Evening star., 1936-08-06


employ. But, beyond this, they have
literally given away millions-spent
millions from their reserves-to carry
the men along during the depression.
AS single example. Jones g. Laugh
lin, with a pay roll at present of "a
900, have never let 1t drop, all through
the depression, below 10000 That
means that $4,000 men were getting
some work straight along-not much,
but some. They stayed on the pay
roll. The larger companies also turned
out steel for storage, even when they
knew it would have to be reworked
or reconditioned later. And they sup
piled food to the families when they
couldn't supply work. Now they are
reaping the reward Of that policy.
The Other Side of Mechanization.
You hear plenty of talk of mechan-
ization-of the effect of machines in
displacing human labor Yet there
are intangibles there which must be
taken into consideration. Take a sim
gle illustration;
Charles M. Schwab used to say steel
couldn't be made and sold at a profit
in the United States without a con-
tinuous supply of cheap labor from
Central and Southern Europe. That
was the conventional view.
Well-imnigration in 1921 was cut
off. In 1924 the present immigration
law (the national origins act) was
passed, restricting immigration to
l65,000 a year. In addition, immi-
grants have been required since the
depression to show they will be self
sustaining on arrival. AS a result
the steel industry was forced to
mechanic its processes-to electrify
its mlls-until now you can walk
through blooming mill or a bar mill
and see half a dozen men doing the
work which formerly required so.
But Just as Many Work.
Yet there is almost as much labor
employed in the steel industry now
as at the peak Of proSperity-and more
than in 1921. Why? The growth OF
the automobile industry is one an
Swer. Right now, Jones & Laughlin
are spending s3o,oO0,O0o on a new
mill mile and half long, on Second
avenue, Pittsburgh, to make strip
steel-the kind they use for one-piece
tops on automobiles and for stamping
out other automobile parts.
Pittsburgh hasn't gone in hitherto
for this type of production. Its steel
masters have walked up. 1t takes 8
tons Of coal, ton of iron and a ton
Of limestone and other ingredients to
make ton of steel. Coal, floated
down the Monongahela River from
steel company mines, is cheaper here
than anywhere else. They figure they
can capture a substantial share of
the automobile business of the future.
They are looking ahead.
People are living largely out of tin
cans. Tin cans are really steel cans
with thin coating of tin. When
you buy beer in tin cans instead of bot
ties, you are helping the steel industry.
whatever it may do to the glass peo-
pie. You buy stainless steel knives,
steel refrigerators, steel in innumer-
able household articles. It's an age
of steel. Thus the labor load goes
up-up-up-in spite of mechanical
tion.
The Good Old Days.
Under the stimulus of World War
demand the steel industry experienced
an expansion which carried the wages
of machinists to $40 a day, of heaters
and rollers to $50 and s35. The men
wore silk shirts-preferably pink,
with green sleeve garters. Prosperity
trailed along in the wake of the war
as the country caught up with a
shortage in construction, and as the
automobile industry came into full
bloom.
When the country reached satura-
tion point in production and distribu-
ton. in 1929, the "topless towers OF
Ilium" fell with crash which shook
the world. AS basic industry, max
ing the materials which went into the
finished products of other industries,
steel suffered first and was hit hardest
when orders were cancelled overnight.
Steel production at the depth Of
the depression fell in the Pittsburgh
district to 10 per cent of capacity. 1t
is now around 70. With the revival
of business and the resumption of au-
tomobile buying, steel has bounced
back with vigor which has surprised
even its owners.
Bills Are Being Paid.
In the steel towns the stores are
selling goods. You see people on the
streets at night. They are good-hu-
mored. The young bucks wash up of
an evening, put on white trousers and
white or blue polo shirts and take
their girls to the movies or to the
park. Bills are being paid. The doc
tor, when called to the home Of a
mill worker, finds the money for his
fee lying on the dining room table.
At McKeesport the other night, a
few minutes before II o'clock, as I
stood on the curb, talking with a law
yer, a doctor and the owner of a deli
cateSsen store-while a detective
watched from across the street, won-
dering who was-a long line Of men
in blue shirts and work trousers, carry
ing their lunches, sat on a piece of
timber beside the railroad track, wait
ing for the II o'clock shift to change
so they could go into the tube works.
Its been a long time since you've
seen that around here" said the doc
tor.
But Pictures Of 1t Don't Go.
They are prospering again, but
they're nervous. In McKeesport and
Aliquippa, 35 miles down the river,
photographers for the magazines Time
and Fortune were arrested and chased
away by town police when they took
pictures of men coming from work.
They were warned that such things
were "verboten."
They will tell you in McKeesport, q
city dominated by big STEEL" how
strikebreakers were, taken into the
plant of the Columbia Radiator Co.,
L