OCR Text |
Show STEEL MAKERS ARE SCORED Manufacturers Accused of Maintaining Maintain-ing a System of Labor as Cruel and Relentless as the Galleys. Washington. Following1 a sweep lng Investigation covering almost every ev-ery steel manufacturing plant In the United States. , the department of commerce und labor, In a report now ready for the senate, accuses practltially every corporation of main taiuing a system of labor as cruel, relentless and unnecessary as the galleys of ancient times. Making tho direct statement that these corporations have instituted a policy eliminating the skilled artisans arti-sans and putting In their places the lowest form of unskilled workmen, who are paid 14 cents an hour, the report states that the men are forced to remain on duty without relief as long as twenty-four hurs at a stretch, and that In some plants eighteen eigh-teen hour tricks are the rule rather than the exception. One fifth of the 173, U00 employees of the blast furnaces, fur-naces, steel works and rolling mills, work eighty-four hous, or twelve hours a day, for seven days per week. Many of them go to their homes "only to eat and sleep. In May, 1910, the period covered by the Investigation, It was found that t0. 000 furnace and steel mill employeea worked regularly seTen days a week and that 34,000 worke-i eighty-four hours a week. |