The daily worker., 1932-08-13
BY CRANE

What do the coming months hold
in store for the steel and metal work
ers? A brief review of what has TAX
en- place in these industries since the
crash of 1929 will disclose the an
Swer.
In 1929 there were at least three
million two hundred and fifty thou
sand workers in the iron-steel-metal
industries, including the machine,
transportation equipment, etc. BY the
end of 1881 approximately half of
this number were not working and
most of the other half were put on
part time basis bringing home but
few dollars q week. A good exam
pie Of this can be found in the 1881
figures for the United States Steel
Corporation. This corporation was
supposed to have employed 203 900
workers, but in reality only $4,000
were on full time. There is no doubt
that since the beginning of 1882 with
the constant drop in production and
increase in labor saving devices,
many more tens of thousands were
laid off and others staggered" by
part time employment. Unemploy-
ment, full or partial, affecting al
most all the workers of the iron
steel and metal industries is but one
side of the situation. The other is
wage cutting. The two go hand in
hand
According to statistics of the New
York State Department of Labor
the steel and metal workers for this
state had their wages slashed over
20 per cent by September 1881. The
state of New York was not alone.
The situation was similar throughout
the country, excepting that 20 per
cent is too low an estimate.
Wages SlaShed.
In October, 1881, the Millionaire
U. S. Steel Corp, the Bethlehem
Steel Corp, the American Smelling
and Refining, the Utah Copper, the
Jones and Laughlin Steel and others
slashed 10 per cent off the wages Of
100000 workers. This gave the signal
to hundreds of smaller companies tc
cut wages again and again. On the
official announcement of the wage
cut in September, William Roberts
acting for Green, head of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor, made the
following statement: ".Stories like
that have been appearing every week
and there was nothing to them" Ir
less than week the steel and meta.
workers knew that he was lying thus
helping the magnates to quiet the
workers. On the other hand, one day
before the U. S. Steel Corp. put over
the 10 per cent cut, the press carried
the news that the steel workers ir
Soviet Russia received 30 per cent
INCREASE in wages.
Not half year passed and these
magnate corporations who have
made hundreds of millions of dol
lars on the workers, announced ano
put over another wage cut. In May
1882, the United States Steel Corp.
and the Bethlehem again cut the
wages of over 100000, no less thar
rs per cent; although President Eu-
gene Grace of the Bethlehem, fol
instance, receives a bonus" on az
average of $815,OO0 year. This agair
became the signal for the entire in.
dustry to cut wages.
Now what are the prospects for The
future?
There is but one definite and regu
lar thing about the steel and meta
industry and that is its invariabl!
constant downward trend since 1929
The percentage of capacity produc
ton decreased in straight lin
since 1929 until it reached only L
per cent OF capacity on June 25, 1887
with positive signs towards lowe
percentage for the future. For in
stance, the first week of July it hi
a new low Of IL per cent Individua