The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-12-19
Steel Cars Divide Up
Quarter Billion in Loot
Taken From Workers
BY ]. LOUIS ENoDAHL.


THE United States Steel Corpora
\ ton has joined with the General
Motors Corporation, also a Morgan
trust, in the cutting Of huge, juicy
melon-more than $3.50, 100000 being
dropped into the laps Of the parasite
stockholders, in the form of 40
per cent stock dividend.
Thus the steel trust also follows
in the footsteps of the telephone
combine, the rubber interests and
other great industrial concerns in
spreading joy among the idle rich.
The quarter of a billion dollar
Christmas present is reported to
have thrown Wall Street into fits
Of ecstacy.
Judge Ebert H. Gary, chairman
of the steel trusts board, at joint
gathering Of the combines direc-
torate and representatives of the
capitalist press, announced that it
was possible to distribute this ex-
ira dividend to the common stock
holders because:
THE earning capacity of the
corporation justites the proposed &C
ton at this time"
This is the Judge Gary who
swooned away while making 30
minute speech before the American
Steel Institute urging the continu-
ance of the 12-hour day in the in
dustry. Not long afterwards, how
ever, as the result of unrest among
the steel workers, the 12-hour day
was put on the scrap heap in spite
Of the repeated declarations that
any change was economically I'M
sound" and wouldn't work, not in
the steel industry!
Earning capacity" in the produc-
ton of steel and it's by-products is
affected by two big factors that are
present in all other industries:
First: The introduction of labor
saving devices, resulting in high
degree of specialization that dis
places large numbers Of workers,
many of them highly skilled, with a
smaller number of unskilled, lower
paid workers. This is economy in
production"
Second: The success achieved by
the owners Of industry in keeping
the workers unorganized, thus max
ing It impossible for the workers
thru organization, to force higher
wages and better conditions. This
keeps operating costs" down.
The steel trust has been peculiarly
successful in both these directions.
Unskilled labor, thru the introduce
ton Of improvements" has dis
placed large numbers of skilled
workers. The Morgan interests,
financial capital enthroned, fights
the organization of the workers
everywhere. The House of Morgan
was the driving force back of the
relentless opposition to the steel
strike in 1919, bringing the whole
capitalist strength to bear against
the steel workers. The victory Of
1919 against the steel workers made
possible the distribution of a quar-
ter billion dollars In stolen wealth
by the steel trust during these 1926
holidays.
When the ordinary victim OF the
highwayman is held up at the point
Of a gun, deprived of his belong
ings and left penniless. he not only
let's out a yell, but tries to recover
some of the loot taken from him.
Not so, the labor officialdom that
sees the workers plundered on ev-
cry hand. 1t let's out a yell, to be
sure, but usually it is a muffled
squawk not intended to get results.
Thus John ?. Frey, editor of the
Moulders' Journal, at the Detroit
convention of the American Fedora
ton of Labor, lamented that:
1--WE have read in the papers that
President Gary Of the steel trust is