Page:Jay Lovestone - Blood and Steel (1923)).djvu/13



In their campaign of vile calumny gainst the militants in the labor movement, the champions of the interests of the steel and other capitalist magnates have posed as the heavenly annointed defenders of the "hearth and home." The unbridled hypocrisy of these apostles of the profit system is brought into bold relief by the following example of the wretched family life amongst the steel workers as found by the Interchurch World Movement investigators:

"None can dispute the demoralizing life of the inhuman Twelve-Hour Day. As a matter of arithmetic Twelve-Hour Day workers, even if the jobs were as leisurely as Mr. Gary says they are, have absolutely no time for family, for town, for church, or for self-schooling, for any of the activities that begin to make full citizenship; they have not the time, let alone the energy, even for recreation.

"At Johnstown a member of the Commission was approached by a man of middle age who said that he was determined never to go back to work until the question of hours was settled. He gave as his reason the fact that his little daughter had died within the last few months; he said he had never known the child because he was at work whenever she was awake, or else she was asleep during the day time. He was determined that he would know the other children and for that reason felt that it was imperative that he should have the Eight-Hour Day.

"This man was an American getting good wages and embittered, not by outside agitators, but by the facts of his life as he found them."

The starvation wage goes hand in hand with the Twelve-Hour Day. One is dependent on the other. The Steel Barons pay the workers miserable wages so as to compell them to accept the two shift system. Thus the evils of the low wages paid to the workers are part and parcel of the Twelve-Hour Day and can properly be charged to it. For the steel worker the longer day means lower pay. He will never realize the shorter day without at the same time winning higher pay.

According to the findings of the Interchurch Movement based on the official conclusion of the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "The annual earnings of 72 percent of all workers were, and had been for years, below the level set by Government experts as the MINIMUM OF COMFORT level for families of five.

"The annual earnings of over one-third of all productive iron and steel workers were, and had been for years below the level set by Government experts as the MINIMUM OF SUBSISTENCE standard for families of five.