8 A' THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: JANUARY 4, 1920. Steel Striker Feels 12-hour Day and Cprporation Hostility to the Unions Are Potent Methods of Suppression Is Convinced Foreigners Were Brought to This Country to Make Unionisation DifficultIt Is Only by Understanding the Workings of the Minds of the Men Underneath That a Proper View" of the Situation Can Be Had, and a ..; ; Solution Arrived at for the Problems Affecting the Worker arid the Em ployer 12-Hour Day Allows Laborer No Time for Recreation or Home June, uivingnira iimeuniyiorriaiing anu oieepxiig anu . By RAY STANnXr BAKER. Article III. , " in: this article I wish to show how one great section of American industry looks from below, to the workers, taking the specific situation at Gary, Ind.,-as . the explanatory example. It is only as one. tries to understand how the worker feels and "thinks his, own actual point of view that we can get at the problem. In my previous article, Ihave tried to ,explain how industry looks from above to the employer. just. !; :When I went to Gary tojnake in quiries about the steel strike I had in mind the 12 demands made by the national leaders when the men walked out on September 22; but I heard only two discussed with any emphasis either by the workers or the management. First, the 12-hour day. .- Second, tjie right to organize and to bargain collectively with the em ployer. -The 12-hour day is a very real thing in the life of Gary, and I tried ' lira number of specific cases to find out what it means. Here is the ex act daily schedule of a skilled Amer- : . i - i. j it - woriviiKiii who ciora ii nours a day during one week and 13 hours a night during the next. He has his Sunday free, though many men in the steel industry still have the seven-day week; nor does he do the loner-turn" nf 24 hnnr rnntiniinuc service when the change from day to night work takes place a practice still persisting iti some centers of the steel industry. In prder to get cheap rent for there is a great snoriage or nousmg in uary tnis man lives four miles out from the mill,. He must, therefore, in order to be on time, get up early. rvry Man Exist Only. 4;30 a. ni. he arises and gets break- 5:10 he leaves home. 5:55 lie reaches the mill. tkOO he begins work. " '-He is on duty steadily until 5 0 clock in tile afternoon. There is -j no stoppage for 'the luncheon, but he has time, during waiting periods, to get something to eat. He arrives 1 home at 6 o'clock; soon after he finishes his supper he must go to bed, for at 4:30 in the mtrning he must be "up again, . During tlie night shift he gets up 'soon after 3 o'clock in the after noon, starts work at 5 o'clock, works 13 hours, until 6 in the nlorning, is home at 7, and in b.ed before '8. In cluding the time it takes to go and come from the mill, this man's time is really commanded for some 14 hours every day. He has been at this work all his life; he now makes $7.87 a day. don't live," he1 said, "I just ex tet work and sleep. I don't get any time to see my family. I can't pro tp any entertainments without , taking it out of my sleep; and I am too tired to go to church on Sunday, or to do anything else but lie ' around." , How It Strikes a Pole. Another striker, a Pole, said to nie in broken English: - J'They tell us go to school, learn American. - When we get time? Twelve hours a dayl What the hell they want!" , Remember, I am trying" to show just how it, looks from below. According to Judge Gary's, testi '. mony 'before the senate committee. there are 69,284 men in the United , States Steel corporation now work-iug-the 12-hour day and there are many thousands more in the inde 1 pendent companies. A great pro portion of these 12-hour men are foreigners, of some 42 nationalities at Gary, alone, speaking a babel of tongues and hitherto unorganized and unorganizable. When I remarked to a group of worker that Judge Gary had told the senate committee that employes of the United States Steel corpor ation desired a 12-hour day, and even a seven-day week, in order to make more money, I was greeted with a shout of laughter, j ."Want itr said one of them. "We ! can't help ourselves. The mills run on the two-shift basis and it s either 12, hours or quit. -Besides, at the rate of wages per hour paid by, the company most of the men could not. iiye' unless they worked the long hours." . So much for the 12-hour day. The senate commiftee, in the recent conclusions after investigation, said: "That the laborers in the steel mills had a just complaint relative to the long hours of service on the part of sorfre of. them and the right to have that complaint heard by the company. ' "We. believe where continuous op eration is absolutely necessary the men should at least be allowed one day's rest in each week." The Demand to Organize. ' The other great complaint, the demand to organize and bargain collectively, is more complicated goes down deeper into the roots of the -controversy. For, if the work-, ers "were granted the eight-hour day and ,the six-day week, this other demand would not only persist but probably be ' strengthened. I met one steel employer, who said to me: "Hvyou give an inch; if you let them discover that agitation and organization gets them anything, rou've gone, t Gary's right" He spoke of RrckefeJJer's intin- durtion of the eight-hour day and sliop. committees in his Colorado rthntf. "Did it stop the strike?" l.c isked. No, they re. out with all :ho thcrs. So ire the Cambria mills hre tfiev. have mmnanv tmior?. lary's right' 'There is one independ Yt mill that was scarcely touched V the strike. It has been looked ir with some envy m the steel -n-Sry. Its superintendent explained the managed hi workmen: , Wch 'em young; treat -tm V tell 'em nothing." this question of unionization illective bargaining as Judgo Vstified is the real crux of the He saw it long ago when tho Vnoration was organized, and Vever changed in his opiniou or in his policy of opposition. Ke has never "treated, 'em rough" quite vt!ie contrary, as I shall show in other articles but upon the ques tion of unionization and collective bargaining he has been adamant. The worksrs also recognize this as the crux cf the problem. I cid not find much complaint of wages at Gary, for average wages of all employes since 1914 have increased from $2.93 a dav to $6.27 per day, 114 per cent. This increase corre sponds roughly with tire increase in the cost of living. There are also a considerable number of workmen at Gary, especially of the higher grades, whe live at low rentals in company houses or who own their own homes and some who have been assisted by the corporation in buying stock. These men for the most part did net stril;e at all. ' I asked one group of strikers what it was, then, that they wanted.-Every one of tliem had been working in the Gary mills; every one of them spoke English well two were of pure American stock, one was of Dutch ancestry, two Irish, one Eng lish, two Serbian, three Polish. "Striking for Freedom." Since I am trying to show exactly how the strike looks from below, I am going to put down exactly the answer I got: "We are striking for freedom." - "What do you mean by freedom?" I asked. , "Well, the righ' to have our or ganizations, the right to employ rep resentatives to act for us, just as the Steel corporation does, and the right to bargain collectively with thetein plovers for our labor." ... ' I found this group of men very in telligent. They told me that; it had been the settled policy of the Steel corporation from the beginning to fight unionism, and one" of them handed me a publication containing a copy of a -resolution passed by the Steel corporation on June 17, 1901 six weeks after its organization (which I have since verified: it ap pears in the reports of the United States Bureau of Labor), as follows "That we are unalterably opposed to any extension of union labor, and advise subsidiary companies to take firm position when these questions come up, and say that they are not goinft to recognize it, that is, any ex tension of unions in mills where they do not now exist, that great care fhould be taken to prevent trouble and that they promptly report and confer with this corporation.", - Wh'Ie Judge Gary testified before the senate committee that men were rnot discharged for belonging to. un ions, the strikers not only assert here at Gary, but witnesses from the Pennsylvania mills asserted before the senate committee that many such discharges had been made. "Oh, the foreman doesn't say, 'You're a union man, get out' But every movement, every whisper it the mill is known. If we have a meeting, we know there is a spy in side, or else the foreman or other of ficials, come and stand outside the hall, and watch the men go -in. Let a man try to get the workers together, try to organize, and some day he'll get his pink slip because he's had in accident, or for one of a hundred small excuses." Whatever may be the instructions from Judge Gary, this is what the strikers everywhere in the steel dis tricts believe. Indeed, the second de mand of the 12 tha they made when they struck reads thus: . "Reinstatement of men discharged for union activities with pay for time lost." Foreigners and Unionism. , Arother thing they believe, is that foreigners of so many nationalities, who are now accused of causing most of the trouble, were deliber ately brought in by the employers in order to make organization impos sible. The difficulties inithe way of unionizing ignorant men speaking 20 or 30 different languages are, of course, almost insurmountable. "But rth company denies this." I said. "Of course they do but look at this advertisement." And they handed me a copy of an advertisement in the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times cf July 14, ,1909 (which I also verified). - "Wanted Sixty tin-house men, tinners, catchers and helpers- to work in open shops; Syrians, Poles and Roumanians preferred; steady employment and good wages to men willing to work; fa.;- paid and no fees charged for this work." ; They have a most extraordinary mixture of human begins in Gary the Croatians and Poles leading, with large numbers of Greeks, Slovaks, Russians, Swedes, Hun garians. Latterly the Spaniards have been coming in, and since the war, and especially since unionism began to threaten, many ignorant negroes and Mexicans. In the main -mill at Gary over 1,000 negroes are now employed. ' , Power of Corporation. I asked why it was, then, if this was a strike for freedom, that so many men had gone back. "That's easy enough to answer. In the first place the power and watch fulness of the managers was such that we never could form a very strong union. How can you get ig norant Hungarians, 'Italians, Poles, negroes and Mexicans together and teach them the value of organization when the dread of the boss is al ways over them? And no sooner does the strike start than the mili tary comes in and prevents picket ing and prevents any large meetings. Many of these foreigners are easily frightened by soldiers; they've had experience at home. On the other hand, the most intelligent men, who ought to be leaders, hold high-paid places or are buying company nouses, or are getting bonuses, or are working for pensions. They know that if they go out they lose everything. , Since this strike the company has done itsbest to stir up racial and national feeling between the skilled American workers and the negroes and foreigners. It's their cue to keep us apart and dis organized. So it has got to be a movement largely made up of the unskilled. laborers, and they are for eigners. And there you are. Oh, they know their business the Steel Corporation 1. And that's what has made wild radicals of some of the foreigners; they don't see any other' way out except secret Organizations and revolution." Another .thing .-these workers be lieve and believe everywhere in the steel districts, as shown by the sen ate investigation is that the gov ernment is somehow against them; the government meaning to many of the foreigners for they know net to nothing at all of American in stitutions the local police.. I am not entering into the Question of -whether, they are right or wronz. out trying to get flown what the the vitaP condition! under which they work and live. "But," I argued, "Judge Gary said to the senate committee that any worker or group of workers could make a complaint and gej it rem edied; that all superintendents were especially instructed upon this point." I am going to put down the ex act answers I got . "Say, Mister, you weren't bom yesterday, were you? What chance do you suppose one 'hunkie' or a bunch of 'hunkies' would have get ting to Judge Gary with a corrr plaint, or even getting to the head t it. tii:; c.l enmnanv? men ui uic iiiiiivia fcjtvv, t - And what do you suppose would happen if they complained very often over the head of their fore men? Here's the pink slip for you guys." Minor Complaints. There are many other minor com plaintsso the strikers argue that can only be met when the workers are organized, just as -the various mills are organized, in one body, and can meet the employers upon equal terms. There are examples of petty graft by foremen upon ignorant workmen, men are -laid off without explanation or excuse, the plants are closed down without warning, and the loss-falls upon the workers (13 "per cent of the possible working time is thus lost every year to te employes). x This state of mind at Gary, and elsewhere in the steel industry, has resulted m vast losses to every one concerned. Though the mills are operating again," there are many strikers still out and still agitating, soldiers are still on guard. A con siderable number of foreigners have drawn their money from the postal savings bank, sold their Liberty bonds, and gone home to Europe, thus further reducing and disorgan izing the labor supply. Some of the skilled men have left for other in dustries. Two electricians, for ex ample, whom I met, had easily found work at; the union scale of a dollar an hour in Chicago; more than they had received in the Gary mills. The mills are , running inefficiently, with many inexperienced men, and the whole morale is low; and this at a moment when the world never, need ed steel products as it does now. tf o actually believe or feel, for it is noN who collect from the trappers. upon what they ought to. believe and feel that they act. but upon what they, do believe and feel. Well, they believe that the officials and con stabulary are controlled by the steel companies. In Pennsylvania there is every evidence of suppression and even violent suppression, by the constabulary. Much testimony was given before the senate committee to show that there is no such thing in some of the steel towns as free speech or free assemblage. The companies assert that thi& control is necessary to preserve order and protect property; but from below, to the strikers, it looks like op pression. - , In the next article I shall try to exhibit the radical fringe of the la bor movement, show what it is that the. employers fear, who make up these radical groups, and try to esti mate the extent of their influence. Fur Prices Will Remain High, Is Word of Dealer New York, Jan. 3. Reduction in fur prices is unlikely "for a long time," according to Norman H. Ba con, president of the New York Fur Auction Sales corporation. Mr. Ba con said today that on arecent trip to the middlewest and Canada he 'was met everywhere by reports of short catches, especially of musk rats. Prices for "rat" skins are rising daily in consequence. Trappers are making the most of the situation, he said, as are' the country dealers FOR Believe Themselves Suppressed. Many of the officials in steel towns are employes of steel companies. Even in Gary; where the control has been less rigorous than in Pennsylvania, I heard much of the same kind of Complaint. vvnetner me strikers are right orf wrong, no honest inquirer can avoid the impression that they feel them selves suppressed. Much is done for them by the Steel corporation; but of themselves, either by political or social organization, they feel they are allowed to- have no say about , The fair fame of "Seventy-seven" for Grip and Colds is the entering wedge into many homes and fami lies for Dr. Humphrey's long list of Remedies for all diseases which it is safe and wise for the non-professional to treat. A simple Medical Rook published in English, French, Spanish, Portu guese and German mailed free to any address in the world. At all Drug and Country Storci. Humphrey' Homeo, Medicine Co., ' 166 William Street, New York. The Growth of Omaha Has been Steady, Sure, Certain, and it will continue so because of its progressive spirit and natural resources. The Growth of The Woodmen of The World ) (Omaha's 100 Fraternity) has likewise been STEADY, SURE and CERTAIN and will con tinue so because it has ALWAYS carried out every obligation, year after year, in good faith and ALWAYS WILL. INSURE WITH US AND SHOW YOUR . THRIFT AND WISE FORETHOUGHT. . W. A. FRASER, Sovereign Commander. JOHN T. YATES, Sovereign Clerk. Demain H. Ledwich Announces 1 ( The Purchase and Immediate Possession ( of the Stock and Good Will of i . BULLARD, H0AGLAND & BENEDICT Dealers in Lumber Ledwich Lumber Company 20th and Izard. Phone Douglas 478. Exhume Bodies of Eight Members of Holladay Family Harrison, N. Y., Jan. 3. The bod ies of eight members of the family of Benjamin Holladay, who many years ago was known from coast to coast for his great wealth and the lavish manner in which he spent it, have been removed from the crypt under the little stone""chapel at Ophir farm, in Purchase, where they had been for years, and placed in a vault at St Marys cemetery in Rye. The vault was constructed at the ex pense and under the direction of Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, widow of the American ambassador to the court of St James, who now owns Ophir farm. Mrs. Reid's action was prompted by the'fact that many private ceme teries in Westchester county have been obliterated through changes in ownership of the estates upon which they existed and the desire to pre vent such a contingency in the case of the Holladay family. Benjamin Holladay, who made his fortune through ownership of the Ophir silver mine in Nevada, died in Portland, Ore., 30 years ago. Most of his once great fortune had gone by that time. The bodies removed tod lu elude his, that of his wife and Jen nie Lind Mary H6lladay, Countess A. De Pourtales Gorgier; Pauline Cassandra De Bussierre, wife of Baron De Bussierre of Paris; Madge Holladay,. Joseph C. Holladay and an unidentified infant They had died in widely separated parts of the world, ranging from San Francisco to Hongkong' and Kentucky to Paris. France Grants Right to Remove 20,000 U. S. Dead Paris, Tan. 3. The French gov ernment has granted permission for the removal of the bodies of 20,000 Ameritan soldiers buried in France to the United States. The bodies to be removed are . those buried in cemeteries outside of the zone of the armies and do not include those gathered in big Ame rican cemeteries in the army zone. 15 Lighthouse Keepers Saved From Starving Quebec, Jan. 3. Fifteen persons employed at the government stations on Belle Isle, who were threatened with starvation . by the founderini of the government steamer Aran more, loaded with winter supplies, i few weeks ago, have been rescuec by the Newfoundland steamer Seal, according to a wireless message re ceived here. The message said: "All hands successfully taken off Belle Isle and now safe on board the steamer Seal, bound for Newfound- " 1 Germans Export Live Stock ' In Contravention of Treaty Paris, Jan. 3. (French Wireless Service.) Germany is exporting horses and, cattle extensively to neu tral countries in contravention ol the terms of the peace treaty, it is reported in dispatches from Brussels. The matter js being investigated by the reparations committee. January Clearance Sales- In all departments of this big Cash Store are bringing crowds of enthusiastic buy ersAll winter stocks are marked at cash prices which means quick clearance for us and big Savings to our customers. Store Hourg, - 9 A.M. 'till 6 P. M. Shop Early In the Day If Possible ' 1HTAYDEN 1L JUL THE CASH STORE Store Hours,' 9 A. M.'tffl 5.P. M. Make Selection Early While Assortments Are Complete Women's Misses' and Children's Winter Outer Apparel At 25 to 50 Per Cent Less Than Regular Prices ALL THE Cloth . AND Fur Trimmed Winter COATS At Half Plush and , Baffin Seal Coats 25 Off 65 Beautiful Fur Scarfs Tfiat Sold at $25 and $30 Including animal scarfs of wolf and cape scarfs of French Coney in brown, taupe and black. Values extraordinary. At our Special Clearance Price . m cujjt; scans $15 ALL THE v , Women's. Winter SUITS Big, Variety of Charming Models At Half i . All Fur Coats, Scarfs, Muffs and Sets 25 Off $65 Dresses gsStS $25 Price Now- A splendid assortment oFbeautiful models in satins, taffetas, georgettes and fine wool materials Street dresses, afternoon and dinner dresses, evening gofrns, including many exclusive designs. Dresses that sold up to $65.00. Values -supreme at our Clearing Sale Price . . ., $25 Wool Goods Specials That Should Crowd the Daylight Department Early 66-inch All-Wool Coatings, your choice of all win ter boatings; have been selling up to $7.50(j QO yard. For quick dealings, our price. . . .V70 56-inch All-Wool Plaids, plenty of green and blue and other various bright and dark combinations. They would be a bargain at $5 yard' and will not last long at the special Cash Price of. . . whk9t 42-inch All-Wool Epingle Poplin, are scarce every where else, but we have plenty in all colors, they are selling regular for $3.00. Special AO Clearing Sale Price, at .M0 42-inch Novelty Checks and Plaids in wool mixtures, x in. green and blue and best color combinations. ' Cfl Worth regularly at $1.00. Clearing Sale Price. . . . OUL 40 and 44-inch All-Wool Dress Goods, such as French serges and taffeta, in all colors. Plenty bf navy. 50 , A QQ pieces in the lot. Clearing Sale Price. vA70 50-inch All-Wool- Chiffon Broadclo'th in the fine rich per manent silk lustre, in all the new wanted shades. They would be a bargain at $5.00 yard. 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