Steel Trust Can Well Afford the Three-Shift Working-Day
But even if the 8-Hour Day were not more efficient and more productive and thus more economical, the Steel Trust could then very well afford any increased cost that a shorter working-day might entail.
The Steel-Trust is perhaps the biggest employer in the world. It operates 144 works, 24 blast furnaces, and 327 open hearth furnaces. The U. S. Steel Corporation is the richest concern in America. It heads the list of the country's 29 largest companies with $318,633,205 in cash and investment securities. Its natural working capital is $536,271,248.
The Steel Trust owns outright 30 railroads operating a mileage of 3,759 miles or enough to span the continent. These railways own 61,319 freight cars and 172 passenger cars. But the Steel Empire sways a far greater dominion over the adherents of American industry. Amongst the 25 men who control 82 per cent, or 211,280 miles of the country's steam railways, the owners of steel stock are pre-eminent. For instance, Mr. George F. Baker, a member of the Finance Committee and of the Board of Directors of the U. S. Steel Corporation is one of the leaders of these 25 "chosen people" of the God Mammon.
Gary and Co., also own a fleet of 35 steamers engaged in overseas trade, 76 in Great Lakes trade, and 269 steel barges. Besides, through J. P. Morgan and Co., American Steel magnates dominate a large number of American and even British shipping concerns.
But the Barons of Steel are not content with holding sway over the land and the sea. They also own 75 percent of America's bituminous coal fields. Some of these properties are: 415,587 acres of coking coal; 337,733 acres of steam and gas coal; 302,481 acres of surface. The U. S. Steel Corporation further owns outright 20,236 bee-hive coke-ovens, 2,992 by-products ovens, and 193,818 acres of gas and oil territory.
This is the mighty Empire of Steel, the most gigantic scab industry in the world, that has been reared on the brutalizing 12-Hour Day, starvation wages, infamous working conditions and wretched living conditions.
The history of the U. S. Steel Corporation is a history of fabulous profits becoming ever more fabulous. In 1901 it was organized with $400,000,000 of tangible property covered by bonds and other paper, and about $1,000,000 of watered stock, common and preferred.
In the ten year period, 1912–1921, its aggregate net profits available for dividends were $1,097,177,135. In the last 10 years the Steel Trust has stored up a surplus of $500,000,000, has cut down its bonded debt by $103,000,000 and has spent $685,000,000 on construction and acquisitions. All of this expansion came from the profits created by the workers.
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