4 C
THE OMAHA SUNDAY BKti;- JANUARY 11, 1920.
Unhealthy Conditions
Among Workers Are Real
Cause for Unrest in U. S.
Deportation of Radicals Is Not Cure During -War,
' Laborers Were Promised Utopian Conditions of
' Democracy With Coming of Peace Disillusioned
, Following Armistice Post-War Changes Started
. Blind Revolt in Steel Mills. '
1 BY RAY STANNARD BAKER.
Article V.
In this article I shall endeavor to answer the question: How much
of the fouble and unrest in American industry is caused by "outside agi
tators" ami "alien radicals"; and how much is caused by conditions inside
of industry? Judge Gary thinks that the trouble, as I showed in my last
article, is incited from outside; Mr. Gompers thinks it due to conditions
inside.
There is no doubt that what Judge
Gary calls "outside agitators' did
come in and organize the, steel
workers. At its St. Paul convention
in June, 1918, the American Federa
tion of Labor appointed a commit
tee headed by John Fitzpatrick,
president of the Chicago Federation
of Labor, who wasiever connected
with the steel industry in any way,
to go into the steel towns and 01
gauize th men. There is' no doubt,
as Judge Gary declares, that there
are revolutionaries and alien radi
cals, some of them holding the ex-
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tremist views, to be found at Gary
and in other steel towns; there is
no doubt that there is considerable
violent "literature" in circulation in
these towns. There is no doubt,
also, after the workers went out,
that the familiar tactics of the strike
persuasion verging always upon
intimidation did take place at Gary.
All this is true. '
Fine, Bright City.
But let us look more closely at
Gary. Here is a fine, bright city of
some 80,000 people. It has an excel
lent Carnegie library, an impressive
Y. M. C. A. building, good churches,
superlative schools. It lives wholly
upon mills owned by theUnited
States Steel corporation. A few of
the workmen, largely Americans, are
highly skilled and well paid, often
owning their own houses, sometimes
having a few shares of stock in the
corporation. But the great mass of
the woikcrs are more or less un
skilled foreigners. There are 42
different nationalities, speaking 20
or 30 languages. The majority work
12 hours a day and many seven
days a week. (
To an extent which a first amazes
the inquirer, these are young mar
ried men. Forty-five per cent of the
Serbians and 48 per cent of the
Roumanians in the steel industry
are single men, according to the
United States labor reports. Even
of those who are married a large
proportion have lefk their wivesi at
home (62 per cent of. the Croatidns,
40 per cent of the Italians). They
are strong boys or young men,
largely peasants (64 per cent) from
farms in southern or eastern Eu
rope. About one-third of these men
are 25 years of ag or under
hardly more than boys 87 per cent
are 44 years old or under. The steel
workers themselves assert that a
man1 is "old at 40" in the steel in
dustry; that men cannot stand the
strain of the ' long hours and the
heavy work. ;
Prohibition an Aid to Unrest.
Consider these masses of young
men peasants, who came to golden
America to make, instantly, their
fortunes. They were willing to work
all hours, all times, where American
workmen would not and could not
work; they got as much money as
possible; in as short a time, cither
to bring their wives over from Eu
rope or to go back there with their
earnings. The poorest of . them
lived, and still live, impossibly
crowded together sometimes a
dozen men ,to a room in the very
cheapest places they could rent.
There are some very miserable
placet in this fine town of Gary;
very terrible, really, with no rela
tion to any "American standard of
living." Well, these men, working
under such pressure, confused and
divided, could not organize, had no
way of expressing themselves. But
they could get drunk. Before In
diana went dry, Gary had probably
the largest number of saloons to the
population of any city in the United
States; solid blocks of them.
A population of young unmarried
men, away from home, working un
der high strain in an unfamiliar and
dangerous industry, without amuse
ment or diversion -this was the nat
ural outlet. There may be those
who think' prohibition discourages
economic unrest. I do not. I be
lieve it is one of the causes of it;
for it has removed the great dead
ener of human trouble and human
ambition alcohol; and has left time
to the workers to talk and meet and
read, and money to buy publications
and support organizations.
Consider also what, the war did
when it came. In the first place it
brought the entire working forces
at Gary under the iron regime..
Workmen could not go and come
freely between Europe and America
as they had always done, and they
were worked harder and longer than
ever; but on the other hand they got
more money and had steadier work
than ever before in their lives, for
the steel trust raised wages, eight
times during the war,
Dreams During War.
This, however, was only a minor
result: of the war. Consider what
they were taught1 day after day dur
ing the struggle. It was not what
was put into their heads that count
ed. They were told that this was a
war for democracy, and that when
it was over everything would be dif
ferent and better. The war labor
board at Washington laid down the
broadest and most advanced charter
of the rights of labor ever laid down I
in America. .President Wilson said
that after the war "there must be
a genuine democratization of in
dustry based upon a full recognition
of the right of those who work, in
whatever' rank, to participate in
some organic way in every decision
which, directly affects their welfare
or the part they are to play-in in
dustry." .
Never before were workmen in the
steel towns so courted; so distinctly
made to feel that they were a part,
and really an essential part, of this
great American movement. For a
moment a kind of- thrill of partner
ship,1 co-operation, reached even the
lowest labor' groups.. They all
bought Liberty bondsior war stamps;
they all subscribed to the Y.'M. C.
A. and Red Cross'funds almost to
the lowest man. I have heard over
and again in these industrial towns
of the extraordinary feeling aroused
during the war. The echo of it
reached Europe and was commented
on there with a kind of envy as be
ing something better than other na
tions could achieve. This, the work
men felt, was a taste of true Ameri
canism. For one glorious moment they
were accepted as men working in a
great common cause, side by side
with the employers, all equally nec
essary.' Hundreds of them, indeed,
had actually gone into the army and
fought in France. Some had lost
their lives. The soldiers who re
turned to the mills had new .and free
ideas; in the first great parade of
strikers at Gary some 300 of them
marched in uniform at the head of
the line. i
Then' Comes Disillusionment
A new era of democracy and good
will seemed dawning in 'the world.
They were simple folk; they be
lieved it; they felt it. We all felt it!
Then the war stopped and the dis
illusionment began- Nothing was
really changed; there was" no more
democracy than there had been be
fore J They had, seen vision,
dreamed dream; they had awak
ened. It was snatched away. Not
only that, but the steel companies,
not needing to speed up aa rhuch as
during the war, began to discharge
many men, and the workmen heard
rumors that wages were soon to be
reduced so as to get the industry
back to prewar standards.
I am trying here to show just
what happened, just what was the
psychology of these masses of men.
Well, tney were back in the dull
mills, working 12 hours a Hay
they had ceased to be men, and were
again mere " machines. A striker
quoted me that bitter cry of the
workers:
"I work, work, work without end,
Why and for whom I know not,
I care not, T ask not,
I am a mic'iine."
Consider, then, in all fairness
what happened) next. Some time be
fore the war ended the American
Federation of Labor had begun its
campaign to organize the steel
workers. It went slowly; it was
uphill business until the war ended.
And then many disillusioned work
ers seized upon it as the one ray of
hope. The employers had done noth
ing. There was no way of getting
at them. One man at Gary told me
that Judge Gary was "as distant as
God." Not a single man who has
any- real ownership or ariy real con
trol of things ,at Gary either lives
at Gary or is kaown to workmen at
Gary. Not 6nel They are not pleas
ant places to live in the steel
towns. Most of the workmen I
asked did not even know who was
the "head man" of the Illinois Steel
company; and Judge Gary of whom
they - have all heard is 900 miles
away in New York. To these men
the steel corporation is a vast, im
personal, inhuman, unreachable ma
chine. Fertile Soil for Wild Ideas.
So they listened eagerly to the
labor organizers, for these men told
them the same things they had
beard during the war; exactly what
President Wilson has told them:
democracy, more freedom, more
life. '
But the moment they began to
stir for themselves organize they
at once found against them the old
set policies of the,steel corporation:
its opposition to unionism; its oppo
sition to any change in the condi
tions which, since they had had a
taste of freedom, seemed doubly ir
ritating. In Pennsylvania when
they tried to hold meetings they
were suppressed by the constab
ulary, their organizers were arrest
ed, their papers were seized. In
Gary homes were broken into and
searched. They felt the old hope
less conditions! closing in around
them.
Some years ago I heard deaf an1
dumb Helen Keller describe how si.e
tried to express herself and could
not speak, could not even make mo
tions that conveyed. any idea, could"
do nothing' for herself. She de
scribed the wild fits of rage she
went into. She was suppressed, in
hibited. Something of the same kind
goes on among masses of men who
are not allowed self-expression. A
certain number become reckless;
fall into rages; are willing to do
anything to escape..
This is fertile soil for wild ideas;
for quack remedies; for blind re
volt. When, conservative labor
unionism is prevented the I. W. W.
leader is there with a naming doc
trine that promises much and
promises' it quick; there are Utopian
ideas from Russia. When open meet
ings and frank discussion are sup
pressed, workmen begin to hold
secret meetings, make extreme de
niands, plot violent remedies. The.
ideas they hold are usually of the
vaguest and crudest. Chase them
around with a few frank questions
s I have done many times and
you can ordinarily drive them into
a corner and show theiu the want
of logic, or reason, or even basis
of fact to support their beliefs. But
you rarely convince them, for what
they lack in light they make up in
heat. How can they get light if all
association and discussion is choked
off? And how can anything else be
expected when these groups of vig
orous but ignorant young men are
left crowded together in miserable
places, worked to tiie . limit of en
durance, with no one paying any at
tention to nnem Dody., or soul so
long as they come to work everv
day.
Can 'Deport Men; Not Ideas.
Here, then, we begin to get at the
bottom fact about Gary; "indeed,
about our entire industrial life. It
is the unrest, the unhealthy condi
tions, that cause the bolshevism;
not the bolshevism that causes the
unrest. Once the process starts,
however, as a disease germ makes
easyork of a debilitated human
body, the radical agitation increases
the trouble accelerates it.
If every radical alien werp dp-
ported from Gary tomorrow the
causes ot unrest would still remain.
I. spent most of the vear of 1918
studying similar conditions in Eu
rope; in every country I visited the
same kind of unrest prevails and no
one attributes it either to aliens or
outside agitators. One recalls, also,
that exactly the same complaint was
made by the slave owners in the
south before the civil war, that the
slaves were contented, and that all
the trouble came from "outside
agitators" and "revolutionaries"
John Brown, Garrison, Lovejoy, Lin-
coin., as tor tne deportation ot
agitators and the suppression of
opinion, that policy was tried out
upon a grand stage for many years
by the old Russian government;
Siberia was populated with deported
radicals; v read George Kennan's
books.. It did not stop revolution;
probably" stimulated its more vio
lent forms. Look at Russia today.
"While we can deport men for be
ing anarchists," said Senator Ken
yon to the Lawyers' club in New
York, "we cannot deport ideas."
The first instinct of a man or a
nation with a pain is to treat the
symptoms, as we are doing now.
Both j sides' are trying quack reme
dfefcfJthe employewfa sure-cure bot
tle marked "Deportation Suppres
sion," and the workers a bottle with
a red label, "Bolshevism." I don't
know which is worse, which will
ooner kill the patient. Why not do
what any sensible man with a pain
finally does learn what the'underly
lyiriK trouble is the real disease
and try to reach, and cure $hat?
Automobile Notes
From All Over the
Motoring floxli
Gilbert U. Radoye, director of ad
vertising of the Haynes Automobilfl
company of Kokomo, Ind., gives o.:t
the information that the Haynes
company distributed to its men ar.d
women employes a $40,000 Christ
mas present, each employe rtceivirij
a certain sum based uponhis length
of service and rate of salary.
Colliding with the grandstands and
backing over the finish line, Andre
P.oillot won the'Targo florio, the
first European postwar race, in the
Baby Peugeot in which he made su-h
a formidable showing in the interna
tional 500-mile sweepstakes contest
at Indianapolis, a few days ago.
, Annual convention of the National
Automobile Dealers' association will
be held January 26-27 at the LaSalle
hotel, Chicago, during the week of
he National Automobile and Truck
show.
Henry A. Kroh, southeastern dis
trict mechanical inspector for many
years of the Cadilhc Motor Car com
pany, and later with the Lincoln
Motor Car company, has resigned
from the latter company n take
charge of the new service station at
the Cadillac agency in Charleston,
S C, as service manager.
It is said that negotiations have
been virtually completed whetebv
Dodge Brothers will open a manu
facturing plant in St, Thomas. Ont
L. S. Skelton, new head of the
Premier Motor corporation of Indi
anapolis, has laid out an interesting
schedule of production. The plant
vtlj turn out 5,000 cars in
There will- be 434 exhibitors at
New York's National Automo )il-!
f liow. This includes both the passen
ger car and motor truck exhibitors.
There will be 83 makers ot passen
ger cars and 67 makers of trucks
and ?84 exhibitors of accessories.
E. A. Bates has become manager
of th? Booty Carburetor and Manu
facturing company,' Chicago. He
was with the Beneke & Kropf Man
ufacturing company.
Cleveland will hold its annual au
tomobile show January 17 to 24. in
clusive, at Wigmore Coliseum which
has 100,000 square leet of floor spac.;
with the addition which has bern
made.
Boston's Automobile show dates
are March 15-20. Passengers cars,
motor trucks and accessories will
apain be displayed.
Statistics have it that there ate
6,000,000 farmers c-f which number
it is claimed that 2,500,000 are tru.k
-:tospects. Should 250,000 ' farmers
i uv in 1920 it would mean a sate
from this source of about 1,250 motor
trucks for eaclr manufacturer in the
field. Motor truck makers believe
tjiat the sale will exceed the figu:e
named.
National Highway Traffic, associa
tion will hold its convention in Chi
cago during the national automooile
and Motor Iruck sjiow. The con
vention will open January 29
Double the space used last year
has been allotted to tractors for the
Twin Citv Automobile, Truck, "Trac
tor and Industrial exposition which
will be held in the. Overland build
ing, St. Paul, the week of January
31 to February 7. Last year the
tractor exhibit occupied 24,000
square feet, and this year will cover
50,000 square feet.
The Lincoln highway from Pitts
burgh to Philadelphia is to be kept
open all winter. The state of Penn
sylvania will keep this important
rucking route cpen . and entirely
clear or snow. The cost to the state
will ! e $250,000.
Frank A. Steele has been named
assistant superintendent of produc
tion for the Los Angeles plant of the
Goodyear Tire and Rubber com
pany. NtVfiorts received at headquarters
of the Lincoln highway indicate tlnit
the highway is now closed for travel
from Cheyenne, Wyo., to the coast
Tourists are advised by the associa
tion c seek more southerly routes.
Inquiries for complete informr-
lion and copies of he rules with en
try blanks of th First National
Motor Truck Reliability contest to
start in Omaha next June for The
Omaha Bee and other trophies, have
been received from many of the lead
ing makers of motor trucks at the
headquarters offiVe of the tour in
The Bee building, Omaha. S. P. La
Due, resident manager of the tour,
with Charles p. Root,' genera! ma -ager,
and F. Ed Spooner, promo
tional manager, will be at both na
tional motor truck shows to impart
information.
Daily payroll of the Goodyear Ti-e
and Rubber company has reached
$110,000 or over $33,000,000 a year.
A big increase in the payroll for
19?0 is predicted by company officials-
The avenge wage now to
each man, woman and boy is $5.50.
It is believed that the payroll for
1920. will be $5Q OOO,Q00 with the
natural growth ol the business ex
pecfed. Arthur I. Philips, general sa'es
manager of Dodge Brothers, who
overtaxed his strength to a point of
teryous exhaustion requiring com
plete rest, is shewing marked im
provement. He is on the high road
to recovery after curative measures
extending over a considerable pe
riod.' His recovery is reported toc
but a matter of time ana patience.
V. W- Peterson, former advertis
ing manager of the Stewart-Warner
Speedometer corporation. has
formed the perfection company to
manufacture curtain windows. Mr.
Peterson was with the William R.
Johnston Manufacturing company.
Chicago, manufacturers of, curta.ii
windows, for a long time. '
Western tyotor Car Co.
Building . Soon to Open
The new:! building of the Western
Motor Car company,,. Thirty-first
and Farnam, will soon-be opened to
the oublic. Several departments, in
cluding the paint shop and repair
department, are now operated on
a full 24-hour basis. These depart
ments, as well as the other me
chanical departments, will give con
tinual service. The doors will never
be locked.
Guide Battles for life
With Trapped Wildcat
Bridge water. N, if.." Jan. 10.
Battling for his life with a 45-pound
wildcat that nearly tore free of a
steel trap in which ft was caught
was a thrilfin experience of Wil,
jred S. Morrill, a 17-year-old guide.
.Morrill set a trap near one of the
springs that feed the brook. The lo
cation was behind an old stump.
The nexj (Jay Morrill went to visit
the scene. The big cat was caugnt
by one hind leg. , . '
With the craftiness for which the
"hi nns" are noted, the cat crouch
ed down behind the stump as Mor-J
ri approachea the trap. as me
youthful guide bent over the stump
to look at the trap the wildcat leap
ed at-him snarling and scratching
and dragging the trap with it.
Morrill was carrying a small rifle
at the time andThe was forced to
battle hard several minutes with the
infuriated animal, finally breaking
its neck with the butt of his rifle
which he used as a club. During
the battle Morrill was scratched ana
his clothing baqly torn. .
Name Too Much Like
Bolshevik, Changes It
Springfield, III., Jan. 10. Because
his friends stuttered when they pro
nounced hi name John Woloshe
vich has asked the Sangamon coun
ty circuit court for' permission to
change it to Wallace. He said every
body called it "Bolshevik." Wolo
shevich vituperatively declared he
has ,nothing in common with the
Lenine-Trotsky gang of Russia and
does not want to be circumstantia
ted with them every time v ac
quaintances gargled Woloshevich.
Four-Year-Old Hero Dies
After Rescue of Infant
Jefferson City, Mo., Jan. 10. Lit
tle 4-year-old Jack Wheeler, who
made himself,, a hero recently when
he jumped into a creek and rescued
his 19-months-old baby brother front
drowning, succumbed to scarlet fe
ver following a two weeks' illness
and was buried here the other day.
Killed by falling: Tree
Emporia, Kan., Jan. 10. William
Davis, 45, a farm hand, met with a
peculiar and fatal accident near
here recently. Davis was sawing
through the trunk of a tree when
the saw rebounded, struck him in th
face and stunned him. A moment
later the tree fell, killing Davis in
stantly. J '
WINTON
i i iff . ,lLrvJ a
wvr4irmnmivW4&.7Vtv.-'." k
if mm &
Today not a bit too early
IF VOU book your order now for
spring delivery, you can be reasonably certain
to have your new car ahead of the first robin.
Automobile sales this year are abnormal. No
other year was ever like this. Buyers are waiting
right now for cars ordered long ago. Almost
every maker is oversold. And th'e demand grows
heavier from day to day.,.
We are just as anxious as you are to deliver
your car on the day you 'want it. Therefore
we are in dead earnest when we urge you to
book your order now.
If you havcn!t seen the newest Winton Six, the
surprise car of 1920, let us show you its qualities.
Simply telephone. '
Keystone Motors Corp.
2203 Farnam St., Omaha, Neb. Phone Douglas 2181.
most excellent service
1
rrM-C0MpMt is what one Duglas owner says about
"".,-t -"' AJ' Hauling and unloading such weighty ma-
"co'w 55 terials as coal puts a truck to tne hardest
1 sr"- kind of a test. And to accomplish this
I ( or"1""' every day in the year demands dependa-
t 1 biliiy and reliability in all weather and
V . - "S''.ir i road, conditions, '
1 Xi." ' j."?.lr .. The letter here reproduced is typical .
4 vig&xXSs? of any number of lettera we are re-
i nS.''.' "f.ttr.'' . celving from satisfied Pouglaa owner.
&&0?S'ZZ' If you ar Intereated In better
1 ; V motor truck ne tIat.wiU bear
I ir,rt 'aarfi ' up, a strong, powerful and Bturdy
I '" e,-,s.'"l 1 truck, get
V .wS4'' V next to a- s '
, xDoL Motors (0 0 V
JV Corporation W4f
S. V , " , .Geo. Christopher, -v ' IT , ( "
S President II VHSSiy f '
V V, Omaha, Neb. p&vTz
. JtWT.fSiW