The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-18
Steel Workers
Starve on Jobs
Continued from Page y

ton IN the steel industry. One con-
tinuous-sheat mill, producing 72C
thousand tons year, can displace
/ Sc old-fashioned mills. The number
of men required for the continuous
mill is 100. The number of men re-
quired for 96 old-fashioned mills is
between $500 and 5000 workers.
VIII DispIace $4,000
All in ali, there have been con-
structed, or are in the process OF
construction, eleven large stripe and
sheet mills with a yearly capacity
of 100000 tons. The new machines
will displace, as far as these eleven
mills alone are concerned, about
$4,000 workers.
Similar processes Of displacine
men by machines are going on in
the other branches of the steel in
dustry. Here is one out of many
examples, related to me in Pitts
burgh. In the A. M. Byers Co. plant
in Ambridge, Pa, the hand pudding
of a Compound wrought-iron ball took
80 minutes. With the introduction
Of the Aston process of manufactur-
ing wrought iron, one S,000-pound
ball is proceSsed in five minutes.
Seventy men produce four times as
much as 225 men produced under
the old method Of work.
There is no restriction on the in
crease Of the production capacity of
steel finishing mills-and in these
plants the workers are being thrown
out into the street by the installa-
ton Of machines. There is an
N. r. A. restriction ON the increase
Of the capacity Of mills producing
steel ingots-and there the process
Of mechanization is much slower.
This is the case with the Pittsburgh
area. Here the workers are suffer
ing because there is no production.
As Per Cent on Relief
Harvey OConnor, author of Mel
Ions Millions who is now working
on a book on the steel industry, has
compiled the following figures for
the town of Duquesne. The wages
of 92T men for 1894 amounted to
$13, 725 300, OR an average Of $7.40 a
week. This is all the steel workers
earn in the famous Carnegie plant,
one of the biggest establishments
of the United States Steel Trust.
The population of Duquesne is about
ii 900. In January, 1884, there were
$500 persons on relief in the town
of Duquesne. That formed As per
cent of the total population. Today,
the situation is not much better.
Here are a few examples. Jack
Cfor obvious reasons, the full names
cannot be given, a hooker-on, 80
years old, has been connected with
the mill for ten years. In 1929,
the last of the prosperity" years,
he earned S1,40O. His total earnings
for 1884 amounted to $4,000, or
a little over IS week. He has
family Of five. Above his wages"
he gets supplementary relief
amounting to $3.50. He owes the
grocer s73.
Earns $685. in Year
Mike, clipper, A, has been work
ing in the mills for 20 years. Year
ly earnings in 1929, $1,000. Total
earnings for 1884, $685.. With a
family of five, he gets $3.50 a week
in relief. His debts to the land
lord and to the doctor amount to
$3.50.
Phil, a clipper, IS years old, has
been working in the mills for II
years. His pay for 1929 was 81 $50;
his pay in 1884 was $3.50. Work is
hard, he says. you work like a
donkey. They drive you like hell"
He injured his knee during work,
and was laid up for month. He
received the magnificent remunera-
ton of $11.60. Phil has a family
of nine and gets no relief. His
debts amount to $3.50.
Here is a younger worker, Dick,
a laborer. He is only ~ years of
age. Has been connected with the
mill for seven years In 1929, he
earned $1,000. In 1884, he earned
$353.75, Has a family OF four. Gets
IS week in relief. His debts are
$500.
On Job 20 Years-Staryes
Jim, roller, 48 years old. Has been
connected with the mill for % years.
A man with such a work record
would be considered among the
most esteemed in the Soviet Union.
He would be given an abundant
pension and would be looked up to
as model for the younger genera
ton. Jim, an employee of the Steel
Trust, did get medal from the
company for rs years of devoted
service" to the boss. But this has
not secured him a decent existence.
In 1929, he earned $2,084.70. In
1884, he earned $49440, or less than
$40 week. He is the proud owner"
of house on which there is a
mortgage of $1,000. The company
is the mortgager and it deducts the
payments from his wages. He owes
the grocer 500.
9 In Family-Gets SO
Such cases could be cited by the
hundred. We shall call attention
to only one more. Pat, steel
loader 46 years old. Has been en-
ployed for the last rs years. He
earned in 1929, s1,1O0, in 1884, $3.50.
His family consists of nine, and he
receives So a week in relief.
The Steel Trust, the greatest CAPT
talist organization in the world, re-
fuses to feed the workers engaged
in its mills. Over and above their
miserable wages, they must get sup
Elementary relief in order not to
perish of starvation.
Can they live? Is It possible for
a family of six to subsist on some-