The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-05-25
BETHLEHEM STEEL
WORKERS SLAVES
or BOSS CREED
Labor for Famine Wag-
es at Blazing Furnaces
IN q Worker Corrs ponGsntl

BALTIMORE, Md, (By MaiD.-
Sparrows Point. Maryland, where
the Bethlehem Steel Co. is located
strikes YOU as an impressive place
especially at night. 1t seems like the
so-called HE'LL. You must cross ?
large body of water to get on the
Sparrows Point and after you arrive
feeling comes over you that this is
another little world of its own that
BELONGS to the Bethlehem Steel Cor
poration. If you don't believe it, just
inquire from the army Of company po-
lice that is owned by the Bethlehem.
Every build ng, house, theatre, gro
Gerry store, hardware store, dry goods
store, drug store, garage, fire de-
partmeut, court and even the ten
churches belong to the Bethlehem.
Hell.
To get a real impression of He'll
move to the center of Sparrows Point
and look around within the radius Of
. mile or two and see all the differ
ent departments sending out their fire
sky high. The flame ard glare from
the furnaces illuminate the whole sur
roundings. Over there is the open
hearth dept, where many furnaces
standing in row under a giant build
ing, are aglow day and night melting
the scrap iron, copper and other min
erals that go to make steel.
There is the bar mill, where the iron
is taken from the solid ingot form
and heated and then rolled into bars
or slabs. They have rail mill here
that is one of the most modern in
the country.
Another giant department that is
practically an industry by itself takes
bars of iron and with modern machin-
cry makes wire and nails that would
astonish the average human. A slight
example of one little department in
this wire mill where they make nails
rot more than thirty-five or forty
men are engaged in turning out fiji
teen hundred kegs Of nails in ter
hours. Machinery does the trick. All!
The bosses are all smiles when they
walk through this department and see
a hundred machines running full blast
and hardly a man in sight.
Blocks Long.
Over there is Tin Mill Junction, a
building that has length of -four
city blocks. In this building stands
forty-eight giant furnaces where iror
bars about half-inch thick and two
and a half feet long and a foot wide
are placed in the back through door
on moving platform goes through
the furance and after a certain length
of time is heated enough to be rolled
cut to the shape of tin. Each furnace
has seven to eight men in front who
rua the iron through a certain roll
ing and doubling process until it has
assumed the proper gauge tin The
seven men compose group and get
raid ACCORDING to how much good tir
they make. IF you step into the tir
mill and watch these workers at this
job, a thought comes to you thai
something is wrong in Denmark.
Eight solid hours these men keer
at furious pace hanling red hot bar,
in front of furnaces that are throw,
ing out an intense heat. The air i:
sitting. There is so much smoke du,
TO inadequate ventilation that yor
can hardly see the men on the mex
furnace. Every man in light under
shirts, sweating, dirty, wild eyed
rushing, anxious for high tonnage
Real automatoms. The Tonnage is fix
ed by the bosses at such a rate tina
the most skilled worker on the fur
mace gets Sc while the others in thu
group earn from S425 to $3.50 foI
eight hours.
In the olden days when horses wer,
quite common, | saw horses tug a
heavy loads, and sweat, but in Beth
lehem it is a common sight to Sc,
men work as if inhuman, strain. worl
fast, sweat, swear, and all for a few
slices of bread. Some price to pay.
Pipe Mill.
They have shipyard down here
The blast furnaces down here stanc
out along the docks where huge scoo,
shovels reach down and empty shi,
in very little time. Here the crud
ore is run through process in tn,
blast furnace. and after melted pour
ed into a ladle and sent right owe
to the open hearth, melted and poured
into the furnace Compare this meth
cd to some mills where they have t.
buy the pig iron from another com
pany and melt the pig iron in theil
own furnaces. Here they just take the
iron that ordinarily make pig iron anC
put in the melted form right in the
furna1e. The pipe mill here turns GU