Page:Jay Lovestone - Blood and Steel (1923)).djvu/25

 Corporation's subsidiary presidents handed out the same line of misrepresentation of the workers' desires. Some of these presidents even assured the Interchurch Commission that in a few plants where the 8-Hour Day was introduced the plants lost their men "because the foreigner wants to work the twelve-hour day, he wants to make as much money as he possibly can."

While such ridiculous propaganda was being spread far and wide, 365,000 workers in 50 cities in 10 States deserted the mills in their Great Strike for the 8-Hour Day, better working conditions, and the right to organize. This is how anxious the workers were to continue on the 12-Hour basis. What is more, Gary himself, testifying before the Senate Committee, confessed that "if we should immediately limit hours to eight and pay for the eight hours the same the men are now getting for 10 or 12 hours, every employe would favor it."

In plain English this means that the workers are anxious for the abolition of the Two-Shift System, but fear to be driven into further degradation and misery.

Interesting evidence on the reactions of the workers to the 12-Hour Day is presented by Lieutenant Walker in his diary:

"On the first night-shifts I wondered if my feelings on the arrangements of hours were not solely those of a sensitive novice. I'd get used to it perhaps. But I found that first helpers, melters, foremen, 'old timers,' and 'Company men' were for the most part against the long day. They were all looking forward, with varying degrees of hope, to the time when the daily toll of hours would be reduced."

After its investigation the Senate Committee concluded that the majority of the steel workers were opposed to the 12-Hour Day. The investigations of the Interchurch Movement supported this conclusion. We cite the following from the diary of a Gary worker made in August 1919 as presented by this Commission.

"An engineer many years on the job says: 'Count me in for a six day week, too, like a civilized man. This fourteen hours a night, seven days a week, is hell.'

"The gang boss says: 'Who the devil is this man Gary to tell our representative to go to hell. Somebody's going to get him for that.'

"Another says: 'Gary thinks we worked his old twelve and fourteen hours so long, we'll stand for anything.'"

How strongly the workers felt on this question is seen from the following testimony of a gray-haired stationary engineer obtained by the Interchurch Commission on October 25, 1919, during the strike, in Young-