W

VAGES and hours of labor in the iron and steel industry form the main subject of Bulletin No. 97, about to be issued by the Bureau of Labor, Department of Commerce and Labor. The facts presented are the result of the investigation which the Commissioner of Labor made in compliance with a Senate resolution. This investigation covered nearly all the iron and steel plants in the United States-338 blast furnaces, steel works, and rolling mills being included-and wages and hours of labor being reported for 172,706 employes, who represent over 30 per cent of all employes in the branches of the industry investigated.

The fact that stands out most strikingly in the labor conditions in the iron and steel industry in the United States is the unusually long schedule of working hours to which the larger number of the employes are subject.

During May, 1910, the period covered by this investigation, 50,000, or 29 per cent, of the 173,000 employes of blast furnaces and steel works and rolling mills covered by this report, customarily worked seven days per week, and 20 per cent of them eighty-four hours or more per week; in effect a twelve-hour working day every day in the week including Sunday. The evil of seven-day work was particularly accentuated by the fact developed in the investigation that the seven-day working week was not confined to the blast furnace department where there is a metallurgical necessity for continuous operation, and in which department 88 per cent of the employes worked seven days a week; but it was also found that, to a considerable extent, in other departments where no such metallurgical necessity can be claimed, productive work was carried on on Sunday just as on other days of the week. For example, in some establishments the Bessemer converters, the openhearth furnaces, and blooming, rail, and structural mills were found operating seven days a week for commercial reasons only.

The hardship of a twelve-hour day and a sevenday week is still further increased by the fact that every week or two weeks, as the case may be, when the employes on the day shift are transferred to the night shift, and vice versa, they must remain on duty without relief either eighteen or twentyfour consecutive hours, according to the practice adopted for the change of shift. The most common plan to effect this change is to work one shift of employes on the day of change through the entire twenty-four hours, the succeeding shift working the regular twelve hours. In some instances the change is effected by having one shift remain on duty eighteen hours and the succeeding shift eighteen. During the time that one shift is on duty, of course, the employes on the other shift have the same number of hours of relief from duty.

That much of the Sunday labor which has been prevalent in the steel industry is no more necessary than in other industries is shown conclusively by the fact that at the time of the investigation

made in 1910 by the Bureau of Labor into the conditions of labor in the Bethlehem Steel Works the President of the Steel Corporation directed the rigid enforcement of a resolution, adopted three years previous, cutting out a large part of Sunday work except in the blast-furnace department. Even in the blast-furnace department, where there is a metallurgical necessity for continuous opera. tion day and night throughout seven days of the week, there is practically nothing except the desire to economize in the expense of production that prevents the introduction of a system that would give each employe one day of rest out of

the seven.

Since the beginning of the present investigation, however, this matter of abolishing seven day work for the individual employes in the blast furnaces, as well as in other departments of the industry, has received the attention of the American Iron and Steel Institute, and through a committee of that organization a plan has been proposed which gives each employe one day of rest each week, and which does away with the twenty-four, or the eighteen, hours of consecutive work required when changing from the day to the night shift. A number of plants throughout the country have, at the instance of the institute, adopted this plan or some modification of it, and have successfully operated it for several months.

Somewhat more in detail the tables of this report show that of the 172,706 employes covered therein working hours were reported for 172,671. Of this number 73,529 (42.58 per cent) had a working week of seventy-two hours or over, which is, in effect, at least a twelve hour day for six days a week. Over one-fourth of all the employes (26.63 per cent) had a regular working week of more than seventy-two hours, which means some work on Sunday. Over 35,000 (20.59 per cent of all) had a working week of eighty-four or more hours, which is at least twelve hours every day of the week, including Sunday. Nearly two-thirds of all the employes had a working week of over sixty hours; 22.63 per cent of all the employes had a working week of just sixty hours, while only 14.39 per : cent had a working week of less than sixty hours.

During the investigation those in charge of plants have in their discussions with representatives of the Labor Bureau frequently emphasized the fact that the men working these very long hours are not kept busy all the time. To some extent this is perfectly true; but the employes in question are on duty and subject to orders during the entire period, and they are not, except in rare instances, allowed to leave the plant. It is not simply the character or the continuity of the work, but the fact that in the case of the twelve-houra-day man something over one-half of each twenty-four hours-more than three-fourths of his waking hours-is spent on duty in the mills, which is of significance to the worker and his family. Nothing has been done by the manufacturers, nor have any proposals been made to lessen the proportion of men working seventy-two hours

An added significance attaches to the conditions of labor here described as characteristic of the iron and steel industry when we consider that the general tendency in other industries for years past has been toward a shorter working day. Years ago the ten-hour day became almost a standard. Since that time further reductions have brought the workingday to nine, and, in many cases, to six hours, and this reduction has been accompanied by a part holiday on Saturday. It is therefore in striking contrast to this general tendency in other industries to find in a great basic industry, such as that part of the iron and steel industry covered in this report, that approximately only 14 per cent of the 173,000 employes worked less than 60 hours per week and almost 43 per cent worked 72 hours or over.

Another striking characteristic of the labor conditions in the iron and steel industry is the large proportion of unskilled workmen in the labor force. These unskilled workmen are very largely recruited from the ranks of recent immigrants. For the industry as a whole not far from one-half of the 91,463 employes in the productive iron and steel occupations included within this investigation were of the class of unskilled workmen. In the blast furnace department, the largest single department in the industry, more than two-thirds of the 24,722 employes in productive occupatious were unskilled laborers, a large proportion of whom do not yet speak or understand English; and even in the South the number of immigrants employed in the industry is rapidly increasing.

Taking the employes in all occupations in the industry, nearly 60 per cent are foreign born, and nearly two thirds of the foreign born are of the Slavic races. Large as is the proportion that unskilled labor forms of the total force in the iron and steel industry, steel experts have noted the fact that the tendency of recent years has been steadily toward the reduction of the number of highly skilled men employed and the establishment of the general wage on the basis of common or unskilled labor. Nor is this tendency likely to diminish, since each year sees a wider use of mechanical appliances which unskilled labor can easily be trained to handle.

Of the total of 172,706 employes, 13,868, or 8 03 per cent, earned less than 14 cents per hour; 20,527, or 11.89 per cent, earned 14 and under 16 cents; and 51,417, or 29.77 per cent, earned 16 and under 18 cents. Thus 85,812, or 49.69 per cent of all the employes, received less than 18 cents per hour. Those earning 18 and under 25 cents per hour numbered 46,132, or 26.71 per cent, while 40,762, or 23.61 per cent, earned 25 cents and over. A few very highly skilled employes received $1.25 per hour; and those receiving 50 cents and over per hour numbered 4,403, or 2 55 per cent of all employes.

In general it may be said that earnings of less than 18 cents per hour represent unskilled labor. The group earning 18 and under 25 cents per hour represents semi-skilled workmen, while those earning 25 cents and over per hour are skilled em

ployes. The most common rate per hour for unskilled labor in the New England district was 15 cents; in the Eastern district 13 and 14 cents; in the Pittsburgh district 16 and 17 cents; in the Great Lakes and Middle West district 15, 16, and 17 cents; and in the Southern district 10, 122, 13, and 131⁄2 cents.

It must not be assumed, of course, that employes working at these rates and for the hours here shown can work throughout the year, for employment in the iron and steel industry is very irregular, and most irregular among the workmen of the least skill and working at the lowest wage.

Summaries of recent official reports of earnings and hours of labor in the iron and steel industry in Great Britain, and of hours of labor in that industry in Austria, which are given in the same Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, furnish the material for some interesting general comparisons with American conditions.

RAILROAD EMPLOYES' DEPARTMENT.

The Railroad Employes' Department of the American Federation of Labor held its annual convention in Atlanta, Ga., during the sessions of the American Federation of Labor convention last November. Being unable to conclude its labors there on account of pressure of business calling so many of the executive officers away, adjournment was taken to meet in Chicago, Ill., on January 4, 1912, where, after two strenuous days, the work was finally disposed of. The next meeting will take place in Kansas City, Mo., some time in March. H. B. Perham, President of the Order of Railroad Telegraphers, Star Building, St. Louis, Mo., was re-elected Chairman; J. A. Franklin, President, International Brotherhood of Boiler Makers, Iron Ship Builders and Helpers, Law Building, Kansas City, Kans., Vice-Chairman, and A. B. Lowe, President International Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, Vanol Building, St. Louis, Mo., Secretary-Treasurer.

Among the more important business transacted was that of the admission to membership of the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers' International Alliance and the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators, and Paperhangers, under jurisdictional arrangements satisfactory to all parties concerned.

The various strikes in different parts of the country were thoroughly discussed and future movements agreed upon.

There are a great number of local Federations on railroads in existence which are not at present amenable to department rules and regulations, and steps were taken in the direction of getting those Federations to join the regular movement, with the object of harmonizing matters and bringing all under one general law.

The transportation brotherhoods have a federation of their own composed of the organizations of the Engineers, Firemen, Conductors and Trainmen, and working agreements can be made between the two Federations on any system of railroad where such a course would be mutually agreeable to the employes. The way is open now for a perfect federation of railroad employes whenever and wherever the employes are ready for such action.

T

HE brewers and brewery workers of America have embarked together upon a plan which, if carried out, will go a long way to demonstrate that a constructive program for the improvement of conditions of labor can be carried out by independent corporations acting in concert, and, even more revolutionary, by a co-operative agreement between the employers and the unions.

For nearly two years, a committee representing the Brewers' Association and the International Union of United Brewery Workmen of America has been working out a scheme for accident compensation and old-age pensions, the provisions of which are this month being sent out to the various unions and companies for ratification. As a basis for this plan, an investigation of the accidents in the brewery industry was carried on, and reports received from 16,374 workmen.

In line with the German insurance system the plan recognizes at the outset the crucial importance of accident prevention. The rules as worked out provide that the employers must comply with the State laws dealing with safety in factories, but the Board of Directors and Award may require further safety devices to be installed and may also make rules with regard to proper sanitation. This provision virtually gives the board of directors the power of supervision over the breweries in matters that fall naturally under the jurisdiction of the most effective and best equipped State boards of factory inspectors. This provision will, it is felt, be a most effective supplement to State inspection. Moreover, if a workman is injured because the employer has failed to install such safety appli ances, the employer is liable to a fine, imposed by his fellow employers, equal to 5 per cent of the total compensation which has to be paid to the injured workman.

Under the terms of the plan a fund will be created, each employer paying 1.5 per cent of the amount of his pay-roll and each employe paying.5 per cent of his wages. The compensation is to apply to all workmen or other persons employed by the brewers, and the pension provision is to apply also to the salaried officials employed by the union. Such a piece of recognition of a union as a legitimate organization, qualified to employ agents whose standing in the industry is recognized and incorporated in a mutual benefit plan for the whole trade, is calculated fairly to take the breath away from the officials now in control of the National Manufacturers' Association. An employe must, if he takes advantage of the compensation that is offered, waive all other legal rights to recover it. An employer, if he is sued, may pay damages out of the compensation fund. In brief, the compensation is as follows: First aid is to be provided for all injuries. In case of temporary disability, a workman is to receive from the fund 65 per cent of his wages *John A. Fitch in the Survey.

after the first week, unless he is disabled for a period longer than four weeks, in which case he will receive compensation for the first week also. In case of total disability not resulting in death within two years, the workman is to receive 65 per cent of his wages for a period of five years. In no case, whether of temporary or permanent disability, is a workman to receive less than $5 or more than $20 per week; yet, in the latter case, his total benefit must be no less than his death benefit would have been in case he had died. In case of "unquestioned" total disability, a man may be paid a lump sum, equal to the total weekly payments for five years.

In case of death resulting from accident within two years from the date of accident the widow, or the dependents of the deceased, are to receive a sum equal to 300 times 65 per cent of his weekly wages at the time of the injury (roughly four years' wages), but the total must not exceed $3,400. Funeral expenses to the amount of $150 may be advanced and later deducted from the benefit. This compensation is to be paid irrespective of negligence, assumption of risk, or any other statutory or common law defense.

Under the pension provisions, which are to be paid out of the same fund, a man who has been in the service of a member of the association for twenty-five years, and has arrived at the age of sixty years, may be retired and receive a weekly pension for the remainder of his life equal to onehalf his average weekly wage during the six months prior to his retirement, and a man may also be retired at any time on the same pension on account of incapacity. Twelve months' cessation of work for any cause is not to interfere with a man's record of continuous employment. Furthermore, a man may freely change his employment from one brewery to another in the association without losing his record for continuous service-an arrangement which would be quite impossible under such pension schemes as those of the Pennsylvania Railroad or the United States Steel Corporation. The compensation is to go into effect as soon as adopted, while the pension provisions are to be in effect January 1, 1913.

The fund is to be administered by a board to be known as the Board of Directors and Award. Three men from the Brewers' Association and three from the Brewery Workers' Union are to constitute this board. There are also to be local boards of award with the right of appeal from the decisions of the local boards to the Board of Directors and Award. The plan is to go into effect when approved by a majority of the members of the Brewery Workers' Union as expressed in a referendum vote, and by brewery proprietors whose output represents 40 per cent of the output of beer in the United States. The Brewery Workers' Union has already expressed itself as favoring the principle involved

in the plan, nor is it thought that there will be great difficulty in securing the co operation of more than enough brewery proprietors to put the plan into effect.

It is felt that with the co-operative plan for preventing casualties the accident rate in the brewery trade will be brought down in the same way that the New England mill owners have reduced fire risks through their mutuals; that the stable relations established through the agreement with the unions will prove beneficial from an operating standpoint; and that the brewers will gain by setting the highest labor standard of any industry in America.

The significance of the plan will be seen when it is noted that the Brewers' Association represents 65 to 70 per cent of the output of the United States

and that its members employ in the neighborhood of 70,000 men. It is also a significant thing that the union members of the committee that drew up the plan took the ground that their members ought to contribute to this compensation and pension fund. The compensation provided for in the plan is much more liberal than that of the Steel Corporation or the International Harvester Company. Nor does it tend to hamper the freedom of action of the employe, as does the service pension scheme advocated by the American Electric Light Associations.

The plan as worked out by the joint action of employer and employe appears to be one that will make for greater harmony and mutual good feeling in the industry. Its operation will be watched with great interest.

WASHINGTON, D. C., January 6, 1912.

To the Members of the Executive Council, American Federation of Labor.

COLLEAGUES: At the request of the officers and members of the international unions whose headquarters are located at Indianapolis, Ind., the Executive Council selected a committee to be known as "The McNamara Ways and Means Committee." The duty of this committee was to endeavor to secure funds for the defense of John J. and J. B. McNamara, who were accused of grave crimes, in whose innocence the men of labor and a large part of the general public then believed, and who had been taken from their home State without warrant of law. As reported to you from time to time, and which also was reported to the Atlanta Convention of the American Federation of Labor, the committee endeavored, by all honorable means within its power, to carry out the instructions of the appeal to the working people of our country to contribute a sufficient sum in order to adequately defend the accused men before the courts, and also to prosecute those who were indicted in Indiana upon the charge of kidnapping. Your committee also devised a number of projects to secure funds in addition to those which would be voluntarily contributed, as stated. The projects were: The issuance of a stamp to be affixed to letters; a button to be worn on the lapel; and we entered into an arrangement with Mr. W. M. Seely, of Dayton, Ohio, for the production of a moving-picture film and its exhibition, part of the proceeds of all of which was to go toward the fund authorized to be created.

You will recall that at the meeting of the Executive Council and of the officers of the Building

Trades, Metal Trades, and Union Label Trades Departments, held in Washington last June, Hon. Clarence S. Darrow, the attorney who already had been retained as chief counsel in the defense of the McNamaras, appeared before that meeting and declared inasmuch as he and other counsel would be required in all probability to remain in Los Angeles for an indefinite period, possibly two years, that they would have to close up their business offices in their home cities; that because of the number of best experts on the effect of explosives, whose services would be essential to a proper defense; that because of a large number of witnesses from all parts of the country, whose constant attendance at Los Angeles would be necessary during the entire period of the examination, preliminaries, and during the trial-that because of all of these it would be necessary to raise a fund of not less than $300,000. You, the other members of the conference, as well as this committee, were astonished, and so expressed themselves, that so large an amount would be necessary for a proper defense of the McNamaras and the prosecution of the kidnappers. Fully persuaded, however, of the innocence of the accused men, you directed that every effort be made to create as large a fund as possible, at the same time declaring that we were not under any circumstances obligated to raise any stipulated sum.

Your committee proceeded to carry out the mission intrusted to its care to the fullest, and there were received and expended amounts as shown in the report of Mr. Frank Morrison, the Secretary of this committee, and which report is made a part hereof. It should be stated that due to the urgent requests of chief counsel, Mr. Darrow, for the transmission of moneys, your committee

authorized the Secretary to transmit to Mr. Darrow, from time to time, such amounts as he requested and we were in position to forward in sums of not less than $10,000.

On the evening of December 1, 1911, there was published in the press throughout the country the statement that the McNamara brothers were not only guilty, but that they had pleaded guilty to the crime charged against them. We immediately discontinued the appeal or request for contributions, and also the transmission of moneys to Mr. Darrow.

Because several of the members of the committee were not in Washington for a few days after December 1, it was impossible to hold a meeting until December 6, 1911. On that date your committee met and sent a telegram to Mr. Darrow inquiring when it would be convenient to him to have a conference with your committee at Washington, to which we received reply that he could not then definitely state. Your committee then prepared and on December 7, 1911, issued a statement to the American public on the McNamara case, copy of which is part of this report.

We have every reason to believe that this statement has corrected many misapprehensions regarding the action of the labor movement and its men in connection with this entire case.

Part of the purpose of the conference we desired with Attorney Darrow was to ascertain what balance of funds he had of the money transmitted to him. The necessity for this information was supplied by receipt of a letter from him, written to Mr. Morrison, under date of December 22, 1911, requesting that $10,000 be transmitted to him at once. By reason of the fact that at the time of the receipt of the request, December 29, 1911, there was not that amount in the hands of Secretary Morrison, and the further fact that we had declared that no further money should be transmitted to Mr. Darrow in connection with this case, the money was not forwarded.

Your committee has endeavored to perform the duty assigned to it faithfully and earnestly. We are conscious of this one fact, that any attempt to cast odium upon our movement or to hold it or its men responsible, because two men have been guilty of a great crime, is not only unjust but that the attempt will fail, and the true uplift, humanitarian work of our labor movement is becoming to be more generally recognized and appreciated by the thinking, liberty-loving people of our country.

We can not close this report without emphasizing the attitude of our movement regarding violence, brutality, or the destruction of life or property, no matter by whom. These methods are inhuman, they are foreign and inimical to the methods and high aims of the labor movement of our country. No portion of the people of America are more severely injured by the employment of such methods than are the workers organized in the labor movement. We desire to reiterate that portion of our statement issued on December 7, 1911:

"Therefore, quite apart from the spirit of humanitarianism and justice which prompts the

activities of the organized labor movement, policy and hopes for success forbid the resort to violence. The American labor movement and its men are loyal Americans and seek to obtain the abolition of wrongs and the attainment of their rights within the law.

"Organized labor of America has no desire to condone the crimes of the McNamaras. It joins in the satisfaction that the majesty of the law and justice has been maintained and the culprits commensurately punished for their crime.

"And yet it is an awful commentary upon existing conditions when any one man, among all the millions of workers, can bring himself to the frame of mind that the only means to secure justice for labor is in violence, outrage and murder.

"It is cruelly unjust to hold the men of the labor movement either legally or morally responsible for the crime of an individual member. No such moral code or legal responsibility is placed upon any other association of men in our country.

"In so far as we have the right to speak, in the name of organized labor, we welcome any investigation which either Federal or State courts may undertake. The sessions of the conventions of the American Federation of Labor are held with open doors that all may see and hear what is being said and done. The books, accounts, and correspondence of the American Federation of Labor are open to any competent authority, who may desire to make a study or an investigation of them.

"The men of organized labor, in common with all our people, are grieved beyond expression in words at the loss of life, and the destruction of property, not only in the case under discussion, but in any other case which may have occurred. We are hurt and humiliated to think that any man connected with the labor movement should have been guilty of either. The lesson this grave crime teaches will, however, have its salutary effect. It will demonstrate now more than ever, the inhumanity, as well as the futility of resorting to violence in the effort to right wrongs, or to attain rights." SAMUEL GOMPERS,

President, American Federation of Labor.
FRANK MORRISON,

Secretary, American Federation of Labor.
JAMES SHORT,

President, Building Trades Department.
WM. J. SPENCER,
Secretary, Building Trades Department.
JAMES O'CONNELL,

President, Metal Trades Department.
A. J. BERRES,

Secretary, Metal Trades Department.
JOHN B. LENNON,
President, Union Label Trades Department.
THOMAS F. TRACY,
Secretary, Union Label Trades Department.

NOTE. In accordance with the assurance given that an itemized statement of our receipts and expenditures, at the proper time, would be published, the financial report which was attached will be submitted to the auditors selected by the Executive Council and then published.