The day book. [volume], January 17, 1916, NOON EDITION, Image 2

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

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we have sent them. The ammuni
tion in this fight is facts and truth.
The committee I am asking you to
appoint will exchange information of
local conditions for information of
national comissions witbMhe Wash
ington body. It will serve to keep
you in touch with your movement.
This afternoon 100 other central
bodies are taking this step. Within
a month a thousand such committees
will have been appointed."
Frank P. Walsh, chairman of the
committee, had accepted an invita
tion to speak before the federation.
When he found he could not come he
sent Manly. Manly told the federa
tion how the committee is fighting to
get the report published. He told how
an organization of "minute men" is
being formed so the committee could
fiave an investigator at the seat of
any industrial trouble at a minute's
notice. Then he read to the federa
tion the report of West telling the
cause of the Youngstown strike
"riots."
The Youngstown strike was not
caused by Wall street manipulators
or foreign agents, says the, report. It
was the natural outcome of brutal
ized wage slaves, who, for the first
time in the lives found they could
quit a Job without starving. There
is every reason to believe that the 10
per cent increase, announced by
Judge Elbert Gary to go into effect
Feb. 1, was brought about by the
strike. Immigration has permitted
the steel trust, up to this time, to
have two workers for every job. Al
though the strike was against two
corporations not connected with the
U. S. Steel Corporation the full re
sponsibility lies with the latter. The
heads of both the Republic Iron &
Steel Co. and the Youngstown Sheet
Tube Co. admitted to West that their
wages were governed by those paid
by the U. S. Steel Corporation.
The strikers didn't only take Jew
elry, but they took food, clothing and
children's shoes, continues West. All i
of the account books of the butch-1
ers and grocers, to whose these la
borers owed enormous amounts,
were burned along with the postof
f, o "ecords. which contained six pos
tal saving accounts from the 9,000
"slaves" of Youngstown.
West Teports that East Youngs
town is an "industrial hell .hole." He
says the saloon interests control the
city and that of the 9,000 population
there are only 450 voters. There is
not a church in the city.
He says the workers were bound
in an industrial and economic slav
ery. That in the years of 1907 and
1908 and in 1913 and 1914 and the
first nine months of 1915 the men
were given three to five days' work a
week and that married men were giv
en the preference. Conditions be
came so bad among the employes of
the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.
that the company organized its own
relief department' and deducted the
aid given from the pay of the men
when they came back to work.
The men worked 12 hours a day
and 7 days a week when they worked
at all. In the last year only 58 per
cent of the men have managed to
earn as much as $600 a year ($12 a
week) and the TJ. S. labor bureau
says it takes $700 a year to live de
cently. Organized charity is the same in
Youifgstown as elsewhere. West in
terviewed J. N. Hanson, sec'y of the
charity organization society there.
Hanson told him that low wages had
nothing to do with the horrible con
ditions. He blamed the situation on
drink and bad management
"This is the report of one of the
minute men. There will be other
reports of other outbursts," said
Manly. "The U. S. industrial rela
tions committee was formed to con
tinue the work of the commission
The report of the commission wag
labor's declaration of -independence.
It was compiled by us on the infor
mation furnished mainly by you. Wa
want it published and acted upon.
So far no one has dared oppose it-"