The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-07-12

because your eyes couldn't betraJ
you.
But who cared whether smoke came
out of the stacks or not--the smoke
stocks couldn't starve or freeze be-
cause they were idle? Those smoke
less stacks meant something, just
the same-they meant 10000 unem-
ployed steel workers, some of them
lust managing to live and others
slowly starving to death. Last win
ter workers and their children
grovelled in cinder piles, looking FOL
small pieces of unburnt coke, until
the company started screening in the
cinders and selling the coke at q
profit. After that, you saw people
wandering through the woods hunt
ing for bits of timber. No one would
risk putting food in the porch ice
boxes any more, after the series OF
food robberies. In the Company
store. families either had their credit
cut off entirely or were given a very
very limited credit-dole on the book
The Negroes who lived herded to-
gether in the bunk houses were
forced to get out, when the company
with the most inhuman indifference
ordered the btlnk-houses destroyed
BY royal order of the Bethlehem
Steel Company the Children's Aid
Society allotted to steel workers fam
lies the princely sum of SO cents per
person per week Evictions from
company owned houses. foreclosures
H1JI Nv no :
controlled real estate racket, broken
up homes and broken health ended
the steel workers dream of prosper
ity.
What Steel Rise Means.
The presence of so many unem-
ployed began to look like menace
% capitalist law and order. They
were promised better times" And
now, 10 and behold! magic initiation
appears on the scene and presto F..
orders came in for steel. 1t is true
that steel is not wanted, but money
men want to turn their cash into
steel before the dollar goes down.
And to show that Roosevelt is gods
gift to the working class, none other
than Mr.. S. j. Cort manager of the
Sparrows Point Plant, is interviewed
by the Baltimore Sun. Mr.. Cort
states that ''the Sparrows Point Plant
has increased operations from ID per
cent to so per cent" that "the local
plant is receiving work for the
Golden Gate Bridge, which will take
two years to build" that "the bulk
Of the new steel orders are not for
heavy STEEL This is the first
broadside of publicity for the hurried
launching of the Steel Code, which
the Iron and Steel Industry is adopt
ing. Behind all the optimism of Mr..
Cort's statements, t. ere remain
facts that cannot be talked away:
the fact that some 5000 Bethlehem
Steel workers in and around Balti-
more are still unemployed, and the
fact that those who are working are
getting barely so per cent OF the
wages they got in 1929. 1t is true
that steel orders have picked up
temporarily, but it is ridiculous to
try to tell experienced mill-hands
that a bridge under construction for
a period of two years will keep the
steel mills going for the same length
of time. The Plate Mills in Spar
rows Point alone can put out 100000
pounds of steel for structural iron
fabrication in a mere "a hours. An
other flaw in his statement points
out clearly that there is no real sta
bility in the present pickup, because
the bulk of the orders are not in
heavy steel, not in materials for
.ails or building construction!
Greater Speed-Up
Besides, the sheet mill at Sparrows
Point has introduced the three-high
automatic mill, which is scheduled to
do away with rs per cent of the
sheet-mill workers. On the opener
floor, the firing of the feed-boys. In
the tin-mill, on the cold roll side, the
annealing furnaces will speed up
operations and do away with many
hands.
Then comes the abolition of the
antitrust law" under the industrial
recovery act, the giving of greater
freedom to the big boys on top. This
means that in the process of greater
classification, while the little firms
are being pushed to the wall, the steel
workers will be ground down as if
between two stones in the price-war
for markets, and that victory will go
10 those steel manufacturers who can
grind down wages most successfully.
In other words, further wage cuts for
the steel workers.
How Wages Are Cut
An article in the IRON AGE OF
June 9th, magazine for steel-com-
pany owners, reveals just what the
big boys are planning for us. The
Chairman of the American Rolling
Mil, Mr.. George M. Verify, writes
that the N. I. r. A. Is wonderful
thing, at will ensure employment to
all those who desire it, and increase
purchasing power through broad
ened earning capacity of all those
who do their fair share Of the con-
structivc work of the nation. 1t is
in effect an enforcement of the
share the work plan" this means,
in SO many words, that the steel COM
panies are not going to increase
wages, but rather spread employ
msnt. This is being done in order
to prevent the payment of unem-
ployment or part-time relief, and in
stead force the burden on the steel
Workers. Those who have few days
work will have to part with some of
" to help some other workers to a
lob. At the same time, the steel in
dustry will increase its output per
oo,y. through the fresh supply of
.~irt week workers. The steel code
II the bosses will, no doubt, try to
,irge a minimum wage. using as a