The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-09-24
100000 Hit In Steel
Industry; Morgan
Mellon Profit
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE)

Steel Company in Cleveland, Ohio,
stated that the present ten per cent
wage cut in the steel industry was
just the beginning and would I'M
doubtedly be followed by other re-
peated slashes. Kulas said: II be-
lieve this should be warning to
business that unless the present price
Generalization ends soon another
10 per cent reduction in wages may
be necessary"
That the present cut in the steel
industry is not the beginning Of the
attack against the steel workers, but
is just beginning of the drive that
has been going on for some time is
shown by statement made some
time ago by Farrell, president of the
United States Steel Corporation.
Farrell Admits Cuts
Speaking before the American Iron
and Steel Institute on May %, Far
rell declared that the leading steel
companies even then we're slashing
pay, and admitted that the United
States Steel Corporation was pairing
labor COSTS" but said they would not
come out with an open pay cut.
Kulas also showed how meaning
less was the promise" made by the
leading bosses not to cut wages. He
said:
Conditions have changed greatly
since 1 attended the conference
called by President Hoover in 1929.
At that time Myron c. Taylor,
chairman of the United States
Steel executive committee, and my
self told the President we would
not reduce wages"
To attempt to ovoid repetition of
the great steel strike of 1919, the
capitalists in the steel industry
worked very closely with the leaders
of the American Federation of La
Dor, doing everything possible to
mislead the workers and render them
impotent for struggle.
The steel strike which began on
Sept. %, 1919, brought 365,00O men
out in struggle against the low
wages, long hours and rotten condi-
tons in the steel industry.
The tradition of the great strike
in the steel industry of 1919 has now
passed on to the Trade Union Unity
League and the Metal Workers In
dustrial League, its section in the
steel industry, which now is pre-
pairing for struggle against the wage
slashes in the steel mills.
The Metal Workers Industrial
League has called a conference of
steel workers for Sept. 81, in Pitts
burgh, where detailed plans of strug-
gle and resistance to this latest open
drive will be taken up and carried
through in the steel mills.
The steel corporations, which dur
ing the war made billions in profits,
paying the stockholders ten times
over SIe price of their stock at the
expense of sweating the workers, are
now openly declaring that they hope
to maintain profits at the expense of
the workers.
Morgan Heads Pay Cutters
OF the largest steel plants, the
United States Steel Corporation,
which controls around 60 per cent of
the plant capacity in the country,
the controlling interest is Morgan g.
Co.
In the Pittsburgh area, the Mellon
family have heavy interests in steel
mills, and the proposed wage cuts
will put millions of dollare into the
already well-filled pockets of Mellon
and the other parasites who have
interest in the steel mills
Wages were cut in the Youngs-
town, Ohio, area very soon after the
Hoover conference in 1929. At that
time Green remained silent. Later
he declared that the steel companies
were living up their pledges" not to
cut wages.