The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1930-02-07
Friday, February 7, 1880.
u. S. STEEL BONANZA

Every possessor of $4,000 of watered U. S.
Steel stock learned" as much money through that
ownership in 1929 as the average U. S. Steel
worker got out of an entire years employment.
The share of an owner of $4,000 in U. S. Steel
stock III the trusts earnings last year $1,27O,
80, which is nearly the average paid in steel mills.
Actual dividends at the rate of 10.
The net profits of U. S. Steel for the year
$197,591 ,OOO all available for dividends Not all
of course was paid out to shareholders-$1080 00,-
coo was put into surplus accounts-but it is the
stockholders property. The surplus goes to build
up the stockholders ultimate claim on the corpor-
alton even though it does not come directly into
his pocket.
The 1929 earnings were twice those of the bon
ANA year of 1928 and focus attention on the steel
trust as main beneficiary in this country of low
wages and high tariffs. In 1927 the company
made $114000,00O clear, turned into dividends and
surplus.
Basicaly the entire income from u S. Steel is
clear velvet for the stakeholder. When the trust
formed in 1901 its stock represented nothing
but water. Financial authorities phrase it this
way: gu. S. Steel common stock had practically no
assets back of it at the time of Incorporation" 1t
represented gift of the holders of stock in COM
panies which merged to form U. S. Steel
If the lucky holder of the $4,000 in shares owned
them before 1927, his claim to U. S. Steel earnings
in 1929 would in reality be $1779, far above the
average steel wage. In that year stock dividend
of 1919 declared initiating the holdings of the
steel owning class. The amount learned" per
500 share in 1929 was $2118, or on the 1927 bas-
is, $29.65.
For 273000 steel workers whose earnings were
tabulated by the federal bureau of labor statistics
wages average $31.63. With 40 weeks work dur
ing 1929, the steel worker got 1894 But tens of
thousands according to federal statistics get un-
der $25. Laborers-more and more typical of the
steel industry as mechanization throws out skilled
workers get from $20.38 in pudding mills to
$27O3 in the tinplate mills. The maximum wage
for skilled workers in the blast furnaces is $31 80
a week.
Continued control of federal and state govern
ments by the steel trust and its friends, is the
basis for the golden stream of profits from iron
and steel. In the federal government Andrew w
Mellon, Pittsburgh magnate of rare wealth him
self, that the tariff excludes foreign products
that taxes remain low on steel fortunes and that
refunds generous. The state government, I'M
der the open control of the MELONS, supports state
police and permits private industrial police to COW
steel workers into SUBMISSION and to subdue them
when they revolt, as in 1919
With this continued control the owners of the
90 steel shares expect even greater profits
Much of the earnings is poured back into higher
mechanical forms which throw workers out of
mills and speed up those who remain. Given an
index figure of 100 as the productivity per worker
in 1850, productivity in 1925 was $685. or so times
greater. In blast furnaces the output per worker
increased 2779o in the four years between 1922
and 1926, according to the federal bureau of la
Dor statistics