the shorter work-day
for the hundreds of thousands of
workers in the steel industry. The
steel czardom, including such mon
archs of finance and industry as j.
Pierpont Morgan, George F. Baker,
John S. Phipps, Eugene Buffing-
ton and James A. Farrell, never
grants concession to the work
ers unless it is forced out of them.
Instead the workers in this. in
dustry may face another disaster
this Christmas as they did recently
at Ironwood, Michigan, where scores
of iron miners were drowned when
a swamp fell into an unprotected
mine, because precautions were Eek
pensive"; or the blast in the by
products plant at Gary, Indiana,
that murdered more than a dozen
and injured scores. Disaster In the
steel trust owned coal mines are
so frequent as to pass almost unno-
ticed.
The United States Steel Corpora
ton was hailed as 'the first bill
lion, dollar trust when it was in
corporated in New Jersey, Feb. 25,
1901. At that time its stock was
watered to the limit and it sold
for almost nothing. But, as Gary,
or Schwab, or Farrell, or Carnegie
might say, the earning capacity (the
power to exploit) of the privately
owned steel industry justified this
method Of financing by Wall St.
Now another quarter billion is add
ed to the capitalization with the
stock selling, not at s43.75 per
share as was the case when It was
first traded March %, 1901, but at
$4,000 per share, the price paid
for the first batch of 10000 shares
put on the market today dec. IT,
1926. Wall Street jubilantly an
nounces that that was the highest
price yet paid for the shares OF
this big corporation, that repre-
sents the ability of this trust to ap-
propriate for itself the fruits Of la
Dor in the steel industry. Not only
the steel workers, but all Ameri-
can labor, must seriously consider
this condition.